Max Lucado is one of evangelicalism’s most beloved authors and speakers. He is clear in many places that he is within the confines of the accepted orthodox position of believing there is an eternal hell awaiting for at least some of humanity. Usually he just doesn’t talk about it. However, his silence is loud and clear. To not speak much about warning his fellow human beings about the most horrendous and irreversible condition ever to threaten mankind is very confusing. It could mean that he is callous and doesn’t care. But I think that we would all agree that that is not a feasible explanation. Lucado exudes love and mercy for others. Could it be that he forgot? Or perhaps he is embarrassed by it?
We believe it is because deep in his God-given conscience he is getting no affirmation that it is true. Max Lucado is doing what most of us do: we say what we are supposed to say in regard to the traditional teaching but we function with an inordinate amount of hope to the contrary of those beliefs. We live as “functional universalists”.
Here is an excerpt from Max Lucado’s book Traveling Light:
What of those who die with no faith? My husband never prayed. My grandpa never worshiped. My mother never opened a Bible, much less her heart. What about the one who never believed?
How do we know he didn’t?
Who among us is privy to a person’s final thoughts? Who among us knows what transpires in those final moments? Are you sure no prayer was offered? Eternity can bend the proudest knees. Could a person stare into the yawning canyon of death without whispering a plea for mercy? And could our God, who is partial to the humble, resist it?
He couldn’t on Calvary. The confession of the thief on the cross was both a first and final one. But Christ heard it. Christ received it. Maybe you never heard your loved one confess Christ, but who’s to say Christ didn’t?
We don’t know the thoughts of a dying soul, but we know this. We know our God is a good God. He is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 NKJV
He wants your loved one in heaven more than you do. And he usually gets what he wants.
Grace for the Moment, Volume II Originally excerpted from Traveling Light
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Another popular author in the same arminian camp is John Ortberg. I did not have time to devote a whole article but the following quote says it all…Here is what I found in his book, The Me I want to Be (Pg 91):
“One day there will be a glorious harmony between God and all that he has made. God wants no one left out. As you flourish, you help in God’s re-creation of the world he wants to see.”
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