tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26653389426114858292008-11-07T12:04:12.021-05:00Welcome to <a href="http://www.christianheretic.com">ChristianHeretic.com</a>, where your host shares his occasional thoughts on life and philosophy from the mindset of <i>just because it's "orthodox" doesn't mean it's true.</i><br><br> <b>If you're looking for my page of Christian Universalist resources, <a href="http://www.christianheretic.com/2007/03/on-universal-reconciliation.html">it's still available</a>.</b>The Christian Heretichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06628794458501616175theheretic@christianheretic.comBlogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665338942611485829.post-15262675181688192902008-08-21T11:50:00.003-04:002008-09-18T12:32:09.171-04:00

If there's one thing I've learned in the last little while, it's that very little is actually what it seems. Often something that seems like a random detail is actually there to distract us from something bigger (or something huge will be staged to create support for something that people would otherwise protest). Of course everyone knows that this happens all the time in politics, but I

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I have had people of various religions and denominations try to convince me that their set of doctrines are the truth and that if I don't follow their particular philosophy that I will come to a bad end (or at least not as good an end as I could). With so many different ideologies competing for my allegiance I had to find a way to determine which of them (if any) were likely to be true. Even

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As Tyler Durden put it in Fight Club (possibly the most important movie ever made), we're "chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need." And, even worse, "the things you own end up owning you." He's right. Very few, if any, of our possessions actually make us happy. On the contrary, they often make us quite miserable. They enslave us to having to maintain

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I am a slave, and odds are high that you are too. We are slaves to a system that has come to dominate pretty much the entire world. I call this system "transactionalism." It's a way of life in which people will only do something for you if you do something for them, and vice versa. It's a way of life where you can't have even the basic things needed to live, things like food, clothing, shelter

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Everlasting torment in hell isn't the only topic I've discussed with "Bob." We've talked about all sorts of other theological and philosophical issues, one of my favorites being when we've talked about his thoughts on the Bible: Bob: The problem with most Christians today is that they just don't follow the Bible any more. If more Christians read their Bible and actually followed it we'd see

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Those who know me well know that I don't believe in free will, or at least that I think it's the biggest misnomer there is, philosophically and theologically speaking. Every person alive is a victim of their genetics and past experiences. In other words, every choice we make is predetermined by our nurture and nature. Why do you favour your right hand when I favour my left? Something in our

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The following is a dialogue between myself and "Bob," an Evangelical Christian, about the subject of hell: Bob: Hi, I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions. Me: Sure, why not? What's up? Bob: If you were to die today, do you know for sure where you'd end up? Me: Creepy question, but okay. I'd probably end up in a coffin or an urn. Bob: What I meant was, do you think you'd end up

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While I've been a Christian Universalist for about seven or eight years now, there was a time when I believed very strongly that non-Christians would spend eternity in hell (and did lots of street preaching to try to prevent as many people as I could from experiencing this fate). After being introduced to the doctrine of Universal Reconciliation, and after much study and soul searching, I had to

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Recently, a traditionalist Christian was trying to promote his views by saying something along the lines of how we should ignore interpretations of Scripture other than those that have always been believed by the Church. In response, I would suggest that there's no such thing as "what has always been believed by the Church," because there have always been Christians (members of the Church, in

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No, this isn't about Paris or Nicole, it's about the lifestyle known as "Simple Living." "Simple Living," as Wikipedia currently puts it, "is a lifestyle in which individuals consciously choose to minimize the 'more-is-better' pursuit of wealth and consumption. Adherents choose simple living for a variety of reasons, including spirituality, health, increase in 'quality time' for family and

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Someone I know recently said that if Universalism is true then we don't need Jesus and, since I've heard this statement too many times from too many traditionalists, I felt a need to give a short response to it here. As a Christian Universalist, I like to respond to assertions like this one with a parable in the form of a news article: At 6:00pm, Friday evening, firefighter Joshua Christos died

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Believe it or not, I find that there is quite a bit in Calvinism to agree with, particularly their take on free will. There are a couple points where we disagree though, what with me being a Christian Universalist and all, so I thought I'd give my Universalist take on TULIP: 1. Total Depravity/Total Grace: Every part of our lives is affected by sin, but where sin abounds grace super-abounds so

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In my experience, really thinking over the implications and ramifications of their own doctrines doesn't seem to be something most Christians do. Likewise, theological consistency doesn't appear to be a virtue among most Christians either. These observations are probably made the clearest when it comes to the topic of hell. The fact that interpreting the 10 passages generally used to defend

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It doesn't matter what your theological views are, nor does it matter what denomination your church is, no matter who you are, you are considered a heretic by some other group of Christians out there. But, of course, your views and denomination are right and everybody else's is wrong so it doesn't matter what they think, does it?

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Brian, over at The Beautiful Heresy, reminded me of a great old (possibly apocryphal) story about the 19th century Universalist Hosea Ballou in a recent review of Martin Zender's newest book: Ballou was riding the circuit in the New Hampshire hills with a Baptist minister one day, arguing theology as they traveled. At one point, the Baptist looked over and said, "Brother Ballou, if I were a

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Believe it or not, my goal is not to convert anyone to Christian Universalism (as if I could, anyway). It might seem like this is my goal but my actual reasons for discussing the topic of Universal Reconciliation on this site are a little different. My first reason is to provide some explanations to those who truly want to understanding why I believe what I believe about the topic, as well as

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Martin Zender, a friend of mine from the US, has put out his latest book, How to be Free From Sin While Smoking a Cigarette, and I just can't recommend it enough. This is the book for people with weaknesses on what God thinks about our sin. Here are a few excerpts from the book: "The Pharisees of Jesus’ day tried hard to stamp sin from their lives. The result? They sinned like crazy people.

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The fact that nobody has succeeded in completing my Everlasting Hell Challenge doesn't necessarily prove that it can't be done, but I'm not holding my breath that someone will be able to. In the meantime, however, we may as well take a look at the passages in Scripture that are used to back up the idea of Everlasting Torment (ET). Let's start with the Old Testament as it must be chock-full of

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When discussing or debating Universal Reconciliation with Christians who hold the traditional views of heaven and hell I will often be told that Jesus taught everlasting torment in hell for non-believers so we have to believe it. Whether or not He did (and you all know by now that I don't believe He did), I would like to suggest that this is about the only teaching of Jesus that most Christians

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Always remember, just because something is labelled "orthodox" doesn't mean it's true. Heresy is often just the rejection of commonly accepted error. This is the essence of my life philosophy, along with "question everything... even this." As most people do, I began life accepting that most of the standard "orthodox" beliefs were true, be they theological, economic, social or political beliefs.

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Exactly two months ago today I presented The Everlasting Hell Challenge which, as of yet, nobody has been able to win. A poster on the message board where I first presented the challenge asked me to, using the exact same criteria as my original challenge, try to prove Universal Reconciliation. The challenge presented to me was: Demonstrate convincingly that the idea that "everybody has been (

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Regarding my Salvations? entry, a friend commented on the similarity of the post to a couple of chapters in the writings of Robert Farrar Capon. Father Capon is an Episcopal priest, chef, author and my favorite contemporary theologian, and that entry was indeed inspired by his writings. Some of his works include: - The Mystery of Christ ... and Why We Don't Get It - Between Noon and Three:

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Throughout history various heretics (not to mention infidels, apostates and other non-believers in particular doctrines and dogmas) have been ostracized, persecuted, tortured and even killed for their particular beliefs (or lack thereof). Apparently we are often considered to be such a threat to the well being of society that if we are not eliminated we might actually be responsible for sending

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Lector: In the last post here it was pointed out that if there is anything at all that we have to do to "get right with God," even if it is simply "trusting Jesus," then salvation would be by work and not grace as it would be a transaction between us and God. So how does one get saved apart from some sort of transaction? Auctor: The only way for that to work would be if faith came after

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Many of the evangelicals I grew up with were horrified at the idea of magic and witchcraft, all the while promoting the biggest magic spell ever, known to many simply as "The Sinner's Prayer." This magical incantation, when spoken out loud (and truly believed), is supposed to somehow change the location that we end up in after we die from hell to heaven. Not only that, but speaking (and

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