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Universal Salvation
United Communities of Spirit
The compassion and grace of God know no bounds. In some passages
from scripture, the extent of God's saving work is predicted eventually to
embrace all humankind. Thus does the Divine Parent's heart yearn for all
His children. In Buddhist terms, the essential purpose of absolute Truth
is to liberate all sentient beings, and Mahayana Buddhist scriptures
express the universality of grace in the vow of the Buddha Amitabha. His
vow is similar to the Bodhisattva Vow to save all beings, and in popular
Buddhism the great Bodhisattvas who attend the Buddha are revered as
manifesting gracious aspects of Ultimate Reality.
Universal salvation is compatible with the belief that there is
only one valid and true religion. Salvation may come to all people
through one central point: thus in Abraham 'shall all the families of the
earth be blessed' (Genesis 12.3). For those who believe in one religion
as the only way, the divine mandate to save all humankind is a powerful
impetus to missionary activity.
We conclude with several passages which offer salvation to souls in
hell. If salvation is to be available universally, to every soul who has
ever lived regardless of his or her earthly life, the doctrine may appear
at odds with beliefs about hell and the Last Judgment. If God is most
essentially just, how can the wicked receive salvation? On the other
hand, if God is most essentially gracious and compassionate, how can He
permit any creature to suffer in hell eternally? Compassion and justice
must go together. Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism reconcile these aspects
of Ultimate Reality by regarding all states of hell as purgatories,
designed to mete out punishments for a limited period of time, that evil
karma might be burned up and the soul have a future opportunity to find
the Path. Christian and Islamic theologians dispute this question among
themselves--some upholding an eternal hell, others looking to universal
salvation. The Latter-day Saints practice baptism for the dead, thereby
emptying hell of its dead through the efforts of the living.
Interfaith passages at: http://origin.org/ucs/ws/theme067.cfm
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