Chris​Hubbs​.com

I really appreciate this post from Dan Foster about Christian Universalism: What if Everyone Goes to Heaven - and the Bible Backs That Up?.

He summarizes the basic scriptural arguments for Christian Universalism in an easy way with some illustrations to make it easier to digest. After he gets through those arguments he addresses one last frequent objection: without the threat of hell, why would anyone choose to be good?

I used to think this was the question universalists couldn’t answer. If everyone ends up in heaven, what’s stopping us from doing whatever we like? Surely you need the possibility of punishment to keep people in line.

But if I found out tomorrow that nobody was going to hell, would I suddenly stop caring about my children? Would I feel free to betray my wife? I can’t imagine looking at the people I love and thinking, “Excellent. I can hurt you now.”

I think he’s right on here. There’s more to following Jesus and becoming like Jesus than just fire insurance.

But I’d like to become someone who gives more thought to the person affected than to the punishment I might receive. That seems a worthwhile part of following Jesus, whatever happens after we die.

Dan means this as a nice summary to this section of thought, but it brought me up short in a different way. Because a huge shift in my own theological thinking came at the point where I knew that it was important to continue to love and support people who my evangelical teachers said I should condemn, regardless of what their threatened punishment (both local and eternal) might be.

Six years later I am more convinced than ever that it was, indeed, the most Jesus-shaped way forward, and I have no regrets.