LDS attorney Blake Ostler is one of the most popular voices among Latter-day Saints on social media. In a recent conversation with Mormon podcaster Jacob Hansen about salvation and soteriology, Ostler took jabs at Protestant teachings and argued that the Bible supports Latter-day Saint views. But some of Ostler’s arguments struck me as particularly implausible. In particular, Ostler pointed to two Biblical texts to argue for a (near) universal salvation.

In this post I am going to discuss one Biblical text Ostler appeals to in order to argue that the Bible teaches a form of universal salvation for all mankind: Philippians 2:9-11

⁹ Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Ostler’s argument is that every person will eventually bow the knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and therefore everyone will eventually be saved. Ostler takes this universal confession as evidence that everyone will ultimately experience salvation. He even describes this confession as the act by which a person enters into a “saving relationship” with Christ.

Ostler goes so far as to say this:

“Every single person will bend the knee. Every single person. So if one takes the view that what you do is have faith and confess Christ to be saved, you have to be a universalist. There can’t be a hell. Every single person is saved because Philippians 2 says so.”

But this simply does not follow from the text. Ostler is confusing universal submission to Christ with universal salvation.

Christ’s Universal Lordship

Start with Paul’s immediate language. Paul describes every knee bowing before Christ and every tongue confessing his lordship. Whatever the precise meaning of Paul’s references to those “in heaven,” (likely a reference to angelic beings) “on earth,” and “under the earth,” the point is clearly comprehensive: no part of creation will ultimately escape the authority of Jesus Christ.

But acknowledging Christ’s authority is not the same thing as being saved by Christ. The New Testament explicitly describes beings who are aware of God’s authority but are not recipients of salvation. James tells us that “even the demons believe—and shudder” (James 2:19). Jesus likewise teaches that there will be those who acknowledge him as Lord but nevertheless hear him say, “I never knew you” and are told to depart from him (Matt. 7:21–23).

The problem with Ostler’s argument is therefore already apparent. A universal confession of Christ’s lordship does not equal a universal experience of salvation.

As Christian scholar Robert Lightner put it, “No intelligent being—whether angels and saints in heaven; people living on the earth; or Satan, demons, and the unsaved in hell—in all of God’s universe will escape. All will bow either willingly or they will be made to do so.” Robert P. Lightner, “Philippians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 654.

The Problem of the Sons of Perdition

And in fact, Ostler himself acknowledges that as part of this conversation when he points to the Sons of Perdition. He acknowledges that they have bowed their knee to Christ but will ultimately not be saved:

“But we’re already saved. Every single person will bend the knee and confess Christ. Every single person ever born, except for sons of perdition.

For sons of perdition, it’s reversed. They’ve bowed the knee, confessed Christ, and they’ve come to know Christ to such a degree that when they reject Christ and put him to open shame, they’ve committed themselves by their own choice. They are so committed to their rejection of Christ that they will never accept him. These are the sons of perdition, and therefore they can’t receive any degree of glory because they hate glory itself.”

Ostler is saying either one of two things, both of which undercut his argument:  

1. The Sons of Perdition will not bow their knee and confess Christ at the final judgment. In that case, Ostler is contradicting Paul. Paul does not say that every knee will at some point bow, only for some subsequently to reverse their confession. He presents the universal bowing of the knee and confession of Christ as the climactic acknowledgment of Christ’s lordship: “every knee should bow” and “every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
2. The Sons of Perdition will bend their knee at the final judgment, but will nevertheless not receive salvation. If this is what Ostler means—and his statement that they “have bowed the knee” seems to point in this direction—then he has conceded the central point: bowing the knee and confessing Christ does not, by itself, equate to salvation.

Ultimately, Ostler actually seems to recognize that the confession in Philippians 2 is not salvific when discussing the Sons of Perdition. His difficulty is that he wants to use the same confession as evidence for universal salvation when discussing everyone else.

The Old Testament Vision of Judgment

That Paul is referring to universal submission rather than universal salvation is even clearer when we look at the Old Testament passage Paul is quoting. Paul draws on Isaiah 45:23.

But this chapter does not preach a universal salvation at all. To the contrary, the author clearly distinguishes between the salvation that will come to Israel and the destruction that others will experience:

²² Turn to me and be saved,
all the ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.
²³  By myself I have sworn;
from my mouth has gone out in ^jrighteousness
a word that shall not return:
To me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear allegiance.

This text is plainly not describing universal salvation. In fact, immediately afterwards Isaiah distinguishes between those who are saved and those are put to shame:

²⁴  Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me,
are righteousness and strength;
to him shall come and be ashamed
all who were incensed against him.
²⁵  In the Lord all the offspring of Israel
shall be justified and shall glory.

So everyone acknowledges Yahweh’s sovereignty, but not everyone receives a joyful outcome. Those who are “the offspring of Israel” are justified and glory while others are ashamed.

In fact, just a few verses earlier Isaiah makes the distinction even more explicitly:

¹⁶  All of them are put to shame and confounded;
the makers of idols go in confusion together.
¹⁷  But Israel is saved by the Lord
with everlasting salvation;
you shall not be put to shame or confounded
to all eternity. (Isaiah 45:16-17)

When Paul takes Isaiah’s language and applies it to Jesus in Philippians 2, there is no reason whatsoever to assume that he is transforming Isaiah’s universal acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty into a doctrine of universal salvation. In fact, the language Paul quotes does not refer to salvation. Instead, Paul Is taking a passage about the universal acknowledgement of Yahweh’s sovereignty and applying it to Jesus. He is emphasizing Jesus’s lordship, not the universality of salvation. Just as Isaiah described, all will bow and acknowledge Christ’s Lordship, but some will be ashamed, while others will be justified and saved. This is a universal day of judgment, not a universal experience of salvation.

Finally, don’t miss what is so remarkable about Paul’s use of Isaiah 45.

Isaiah is speaking of Yahweh, the one true God, before whom every knee will bow, but Paul applies that language completely and totally to Christ. As Pastor Jason Meyer explained, “Paul takes something from the OT that can be true only of Yahweh and breathtakingly applies it directly to Jesus. The context of Isaiah 45:23 makes this transfer all the more stunning because it emphatically declares that there is no other god besides the one true God.”

The rest of Philippians does not teach universal salvation

Another reason to reject Ostler universalistic interpretation of Phil 2:9-11 comes from the very same epistle, where a chapter later Paul contrasts the fate of non-believers with those of believers.

^“For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory^, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.” (Phil 3:18-21)

Paul places two things side by side:

First, the enemies of the cross whose end is destruction

Second, those who believe in Christ whose bodies will be transformed to be like his glorious body in the resurrection.

And he does so using language that harkens back to Christ’s universal Lordship when he notes that Christ will “make all things subject to himself” –exactly what Paul was describing in Phil 2.

Paul is clearly not equating being “subject” to Christ with salvation. All things are subject to Christ, but some are doomed to destruction. Exactly the dichotomy seen in Phil 2 and Isaiah 45.

The Book of Life

Paul makes a similar distinction in Philippians 4:3 when he refers to his fellow workers whose “names are in the book of life.” If Philippians 2 were teaching that every human being is ultimately saved, it would be difficult to explain why Paul speaks of the book of life in terms of particular people who belong to Christ and others who do not. 

When we go beyond the text of Philippians this point becomes even clearer. Revelation 20 describes the final judgment where everyone will be judged by Christ and “whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Rev. 20:15).

This is not a picture in which everyone who bows the knee to Christ receives salvation. It is a picture of universal judgment under the authority of Christ, with a real distinction between those who belong to him (and are found in the Book of Life) and those who are condemned to eternal punishment. 

Conclusion

Ostler takes Paul’s declaration that every knee will bow wildly out of context. Rather than a promise of universal salvation, this is a promise that all will stand before Christ and acknowledge him as the sovereign Lord. Philippians 2 teaches that every knee will bow because Christ is their ruler. The final victory of Christ is therefore universal, but salvation in Christ is not.