Love's Final Victory / Ultimate Universal Salvation on the Basis of Scripture and Reason

by Horatio

I TOOK THE LARGER VIEW.

We are not surprised, therefore, that we have in Scripture such explicit statements as to the universality of the Atonement. I was brought up in that church which is identified with the theory of a limited Atonement. At an early age, however, I took the larger view of the Atonement, and I hold that view with increasing conviction now. In fact I do not see how the idea of a limited Atonement ever came to command the assent of intelligent men, except that it was found to be necessary as a part of a preconceived system of theology.

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Surely it was a great pity that men thought it necessary in bygone years to make their systems of theology so complete. Of course they are complete in the divine mind. But they cannot be so in ours. We see but a short way into the whole scheme of things. And when men thought that God's plan of grace is restricted to the present life, it is not so surprising that they favored the idea of a limited Atonement. They believed that air of God's purposes of salvation are realized in this life. But when we realize that God's saving plans extend into the next life, it is not hard to believe in the Atonement being universal. Thus we can take the plain statements of Scripture in their obvious sense, without twisting them into unison with some preconceived theory.

In my view we ought to accept the plain statements of the Word of God.
If they seem to involve impossibilities, let us wait for further light.
To me it seems that universal Atonement involves universal Restoration:
and that idea solves the whole difficulty.

A noted Professor of Theology once sought to entrap me on that very point. I took a firm stand on the universal theory of the Atonement, He wanted to know what that would lead to; evidently hoping to commit me to Universalism. I said that if it was revealed we ought to accept it, no matter what it led to. At that time I had not accepted the idea of Restoration, but I strongly believed in the universality of the Atonement. Now the idea of Restoration rounds out and completes that view.