A Mere 30-Point Refutation on the Spiritual Salvation of Every Single Person: A Sermon on the Exclusivity of Redemptive Grace and the Russian Orthodox Heresy of Universalism

Dr. MA Petillo

"And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.  And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day" (Jn 6:39-40 KJV).

Shout, for the blessed Jesus reigns;
Through distant lands his triumphs spread;
And sinners, freed from endless pains,
Own him their Saviour and their Head.
He calls his chosen from afar,
They all at Zion's gates arrive;
Those who were dead in sin before
By sovereign grace are made alive.
Gentiles and Jews his laws obey;
Nations remote their off'rings bring,
And unconstrained their homage pay
To their exalted God and King.
O may his holy church increase,
His Word and Spirit still prevail,
While angels celebrate his praise,
And saints his growing glories hail.
Loud hallelujahs to the Lamb,
From all below, and all above!
In lofty songs exalt his Name,
In songs as lasting as his love.  (TH, 298).

"No evangelical, I think, need hesitate to admit that in his heart of hearts he would like universalism to be true. Who can take pleasure in the thought of people being eternally lost? If you want to see folk damned, there is something wrong with you! Universalism is thus a comfortable doctrine in a way that alternatives are not. But wishful thinking, based on a craving for comfort and a reluctance to believe that some of God’s truth might be tragic, is no sure index of reality."   (J.I. Packer, Cited in: Evangelical Affirmations by Kenneth Kantzer and Carl F.H. Henry, Zondervan, 1990, p. 107-108, www.zondervan.com).

1.  John 6:39-40 refers to those who are of the elect alone that God has brought to Himself apart from the non-elect.  It should be noted in our small study that Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (a Russian Orthodox philosopher) embraced the heretical view of universalism, Orthodoxy as the true deposit of the Christian faith, and the deification of man and the cosmos.  Universalism is the teaching of the Russian Orthodox church and it is our focus this evening.

2.  First, the Russian Orthodox teaching of universalism is denied in the infallible Scriptures by the exclusivity of belief in Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12).  

3.  Second, Orthodoxy is not the true vehicle of the Christian faith because it denies essential Christian truth in how someone is right with God (namely, the very sole grounds of justification by faith alone in the imputed unified righteousness of Christ alone (Phil 3:9; Eph 2:8-9).  

4.  Third, Orthodoxy adds deification in blind ignorance of the radically fallen and corrupt nature of man in support of Satan's design to exalt men to godhood (which is his own design for himself in radical self-deception and self-worship) through abominable approbation of the interests of men like St. Peter's error against Christ in the NT in the denial of submission of Jesus to His Cross at the appointed hour (Gen 3ff; Rom 3ff; Mt 16:23; Mk 8:33).

5.   If Clement of Alexandria believed in universalism, it was surely an anti-scriptural, subjective absurdity that has no Scriptural support.  Those of the damned love to pretend that God is not in complete control in whom He has mercy and He whom He damns and that He loves every single person in how someone is right with God because they have no spiritual life in them.

  

6.  Does a teaching being ancient give it automatic support?  The Bible speaks of the real existence of Satan.  Surely he is ancient but he is not of the truth.  Imagine all false beliefs in Satan at once regarding all cultic and occcultic religions; there is a sense where all the false teachings begin with him (like universalism to escape just justice and godhood).  Some agnostics and atheists say that God contradicts Himself because all religion must be of God.  That is, they reject biblical Christianity on this basis.  If they will acknowledge that there is a "force" for good like a good God, how much more a lesser equal force for evil (such as Satan)?   God is not the author of the false teaching of sin as the ultimate cause, but Satan as a second cause is the father of all false religion (that is lies).  A belief that is ancient does not immediately mean it is of God and His written Word alone.  I am not saying that a consensus among expository preachers is unworthy of hermeneutical interest, but that it is ultimately what the written Word means that matters.  Every church fathers must be tested in light of God's written Word alone.  It is a hermeneutical error to place a father over Scripture.  Rather it ought to be Scripture over the fathers.  What makes a belief true is not its oldness but the clear support in the testimony of the divine Word.  If the belief is not of the divine Word alone, it has no spiritual or religious basis for embracing it as a credible belief.  Everything we need to know about God is in the fullness of the written Word alone.  For example, the Bible teaches that God does not save every single person but only those who are chosen according to God's absolute freedom in whom He shows mercy (Rom 9:11, 16).

7.  God's freedom is greater than the bondage of the will of man (see Gen 20:6) because God does whatever He pleases (Ps 115:3; 135:6).  That is, in this context God freely chooses according to His own counsel (Eph 1:11) to damn Judas Iscariot (Jn 17:12) and to save Simon Peter (Lk 22:32) through the elect-driven intention of the Cross (Jn 19:30) through the spiritual application (Tit 3:5) of the unified merits of Christ alone (Phil 3:9) for His people alone (Mt 1:21).

8.  The Triune Lord does not love the unconverted wicked in a redemptive sense touching His Cross-grounded divine grace.  Rather He hates the ways of the wicked (Zech 8:17).  Why would it change if the wicked died?  There is no justification by death.  If a wicked person is left unconverted by God's choice (Jn 3:36; Jn 1:13), God will hate them even in eternal torment in hell (Ps 11:5; Mt 25:41).

9.   The death of the wicked is because of complete sin (Rom 5:12).

10.  The death of the wicked is cosmic punishment (Ex 23:25-29; Is 65:11-12).

11.  If every one goes to heaven, why does God tell the wicked to turn from his evil way (Ex 3:11)?

12.  The death of the wicked is without hope (1 Thess 4:13; Rev. 20:10, 14, 15).

13.  There is an eternal death that ends in everlasting punishment (Mt 25:46).

14.   There is a bodily resurrection of the damned (Jn 5:29).

15.  The eternal death of the damned is God's wrath (1 Thess 1:10).

16.  The eternal death of the wicked is destruction (2 Thess 1:9; 2 Pet 2:12).

17.  The eternal death of the wicked is the second death (Rev. 20:14).

18.  Death is a spiritual consequence of man's fall (Gen 3:17-19).

19.  Eternal death is the supernatural punishment of the wicked (Mt 25:41, 46).

20.  The eternal death of the wicked is separation from God in His mercy, but the presence of God's consuming wrath (2 Thess 1:9).

21.  Jesus Christ saves the saints from the second death (Jn 3:16).  The second death does not come upon those that have the righteousness of Christ alone, but those who do not have His matchless robes of white perish in eternal hell.

22.  All the saints escape the second death (1 Cor 15:54-58; Rev 2:11).

23.  The Day of the Lord is punishment of those who obey not the gospel (Is. 13:6-13; Amos 5:18-20).

24.  The Day of the Lord is the Day of Wrath (Is. 2:6-22).  How could there be a Day of Wrath if everyone is pardoned by God?

25.  Satan is eternally judged and sentenced to eternal hell (Mt 25:41).   How can Satan be pardoned if He is eternally assigned to hell by King Jesus?

26.  Theology is the study of God in His revealed written Word, but theology is not what someone would like it to be.  Rather it is the meaning of the written Scriptures alone that shall prevail not man's imaginations, interests, speculations, theological negation and subjective reasoning.  There is a "evangelical universalism" that is contrary to the Bible.  The Cross in Reformed theology never failed to save anyone for who it is intended, but "evangelical universalism" teaches the failure of the Cross because it is meant for even the non-elect.  There is also a "modified universalism" in Romanism that taught concerning the salvation of people without exclusive belief in Christ and Christ redeemed all men but it is a mystery why someone like Judas went to hell.  It is alleged that every Romanists think Judas went to hell, but such is not the case.  That is, there is disagreement among Catholic theologians.  The Reformed view honors Christ above all of these views, because it shares the simplicity of the matter of the intention of the Cross in God's FREE choice that is only for God's chosen people because God has saved them where they could not save themselves.  

28.   A damned teacher is by the Bible's example of Balaam (Rev. 2:14).

29.  A damned teacher is early Christian history is Bar-Jesus (Acts 13:6).  We are not saved by the prayer of God's people.  Fear and tremble, because we are only saved by the person and work of our Savior and Creator Jesus Christ in whom the Triune Godhead chooses to bestow spiritual victory over Satan for the forgiveness of sin in set apart glorification of Himself.

30.  A biblical example of the damned in religious leadership are false apostles (2 Cor 12:11).

When this passing world is done,
When has sunk yon glaring sun,
When we stand with Christ in glory,
Looking o'er life's finished story,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know,
Not till then, how much I owe.
When I hear the wicked call
On the rocks and hills to fall,
When I see them start and shrink
On the fiery deluge brink,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know,
Not till then, how much I owe.
When I stand before the throne,
Dressed in beauty not my own,
When I see thee as thou art,
Love thee with unsinning heart,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know,
Not till then, how much I owe.
When the praise of heav'n I hear,
Loud as thunders to the ear,
Loud as many waters' noise,
Sweet as harp's melodious voice,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know,
Not till then, how much I owe.
Chosen not for good in me,
Wakened up from wrath to flee,
Hidden in the Saviour's side,
By the Spirit sanctified,
Teach me, Lord, on earth to show,
By my love, how much I owe.  (TH, 600).