Please note: Not every quote listed on this page is from a confirmed universalist (though most are). Some of these statements were made by those who may have seen by the Spirit and by the Scripture, the great and final gathering of all things back to God. Within those who hold to the restitution of all things, there are varieties of beliefs. At any rate, we think the quotes speak for themselves.
“The glory of God, and of His Son Jesus Christ, as manifested in the final holiness and happiness of all men, is the central sun of Universalism.” ——Thomas Whittemore (1840)
Orthodoxy is more cosmic than Western Christianity. Neither Catholicism nor Protestantism sufficiently expresses the cosmic nature of the Church, as the Body of Christ. Western Christianity is primarily anthropological. But the Church is also the Christianized cosmos; within her, the whole created world is subject to the effect of the grace of the Holy Spirit. Christ’s appearance has a cosmic, cosmogonic significance; it signifies somehow a new creation, a new day of the world’s creation. The juridical understanding of redemption as a carrying out of a judicial process between God and man, is somewhat foreign to Orthodoxy. It is closer to an ontological and a cosmic understanding of the appearance of a new creation and a renewed mankind. The idea of Theosis was the central and correct idea, the Deification of man and of the whole created world. Salvation is that Deification. And the whole created world, the whole cosmos is subject to Deification. Salvation is the enlightenment and transfiguration of creation and not a juridical justification.
Orthodoxy turns to the mystery of the RESURRECTION as the summit and the final aim of Christianity Thus the central feast in the life of the Orthodox Church is the feast of Pascha, Christ’s Glorious Resurrection. The shining rays of the Resurrection permeates the Orthodox world. The feast of the Resurrection has an immeasurably greater significance in the Orthodox liturgy than in Catholicism where the apex is the feast of the Birth of Christ. In Catholicism we primarily meet the crucified Christ and in Orthodoxy — the Resurrected Christ. The way of the Cross is man’s path but it leads man, along with the rest of the world, towards the Resurrection. The mystery of the Crucifixion may be hidden behind the mystery of the Resurrection. But the mystery of the Resurrection is the utmost mystery of Orthodoxy. The Resurrection mystery is not only for man, it is cosmic.
The East is always more cosmic than the West. The West is anthropocentric; in this is its strength and meaning, but also its limitation. The spiritual basis of Orthodoxy engenders a desire for universal salvation. Salvation is understood not only as an individual one but a collective one, along with the whole world. Such words of Thomas Aquinas could not have emanated from Orthodoxy’s bosom, who said that the righteous person in paradise will delight himself with the suffering of sinners in hell. Nor could Orthodoxy proclaim the teaching about predestination, not only in the extreme Calvinist form but in the form imagined by the Blessed Augustine. The greater part of Eastern teachers of the Church, from Clement of Alexandria to Maximus the Confessor, were supporters of Apokatastasis, of universal salvation and resurrection. And this is characteristic of (contemporary) Russian religious thought. Orthodox thought has never been suppressed by the idea of Divine justice and it never forgot the idea of Divine love. Chiefly — it did not define man from the point of view of Divine justice but from the idea of transfiguration and Deification of man and cosmos.” ——Nicholas A. Berdyaev, The Truth of Orthodoxy
“If the decision be made to turn solely on the literal meaning of the scriptures, I have no hesitation whatever in declaring my strong conviction that the Universalist and Annihilist theories have far more evidence of this sort for them than the popular view. It seems to me that if many passages of Scripture be taken quite literally, universal restoration is unequivocally taught, but that endless torments are nowhere clearly taught–the passages which appear to teach that doctrine being either obviously figurative or historically misunderstood.” ——Canon F. W. Farrar
“All will be redeemed in God’s fullness of time, all, not just the small portion of the population who have been given the grace to know and accept Christ. All the strayed and stolen sheep. All the little lost ones.” ——Madeleine L’Engle, writer
…On The Power of the Cross
“If we really believe in one God and in the Jesus Christ, in what He was and what He did, truly shows us what God’s character and His attitude toward men are like, then it is very difficult to think ourselves out of a belief that somehow His love will find a way of bringing all men into unity with Him.” ——C.H. Dodd
“The notion of the popular creed, (i.e. that God is in the Bible detailing the story of His own defeat, how sin has proved too strong for Him), seems wholly unfounded. Assuredly the Bible is not the story of sin, deepening into eternal ruin, of God’s Son, worsted in His utmost effort. It is from the opening to the close the story of grace stronger than sin — of life victorious over every form of death — of God triumphant over evil.” ——Thomas Allin, Christ Triumphant
“…I believe the triumph of the Christ began at the cross and ends only when THE RACE, like Himself, has received from God the father, through him, the grace, power and glory of God that makes them sons of God like Himself. It is a long way between the cross of Calvary and the throne of God, but that is the way that Jesus traveled and that is the course for every other soul of man.” ——John G. Lake The Second Crowning (p 203)
“Christianity, bless God, is the ringing triumph that began on the morning of the Resurrection and ends when THE RACE of man has come to the understanding, knowledge and consciousness of God Himself.” ——John G. Lake The Second Crowning (p. 204)
“The salvation of the whole human race is what God proposed in the creation. It is what Christ came into the world to effect, and for the accomplishment of which he was given all needed power in heaven and earth. To this end he died the death of the cross, and thus tasted death for every man; and I submit that such self-sacrificing love cannot suddenly cool, or readily give over to endless torment souls for which it thus willingly suffered. I should be ashamed of myself, if, believing in God and in Christ, I still feared their ultimate failure in this great work of redemption, whose history fills the Bible.” ——Thomas J. Sawyer (1880)
“If Christ died for all, as Mr. Wesley taught, it will soon appear a necessary consequence that all shall be saved.” ——Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, (1745–1813)
“I began to feel that the salvation in which I had been rejoicing was, after all a very limited and a very selfish salvation, and, as such, unworthy of the Creator who had declared so emphatically that His ‘tender mercies are over all His works,’ and above all unworthy of the Lord Jesus Christ, who came into the world for the sole and single purpose of saving the world. I could not believe that His life and death for us could be meant to fall so far short of remedying the evil that He came on purpose to remedy, and I felt that it must be impossible that there could be any short-coming in the salvation He had provided. The Bible says, ‘As in Adam all die — even so in Christ should all be made alive.’ As was the first, even so was the second. The ‘all’ in one case could not in fairness mean less than the ‘all’ in the other. I saw therefore that the remedy must necessarily be equal to the disease, the salvation must be as universal as the fall.” ——Hannah Whitall Smith
“(Jesus) will, in the ages to come, put an end to sin, finish transgressions, and bring in everlasting life unto all lapsed being, as it stands recorded in the scriptures.” ——Christopher Marshall, (d. 1797)
“Until the last lost person comes home (referring to the parable of the prodigal son), God’s mind and body are nailed to the cross.” ——Andrew Sung Park, in his essay: The God Who Needs Our Salvation
“God…held council with His Son even before the foundation of the world so as to have His Son come down and go to the cross in order to reconcile all things back to himself, rescue fallen mankind, and resolve the rebellion of Satan.” ——Watchman Nee, God’s Plan and the Overcomers.
“The Spirit of the Lord says within my soul that: The universal sound of praise in which angels and men, all creatures in the earth, the sea, and the sky will eventually join, comes because the consciousness of the overcoming Christ has dawned upon them and possessed their soul.” –John G. Lake, As He Is, So Are We In This World (p. 60)
“Yes, Christ stands at the door and knocks; but in the power of his resurrection, he makes his way into locked rooms.” ——Tom Greggs, Jesus College, Univ. of Cambridge
“The cross of Christ means that the salvation of God goes deeper down than the deepest depths of iniquity man can commit. No person can get beyond the reach of Jesus; He made a way back to the throne of God from the very heart of hell by His tremendous atonement.” ——Oswald Chambers, the Essay: It is Finished
…On Eternal Punishment
“Whensoever any such criminal in hell shall be found making such a sincere and mournful address to the righteous and merciful judge of all; if at the same time he is truly humble and penitent for his past sins and is grieved at his heart for having offended his maker, and melts into sincere repentance, I cannot think that a God of perfect equity and rich mercy will continue such a creature under his vengeance , but rather that the perfections of God will contrive a way for escape, though God has not given us any revelation or discovery of such special grace as this. I grant that the eternity of God himself before the 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.” ——Isaac Watts (1674–1748)
“I cannot believe that God wants punishment to go on interminably any more than does a loving parent. The entire purpose of loving punishment is to teach, and it lasts only as long as is needed for the lesson. And the lesson is always love.” ——Madeleine L’Engle
…On Brotherly Love
“And what shall we say of the man Christ Jesus? Who, that loves his brother, would not, upheld by the love of Christ, and with a dim hope that in the far-off time there might be some help for him, arise from the company of the blessed, and walk down into the dismal regions of despair, to sit with the last, the only unredeemed, the Judas of his race, and be himself more blessed in the pains of hell, than in the glories of heaven? Who, in the midst of the golden harps and the white wings, knowing that one of his kind, one miserable brother in the old-world-time when men were taught to love their neighbor as themselves, was howling unheeded far below in the vaults of the creation, who, I say, would not feel that he must arise, that he had no choice, that, awful as it was, he must gird his loins, and go down into the smoke and the darkness and the fire, traveling the weary and fearful road into the far country to find his brother? — who, I mean, that had the mind of Christ, that had the love of the Father?” ——George MacDonald
“My prayers were comprehensive. My family, my friends, my fellow-citizens, my enemies, all Christians, all men were included in them. I flew to the most distant seas; I penetrated into the deepest mines and dungeons. I embraced in my heart all that is called man, present and future times and nations; the dead, the damned, yea, Satan himself; I presented them all to God, with the warmest wishes that he would have mercy upon all….It is enough, my creator, that thou art love. Love seeketh not her own; thou seeketh the happiness of all, and shouldest thou not then find what thou seekest?” ——Johann Kasper Lavater (1741–1801)
“The Saints help in the work of saving souls in hell, because there can be no idleness in heaven…Those in hell will ultimately be brought to heaven…” ——Sadhu Sundar Singh
“I am one of those who could not think themselves perfectly happy, did they know any Beings must be eternally miserable.” ——Marie Huber (1736)
“To hope for all souls is imperative; and it is quite tenable that their salvation is inevitable.” ——G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
“There is a Principle which is pure, placed in the human Mind, which in different Places and Ages hath had different Names; it is, however, pure, and proceeds from God. It is deep, and inward, confined to no Forms of Religion, nor excluded from any, where the Heart stands in perfect Sincerity. In whomsoever this takes Root and grows, of what Nation soever, they become Brethren.” ——John Woolman (d. 1772), on Universalism: The Essays of John Woolman (London, 1922), p. 180.
“It must be everybody or nobody.” ——Abraham Lincoln, when questioned who would ultimately be in Heaven.
“If I were Jesus Christ, I would save Judas.” ——Victor Hugo, (Life, p. 154)
“The eternity of the ‘punishment of hell’ (of the ‘fire’), asserted in some New Testament metaphorical expressions, remains subject to God and to his will. Individual New Testament texts, which are not balanced by others, suggest the consummation of a salvation of all, an all-embracing mercy.” ——Hans Kung, Swiss Theologian
“Look then, on the erring sons of men as on wretched prisoners bound in fetters for a time; but recollect that they are and must be eternal as well as you, and that in the endless ages of eternity they will be restored to order. This faith, which is sincerely mine, makes me see things in very different lights from what others do, and perhaps is the key to my whole conduct. Clean and unclean are welcome to my pity; I know that with all our thousand errors flesh is heir to, we will one day be all right.” ——Alison Rutherford Cockburn, author of Flowers of the Forest
“Strange! that no one has ever been persecuted by the church for believing God bad, while hundreds of millions have been destroyed for thinking him good. The orthodox church will never forgive the Universalist for saying, ‘God is love.’ It has always been considered one of the very highest evidences of true and undefiled religion that all men, women and children deserve eternal damnation. It has always been heresy to say, ‘God will at last save all.ʼ” ——Robert Ingersoll
“To me, the precepts which God has given are in their way as strong a witness as His direct promises…Shall God do that which He abhors? Shall he command that bondmen and debtors be freed, and yet Himself keep those who are in worse bondage and under a greater debt in endless imprisonment? Shall he bid us to care for widows and orphans, and Himself forget this widowed nature, which has lost its Head and Lord, and those poor orphan souls which cannot cry, Abba, Father? Shall He limit punishment to forty stripes, ‘lest thy brother seem vile,’ and Himself inflict far more upon those who though fallen still are His children? Is Christ not the faithful Israelite who fulfills the law; and shall He break it in any one of these particulars? Shall he say ‘Forgive seventy times seven,’ and Himself not forgive except in this short life? Shall He command us to ‘overcome evil with good,’ and Himself, the Almighty, be overcome of evil? Shall He judge those who leave the captives unvisited, and Himself leave captives in a worse prison for ever unvisited? Does He not again and again appeal to our own natural feelings of mercy, as witnessing ‘how much more’ we may expect a larger mercy from our ‘Father which is in Heaven?ʼ” ——Andrew Jukes, The Restitution of All Things, (pp. 93-94)
“I also considered the condition of the slave owner. I knew he was willingly deceived by the false teachings of the popular ministry. I knew also that the great part of the non-slave-owners, who were by their votes and action the actual slaveholders, did not see their crime; that they despised the slave because of his condition, and that the non-slave-owners were violently opposed to any doctrine of practice that might treat the slave as a ‘neighbor,’ a brother, and make him equal before the law. I knew also that the great body of the people were practically without the fundamental principle of the Gospel, love to God and love man; that, as in the days of Martin Luther, though the doctrine of justification by faith was plainly written in the Bible, yet the great body of people did not then see it; so now the great doctrine of loving God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves, ‘on which hang all the law and the prophets,’ though clearly written in the Bible, was not seen in its practical application by the great mass of the people. Such was my relation to this people, and theirs to God and the world, that I felt I must return and preach to them the gospel of impartial love.” ——John G. Gee’s Autobiography