'Isn't It Sad That Gandhi Is Burning in Hell?'

I believe God will save

.

Whenever I share my beliefs in the ultimate salvation of every person, I am invariably asked, "You mean every person? You mean Christians and non-Christians? You mean people who don't even believe in God? You mean people who've done horrible and evil things? You mean Hitler is going to be in heaven?"

The answer is yes. I mean the whole world, every person who has been, is and shall be. I mean Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, New Agers, pagans, and Christians. I mean atheists, agnostics, the apathetic, and the hostile. I mean the rapists, child molesters, and terrorists. I mean the person you or I think the most evil, most despicable human on earth. I believe God will save us all. We will all repent and be transformed.

Heaven will be populated by people of every nation, race, and creed. God's children, in all their diversity, will be seated around his table. They will have two things in common. They will have the same Father, and they will be redeemed and transformed by the same grace. Those damaged and hardened by evil will be healed and renewed. Hell will be empty.

It's taken me many years to empty hell. As a child, I was taught that only Christians would be saved. Billions of non-Christians would crowd hell. The thought of non-Christians in eternal torment didn't disturb me because I'd been told Christians were good people and non-Christians were bad people. Since I grew up in a Midwestern American town where nearly everyone belonged to a Christian church, I had little opportunity to test this assumption. Non-Christians lived in the big city or in foreign countries-the places where we sent missionaries.

I remember the first time I seriously questioned this worldview. I was in college when I saw the movie

. I walked out of the theater forever changed. In Gandhi, I encountered a good man who also a non-Christian. In fact, his commitment to love and mercy far exceeded that of many Christians. While he never acknowledged Jesus as Savior, he lived the way Jesus commanded us to live.

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