Hi there,
so....I'm 23 years old, was born and raised in the home of a pastor in the bible belt of texas...lived my life as a good christian stereotypical kid...
When I turned 18, I started having some serious doubts about everything. I read and read plenty of books and decided to go and travel. I went to Africa and south america with a social missions organization building schools and providing medicine to poverty stricken villages...It was during this time that I saw God doing incredible things...However, my questions never really went away and although I no longer doubted God's existence, I wasn't sure if I really liked him very much!
I moved to Sydney where I currently reside to study theology. I'm on my last semester of my BA degree...getting married recently has opened my eyes to universalism even more...my wife's family is from vietnam and generations have come and gone without hearing "the gospel..." This got me thinking about religion as a whole...I have a serious problem with the fact that depending on your location, you are basically born into a certain religion...Furthermore, why would God allow Himself to be limited by such geographical boundaries?
Anyway, to make a long story short, I thought studying theology and understanding Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic would help but honestly, it made things even more confusing...
Deep down, I wanna believe in christian universalism, but I can't bring myself to tell anybody about it except my wife...The ironic thing is that after this semester, I'm going on staff at a church fulltime. I definately don't believe in the gospel of heaven and hell...but I'm not sure if I believe in total universalism either...yet! I reckon I will need to keep my liberal theology to myself. Hopefully this forum can be my outlet!
:welcome: cityonahill,
Congratulations on your BA and soon to be wife...
Take some time to review papers and on-line books about U.R. on the main site. I personally like A.P. Adams, Ernest L Martin, and Preston Eby along with a host of others. Happy studies, and see ya on the board!
Hi COH :icon_flower:
Welcome :icon_flower:
Thanks for sharing some :icon_flower:
From one pk to another, hello, welcome. It can feel like a real bind, but once God shows you this, you probably wouldn't turn back even if you wanted to...several stories on here about folks either being called out of orthodoxy, or how God leads them still in orthodoxy, yet showing them deeper things.
Highly recommended information here http://www.godfire.net/eby/saviour_of_the_world.html., and here on the TM site http://www.tentmaker.org/new.html. One of the really big guns of orthodoxy is Lazarus and the Rich Man...reading J. Preston Eby's explanation of that in the first link is critical...welcome, and God's blessing, James.
:cloud9: Welcome and be blessed..... :thumbsup:
Welcome and thanks for your introduction.
You are a real traveller. Enjoy your trave; to UR :laughing7:
Welcome cityonahill - wow what a great testimony. Sounds like you have seen a lot already and you are only 23.
Like others said, take the time to read through a lot of the articles on this site and others. Compare it all with the bible. Study the meaning of a few critical words - aion/age/aionios/eternal & hell/hades/sheol/gehenna etc.
It sounds like God is already opening your eyes, but it definitely takes time. I know what you mean about wanting to talk to people about it, yet not wanting to tell people about it at the same time. The only people (in real life) I've talked to about it is my wife (who is slightly disinterested), and my mother, who I don't think got it and is clinging to the traditions of the church.
Be well... and ask God for help.
Quote from: cityonahill on April 03, 2009, 12:39:57 AM
Hopefully this forum can be my outlet!
"Plug-in :secret: and turn on the light."peacemaker