A Universalist Message for Today

John Murray, one of the earliest Universalist preachers in America, is often remembered for these words:

Go out into the highways and byways of America, your new country. Give the people, blanketed with a decaying and crumbling Calvinism, something of your new vision. You may possess only a small light but uncover it, let it shine, use it in order to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and minds of men. Give them, not hell, but hope and courage. Do not push them deeper into their theological dispair, but preach the kindness and everlasting love of God.

This is a powerful call for Universalists to witness to God’s love, and to let the light of their faith grow the faith of others. I spent some time tonight searching for information about where Murray first said these words. At least one source claims that this message was the core of Murray’s first sermon in America, in 1770.

If this is accurate, then Murray meant his message not only for clergy, or for people who held positions of special religious authority. Rather, he was challenging all listeners to talk with friends and strangers about universal salvation.

Murray’s message spoke directly to the concerns of his time. In Charles Howe’s The Larger Faith: A Short History of American Universalism, Howe describes the America in which Murray preached:

People migrating from Europe to the New World brought with them religious traditions that included, for the most part, beliefs in hellfire and eternal damnation. Anxiety about one’s own fate and that of one’s family and friends weighed heavily on many minds…Thus, to hear Murray make the strong case that all were destined to be saved, based on convincing Scriptural arguments, was a welcome and liberating experience. (Howe, 5)

Nowadays, many Protestant denominations have moved away from discussing hell with the same frequency and fervency, and widespread public controversies about who is going to hell no longer take center stage in American religious life. This isn’t to say that questions about the afterlife are no longer important, but rather that they play a different role in American religious life today than they did in Murray’s time.

So what is the Universalist message for today?

What speaks to me is the Universalist affirmation of “the kindness and everlasting love of God.” The Universalists affirmed that in the ultimate scheme of salvation, no one was outside of God’s love. God didn’t pick and choose those people he loved and those he did not. God did not deem some people unworthy of salvation. Rather, God poured his kindness upon all people.

The message of a loving God is always relevant and always challenging. For those of us who are striving to be close to God, hearing one another affirm God’s love can be a comfort and an inspiration. God’s love is the “welcome and liberating experience” that we can offer one another right now.