I have come to believe that God will save everyone. To be clear, that he already has. Here is why:
1. God is all powerful. How can anything he purposes to do be thwarted? So if he intends to save us, nothing will stop him, even ourselves. If he intends us to be something, we must be it. Even with free will and independence. How much more powerful is it to not only correct what went wrong, but to actually guide an entire universe intent on destroying itself (for that's what it is to rebel against a perfect reality) back to wholeness such that each and every intelligence actually CHOOSES to take its right place of its own free will!
2. God is love. It isn't love to condemn people to eternal suffering. It does nothing for justice either. Punishment is for correction, not revenge. And even if it was revenge, it isn't just to condemn someone to eternal suffering for a temporal crime, no matter what they did, let alone simply not believing something correctly. This presents God not as a just judge or loving father, but as a demon.
3. If my flawed and finite mind can conceive of a good quality, then a perfect God must embody that quality in infinite degree? So if I can conceive of forgiveness or correction or compassion as good, then God must be infinitely more so. Granted I could be wrong in any judgement. But there are universal goods we all understand. I'm not talking about supreme court decisions. I'm talking about basic human goodness. And I know love is better than hate and restoration and acceptance are better than rejection. And I know that it is far more glorious to resolve the entire universe to it's intended place than to send most of it to eternal damnation.
4. There is a good deal of credible evidence that the original language of the verses that are used to justify some being eternally damned may be interpreted in other ways. There is enough of it that I choose to err toward grace. No one knows exactly what was meant on the original text. But if evidence exists that certain words could be used in multiple ways, then selecting which was meant is a matter of interpretation. I have reviewed the evidence myself and I believe it to be more consistent with the rest of the Bible and God's nature to interpret that we will all be saved.
Does this bother you? I ask you to think why? Likely it is that you harbor some incorrect understanding of what this means and that feels threatening to your beliefs. I know because I came through this very thing.
I am NOT saying that every faith is equal. I am NOT saying go and do whatever. No, in fact I'm saying quite the opposite. We will, each and every one of us, be required to "pay the uttermost farthing". We WILL be made holy and we will answer for our wrongs in a way that forces us to repent and restore as well as heals the wounds we caused, intentionally or not. And if we won't get the message, then woe to us because we will be driven to the end of ourselves in this life or in the one to come. This is hell. It is the place where we cannot escape. The place where we will pay, we will relent. But as soon as we turn there will be the welcoming arms of a loving perfect father to grow us back up to the perfection he intended.
But God help me, I don't want to face that. Do you? I've had my foretaste of hell and I am done with that. God, make me as you intended.
Lastly, I post this here because I wanted to write out my own thoughts about it. I am happy to talk about it to anyone who approaches in a genuine spirit of curiosity, respect, and mutual understanding and growth. If I'm wrong, God will show me. But I am not at all interested in debating or arguing. So don't waste your time.
