My father was engaged in subsistence farming, and so I was raised on a farm which had no electricity and no motors of any kind — so, of course, we did not have a car. When we went to a country store for groceries, we travelled 2 miles with a team of horses and a hay wagon. So to get there and back took about an hour and a half. The nearest church (Baptist) was 6½ miles away; so, of course we never went. My father wasn’t a Christian, but my mother and my sister (13y. older than I) was. However, we had fundamentalist/dispensationalist literature in our home, and so I was taught by my mother and sister according to those systems of thought. As I grew up, I was continually worried about my father having to spend eternity in hell. He died when I was 17, and my mother and I moved to the village where the Baptist church was located, and began to attend. The teaching was much the same as my mother believed, although she considered it to be “modernistic.” However, I didn’t get fit into this church very well, since I couldn’t picture the apostles Paul or Peter or John being Baptists or Presbyterians or Lutherans or Catholics, etc.
Much later, after I was married, my wife and I attended a congregation of “Plymouth Brethren.” These folks claimed to be non-denominational and practised “body ministry” (at least among the men). This phrase indicates that there is not a one-man ministry (“the pastor”), but that everyone is a minister, and the meetings are open for anyone to minister. Also, they had communion every Sunday as the early church practised it. Also there was no formal membership. They recognized fully everyone whom the Lord recognized as one of His.
When we moved into our present location on the same property (although not the same house) as I lived as a child, we could not find any similar church — until one day I discovered one about 24 mi. away in which body ministry and weekly communion were practised, and there was no formal membership roll. It was easy to fellowship with those people. I had known of their existence, but my mother always considered them to be “heretics” and so, previously, I had never considered attending that church. But when my wife did music with the wife of one of the elders, we decided to attend, and were with them from about 1978 until my wife’s death in 1997. My present wife and I also continued with this church until recently. This group of churches do not identify themselves with any denominational name, but outsiders refer to them as “The North Battleford Group” because they arose as a result of a revival in North Battleford, Saskatchewan in 1948.
One day in the early 80s, we attended a summer camp of this group. One of the travelling elders (they don’t identify themselves as “apostles” but those of that church group consider them in that way) was saying to another during a meal, “I never could believe in an eternal hell.” I was utterly shocked! As long as I remember, I had believed that the unsaved went to suffer in the fires of hell forever. What had I gotten myself into? I had gotten myself into a cult! I walked around that camp ground, greatly disturbed. I didn’t know what to do! Then it seemed as if a voice were speaking to me. It wasn’t an audible voice, but it came into my mind so strongly that it might as well have been audible:
“Don’t be concerned about this. Just put your worries on the shelf. You will understand later on.” Then to my amazement, I felt perfectly relaxed, and enjoyed the remainder of the camp meetings.
After I returned home, whenever I read the Bible, I seemed to be coming across passages which taught the reconciliation of all people to God! Why had I never seen that in the Bible before? It seemed that God had simply begun revealing this to me at this particular time. I found out later that the people of all the churches of “the North Battleford Group” believe in the reconciliation of all to God. I know of no other group of churches which hold to that teaching.
In recent years, I have discovered a most powerful verse which, correctly translated, speaks of the post-mortem correction of the lost:
The Lord knows to deliver the devout out of trial, but to keep the unrighteous for a day of judgment to be corrected. (2 Peter 2:9)
My father in law, while kindly helping to clean my front beds, accidentally chopped off my one remaining rose. It is a rambler and does look like a bit weedy in the fall, unless you know what rose leaves look like. The only rose I’ve successfully grown in our shady garden is the Zephirine Drouhin. So, I will be planting one or two this spring. Maybe I’ll set some eggs out to rot for the occasion.