If Grace Is True: Why God Will Save Every Person (Gulley, Philip) [Paperback]

I'd like to recommend this book to all grappling with this very difficult subject. No, it is not likely to convince those firmly committed to biblical inerrancy. But it may help those who are deeply disturbed by the implications of the doctrine of hell to see that there are alternative viewpoints held by other no-less deeply committed Christians. The authors both exhibit a wonderful graciousness, courage and compassion in their writing that is truly exemplary of Christian maturity and love.

One reviewer was put off that the book was substantially anecdotal and emotional. While other books key in on more biblical and philosophical argumentations for Universalism (Thomas Talbott and Jan Bonda as examples), I frankly welcome this approach to the discussion as well. In fact, perhaps a significant missing element in conservative articulations of hell as eternal torment is the lack of emotional coherency. To consign any living, feeling human to such an excessively tortuous existence is truly emotionally gut wrenching to say the least, if not down right ghastly. (And don't overlook the implication of the conservative position that those who are "destined to fry" are not only Hitler and Attila the Hun but the friendly next door neighbor or relative who die unsaved as well.) Perhaps our felt emotional responses have important ways to clue us about truth as well as our intellects or our fidelities to orthodox belief. But both authors are in no way guilty of shallow emotive propagandizing in articulating why they came to their Universalistic convictions.

I write this review as once a believer in biblical infallibility and one who grimly conceded the reality of hell as the destiny for the unsaved after death. However, over the course of my own theological odyssey I have come to the belief that this and really all biblical doctrines ultimately point to the essence of who God is. How one responds to this doctrine very much characterizes how one understands God's nature. Is God's essence consistently, fully LOVE or does it need to be substantially qualified by other attributes such as wrath and retributional justice?

Certainly, one may believe God expresses anger and "wrath" towards human sinfulness but perhaps this is better understood as an expression of his love, somewhat analogous to a parent who would not let their son or daughter commit destructive acts towards others or themselves without "redemptive" discipline and restoration. However, the goal is always redemptive not destruction of the person. Hell as eternal torment surely confuses this and in the end God tragically comes off as a cosmic sadist.

One reviewer described the authors' views of Universalism as "warm-and-fuzzy". However the authors surely contest that viewpoint throughout. One of the most difficult and demanding teachings of Jesus was his call to his followers to love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them just as God responds in goodness to "his enemies". Hardly warm-and-fuzzy teaching to say the least! But this is precisely the type of love Universalism speaks of God. Warm-and-fuzzy? No. The kind that can in the tortuous pain of crucifixion pray for the forgiveness of one's tormentors? Absolutely!

I'd also like to respond briefly to another common misperception of Universalism. The straw man argument that Universalism paints an image of a God who lets everybody off the hook by winking his eye to sin, thus promoting rampant lawlessness and no need for God or for salvation in Christ, simply demonstrates a lack of understanding.

First, what is the implication of that kind of logic? That it takes the whopping threat of damnation to get people to come to God, accept salvation and want to behave? Isn't the central point of Christian faith that being in relationship with God is the most staggering privilege and joy imaginable, that no life without God can bring the deepest sense of meaning and wholeness that we all crave? Further, learning to love and care for others as God loves is the pathway to the greatest freedom and abundance of life, the most compelling reason to live a godly life not servile fear of threat. Finally, "sin" is often destructive both for the one who sins and the ones sinned against. Universalism in no ways implies God simply winks his eye to sin, unmoved by the plight of humanity enslaved to it or to those who grievously suffer because of it. Salvation is the gracious gift of the hound of heaven who pursues every sinner to turn them from lives that can in the end only offer alienation and misery to lives lived in vibrant connection to God and others. No central tenet of the Christian faith falls of necessity in light of Universalistic belief.

Readers will find the extravagance of God's grace is very much the theme of the book, very often colored by biographical vignettes from the authors' own spiritual pilgrimages. The authors engage us to ask the question of our own experiences of grace, if they will not take us to the same conclusion. This is not a book for discovering tight theological and biblical argumentation and readers will need to research other books to compliment this one.

I found the book, overall, very enriching and encouraging. Because of its simplicity and charitableness, it came as a breath of fresh air in a world bound by an often graceless and retributional mindset. It is with great gratitude to the authors that I highly recommend reading this book with open mind and heart.

I should say first that I support the Cristocentric universalist view, that every person will be ultimately saved, through the work of Jesus. I give this book three stars, because I felt it was a mixed bag.

There were parts of this book that I loved, namely the authors' ample description of a God whose love never fails, who will succeed in fulfilling his desire that none should perish, that God is never overcome with evil, but overcomes evil with good. I support that view wholeheartedly, even though the authors' exegesis was weak (they do admit that this isn't the purpose of the book).

The authors give experience the highest value over Scripture and conveniently dismiss difficult passages as simply not true--which is too bad, because even though the Holy Spirit does reveal God to us through experience, there really is a solid basis of evidence in Scripture for the salvation of all, even more evidence than for eternal punishment.

When you take into account that 1) OT passages of unquenchable fire always refer to the symbolic judgment of the nation of Israel (not individuals), and 2) that this judgment was always of a limited duration, and 3) that Jesus' references to hell (which were references to the same OT national judgment passages) were aimed at the most religious Jewish leaders (and also representatives of the nation of Israel) instead of individual sinners, and 4) that the term "eternal" as often used in English Bibles as "eternal punishment" is a mis-translation of the Greek (and Hebrew equivalent) of a word meaning "age-during," then many of the problematic Scriptures take on a new light. Are all the difficult Scriptures eliminated? No, but when often overlooked Scriptures (and there are many--do a word search on the word "all" in the Bible) are read in a literal way (Romans 5:18, I Cor. 15:22, I Tim. 4:9-10), the scales begin to tip.

I loved the picture of God, supported by many Scriptures, that the authors bring. But I don't accept their rejection of Jesus' divinity, and the implication that nothing really happened on the cross except that a good man died a martyr trying to model God's grace for us. I have come to see that the "penal substitution" theory of atonement, in which an angry God has to take out his wrath on someone, is flawed. The power of the atonement--and the love--lies in the fact that God loved us so much, he was willing (not forced) to take all the sins of the world on himself. This was more than a symbolic act. This is what brings about our healing and restoration, but the authors reduce salvation to merely following the path of Jesus in some generic way. The power of Jesus' atoning sacrificial love becomes even more amazing as we see that it was extended to all people, even as Jesus forgave the unrepentant ones while on the cross.

Although I admire the heartfelt motives of the authors and their obvious love for God and others, this is probably not the book I would give to someone who wanted to know more about Christian universalism, especially since the authors claim that Christ isn't even the only way. I would like to keep looking for a book that still keeps Christ at the center, while providing better commentary on the traditional hell/judgment passages without merely dismissing them.

[....................]

Philip Gulley and Jim Mulholland have written a compelling pastoral and personal commentary on the love and grace of God. They advocate for Christian universalism: the ancient idea, prevalent among many early Christians, that suffering and death, whether on this earth or in the world to come (Hell), are temporary, and that everyone who has ever lived and will ever live will eventually be saved by God. Their quality of writing, their emphasis on personal experience, their use of anecdote and story, all add up to make an easy and persuasive, or at least stirring and challenging, reading experience.

However, their book was never intended to be an argument reasoned from the Bible, heavy on technical exegesis. Coming from their theologically liberal standpoint, in which they feel little need to find any kind of harmony or even symphony between scripture's universalist and exclusivist passages, its restorationist and Hellish passages, or any other such internal tensions and inconsistencies, this failing on their part is understandable. Those biblical passages which seem to endorse universalism can be harvested; while those which seem not to, can simply be acknowledged and dismissed as human error, without an attempt at explanation for how those passages might fit into God's overall message in scripture.

To be sure, I am not one myself to insist on biblical inerrancy or infallibility - I feel the evidence is against those doctrines, as well as against verbal plenary inspiration. But to not even attempt to show how scripture's exclusivist and Hellish passages fit into God's purpose doesn't sit well even with me. How well will it sit with conservative evangelicals who might otherwise be receptive to the universalist message? The thrust of the negative reviews given this book by conservative evangelical readers answers that question. That Gulley and Mulholland are furthermore ambivalent on the divinity of Jesus and the somehow-atoning purpose of his death, only adds to the problem.

In short, this is a book which will be most convincing to liberal or liberal-leaning moderate Christians, or perhaps people estranged from the Christian faith entirely (having "fallen" from conservatism through liberalism to apostasy). Gulley and Mulholland's beautiful writing, their emphasis on experience, and their skillful interweaving of scripture's universalist passages, will make a strong case to such people. On the other hand, theological liberals are already the ones most favorably disposed to universalism today. Those conservatives who could most benefit from seeing the utter majesty and glory of God's grace, which only universalism underscores, will unfortunately be turned off by the lack of sufficient respect for the entire biblical witness, not to mention the incarnation and atonement as well. A book such as Thomas Talbott's "The Inescapable Love of God" would probably suit such people better.

Scott