It should be noted that the vast majority of
the scholars, historians, and Bible teachers cited above, come from the community
generalized as "orthodox." One will find the books written by these men and
women in the best seminaries and Bible colleges. As a matter of fact, many of the scholars
quoted are among the best the Christian scholastic community has to offer.
Had we quoted from the hundreds of qualified
scholars who have embraced the Doctrine of the Salvation of All Mankind from the
non-Orthodox communities, we would have certainly been accused of "stacking the
deck." The truth of the matter is, we have stacked the deck against ourselves, and
the outcome, I believe, should still be obvious to any open-minded individual.
We could have quoted from outstanding
non-Orthodox scholars who left the mainstream Protestant community, but we quoted very
few. Great teachers of the Word of God like Thomas Whittemore, Charles Chauncy, Theodore
Parker, Hosea Ballou, Lucius R. Paige, Walter Balfour, and a host of others who were known
for their outspokenness of this subject could have been cited, but we refrained. We could
have drawn from the great national leaders, men like Abraham Lincoln who embraced the
"larger hope," but we allow them for the most part, to be silent. When Lincoln
was asked to comment in a discussion on human destiny, he said, "it must be everyone
or nobody." We could have expanded that statement greatly with his own words on this
most important topic. The Cloud of Witnesses of soft-hearted Christians from the poetic
community is a train which would fill His temple, but we did not quote the hundreds of
works from great men and women who revealed the all-embracing Love of God in their
writings. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Lord Byron, Thomas Moore, William Wordsworth, Samuel
Coleridge, Robert Burns, Alexander Pope, and a host of other great literary minds would
have given honor to the Savior of All Mankind. But we refrained. Signers of the
Declaration of Independence such as Benjamin Rush and Winthrop Sargent, believers in the
"Larger Hope," could have shown us that the Doctrine of the Reconciliation of
All Mankind was woven right into the fibers of our Constitution. Clara Barton, founder of
the American Red Cross, and Florence Nightingale could been summoned to join us at our
sides as we declared the "Everlasting Gospel," but we chose to do it the hard
way. We went to Orthodoxy court and proved our case there. We hope you will one day read
the writings of some of the many thousands who have come out of Orthodoxy (or perhaps I
should say "traditions of men"), and have separated themselves unto their Savior
alone. In their writings and lives, is truly "Good News"-the same "Good
News" the early believers declared-Jesus Christ, Savior of the Whole World. "And
the Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come.'"