Using stories from their own lives and ministries, the authors devote a chapter to each of the words in the sentence "Why God will save every person." This is an insightful, accessible, yet controversial argument for universal eternal salvation through God's perfect grace.

Philip Gulley is a Quaker minister, writer, husband, and father. He and his wife, Joan, live in Indiana with their sons, Spencer and Sam James Mulholland, author of Praying Like Jesus, is a theologian with ecumenical experience in the American Baptist and United Methodist denominations. He presently pastors a Quaker meeting. He lives in Indianapolis, where he is involved in a wide variety of social ministries

If Grace Is True
Why God Will Save Every Person

Chapter One

The Dilemma

Sally was likely dead before she hit the floor. One minute she was laughing with co-workers. The next minute she lay crumpled at their feet. They called the paramedics,who rushed her forty miles to the hospital, where thedoctors and nurses kept her heart beating for twelvemore hours. Long enough for her son to call the churchand ask me to come. Time enough for family to gather,to grieve, and to ask why. The doctor called it a stroke. Icalled it a mystery. Neither answer brought much comfort.Whatever the explanation, Sally was likely dead beforeshe hit the floor.

Sally's death shook me. She was my age, our birthdaysonly a week apart. I thought this the cause of mydiscomfort when they asked me to speak at her funeral, but in preparing her eulogy I faced far more than my own mortality. I learned many secrets about this woman whom I'd often judged, sometimes condemned, and never respected. I discovered her life had been as cruel as her death. I realized my opinion of Sally had been unfair. At her funeral, I would bury my self-righteousness and arrogance. I would leave next to the flowers arranged around her grave a belief I'd held since I was a child.

Let me tell you about Sally.

Sally's father deserted her when she was three. Hermother filled the void with a parade of temporary replacements, none of whom wanted Sally underfoot. She was discarded. Passed from aunt to cousin to grandmother and back again, staying only as long as their patience allowed. Shuffled from school to school, from town to town. She made only acquaintances, never a friend. Longing for a stability she'd never known, Sally married young, and poorly.

Her husband abandoned her with three small children, no job, and no diploma. Her dreams withered away as she struggled to survive. All her life she'd been neglected, and now she began to neglect herself. Like dominoes falling, bad jobs were followed by worse ones; a poor husband was replaced by abusive boyfriends. Alcohol and drugs sped her descent. When the last domino toppled, Sally was thirty-two years old, the mother of five, unemployed, and living off the leftovers of neighbors and relatives. That domino tumbled the day she slept in with a hangover and woke to find her youngest daughter drowned in the pool next door.

When her son came and through his tears told me the news, I could barely contain my rage. Unaware of Sally's sad past, I saw only a mother who had failed her child, and I despised her. It was with great difficulty that I preached her daughter's funeral.

Before the funeral, Sally told me she'd been abandonedby God. I assured her God hadn't forsaken her. I told her, "God loves you. He knows your pain. You're not alone." But I offered those words through gritted teeth, certain she neither heard nor cared and doubting, myself, whether in her case it was true.

After the funeral Sally stood by her daughter's casket,clutching a wad of tissue and crying. "There's no reason to live," she said. "No reason at all."

She was wrong.

The last five years of Sally's life were her happiest.That's what everyone said at Sally's funeral. That's whather children said, what her mother said, what her friendssaid -- Sally's last five years were her best.

How could that be?

In the days after her daughter's death, Sally repented.Now by repentance, I don't mean she fell to her knees at a church altar and confessed her sins aloud. Idon't mean she affirmed a set of spiritual laws or accepteda Lord and Savior. By repentance, I simply mean what the word itself means -- Sally turned. She turned from thoughts of suicide. She turned from crippling self-pity. She turned from despair. She turned.

Sally moved to a small town. She found a job. Then she found a better one. She bought a car. She bought a house. She planted flowers. She even planted a tree. She made friends, not acquaintances. She made peace with her family. Life wasn't perfect, but she'd turned from despair.

A month before her death, she told her son of a new and surprising desire. The day before Sally's funeral, her son revealed her confession to me. It was the memory that comforted him the most. His mother had simply confided, "I think I'm going to look for a church."

Sally died searching.

The woman I'd so easily disregarded while she lived had become a dilemma in her death. I sat in my office, reflecting on all I had learned and struggling with the words I should speak at Sally's funeral. To many Christians, Sally's destiny was an easy judgment. Havingnever accepted Christ, Christ wouldn't accept her. Shewas doomed to hell.

I grew up believing we were destined for either heaven or hell. I was taught that only those who confessed their sins and accepted Jesus as their Savior before they died would live with God forever. All the rest would suffer hell's eternal torment. As a child, I'd never questioned this formula. It was simple and clear. As an adult, I'd held on to this belief despite life's complexities.

Now Sally's life and death had unsettled what wasonce a sure conviction. In clear response to our prayers,she had been drawing close to God. She'd turned fromthe path of destruction. She'd been asking, seeking, andknocking. I couldn't believe God would invite Sally tohis home, then slam the door as she stood at the threshold. It seemed a cruel joke ...

If Grace Is True
Why God Will Save Every Person. Copyright © by Philip Gulley. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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Excerpted from If Grace Is True: Why God Will Save Every Person by Philip Gulley, James Mulholland
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