Is Preaching Universal Salvation Really Dangerous?

I write somewhat frequently on the topic of universal salvation. One of the arguments I sometimes get as to why I shouldn’t spend so much time convincing others of universal salvation is that my commitment to this perilous doctrine risks leading other souls into eternal ruin. Afterall, if there is even a minuscule possibility that God will send some of us to Hell, then proclaiming universal salvation is a reckless gamble. Wouldn’t it be better to simply err on the side of extreme prudence and tell people there is a chance they could go to Hell?

I would argue that the opposite is true, that the doctrine of eternal conscious torment is so contrary to the core Christian message that it can actually shatter the faith foundation it is seeking to protect. The loving creator revealed to us in Christ is merciful, compassionate, self-sacrificing and patient. There is no logical way to connect eternal torment with Christ. The doctrine of eternal conscious torment is dangerous and has a potential to cause real psychological and spiritual damage.

Christ calls us to love and empathy. Our faith calls us to deeper study. Yet people of sensitivity and intellect immediately see through the contradictions of a loving God who would damn souls for all eternity. Universalism is logically consistent, but eternal conscious torment leads to disillusionment. Many have walked away from the Christian faith entirely because they are unaware that universal salvation was a standard doctrine of the church from its earliest days.

A God Worth Believing In

I’ll grant you that threatening people with Hell or annihilation has some marketing benefits. If you can convince people that they need to escape eternal punishment, then they’ll buy into a lot of other things, too. If God requires anything at all from us, is that grace? If God requires us to believe a certain idea to be saved, then what else might be required? That invites the entrance of other false doctrines that our heads and hearts know are wrong. How can we believe in biblical infallibility when anyone who reads the Bible is faced with many errors and contradictions? How can we shun our LGBTQ+ friends as sinners when it is clear they are living a much more authentic life than we often are? How can anyone insist that only men should preach, or certain music is evil, or you shouldn’t touch your own genitals in the privacy of your own bedroom? This nonsense only exists because someone at sometime convinced some other people that God is not actually loving. Don’t even get me started on evil megachurch pastors demanding more donations to their overflowing coffers.

But when the faith is rooted in fear and it hides the eternal love of God behind threats, all is lost. The point of the gospel message, its foundational beauty, is in an invitation. We are once again welcomed to walk in the garden with our God. This God is knowable, trustworthy and loving. This God doesn’t care who you love as long as you love. This God doesn’t care about your identity as long as you embrace who God made you in that identity. This God is the source of life not death and torment. How do you love a God that you dread? How do you worship and grow spiritually if your motivation comes from anxiety and not desire?

When I explain the basic facts of universal salvation to people, they don’t suddenly fall away from the church because they lost their anxiety about Hell. Instead, they are free to choose and thus free to draw toward that eternal and unconditional love of God. That love is here for you today, not just waiting for you after death. That love is a source of hope and healing right now, here before you. That love invites you to live into your full humanity, not postpone it for Heaven. God wants your freedom because that is how love grows. In freedom we can choose love. Trying everything we can to escape eternal fire is not love at all, it’s just playing a perverted cosmic game. We become focused on the false gods of dogma, right belief and any other secret handshakes we need to get into heaven, and we lose focus on what the true God really wants from us.

What is the Real Risk?

So, I ask you, do you think that the universal salvation is dangerous? I’ve had friends ask me, “why even be a Christian if everyone is saved anyway?” Is fear and coercion the only thing that leads you to God? I might as well ask why does your family love you if you don’t threaten them with torture? Wouldn’t it be more likely that your family wouldn’t love you at all if you threated them with torture, but would pretend whatever they thought they needed to pretend to escape your wrath? When put that way, it becomes obvious that love can only truly grow in freedom from anxiety. Now imagine that someone told a convincing lie to your family that you did in fact want to torture them if they disagreed with you. How unnecessarily damaging would that be to your relationships with anyone who believed that corrosive lie? That is the corrosion of the doctrine of Hell.

The greatest risk is not in preaching universal salvation, the risk is in presenting a false gospel that makes God seem tyrannical, irrational and cruel. That message drives most seekers away and it wounds the hearts of the rest. It says, “don’t love God in freedom, just do what you’re told.” That is not a credible Christian witness.

Are you passionate about the presence of a loving God, of the very Christ, in your heart and life? Then let everyone know that God is available to them right now, that God wants all of creation to come to its intended purpose and that God is love not doom.

Salvation in Christ is not some kind of fragile vase that has to be guarded lest we break it with the wrong ideas, the wrong statements, the wrong life. God’s vision for us is so much larger than we can imagine. When we open ourselves up to this vision, we don’t find danger, we find the deepest assurances.