The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Restorationist, Reconciliationist, Reconcilist

So I have decided that since the poll (for the name reconcilist) seems to be all equal votes (4 on every single one, it made me laugh). I want to restate the points of why I think we need a new name better than universalist.

  1. Anything with the term ‘Universal’ has to many negative connotations to it and shuts down discussion before it can even begin. It reminds people too much of the all-paths-lead-to-God group a.k.a. Unitarian Universalists. People won’t be able to understand the term Universalist, like fundamentalist it has irreversible baggage attached to it. If you are a Christian Universalist then you sound like a person who believes all paths lead to God, but Jesus is YOUR way to him. If you are an evangelical universalist then you sound like someone who believes all ways are valid, but you personally hold to the bible etc.

  2. The idea of having one term that sums up all the beliefs of a person is a beneficial and, dare-I-say, necessary thing. What if when I referred to a rose I instead said ‘soft and thorny flower’? Would that not become redundant and tiring? That is why Reformed/Calvinists and Armenians have short and quick names, because they realize that it is necessary to have those names.

  3. We will eventually be labeled, one way or another, good or bad, people want a name to call us. Even if someone uses the term Universalist (because its short and easy to say) and understands what it means, to the ears of another it will sound like Unitarian Universalism. My point is this we need a one worded name that will communicate better what we are all about, namely telling people that God will save all humanity. We might as well name ourselves before others do it for us.

As you can tell I cut and past those from various earlier posts, however I want to get the point across. I originally proposed reconcilist, but that has come to a stand still.

So now I want to hear from you guys any ideas for a good name. I personally liked Restorationist the most out all the other ones I saw.

I liked your Reconcilist term, though few would understand it. It is helpful to have a one-word term that effectively communicates a basic set of beliefs. Getting everyone to use one word though, will be challenging. Calvinism and Arminianism came into play because of Calvin and Arminius who promoted a set of beliefs each, though they were not the only ones who believed such. If a leader arises that gives expression to UR in a clear and compelling manner, many years from now maybe it will be called McDonaldism or something like that. Maybe “Shermanism” (oh no, that sounds like a disease). For now though I like Reconcilist and Universal Reconciliation. And it seems to be something that God is revealing to many in this time so having one Calvin or Arminius arise to champion this Good News will likely not happen for God seems to be raising up many! Hallelujah!

What do you think of Christocentric Universalist or Solochristo* Universalist?

  • pronounced: solo-chris-toe
    i.e. only by/thru Christ

Well I like restorationist - but it sounds like an interior decorator ( although of course some internal restoration doesn’t go amiss) lol
I feel reconciliationist is ok, reconcillist has too many i’s & l’s together and probably people will wonder which syllables to emphasize.
I tend to think the labels will sooner or later lose there true meaning and are probably only useful for other Christians to categorize each other; what you want is to have a label that is so confusing you get to explain a few things before they’ve had a chance to make there mind up about you- or perhaps I should say close their mind to you!!

I think I prefer, when someone asks what denomination I am to say that I don’t believe in denominations as they tend to separate people and are an invention of men; that I am Christian and believe that all people and all creation are being reconciled to God and eventually everything will be as it was originally created to be.

To the unchurched/ non- Christian any label is probably fairly meaningless as far as trying succinctly to summarize where you’re coming from. Just my whimsical thoughts really. I think I’ll stick with universal reconciliation.

S

I think there is already a branch of Christendom called the Restoration movement (Stone-Campbell) and if memory serves me well, they are complete polar opposites to universalists.