Matthew 7: 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
That verse is terrifying. To be declared by an omniscient and all-powerful God to never have been known by that God. Part of me wonders how anyone could exist apart from the knowledge of God. In that sense I understand universalism.
Our purpose is eternal; we were not meant to be like the beasts that each reveal only one or two qualities of God's character. We each have the purpose to hold within ourselves the true nature of God in our various God-given capacities, granted by His spirit, which is a privilege no other creation can share by free will. If someone identifies with sin to the point of death which is inevitable to do unless Christ redeems us, and if that redemption is neglected, then it would seem God's last resort would be to wash that person away completely, for they not only practice but have become the very thing that is detestable to God. For there was no point of identification between God and that individual who refused Him, for to refuse Christ is to refuse God and the character that we need to be identified with for eternal life.
For only God's qualities will last forever. One quality he has taken upon himself was suffering; a quality resulting from sinful man. God suffered for us when he sent Christ to die for us. This quality glorifies himself and frees those who accept God's son Jesus. Those who don't accept God's qualifications for our redemption may have to endure this remaining quality of suffering forever in order to maintain the existence of their own souls. Suffering is the only quality that is positive for those who do good, and negative for those who do evil, and the only such quality of God that will continue to exist in sinful man, but not those in God's kingdom. Suffering which is meant to draw us to God will separate those who refuse Him for as long as suffering is declared a part of God's qualities, which thankfully for those who identify with Christ's sufferings and victory over death, will be forever. For only by eternal redemptive suffering will sinful man try to attain their own salvation, but to actually attain would to be God, which we are never meant to be and will never be.
If God saved everyone because everyone who rejects God never was, universalism could then make sense.
But for God to erase someone completely from ever existing would almost seem to be calling God a liar, and one who makes error; that the existence of even one created thing was a mistake... which is why hell seems more reliable. Unbelievers could pray that being forgotten by God and removed from Him as far as the east is from the west meant to vanish from history and from ever existing within time. I think that is what it will be like when the new heavens and new earth are created. There won't even be a stain of disobedience or displeasure from the past. God is so loving and true that he will honor whatever decision we make.
The only other way I would understand universalism is the romantic hope that everyone whom God ever gave free will to in all creation will one day come to a place of loving acceptance of God and the savior Jesus Christ. In this sense I agree and hope so as well with all my heart.
However, our lives are governed by time and science, which are governed by God. Those who reject God now and believe they have an eternity to make their choice for Him, need to consider that death itself has been marked for destruction on God's calendar, and to be identified with sin is to be identified with death which is to be marked for destruction in history as is decreed by God.
Whether someone believes in hell or not, I hope everyone can agree that even temporary separation from God is a taste of the worst possible end that no one should ever want to draw close to.
