|
"All people everywhere, follow me and be saved. I am God. There is no other God. I will make a promise by my own power. And my promise is true. What I say will not be changed. I promise that everyone will bow before me. Everyone will promise to follow me. People will say, 'Goodness and power come only from the Lord.' Everyone who has been angry with the Lord will come to him and be ashamed." -- Isaiah 45:22-24 (International Children's Bible; New Century Version) The cold blast of early spring air took my breath away this morning as I stepped out for a brisk walk. Dawn was arriving in rosy splendor across the pond as the red-tipped blackbirds were singing from the cattails. On my way back home to small girls all toasty warm from sleep, a sudden earth-shaking thought engulfed me. I have spent the past eight months fervently seeking truth on a certain matter of absolute importance: eternity. I don't see how it could be considered by any rational soul as less than the single most important knowledge in the universe. What happens in the Great Beyond? Surely each thoughtful person must come to a place of intense introspection and soul-searching regarding the eternity awaiting all around the corner. (Yet without going deep into their own personal quest, some do choose to burrow in their self-fabricated bubbles of security, whether the security be in a person or belief system.) Ah, my mind wanders... back to my early morning stroll. As I paused to soak in the beauty of the morning, my entire being was suddenly flooded with the truth of God's love and beauty. Every human being begins life as a precious person created in the very image of God. I feel overwhelmed with this thought: Can God love sinners so much as to send His Son to be the Saviour of the world and yet hate sinners so much as to prepare eternal torture for them? Can "eternal torment" possibly be true? Or is it a redemptive idea, such as a loving parent seeking to perfect a child? Could one of my precious children do anything, anything at all, to make me love him less? Emphatically, no! It is an impossibility. Who gave this imperfect mother such perfect love? I assure you I did not acquire it through my own effort. Who gave my husband the never-wavering motivation to constantly love, teach, nurture, and protect his family? Did he muster up enough virtues on his own to stand so mightily? He'd tell you no, but his virtues are real, beautiful, divine... yes, divine. God Almighty gave these gifts to us. God gave my children the desires and motivations to love life, to seek what is true and beautiful. Are we a perfect sort of family with unusually noble virtues? Of course not, we have many personal family challenges but God continually works with us and through us in spite of our human failings. Oh I am so thankful He does! Oh beautiful, glorious day! All the prayer, study, meditation, and musings of the past months have suddenly come to a clear focus. Here are two reasons I became a convinced, complete, total universalist this morning: Reason One In our homeschool, we have been studying the Inquisition. Why did born-again Christians torture and burn people refusing to accept Jesus Christ? A sobering, horrifying thought. Did they believe God Himself would do this -- and infinitely worse -- to the unbelievers throughout eternity? Would the loss of some people justify the salvation of others? Wouldn't the eternal torture of just one soul equate to more suffering than all the combined sufferings of humanity since the dawn of creation? Here's another horrific thought. Many Christians believe children are safe until the "age of accountability." (I wonder, is that in the Bible?) Why did Christians who believe this find it scandalous when Andrea Yates killed -- yes, drowned one by one -- her five beautiful children in her desire to send them straight to the arms of God and not risk the very real possibility they might be lost to the world as they grew? If this idea were indeed true, why not consider Andrea a sort of heroine to be admired? Eureka... she secured the most important imaginable gift for each of her beloved children! They will definitely spend eternity with Jesus in heaven. At the time of these murders, I believed just as Andrea about the fate of children and I admit I truly could "almost" understand her reasoning. (Don't worry boys, I wouldn't let a flea hurt you and least of all, me.) Now of course I know that Andrea at best was mentally unbalanced. I'm simply musing aloud. Reason Two Have you ever pondered just how l-o-n-g eternity actually is? As a deeply sensitive, reflective child, I would work myself into an utter frenzy on a regular basis. I would sit and stare and start to think. I'd think and think about hell. The heat (preacher said seven times hotter than any fire on earth... quoted a verse to prove it... never found it since but it must be there). The pain -- I'd think of how it felt when I burned my finger on the stove. OK, seven times hotter than that. Now the pain is on my whole hand. OK... now it's on my whole arm. Now my whole arm and leg. Then I'd start thinking like this: Imagine one second is really a whole year. I'd count off the seconds and get more horrified. Then one second is really ten years... count off seconds. Oh my God in heaven! All those seconds (years) and we're still right back at the very beginning! I'd just want to evaporate and die right there -- better to have never been born. (Obviously I had taken to heart all those hellfire sermons I was hearing.) You get the picture. Within 15-20 minutes, I'd be a hysterical, screaming, crying maniac. I'd often wake up at night screaming for mother. I just knew if I caught hold of her dress hem, I'd make it to heaven for sure. Even Jesus Himself couldn't pull me off Mother, by George. They would just see how hard I can hold on. I slept between my older sister and younger sister. Every single night, my older sister would say, "Now let's get our tall glasses of water ready. You have to drink every drop 'cos if Jesus comes tonight, at least we'll have water a little while." Meaning of course we'd all go straight to hell as we surely had unconfessed sins lurking somewhere. (Preacher did say even one tiny unconfessed sin would send you straight to hell.) Musings enough. Simply this -- I do not know how or when or what, but I definitely know why: We are His children, His masterpiece of creation. From this moment forward, I vow to bask in the glory of my God and His ultimate sacrifice of His Son, Christ Jesus, the Saviour of the World -- yes, the world. I trust Him to work it all out in His own beautiful time. Glory hallelujah!
|
|
Christian Universalist Testimonies -- Christians Transformed "From Hell to Hope"
|
|
Heavenly Father, please bless this ministry, lead multitudes to this website, and help them see the truth of Your love and forgiveness for all people through the power of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the whole world. Open their eyes to Your true nature, take away their fears, and fill their hearts with the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. |