Appendix F
Plain-English Definitions for the Vocabulary of This Book
This glossary gathers the theological and philosophical terms used across this book into one quick-reference list. Each entry is defined in plain language and linked to the chapter that develops it most fully. If you meet a word in any chapter and want a short definition, this is the place to look. For the book's load-bearing Greek and Hebrew vocabulary, see Appendix C, which treats each word at greater depth.
Terms are listed in alphabetical order. Cross-references point you to the chapter or appendix where the idea is treated in full.
A way of telling apart two sides of what God wants. His antecedent will is what He desires before He weighs human choices: the salvation of all. His consequent will is what He permits after those choices are made. On this view, God wants to save everyone, but permits the loss of some who refuse. This book argues that the antecedent will tells us who God truly is. His wisdom and love are strong enough to bring the final outcome into line with it. See Chapter 15.
A Greek word (Greek apokatastasis, "restoration of all things") taken from Acts 3:21, where Peter speaks of the time when God will restore everything He has promised. In the early church, several theologians used this term for the hope that God will, in the end, reconcile every person to Himself through Christ. This book defends that hope within the bounds of historic Christian orthodoxy. See Chapter 1 and Appendix B.
The atonement is what Christ did on the cross: He bore sin, defeated death, and made peace between the world and God. The "extent of the atonement" is the question of whom Christ died for. Did He die for every person? Or only for those God chose to save (the elect)? This book argues that the cross covers every human being without exception. The scope question is treated in Chapter 8, and the atonement texts are developed across Chapters 9–12.
The conviction that God will, in the end, bring every person to saving faith in Jesus Christ, so that "God may be all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28). It is called "biblical" and "conservative" because it holds every creedal doctrine the historic church confesses. These include the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the real atonement, salvation through faith alone, the authority of Scripture, and the reality of judgment. The claim is that the gospel itself, taken to its conclusion, saves all. This is the position this book defends. See Chapter 1 and Appendix B.
The view that human beings are not by nature immortal. On this reading, those who finally refuse God do not suffer forever. They simply cease to exist. The soul lives on only by God's gift, and God does not force that gift on anyone who refuses it. This book treats conditional immortality as an ally, not an opponent. It is the stated fallback if the free-will question ever cuts against the hope of universal salvation. The fallback is never eternal conscious torment. See Chapter 22 and Appendix D.
Another way to describe the "two wills" in God, used mainly in Reformed theology. God's decretive will is what He has decided will happen. His preceptive will is what He commands or desires. On this view, God may sincerely tell all people to repent (preceptive) while having decreed that only some will (decretive). This book asks whether a God of love can finally will the loss of those He says He desires to save. See Chapter 15.
Grace that actually accomplishes what God intends. In Reformed theology, efficacious grace is the grace God gives to the elect that infallibly brings them to faith. This book presses a simple question from that doctrine: if God can give grace that saves without overriding freedom, and if He truly desires the salvation of all, why would He withhold it from anyone? The argument is developed in Chapter 21.
God's choice of certain people for a special purpose. In Reformed theology, election means God's choice of certain persons for salvation before the world began. This book reads election differently. God chose some to be the tools through whom He saves all, not as a wall that shuts the rest out. Paul's treatment of Israel's election in Romans 9–11 is the key text. Election serves mercy, and the mercy is for all. See Chapter 17.
The teaching that those who die without faith in Christ will suffer conscious pain in hell forever, with no hope of release. This has been the majority view in Western Christianity since Augustine. This book rejects ECT. It does not fit the character of the God revealed in Christ, nor the meaning of the biblical fire imagery. The judgment texts are treated honestly in Appendix D.
Exclusivism says salvation comes only through personal faith in Christ. Inclusivism says Christ is the only Savior, but some may be saved by Him without hearing of Him in this life. Pluralism says many religions are valid paths to God, so Christ is not uniquely needed. Restrictivism says only those who hear and respond to the gospel in this life can be saved. This book is exclusivist in its theology: Christ alone saves. It is universalist in its scope: all will be brought to Christ. It firmly rejects pluralism. See Appendix B and Chapter 16.
Libertarian free will says that a person's choice is genuinely free only if she could have chosen otherwise, in exactly the same circumstances. Compatibilist free will says that a choice is free as long as it flows from the person's own desires, even if God determined those desires. This book holds libertarian free will. God does not override the will. A real "yes" to God requires a possible "no." This is the book's one open question, faced in Chapter 22.
Sheol (Hebrew she'ol) is the Old Testament word for the place of the dead, a shadowy realm where all go after death. Hades (Greek hadēs) is its Greek equivalent and refers to the intermediate state between death and resurrection, not the final destiny. Gehenna (Greek geenna) is the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem, a place linked to fire and judgment. Jesus used it as a picture of God's purifying judgment. This book treats these three terms with care and does not collapse them into one vague "hell." See Appendix C and Appendix D.
General redemption (also called unlimited atonement) teaches that Christ died for every human being. Particular redemption (also called limited atonement or definite atonement) teaches that Christ died effectively only for those God chose to save. This book defends general redemption: the cross covers every person without exception. The particular-redemption case is stated at full strength and answered in Chapter 8.
The problem of how the saved in heaven could be fully blessed if someone they love is lost forever. Love binds the happiness of the lover to the beloved. So a heaven with perfected lovers and lost beloveds creates a painful puzzle. Either love must be broken, memory erased, or the loss approved. Each of those remedies costs more than the doctrine it protects. This book argues that God solves the problem by healing the cause of the tears, not by erasing the lovers. See Chapter 23.
A set of three claims that cannot all be true at the same time. In this book the triad is: (1) God genuinely desires the salvation of every person; (2) God has the power and wisdom to accomplish what He desires; (3) some people are lost forever. Any two of these can be held together, but all three create a contradiction. The Calvinist removes (1); the Arminian removes (2); the universalist removes (3). This triad is the book's logical hinge. See Chapter 20.
The state of a person between bodily death and bodily resurrection. This book affirms that the soul survives the body's death and remains conscious and aware. The intermediate state matters because death does not end the person. Scripture nowhere makes the moment of death the boundary of God's grace. See Chapter 16.
An idea first taught by the Jesuit theologian Luis de Molina. God knows what will happen and what could happen. But He also knows what every free person would do in any given set of circumstances. This is called "middle" knowledge because it stands between God's knowledge of all possibilities and His knowledge of what He has decided. It allows God to arrange the world so that each person freely reaches the "yes" God is seeking. No one's freedom is overridden. This book uses middle knowledge as part of how a loving God can save all without coercion. See Chapter 22.
A term drawn from the work of Jerry Walls. Optimal grace is God's best possible appeal to each person. It is not a generic offer of the gospel. It is a deeply personal, perfectly fitted invitation to faith. God shapes it by His perfect knowledge of the person, and presents it at the right time, in the right way, with no coercion. Optimal grace is the opposite of a merely "sufficient" grace that makes salvation theoretically possible but does not meet the person where she stands. See Chapter 22 and Chapter 16.
Propitiation means the turning aside of God's wrath; expiation means the removal or cleansing of sin. The Greek word behind both (Greek hilasmos) appears in 1 John 2:2, where John says Christ is the propitiation "for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world." Some stress the turning of God's wrath; others stress the cleansing of sin. This book holds that both are real. The scope ("the whole world") is the key. See Chapter 9 and Appendix C.
Retributive justice aims to give wrongdoers the punishment they deserve, weighed to the offense. Restorative justice aims to heal what sin has broken. It brings the wrongdoer to repentance, repairs the damage, and restores right relationships. This book argues that God's justice is restorative at its heart. His punishments are severe and real. But they are always for something, not merely against someone. The fire refines. The discipline heals. See Chapter 7.
God's desire to save. When theologians say God has a "universal salvific will," they mean that God genuinely wants every person to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). The question is whether this desire is sincere and effective, or whether it can be finally overruled. This book argues that God's salvific will is both genuine and, in the end, victorious. See Chapter 13 and Chapter 14.
The process by which God makes a saved person holy. Justification declares the sinner righteous. Sanctification makes the sinner righteous, step by step, as the Holy Spirit works in the believer's life. This book says sanctification is real and needed. Universal salvation does not mean sin does not matter. It means that God's purifying work reaches every person and finishes what it starts.
A classic way of talking about the cross. The cross is sufficient for all: its value is great enough to cover every sin. But on the traditional view, it is efficient (actually effective) only for those who believe. This book accepts the distinction but presses the point: if the cross is truly enough for all, and if God truly desires the salvation of all, then the effect will, in the end, match the reach. See Chapter 8 and Chapter 12.
Not all universalisms are the same. This book draws a sharp line between two kinds. The first is biblical, conservative universalism: the hope that all will be saved through Christ, through faith, through the cross, within the bounds of the historic creeds. The second is a loose family of counterfeits: pluralist, gnostic, sentimental, antinomian, and others. These reach a "universal" conclusion by dropping the doctrines that make the gospel the gospel. This book defends the first and refuses the second. The full boundary reference is Appendix B.
The teaching that God will, in the end, reconcile every person and all of creation to Himself through the cross of Christ. The key texts are 2 Corinthians 5:19 ("God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself") and Colossians 1:19–20 (God's plan "to reconcile to himself all things, making peace by the blood of his cross"). This book argues that "reconcile" means real peace, not forced submission. And "all things" means all things. See Chapter 10.