Thoughts about fear

[nkmoseleyU]

Hi,

I just recently joined this website, although I’ve been reading bits and pieces for years. I was just watching the new show A.D… It really scared me before, and my fear returned, when Ananias and Sapphira died for lying to the Holy Spirit.

I am an evagelical universalist. I tend toward a more conservative christianity, but be lieve it is for everyone, as the bible says “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” 1 Cor. 13:22

But I did believe in a literal hell for years.
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I’m not going through my full story but one day I prayed and asked Jesus to reveal the Father to me. I had an experience of the greatest love inside me that I have ever felt. I was still worried about the salvation of the world and felt like I wais searching the Father’s mind for any intention to leave anyone out. For any intention ill toward anyone and couldn’t find any.

Then I felt as though I was trying to keep this revelation and experience of love and God in me, but it left. I “heard” in my mind words that I now believe were the Holy Spirit say “I save everyone.”

Afterward, I felt I was supposed to join this one church where I thought I could do some good. I was in close relationship with people from the very Hell-believing, conservative church I was a part of. My pastor had recently outed Rob Bell as a heretic. Instead of saying what I believe and enduring my closest friends turning against me, I pretended that I was still somewhat of an arminian and said what I could to try to encourage people to think more openly. Then I quietly withdrew from the church.

I feel like in a way, I did as bad as Ananias in pretending to be an arminian when I knew I wasn’t. This was not the revealed message. I didn’t even accept verbal persecution for the God I believe in.

[rpeake28]

Hi nkmoseleyU,

I’ve been watching AD too and I can definitely relate to what you’re saying. Hard to tell from your post whether you actually told people you were Armenian, or just made Armenian statements and let people draw their own conclusions. In the first situation I would say that lying is a sin, but I also think that God will forgive you if you ask him. You have to consider that there are many instances of people lying in the Bible, but God rarely deals with them like he did with Ananias and Sapphira ie. Abraham lied about his wife being his sister. In the situation with Ananias and Sapphira who they lied to, what their motives were, and the circumstances surrounding the timing, were, I believe, all factors in how God choose to deal with them. In your situation, the very fact that you feel so convicted about this is proof that you are not like Ananias and Sapphira. And the fact that you haven’t been struck down is proof that God doesn’t see it that way either So just do what you already know to do. Ask forgiveness for lying and then let go of guilt. Guilt after repenting is worldly and not of God.

On the other hand if you didn’t actually lie then I don’t think you have committed any sin. Our job as Christians is to make followers for Christ, not followers of universalism. Unless you felt a specific call from God to tell people about Universalism, it’s your choice. In my church there are Armenians and Calvinist and while occasionally people will debate about it good naturally, no one feels the need to force their view on others and neither do I. Not that I wouldn’t share what I believe if asked or saw someone struggling with similar issues the way I was before I discovered universalism, but bringing up just to make it into an issue would only cause dissension and hurt my church.

Before I discovered biblical universalism, the question of the fate of the lost was a huge burden on my heart. I was searching for a way to reconcile loving the lost with having peace and trusting God; understanding universalism freed me from that struggle. I believe those who really seek the answers to these issues will find them, but believing universalism is not essential to following Christ. Universalism has been a great blessing to me, but I recognize that it can also become a distraction and a hindrance if it becomes the center of one’s worldview rather than Christ, which is why I believe God has obscured his plan so that it is hidden from all, but those who are really seeking it. When we are persecuted for following Christ we can rejoice knowing we are sharing in Christ’s suffering, but we aren’t to go around deliberately provoking others, especially other Christians, just to get persecuted so that we can feel better about ourselves. The Bible says that “as much as possible, try to live at peace with all men.” Sometimes it’s not possible, but in your case I think you made the right call. It sounds to me like God gave you a specific revelation just for you–which is awesome btw --, but that doesn’t mean its meant for everyone at this time. Not too long ago we had a couple in our church who kept on bringing up issues they felt they had to convert everyone on (ie, the earth being flat, circumcision, the calendar not being correct, not celebrating Christmas/Easter, etc) They had many discussions about it with the pastor and others, but they wouldn’t be content with any answer or content to let things go. When asked to stop bringing up certain issues, they refused, so eventually our church asked them to leave. I’m still friends with this family through FB and know that they took this event as persecution and therefore felt vindicated in their beliefs. So you see, many people are “persecuted” for many things, it’s not a sign that you were on the side of right. Don’t seek persecution, seek to follow Christ in whatever way he leads you, whether that leads to persecution, or not.