The Gospel Coalition is a coalition that has largely abandoned the gospel in favor of social justice. And while the vast majority of its contributors are given over to some form of social justice heresy, it is not the only problem. The lack of theological precision in the name of “charity” is one of the overarching themes of TGC and its allies.
Gavin Ortlund, a TGC contributor and the son of Anglican pastor, Ray Ortlund–who spends the majority of his time on social media defending Beth Moore–is now denying that Universalism is heresy.
Universalism is a denial of the exclusivity of Christ and a denial of Hell and essentially teaches that all souls will eventually be saved. There are varying streams within the heresy. Some believe that all souls will eventually be saved at some point after death while others believe that all souls are saved on Earth. Some Universalists teach that all religions ultimately lead to the same God therefore all who reach out to whatever God/god they are familiar with will be saved.
This teaching was denounced as heresy at the Council of Constantinople in 543 A.D. and is completely at odds with what Jesus and the Scriptures teach about salvation:
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Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. —John 14:6
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. —Romans 10:14-17
Despite this, Gavin Ortlund is questioned on Universalism and says that he would not place it in the same category as heresy.
Squishy doctrine and false teaching seem to be universal (no pun intended) within the entire pedigree of Ortlund men. It’s unascertainable to me what the fascination with these men is. None of them are qualified to teach; all of them deny important doctrines and biblical teachings at some level. For example, Gavin’s brother, Dane, wrote a book called Gentle and Lowly which essentially ranked the attributes of God in an unbiblical way denying the simplicity of God. The theme of the book was that God’s attributes of gentleness and meekness were God’s standard mode and that invoking other attributes such as wrath were not normative for God.
Ray Ortlund, the father, is a full-fledged Egalitarian and he has homosexuals who admit to having “sexual, romantic and deep-emotional attractions to people of the same sex.”
