Über dem Aufsatz von Gerald R. McDermott “Will All Be Saved?” in der aktuellen Ausgabe von Themelios hat sich eine heftige Diskussion entwickelt. Thomas K. Johnson kommentiert:
To be more blunt than polite, it seems to me that most varieties of universal salvation are in terrible danger of turning into moral relativism, not only in the sense that there is no objective moral law but also in the deeper sense that there is no ultimate difference between good and evil. If there is no ultimate judgement between good and evil, then how can we make penultimate judgments between good and evil? And if there is no ultimate distinction between good and evil, our theology is not the only matter at risk. Our humanity is also at risk. If God does not judge between good and evil, why should we, as his image bearers, distinguish between good and evil? And once we stop distinguishing between good and evil, we are already in hell.
Again to be more blunt than polite, the doctrine of universal salvation seems to me to be a result of appropriating the biblical message on the basis of and in light of largely post-modern assumptions which then function as control or filter beliefs about what we understand the biblical message to be. If we assume moral relativism that cannot be challenged by the Bible, then interpret the biblical message in light of our previously accepted moral relativism, we end portraying God as an image of our age, as a moral relativist.
