Re: Michael McClymond on Universalism
Postby Dondi » Thu Mar 06, 2014 2:19 pm
Yet I would say that all sin is ultimately accountable to God. “Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.”
At the same time, I don’t see how we can get away with not seeking forgiveness from those we offended nor not forgiving others. It is plain that that is essential to Christian living amongst our brothers and sisters in Christ, yea, even our enemies. And this is one thing, BTW, that has shifted my views as a Universalist as opposed to the fundamentalist doctrines I was brought up, that is the idea that when we all get to heaven, all will be honky dory, no need to forgive anymore since we will be glorified and no longer needing to forgive the past. I just don’t see how heaven will just “poof” all the bad and hurt away. I can’t see that there wouldn’t be a time for healing (i.e. healing of the nations) and reconciliation between ourselves and other whom we offended or who offended us.
But isn’t the rejection of hell extended well past Christian circles as something medieval and out of date. I think society as a whole in the post-modern world leans more to scientific explanations for the basis of reality, rather than reliance on ancient texts. And so even in non-Christian beliefs, the notion of hell has diminished. To say that hell is disappearing is as the result of what they call the rejection of foundational Christianity (i.e., universalism) doesn’t seem to square right with me.
We live in a world of diversity, to be sure. There are some 41,000 different Christian denominations in the world today. And in America, religious diversity is gaining an ever widening acceptance as it shifts from a primarily Christian nation (still about 76% claim Christian affiliation) toward other accepted faiths. Currently in the US, there is 1 in 10 people who don’t identify with any religious affliliation, whereas almost all Americans in the 1950s identified themselves with a particular religion. Of atheists, 55% are under 35, while only 30% are 50 and older.
What we are experiencing is a secularzation of America, what the bible calls apostacy, and it is not something that is driven by a given set of beliefs, but by an unwillingness to believe in anything. It is a plague that cuts across all Christian circles. It is a decline that most certainly will get worse as generations turn over. It is amazing to me just how little the younger generation knows about the Bible, even fundamental things like who is Adam and Eve. Or who Christ is. It’s not for a lack of access to materials. The Bible is freely available to anyone with a smart phone.
What is a bigger rage for atheists than the idea of Hell and a God that would sent someone there? Perhaps the rise of Universalism stems from a desire for a palatable alternative, based on the principle of a rational, just, and loving God. How many on this board alone would say that they would have abandaned Christianity altogether if it were not for Universalism? Or how=many perhaops came back from atheism/agnosticism because of the Greater Hope?