1.  Universalism Seems to Misrepresent the New Birth.

These thoughts should provoke thought and caution on the part of all.  Universalism has a tendency to teach a “loose” doctrine pertaining to the new birth.  There can be no limit to the amount of caution that should be exercised when instructing a lost person what it takes on their part to become a child of God.  No sincere person would ever want to be found guilty of deceiving a lost person into thinking that they were born again when all along they remain at a distance from salvation.  It is certain that God is not confused about the condition of a person’s soul.  If a person thinks they are born of the Holy Spirit when in truth they have only been deceived, God will be altogether just to send that person off to the lowest region of Hell when they come to the end of life’s journey.

Universalist often misrepresent the doctrine of the new birth.  Most teach that a lost person can simply make a mental decision expressing a desire to be a child of God.  The result of this teaching is that a person is declared to be a child of God based on their decision.  This teaching presents salvation as a promise guaranteed on grounds of accepting God’s gift of salvation.  This teaching fails to point out that true salvation results with real evidence being present in the soul of the child of God.  No one can definitely know that this evidence resides within another person.  The person who has been born-again is the only one who knows and can declare its presence.  All who have been born-again can relate to an occasion when this change occurred.  In short, a person who doesn’t have the “possession” of the Holy Spirit in their soul is unable to make a “profession”.  So then, those who cannot relate to an occasion when they became a possessor of the Holy Spirit must be considered in need of the new birth.  Universalist fall short of teaching this truth, in the main.

The scriptures teach that a person has real evidence within their own person when they have truly believed on the Lord Jesus Christ with all their heart.  Notice a few verses that present this fact.

(John 4:13-14)  Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: {14} But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

(Rom 8:16) The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.

(Gal 4:6) And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

(1 John 3:24) … And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

These are just a few of the verses that abundantly prove that there is real personal evidence of deliverance within a child of God.  With this being true, no one (not even those who teach Universalism) has the right to tell a person that they are a child of God.  If anyone practices telling people that they are children of God, “Woe unto them”.  Let every Bible believer yield to the teaching of God’s Word and let the redeemed of the Lord say so for their own selves, Ps. 107:2.