New guy here

[ducktapehero]

Hello, I'm just feeling out the concept of Christian Universalism. So far I am agreeing with what I read. Right now I go to a Southern Baptist church but have been going less and less.

I've always believed in the concept of eternal hell until recently. I have a 4 year old and as most parents do their children I love him more than life itself. I could never allow him to go to hell. And that is just 1 kid. And I am a creature of finite love. How could a God of INFINITE love send billions of his children to eternal punishment? Even the word endless punishment is an oxymoron.

Punishment is something that is used to correct bad behavior, if it's endless it can't be punishment since it isn't correcting behavior. It's simply torture for choosing wrong.

So anyway, I'm here to learn and ask questions. I look forward to discussing everything.

[martincisneros]

Hi, Welcome to Tentmaker!!

That aspect of it being torture rather than punishment if it's eternal is something that's completely inescapable, if someone made the punishment no more belligerent than the proverbial Chinese water torture, also called Spanish Water Torture.  Anything negative, punative, or retributive, whether literal volcanoes of fire and brimstone, or flames of conscience, or the guilt and shame of everlasting exclusion is eternal torture meant to drive the victim insane.  Pure and simple.  The ET crowd will never get rid of the aspect of torture in what they're saying, if it's nothing but being chained to a chair forever unable to move.  The moment it proves to be forever in a context of none of the perks of the Kingdom, then the argument against it being torture is futile.  The harder they try, then the more absurd they become with their pseudo-translations of the Scriptures that plainly shine the light on eternal vindictiveness.  Spiritualization and allegorization isn't "an out" of the necessary consequence when eternity is the dogma claimed as the foundation.  Take a child and make him stand in the corner for one week without letting them move and having them face the corner.  Just one week.  No restroom break.  No food and water.  No chair.  No sitting on the floor.  No change of scenery.  None!  They have to stand up for the whole 168hrs facing only the corner of the wall.  A much, much shorter time period than all of eternity and yet we can all recognize and admit the cruelty and torture involved -- yet in something at face value totally benign compared to a baseball bat to the head or whatever.

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: Welcome to the Tent...... :thumbsup:

[WhiteWings]

With such a nick I'm sure you will stick around  :laughing7:
I think it's kinda easy for you to stick the Word to your  :HeartThrob:

Welcome

[jabcat]

Welcome.  Just out of Southern Baptist, by way of Pentecostal/Assembly of God...attend some still with wife...once God smiles on you with a glimpse of His Plan for the Ages, not likely you'll be turning back...read, read, read, especially the articles on the home page of tent.  Ask me more later about my journey out, and I'll share a few things and a couple links to some of my previous posts about it  :thumbsup:.

(Cool nick-name  :icon_rr:)

God's blessing, James.