Universalism, when were you led to it.

[arcticmonster2003]

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[gatheredfragments]

none of your offered choices apply in my life

the Holy Spirit brought me to it when it was time

prior to that God had me learn from the nations of foreigners....starting in mainstream beliefs of christianity..and moving through other forms of religion.

regardless...what is the voice of God is spoken in any language...and HE opens your eyes when its time

i guess though...when Jesus showed me why my 'abuser' did as they did..and then showed me how to forgive...and that HE loves them and intends them restored..but that it can be delayed because of my lack of forgiveness...i was ready to be shown..because i, like Rahab, wanted my family to have a new inheritance in Jerusalem...not the one that would have been limited by my keeping them bound in chains of anger and condemning judgment. 

does that help?

[Taffy]

Hi Artic

likewise to Frag..
through Legalism ( wwcg) It was  Faith & Grace which led me to seeing Christ Savior OF ALL ...but never held the ET doctrine  even in those early days, so no baggage their for mine..Thankfully.

maybe you could add some more options to your poll?

Blessings
Taffy

[arcticmonster2003]

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[Taffy]

thanks for sharing Artic :icon_flower:

As you were unsure about editing..hope you dont mind but I did add another Option for you..if its not to your liking, I can change it or delete it?
Blessings
Taffy

[arcticmonster2003]

Thanks Taffy

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: First glimmer for me was in '94, a few months after my mother died. Then the shock of finding out He was already in all men, came a few years after that, not sure when, exactly. Probably a good thing, in retrospect, that I have never kept a journal of my spiritual "discoveries", as if it fell into the wrong hands..... :winkgrin:

[Reverend G]

Life-long story in one blog...hmmmm?  I really don't know when the concept took hold, it just got stronger all my life, probably really took over back around july 2004.  I was raised a good Catholic altar boy, acted and did right in front of people, saved my "bad side" for the shadows.  Still, not that bad.  Anyways, I always felt the church was a bit off on their salvation ideas, and it really hit home about ten years back when my grandfather died.  He was baptized on his deathbed, (mom was a convert, dad was raised catholic, and most of my aunts were converts too, so gramps was baptized catholic).  I remember at the funeral, the sister doing the service really irked me when she alluded to Grandpa "sneaking into Heaven" with his deathbed baptism.  I felt she had no right to such an allusion, she knew not the man she was speaking of, a truly kind and loving man, who knew God better than she ever could.  That started me off seeking my own ways, and back in July 2004 the lights started to really go on.  By October 2005 I was no longer a hopelessly functional alcoholic, and life keeps getting better.

[firstborn888]

   For me, Christ and UR came as a package deal (there were no preacher/teachers around.
  I pretty much knew what was taught in most of Christianity about eternal torment, but I brought up the sumject in a home bible study and then to my first Pastor. I got blasted in the home study, rebuked by my pastor. Fairly predictable pattern.
- byron

[arcticmonster2003]

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[SeekerSA]

Had to open the poll to vote.

For me I kinda never believed in ET or not making it.  At 8 or so, I asked my Mum what about the ones that never heard, what about the ones before Christ, what about those in countries where Christianity is banned, What about...

There was a long list.

When I "got saved" (kinda hard to say that anymore) I posed the questions to God.  I heard an audible voice say, "You let Me worry about that, you just study the bible"  I left it at that and then ended up in a traditional church.  Although they talk of eternal separation in their SoF, they never preached hell-fire.  In my early walk have "been saved" through an ETM teaching, the rapture was all new to me.  I had no opinion except that I did not see the point of it.  I told God to leave me here as I would be of more use here than in heaven.

As God would have it, I ended up here after being out of it for over 2 years via L.Ray's site and teachings on Tithing, not sure of what was going on, I posed questions to an ET apologist, he had no satisfactory answers citing Romans 1:18-20 and that contradicted what Jesus said, "I AM THE WAY....".  Tent was listed as a cult on his domain so I checked it out.

Did not last long at B-T as I started challenging L.Ray's stuff too, they do not like that there.

I left voluntarily and came here instead.  The rest as the say is history.

Blessings

[Kimberlaina]

I was raised as an ET Christian and came to believe in UR in four "phases" so to speak:

When I was 15-16 years old, I had a very close friendship/relationship with a guy who was falling into atheism because he had lost his father in a very tragic manner.  I was reading the "Left Behind" series at the time and became extremely bitter that this kid I think I loved was going to be thrown away like cosmic trash and mostly because he had been through this terrible experience (and Christians were happy about this).  Basically, I saw God as being responsible for putting him in the position where he lost his faith.  But being a good Calvinist girl, I just swallowed it.

My second romantic relationship was with a Muslim who later became a Christian.  (We're still together.)  I really wanted my beloved to be in Heaven with me so I basically bashed him over the head with theology in an attempt to convert him and eventually succeeded.  Rough times came, though, as his grandparents died suffering deaths and I had no explanation about where they had gone but that they were in hell.  Once again, good Calvinist girl . . .

I got to college and unwittingly joined a Bible-based cult (I affectionately refer to them as the Bible Brigade as I'm not out to slander them and some of them were dear friends).  I made it into their leadership and discovered that the so-called ecumenical Bible Brigade had particular hatred for Christians of certain groups and were very unapologetic about it.  The leader who was training (grooming?) me expressed her hatred for Dutch people, even though she knew I was Dutch!  They also told me that if I didn't go door to door and tell people that they were destined to hell that I was ashamed of Christ.  (I was actually confronted about my supposed feelings of shame about my Savior.) They wanted me to get rid of all my non-Christian friends, especially my not-raised-Christian boyfriend.  They also said that *true* Christians become missionaries and that being a public school teacher would only make me part of an atheistic system.  One member even told me that by dating a Middle Eastern guy I was "breeding out my good European genes."  This all added up over a year or so and being the stubborn soul I was, I wasn't too keen on giving up my friends, my boyfriend, and my career just to be a "good Christian" in their eyes.  I ran, ran the other way, and pretty much lost all my friends in college.  I "escaped" with two other girls who, to this day, are my best friends.  We're all still Christian, too.  We joke that we are friends because we're the Bible Brigade rejects.

I have always had an interest in reading about aviation and maritime disasters, and in kindof a strange period in my life following my exit from the Bible Brigade I struggled with God about what happens to us when we die.  I became fascinated with the Tenerife disaster (1977) partly because it involved a large amount of people dying a horrible death after realizing they were about to die in that 5 seconds before.  I wondered if that 5 seconds was enough for any of them to repent and save their souls.  I figured that the pilot responsible for the accident especially would have realized his human frailty in a most vivid way in those seconds.  I wondered if it was possible to realize how helpless you were and repent in 5 seconds or if God sent those people immediately to hell to continue the burning torture that had started here on earth.  These thoughts really disturbed me and I spent a lot of time pacing in my dorm and thinking about it.  Half of my family is Calvinist and the other half Arminian and I felt like I believed parts of both ideologies and all this thinking about death and destiny made me feel like I was going crazy.  I felt like Calvin and Arminius were literally having a shouting match in my brain.  One night I Googled something about that plane crash just to read about something else, and in a strange twist of destiny, Tentmaker came up.  The rest is history.

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: Those last 2 lines about how you got here, were just amazing. Isn't God good? Blessings to you.......

[firstborn888]

Enjoyed your story Kimberlaina. What an amazing journey this life is!
  - byron