There is no way a God believer can be anything other than a Universalist unless that believer is selling a book, serving a bureaucracy or living a lie. God is about accountability but not eternal damnation. How God will work that out post death, we can only guess? Christian theologians of every sort have been guessing throughout the ages. This writer believes that there is no consistent God thinking for hell despite the endorsement of the likes of Billy Graham, Jimmy Swaggart and N.T. Wright.
Almost all books are written to please an audience, a market, the very few significant writings are written "come what may". A.T. Robinson's "Honest to God", was such a book. However, few writings of this sort arrive from the religious establishment. However, should another, "come what may" book be written, it may read something like this: God is not a religious extremist who condemns 90% of we earthlings to a Dante Inferno. The hell scenario is in lock step not with God but with our devilish human nature that delights in the misfortune of others.
St. Anselm (1033 - 1109 A,D.) gave God equality with the devil with his satisfaction teaching. God must somehow satisfy his holiness by the mass eternal torture of all nonbelieving souls in the resurrected Christ. Does this sound like a God win? Is God that concerned with looking righteous?
Universalism like hell is not a new spiritual fad or gimmick. Both understandings have been around since the get go. History has always chosen the winners and losers but do we believe in history or do we believe in our God awareness?
G. Goslaw
Landers, Ca.
