Universalism

I've reprinted a comment made by author and Episcopal pastor Robert Farrar Capon. I noticed that Rob Bell suggests to his readers that they explore a book by Capon (The Mystery of Christ) at the end of his Love Wins. Funny this is, as I was reading Bell's book (my first time reading Bell), I actually thought: "This guy must have read Robert Capon at some time." My sense is that Bell and Capon are basically on the same page. (Capon is quite imaginative, poetic and engaging- like Bell). Here's what Capon writes on the subject Bell explores in Love Wins:

“I am and I am not a universalist. I am one if you are talking about what God in Christ has done to save the world. The Lamb of God has not taken away the sins of some — of only the good, or the cooperative, or the select few who can manage to get their act together and die as perfect peaches. He has taken away the sins of the world — of every last being in it — and he has dropped them down the black hole of Jesus’ death. On the cross, he has shut up forever on the subject of guilt: “There is therefore now no condemnation. . . .” All human beings, at all times and places, are home free whether they know it or not, feel it or not, believe it or not.

“But I am not a universalist if you are talking about what people may do about accepting that happy-go-lucky gift of God’s grace. I take with utter seriousness everything that Jesus had to say about hell, including the eternal torment that such a foolish non-acceptance of his already-given acceptance must entail. All theologians who hold Scripture to be the Word of God must inevitably include in their work a tractate on hell. But I will not — because Jesus did not — locate hell outside the realm of grace. Grace is forever sovereign, even in Jesus’ parables of judgment. No one is ever kicked out at the end of those parables who wasn’t included in at the beginning.”

I find this statement very thought-provoking: "But I will not — because Jesus did not — locate hell outside the realm of grace."