The Little Friar

A friend asked recently if I might give some of the "reasons" for my Evangelical Universalism. I shared my The Fire and the Rose and On Hell. Her concern, of course, is whether the Scriptures support what I believe about the salvation and restoration of all things into relationship with God through Jesus Christ. So here are some of those texts. And then all flesh shall see the salvation of God (Luke 3.6). This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that through him all might believe…. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world (John 1.7, 9). Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1.29). For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3.16-17) The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His...

I've been thinking lately of two lessons I learned from one of my most significant professors in grad school.  Fred Norris passed away in 2016.  I hadn't seen Fred for nearly two decades.  But I still remember these vinettes because, in them, there was a shared lesson:  Pastors must love people.  Once, he told a class of "a wonderful spiritual woman" in a congregation he served in Oklahoma.  She never once took communion, and he thinks that she probably went to her grave not having taken it.  Why?  Because she didn't feel worthy -- in part, because she had been left by her husband.  Fred grieved over how difficult it was for this woman in his church to know and  experience grace. In a more serious moment, Fred said it this way:  "Don't let yourself get to a place in ministry where grace and mercy sit as an apostrophe somewhere". Perhaps all that I learned from Dr Norris can be summarized by a story he told when I first had ...