hello from (Liz H)

[Lizziejh]

Hi, I hope I have got this right or how to do this! I have just joined this site. My name is live and I like in the UK. I am a universal Christian but have met noone else in person who is!! For as long as I can remember I have believed in God and Jesus and that Jesus was the son of god who died and rose again to save the world but I can also remember from about the age of 6 or 7 being plagued by the idea of a hell existing. As I got older it got worse the thought that there could be millions or to be honest even if it was just 1 person being tormented I could not understand how any Christians didn't worry about it all the time! I always felt I was stuck between a rock and a hard plate because I was a Christian and I do believe there is something special in the Christian message because of Jesus but I feel everyone will be saved and not through some tortures process. I did find other universalist who I respected but a lot saw no special message in Jesus. Where as I have always thought everyone gets to god via different routes but Jesus is key to it all. All I know is God is love. I feel that we should try not to sin not to avoid hell but because when we do we cause god pain and because we love god and want to try and please him. I feel that like most people say I dont know how or in what way but that everyone is on a path to God and that some are more direct than others, I feel that when we die we realise all our sin or lack of faith I do think we are judged but in a kind of showing us how we are wrong and what could have happened and that Jesus saved us and the guilt and remorse is the worst punishment and then we are shown to God. I cant even believe in a temp hell of punishment maybe a place people go to whilst they accept god or learn about him but I cant feel the punishment would be torture or an abyss. But people always say I am trying to just make things the way I want but if universalism is not true I feel I am torn from God that I cannot love him in the way I should that the truth is so unbelievably painful how would we cope! Sorry that is a very long rant and probably putting this in completely the wrong place. But it is so lonely and painful to feel you are all on your own I am relieved to find others who share my view. You think I cant be right and everyone else wrong! The first time I even heard of universalism was in a Anne Bronte book (an English classic based a few 100 years ago) when she says it is a precious thought not many new of but could be dangerous if known by the masses! Every one seems to be based in America I am in the UK not sure were all the uk universal Christians are! Anyway that was a very long hello!

[Taffy]

Hi Liz
:icon_flower: :icon_flower:

Welcome :icon_flower:
Thanks for sharing with us  along with introducing yourself , enjoyed your VERY long Hello   :HeartThrob:

Im Taffy( aka Graham) who also abides in the UK ,Ross - on - Wye ( Glos) :icon_flower:

Tent is a Very Christ Centered Forum , hope you find your time here Profitable  :icon_flower:

Blessings :icon_flower:
T

[sparrow]

Hi Liz!
Our beliefs are very much the same!  :HeartThrob:

By the way, Anne Bronte wrote one of my favorite poems.
I'm sure you've read it.

A Word to the Elect
by Anne Bronte

YOU may rejoice to think yourselves secure;
You may be grateful for the gift divine–
That grace unsought, which made your black hearts pure,
And fits your earth-born souls in Heaven to shine.

But, is it sweet to look around, and view
Thousands excluded from that happiness
Which they deserved, at least, as much as you,–
Their faults not greater, nor their virtues less?
And, wherefore should you love your God the more,
Because to you alone his smiles are given;
Because he chose to pass the many o'er,
And only bring the favoured few to Heaven?

And, wherefore should your hearts more grateful prove,
Because for ALL the Saviour did not die?
Is yours the God of justice and of love?
And are your bosoms warm with charity?

Say, does your heart expand to all mankind?
And, would you ever to your neighbor do–
The weak, the strong, the enlightened, and the blind–
As you would have your neighbor do to you?

And, when you, looking on your fellow-men,
Behold them doomed to endless misery,
How can you talk of joy and rapture then?–
May God withhold such cruel joy from me!

That none deserve eternal bliss I know;
Unmerited the grace in mercy given:

But, none shall sink to everlasting woe,
That have not well deserved the wrath of Heaven.
    And, oh! there lives within my heart
      A hope, long nursed by me;
    (And, should its cheering ray depart,
      How dark my soul would be!)

    That as in Adam all have died,
      In Christ shall all men live;
    And ever round his throne abide,
      Eternal praise to give.

    That even the wicked shall at last
      Be fitted for the skies;
    And, when their dreadful doom is past,
      To life and light arise.

    I ask not, how remote the day,
      Nor what the sinners' woe,
    Before their dross is purged away;
      Enough for me, to know

    That when the cup of wrath is drained,
      The metal purified,
    They'll cling to what they once disdained,
      And live by Him that died.

Welcome to tentmaker,
sparrow

[jabcat]

Hi Liz.  Welcome! 

Keep on with your belief on Jesus!

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6

James.

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: Welcome........there's at least a couple here from the UK.  :welcome: :newb: :Peace: Be blessed while you sup with us! Blessings....

[tm55]

   
Welcome to the tent, Liz! :icon_king:

Here's the excerpt I think you're referring to, from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, written by Anne Bronte, in 1848, a year before her untimely death at age 29.  I think it's very special, too! 

From chapter 20 ...

"And remember Helen", continued [her aunt] solemnly, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and they that forget God!  And suppose, even, that he should continue to love you and you him, and that you should pass through life together with tolerable comfort – how will it be in the end, when you see yourselves parted for ever; you, perhaps, taken into eternal bliss, and he cast into the lake that burneth with unquenchable fire – there for ever to—"

"Not for ever," I exclaimed, "only till he has paid the uttermost farthing"; for "If any man's work abide not the fire, he shall suffer loss, yet himself shall be saved, but so as by fire," and He that "is able to subdue all things to himself, will have all men to be saved", and "will in the fullness of time, gather together in one all things in Christ Jesus, who tasted death for every man, and in whom God will reconcile all things to Himself, whether they be things in earth or things in Heaven."

"Oh Helen!  Where did you learn all this?"

"In the Bible, aunt.  I have searched it through, and found nearly thirty passages, all tending to support the same theory."

"And is that the use you make of your Bible?  And did you find no passages tending to prove the danger and the falsity of such a belief?"

"No:  I found, indeed some passages that taken by themselves, might seem to contradict that opinion; but they will all bear a different construction to that which is commonly given, and in most the only difficulty is in the word which we translate 'everlasting' or 'eternal.'  I don't know the Greek, but I believe it strictly means for ages, and might signify either endless or long-enduring.  And as for the danger of the belief, I would not publish it abroad, if I thought any poor wretch would be likely to presume upon it to his own destruction, but it is a glorious thought to cherish in one's own heart, and I would not part with it for all the world can give!"

[jesushandsarekindhands]

Hi Liz, UK here too, thanks for sharing your testimony with us, it's amazing how similar we all are.

[aspiring son]

Welcome Liz!

I think you will be blessed here. You guys have me interested in this book. I tjink I will have to look it up.

Grace and peace be with you!

Hope to hear from you soon.

Brandon

[Lizziejh]

Thank you everyone for your lovely welcome  :grin: It is lovely to meet people who share similar beliefs am feeling less isolated already! I had never read the poem and I really like it, thank you. Nice to see there are a few of us here in the uk  :grin: Can I ask is there a church in the uk anyone knows of that is a universalist church or has a minsiter/ paster/ rector that is a universal christian. Be nice to find one to go to. Though I think I might need to fly to america :) Thank you again for your warm welcome I feel so relieved to have some where to talk to other people who share this belief. God bless 

[Taffy]

Not to My knowledge Lizz ...SEEMS most are loners by lack of personal fellowship ..so much distance between us all ..But others May Know of some :icon_flower:

but were are never to far away IN SPIRIT.. :icon_flower:

[WhiteWings]

 :welcome: Lizzy,

I hope to  :dbook: from you soon  :happygrin:

[Raggedy Anne]

Welcome, Liz!   :girlheart:

It's always great to have a UK citizen wander into our midst.  I keep hearing a rumor that the people in Europe don't believe in God, but I don't believe it.


Thanks, Sparrow :HeartThrob:  for posting that wonderful poem - it has been a long time since I read it - it's so beautiful.

Anne