This site is going to be a great comfort to me

[urdrwho]

I'm into my 7th decade of life on this earth and I can say that I've been in the faith for many decades.  I did some back sliding (as they call it) and traveled many roads.  My problem has always been the questions that pastors just don't answer.  Ask, "will that un-baptised baby that just died go to hell."  Some pastors will say that the Bible says yes, other's will cobble together ideas and harmonize different verses to say it is in God's hands, etc.  Christianity seemed to be based around one thing, you say a sinners prayer and you win the golden ring, you don't go to hell.  Through grace you are saved.  Well ok but why are so many "saved" Christians so mean, why are they ruthless business owners, why don't they believe one bit about James the Just who wrote about works.  It was almost a mythical game and the number one reason you are worshiped Yahweh is to keep from going to hell and not that he is the creator.   Without hell, the churches lost a lot of their power. 

In 2021 my wife was diagnosed with AML Leukemia, it was acute and she went from being healthy one day to her oncologist telling me she could be gone in tow weeks.  Well the 7+3 therapy worked to end the acute attack but the road a head was a long road.  It was during the pandemic and I would be the only caregiver, the only visitor and I lived in her room at the hospital.  She was in very bad shape, slept a lot and it was still touch and go at times.  I had a lot of time on my hands and started reading sites about faith.  I also started lurking on sites that were scholars who translated the Greek / Hebrew and that is when I really started to go --- to me something seems to be amiss with the orthodox church, the evangelical church.  I started to understand that pastors who went to good schools were also schooled on these subjects but came out of school only to start preaching the doctrines that wouldn't upset the apple cart.

Asking questions such as, "so the indigenous Indian tribes in the Amazon who have never seen modern life will go to hell?  The resounding answer was yes but God loves you, be on your way.  That just didn't make sense to me, why God would condemn to eternal damnation someone who never even heard of Jesus.   Why do s many Christians dismiss and despise the idea that we all go to Heaven?  I stumbled upon Swedenborg and listened to a bit of his ideas.  He seemed to be a Universalist.  Then in the early days there were he people like Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor, and Isaac the Syria who believed in Universalism. 

Doing a quick search I find many, many who declare the idea of Universalism to be a heresy calling the idea of Universalism "The opioid of theologians."

I have fully concluded it is God's will that all will be with him, it is mans quest for power that has corrupted everything.  Seriously the church came up with such unholy ideas as the Edict of Thessalonica, the Inquisition and many other terrible things done at the hands of man under the guise of religion.

So it was very refreshing to stumble onto this site and I look forward to reading many articles, blogs and participating in discussions. 

BTW about my wife.  In October 2021 she had a bone marrow transplant and is still cancer free (3-12-2021) and if not for the peripheral neuropathy from the original chemo, you wouldn't know she was ever sick.     :dsunny:

[Ross]

Good conclusion.
Look what kind of love the Father has given you, that you may be called the sons of God, and that's what you are.
A Father disciples who He loves.
He does not threaten His kids with eternal punishment.
God loves us.
If hell is real why wasn't Adam told?
Men try to justify themselves.
Fortunately God knows what He is doing: mankind will be corrected at His appointed time.
In the future we will be above the angels thanks to our secure status because of Jesus.
Nothing can keep us from the love of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[darryl]

Good conclusion.
Look what kind of love the Father has given you, that you may be called the sons of God, and that's what you are.
A Father disciples who He loves.
He does not threaten His kids with eternal punishment.
God loves us.
If hell is real why wasn't Adam told?
Men try to justify themselves.
Fortunately God knows what He is doing: mankind will be corrected at His appointed time.
In the future we will be above the angels thanks to our secure status because of Jesus.
Nothing can keep us from the love of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

amen

[darryl]

I'm into my 7th decade of life on this earth and I can say that I've been in the faith for many decades.  I did some back sliding (as they call it) and traveled many roads.  My problem has always been the questions that pastors just don't answer.  Ask, "will that un-baptised baby that just died go to hell."  Some pastors will say that the Bible says yes, other's will cobble together ideas and harmonize different verses to say it is in God's hands, etc.  Christianity seemed to be based around one thing, you say a sinners prayer and you win the golden ring, you don't go to hell.  Through grace you are saved.  Well ok but why are so many "saved" Christians so mean, why are they ruthless business owners, why don't they believe one bit about James the Just who wrote about works.  It was almost a mythical game and the number one reason you are worshiped Yahweh is to keep from going to hell and not that he is the creator.   Without hell, the churches lost a lot of their power. 

In 2021 my wife was diagnosed with AML Leukemia, it was acute and she went from being healthy one day to her oncologist telling me she could be gone in tow weeks.  Well the 7+3 therapy worked to end the acute attack but the road a head was a long road.  It was during the pandemic and I would be the only caregiver, the only visitor and I lived in her room at the hospital.  She was in very bad shape, slept a lot and it was still touch and go at times.  I had a lot of time on my hands and started reading sites about faith.  I also started lurking on sites that were scholars who translated the Greek / Hebrew and that is when I really started to go --- to me something seems to be amiss with the orthodox church, the evangelical church.  I started to understand that pastors who went to good schools were also schooled on these subjects but came out of school only to start preaching the doctrines that wouldn't upset the apple cart.

Asking questions such as, "so the indigenous Indian tribes in the Amazon who have never seen modern life will go to hell?  The resounding answer was yes but God loves you, be on your way.  That just didn't make sense to me, why God would condemn to eternal damnation someone who never even heard of Jesus.   Why do s many Christians dismiss and despise the idea that we all go to Heaven?  I stumbled upon Swedenborg and listened to a bit of his ideas.  He seemed to be a Universalist.  Then in the early days there were he people like Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor, and Isaac the Syria who believed in Universalism. 

Doing a quick search I find many, many who declare the idea of Universalism to be a heresy calling the idea of Universalism "The opioid of theologians."

I have fully concluded it is God's will that all will be with him, it is mans quest for power that has corrupted everything.  Seriously the church came up with such unholy ideas as the Edict of Thessalonica, the Inquisition and many other terrible things done at the hands of man under the guise of religion.

So it was very refreshing to stumble onto this site and I look forward to reading many articles, blogs and participating in discussions. 

BTW about my wife.  In October 2021 she had a bone marrow transplant and is still cancer free (3-12-2021) and if not for the peripheral neuropathy from the original chemo, you wouldn't know she was ever sick.     :dsunny:

good on you..yes, its a gr8 comfort this site..God bless !