It has always surprised me how many proponents of ET talk about how serious of a heresy UR is, but then they refute it with very weak arguments that, in my opinion, show little effort to understand what Biblical UR is all about. In particular, they confuse an Evangelical UR position with the view that everybody is presently saved and that there is no judgment/punishment for anybody. To win a battle, you need to know your enemy.
I think that, when ET proponents condemn UR with a broad brush, some listeners get curious about the deeper details of UR, then they go and do the research on their own. Then they discover, and sometimes even believe, the Biblical case for UR that the broad condemnations failed to address.
This was the case for me. I first heard about UR in 2008 shortly after The Shack was published. Although I never read the book in its entirety, I heard many Evangelicals condemning the book for teaching Universalism. The type of Universalism allegedly taught in The Shack was the more liberal type, so I didn't investigate the doctrine any further at time. However, several years later, I started reevaluating many aspects of my faith, and I remembered the concept of Universalism and decided to research that further. Then, for the first time I saw the Biblical argument for UR and eventually decided that it was true. But, had it not been for all the yelling about The Shack, I might not have thought about looking up UR.
Perhaps this is an example of how God works all things after the council of His will (Eph. 1:11). It looks like God can even work through the teaching of erroneous ideas to show people the Truth in His own timing.
Wow! how awesome is this!? :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :hithere:
Great post! thank-you for posting it!
That was well said Graph.
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:Peace2: :dsunny:
I don't know how I missed this post from three weeks ago but I'm glad it was brought up again. So thanks everybody. I love to hear how others came to believe UR. :dsunny:
:dsunny: :HeartThrob: :thumbsup: