Hello all!

[GunMetal832]

Hey everyone! So... I never thought I'd become a universalist. Until 2 months ago. I was born and raised a baptist and went to a southern baptist church for 17 years. I always "believed" but was never able to trust Christ. I watched sermon after sermon on it. Tim Conway (who I can't stand) had his sermon on "if you leave today without accepting Christ, you might very well die" I laid on the floor for hours, nearly in tears trying to "put my faith in Christ" but couldn't do it. I had no idea how to. We hadn't been to church in 2 years (4 now) at the time. My mom and me just didn't feel right in any of the ones where we moved too. Something just always felt "off" and she picked up on it too. My grandfather is catholic and has always tried to get me to convert. I do like the tradition of it all. I nearly did convert. I was excited too. I'd been reading early church fathers, reading the catechism, watching mass online. I loved it.. then I read about Origen, his "restoration of all things" I said "no way" and dismissed it. Then it started to sink in. What if all the fundies were right and Catholics went straight to hell? I started to question it all. Getting so sick of the contradictions. Calvinism says this, Arminianism says that, Catholics say one thing, baptist do this. Every one of them contradicts each other. I stared thinking "what if it's all just made up" well then I got this gripping fear of hell. How God was going to trip me up and send me there. Kill me in my sleep because of my stubbornness although I legitimately had no idea how to "put my faith in Christ" so then I happened upon tentmakers site, I saw the verse "the savior of all men, especially those who believe" I just thought it was some obscure verse out of context, again thought "no way" and dismissed it. "There's no way, the Bible clearly says" i played around with the idea in my head and just didn't see it. "You'd have to ignore all Christ said" I thought. We'll i kept thinking about it and finally googled "proof of universal salvation" and saw tentmakers site listed. I clicked on it and read it. Halfway through I looked up and the thought popped in my head "Jesus will save me" I nearly jumped for joy. I finally had an ounce of trust. The entire next day I had peace. I keep saying it over in my head "Jesus will save me" and it was the most comforting thing ever. I started digging deeper. I saw how much scriptural proof there was. But then of course doubt came back. "You don't really have faith, they are cherry picking" and down the spiral I went again. I would be lifted back up watching videos about it, but then of course doubt came in. "Your decieved" "you don't have faith" Id always cling to the moment that thought popped in my head. But go back doubting again. I kept researching, I bought a concordant literal. I had the youngs literal on my phones bible app. They all said almost exactly the same thing. I found myself starting to defend it online. Of course I was chastised and called deceived, heretic, etc. then came Martin zender. When I saw his video "the law came so sin would increase" I laughed uncontrollably. I'm a 21 year old male with a common "vice" (you can guess) and always felt guilty for admiring women in my age range. I still laugh thinking about it. How come I've never seen that verse before? I thought this guy was a heretic. But everything he said I checked in the Bible and it lined up. The discovery of the 5 ages, all these scriptural evidence, the very nature of Gods character in the psalms. My career I'm going for is investigative law enforcement, so I wanted to have my faith figured out before I finished college. I always had problems with a lot of modern theology. It contradicted logic and plain common sense. I guess my flaw (but also my strength, which is why I like investigations) is I question everything and have a "quick on my feet" logic. Plus I will argue stuff to the ground, my friends and family can attest to that. I'm still unsure of it all but I've gone too deep down the rabbit hole of scripture to turn back now. But I still feel weird. Like I'm out on a limb by myself. I'd also like to mention, the fruits of my learning this is quite amazing. I used to be so self righteous "all these people are going to hell" but now when I'm not too busy doubting myself, I'm quite joyful. I look around at my work and school and think "everyone is going to live eternally with God and Christ". It's actual good news. I've made a few discoveries I'll post later on but I wanted to share my story with everyone for now. God Bless you all.

[rosered]

  Wow , Happy for you GunMetal832    !! Welcome to the Tent ..


Took me a lot longer to  understand   everything you have already in  the past few months  ..
  Sounds like you are  being blessed of the Lord for sure ..

[Ross]

Welcome;
Our heavenly Father loves us more than our earthly dad.
Jesus paid for our mistakes IN FULL.
Part of learning need stuff to equate so as to grow- you are already on the path of seek and you WILL find as HE leads you.
Christ' faith and work will never fail- so press on as you discover exciting, liberating information which differentiates between law and grace.
His love will NEVER fail. :dsunny:

[Shev]

Welcome and congratulations, my friend! Knowing that our Father really IS Love is quite a feeling!  :dsunny:

[Patinak]

I look around at my work and school and think "everyone is going to live eternally with God and Christ". It's actual good news. I've made a few discoveries I'll post later on but I wanted to share my story with everyone for now. God Bless you all.

LIKE :thumbsup:

[sheila]

 :welcome: :newb:

[marie glen]

What an awesome story!! God is SO good!

..."Popped into my head" :thumbsup: I had a similar experience.

And "down the rabbit hole of God's Word... joy.." Amen! The Word/Logos/Logic! "Treasure new and old" :cloud9:

Bless you dear! :Pray: :thumbsup:

[bushy]

I understand a lot of what you went through. It's easy to "put your faith in Christ" when you see that you are not your own savior and that Jesus is going to save you (whether you like it or not, haha). Thanks for sharing and welcome to the forum.

[jugghead]

Sorry I missed welcoming you back in November, so I will welcome you now .....

WELCOME GunMetal832

I love hearing how others are brought into the Truth, into Christ

I too had similar reactions, the first time I remember getting on my knees and asking Christ into my heart was when I was 12 (1970) after watching a Billy Graham crusade event on TV about being "left behind" but despite that, nothing changed.

It wasn't until December of 2005 that I experienced something I can not explain but from that moment on my life was changed. I started going to church every week, then also Wednesdays and the Tuesday morning Bible studies and even started a time on Thursday nights getting together at a McDonalds.

It wasn't until about two years of this when I was shown who I was becoming by God through my son who was 17 at the time and I raised my hand to him (I did not hit him) after he said something that made me very angry, I had become a two-fold child of hell, shortly after that God knew it was time to get me out of there, but I was still blind to it.

But before I left religion, God started showing me some things that contradicted what they believed, I even went as far as saying what God was showing me in a Sunday morning Bible study and of course, I was jumped by the words of many there and even though I did not know it at the time, I was alone.

It wasn't until He changed my career to driving a truck (from working construction) that He got me alone away from the distractions of men and the world, it was then that the seed of Universalism started to grow and "the rest is history"

Blessings to you and hope to hear more from you

Rick (aka jugghead)