In its most basic form, the idea behind hopeful universalism is that we should hope that all men will be saved. We may hope that if a man doesn't repent now, he will have a chance to repent in the after life, after being subjected to the pains of hell for a time. It is suggested that all Christians should at least hope for this. If you do not, an eyebrow or two is raised in your direction and questions about your moral character are posed.
Even the claim by hopeless universalists that Scripture positively teaches that there is a hell and that there will be some people in hell for an endless duration and so hoping that all will be saved is irrational, doesn't cut it. Hopeless universalists find this odd. They tell stories like this: Suppose you received a news report from a very trustworthy source that a dirty bomb was detonated in a city and some people died. Suppose you believe this source. Given this, it would be irrational to hope that everyone lived. If you believed that not everyone lived, and so you didn't hope for it, would you be immoral?
But the hopeful retort that while you may believe this, you should hope that you're wrong. After all, can you say with epistemic certainty that the Bible teaches this? Perhaps you've misunderstood things. So you can believe that not all will be in heaven, but you should hope that your belief is wrong, hope that you've misunderstood things. On this view, it seems we should likewise hope that every news report is false. So, when we watched the events unfold on 9-11, we should have all hoped that some lived. After all, we didn't have epistemic certainty about the matter. Perhaps we misunderstood things, there is that chance. The hopeless find this an odd way to live they prefer to be realists. This approach to life has the making for a very unsavory epistemic position to have to live in.
But let's answer this objection on its own terms. Almost all hopeful universalists that I am aware of believe that all will be saved, but some only after some time in a remedial, restorative hell. They all claim that their hope is that all those who go to hell will be saved out of it. But this seems like the taxi cab fallacy (arbitrarily getting out of the taxi when you don't went to go any further). I think all hopeful universalists, if they want a hearing from the hopeless, should hope that there does not exist a human who has spent any time in hell. All humans go to heaven immediately after they die.
Every hopeful universalist argument employed against the hopeless can be applied by the really hopeful against hopeful universalism lite, and then some. Not only can the really hopeful claim that it is more moral and loving to hope that none spend any time in hell, they may also raise an eyebrow or two at the moral character of the not-so-hopeful. The really hopeful will ask things like this: "Hell is horrible, and I cannot imagine a loving God sending any of his children there. Indeed, what of my child? If I knew my own child were going to spend some time in hell and I could do something about it, I would. Well then, since God is our loving father, he should do the same. And, we know that God can do so. He may need to intervene and bypass the free will for a moment, but that is worth it, you see. After all, if you knew your own child would use her free will to seriously harm herself, even if temporarily, would you, as a loving father, take action to stop this?"
But the really hopeful universalist can go further with this mirroring. For instance, if the not-so-hopeful claim that the Bible does indeed teach about the existence of hell and that some people will spend some time in it, the uber hopeful universalist will just ask, "Really, and you're sure about this? You know it with epistemic certainty?" Moreover, they will claim that the Bible seems to support their view. They may point to passages like 2 Peter 3 (a favorite passage of hopeful universalism lite). They will point that God desires none should perish, and so that is why he is delaying his return, so that all might be saved from what is to come after his return. So God wants none to see the judgment that awaits after his return. The passage says nothing about an endless hell, just a Day of Judgment. Indeed, in the Bible, salvation from judgment always applies to the here and now, and what all men are saved from is what begins at Jesus return.
Or take Romans 5. This speaks about all men, claim both groups of universalists. The really hopeful universalist points out that this means that all men are saved from "the judgment that follows" the transgression. Since all men are in Christ, then all men reign in life and are saved from the judgment to come. The really hopeful find it incredible that Paul could think some people united to Christ and thus destined to reign in life after his act of law keeping, would nevertheless spend some time not reigning in life at the Day of the Lord. The one act of the Lord resulted in "justification" for all people, and Paul would find it incredible that those justified would be in hell on the day of Judgment. Thus some really hopeful universalists claim, not without warrant, that they are dogmatic really hopeful universalists, insisting that a truly loving God would send exactly zero of his children to hell for any time at all.
Some who hold to hopeful universalism lite still claim that some horrendous people will need to spend some time in hell. But dogmatic really hopefuls respond that if we take seriously the notion of Jesus' death for all men, they claim justice has been fully satisfied for even these people. They claim that there is now no condemnation for them. They point out the arrogance in thinking that Hitler needs to spend some time in hell for what he did so that he could really appreciate the harm he did, when those who claim this don't think they will also need to spend some time in hell for all their impure thoughts and genocide of hundreds of thousands of people in the form of hating them (which Jesus said is murder). If Hitler is caused by God to believe in Him before he dies, surely he will evidence remorse for his crimes once in heaven, admitting how horrible he was. So there's really no need for hell if we take the universalism texts seriously.
So with all this talk of hopeful universalism, let's make sure the hopeful universalist is really following his own strictures and living under the hope that there has never been a human who has spent any time at all in hell. In fact, one would like to see more universalists becoming dogmatic really hopeful universalists. Until then, the hopeless universalist will continue to think universalists—hopeful and dogmatic—don't have the nerve to take their position to its logical conclusion.
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