The Judge Is the Savior: Towards a Universalist Understanding of Salvation

This is a book Jean Wyatt felt compelled to write as she has for many years wrestled with questions surrounding the love and the justice of God his salvation and judgment through Jesus Christ and the effect of our response (or lack of response) to that salvation. The Bible gives glimpses of hope that in the end God will restore all things and that finally all people will worship him. If it is Gods will that all should be saved is it possible to resist that will for all eternity? Or dare we hope that God will continue to seek and ultimately save those who now reject his offered salvation? Dare we hope that hell will be a place of restorative justice and cleansing with redemption as its aim? Wyatt has come to the conclusion that we can answer Yes to both these questions. The fire of God consumes evil and cleanses people. Meanwhile in the here and now in which we live as disciples of Jesus Christ we are called to be witnesses to the kingdom of God and to work for his kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. With this highly personal set of reflections Jean Wyatt provides a wonderful example of a spiritually attuned lay person (trained as a physician) thinking through an issue for herself; she also adds another voice to the chorus of committed Christians who have questioned the traditional understanding of hell. After setting forth her concerns in a beautifully expressed introduction she uncovers a host of sound biblical reasons for thinking of divine judgment as a means of redemption and of universal salvation as a fully justified hope. --Thomas Talbott Willamette University emeritus Salem OR Can all be saved or only a few? This question has challenged Christians down the ages and prompted very different answers. This book presents the arguments in support of universal salvation not as an easy answer for tender consciences but as a carefully argued work that sets the Lords Prayer at the heart of things. I commend it for not just reading but reflection too. --Michael Tunnicliffe University of Liverpool Liverpool UK Jean Wyatt comes from a medical family and is married to a tropical physician. She and her husband traveled widely together as medical doctors but have now retired. They have three living children and five grandchildren; two of the children are also medical practitioners. Jean is a Lay Reader in St. Johns Church Waterloo Liverpool and is a Christian Counselor.