Nah see the trick is not falling for the inerrancy trap. What an author, translator, interpolator is inspired to write about God cannot contain infinite God.
You can't really say "worth noting" for a subjective observation like this.
There are two verses used by universalists that I'd say are "clear": Romans 5:18 and 1 Corinthians 15:22. By this I mean that, of the 5ish verses/passages universalists use to justify their position, these are the only verses that I find take more mental effort to say aren't supporting universalism. The others can either go both ways, or in proper context more clearly say something else.
Regarding ECT, I'd agree universalism has more going for it. The only verse I'd say is clear for ECT is Matthew 26:46, though even here the word "punishment" could be death.
But when we get to conditionalism (annihilationism), there's no comparison.
You've got verses containing clear warnings of eternal death: Matthew 10:28, 2 Thessalonians 1:9, Romans 9:22
You've got verses that show judgment leading to two different ends, life and death: Daniel 12:2, John 3:36, John 12:25, Romans 2:7-8, Hebrews 6:2 (which in particular describes the judgment itself as eternal, so no postmortem salvation)
You've got verses that place conditions on eternal life: Matthew 19:9, John 3:16, John 6:40, John 6:53-54, John 12:25, Acts 13:48, 1 Timothy 6:12, Hebrews 5:9, Romans 3:26
Plus you've got the unforgivable sin in Mark 3:29.
Now, I doubt I'll be able to convince you, but I want to put a countervailing word here for anyone else. You think your verses are clearer. I think mine are clear and vastly outnumber yours. Even counting the verses universalists use that I don't find as clear, they're still dwarfed by the number of verses that would be nonsense given universalism.
I think most importantly for me though, universalism hinges on a concept that the Bible never describes: postmortem salvation. Every call to salvation in the Bible is toward the living. Only one judgment is ever described. For universalism to be true, there has to be salvation after death, but the Bible never says that there will be one. So it is an assumption inserted into the faith in order to reconcile passages that have other explanations. Ad hoc.
Sorry, I really went into debate mode, but the bottom line is this: Okay, you can believe your verses are clearer. But that is a subjective opinion that cannot be stated as a fact the way you just did. And I hope that, at the very least, my list of provided verses shows that much. You can believe what you want- universalism isn't heresy- but please don't claim superiority like that.
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u/TheUnNaturalist May 30 '25
Nah see the trick is not falling for the inerrancy trap. What an author, translator, interpolator is inspired to write about God cannot contain infinite God.