Here is a quote from Carlton Pearson's Website:
"There are fewer matters more urgent in today’s pluralistic culture than the issue of the centrality of the cross and the accurate articulation and expression of the Universal love of God toward all of humankind."
Used without permission from: http://www.newdimensions.us/content.cfm?id=2009
My Dear Friends,
The Church is being exposed to a dangerous heresy in the form of the Universalism of Carlton Pearson. Briefly stated, Universalism is the belief that all persons will be saved from Hell and eternal damnation through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ." This fallacy is a dangerous doctrine of demons that has been around from about the 2nd century AD when Tertulian refuted it.
First of all, you need to know that Carlton Pearson is teaching the following:
1.) The whole world is saved
2.) There is no eternal hell
3.) Hell is here
4.) After death, everybody is redeemed
So let's talk about his first paragraph that is included up above and I'll show you what is wrong with Carlton's idea of Universal Love.
WHAT IS IMPLIED BY THE UNIVERSAL LOVE OF GOD?
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotton son, that whosoever believeth on him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
Sorry about the King James version of that scripture, but that's how I memorized it when I was a kid, and I'll die quoting that version.
Absolutely, the scripture says that God loved the world. I heartedly agree with that point. However we've got to talk about what that means.
What John 3:16 says is that God has an unselfish benevolence for the world, meaning that when possible he does the best he can for every person. It's the type of love that is talked about when it says, "God causes the sun to rise on the just and the unjust."
God's benevolence and good will causes him to seek the greatest good of himself, the universe and the beings under his sovergnty. God seeks to bring the greatest joy to as many beings as possible including man and animal.
We call this unselfish (or disinterested) benevolence, because God does the best he can possbily do for you without thinking of the consequences to himself. That's what it means when it says, "God is love." His entire being is love and all of his actions are from love. So he created you, not because he needed you - God is self-existant and didn't need you. But the greatest joy in the universe could be brought about by creating mankind.
So it's true to say that God loves the entire world, every man, woman, and child in this world with a unselfish benevolence that causes him to do the best possible thing for as many beings as possible. This does NOT mean that all humans will be saved.
WHAT IS NOT IMPLIED BY GOD'S UNIVERSAL LOVE
God does NOT love the entire world with the love of approbation. Approbation is a fancy word that means approval. So to repeat, God does not love everybody with the Love of Approval. God does NOT approve of the wicked. Don't ever believe that. Don't think that God has prepared a special place for child molestors! Don't think that there's anything but a fearful judgment waiting for those that murder kill and destroy. God cannot love those people with the love of Approbation.
How could he? God is infinately Holy. More holy than you could possibly imagine. When the Holy Prophet Isaiah stood before God he said, "Wow is me, I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips." Throughout eternity, you will continue to grow in degree of holiness, but you will never match the holiness of the Lord. You will always fall prostrate before God, and proclaim, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty." We will worship him, "in the splendor of his holiness."
God cannot stand sin and he demands holiness and moral perfection from every one of his subjects. Hebrews 12:14 says, "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord."
Make no mistake, God does not approve of sinners. In the Bible there are only 2 classes of people, The Wicked and The Righteous. God approves of the righteous person that has repented of his sin and cleansed himself. The Holy, the Righteous, and the Just, God can approve of.
So although God loves sinners with unselfish benevolence, it is only the Godly that he loves with the love of approbation (or approval).
So Carlton fails to make a distinction between the Wicked and the Righteous, which the Bible does from Adam through Revelations. The worst thing is that this is a dangerous doctrine that will give many a false hope and potentially lead millions to eternal destruction.
I will leave you with a final thought from Jesus, who in the end will be the one who decides who goes to heaven and who goes to hell:
“And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.”
Mark 9:42
The Holy Bible, New International Version. Pradis CD-ROM:Mk 9:42
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