Until the Last One’s Found, Curt Parton. Wipf & Stock (ISBN: 9798385225439) 2024.

Summary: An evangelical pastor argues that God will ultimately reconcile and restore all to himself through Christ.

Curt Parton is an evangelical pastor who has come to believe that God will ultimately reconcile and restore all people to himself through Christ. For many years, he accepted the idea that a number of people would be consigned to a judgement of eternal conscious torment in hell. In Until the Last One’s Found, he outlines from scripture, church history, and theological argument, why he changed his mind.

He begins by outlining his approach, which is to go to scripture. He is modest, in affirming that scripture, but not necessarily his understanding, is inerrant. Parton then discusses the words in Hebrew and Greek translated as “hell.’ He argues that all both sheol and hades may be understood as the place of the dead Gehenna, most used by Jesus referred to the Valley of Hinnom where garbage was burned. The question is how much should the word be pressed to refer to a place of fiery judgement?

Parton turns from here to consider the view of hell through church history. Was a belief in eternal conscious torment the consistent view of the church through history. He argues that Clement, Origen, Dionysius Pamphilus, Eusebius, Athanasius, Gregory, and Jerome all affirmed universal reconciliation and restoration. Augustine did in his early, but not later writings. He also notes later Protestants who held this view as well including Hannah Whitall Smith and George MacDonald.. A belief in a judgement of eternal conscious torment was not the consensus in the early church. It was not part of any of the early creeds, except for the Athanasian Creed.

He then discusses references to the “eternal fires” of hell and the translation of aion. He argues for this as referring to an age rather than an endless suffering. This is one place where I differ with the author because scripture (Matthew 25:46) parallels eternal life and eternal punishment. I felt here the author tried to argue that these needn’t mean the same thing. Yet the text offers no basis for that. However the author offers an extended argument otherwise that I will not try to summarize here.

His next chapter considers other passages teaching eternal conscious torment. I would agree that we may not infer eternal torment or a description of hell from Luke 16:19-31. But to dismiss the fact that the rich man is portrayed as suffering conscious torment from which there was no release, I think is unwarranted. On Hebrews 9:27, the verse speaks of death, then judgement. True, it doesn’t speak of what comes after apart from judgement. But neither does it give any warrant to believe in a later restoration.

The author then turns to theological argument. Here, the argument against eternal conscious torment is that it makes Gods salvation less than the penalty of sin, and far from glorifying God, diminishes his glory. Nor does he believe hell is necessary to motivate evangelism. In fact, he argues it undercuts the gospel.

Having discussed eternal conscious torment, Parton goes on to make the case for universal restoration spending a chapter each on Old and New Testament evidence, particularly citing the “all things” passages. He follows this by a theological case. He discusses the problematic syllogism of those believing in eternal judgement:

1. God loves everyone and intends for each person to be saved.
2. God will accomplish everything he intends.
3. Some people will be eternally lost.

This is not a problem for the evangelical universalist who believes all will finally be saved. He then, in the following chapters, addresses objections to this view, the most notable, that of free will. He observes the reluctance of C.S. Lewis and the resistance of Saul as examples of God overcoming free will.

After closing thoughts and sharing further resources, he briefly discusses annihilationism, that the dead will cease to exist. He also offers a fascinating discussion of Calvinism, Arminianism, and Universalism, suggesting Universalism provides a point of connection between the two views.

I think this is the best argument for evangelical universalism I have read and it is presented pastorally. It convinced me of one thing. Belief in eternal condemnation should not be treated as a test of orthodoxy. That said, I was not convinced by the argument. Briefly, the discussion of aion was not persuasive to me, nor was evidence offered to provide a basis for post-mortem reconciliation and restoration. Finally, Christianity has never been logically consistent and this felt a bit too pat to me.

That said, I will be the last to say what God can or cannot do. I would be delighted to see Parton revealed to have been right. I do wonder about the opportunity of post-mortem salvation for some, including those who never heard, and perhaps others who were unrepentant in life, who may not have understood the grace of God in Christ. It’s harder for me to believe all hardness of heart will be overcome. I think there may be some for whom heaven would be a greater agony than hell. But for myself, I cannot go beyond what we know in scripture, and I find no assurance from the silence of scripture on our post-mortem existence to embrace the universalist view.

Finally, I will mention the author reached out to me to review his book and was glad to send it, even after I shared that I would likely disagree. I was grateful for the chance to read it, the author’s sincere passion for God’s glory, and that he gave me thought-provoking arguments!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.