Let us begin with two definitions of universalism.
Merriam Webster provides a grammatical definition, “a theological doctrine that all human beings will eventually be saved.”
A website dedicated to the concept, defines it thusly:
Let us begin with two definitions of universalism.
Merriam Webster provides a grammatical definition, “a theological doctrine that all human beings will eventually be saved.”
A website dedicated to the concept, defines it thusly:
Universalism is a religion and theology that generally holds all persons and creatures are related to God or the divine and will be reconciled to God. A church that calls itself Universalist may emphasize the universal principles of most religions and accept other religions in an inclusive manner, believing in a universal reconciliation between humanity and the divine.
Other religions may have Universalist theology as one of their tenets and principles, including [I will here add the term “aberrant”] Christianity, Hinduism, and some of the New Age religions. Universalist beliefs exist within many faiths, and many Universalists practice in a variety of traditions, drawing upon the same universal principles.
In reality, Universalism is a nonentity, no one holds to it, no one ever has and it is not found in any traditions or theology whatsoever.
Now, I want to take a step back from this purposefully pointed statement. Perhaps someone or other believes “do what thou wilt” and all will be saved (whatever that may end up meaning). Of course, if you punch the person who said, “do what thou wilt” in the nose you will quickly find out that they have not thought their philosophy to its logical conclusion—what a pain in the…nose! The point is to example an extreme form of universalism.
For example, some may believe that they can be saved by flying airplane into buildings but even then; they actually believe that their salvation came due to pleasing their (false) god.
The fact that it is unlikely that any sane person would actually believe that one can be saved by doing that which they will (witness Aleister Crowley). This, then, is evidence that not one is a Universalist in the sense that all are saved—regardless. And so we have our first restriction on true Universalism as this form is rejected.
All so called Universalist traditions (and in the original Greek “all” means “all”—sorry, a little hermeneutics joke…very little) actually end up demanding some or another exclusive form of salvation based on some or another dogma.
Now, back to the persons that fly airplanes into buildings; what a Universalist would, likely, claim that, that particular act will not gain them heaven (whatever that is as per Universalism) but that they will somehow, somewhere, in some way work off or work it out in another lifetime, in another realm, etc.
Call it that person’s vibratory frequency not matching God’s and thus the person will have to work on attaining a higher attunement or, however one may want to term it—I am driving at a basic concept.
I will now seek to justify my assertion that Universalists demand exclusive salvation based on dogma.
Here is an example from an actual dialogue I had with a Unitarian Universalist wherein I noted that he previously referenced “spiritual transformation” as a means to “attain liberation” since “Truth that practically sets free or liberates spiritually is what we should be looking for” and such pursuits include “justice and fairness.”
More to the point, “spiritual transformation/connection/awareness/liberation/salvation…follows certain moral, psychological, and practical pursuits.”
Also, “Certain paths do lead to suffering, other paths lead to liberation. Again, eventually all are saved; what this means is that life is a journey of lessons; once we learn what we need to learn we evolve, grow, expand, develop and move on to the next stage.”
Now, this is not much to go by as far as the point to which I am driving and yet, it allowed me to make a basic point.
Let us say that generically, according to Universalism; there is something I will term X which we must attain for salvation. Thus, X is not attained immediately after flying an airplane into a building. Rather, such a person will have to find other ways, means, paths, lifetimes to attain X.
Universalism demands acceptance of its dogma, the one and only true dogma in that case, for salvation but hides behind merely offering people more time to accept it. It may be in the next lifetime, or in a hundred lifetimes, or a billion lifetimes. A person may suffer through miserable lifetime after miserable lifetime after miserable lifetime after miserable lifetime but will not be saved unless and until they accept that which result in spiritual evolution which transforms them, attunes them, cleanses them or, however one may want to term it.
In short: until they reach the X.
On this view; there are many paths (one for each?) some of which are the long way, some shorter, but they all lead to the very same X which must be accepted, reached, embraces, put into practice, in order to be saved.
This is why Universalism is anything but universal; it just as exclusivist as Qur’an thump’n extremist Muslims and Bible thump’n fundamentalist Christians. It is just that the exclusivity of Universalism is hidden behind a veil of tolerance and which hides the fact of the requirement to eventually embrace X.
Thus, I’m not a Universalist and no one else is either.
For further reading, see Universalism.
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