Continued from Sweetser’s Universalism Explained, part two
And because they believe in His absolute justice, — that as Judge of all the earth, He always does right, always has done so, and always will do so, they do not believe His purpose in creating human beings was to make the existence of any of them an everlasting evil to them, a source of never-ending torment. They reject the idea that He has foreordained such a destiny for any man or any angel, the Westmintser [sic] Confession to the contrary notwithstanding; for it seems to them very clear that it would not have been right for Him to do so, unless we are to say that unspeakable cruelty is justifiable and right in the Infinite One. Universalists deny that preposterous theory. They do not believe that God is cruel to any creature He has made. They do not believe that He entertains, or ever did entertain, a single cruel thought or purpose in regard to any soul of man.
On the contrary, they believe that His nature is love, that love is the essence of His character, His fundamental ruling motive which determines all His thoughts and ways. “God is love,” says the Bible, and Universalists believe it. In that fact is the keynote of their whole system of doctrine; for if God is love, if love is the essence of His character and his always His prevailing motive, then it follows that His purpose in creating mankind was a loving one; and if so, of course it cannot be that He intended them for endless woe. A God of love could not possibly have such a purpose in regard to any of His creatures. Much less, if it were conceivable, could He entertain such a purpose in regard to His own children, which is what all human beings are.
