Since the arrival of the capital M Modern world, beginning in the mid-17th century, one of the persistent points of friction between orthodox Christianity and Modernity has been the Christian doctrine that Jesus is the only way to heaven and eternal life. This is the teaching of God’s Word (e.g., John 14:6; Acts 4:12) and it has been the confession of Christians since the the first apostle was martyred for refusing to be a polytheist. The reader should understand that this is just what the pagan Romans demanded of us. They did not require us to believe polytheism but they required us to say that Caesar is Lord and implicitly that there is more than one way to God. The martyrs refused and they paid for their fidelity with their lives. Michael McClymond was on campus last fall to talk to about the history of the doctrine of universalism, the notion that everyone shall go to heaven. In 2018 he published a massive 2-volume study, The Devil’s Redemption: A New History and Interpretation of Christian Universalism, which has attracted the attention of leading universalists such as David Bentley Hart. McClymond is Professor of Modern Christianity in St Louis University.

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Post authored by:

• R. Scott Clark

  

  R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.

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