Well, I went "public" on facebook.

[marie glen]

Here! here! to "calm and loving manner"
You're also much braver than I am! Good for you! I prayed and hopefully I'll remember to do so again! I see 405 or so have read this post, so maybe that's 405 or so prayers!

'Everyone' (aka 'they') greatly underestimate God.. And, also "His Great Plan of Salvation" - And so many folks don't realize that the concept of 'hell' paints the Creator Father as someone worse than hitler.. (Someone may have said that already, but I can never help but point it out.)

I think if I ever come out of the closet (on UR with the 'churched') I will probably try to say just a couple of good points and then would drop it, let it be seeds. I hope I get braver!

[willieH]

And I've had a lady that went to an old church of mine that has started arguing against my viewpoint. She just thre the "What about people like Hitler, Nero, Herod, etc." argument at me. It honestly made my blood boil slightly to see such a vengeful argument being espoused by someone I usualy get along with, but I'm trying to argue my viewpoint in a calm and loving manner.

Any prayers would be appreciated.

Ask her if Hitler would have been different if Jesus one day back in 1943 turned over one of his cars he was riding in and knocked him on the road. Then suddenly appeared in his risen glory to question what he was doing? Then blinded him and made him drive to a Christian Jew who would open his eyes again in 3 days. Would Hitler follow Jesus like Paul did? Why did Jesus stop Paul from his murderous rampage and convert him, while letting Hitler continue to drive down the road?

Paul

Just ...excellent Paul...  ...excellent! 

willieH 

[Beloved Servant]

Thank you Paul.

[Jael]

I think many church people have been conditioned not to think at all when it comes to spiritual matters. It is like some scales are over their eyes that stop them seeing when a church teaching really makes no sense. Case in point, my family have become extremely Word of Faith down the years. They've been doing this home group bible study from some Copeland teaching CDs on blood covenant. Some of the message sounded a bit fishy to me. For one thing virtually no scripture was used and the entire teaching was surrounded by rhetoric. There were a few matters of history that he used to back up his teachings. It took me about half an hour to prove that he either took his history from another ignorant person without checking the facts, or else just made it up. But when I gently mentioned this to my family they just accused me of being against "great men of God". The fact that much of the teaching was inaccurate didn't seem to penetrate them.

Part of me wants to be like some of you guys and just yell from the roof tops what I believe.

I have found with some people, like the lady arguing with you on facebook, pointing out that there is no biblical requirement to have correct beliefs on the afterlife to attain salvation can be affective.

[Nil Recurring]

Things have actually going pretty well between me and my folks...my mom said she isn't particularly upset that I'm a Universalist, just that she's afraid of where it could lead, which is rather humorous to me, as I was basically an agnostic before becoming a fully-fledged UR. And mostly the people that objected to my Universalism are people I don't really talk to much anyways (I tend to have a lot of "friends" on facebook that are just people i knew long ago).

My sister has even expressed interest in the topic, so I'm hoping there is some potential for fruit there. And I've found that I can still attend a church and not have too much trouble, usually the sermons don't really touch on hell that much at the moment so I haven't had too many facepalm moments. And i guess as a theistic evolutionist I'm used to hearing things in church I don't agree with, so maybe I'm just conditioned to be able to get over the things I have disagreements with.

[WhiteWings]

Good news NR

Unknown makes unloved.
I think many people oppose UR based on wrong understanding.

[PaoloNuevo]

I agree with WhiteWings...

For whatever reason, "christians" equate UR with New Age-ism or simply ignore the fact that we still uphold John 14: 6, actually this time more than ever. 

[Universalist Catholic]

Why should Jesus not be able to save them?  He has more power than any of their sins.  You see, those same people would have no problem seeing Nero, Hitler or Herod in Heaven if they repented at their deathbead.  So why would they be so opposed to them being saved in the context of UR?  Its not logical.  Plus, if those people who were harmed by those men are restored as if their misery never happened, whats the purpose of revenging those people who caused the harm?  And yes, those people may have to learn some tough lessons for their actions.  So if they have their wrongs corrected, and the people who were harmed recovered as if never harmed, then Justice has been served.  You could make a case that Justice could be served by annihilating the wrongdoer, in the case they did not want to repent.  However thats saying God cant get what he wants. Think about it this way.  Would torturing Hitler bring all those Jews back to life killed in the Holocaust, or relieve the psychological scarring the Jewish Victims suffered from the concentration camps?  Would torturing Charles Mansen ressurect those people he killed? Would Torturing Bin Laden rebuild the World Trade Center, ressurect those who died as a result of the terrorist attacks, or undo the grief of those who lost family or friends in the attacks?  So in this time, we can only imprison these dangerous criminals or execute them, only to save others.  But Jesus is more powerful, and can restore what we cant, and even humans know that meaningless torture solves nothing, and is just more cruelty.  And unfortunately people do have a weakness to seek revenge.