What happens when we die? According to the traditional Christian view, there are those who enter into eternal life and those who are lost forever. But this wasn’t the only view in town. Some Church Fathers held to a view that everyone, without exception, will be reconciled to God in the end. What does the AC team make of this view? Andy, Steve, and Wes sat down for this two-part conversation.
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Hi there, my friend asked me to listen to these two episodes of the podcast. I was wondering if you could let me know which books (if any), written by Universalist thinkers, you consulted as part of your planning for this episode. Did you read Thomas Talbott, or David Bentley Hart?
Thanks.
Hey Josh, Wes here from AC! I did read DBH, or at least have in the not-so-distant past and consulted it for the prep for this particular podcast. Admittedly I did not consult Talbott this time around but along with DBH’s “That all shall be saved,” also had David Artman’s “Grace Saves All,” Greg Mcdonald’s “The Evangelical Universalist,” and John Wesley Hansons work at arms length during the podcast.
Hi Wes, thanks for the reply.
I’d say that Talbott is the true star of the show when it comes to Christian Universalism. Everyone else is playing in the minor leagues.
I would have loved to hear the panel address Talbot’s three statements, in which you can only choose two:
1. God loves everybody and wants to save everyone
2. God will eventually save all of the people that he wants to save, and
3. Some people will not be saved.
I imagine that the Calvinists would choose 2 and 3, while others would choose 1 and 3.
With these statements as a starting point, the podcast would have been really interesting, since the panel would have had to really wrestle with internal divisors over the free will issue