I can’t remember when I first learned about Christian Universalism. It might have been about 9 years ago when my son Chris shared the book, Love Wins, with me. Although the author, Rob Bell, was accused of being a Christian Universalist, he refused to take on that label. After all, CU’s were branded heretics. Pastors who came to believe this way of interpreting the Bible were kicked out of their positions. I have been verbally attacked viciously because of my belief.
I’ve called myself a Christian for 20 years. I surrendered my life to Christ after I believed that I just needed to make a choice–either I was going to follow Jesus or I was not. And I was desperate to have peace in my life. I said to Jesus, “I am going to try this surrendering to you thing out, but if it doesn’t work, I’m out of. here.”
I still had a lot of questions about the Bible. One of the biggest ones was, “How could a loving God send people to eternal damnation just because they don’t believe a certain way.”
I tried embracing the idea of feeling scared that people like Cliff Mikkelson, the only person in my family who had not professed Jesus as being his Lord and Savior, would go to hell. I prayed for him with other believers who were concerned about his eternal destiny.
Really, I think I gave up the idea of eternal conscious torment very soon after I decided to whole-heartedly follow Jesus. But I didn’t want to go public for fear of rejection. I was already rejected for so many other things! I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to live life without being afraid of what others think.
Now that I am starting a vegan, Christian universalist monastery and a vegan conservative village, I want to practice my Christian faith with like-minded people. I also want to spread the good news about Christian Universalism.
Making a 100% commitment to CU is liberating. And I want to share with you some resources I have thoroughly enjoyed and felt inspired by.
This article from Tentmaker website offers scriptures that validate the Christian Universalism interpretation of the Bible.
Hope for All Connection http://www.hopeforallconnection.com
Here is an excerpt: “We want to celebrate this message in the context of community through conversation, friendship, & connection with each other. We also desire to be an inviting place for those who are exploring the idea of Jesus Savior of ALL. It is important to us to be prepared to give an answer for the hope we have so we network with each other & share biblical resources so that we might be built up & established in our faith, & in turn share our hope with others.”
I feel overjoyed to find this website, and am looking forward to joining in the Zoom services and discussion groups, and the Facebook scripture study. I saw the video I share below by a person who is involved in this group, and I was deeply touched by his sharing on this video about the founders of another CU website which I will talk about next.
Some websites that I recommend that you explore are the following:
http://www.totalvictoryofchrist.com
I am amazed at how well this person presents Biblical teachings. He is clear and concise. He looks like he is so well-organized, with a Facebook page with an abundance of teachings. I’m looking forward to getting to know him better. Some of his video’s are listed below.
http://www.tentmaker.org (I enjoy a lot of his work, but don’t feel happy about his political orientation which from time to time comes up in his work)
http://www.hopeforallconnection.com
Here are some videos I really like:
