I think one of the biggest reasons people resist surrendering to Jesus is because their concept of God is, “believe in Jesus or you will go to hell.” That attitude drove me away from surrendering my life to Jesus for 33 years after I left the methodist church at age 16. When I finally did decide to give Jesus a try by acknowledging him as my Lord and Savior, I had some good reasons–intellectual as well as the testimonies of people I met at Living Springs–and the way they treat my family and I with such love even though we were not yet Christians.

I still remember how one friend, upon learning that I was surrendering my life to Jesus, said, “I’m so glad you will be in heaven with all of us.” I felt uncomfortable, and didn’t quite know why.

I never worried about Chris, who took about a year to make a decision to follow Jesus. Maud and Robert made their decision for Jesus within weeks after I did. Cliff decided to stick to his lifelong path of following Paramahansa Yogananda. I remember one time that people wanted to pray with me fervently that Cliff would be saved so that he wouldn’t go to hell. I felt uncomfortable.

At some point I realized that I just could not accept the concept that God would condemn people who didn’t surrender their lives to Jesus–to eternal conscious torment. Those three words were not used–they sound so awful, right? Hell is bad enough, but not so descriptive.

About 7 years after I decided to follow Jesus, I learned about Christian Universalism. I immediately knew that this was true–that God wills for all to be reconciled to Him, and predestined all to be reconciled to Him. This is a combination of Armenianism and Calvinism. My studies over the past 15 years or so prove to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that this doctrine is absolutely true according to the Bible, and to most of the early church fathers.

This video series might help you to see how Christian Universalism is NOT a heresy, but rather the truth that we all long for. We long for a father who gives us free will, yet at the same time makes sure that we use our free will to do that which is best for us. I hope you will listen at least to the first video and then you can decide if you want to listen to the whole series.