Hey guys,
Hey guys! I'm currently stuck between two worldviews: annihilation and Christian universalism.
I recently came to believing in the annihilation of the "damned" recently after praying to God and asking him to reveal to me the truth of Hell. Quite honestly I was having trouble believing in the idea of eternal torment for those who rejected Jesus and could not, for the life of me, seem to find any trust in a God who seemingly, so often, lost control of the sinner and therefore, after they died, sent them to hell for all eternity. So shortly after asking God to reveal to me the truth I ran across a believer who did not believe in everlasting torment, but rather, everlasting annihilation. That is, the "damned" were simply annihilated rather then endlessly tortured. This made more sense to me and I thanked God that he had revealed this to me. But I'm beginning to believe that this revelation was only a precursor to what he wished to show me as I have now stumbled upon websites which suggest that Christ is the Savior of literally ALL men and not simply those who, while on this Earth, believe in him. I find the arguments to be quite convincing, at least in general, and the idea of universal salvation through Christ makes more sense in looking at God as a loving Father, a being of infinite mercy as well as unending grace.
Tim B.
BTW:
I came across Tentmaker by searching on Google on Christian Universalism.
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Hi Tim,
IMO the step from ET to annihilation is a bigger stan than from annihilation to UR.
Take your step at TentMaker.
Enjoy the walk. :laughing7:
Hey Tim B.! :happy3:
Welcome!
I almost had a nervous breakdown (literal) trying to reconcile the God of Love with this doctrine called "Eternal torment aka hell". Then I went from my near nervous breakdown to a brief stint in maybe believing annihilation, then actually pretty quickly, I felt God brought me to the beautiful truth. His love for all. I was very fearful of believing the wrong thing. But it's been what...5/6 years now? And the truth stands. And things have made progressively more and more sense since then. The picture is clear and beautiful. No longer hypocritical..and bizarre...and DARK! There is NO darkness in God. NONE! We put darkness ON Him in our own minds.... but the darkness is fear. We fear that God is too good to be true. Well he IS too good.. and He is TRUE. :icon_flower:
There are a lot of conflicting opinions here, A LOT of debate, a LOT of disagreements.
BUT... the one thing that MOST here agree on... is God's love for all. ALL.
and not one will be lost.
He is the good Shepherd. Through and through.
peace to you. and good luck on your journey, my new friend.
:HeartThrob:,
sparrow
:cloud9: Welcome, dive on in, the water's fine...... :thumbsup:
Quote from: WhiteWings on April 27, 2009, 07:35:37 AM
IMO the step from ET to annihilation is a bigger stan than from annihilation to UR.
I think thats how it happened for me.
I was doing research trying to figure out how to avoid the beast and his mark, how to avoid going into hell (I knew to believe in Christ, but I couldn't figure out if I was safe because I was still sinning). And if I didn't take the mark, how was I going to eat if I couldn't buy or sell? This lead to visions of stockpiling canned goods in my crawlspace...
So then I stumbled onto Annihilationism described on a few different web sites. I think I believed that for maybe a couple of weeks and then the floodgates opened to UR.
Its all a blur now - there is a great sense of relief too...
Welcome Tim!
Thanks everybody for the support and stories! :happy3: