Logo

Articles

Why I am a Universalist

1. All Means Absolutely Everyone
2. What God Desires - God Accomplishes (Nothing Mortal Can Alter God's Purpose)
3. Aion Means an Age - Not Eternity
4. Judgment Corrects – It Is Not Endless Torment
5. God Heals Our Freedom – He Doesn’t Bow to It
6. God's Justice Is Fair – Always Restorative, Never Cruel
7. Death Abolished – Not Allowed to Persist
8. God's Warnings Still Matter – They Should Lead to Change, Not Despair
9. Not a New Idea – Universalism Has Deep Roots
10. Mercy on All – God’s Design, Not Just a Wish

1. All Means Absolutely Everyone

Universalists agree the word "all" in key Bible passages such as Romans 5:18 and 1 Timothy 2:4 means all: every single human being without exception.

"All" emphasizes God's comprehensive plan for universal salvation. In Romans 5:18, just as Adam's transgression led to condemnation for all people, Christ's act of righteousness brings justification and life to all people, creating a perfect parallel that underscores God's universal scope rather than a limited or conditional one.

Thus Universalism honors the symmetry:

Many blind-guide church doctrines break this parallel by limiting Christ’s victory to only certain people, excluding many who fail to "accept" or "decide in favor" of Christ. Thus these man-made doctrines make Adam’s work more effective than Christ’s—since Adam’s sin reached everyone without exception, while Christ’s salvation supposedly only reaches some.

Yet Paul insists that Christ’s work is just as wide in scope. The same “all” who were condemned in Adam are the “all” who will be justified and made alive in Christ.

Anything less would deny the plain meaning of scripture and diminish the glory of Christ’s triumph and the universal, overwhelming power of God.

Focus On Scripture:

“So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.” (Romans 5:18)

“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22)

"This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time." (1 Timothy 2:3-6)

"For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all." (Romans 11:32)

"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people." (Titus 2:11)

"But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone." (Hebrews 2:9)

2. What God Desires - God Accomplishes (Nothing Mortal Can Alter God's Purpose)

Many blind-guide churches and denominations insist that each person must accept or reject what they incorrectly frame as God’s "offer" of salvation. This "offer theology" makes God’s desire subject to human veto. Yet Scripture never calls salvation an “offer.” Instead, salvation according to the Bible:

When blind guides speak about salvation being an offer—something presented for man to accept or reject, they usually lean on the “come,” “whoever believes,” or “knocking” verses in the Bible. But no verse in the Bible's original language ever describes salvation as this kind of an “offer.” The language instead is, in every instance, stated in terms of command, gift, promise, and act of God.

If human choice were the final deciding factor, the universe would end divided—part with God, part permanently against Him. That would be a final split, a dualism. But Paul’s vision in 1 Corinthians 15:28 is the opposite: God will be “all in all,” leaving no part of creation outside His victory.

God ensures the ultimate reconciliation of all His creatures, and completely rejects the doctrines of men that would limit His salvation only to rational acceptors—a flawed concept which renders human sin as stronger than the all-encompassing love of all-mighty God.

Scripture consistently portrays salvation as God's sovereign act, initiated and completed by His power and will, not contingent on human rational choice. God's desire to save all (1 Timothy 2:4) is not a mere wish but a purpose He accomplishes, as His counsel "shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose" (Isaiah 46:10).

Focus On Scripture:

"Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,' calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it." (Isaiah 46:9-11)

"So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." (Isaiah 55:11)

"I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted." (Job 42:2)

"Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand." (Proverbs 19:21)

"For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?" (Isaiah 14:27)

"Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." (Revelation 7:10)

"For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy." (Romans 9:15-16)

3. Aion Means an Age - Not Eternity

A major key to understanding Scripture is the word often mistranslated as eternal.

The Greek noun aiōn means an age — a period of time with a beginning and an end.

The adjective aiōnios means of the age — belonging to, or lasting through, an age.

Neither word inherently means “forever.”

Yet there was a well-known Greek word that DID mean eternal or forever: aidios. Yet New Testament authors avoided using this word. It is NOT found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, neither of Peter's letters, any of Paul's letters (except Romans, where it is used once), nowhere in John's letters, Revelation, or Hebrews.

Why then do we read 'eternity' or 'forever' in English Bibles in place of the original Greek words which carried the plain sense of ‘age’ and ‘age-long’—spans of time with beginnings and endings—not of timeless eternity?

Originally this was due to Augustine, working from Jerome’s Vulgate, who relied on aeternus (“eternal, without end”) where the Greek text had aiōnios (“age-long”). With little knowledge of Greek, Augustine read Matthew 25:46 as proving unending punishment, ignoring the Hebrew 'olam' background and Jewish belief in limited afterlife punishments. His authority cemented the doctrine of never-ending torment. Once Christianity became state religion, this interpretation was enforced, and the older hope of universal restoration was driven underground.

Examples where aiōnios clearly cannot mean “forever”:

So when Jesus speaks of “life aiōnios” (John 17:3), He means life of the age to come — the quality of God’s kingdom-life. When He warns of “punishment aiōnios” (Matthew 25:46), the sense is age-long correction — not unending torture.

If aiōnios always meant “eternal,” these texts would collapse into contradictions. But if it means “of the age,” they harmonize perfectly.

This restores clarity:

Universalism honors the true sense of the word: God’s judgments are real, but limited to the ages; His mercy and life endure beyond all ages.

Focus On Scripture:
(from The New Testament - A Translation | Second Edition, David Bentley Hart):

"For God so loved the cosmos as to give the Son, the only one, so that everyone having faith in Him might not perish, but have the life of the Age." (John 3:16)

"And these will go to the chastening of that Age, but the just to the life of that Age." (Matthew 25:46)

"Yet now, having been liberated from sin and enslaved to God, you have your fruition, for the sake of sanctification, and the end is life in the Age. For sin’s wages are death; but God’s bestowal of grace is the life of the Age in the Anointed, Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:22-23)

"but whoever blasphemes against the Spirit, the Holy One, has no excuse until the Age [to come], but is answerable for a transgression in the Age." (Mark 3:29)

"Jesus interjected, “Amen, I tell you, there is no one who gave up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the good tidings, who does not—along with persecutions—receive a hundredfold, in the present time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, as well as, in the Age to come, the life of that Age." (Mark 10:30)

"Now to him who is able to establish you firmly in accord with my good tidings and the proclamation of Jesus the Anointed, according to a revelation of the mystery held in silence through time’s ages, but now made manifest by prophetic scriptures and by the ordination of the God of the ages, made known to all the Gentiles for the purpose of the submission of faith, God alone wise, through Jesus the Anointed—to him be the glory, unto the ages. Amen" (Romans 16:25-27)

4. Judgment Corrects – It Is Not Endless Torment

The Bible teaches that God’s judgment is real, serious, and unavoidable. But it always has a purpose: correction and restoration, not unending torment.

“Each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it… it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” (1 Corinthians 3:13–15)

→ Fire exposes, burns away what is false, and results in salvation — not destruction without hope.

“When Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.” (Isaiah 26:9)

→ Judgment is meant to teach and turn people back to God.

Jesus said: “Everyone will be salted with fire.” (Mark 9:49)

→ Fire is not only consuming — it preserves, purifies, and prepares.

Even the phrase often translated “eternal punishment” (Matthew 25:46) is kolasis aiōnios — literally “correction of the age.” It does not mean never-ending torture, but age-long discipline fitting the new age God brings.

Judgment results not in a divided universe — where in Hades God’s creatures suffer, forever unable to escape — but judgment lasts for a defined period and is always corrective, leading ultimately to healing and restoration.

5. God Heals Our Freedom – He Doesn’t Bow to It

Blind guides from many churches and denominations say God cannot save someone unless that person gives Him permission, as if human will is stronger than God’s mercy. But that would make God like a parent who lets their child destroy themselves simply because “it’s their choice.” No loving parent acts that way.

Think about it:

A good parent does not let their toddler play in traffic because the child insists on it.

A good parent does not allow their teenager to drink poison or handle a loaded gun just because “they chose to.”

Love steps in. Love corrects. Love even drags a child out of danger if that’s what it takes.

God is the same. He does not bow to our broken freedom; He heals it.

“For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)

→ God changes our will from the inside.

“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will drag all men to Myself.” (John 12:32, helkō = drag/haul)

→ Just as a net full of fish is hauled in (John 21:6, 11), Christ drags humanity to Himself with certain power.

“At the name of Jesus every knee will bow… and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” (Philippians 2:10–11)

→ Every will is finally healed so that confession becomes joy.

True freedom is not God letting us run into ruin forever. True freedom is when God, like a perfect parent, refuses to leave us broken, but restores our hearts to love what is good.

6. God's Justice Is Fair – Always Restorative, Never Cruel

God’s justice is not endless torment but always measured, purposeful, and restorative.

A loving parent disciplines their children to correct them, not to destroy them. No parent who truly loves would punish a child forever with no hope of change. Scripture shows the same pattern in God’s justice:

“He does not afflict willingly or grieve the sons of men. For if He causes grief, then He will have compassion according to His abundant lovingkindness.” (Lamentations 3:32-33)

→ God’s correction flows out of compassion, not cruelty.

“The Lord will not reject forever, for if He causes grief, then He will have compassion.” (Lamentations 3:31–32)

→ Judgment is limited, compassion is ultimate.

“When Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.” (Isaiah 26:9)

→ The purpose of judgment is instruction and change of heart.

“But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.” (1 Corinthians 11:32)

→ God’s discipline prevents ultimate ruin — it corrects to save.

If punishment were endless, it would contradict God’s own standards of justice: a finite life cannot deserve infinite torment. Human sin is real and serious, but it is limited in scope; God’s response is always measured and aimed at restoration.

Universalism recognizes this truth: God’s justice may be painful, like fire that burns away impurities, but it is never vindictive. It lasts for a time, not forever, and always points toward healing. His discipline is like a parent’s firm hand — not meant to destroy the child, but to bring them safely back.

7. Death Abolished – Not Allowed to Persist

Scripture calls death “the last enemy” to be abolished (1 Corinthians 15:26).

Abolished means wiped out, brought to nothing—not allowed to persist forever as if it had an eternal right to exist.

If some people remain lost forever, then death is never truly defeated; it still holds part of creation in its grip. That would mean Christ’s victory is only partial, not total.

But the gospel proclaims a complete triumph:

These passages testify that death will not coexist forever with God’s kingdom. It will be destroyed, swallowed up, completely undone.

Universalism takes this seriously: if death is the last enemy, then when it is abolished, nothing remains to stand against God’s life.

If some people are lost forever, as almost all blind-guide religions teach, then the universe ends divided — with two kingdoms side by side: God’s kingdom of light and a rival realm of eternal rebellion. That picture leaves sin and death with a permanent foothold.

But Scripture reveals a very different ending:

“Then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power… The last enemy that will be abolished is death… so that God may be all in all.” (1 Corinthians 15:24–28)

→ Every enemy abolished. No rival left standing. God fills everything with His presence.

“From Him and through Him and to Him are all things.” (Romans 11:36)

→ All things return to their source — nothing excluded.

“At the name of Jesus every knee will bow… and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:10–11)

→ Every voice united in worship, not divided between praise and rebellion.

If part of creation remained forever against God, then Christ’s work would end in a stalemate — God ruling part of creation while death and sin ruled the rest. That would be a final dualism, two kingdoms locked in eternal opposition.

Universalism proclaims what Scripture makes clear: in the end there will be one Lord, one kingdom, and one family. God will be “all in all,” not “all in some.” Every knee, every tongue, every heart will belong to Him.

8. God's Warnings Still Matter – They Should Lead to Change, Not Despair

Blind guide religions argue that if all are saved, then biblical warnings lose their power. But the opposite is true: warnings are one of God’s main tools to bring people to repentance (a change of heart). Parents warn their children because they love them — not because they plan to abandon them forever.

Scripture shows that warnings are meant to bring correction and life:

“When Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.” (Isaiah 26:9)

→ God warns and judges so people will learn and change.

“See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity… so choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.” (Deuteronomy 30:15,19)

→ God warns of death, but His goal is always life.

“For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” (Hebrews 12:6)

→ A parent warns, corrects, and disciplines, but never with the intent of destroying their child.

The fact that all will ultimately be saved does not make the warnings meaningless — it makes them effective. God uses them to shake us awake and turn us back to Him.

Universalism says the mission of the church is not weakened but widened:

Holiness is still urgent, because God disciplines those He loves to make them whole. The warnings are not empty threats of endless torment. They are God’s loud calls to turn, so that His children will learn righteousness and be restored.

9. Not a New Idea – Universalism Has Deep Roots

Universalism is not a modern invention, but a hope with deep roots in the early church.

Early Witnesses: Fathers like Origen (3rd century) and Gregory of Nyssa (4th century) taught that God’s judgments were purifying, not final rejection, and that all would ultimately be restored. Gregory, honored as “Father of Fathers” at the 7th Ecumenical Council, openly proclaimed that God’s plan was the salvation of all.

Never Condemned in Creeds: No ecumenical creed (Nicaea, Chalcedon, etc.) ever condemned Universalism. What they affirm — Christ’s victory, His descent into Hades, His resurrection — is entirely compatible with universal restoration.

Scriptural Foundation: Paul consistently speaks of God’s mercy on all (Romans 11:32), the reconciliation of all things (Colossians 1:20), and life for all in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:22). This is not a side note but central to the apostolic gospel.

Universalism is not new. It is the ancient hope, grounded in Scripture and upheld by revered voices of the early church. What obscured it was not the Bible but Augustine’s philosophical mistake — confusing God’s age-long judgments with endless damnation.

10. Mercy on All – God’s Design, Not Just a Wish

The Bible does not say God merely wishes to save all, as if His desire might fail. It says He purposed it and will accomplish it.

“For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.” (Romans 11:32)

→ The logic is unmistakable: the same “all” who are bound in sin are the “all” who receive mercy.

“As through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.” (Romans 5:18)

→ The reach of mercy matches the reach of sin — without remainder.

“The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.” (Titus 2:11)

→ Not a vague hope, but an accomplished reality that will unfold in God’s timing.

Many blind guide religions weaken these texts by reading the first “all” literally and the second “all” as “potentially” or “some.” But Paul does not play word games. He states God’s design with equal force on both sides: all in disobedience, all shown mercy.

Universalism takes Paul at his word. Mercy for all is not an afterthought or an unrealized dream — it is the very design of God’s plan of salvation. Anything less would leave sin and death stronger than grace.



author: Jerry Dan Deutschendorf