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I’ve started reading, 'The Parliament of the Fowls' and was interested to read the following in relation to the dream of Scipio the Younger:

But breakers of the law, to tell the truth, and lecherous people, after they die, will whirl about the earth, always in pain, till many a world passes away, no doubt, and then, forgiven their wicked deeds, they will come into this blissful state for which God sends his grace for them to come.

It is interesting to see how universalist ideas have always found the way down the centuries. The gates of hell cannot prevail against the true Church of God!

Old Testament

A large part of the Bible contains prophecy. And 2 Peter 1:20 says that ‘no prophecy of scripture came about by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.’ All prophecies made by scripture are therefore the words of God, not men.

In keeping with this, Old Testament prophets are consistently portrayed as being the mouthpieces of God, proclaiming His very words (Exodus 4:10-17; 1 Kings 22:8-16; 2 Samuel 23:2; Isaiah 59:21; Jeremiah 1:9; 25:1-13; 31; Ezekiel 23:26,27). And looking back over Israel’s history, Zechariah blames the nation for ‘refusing to hear the words which the Lord had cried by the former prophets’ (Zechariah 7:7,12). Given this, it is perhaps not surprising that the phrase, ‘thus saith the Lord’ appears more than 2,600 times in the Old Testament!

Elsewhere in the Old Testament, we are also told that…

This issue has been raised by all of the authors we've reviewed to date as a major potential stumbling block to universalism, the argument being that there is no guarantee people will choose to be saved or perhaps remain so. Here are some thoughts on this issue.

Traditional View

‘Free will’ is defined by the dictionary as ‘the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate’. ‘Fate’ is defined as, ‘the development of events outside a person’s control, regarded as predetermined by a supernatural power’.

The traditional view is that, as God is entirely without sin, He cannot be the cause of sin. As a result, it is impossible for there to be any cause-and-effect relationship between God and mankind’s sins. Although God created us and could foresee how we were going to misuse our free wills, He did not, and never has, caused us to sin: we…

One issue that has emerged from book reviews to date is that quite a few universalists do not appear to believe that the scriptures are the word of God. There are some who believe that parts of the Bible are from God, but who conclude it is impossible to determine which have a divine origin and which do not. There are others who argue that as all biblical teaching came through fallible men, none of it can be inerrant. Finally, there are probably others who believe that the scriptures may have been originally divine and inerrant, but who think that these texts have been irretrievably lost to the mists of time.  

There appear to be two main reasons for these conclusions. The first are the contradictions they allege are contained in the Bible. These may take the form of internal inconsistencies, but might also include statements that are contradicted by…

Author

David Favager is a very learned author, with a BA in History, a PhD in Education, a Licence in Theology and a MA and ThD in Biblical Archaeology.  David was a school teacher for over 28 years, but now works as an educational travel manager. He is also a member of the Anglican community on Wirral.     

Content

The book is structured around four pillars that support the case for universalism: scripture, morality, atonement and theodicy. These chapters are preceded by a lengthy introduction, which outlines the ground to be covered, together with some preliminary conclusions.  As well as the further sections outlined below, there is also a useful glossary and a bibliography that includes hyperlinks.

Author

Despite the American spellings used throughout the book, Jean Wyatt is in fact a British author and a long-standing member of the Anglican community. She practised as a doctor in Africa and Asia for many years, before becoming a GP in Liverpool. Since retiring, she has been an active lay member and reader for the last 25 years.   

Content

The book considers the various issues raised by universalism, with each chapter leading with different sections of Lord’s Prayer. There are lots of interesting extra-biblical quotations in the book, although it is worth noting that C.S. Lewis was a firm believer in everlasting punishment.      

Dear all,

I know some of you do not celebrate Christmas at all, because of its connections with a pagan festival.

I hope you agree, however, that it is good to focus our minds on different things during the year and it must be a good thing to set aside some time to meditate on and celebrate the birth of Jesus and the incredible prophecies it fulfilled.

Unfortunately, none of our carols to my knowledge were written by universalists. To put this right, I'm sharing some pieces I wrote when I was 19 when I was trying to set up a local church in Wallasey. I hope you like them.

May God be with you,

The Author

Gregory McDonald is the pen name of Robin Parry, which he used due concerns at the time about the book’s potential effect on his employment and his reputation in orthodox circles.

Chapter Summary  

The first chapter looks at the problems of an eternal hell, including its injustice and how the saved could be happy if this happened. This is followed by some detailed analysis of the philosophical issues around freewill.

There are a lot of books on the 'further reading' tab that most of us probably won't get around to reading any time soon. I expect there are a lot of good points in these books and perhaps some arguments we may have overlooked. So I wondered if each one of us might commit to reading just one of these books and then feedback to others via this discussion page.

I you're happy to do this, please just tell me in advance which book you'd like to study to avoid any duplication. Then, when you've read it, please provide a short summary book review, including the salient points and any thoughts of your own you might like to share.

You can choose any book in the list, providing, of course, you are not the author! Please also remember to let me have full details of any other good books on…