What is the Universalism view of Jesus and the Bible?

Answer 1

Universalism teaches that all people will be saved. However it is not possible to categorize all universalists into one group. Universalists vary in belief when it comes to Biblical teaching.

They obviously believe what The Bible teaches about sin and salvation and the atoning death of Jesus Christ. BUT......some universalists say that it is through the atonement of Jesus that all will ultimately be reconciled to God. Some say that all will go to heaven sooner or later, whether or not they have trusted in or rejected Jesus as saviour during their lifetime. This universal redemption will be realized in the future where God will bring all people to repentance. Some believe God is one person, some believe in the Trinity, some believe Jesus is a creation ie they deny the deity of Christ. Other universalists tend toward a new age concept of man's divinity.

Answer 2

from Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980

Universalism, Doctrinal. The theory that hell is essentially a kind of purgatory in which sins are expiated, so that eventually everyone will be saved. Also called apokatastasis, it was condemned by the Church in A.D. 543, against the Origenists, who claimed that "the punishment of devils and wicked men is temporary and will eventually cease, that is to say, that devils or the ungodly will be completely restored to their original state" (Denzinger 411).

Historically, that was Universalism, obviously condemned as a heresy in the sixth century. But, as with all heresies, they do not die, this one resurfaced near the end of the 19th century as Modernism in the Catholic Church. It spread through various Protestants, and has become nearly universal (pardon the pun) in modern society - as least among those who still believe in an afterlife. Although in its modern incarnation it is not so much a specific belief as the general feeling that it doesn't really matter what you believe everyone is going to end up in heaven. It has spread through many people who claim to be Catholic and is endemic to some Protestants.