The following quotes come are a small handful of the many more well-known voices from all generations who stood against the cruel and diabolical doctrine of Hell as a place of everlasting torment. They expressed hope in a God able to draw all of His Creation back to Himself. For a longer list of men and women who expressed their hope in the salvation of all mankind, write Tentmaker Publications. We begin with the promise of Yahweh (God) Himself.
Yahweh: “In you (Abraham) all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:3).
David (King of Israel): “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord (Yahweh), and all the families of the nations (Gentiles) will worship before You. For the kingdom is the Lord’s (Yahweh’s), and He rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth shall eat and worship; all those who go down to the dust shall bow before Him, even he who cannot keep himself alive” (Psalm 22:27,28).
Isaiah (Hebrew prophet): “All nations shall flow to Yahweh’s house” (Isaiah 2:2). “The Lord will make a feast for all people” (Isaiah 25:6). You’re invited!
Ezekiel (Hebrew prophet): “Sodom will be restored to her former estate” (Ezekiel 16:55; read all of the chapter).
Jesus (Yahshua): “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw (drag in the Greek) all mankind unto myself” (John 12:32). “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hands” (John 3:35).
John (the apostle): “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14).
Paul (apostle to the nations): (We will only quote a couple Scriptures. Paul wrote much on this subject. Our tract Do you believe All in the Bible lists many more of his references.)
“Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).
“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, Who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe. These things command and teach” (1 Timothy 4:9-11).
“For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him whether things on earth, or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:16-20).
St. Clement of Alexandria (Church Father): “All men are his…for either the Lord does not care for all men…or he does for all. For His is saviour; not of some, and of others not…and how is He saviour and Lord, if not the saviour and Lord of all? For all things are arranged with a view to the salvation of the universe by the Lord of the universe both generally and particularly.” (Ante-Nicene Fathers v. 2 P.524-5)
Origen of Alexandria (Greatest early Church scholar): “The Stoics indeed, hold that, when the strongest of the elements prevails, all things shall be turned into fire. But our belief is, that the Word shall prevail over the entire rational creation, and change every soul into his own perfection…for although in the diseases and wounds of the body, there are some which no medical skill can cure, yet we hold that in the mind there is no evil so strong that it may not be overcome by the Supreme Word and God. For stronger than all the evils in the soul is the Word, and the healing power that swells in Him, and the healing He applies, according to the will of God to every man. The consummation of all things is the destruction of evil…to quote Zephaniah: ‘My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kings, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger, for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent’…consider carefully the promise, that all shall call upon the name of the Lord, and serve Him with one consent; also that all contemptuous reproach shall be taken away, and there shall be no longer any injustice, or vain speech, or a deceitful tongue.” (Celsus, 6k8, ch. 72, Ante-Nicene Fathers, v. 4 p. 667)
Didymus (Head of Catechetical School of Alexandria in the fourth century A.D.): “Mankind, being reclaimed from their sins…are to be subjected to Christ in the fullness of the dispensation instituted for the salvation of all.” (Comm. in 1 Peter 3)
St. Gregory of Nyssa (bishop and leading theologian of the early Church): “Our Lord is the One who delivers man (all men), and who heals the inventor of evil himself.” (Catechetical Orations)
Titus (bishop of the early Church): “Abyss of hell is, indeed, the place of torment; but it is not eternal, nor did it exist in the original constitution of nature.” (Lib. 1, ch. 32)
Diodore (bishop of the early Church): “For the wicked are punished, not perpetual, but they are to be tormented for a certain brief period…according to the amount of malice in their works. They shall therefore suffer punishment for a short space, but immortal blessedness having no end awaits them.”
Theodoret the Blessed (bishop of the early Church): “He shows the reason of penalty, for the Lord, who loves men, chastises in order to heal, like a physician, that he may arrest the course of our sin.” (Hom. in Ezekiel ch. 6)
John Scotus Erigena (Scottish Scholar): “Evil, being negative, as is punishment, neither can be eternal.”
La Fontaine (French Writer): “I have lately taken to read the New Testament, which I assure you, is a very good book; but there is one article to which I cannot accede; it is that of the eternity of punishment. I cannot comprehend how this eternity is compatible with the goodness of God.”
Sir Isaac Newton (Scientist): “The degree and duration of the torment of these degenerate and anti-Christian people, should be no other than would be approved of by those angels who had ever labored for their salvation, and that Lamb who had redeemed them with his own precious blood.”
Isaac Watts (Hymn writer): “I grant that the eternity of God himself before this world began, or after its consummation, has something in it so immense and so incomprehensible, that in my most mature thoughts, I do not choose to enter into those infinite abysses; nor do I think we ought, usually, when we speak concerning creatures, to affirm positively, that their existence shall be equal to that of the blessed God, especially with regard to the duration of their punishment.”
William Law (English Christian writer): “In how many ways have I proved and asserted that there neither is, nor can be, any wrath or partiality in God; but that every creature must have all the happiness which the infinite love and power of God can help him to. As for the purification of all human nature, I fully believe it, either in this world, or some after ages.
Bishop Newton (English Bishop): “Imagine such a doctrine, you may; but seriously believe it you never can. The thought is too shocking even to human nature; how much more abhorrent, then, must it be from divine perfection. The creator must have made all his creatures finally to be happy; and could never form any one whose end he foreknew would be misery everlasting. We can be sure nothing, if we are not sure of this.
Benjamin Franklin (Scientist, Statesman): “No system in the Christian world was so well calculated to promote the interests of society, as the doctrine which showed a God reconciling a lapsed world unto Himself.”
Florence Nightingale (Humanitarian, Nurse, Hospital Reformer): “Is it not a simple impertinence for preachers and schoolmasters, literally ex cathedra, to be always inculcating… what they call the commands of God…and often representing Him as worse than a devil? Alas! for mankind might easily answer — ‘I cannot love because I am ordered. Least of all can I love One who seems only to make me miserable here to torture me hereafter. Show me that He is lovable, and I shall love Him without being told.” But does any preacher show us this? He may say that God is Love, but he shows Him to be hate, worse than any hate of man. As the Persian poet says, ‘If God punishes me for doing evil by doing me evil, how is He better than I?’ And it is hard to answer. For certainly the worst man would hardly torture his enemy, if he could, for ever.”
Benjamin Rush (signer of the Declaration of Independence): “The universal doctrine prevails more and more in our country, particularly among persons eminent for their piety, in whom it is not a mere speculation, but a new principle of action in the heart, prompting to practical goodness.”
F. E. Schleiermacher (German Theologian): “The figurative language of Christ has led men to accept over against the doctrine of eternal blessedness, that of a state of unabatable misery for those who die out of fellowship with Christ; but this language will be found hardly sufficient for such a conclusion if we examine it more closely.”
Thomas Moore (English Poet and Writer): “The restoration of the whole human race to purity and happiness. This benevolent doctrine — which not only goes far to solve the great problem of moral and physical evil, but which would, if received more generally, tend to soften the spirit of uncharitableness, so fatally prevalent among Christian sects-was maintained by that great light of the early church, Origen, and has not wanted supporters among more modern theologians.”
Washington Irving (Writer, On hearing a sermon by I. A. Williamson entitled Endless Misery Refuted.): “Thank you, sir, for that sermon. There was more of sound sense in it than I often hear in a discourse. That is the doctrine I believe and want to practice.”
Thomas Erskine (Christian Writer): “I cannot believe that any human being can be beyond the reach of God’s grace, and the sanctifying power of his spirit. And if all are within his reach, is it possible to suppose that he will allow any to remain unsanctified? Is not the love revealed in Jesus Christ a love unlimited, unbounded, which will not leave undone anything which love could desire? It was surely nothing else than the complete and universal triumph of that love that Paul was contemplating when he cried out, ‘Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!'”
Abraham Lincoln (responding to a conversation about salvation): “It must be everybody or nobody.”
Charles Kingsley (Canon of the Anglican Church): “We, too, believe in an eternal fire; but we believe its existence to be not a curse but a blessing, and a Gospel, seeing that that fire is God himself, who taketh away the sins of the world, and of whom it is therefore written, ‘Our God is a consuming fire.'”
Frances Power Cobbe (Writer): “I challenge those who forbid us to believe in the infinite mercy of God to say which of these three ways of viewing sin is most godlike, most probably nearest to the way in which God must view it… I think, if we were not caught in the meshes of that wretched Augustinian scheme of theology which makes the atonement necessary to appease God’s wrath, and postulates eternal hell to compel us to accept it, — I think, I say, if it were not for this theology, all Christendom must have long ago come to see, that, at the very least, God feels towards a sinner as a father or a saint would do, and not as a man less good or wise or merciful…The Lord of conscience who bids us forgive till seventy times seven, the Lord of life, the Father of spirits, who reveals himself to us in the supreme hour of heartfelt prayer; that God whose voice has so often called us back from our wanderings, and put us right again and yet again, — that God, we know, is never to be alienated. We do not think man’s evil can, in the long-run of the infinite ages, outspeed finally God’s ever-pursuing mercy. He must overtake us sooner or later. We may doom ourselves to groan beneath the burden of sin, and writhe beneath the scourge of just and most merciful retribution again and yet again, no one knows how long. We may chose evil rather than good, and vileness instead of nobleness, and be ungrateful and sinful almost as he is long-suffering and infinitely holy; but it is almost, not quite. God will get the better of us at last.”
George Macdonald (Writer and Preacher): “Nothing is inexorable but love. For Love loves unto purity. Love has ever in view the absolute loveliness of that which it beholds. Therefore all that is not beautiful in the beloved, all that comes between and is not of love’s kind must be destroyed. And ‘our God is a consuming fire.’ It is the nature of God so terribly pure that it destroys all that is not pure as fire. He will have purity. It is not that the fire will burn us until we worship thus, if we do not worship God, but that the fire will burn us until we worship thus, but as the highest consciousness of life, the presence of God. In the outer darkness, where the worst sinners dwell, God hath withdrawn himself, but not lost his hold. His face is turned away, but his hand is laid upon him still. His heart has ceased to beat into the man’s heart, but he keeps him alive by his fire. And that fire will go searching and burning on in him, as in the highest saint who is not yet pure as he is pure. But at length, O God, wilt thou not cast death and hell into the lake of fire even into thine own consuming self? Death shall then die everlastingly, and hell itself will pass away, and leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day. Then indeed will thou be all in all. For then our poor brothers and sisters, every one,-O God, we trust in thee, the consuming fire, shall have been burnt clean and brought home.”
F.W. Farrar (Canon of the Anglican Church and Writer): “But if there be one thing which He must loathe whose name is Love, it is the hallelujahs of exultant anathema, and the thinly disguised hate which rages and protests with so fierce an ignorance against a trust in Mercy founded only on these two great doctrines (which they say they own) — the doctrine of Christ’s infinite redemption; the doctrine of God’s boundless love.
William Barclay (Bible Teacher, Writer, and Translator): “But in one thing I would go beyond strict orthodoxy-I am a convinced universalist. I believe that in the end all men will be gathered into the love of God.” (A Spiritual Autobiography, by William Barclay. p. 65)