In the doctrine of Universalism, the Gospel becomes a washed up, old fashioned, outdated message which has no bearing on the rest of humanity. It was necessary for the first century, of course, but not for today. The all inclusive work of Jesus Christ saves
all of humanity forever. Who needs Jesus or the Gospel? All mankind reaps eternal life automatically. Why bother preaching the Gospel when all men become God’s children regardless of what they believe? Why? Why? Why?
Jesus Christ is in the exact center and catalyst for all God does, yesterday, today, and forever.
Universalism removes Jesus Christ from the center and relegates Him to the sidelines. What Jesus did in the past was absolutely necessary, says the Universalist, but that is all finished now. We don’t need Jesus anymore.
Salvation is now automatic for everyone. Men don’t have to believe in Jesus. They don’t have to love Him. They don’t even have to like Him. Everyone receives salvation, even Judas Iscariot and the Devil himself, according to Universalism. - Arthur Melanson -
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The penalty of sin was paid by Jesus Christ for the sinner who believes in Him. Without that belief, those sins are left unpaid for. The duration of Hell, is the same as Heaven.
Daniel 12:2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame [and] everlasting contempt.
Matt 25:46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
Let's examine one good example of Universalist scriptural gymnastics and theior rebuttal of the above two verses:
Olam used in one passage for 2 different durations:
Hab 3:6
Habakkuk 3:6 He stood and surveyed the earth; He looked and startled the nations. Yes, the perpetual ad mountains were shattered, The ancient olam hills collapsed. His ways are everlasting olam.
Universalists quote
Hab 3:6 as an example of the word
olam being used in the same passage for two different times. But as we will see here very closely, this is not true. The word
olam is used in
Hab 3:6 for the identical period of time.
Universalists argue that
olam is first applied to "
non eternal created things like a mountain" and "
eternal God". For them, this is a clear way of answering the challenge to find a single verse that uses olam for two different periods of time.
They reason that
Hab 3:6 sets a precedent for explaining why
Dan 12:2 and
Matt 25:46 cannot be used against them as proof that the duration of heaven and hell are identical.
Hab 3:6 uses
olam for the identical period of time:
Two different Hebrew words were applied to the mountains that will be destroyed:
ad and
olam. Then
olam is applied to God. It was not nearly as simplistic as the tension in
Dan 12:2 and
Matt 25:46.
Habakkuk 3:6 He stood and surveyed the earth; He looked and startled the nations. Yes, the perpetual ad mountains were shattered, The ancient olam hills collapsed. His ways are everlasting olam.
The larger context has God’s mountain (
verse 3
Paran) lasting forever, but Edom’s and Midian’s mountains being destroyed.
The first major problem is explaining how two physical mountains will be destroyed, but one physical mountain will endure forever. The mountains are in fact metaphoric for kingdoms. The Edomites viewed their kingdoms as strong, everlasting, eternal "
olam" but God takes the words out of their mouth and in a kind of mockery, contradicts this: "
You Edomites
say your mountain (kingdom) will last forever and be eternal, but I, God, tell you that your "eternal mountain will collapse and be shattered". The Edomites thought that their mountains would exist as long as God exists,
but God corrects this misunderstanding.
Therefore the way the word "
olam" is used in
Hab 3:6 is not an example of two different time lengths because the Edomites viewed their mountain lasting the same length of time as God himself. For all these reasons,
Hab 3:6 is not an example of a single passage using the word "olam" for two different time lengths.
In the Universalist debate, there are no other passages that use "
olam" for two different duration of time.
Heb 3:6 cannot be used as an example of this. The same goes for many more, including the most infamous of Jonah and the belly of the whale.
Jonah 2:6 I
went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars [was] about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
Jonah was recorded as perceiving he would be in the belly of the earth forever, but as we are always shown, through quick repentance, that decree can be reveresed. So much for Universalism there huh?
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