Is It Wrong To Hope For Universal Salvation?

Q: I'm attracted to the idea of universal salvation, specifically the belief that all will eventually be saved as taught by George MacDonald. Is it wrong or inaccurate to hope for this?

A: That's an interesting question. I admit that this is an answer that might get me into theological trouble. If God saves everybody in the end, He didn't want us to know it. Therefore, there is virtually nothing in the entire span of Scripture that gives us any confidence that God will save everybody in the end. You might say that there's a hint of it in a couple of passages, but there's nothing that, in my mind as a Bible teacher, would give me any confidence in that belief.

God can do whatever He wants to do, and I don't think He is obliged to tell us everything that He is going to do. But I would say this: if God is going to save everybody in the end, He did not want us to know about it, and He did not want us to operate under that premise. God wants us to operate under the premise that heaven and hell are for real and are eternal.

So, is it wrong to hope in this? I would just say that the Bible doesn't give you sufficient reason to hope in this. But hope in God. If God decides to do something unexpected, unannounced in His word at the end of all things, then that's up to the Lord. There are things that God doesn't tell us, and these things are not revealed to us for a specific purpose, for a reason in God's wisdom.