how do you think things would be different (now) if lets say from the 1700s on UR was the dominant accepted view and ET was rarely heard of?
I would like to speculate about this. I suspect that, if universalism were the dominant view in the church, that, within a short time, the church would be smaller—but none the poorer. In this present life, I think, the majority of carnal people will always be looking out for themselves. If they heard the universalist message, most of them would reason, "If I will be saved anyway, someday, I will gladly take my chances and live for myself now, rather than for God." Thus they would demonstrate that they really don't love God—only themselves. However, since the message of eternal torment has been dominant, these people who don't love God any the more for it (after all, who, if they do not love the universalist's God, could possibly find the eternal torment God more lovable?) would have no reason to fool themselves (and us) by pretending to have God in their concerns.
Many of these people have been frightened, by the threat of eternal torment, to make a minimalist, verbal commitment to Christianity, just to hedge their bets. These people can hardly be called "Christians" any more than if they had stayed outside the church under universalist teaching. In my opinion, the church is not supposed to be populated with non-Christians. Their presence confers no benefit to the interests of the church, and is (I believe) a great detriment. It may be reassuring for us, by seeing full pews on Sunday morning, to be deceived into thinking we are among saints, but deception typically leads to disillusionment. I would much rather know what I am dealing with in the crowd with whom I fellowship.
If universalist preaching had prevailed (not that I am saying it should, but just answering the hypothetical question), I suspect that church's loss of the fake Christians, who currently pretend to be lovers of God for the sake of fire insurance, would be partially made-up for by the inclusion of people who do not currently love the God that the church has advertised, but who would love a God who was said to be a lot like Jesus. Thus, there would be fewer fake saints, and probably more real ones in the church. That is my speculation.
You know, I have been saying here and on the air for some time that we should be equally eager to serve God whether there is a hell to avoid or not, and I actually was surprised to find my statements treated here by some as if they were controversial. I guess I have assumed that all real Christians were of the same mind—namely God-centered. The conviction that the appeal of "salvation" is not so much to be saved "from" something as to be saved "for" God has resided in me since the early seventies. I recently realized that my convictions on this point, and the similar convictions of most of the Christians I knew in the seventies, had been partially informed by a famous sermon by Paris Reidhead (a friend of A.W. Tozer's, who preached Tozer's funeral). The semon we had all heard in the seventies was not the Tozer funeral sermon, but another, called "Ten Shekels and a Shirt." This message can still be heard at sermonindex.org, and is still very influential. Reidhead challenged his hearers to do missionary work for God-centered motives, rather than humanistic motives. He told a story that inspired us all thirty-five years ago, and still inspires. I found a transcript of that story from his sermon, and though I assume it is familiar to many here, I thought I would paste it below for the convenience of others who might not otherwise go looking for it:
Two young Moravians heard of an island in the West Indies where an atheist British owner had 2000 to 3000 slaves. And the owner had said, "No preacher, no clergyman, will ever stay on this island. If he's ship wrecked we'll keep him in a separate house until he has to leave, but he's never going to talk to any of us about God, I'm through with all that nonsense." Three thousand slaves from the jungles of Africa brought to an island in the Atlantic and there to live and die without hearing of Christ.
Two young Moravians heard about it. They sold themselves to the British planter and used the money they received from their sale, for he paid no more than he would for any slave, to pay their passage out to his island for he wouldn't even transport them. As the ship left its' pier in the river at Hamburg and was going out into the North Sea carried with the tide, the Moravians had come from Herrenhut to see these two lads off, in their early twenties. Never to return again, for this wasn't a four year term, they sold themselves into life time slavery. Simply that as slaves, they could be as Christians where these others were. The families were there weeping, for they knew they would never see them again. And they wondered why they were going and questioned the wisdom of it. As the gap widened and the housings had been cast off and were being curled up there on the pier, and the young boys saw the widening gap, one lad with his arm linked through the arm of his fellow, raised his hand and shouted across the gap the last words that were heard from them, they were these, "MAY THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN RECEIVE THE REWARD OF HIS SUFFERING!"
This became the call of Moravian missions. And this is the only reason for being, That the Lamb that was slain may receive the reward of His suffering!
I'm going to say to you dear friend if you're out here without Christ, you come to Jesus Christ and serve Him as long as you live whether you go to Hell at the end of the way BECAUSE HE IS WORTHY!
I say to you Christian friend you come to the cross and join Him in union, in death, and enter into all the meaning of death to self in order that HE can have glory. I say to you dear Christian if you do not know the fullness of the Holy Ghost, come and present your body a living sacrifice, and let Him fill you so that He can have the purpose for His coming fulfilled in you and get glory through your life. IT'S NOT WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO GET OUT OF GOD, IT'S WHAT'S HE IS GOING TO GET OUT OF YOU.
Let's be done, once and for all, with utilitarian Christianity that makes God a means, instead of the glorious END that He is...let's come and cast ourselves at the feet of the nail pierced Son of God and tell Him that we're going to obey Him, and love Him, and serve Him, as long as we live BECAUSE HE IS WORTHY!
I agree with Reidhead that Jesus purchased something of which He is currently being deprived, in the lives of most people. We evangelize them because we are on His side, and can not stand to see Him cheated of what He has paid for.
