THE QUESTION OF UNIVERSAL SALVATION: WILL ALL BE SAVED?

THE QUESTION OF UNIVERSAL SALVATION: WILL ALL BE SAVED?  

 
SOME WILL NOT BE REDEEMED.  THERE IS NO DOCTRINE WHICH I WOULD MORE WILLINGLY REMOVE FROM CHRISTIANITY THAN THIS, IF IT LAY IN MY POWER.  - C.S. LEWIS

 
The late Kallistos Ware, Greek Orthodox Bishop and retired Oxford theologian had in recent years been a leading advocate for the “possibility” of universal salvation.  While realizing that we can never have a totally adequate understanding of human immortality and the criteria for salvation on this side of the grave, Ware makes a poignant argument by using particular passages from St. Paul and the Fathers of Church, that at least the question of salvation for all is a valid question.

Ware recalls a dialogue between St. Silouan of Mt. Athos (1866-1939) and a hermit, in which the hermit was convinced some deserve eternal damnation, like atheists, and the holy monk replied why would you feel happy about someone burning in hell, our love can not bear such a thing, so we must at least pray for all.  This dialogue illustrates the heart of the question; on the one side is human free will and responsibility and on other side is the endless love and mercy of God.

The New Testament certainly is weighted in favor of texts that seem to rule out any possibility of universal salvation.  Yet Ware points to a series of Pauline texts which affirm a parallel between the universality of sin and the universality of redemption.  In 1 Corinthians 15:22, where Paul is working out the analogy between the first and second Adam:  “As all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.” In Romans 11:32, “God has imprisoned all in disobedience, that he may be merciful to all”.  Also in Romans 5:18, “Just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation or all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all”.  While these passages might suggest that Christ offers salvation to all and some will respond to it; if we look closely Paul does not say perhaps or possibly, rather his words make almost an affirmation it will happen to all.

Possibly the most positive text in terms of universal salvation is 1 Corinthians 15:28, here Paul says Christ will reign until “God has put all things in subjection under his feet…And when all things are made subject to the Son, then the Son himself will also be made subject to the Father, who has subjected all things to him; and thus God will be all in all.”  These word clearly do not allow for an eternal dualism in that some of God’s creation will be forever lost, rather they point to an ultimate reconciliation for all.

When we move to the Patristic data there can be found no Western Fathers who support universal salvation; it is quite clear for example in St. Augustine’s writings that eternal damnation for some if not the majority of the human race is a fact.  An African Church Father, Arnobius of Sicca does however offer a unique solution, conditional immortality; that is to say the damned will cease to exist, rather than be caste into hell.  The problem with this position of course is that it erases the promise of uniqueness God gives to all of us at creation.  

In the Eastern Fathers we fine Origen, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Isaac of Nineveh all arguing for the possibility of universal salvation Origen held the view known as “apocatastasis” (similar to the 20th century French Jesuit philosopher Teilhard de Chardin), that is there will be an ultimate restoration of all things and all persons.  St. Gregory of Nyssa abandoned the idea of pre-existent souls which Origen had attached to his doctrine and which caused its condemnation. Gregory merely affirms that within the mystery of the Divine Incarnation is held the ultimate restoration and reconciliation of all with God.  Isaac of Nineveh took the position that hell is a scourging of love, where those in it have chosen through their lives on earth to be separated from God; but in his thought the doors of hell are locked from the inside, the possibility of repentance and forgiveness is extended to those in hell.    

In the final analysis, the question of salvation is always an inquiry into the balancing of human free will with God’s mercy and forgiveness.  Scripture tells us that our God is a jealous God, who did not even spare his only Son for our salvation.  God revealed to us in Jesus Christ, is a God of unfathomable love, who will wait us out to turn our hearts towards him, yet he is also the Creator of our free will and allows us the freedom of even rejecting the Him who made us. 

(Rev.) David A. Fisher