A common objection to universalism (the view that all people will eventually be reconciled to God) is that it violates our free will — that in order for God to save everyone, he would have to force some to love him. Those who argue from that point of view disavow universalism in part because they believe that some people will freely choose to reject — and will always choose to reject — God’s saving love and grace.
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Pope Francis has garnered quite a bit of attention for his comments last Wednesday regarding atheists and his claim that everyone is redeemed by the blood of Christ. He said, in part:
The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! “Father, the atheists?” Even the atheists. Everyone! And this Blood makes us children of God of the first class! We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all!
One of the main objections to Calvinism is that it casts God as a cruel monster who creates people in order to arbitrarily condemn many of them to hell. While I think that understanding is a distortion of Calvinist theology, it nevertheless contains a grain of truth and poses a seeming problem to the omnibenevolence of God.
But is Calvinism necessarily incompatible with an infinitely good God? Not if universalism is true! (more…)