I do want ask about this "Universal Witch hunt" thats been going on. I have been accused of Universalism as if it is the worse thing since the discovery of witches in Salem! It's as if we are saying that Jesus came to save humanity is a bad thing!
Maybe what we need to ask is "What is Universalism" in mans eyes and what is it in God's eyes?" As long as we are looking at Universalism as the broken religion of mans making, then NO, we are NOT Universalists. But if we look at it in God's eyes, then what is so evil about it that it rates a witch hunt mentality?
Here are the extremes. The hunters believe that everyone is going to hell because God is angry and if you don't repent of your drinking, then you are going to burn in hell for all eternity (and the extra alcohol helps)! Now think about that a minute. For all eternity? Suffering for millions and billions of years for a physical problem you have trouble over coming? Because someone didn't give you the gospel of a loving God? We ask, "Why does God let little Johnny die, yet we send little Johnny to eternal damnation if he didn't know about Christ! We say that our prison system is unjust punishment, torture is illegal, slavery is illegal, yet have no problem of a loving Father sending a drunk to eternal damnation of extreme torture and suffering. Now that just does not make sense.
Yet here we are saying that God is much more loving and forgiving than that, and we are being condemned to hell for it?
Universalism? What is it really? If you are talking about a broken religion that is using (and abusing) the name Universalism without understanding, then no, we are not. But if we see Universalism for the Truth about who and what we are in Christ, then yes, we are universalists, in God's definition, not mans'.
So lets set aside the witch hunt a moment and lets see what we are really all about.
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| Boyd Merriman |
Christianity (the religion, not the faith), has been infused by (in my opinion) faulty interpretations of what it means to be "elect" and "pre-destined".
ReplyDeleteThose beliefs don't align well with a Savior who didn't specifically "pick me". If we read those passages on election or pre-destination with the fact that Christ died for the world, you find out that the elect are entities like "the Church" and God did predestine "the Church".
What you are describing is a conflict with a belief system to focused on the individual.
Thank you brother for this post! Thank you Joel for flushing that out as well. Mr. Merriman, I think you and others did a wonderful job on the thread at Dr. Kruger's blog of trying to keep the conversation civil and calm when this subject was brought up. You and others allowed our Lord Jesus Christ to work through you for the benefit of all of us who were reading! Thank you so much.
ReplyDeleteHi Boyd, I invite you to add my blog site to your blog list as we both continue to promote the truth of Trinitarian Theology. I have much to say on my site concerning "HELL". You know, the hell Plato invented. Anyway, God bless and keep up the good work.
ReplyDeletePaul Kurts
www.pastorpaulsinteractiveblog.blogspot.com
www.newlifewcg.org