I must admit to a certain admiration of Dr. Larry Chapp. I believe him to be a thoughtful and concerned Roman Catholic scholar who appears to be, as best as I can surmise, wrestling with the issue of Universal Salvation, that horrid doctrine which has so many Traditionalist Catholics blathering about in absolute spasms of horror that anyone could dare believe that God would save sinners. Now I am being a bit smarmy here, because of course God saves sinners, but you must remember that He only saves certain kinds of sinners and only up to a certain point of sin or death. There are simply certain sins in this life which qualify you for the hot lead enema in an eternal barbecue of similar wretches, and after death? Pfffffft! Forget it. I believe Dr. Chapp sees a much more merciful God than centuries of Roman Catholic doctrine have described.

His latest blog entry takes issue with a couple of Traditionalist Roman Catholic theologians who hold to the Augustinian teaching of “massa damnata,” i.e., that the majority (some Catholic saints claimed 95%) of all people who will ever live will spend eternity in hell. These Traditionalists are convinced that there is not enough hell being preached, and that the preaching of hell will spur people to evangelism. I feel different about it, as I have expressed in my book, A LAYMAN INVESTIGATES UNIVERSAL SALVATION, For one, I get the sense, reading the historic development of the Catholic Church from the time of the Frankish takeover of the papacy on Christmas Day of the year 800, through the Medival epoch, and up to the 20th century, that the overriding intent of that church was more political than religious. In other words, they were out to rule the world, some for Christ with honest and good intent, but also a number for whom the papacy meant earthly power and glory. To keep the peasants in line with their ruling intentions, hell was a tool to be used. Fear is a great mechanism of control.

But more than that, try thinking of it in this manner: if it is true that out of sixty thousand people who arrived at the Judgment Seat at a certain point in time, all but three were condemned to hell – WHY BOTHER? If this is the true case that the saints and holy men and women have testified to regarding the ultimate fate of mankind, it seems to me that evangelism is an utter waste of time. The sinner will listen to you plead, then sneer, and walk off into eternal damnation, caring not a whit for what you have just so passionately warned him about. According to men like St. Leonard of Port Maurice, more than nine out of ten will refuse the message and end up in hell. If I know that this is predetermined by God, attested to by saints (whose mental meanderings are considered sacrosanct and on a par with the Holy Scriptures) then what is the point?

How is such grim knowledge a spur to evangelism? I can’t help but think that part of what the Traditionalist Catholic desires is that the Roman Catholic Church rule the whole world. This was the desire of Emperor Justinian, whose actions were taken to try to reunite the Roman Empire. At the time of his reign, Rome had lost territory to the pagans surrounding them, the empire was torn by religious strife over the recent Council of Chalcedon, and in Jerusalem, riots and even deaths were in the streets of Jerusalem from troubles with the Origenists. Justinian desired Rome to return to the glory of her former years. What he saw was an empire falling apart. The idea of everyone eventually winding up in heaven was no way to get people to obey him as emperor. He closed the four theological schools teaching Universalism, inserted (without the authority to do so since he was not a bishop) fifteen additional canons into the Council of Constantinople II condemning Universalism, and insisted that hell be preached as eternal, lest people become spiritually lazy and disobedient. I can’t help but feel that this is the Traditionalist thought even to this day.

The Traditionalist view of God is, in my opinion, mean-spirited. I’m sorry I can’t say it any nicer than that, but that’s my honest feeling. I believe these are people who care about one thing only: theological correctness and being sure that they are getting to heaven because they dot every “i” correctly and cross every “t” in just the right manner. They do so while condemning to hell pagans who have no idea who Jesus is, and part of me wonders if they really care at all. I mean, if I saw a burning house and heard screams coming from within, I hope I would be like many others who have rushed inside, despising the flames for the sake of rescuing those trapped. If they believe so firmly in an eternal hell, these Traditionalists should be out in Africa in places where the name of Jesus is unheard of, preaching with all their heart after they take years to learn the language. Ah, but I think they are more enamored with their ability to defend their Traditionalism. It is fun showing people how learned and brilliant you are. Getting martyred while trying to save souls from sure and certain eternal burning? Meaaaah . . . fun not so much.

Does this mean I believe there is no hell? Au contraire, mon frere! I believe in the hell in which the Early Fathers believed. Hell is not a place. It is the love of God experienced as torment and pain by the wicked. The same love that blesses those who lived for God, struggled against sin, fasted and prayed to the best of their meager abilities, will torment the wicked. The wicked will lose all sense of lying perspective which makes them self-justify their sin(s). They will feel the pain and sorrow they caused others, and it will cause them deep pain. In some manner, unknown to us, there will be a reckoning in line with the justness of God.

But it will not be forever!

At this point, any Traditionalist will point to the Bible and, foaming at the mouth in rage at our recalcitrance, remind us that Jesus said His angels will cast all sinners into a furnace of fire:

CCC 1034 Jesus often speaks of “Gehenna” of “the unquenchable fire” reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost. Jesus solemnly proclaims that he “will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire,” and that he will pronounce the condemnation: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!” [1]

“Matthew 5:22–29 indeed gives dire warnings about our behavior on earth and the consequences we shall surely pay if we do not do good. But those who believe in eternal torment appear to skip over verse 26, which says: “Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.”

Why would Jesus put such an ending statement to this section? It undermines the idea of punishment being forever. Could it be that His judgment is not unto an eternal punishment, but rather unto a just repayment for evil deeds until justice is satisfied? What act of justice punishes without end? Even the law of God given to us stands against such a thing. The teaching of lex talionis in the Bible gives us the ideal to be used for justice: the punishment fits the offense. You do not hang a child for stealing a loaf of bread, as the Puritans in New England did. In like manner, there is no offense against God or man which is worthy of the never-ending torture in which Roman Catholic theologians such as Aquinas and Anselm of Canterbury seem to delight. It appears from verse twenty-six that God, fortunately for us, is much more merciful than we would be in the way He deals with His wayward children.

What is this furnace of fire? Hebrews 12:29 says our God is a consuming fire. The early fathers taught that this fire is the passionate love of God, a burning fire. In what way is this like a furnace? Vine’s Expository Dictionary at Blue Letter Bible defines the Greek word κάμινος (kaminos) as: A furnace for smelting; for burning earthen ware: for baking bread.

In smelting, the valuable is cleansed of all impurities. It sounds just like the process described in 1 Corinthians 3. The rubbish is burned away, leaving that which is pure. In fact, all three definitions in Vine’s describe the furnace as being part of acts of creation, not destruction. The furnace of fire is the smelting furnace of God’s fiery and passionate love which, according to the church fathers, burns away our sins, yet leaves us as the pure ore. “If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”

The Western understanding of the furnace, where there shall be “wailing and gnashing of teeth,” is one of punishment and destruction. The proper view is found in 1 Corinthians 3 is that we are to be “saved, yet so as by fire.” I believe this is another example of how the culture of law/punishment has infused itself into the thinking of the Western theological mind. Matthew 13:41–42 as a destructive furnace is not consistent with Vine’s description. Smelting is a creative and restorative act. It is not about destroying something forever.

(A LAYMAN INVESTIGATES UNIVERSAL SALVATION – PAGE 33)

What a miserable failure of a Savior these Traditionalists believe in, a Savior whose best effort gets about five percent of all humanity ever to live into heaven, and the rest? Well, too bad for them, but you were never intended to be saved in the first place. You see, all things are created unto an end, or as Dr. David Bentley Hart has put it from reading the Early Fathers, protology (the study of beginnings) determines eschatology (the study of endings). That is, all things are created with an end in mind, so that if eternal hell is really real, then it means that the God who foreknows all things went ahead and created sentient beings, ninety five percent of them who were destined and decreed for eternal destruction. It was never God’s plan to save them. They were created, according to John Calvin, to show God’s glory by their eternal judgment for their sins in the fires of hell. God foreknew mankind would fall, knew that the fall would result in eternal separation and damnation, yet went ahead and created them anyway, meaning that this end was the intent of the beginning. You cannot escape this conclusion any more than you can escape the conclusion that when I pick up certain tools for making stained glass windows, I have a particular end in mind, I create unto an end, and I have several pieces I have made that have turned out exactly as I planned from the beginning.

Creation and salvation are no different. This fact seems to escape the Traditionalist, who will out of one side of his mouth prattle on about how loving and kind God is, while at the same time demand that He send to hell all sinners who A.) do not repent B.) do not confess Jesus as Lord and C.) do not belong to the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist, or whatever particular flavor of religion they hold to.

“You don’t believe exactly as we do? Well, Ace, you better find a good pair of asbestos panties for the next life because God is mad that you are such a heretic and horrible person in general.”

Even members of the Orthodox Church are not above this, as I have found out while I continue to study Universalism. The worst among them are those who have converted from Protestantism to Orthodoxy, bringing along with them a steamer trunk of theological baggage. They are impervious to proper interpretation of the Greek in the Scriptures, if you mention the Early Fathers, they scoff and bring forth their own Fathers who supposedly taught hell as eternal and tormenting. Nothing gets through to them, and when you do bring forth facts and proofs, both from Holy Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Early Fathers, they will fervently search land and sea for some rebuttal.

Anyhow, I’m starting to ramble, I think I’ve prattled on long enough for now. Do check out Dr. Chapp’s site. He has a lot of good stuff over there. My intent was to simply bring forward his name and make him a little better known. A marvelous man I would like to meet some day, although, quite frankly, I don’t know what we would talk about since he is on such a higher level of intellect than I will ever be.

Maybe we could just play checkers for a few hours. That would be about my level.

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[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church. Article 12 “I Believe in Life Everlasting” IV. Hell