Below is a comment (edited) I made in a discussion about whether or not universalism can be considered “Christian” and whether or not it relies on the exclusivity of Christ.     I’m posting it here because I would like to hear other responses from a broader audience.     What do you think?

If you think about it, Christian Universalism (which isn’t something I made up or something new, but has been a report within the Church from the very beginning), is far more Christian and far more reliant on the exclusivity of Christ alone than what you and others here have intimated.
I’ll explain why…

When we talk about how your theology of last things actually plays out, one of the ways you avoid making God look like a monster who sends billions of people to hell for mere ignorance (or even those who outright reject Christ in this life) is to quote C.S. Lewis and suggest that it isn’t God who sends people to hell but we send ourselves. In this move you have already left the Biblical corpus and suggested something that isn’t in Scripture (so let’s at least be fair and not accuse me of being the only one who has left the “reservation”)  Why? Well, I assume because it is tough to swallow an idea of a God who sends, as just one example of a million available, victims of genocide in primitive countries to a place of eternal separation from God’s love just because they never heard the name “Jesus” in their lifetime  (I grant that this is a good theological move because it does, at least, protect an image of God that is love and one that does not look like Hitler enacting a Final Solution).   

So, in the end, human free will becomes the trump card in your eschatology and is the determining factor for one’s eternity – OVER and ABOVE God’s desire and what I would argue, plan.  The problem with this, though, is we have nothing in Scripture that explicitly says we have “free will.” And certainly nothing that suggests we exercise our free will to choose our eternal destiny.

Christian Universalism, on the other hand, puts all authority and judgment in Christ and Christ alone. The hope we have as it pertains to those who do not know Christ resides in the assurance we as Christians already have experienced – we know the Judge! We know the Judge to be full of love and grace and one who desires that none perish but all have life. We know the Judge to be one who even while being murdered forgave those who killed him (out of ignorance!)  We know the Judge to be the one who taught us to love and pray for even our enemies (and we assume God does the same, for God does not ask us to do what God does not do). We know the Judge to be the one who welcomes sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes and is one who doesn’t stop searching until the last coin or sheep is found.

We read that God has imprisoned ALL in disobedience so that he can have mercy on ALL (Rom. 11:32).    Does “all” just mean “some”?    

In the end, I find it far more Christian to place all my faith and hope in Christ (in whom ALL things exist) rather than put my faith and hope in human free will or in some death-bed confession or in any number of artificial and arbitrary ways we have devised to give ourselves security that we won’t burn in hell for all eternity. If you think about it, we have created another sacrificial system. Just say “I believe in Jesus” and the gods won’t be angry anymore. Just walk down the aisle and say the sinners prayer and you can know that God won’t be ticked off at you on the day of Judgment.   Our “belief” has become just one more fattened calf we offer at the Temple to appease what we perceive to be God whose fundamental posture towards us is wrath and refusal rather than love and acceptance.    Has not Christ reconciled (made peace) ALL things to God?  (1 Cor. 15).  

God is not interested in our sacrifices.    While it may appease us, and while it may give us peace of mind to know we are secure when we confess Jesus as Lord, that is not the magic sentence God is waiting for us to say before he’ll call off the dogs.   The dogs have already been defeated and will one day be gone forever.   Our invitation to claim “Jesus is Lord,” in this life, is a call to be redemptive agents in the world as Christ’s Body, not a formula to avoid an eternity separated from our Maker and our Father.  

To quote Rob Bell, “The gods aren’t angry.  You don’t have to live this way.”