Part of the joy of life is to play the “what if” game, what if I was young again, rich or famous. What if I had not been born at this or that time. We all play this game. My “what ifs” include crossing the west in a wagon train, throwing the winning touchdown pass in the Superbowl or being a fighter pilot in WW II. Fantasies, yes, but it is almost as fun and engaging as 4 cell solitaire. Please laugh! What if we carry it over and apply this game to reading and understanding the Bible.
Who are we as
humans and how do we figure into the plan of God for our time in this world? Traditional Christianity has preached a “them
and us” mentality; sinners and saints, believers and pagans, saved and the not saved,
the right living and the wrong doers. While such an understanding has value in some
circles over the short term, “what if” the Bible has more than these cops and
robbers’ stories to say to us?
The Rev.
James Relly (1722-1778) preached a universalist message. For him, the
sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross was the salvation of all mankind,
sinner and saint. Relly was an English contemporary of John Wesley (1703-1791) who
preached that the cross was for believers and only potentially for the lost
ones, when and if they believed. This was a monumental distinction in their
world as it is today in ours.
Being relatively
familiar with John Wesley, I am intrigued by the new universalist message that,
come to find out, is really very old. Rev. Relly preached that the universalist
message so I purchased his book, “Union: or, A treatise of
the consanguinity and affinity between Christ and his Church”, reproduced by
ECCO. It is a slow read with the Old English but his understanding of
universalism at first reading is very Christocentric, being the
very definition of the “Union”.
There is a
huge cavoite in his thinking. Quoting
Hebrews 13: 8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever”. Relly
understood that the Union of Jesus as the Christ unites the ever-present God,
revealing God’s timeless, overwhelming love and concern for his created order. The
God of love was and is independent of our decision to believe or not
believe. God, the God above religion is
unchangeable.
“From all
which appears, that the Union of Christ and his Church hath been of old, before
faith, before time, and remains to be in dissolvable and unchangeable.” (p. 32)
This is a
Christ definition I can live with. The only conclusion that can be drawn from Rev.
Relly’s understanding is that all peoples of all times are covered over with
the robes of God’s eternal love. We are human but our nakedness will be no
more.
What then, will the unbeliever experience in eternity? Could it be a fate worse than death, embarrassment? Embarrassment at having missed it!
G. Goslaw
Landers, Ca
