The Book
The Good News addresses the key reasons why people do not believe in God. As such, it is a wide-ranging apologetic work. Like other apologetic works, it does not put forward a hard position on what the Bible teaches; instead, it simply invites readers to not, ‘throw the baby out with the bath water’.
The book acknowledges that the doctrine of eternal damnation is a major stumbling block to belief in a loving God, which presents a major obstacle to converting people to Christianity, by presenting it as a religion which ultimately has no ‘gospel’ for the vast majority of mankind. Three chapters are therefore devoted to addressing the issues relating to salvation, freewill, suffering and sin.
The Good News is the result of fresh and thoroughly researched thinking, undertaken over a period of 30 years. It should be of particular interest to universalists, as the cogency of the universalist message can easily be undermined by our beliefs regarding freewill and the reliability of the Bible. Here, as elsewhere, readers will find fresh arguments on these topics, which will hopefully help us to sharpen our thinking on concepts that might otherwise blunt the edge of our evangelism.
The Author
Robert Wagener has been a Christian since he heard the gospel at the age of 13. He was brought up in the Anglican faith, but eventually became disenchanted his church’s failure to preach the gospel and help the needy in the local community. For a short period of time, he joined a Pentecostal church, but became concerned by its emphasis on guilt and its teachings on second blessings.
During the formative years that followed, Robert spent a long time thinking about some of the fundamental questions relating to Christianity with a fellow student, who was reading philosophy at the time. Robert came to the firm conclusion that Christ died for the whole of mankind and that God would ultimately save us all.
As there were no universalist congregations in the UK, Robert has not attended church for over 40 years and has been believing, praying and reading the scriptures on his own since then. During this time, he wrote The Good News to try to persuade believers and non-believers alike that there is, as Paul tells us, a ‘better way’.
I have great admiration for Robert’s courageous engagement with the scriptures and his conviction – which I share- that all will ultimately be saved.
But it is sad that he feels so isolated, when surely there are some churches where he could share fellowship with others who worship the God of love, but are less sure of how God will ultimately judge and are content to leave some things with God.
Jean Wyatt