Calvinism
Though I do not hold to Calvinism personally, I do however regard them as brothers and do have respect for them. Calvinism deserves not to be misrepresented and I'll be speaking on it here.
A common lie that is perpetuated by MANY groups is that Calvinists do not evangelize, This is incorrect. From what I have learned, Genuine Calvinism DOES carry out evangelism. Calvinists also do NOT claim that someone in another country is saved and chosen by Jesus without hearing the Gospel.
It should be noted the Calvinists preach evangelism and carry out the mission, because they are ordained to give the Gospel to the world and as a matter of fact, they do not know WHO the elect are. The elect who are preached to hear the message and respond to it and the Calvinist doesn't claim that someone is brought to Christ without the Gospel, Monergism doesn't claim such.
Calvinists do the following, they teach holiness, they evangelise, they tell people to repent of their idols and sins. They have a genuine concern for fallen man and want to see people come to repentance.
Universalists cannot consistently preach holiness and evangelism despite that claim. Whether or not a universalist believes that all paths lead to God or they believe that hell is a cleansing process that purifies a person so they can go to heaven, they are not presenting a true Gospel at all and they are presenting a Gospel that essentially says to the person "You can believe in idolatry and live in sin and still be saved" (not the Universalists intention but that is a conclusion the unbeliever could draw) The Calvinist and the Arminian despite their differences, can teach holiness and evangelism and not violate their theology whereas a Universalist cannot.
If the Lord Wills, I may make further comments.
If the Lord Wills, I may make further comments.
Power of God
Does a denial of Universalism mean that God is weak and powerless? No. As I have said previously, He could save all if he so choose, but the question is, Why should he?
Universalism does NOT seem to take into consideration how righteousness will impact our relationship with God. Sin itself cuts man off from salvation and the severity of sin is there. Isaiah 59 for example says:
"59 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
2 but your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear."
Sin itself cuts you off from having a relationship with God. Isaiah 59 does refer to the sin of the Israelites and a future hope for Israel, but it still drives home the point of sin as a serious problem that needs to be rectified.
Universalism doesn't provide that in this life, it doesn't provide hope or liberation of sin, it unintentionally encourages it. Notice I said unintentionally, because there are Universalists that teach repentance from sin, though even then that is rather inconsistent to hold to.
Church Fathers
I won't be repeating too much from the church fathers here, because I have already in previous papers shown from church fathers both before, during and after the time of Origen, that Universalism was not a teaching held as doctrinally true. Even if you want to argue that the fathers never address universalism, that is irrelevant in light of the fact that they themselves point out two destinies facing man, and making it very clear that a person faces one of those destinies eternally and even explicitly in some cases declare what they mean by eternal, defining it as how many (Including myself) who believe in eternal conscious torment, or hell forever.
You'll find my comments on the church fathers in these papers here:
http://answering-judaism.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/universalism-and-church-fathers.html
http://answering-judaism.blogspot.com/2015/12/universalism-and-church-fathers_21.html
http://answering-judaism.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/did-justin-martyr-believe-in.html
If the Lord Wills, more comments may be made.
Answering Judaism.
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