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…
Just because it's "orthodox" doesn't mean it's true
What Has Always Been Believed
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…
The Simple Life
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’…
Do Universalists Need Jesus?
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…
TULIP
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:…
Let’s See What You’ve Got
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…
You Are Already a Heretic
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…
If You Were a Universalist
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,…
I’m Not Here to Convert You
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…
How to be Free From Sin…
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:…
Defending Everlasting Torment
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…
