Damned Nonsense! An Introduction

Jesus suggested (okay, commanded) that it would be better to remove the log of wood from one's own eye before attempting to pinch out the speck of sawdust in the eye of another. This is good teaching, especially for Christians regarding the doctrine of salvation. For most of my life I have endured the fingers of many a Christian poking 'round my eye in order to pinch out the specks of dust in my theology of salvation... all the while wondering when their own lumber yard would receive any attention. That time has come. It is time to devote some attention to the spectrum of views on Christian salvation - which, I assure you, are all a bit speckled with sawdust. 

To put matters simply, all the views of Christian salvation are 'flawed'. There is no such thing as "the clear teaching of Scripture" on the matter. Scripture is ambiguous and conflicting. This is why we must employ our intellect, our tradition, and our experience of the Holy Spirit, as well as the Bible (these 4 sources of revelation are often know as the "Quadrilateral"). In a day and age where multitudes of people are dissatisfied with the traditional views of Christian salvation, it behooves us to reflect, reread, and perhaps reform (ecclesia semper reformanda). 

Personally, I am becoming more and more 'convinced' by the theology of Universalism (I prefer the term 'Full Salvation'). The posts in this series are drawn and adapted from articles that aim to expound the viability of Full Salvation: the notion that all of creation will be saved by God through Jesus the Christ and will live eternally with God. Nevertheless, this view is not without its own baggage, and I aim to present some of that as well.

Some of the topics ahead include:

• Problems with Calvinism & Arminianism
• Annihilationism
• C.S. Lewis and The Great Divorce
• Original Sin
• The History of Hell
• Jesus and Hell
• Human Freedom
• Christian Mission
• Eastern Orthodox View of Salvation
• Christian Universalists

This little blog series derives its name from Ravi Holy's dissertation entitled "Damned Nonsense: An Argument for Universalism Consisting of a Critique of All the Alternatives to It" and will adapt much of that work. 

Please enjoy the posts. Please respond. Please share and tweet. Please wrestle with the arguments. And please be respectful.

- JMW

Tomorrow's post: "Talbott's Triad"