Unitarians and universalists believe that there is only one benevolent god, and no matter what religion you choose, it will get you to that god – all humanity will eventually be saved. To them, religion is a universal human quality that we all have. All roads will lead to this god and no one will suffer eternal punishment.
On the surface, this has a “universal” appeal to the human heart – pun intended! No one wants to believe that they will eventually be punished or that their relatives are experiencing punishment right now. Sounds so good, right? How would you go about correcting this misunderstanding and offering them the truth of Christianity?
So, Whattaya Do?
I would respond this way: All roads do lead to God, but only one leads to Him as Father, the rest lead to Him as judge. Here’s where the words of Jesus are going to help us out of the error of universalism. Jesus says “If you do not believe I AM, you will die in your sins”. Paul would later say “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil”.
That’s bad news because we have all done evil things. Most people know John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…”, however they never get to the end of the chapter to verse 36 that finishes by saying “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
If you could get to heaven by being good, or doing some other thing, then Jesus wouldn’t be necessary. God wouldn’t have had to sacrifice His Only Son for sins. In fact, based on that, thinking that you could get to heaven without Jesus would be arrogant, conceited, and wrong!
The God of scripture is holy and must punish sin or else He is not God. If you repent (turn from thinking that your sin isn’t that bad and that everyone will end up in heaven) and believe (trust in and rely on) in Jesus, you will be saved. Don’t wait another minute.
