David Artman - Grace Saves All: The Necessity of Christian Universalism

Grace Saves All

The Necessity of Christian Universalism

Copyright

2020

David Artman. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

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Wipf & Stock

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paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-5088-8

hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-5089-5

ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-5090-1

All Scripture references are from the New International Version (NIV) unless otherwise noted.

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

04/06/20

Table of Contents

In Grace Saves All, David Artman will skillfully introduce you to the ancient biblical truth that I pray will soon be a reformation: Grace saves all. It is the best story, because it is the gospel. God is love. God is free. God is grace and God creates all things and saves all things by the power of his Word, Jesus. Read this book and see that he is better than you ever imagined.

Peter Hiett, author of All Things New: What the Bible Really Says About Hell

Christianity entered the world as a proclamation of radical joy. It has all too often, however, reigned over the Western imagination as a religion whose essential message is more horrifying than most of us like to admit. David Artman has allowed himself to be guided in these pages by two impulses: deep compassion and intellectual honesty. In doing so, he has found his way back to an understanding of his faith that is actually good news.

David Bentley Hart, author of That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation

Grace Saves All is an easy-to-read, insightful book on the subject of universal salvation. David Artman masterfully addresses the biblical, theological, and historical issues surrounding what happens to us and those we love after we die and shows how those questions relate directly to the biblical teaching about Gods love, power, and absolute goodness. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning more about a subject that everyone thinks about at some point in life.

George W. Sarris, author of Heavens Doors: Wider Than You Ever Believed!

Now that universalism is back on the table for theological discussion, two great errors must be avoided: uninformed, knee-jerk charges of heresy and the sloppy pop-universalism that fails to proclaim Christ alone or the necessity of a faith response. In Grace Saves All, Artman skillfully avoids both ditches. With careful ears, a thoughtful mind, and a wise voice, hes able to engage other points of view (even mine) with generosity and conviction.

Brad Jersak, author of Her Gates Will Never Be Shut and A More Christlike God

Over the past couple of decades a surprising number of books have been written in support of a strictly Christian understanding of universal reconciliation. But if I had to select just one of them to introduce this whole topic to the ordinary churchgoer in the pew, I would find it extremely difficult to pass over David Artmans Grace Saves All. Thats in part because this book combines an experienced pastors ability to articulate a spiritual message clearly, accurately, and persuasively with a pastoral understanding of, and concern for, those who continue to have reservations about the message he delivers. This book also serves as an excellent introduction to some of the most recent literature in support of Christian universalism.

Thomas Talbott, author of The Inescapable Love of God

For all those who struggle to find a God of true love,

and for my wife Amy,

who always knew it had to be so.

The winds have changed in modern eschatologydramatically so. As an evangelical child of the Jesus People era and seventies revivalism, I was raised in a movement fixated on the end times. We were immersed in dispensationalism, the great tribulation, the identity of the antichrist and armies of Armageddon. We waited for an imminent second coming (probably next week) and final heaven or hell judgment. Along with a frankly cultic Left Behind obsession was this complete assumption that the unsaved at death were eternally doomed to eternal conscious torment in an actual lake of fire.

Today, those of us whove made our happy exit from the lunacy of blood moon prophecies and doomsday dates have been humbled (I hope) by embarrassment at our misplaced certainty. Weve let go of much of our speculation about the how the End works. Most of all, the Infernalist monopoly on the nature of hell, who goes there, and for how long, has crumbled. New camps have arisen and secured a place at the discussion table. Alongside eternal conscious torment, a serious case is being made for alternative outcomes. Among these, the late great John Stott made it possible for Evangelicals to consider and embrace conditionalism (whether annihilation or conditional immortality). More dramatically, teachers like Robin Parry, David Bentley Hart, and Ilaria Ramelli have taken a bold stand for Christian universalism. And these arent wishy-washy post-theistic liberalsthey represent Nicene orthodoxy and have demanded we attend to those church fathers and mothers of oldmost notably Gregory of Nyssaand spiritual giants throughout the centuries, from the Moravian evangelists to George MacDonald to St. Silouan the Athonite. Their argument is that ultimate redemption is not a thin and popular novelty. It has deep historic roots in the ancient faith, even as a minority report.

In my view, two great errors must be avoided: (1) uninformed, knee-jerk charges of heresy and (2) the sloppy pop-universalism that fails to proclaim Christ alone, the necessity of a faith response, or the reality of judgment. In Grace Saves All, David Artman skillfully avoids both ditches. With careful ears, a thoughtful mind, and a wise voice, hes able to engage other points of view (even mine) with generosity and conviction.

While I dont track with all of Artmans arguments across the board, I find him biblically compelling and theologically orthodox. Indeed, he IS a friend and interlocutor with whom our iron-sharpening-iron engagement is marked by trust and bears good fruit.

My reasons for my own slow pace down the path he treads are twofold. First, I am still working out how to proclaim a broader hope in ways that dont license the Christless universalism I mentioned above. Sharing the truth of the good news of Jesus Christ should not cause those who let go of an endless hell to dismiss Christ along with it. And yet, somehow it does. Often. Something is off there. Did they really never know Christ? Did they simply follow him under threat of hell? Was their faith in hell rather than in Christ to begin with? So, from the time of Origena universalist for sureteachings on ultimate redemption have been accompanied by this disturbing trend that made the great teachers hesitate out of pastoral concern for the immature. My problem with that is that offering a noble lie in place of a dangerous truth is not a solution. If it were, wed have to abandon Pauls radical grace teaching. Alas, I dont yet have a good solution. But I suspect it has something to do with raising our Christology, delivering on the promise of authentic encounter, and maintaining a more intense theology of restorative judgment.