I have friends who are Calvinists, and friends who are Christian Universalists. Simply stated, Calvinists believe that salvation depends entirely on the sovereign choice of God rather than human free will. They teach that before the creation of the world, God chose a specific group of people—known as “the elect”—to receive eternal salvation through Jesus Christ, and that is it. In contrast, Christian Universalists, simply stated, believe that every human being will ultimately be saved and reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. They believe that everyone is saved, including people like Adolf Hitler and other mass murderers for example. They teach that hell is real, but that it is a temporary, remedial state of discipline or purification rather than a place of endless torment. Once the soul is purged of sin, it enters the presence of God, and ultimately everyone is saved, including Adolf Hitler, Chairman Mao, Joseph Stalin, Son of Sam, etc. (the list goes on and on).
To sum up, Calvinism believes it is God’s will for only the elect to be saved, while Christian Universalism believes it is God’s will for everyone to be saved, and both believe that our choice in the matter is non-existent. So what do these two extreme views have in common that caused them to arrive at these conclusions, when both are reading the same bible and much of what they believe aligns with the mainstream understanding of Christian theology?
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” John 3:14-21 (emphasis mine)
There is no question that we are saved by the grace of God through the atoning work of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. Both camps believe this (as best as I can tell). What both camps do not believe is that humans have a choice in the matter. They both lean so heavily towards the sovereignty of God, that they conclude that nothing we can do is capable of keeping us from being saved if it is God’s will for us to be saved. Romans 8:28-39 is one of the usual source texts for supporting the teaching that nothing can separate us from “the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” They both eliminate man’s freewill from the equation completely.
In Calvinism’s case, the elect are saved, others are not, and there is nothing we can do about it. In Christian Universalism’s case, everyone is saved, and there is nothing we can do about it, we are all saved whether we like it or not. There is no freewill in either. But the bible, and Jesus specifically, indicates more than once that faith is a necessary component in the act of salvation. In the John 3 passage above, we see Jesus telling us that we must choose to believe in Him to avoid judgment, to live rather than perish, etc. And it is a belief specifically in Him. Other verses with a similar message include:
“There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:9-13 (emphasis mine)
“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” Romans 10:8-10 (emphasis mine)
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesian 2:8-9 (emphasis mine)
From these verses and many others like them, it seems clear that it is both God’s grace and our acting in faith that come together and result in salvation. It is both. (click here for a brief post on this topic). Yes, as the Calvinists will tell us, God gives us the gift of faith, but we must act on it, believe it, accept it, etc. We have a part in it, like it or not. We can accept it, or not, the choice is ours to make. The predestination aspect of this has to do with God’s omniscience and omnipresence – He is everywhere and everywhen all of the time, being outside of time and space as the God of creation (click here for a brief post on this topic). He knew us before the foundation of the world – everything about us – because He was there then and is there now, at all times and places of our lives – He has seen it all and continues to see it all, from beginning to end. He knows and has seen all of our choices before we were even born. The omniscience and omnipresence of God, as complicated and hard to understand as it is, explains the predestination aspect of salvation. (more on this below)
We are saved by God’s grace through our faith, per the Ephesians verse above. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection provides grace, reconciliation, propitiation, salvation, etc., and our belief in Jesus activates this grace in our life. We are saved by grace through faith. Once God’s grace is activated in our life, then nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord, as the Romans 8 verse above states. When we remove man’s freewill from the salvation process, we eventually end up either a Calvinist or a Christian Universalist, as a general rule. Very interesting indeed. Perhaps God honors the sovereignty of each person over their own life, giving us freewill to choose for ourselves if we want to believe in and follow Jesus. After all, we are created in His image according to Genesis 1:27. If God has sovereignty, perhaps we do in a lesser respect as well.
Adam and Eve chose to disobey. The disciples chose to believe in and follow Jesus. The scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees chose to not believe in or follow Jesus. Etc., etc., etc. We all know people who have chosen one path or the other. Jesus even told us there were two paths, two outcomes for our lives, in regards to what we do with the question of Jesus.
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13-14
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.” Matthew 7:24-27
Why would Jesus tell us these things if our choices were irrelevant? Why would He give us the parable of the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the tares, the ten virgins, etc., if how we choose to believe and to live our lives does not matter? Part of the problem is the difficulty in understanding the bearing that God’s omniscience and omnipresence has on this particular aspect of salvation. Acts 27:14-44 gives us some insight into how omniscient and omnipresent God really is, and how it works. (we also see this in 2 Kings 20:1-7)
In Acts 27, God tells Paul through an angel that no one on the boat will die because of the storm. Then later, when the sailors decide to leave the boat, God tells Paul that if they leave, the soldiers will die. This illustrates to us that God is both in the present and the future simultaneously. When the sailors decided (chose to exercise their freewill) to leave the boat, the future changed, and God, being everywhere and everywhen all at once, let Paul know how this decision affected his future situation. Paul chose to tell the soldiers, the soldiers chose to cut the lifeboat loose so the sailors could not leave, and everyone indeed was saved. Interesting that God includes this story in His word to us, possibly to help us out once humanity began to learn about quantum physics.
When we look at all of the bible, especially what Jesus said, we see an emphasis on the necessity of faith, of our choosing to believe in Jesus. We see two paths and outcomes, with our decision to believe in and follow Jesus, or not, being the primary determining factor in which of the paths and outcomes we end up on. Jesus stresses this over and over. He calls us to “deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him” (Matthew 16:24). I do not believe He would say so many things about our need to choose to believe in Him, chose to follow Him, if it was irrelevant. So in light of all of this, how now shall we live?
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.” Deuteronomy 30:19–20
Setting aside those who have never heard the gospel (a good subject for another post), at some point in our lives, we will stand at the crossroads, whether to believe in and follow Jesus , or not. We can choose life, or not. The choice is ours to make. Even though He already knows every choice and decision we will ever make, God honors our right to choose whether we believe in Jesus, giving us freewill. The good news is found in the Romans 8 passage, namely that once we do decide to believe in and follow Jesus, nothing can snatch us out of the hand of the Father. Nothing. This is also illustrated in the book of John:
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” John 10:27-30
There is much more that could be included in this post, probably enough to fill several books. There are many things we did not cover. We have only scratched the surface of this topic. But we want to keep the posts as short as we can, and hopefully this is enough to make the point that it is imperative that we do not kick man’s freewill to the curb regarding our understanding of the process of salvation. When we do, we usually end up in one of the extreme positions mentioned above. It is interesting that God set it up this way, honoring man’s sovereignty over our own life when it comes to the question of Jesus. Faith is a gift of God, period, I’m not denying that (Ephesians 2:8-9). And God does desire for everyone to be saved, I’m not denying that either (1 Timothy 2:3-4). But what we do with the gift of faith that God gives each of us, that is up to us – God wants us to believe (Joshua 24:15, Acts 16:31, Mark 1:15, John 14:1, 1 John 3:23, Hebrews 11:6). If it were not so, Jesus would not have repeatedly told us to choose to believe in Him so that we can be saved, warned us of two paths and two outcomes, etc.
What are you doing with the gift of faith that God has given you today? Are you acting on it, or have you suppressed it? Are you following Jesus or are you following something else? Do you want to be a child of God and have eternal life? If yes, then act on God’s gift of faith today by telling Him you believe in Him and want to follow Him. To loosely quote Moses, I set before you today life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him. Choose to believe in Jesus, confess Him before men, follow Him, and be saved. The choice is yours to make. Jesus calls to all of us, saying:
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3:20
Lord God almighty, I come before you today and choose to believe in Jesus. I want to follow Jesus. Only You have words of life, Jesus; to whom else should I go, who else should I follow. Come into my life and transform me by the renewing of my mind. Set me free from sin and death. Establish Your kingdom within me. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit, that I may walk with You and commune with You all the days of my life. I choose life. I choose Jesus. In Jesus name I pray, amen.
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