Lent and Universalism

In an earlier post (McLaren & Doctrine 101) I took a look at "What the HELL is McLaren thinking about." This weekend I got his book back from a friend and thought I would dip into it again.

in Ch. 4 Party In the living room, torture in the basement" the protagonist's daughter Jess, describes herself as a universalist. In her rant to some a conservative friend she says "if God is going to send all my friends to hell, then he can send me right along with them, because I love them, and I'd rather be loyal to them than save my own skin... I said I could never be happy in a party upstairs in the heavenly living room knowing that so many people were being tortured in the basement, and I thought it was pretty heartless of her to think that she could be happy under those circumstances. IN fact, I told her I thought God would be disgusted to have people like that at his party and that I thought God himself would go down into the basement to help the people there.

In Christianity, Universalism is the doctrine that all will be saved. The doctrine addresses the problem of Hell (and to a lesser degree seeks to address God's mercy and justice.) Universalists contend that a loving God would not submit anyone, regardless of his or her sins or beliefs, to everlasting torment.

Universalism raises a couple of questions (actually it raises a lot more than 2 questions, but hey, this is a blog not a textbook):
1. What impact does Gods justice have on human depravity? Are there consequences for our sinfulness? Or does some other attribute or act of God Trump God's justice?
2. What Sin(s) would God be addressing with hell (SIN the power, or sins the transgressions? - another way of saying this is SIN is the power we are in bondage to or are loyal to, while sins are the things we do which indicate (symptom) that we are "under the influence" of SIN)
3. What is hell? Universalists seem to take hell very seriously – clearly they believe that hell is a permanent, literal place, probably of permanent physical torment (and burns are the worst kind of torment I am told). So what is (where is?) hell?

Response to #1
So this is my response to universalism - while I can appreciate the desire to place God's love and mercy as paramount to understanding salvation - I can not so easily dismiss God's justice. I also fail to see what the point of Jesus is for universalism. A “Christian universalism” it seems to me has no need of or place for the person of Jesus, the claims of Jesus (or other New Testament claims about Jesus), or the work of Jesus (the effect he has on us). As I read scripture it seems to me that Jesus’ announcing that the Kingdom of God has come is all about God addressing the tension between God’s justice (holiness) and God’s mercy (love). SOOOOOOOO clearly I think there are consequences for sinfulness, and Jesus’ work trumps (addresses) God’s just (appropriate) response to sinfulness.

Response to #2
So what about sin? As I read scripture Sin is BOTH power (the dominating force of death and destruction of God’s creation) and an act (our transgressions that betray the fact that SIN is active as a power in our world. Here I think the resurrection miracle – (the central miracle of scripture) is an expression of Jesus declaration that the kingdom has come (hell’s rules about who belongs to hell no longer apply universally). What is important here is that it is God through Jesus addressing the problem of sin and its effects (one of which could be hell). Universalism is problematic for me because it wants to apply Jesus work to all people even if the do not switch loyalties from the Power of Sin the Power of Christ, and even if they specifically reject switching loyalties. (I will leave the challenging question of “what about those who have never heard of Jesus” for some latter posting)

#3
What is Hell? I think I will address that after I have looked at other positions (conditionalism, inclusivism, and exclusivism).

These musings are a Lenten exercise for me. On Saturday night I preached on lectionary texts (the crossing of the red sea in exodus, and Romans six) and as I prepared I realized that I need to consider more carefully the foundations of my faith including a God who has a project, and that project is to create a people. And the more I read the more I find that while God is the God of second chances, God it seems also plays favorites. To answer Jess’ question (see above). God invites to the party all who will come, and the rest? Well…