Wow! I exclaimed.

Ouida heard me from the next room and asked, What? I read to her the line I was reading: God stands at the door and knocks, and if we don’t answer, he looks for an open window.

Again I said, Wow! That’s grace! I have often referenced that promise in Revelation 3:20. Jesus is standing at the door, knocking. "If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him," he promises. I interpreted this as conditional grace -- Jesus will come in if we open the door. We have to respond. Borrowing from Alexander Campbell. I have often made the point that yes, the prevalence of grace is unconditional – Jesus knocks at the door of everyone’s heart unconditionally. But for one to enjoy the benefits of that grace he must respond, he must open the door.

While that still sounds right to me, that line I read to Ouida made me wonder if I am seeing the full measure of God’s grace. Does God turn away if one doesn’t open the door – or does he look for an open window? Or is it in between? He doesn’t turn away, but is always persistent. He keeps on knocking, he is always there. But we have to open the door, later if not sooner. Those who continually, knowingly, willfully, and finally refuse to open the door are those who reject God. These are the lost. Everyone else will be saved because of what Christ did on the cross.

That has long been my position – Everyone will be saved, except those the Bible declares to be lost, and these are the ones who defiantly reject God’s grace, those who refuse to open the door. I have often put it this way, God rejects only those who reject him.

But no, the book I was reading says that limits God’s grace. God rejects no one, not even those who reject him. If one refuses to open the door, God comes in through an open window and saves anyway. He is the Hound of Heaven who is relentless in his pursuit. The book’s thesis is that everyone will be saved. It is known in the history of doctrine as universalism. It has been believed by many devoted scholars since the beginning of Christianity – from Origen to William Barkley. They insist that the Scriptures teach that eventually – many may have to first face judgment and punishment – but eventually every soul will be saved. If grace is true, it is for everyone!

That is the book’s title, If Grace Is True: Why God Will Save Every Person (Harper, 2003). It is authored by two Quaker ministers who write the book in the first person – "I" rather than "We" all the way through, as if their experiences were one. I have not seen two authors do that before. They are gifted writers – and sincere, humble seekers after truth. And the book is surprisingly resourceful in biblical references. They – or he! – admits that his position is heresy as judged by orthodox Christian faith. They say over and over throughout the book, I believe that every person will be saved.

They were once conservative evangelicals, and believed that the "lost" – the vast majority of the human race – would suffer endless punishment in a devil’s hell. They believed the Bible taught that. Their journey toward a more liberal position began while preparing for Sally’s funeral. Sally was the typical "loser" in life who never seemed to have a chance. Her father deserted her when she was three. Her several step-fathers did not want her around. She was passed along to a cousin and then grandparents, and back again. She never had a friend. She married young and poorly, only to be abandoned by her husband, leaving her with three young children.

With no diploma, Sally’s dreams faded as she struggled to survive. Bad jobs led to worse ones, a poor husband was replaced by abusive boyfriends. All her life she had been neglected, and now she neglected herself. She at last turned to drugs and alcohol. Like falling dominoes, her life began to crumble away. The last dominoe to fall was the morning she slept in from a hangover only to learn when she awoke that her little daughter had drowned in a neighbor’s swimming pool. As she stood at her daughter’s casket she said, "There’s no reason to live, no reason at all."

With the help of one of these Quaker ministers, Sally made something of a comeback. She turned from threats of suicide and from crippling self-pity. She got and held a decent job, and bought a car all her own. She planted flowers, even a tree. She made friends. She made peace with her family. Life wasn’t perfect, but she turned from despair. Then at work one day she fell dead. The doctor said it was a stroke.

It was after her death that her son told the minister that his mother had confided in him, "I think I’ll start looking for a church." She died searching.

The minister was terribly grieved and disturbed by all this. What was he to say at her funeral, and what was he himself to believe? According to his orthodox faith Sally was lost. Was he to believe that a loving and merciful God, who is eager to forgive, would consign poor Sally to endless torment? Sally’s death led the minister to see a fuller measure of God’s grace. He came to trust not only what the Bible says about grace, but to trust his own experiences with God. He at last concluded that not only would God’s grace embrace Sally, but every person who has ever lived. His preaching now became, to the consternation of his associates, I believe that God will save every person.

The Scriptures that influenced his/their thinking are informing, some of them unexpected, such as Isaiah 65:1: "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name I said, ‘Here am I, Here am I.’"

God allowed himself to be found by those who were not even seeking him! This led the authors to conclude that what God did for Israel, he will do for everyone, and this is where they say, God knocks at the door, and if we do not answer, he looks for an open window. And that is when I cried out Wow!

Then there is Isaiah 25:8: "The Sovereign Lord will wipe away tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth."

On and on they go, drawing universalistic passages from both Testaments.

"I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion" (Exodus 33:19).

"All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, all the families of the nations will bow down before him" (Psalm 22:27).

"The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. All you have made will praise you, O Lord" (Psalm 145:8-10).

"Before me every knee shall bow: by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, ‘In the Lord alone are righteousness and strength’" (Isaiah 45:24).

"Then will I purify the lips of the peoples, that all of them may call upon the Lord and serve him shoulder to shoulder" (Zephania 3:9).

"Your Father in heaven is not willing for any of these little ones should be lost" (Matthew 18:14).

"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and goes after the lost sheep until he finds it?" (Luke 15:4)

"All mankind shall see the salvation of the Lord" (Luke 3:6).

"God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on all men" (Romans 11:32).

"For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22).

"This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance, and for this we labor and strive, that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe" (2 Timothy 4:9-10).

"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared unto all men" (Titus 2:11).

Allowing the Scriptures to speak for themselves, it is evident that God has saved all human kind through Christ. The universalists have biblical grounds for claiming that all will be saved. But they have a monumental problem in that the Bible also teaches that some will be lost, such as "These shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (Matthew 25:46), and "These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power" (2 Thessalonians 1:9). There are several places in Scripture that names precisely those who will be lost, with such language as "Those who practice such things shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven," such as Galatians 5:19-21, 1 Timothy 1:9-10, Revelation 22:15.

It is not that these Scriptures contradict each other, but that they compliment each other. The universalist passages show definitely that God’s grace saves everyone. The other passages show that some reject that grace by refusing to repent, or they reject such light as God’s grace brings them, in whatever form it comes.

So, we return to the proposition stated earlier, which harmonizes the passages – Every one will be saved, except those the Bible says will be lost. Neal Punt, in his ground-breaking books, calls this biblical universalism It isn’t that everyone is lost except those the Bible says are saved --that is bad news – but everyone is saved except those the Bible says are lost – that is good news. The difference is the universalist passages quoted above. They teach a universal salvation, and so we accept that everyone is saved – except those that other Scriptures name as lost.

The Quaker authors and other universalists such as William Barclay – whom I knew personally and have greatly admired as a biblical scholar – grant that some, perhaps the vast majority, reject God’s grace and choose sin and disobedience. And, yes, they must face judgment and punishment (hell). But if grace is true God invades hell itself so as to save every soul. That is why Christ preached to the spirits in prison (1 Peter 3:18-19). God is not willing that any should perish, and his will must eventually be realized.

The universalists insist that the character of God is such --merciful, full of compassion, eager to forgive – that it just can’t be that eternity will find the vast majority of human kind lost and separated from God. God created each person for himself, and he will claim that person for eternity. Otherwise God’s will is thwarted by evil forces, and that can’t be. As a loving Father he may chastise and punish his children, but not endlessly, and he will in the end save everyone, no exceptions. In the end God wins. That is why Christ died on the cross.

As William Barclay put it: "The only possible final triumph is a universe loved by and in love with God."

I will let the case rest with you. But I find the phrase If grace is true overwhelming and humbling. We sing the old hymn "Grace, grace, God’s grace, grace that is greater than all my sins," but do we comprehend its vastness? And does God – the Hound of Heaven -- really come through an open window when we refuse to open the door? Wow!

The August 16 issue of Newsweek had a cover story on "Billy Graham In Twilight," with a picture of the aging evangelist on the front cover. He is described as more moderate and humble in his advanced years. He concedes that sincere Christians may disagree in their interpretation of Scripture, and even yields some ground on the fundamentalist dogma of biblical inerrancy. He allows that Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus might be saved – it is a matter of the heart, and only God knows. If he had his life to live over, he would study more, including the Bible; he would get more formal education. He regrets that he allowed himself to be "used" for political purposes by several presidents. He and his wife Ruth talk about what heaven might be like. They plan to be there. He has no fear of death, but dreads the ordeal of dying. The writeup says that he has preached to more people than anyone else in the history of Christianity. He turns 88 in October. He is six weeks older than I.

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