Universalism and the Judgement Seat of Christ
sorry that i have not blogged a while. But this is the fruit so far of the discussion I had with my father regarding universalism. Hopefuly i will be able to post on Arius soon.
Hell is one of the most problematic doctrines for any christian. How can God who is all loving send people to hell. Moreover, if christ died for all are all not saved? The logic presses in hard, if atonment is something is achived then have all been reconciled. If again, Christ represents the whole of Humanity can all not be saved.
The moment one posits, universalism a couple of rather problimatic consequences happen. Firstly, this life becomes a sham our choices do not appear to have any meaning. Once the 'scandal of the particular' is despensed with, what is the point of our particularity. Certianly this can be acused of being man-centered. But did not God create us to be persons, free-others?
If one was to say that God determined everything, like some calvinists then our descision become a meaningless sham. But on the other hand we are sinful and therefore freedom of the will canot exist outside of Christ. But it is at this point, namely, outside of Christ that our ear ought to pick up. If all are in Christ there desisicion is made in the freedom of the only begotten.
This, however, asks more questions than it answers. What torrance said was that when we assert universalism we lose the urgency of the Gospel. The is, to my mind, the reality and meaningfulness of human descision. If not after death at least before death. We have a charge to call people to be reconciled with God. But again, unless we are careful we lose our christological centre. But if we are to assert that God has been fully revealed in the Incarnation what else is there to see. Is not the cross the final judgement on humanity?
It is here we must assert the 'the second coming', this is the reminder that while God has been revealed in Christ. He will only be fully revealed at the 'second coming' and that man himself will only be fully revealed at the 'final judgement'. Particularly with the fate of the impenitent and unevangelised we must be careful to say that only before the judgement seat of Christ will we see him as he is. And human beings will see what and who they are.
Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?
Hell is one of the most problematic doctrines for any christian. How can God who is all loving send people to hell. Moreover, if christ died for all are all not saved? The logic presses in hard, if atonment is something is achived then have all been reconciled. If again, Christ represents the whole of Humanity can all not be saved.
The moment one posits, universalism a couple of rather problimatic consequences happen. Firstly, this life becomes a sham our choices do not appear to have any meaning. Once the 'scandal of the particular' is despensed with, what is the point of our particularity. Certianly this can be acused of being man-centered. But did not God create us to be persons, free-others?
If one was to say that God determined everything, like some calvinists then our descision become a meaningless sham. But on the other hand we are sinful and therefore freedom of the will canot exist outside of Christ. But it is at this point, namely, outside of Christ that our ear ought to pick up. If all are in Christ there desisicion is made in the freedom of the only begotten.
This, however, asks more questions than it answers. What torrance said was that when we assert universalism we lose the urgency of the Gospel. The is, to my mind, the reality and meaningfulness of human descision. If not after death at least before death. We have a charge to call people to be reconciled with God. But again, unless we are careful we lose our christological centre. But if we are to assert that God has been fully revealed in the Incarnation what else is there to see. Is not the cross the final judgement on humanity?
It is here we must assert the 'the second coming', this is the reminder that while God has been revealed in Christ. He will only be fully revealed at the 'second coming' and that man himself will only be fully revealed at the 'final judgement'. Particularly with the fate of the impenitent and unevangelised we must be careful to say that only before the judgement seat of Christ will we see him as he is. And human beings will see what and who they are.
Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?
posted by xopher_mc | 6:51 pm
4 Comments:
You're quite mistaken. At the last judgement God will chuck pretty much everyone into the lake of fire except me, my church, and the people we evangelised last week who made an explicit commitment to follow Jesus, spoke in tongues, and tried their very best to stay faithful.
Not really of course, but an excellent post that has given be some ideas.
Universalism is really attractive, I'm surprised that more people haven't subscribed to it in the past than have done (or perhaps they have but were too afraid to say so). It gets rid of all those annoying questions about how God deals with all those good people who aren't Christians and babies and children who die before they have a chance.
But if you don't subscribe to universalism, you still have to answer those questions - especially for grieving parents - how do you do that?
What I was trying to say. Following my current hero T. F. Torrance is that we cannot assert Universalism dogmaticly. It is certianly possible, but it is not the hope given to us. Rather, we are called to be ministers of Reconciliation (2 Cor 4). To attempt to logicaly draw the line from God's irrisistable grace to illogical nature of sin is not possible. We must live within the 'now not yet' tension.
So I suppose it is a change of mind on my part. I am not a universalist in the dogmatic sense. As the judgement has not been given to us to pronounce. For that we must wait and see, knowing that our labor in the Lord is not in vain.
I agree with you that Judgement is not for us to pronounce but does this stop us from even theorising about the final judgement
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