Bishop Desmond Tutu, Christian Universalist

In one of his latest books Made for Goodness (HarperCollins Publishers, 2010), Desmond Tutu has come out in favor of Christian Universalism. On page 134-135 he writes:

"God's pursuit of the sinner is a risky gamble, but it is not a futile one. God is no fool. God would not risk everything on a gamble that was doomed to fail. In fact, the early Christian theologian Origen would maintain that the odds are in God's favor. And time is on God's side. Origen belived that God's love is so irresistible that heaven will ultimately win us all. He scandalized his contemporaries by asserting that at the end of time even Satan would abandon hell to worship God in heaven.

Perhaps we too, are shaken by the thought that our enemies will not burn in Hades throughout eternity. But, ultimately, the reality of heaven cannot tolerate the existence of hell. Even our worst enemies are God's beloved children. What kind of God could endure the sight of God's own children screaming in eternal pain? If we belive in the good God, we must belive that we are all made to inhabit heaven. We are made for goodness.

We will not be driven into heaven by the fear of hell, rather, we will be drawn into heaven by the love of God. The power of evil will ultimately become unattractive, and we will yield to the beauty of heaven. So God's sacrifice is costly in time and it is worthwhile in eternity. It is risky in time, but the outcome is assured in eternity. At the end of time we must succumb to God. So God is willing to sacrifice everything to win us to the place where we are meant to be."

And in a sermon he preached in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, Ontario (quoted in God is not a Christian (Ed. John Allen. HarperCollins Publishers, 2010) page 56), he said this:

"there is an openess demonstrated by the arms of our Lord strung out on the cross as if to embrace the whole cosmos, because it was God's intention to include, to bring all things to a unity, in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. There is nothing that must be left outside... Jesus did not say, "I, if I be lifted up, I will draw some." Jesus said, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all, all, all, all, all" (John 12:32)... All, all are meant to be held in this incredible embrace that will not let us go. All."