Universalism is the false teaching that all people will ultimately end up in heaven. According to Universalists, one can die in denial of Christ and/or open rebellion to God and still go to heaven. They teach that there will be a reconciliation between all mankind and God in the afterlife. So, according to this notion, in heaven we’ll be palling around with the likes of Adolph Hitler, Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, etc. These men committed the vilest sins imaginable and, presumably, died never regretting their rejection of God. Universalists say we’ll see them in heaven.
God saves all those who have obedient faith in Him. Therefore, God would have even saved men such as those mentioned above if they repented of their sins and placed their trust in Jesus. That is, if they had done so before they died.
Back in the 1990’s, someone at my church announced that we had a new brother in Christ. We were told that Jeffrey Dahmer had repented of his sins and was baptized in prison.1 I can still remember my shock that God had just let a serial killer off the hook! It violated my sense of justice.
Dahmer deserved to go to hell for what he’d done. It wasn’t fair that God would save a man like him. I soon remembered that I also deserved to go to hell for my sins even though I’d never sinned to the degree Dahmer had.
Everyone who makes it to heaven will be there because of God’s grace. Nevertheless, the Bible clearly teaches that our window of opportunity to receive God’s grace closes at death. There will be no second chances in the afterlife.
If I were a Universalist…
If I were a Universalist a verse I’d really like is 1 Timothy 4:10:
For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. (1 Tim. 4:10 ESV)
This verse certainly seems to say that God will save everyone – especially those who believe. Not just those who believe, especially those who believe. If I were a Universalist I wouldn’t want to look at this verse’s context; I’d need to use it as a prooftext. Reading it in context would be a rather annoying reminder that it doesn’t teach what I want it to.
“The savior of all people”
Jesus is the Savior of all people because He is the only One through whom salvation can come. There is no other. Jesus’s salvation is not exclusive; He saves Gentiles as well as Jews. This would seem to be a remark made in light of the exclusivism of the Ephesian false teachers.
In 1 Timothy 2:1-7, Paul dealt with the false teaching that salvation was not for all people. Four times in that passage Paul said we are to pray on behalf of “all” (vv. 1, 2, 4, 6). The Ephesians were evidently being taught that the gospel is not for everyone. Paul’s letter to Timothy counters this false teaching by showing that all people – Gentiles, including kings and those in power – are to be prayed for in the hope that they might be saved.
Paul isn’t teaching that God will save all people. In context, he is teaching that all people can be saved. Paul’s letter shows that God is not the God of the Jews only. God, through Christ, has made a means of reconciliation available to all people regardless of ethnicity.
“Especially of those who believe”
In the context of this letter, Paul’s comments in 1 Timothy 4:10 are a rebuttal against the Ephesian false teacher’s claims of exclusivity. Regardless, what are we to make of the curious comment “especially of those who believe?”
There has been scholarly debate about how the Greek word malista (μάλιστα) is best translated into English. Most English Bibles translate malista as “especially.” Some scholars think there is a better translation:
“Those who hold to the doctrine of universal atonement use this verse as one of the strongest scriptural supports for their position that God as savior has done something for all people, albeit more for believers. The text is understood as teaching a potential, universal atonement: while the offer of salvation is open to all, the nature of God as savior is experienced in a special way by those who have accepted salvation by faith and experienced God’s saving grace. Lock translates, ‘who is Saviour of all men, but, in the deepest sense, of those who put faith in Him’.
Skeat translates μάλιστα as ‘to be precise,’ ‘namely,’ here and in 2 Tim 4:13 and Titus 1:10, based on the word’s use in the papyri; the second phrase is understood as repeating and filling out the first: ‘who is the savior of all people, that is, all who believe.’” 2 (emphasis added)
To be precise
T.C. Skeat arrives at this conclusion by comparing and harmonizing the use of the Greek world malista with other New Testament passages. For example, he notes how Paul used malista in 2 Timothy 4:13:
When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all [malista] the parchments. (2 Tim. 4:13 ESV)
Skeat comments:
“We can hardly imagine that Paul would have carried an extensive library round with him. The typical form of book familiar both to Gentiles and to Jews of the Diaspora was the papyrus roll, which was light, compact, and easily transported. If these were the βιβλία [books], why should Paul have anticipated any possible difficulty in Timothy bringing them with him?
My own suggestion is that μάλιστα [malista] in this passage, instead of differentiating the βιβλία [books] from the μεμβράναι [parchments], in fact equates them, at least to the extent of defining or particularizing the general term βιβλία [books], and that an idiomatic English translation would be ‘the books – I mean the parchment notebooks’.” 3 (words in brackets added for clarity)
Alternative translations
If Skeat is correct, malista is more properly translated as “namely,” “to be precise,” or “that is.” The translators of the ERV and ISV take this approach in their rendering of this verse:
We hope in the living God, the Savior of all people. In particular, he is the Savior of all those who believe in him. This is why we work and struggle. (1 Tim. 4:10 ERV)
To this end we work hard and struggle, because we have set our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, that is, of those who believe. (1 Tim. 4:10 ISV)
Ancient inscriptional evidence
A completely different line of argumentation asserts that the translation of “especially” is fine as is. Steven M. Baugh contends that Paul based his wording on ancient inscriptions found in the ruins of Ephesus. These inscriptions venerated dead Roman emperors for the favors they once bestowed upon the citizens of Ephesus. The citizens of Ephesus saw these former Roman rulers as saviors during a time of crisis.
Baugh argues that in this first century historical context, the Ephesians would have understood Paul’s letter to contrast the living God with the dead emperors they worshiped as gods.
“Paul shows in v. 10 that God is the provider of earthly beneficence, even for people absorbed by physical discipline which relates to ‘the present life’ (v. 8). But God is especially beneficent to those who train themselves in godliness, because he not only cares for the earthly needs of believers, but also for their needs in “the life to come.”4
In other words God is the savior of all people because he “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45 ESV). If God cares for all people in this way, how much more for those who are His.
This verse does not teach Universalism
William D. Mounce succinctly says in his commentary that there is no option of universalism in this passage.5 Indeed, the Bible does not teach Universalism here nor in any other passage.
References
- https://christianchronicle.org/did-jailhouse-religion-save-jeffrey-dahmer/
- Mounce, William D. Word Biblical Commentary, Pastoral Epistles, Vol 46, Nelson, 2000, 393.
- Skeat, T. C. “‘Especially the Parchments’: A Note on 2 Timothy IV. 13.” The Journal of Theological Studies 30, no. 1 (April 1, 1979): 174.
- Baugh, Steven M. “‘Savior of All People’: 1 Tim 4:10 in Context.” The Westminster Theological Journal 54 (1992): 338.
- Mounce, William D. Word Biblical Commentary, Pastoral Epistles, Vol 46, Nelson, 2000, 393.