The Evangelical Universalist Forum

UR and Thanatophobia

Gabe said:

I appreciate that you don’t think I’m ignorant, though I’ve been called worse things :laughing: But because I consider the truth to be truth (go figure that) and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Christ came on this planet, died and was risen, and a promise was made to all mankind through that act of love of a son of the creator God, a God who loved us so, that he allowed the son to do what He did, a son without sin, without blemish.

My testimony to you is to believe what is written about the Christ and about how we are to react and accept that news (about the resurrection). When we put the fear of death behind us, a whole world of opportunities opens itself to us. JUST GIVE IT A TRY! :smiley: :smiley:

P.S. When you do believe, you will realize that death is the open door to commune with the Father. :astonished:

Thanks everybody for weighing in! I love reading these replies - the mean IQ and just plain wisdom of universalists must be exceptionally high :wink: (though we are routinely caricatured as sentimental and irrational :wink: )

Has anybody here had a NDE or know anybody who has had one (or several even)? NDE often cited as miraculous evidence for afterlife (though mostly Hell and the traditional view) Anybody here know of/had an NDE that would confirm UR in some way? (Like you saw Jesus and He said, "Milton and Dante were wrong) :wink: hahahah

Read Elisabeth Kubler Ross’s book: “On Life After Death” You can buy it for not much money at thriftbooks.com I buy them and give them out…

YOU WILL BE ASTOUNDED! :astonished:

I am not afraid of what is after death but I’m not looking forward to the transition. I am looking forward to seeing the Lord Jesus, the Messiah and King of Heaven. He’s the One that I love and live for. My sins which were many are washed away and my heart that has been thrashed and scarred by sin is clean before Him. He is awesome now…how much more it will be when I see Him face to face.

Re: NDE’s . A hugely entertaining and well-researched novel, that uses NDE’s as an exploratory device into the nature of death, is Connie Willis’ book Passage. It’s a long and rich read that is intellectual and very very interesting.
The wiki calls it a science fiction novel - I would not call it that - I would say it’s a thoughtful science-based entertainment with great human interest as well

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passage_(Willis_novel

http://nhne-nde.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/cartoon.jpg

I think this is the link you mean:

Passage (Willis novel)

The best book I’ve read on NDE’s is:

Erasing Death: The Science That Is Rewriting the Boundaries Between Life and Death by Sam Parnia and Josh Young

In the US, you can probably obtain a copy - like I did - via the inter-library loan program. Just ask your local, adult reference librarian. :smiley:

Yep that’s the link, thanks Randy.

No; I’ve been afraid of death before I believed in UR, and also afterwards. More accurately, I am afraid of non-existence. The thought of ceasing to exist forever is the most terrifying thing I can imagine. Before I believed in UR, I never had much trouble believing that I had eternal life through Jesus. (I’m not saying that I think I’m a good person who deserves to go to Heaven; I just think God is infinitely merciful and loving.) I gravitated toward UR because I could not accept a faith in which countless people who were never given a chance to accept Jesus were punished forever because of it. However, I’ve always been plagued with doubts about whether God even exists. These doubts are more emotional than rational; intellectually, I accept the existence of God as being much more probable than the current scientific theories, but I still fear that it may not be true. And if God is not real, then I will not exist anymore after I die. But as C. S. Lewis said,

Personally, I can’t understand why anyone would not want eternal life, at least the kind Jesus offers. I think some people suffer from a failure of imagination if what they conceive of as eternal life is only an endless series of dreary, boring millennia in which we experience time exactly as we do now, and our consciousness is at the same flawed and feeble level it is now.

And Nietzsche’s remark about life being precious only in the midst of death just sounds like romantic nonsense meant to make us stoic and resolute in the face of our impending doom. It reminds me of Achilles in the film Troy saying, “the gods envy us. They envy us because we’re mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed.” Well, how would anyone really know whether life is better that way? None of us has ever known a life that’s not surrounded by death.

…14Therefore, since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, 15and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16For surely it is not the angels He helps, but the descendants of Abraham.…