Christian Universalism
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Christian Universalism
Contrary to popular belief, Christian Universalism did not start with Rob Bell's book, Love Wins. I have many friends who are Universalists that have read Rob's book and even they say he's not a Universalist. The concept of Universal Reconcilition certainly has a spectrum of various teachings in many areas of the bible. It is not a 'new' Christian religion, in fact most Christian Universalists I know don't think their way of living the Christian life is a religion at all.
Most of them don't have an Institutional Church that they belong to. Very few even have a creed, even less make you adopt a creed to prove your beliefs. They believe in Jesus, love God, and love others. Isn't Jesus the one that expressed these three basic tenets of our faith?
Many Evangelical Christians disagree with Christian Universalists over one interpretation of the word 'sheol' and 'hades'. In the Hebrew, Sheol is simply the 'grave'. In Greek, the word 'hades' means the 'grave'. The idea of it being a literal underworld, governed by Satan, and burning with fire is a pagan view adopted by the church. This is of no surprise since we know much of today's modern church is Pagan Christianity.
Popular Catholic journalist, Bill O'Reilly announced on his show 'The Factor', "Without hell, the Christian tradition breaks down."
Mark 7:8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.(ESV)
People mistakenly believe that Jesus speaks more of hell than he does of heaven, this is simply untrue. All it takes is a a few minutes to count the occurrences of heaven and hell in a concordance to see that is a false teaching. Some believe the doctrine of hell is psychologically damaging.
Of all the things that the Evangelical Church and Christian Universalists agree on, the Evangelical Church divides over this one thing.
Last I checked the unity of the brethren is Jesus, not hell.
I read a document called, 'The Valley of the Steeples' where a story is told about a dinosaur exhibit in a museum. Next to the dinosaur display was a large display of a dinosaur head. When the visitors asked the tour guide about the head she explained, "We didn't find out until after the display was built, that we had the wrong head. If we were to try and replace the head now, the entire display would break down."
Perhaps the Christian tradition has the wrong head. I'm pretty sure 'hell' isn't what holds The Church together. I am confident that it's Jesus that does that. Likewise, maybe it's hell that religion needs in order to stay in business.
Nevertheless, the command is to love God and love others. May we agree to disagree and restore unity to the brethren in love. There's no need to divide over one little thing, when we have a very Big God.
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I enjoyed this article, particularly the comment you made that "unity of the brethren is Jesus, not hell.
Thank you, Dave.
Thanks, John. Ephesians 4 is a great passage about growing in unity and Colossians 3:14 says that love is what unites us.
Anyone interested in Christian Universalism should check out the Christian Universalist Association, an interdenominational organization for Christians who believe in universal salvation. The CUA offers a ministerial training and ordination program, national conferences, and has lots of articles and videos on its website: http://www.christianuniversalist.org
Excellent points. I elaborate on these matters in my new book Kissing Fish: christianity for people who don't like christianity. Here's a classic essay by one of the most famous Universalists, William Barclay, http://www.auburn.edu/~allenkc/barclay1.html
There is no unity, as denominational "faith" has nothing to do with God. Think about this. I mean REALLY think about my next comments. Truth by definition is exclusive and where God is concerned all encompassing. Here's the kick. you have all of these different denominations of so called faith. All lay claim to having the truth. Yet they all differ with what they believe (this is in fact why there are so many different denominations). God is immutable (this means he is incapable of change) He has no need, as He is perfect. We are not. Therefor we pick and choose where the sayings/teachings of God are concerned. One man says "I don't agree with that particular teaching". In turn he leaves that church and finds another that doesn't have a problem not adhering to that, or that group of particular teachings. The bottom line is this. You either have the truth, or you do not have the truth in which case you have a lie. As I've stated God is immutable. With this truth does not, cannot differ from individual to individual. As God does not change, nor does the truth. God is truth, wouldn't you agree? From here we can go into misuse, as well as disuse of the word if we chose to. Don't get me wrong, I'm not judging anyone or any particular denomination, and or brand of faith. I stopped caring what others believe a long time ago. To each his own. Do your thing. But realize this. Just because you believe something to be true, does not in fact mean that it is. God bless..
O'Reilly, like many subjects he talks about, once again puts forth almost no effort to understand exactly what the opposition is arguing. >_< When he and Stossel discuss drugs, I just cringe and wonder why Stossel puts up with him.
An intelligent and thought provoking treatment of a controversial topic.
Dear Crawling Surface,
One man's heresy is another man's truth. No one has the corner market on God nor can we put him in a theological box. His ways are far beyond our knowing. We're each on a journey in getting to know the Divine and may we allow one another to have breathing room on our spiritual walkabouts so we don't suffocate one another.
DaveLewerenz 13 months ago
Very well written article Lisa!