I think most in the comments have given some real valid points.

It is sad that Scripture has been mistaken by so many to convey that God’s plan is not logical, reasonable or understandable and so reject anything logical, reasonable and understandable to be of the flesh and not of the spirit.

Absolutely!

Evil has a purpose, and evil is not powerful enough that He cannot save us from it.

If God is all powerful and will not save everyone, then He is not all loving.

If God is all loving and will not save everyone, then He is not all powerful.

We know that He is both all loving and all powerful.

From what I can see, you have only mentioned two possibilities concerning why God would delay concerning evil.

1) God delays because evil has no ultimate purpose.

2) God delays because evil is so great He waits as long as He can to save us from it.

I disagree with point 2 empathetically, so much so, it really disgusts my rational mind far more than my emotion of seeing some of my love ones consigned to hell.

If God is ALL POWERFUL and ALL KNOWING, then there is no EVIL which is so powerful that God cannot save us from it.

I also disagree to Point 1, very strongly as well. I believe evil has a purpose, otherwise God would not have allowed it, or created it.

If God is ALL POWERFUL and ALL KNOWING, and EVIL exists, then evil has a purpose.

So let us look at the two propositional conclusions:

A) If God is ALL POWERFUL and ALL KNOWING, then there is no EVIL which is so powerful that God cannot save us from it.

B) If God is ALL POWERFUL and ALL KNOWING, and EVIL exists, then evil has a purpose.

Therefore, we conclude with these two propositional conclusions:

God is ALL POWERFUL and ALL KNOWING.

EVIL exists, and has a purpose.

EVIL is not powerful enough that God cannot save us from it.

The problem of evil and it’s purpose is the ability to make choices and learn from those choices: Freedom of Will.

Freedom of Will, is not self determination concerning our salvation, as Augustine and many in Arminianism want us to believe. Freedom of will has nothing to do with our salvation, it has to do with our growing and maturing process.

We were created without the knowledge of the truth, when we were created, we were created ignorant.

We as children, knew neither good or evil and so must experience both in order to understand what is true.

God is all knowing and all powerful, able to discipline us accordingly and bring all creation into righteousness.

The purpose of the knowledge of good and evil, which brings death, is so that we can be made aware of the knowledge of the truth, which is Life.

Death, in the end is swallowed up by Life.

Isaiah 25:8 NIV
He will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken.

Craig

Among Universalists, there are several schools of thought. One factor for consideration is the idea that scripture speaks separately of salvation (or justification to keep the point clear) and sanctification.

Philosophically speaking, it is my understanding that the point of remaining here is to give all the opportunity to become sanctified. I believe that this process is the very reason that these events were put in motion; to give mankind a chance to face evil and overcome it (with the assistance of the Holy Spirit). The amount of time and incarnations that this will require is irrelevant.

I believe that the enemy has effectively stolen a great deal of our potency by subtly introducing twists on doctrine that sterilize the gospel and painting a false picture of our loving Father. Just like a lens on a camera, any filter we place at the head of our interpretive mechanism funnels the gospel through that filter. If we read the texts through the filter of eternal torment, every scripture will seem to support that idea. The same goes for any idea that we turn into a belief (including Universal restoration).

I don’t believe these things because of their scriptural support so much as I believe it is in line with what I know of the nature of my Father. He is love, and will do whatever it takes to bring all of His children back to Him.

You’re hitting on a larger point, though, that Keith also stresses: that universalism need not mean the denial of any form of punishment for “the godless,” only the denial of indefinite punishment. But God does not relish even that, so he waits.

In other words, perhaps God delays because he not only wants to save individuals but also wants to save his creation (through bringing people to repentance) — but eventually redemption will require a destructive act.

Thanks for the response and for the recommended readings. I might agree that the problem of “divine evil” is a particularly pressing one for Christians. So in dealing with that problem, universalism is of great help. But the remaining problem of horrendous natural and human evils remains pressing in some form. As you say, though, this is a large topic. I’ll look forward to reading your work on the subject.

Incidentally, the Flood myth might be a useful story for the universalist. To any anti-universalist who thinks that God’s destruction of the earth must represent the “final chance” for humanity, the universalist could offer the Flood as a counterexample.

Nice idea. For me, the story of the Fall plays something of the same role. We get what can look like a warning of final destruction –”for in the day that you eat of it you shall die”–, but God finds a way around the problem.

On your main point, I agree that the problem of evil looms large here. It’s a very large topic, of course. (Incidentally, I plan to be soon co-writing, with Derk Pereboom, a book on the PoE. Right now, I just have a draft of the first chapter — which doesn’t go into enough detail to be of much help here. But the interested can find it on-line at my page of on-line papers: http://pantheon.yale.edu/~kd47/OLP.htm )

In the end, to my thinking, universalism helps with the problem of evil. On this, there should be a very relevant and interesting paper coming out by the great recent (but, alas, he died a few years ago) philosopher, David Lewis, a self-described “contented atheist.” (The work on the paper is being completed by Phil Kitcher, working from Lewis’s notes.) The paper is called “Divine Evil,” and I believe it should be coming out in a collection of papers edited by Louise Antony, called *Philosophers Without God*. Lewis argues, quite persuasively to my thinking, that the most pressing form of the problem of evil, at least for most orthodox forms of Christianity, is not the evil that God allows to occur, but the evil that, at least on many versions of Christianity, God himself perpetrates in sending people to eternal torment.

Anyway, nice post. Take care. –KDR