December 1, 2011
If Grace is True: why God will save every person by Philip Gulley and James Mulholland.
If Grace is True: why God will save every person by Philip Gulley and James Mulholland.
As the title makes clear, the authors are universalists – they believe God will save every person. Hitler – Stalin – that mean second grade teacher – you name it. This has been a constant thread throughout Christianity, but always as a minority opinion. The authors do a good job of summarizing the main arguments for and against universal salvation and humanize them with examples from the ministry and life. This takes it out of the rarefied air of theological debate and back to essentials.
Their main argument is quite brief: God has the power to save everyone and God has the desire to save everyone – therefore God will accomplish what God sets out to do. Lots of room for disagreement there, but they work through each counter argument one by one. This is helped because they (the authors speak with one voice throughout) used to believe just about all of the counter arguments. Yes, they were once proof-text quoting, personal savior formula, predestined, elect and holier than others.
The Bible certainly provides ammunition against them – but they no longer believe the Bible is word for word absolute truth. No problem there, as my church never did believe that, though it often acts like they do. The Bible has enough contradictions to satisfy any lawyer. They argue for staying with the basic framework and not being distracted by bits and pieces of old cultures. Yes, God does order genocide, he turns Job over to the devil, accepts (orders) slavery and polygamy. They see this as an evolution of our understanding of God (Gully’s next book) rather than as an accurate reflection of God.
The place where they run up against many people who would like to believe this is with unrepentant sinners. Can we turn away from God and in effect choose separation eternally? I’ve been told YES WE CAN, with some enthusiasm. In this case I am with the authors. Everybody has sins that they cling to, even if that sin is that they don’t believe that they have any. We are all self-righteous and not totally in line with God’s way. Like the other son in the Prodigal Son story, we will cling to our righteousness and refuse to allow for real grace. In such a world, there will be very few saved.
They also reject a one-and-done judgment. Die, make your choice, live with it for eternity. Is that how the Prodigal father works it? If his son had died before coming home, would he not have forgiven him? God has all the time in the world to accomplish his task – unlike Santa Claus who gets just one night.
To save those who are not Christian or have rejected Christianity (e.g. Gandhi), they demote Jesus or at least don’t require belief in him. I would straddle this line. I remain a creedal Catholic, but am unwilling to require God to deny grace to those who differ from me. Nice of me not to give orders to God, at least on this matter.
Overall, even if you have no intention of being convinced, this is a good read. It is chock full of revealing stories, even if you will say “here is where they go wrong.” The book is also helpful in keeping your God from getting too small, too cramped and too culture bound. So, now on to Gulley’s next book – The evolution of faith : how God is creating a better Christianity.
Jane said,
February 11, 2012 at 9:57 am
As a not so creeping universalist myself, I will check this book out. I do have a way I think of that whole “is Jesus necessary” part of universalism, but I also believe that part is something every “Christian” universalist must struggle with. On the other hand, I don’t see how one can be a Christian and not be a universalist….