Why do some believe UR?

[nimblewill]

I used to think that people who didn’t believe in UR and those that did were divided by whether or not they believed
God loved all men as opposed to God only loving some. I’m sure that this view was naive on my part. I now wonder, with the same naivety, whether or not it comes down to believing that we play a part in the salvation of others or not. I don’t think I will be blamed if those I came in contact with don’t accept Christ, as we have been taught. I was talking to a friend who was a big Rob Bell fan until “the book.” He told me last night how sad he thought it was that Bell had lost it. I asked him how he felt about those who never had the opportunity to hear the gospel and he told me that if I felt the way I did about those who had never heard then I should be doing something about it. In other words the salvation of those who had never heard was our responsibility. I asked him about the billions who had died without ever having heard and it pretty much ended the conversation.

As EU’s do you believe that people will go to hell, however temporarily, if Christians don’t do our part?

[URPilgrim]

Yes. For some mysterious reason Father wants to work this great truth through and with us. The first verse that came to mind was II Cor.5:18-19

18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

We should be part of the sharing of the GOOD NEWS of the Happy God, imploring all to be reconciled now and not suffer the correction of the coming age.

If the ECT crowd really believed what they preached, they should all be going insane over not doing enough. The calvinist don’t have that problem, they’re the elect The arminians just say, “well, they wanted it that way”

[Alex_Smith]

As EU’s do you believe that people will go to hell, however temporarily, if Christians don’t do our part?

Yes and no. Yes, we are definitely commanded by God to proclaim the good news. No, because people will only go to hell if that’s part of God’s plan (held in tension with people’s free will, choosing to reject God). To be honest, rightly or wrongly, I really don’t want the guilt/responsibility for billions of people’s destination (albeit temporary) after death/judgement

[Sherman]

As EU’s do you believe that people will go to hell, however temporarily, if Christians don’t do our part?

I believe that people will remain in bondage in this present evil age, oppressed by evil from within and without, until they are delivered through an encounter with the Lord, whether that be in this life or the life to come, whether that encounter comes through we members of His Body or through His personal appearance.

Another question is, do we Christians also face the possibility of remedial punishment for being faithful with the gifts we’ve received? I believe we do. In fact, I see most of the warnings of judgment as warnings of judgment for those of us who have been so privaledged by the Lord as to know Him, His love, grace, mercy, Word, and Spirit! “To whom much is given, much is required.” The more we’ve been given, the more responsible we are to be like Him and to faithfully serve those we’ve been given to care for.

Reality is that we are not islands to ourselves, our sin negatively effects others, sins of commission and ommission! And one day there will be a reconning. We shall face the unshielded fire of Truth concerning our lives, how we actually lived, what we did with the blessings God gave us, how we treated others, etc.; and it will burn the Hell out of us! Scripture does not say in vain that the Lord will dry every tear, for I imagine each of us, especially we Christians will be crying bucket loads of tears! “To whom much is given, much is required.”

More each day, I am congnizant of my need of Grace and the more I trust in the Grace of God for us all!

[JasonPratt]

As EU’s do you believe that people will go to hell, however temporarily, if Christians don’t do our part?

I don’t think that’s necessarily true; Christ Himself is the first and foremost evangelist.

But if we’re allowed to make (or perhaps more accurately to give back) our own contributions to the yoke that Christ is pulling, then yep if we don’t do our part then there can be results because people don’t have salt in their lives from that direction, too. If we didn’t make some difference in helping, we wouldn’t be expected to act as ambassadors of the reconciliation.

Is that difference only applicable to this life, and not at all to (at least the beginning of) the Day of the Lord to come? Maybe. But I don’t know that I would want to bet on it.

The two main things to keep in mind against despair on this, however (and Calvs and Arms both keep this in mind as well), are: Jesus saves (we ourselves don’t); and anyone in hell is there because they insist on being impenitent about their sins, shutting their eyes and walking against whatever of the light they can currently see. (Calvs can be rather inconsistent about the latter when it comes to issues of God’s sovereignty in salvation and condemnation, and Arms can be rather inconsistent about the former when it comes to the same issues. But generally they do still acknowledge these things in principle.)

We ourselves may indeed be liable to blood guilt for being lazy and uncharitable servants!–but that’s a serious problem between us and God. If we cannot trust God to do better than our own wretched contributions, then we’re all pretty much screwed anyway. But that doesn’t let us off from the responsibility of contributing.

[MikeyG]

If the ECT crowd really believed what they preached, they should all be going insane over not doing enough. The calvinist don’t have that problem, they’re the elect The arminians just say, “well, they wanted it that way”

Good comment, I like it!

I don’t think I will be blamed if those I came in contact with don’t accept Christ, as we have been taught.
…
I asked him how he felt about those who never had the opportunity to hear the gospel and he told me that if I felt the way I did about those who had never heard then I should be doing something about it. In other words the salvation of those who had never heard was our responsibility.

I think you’re right to doubt it… there’s also the problem of what happens if we tell someone about Christ and they choose to reject it? If God desires to save all but we do a naff job of telling others, are we to blame? What about the times when we’ve said something which (perhaps unknowingly) has turned someone away from Christ? Are we to blame then?
(If we follow this line of thought, perhaps it’s better if we don’t evangelise: if we believe passages like Rom 2:12-15 in that those who die without hearing are judged by their deeds, then by telling them we take a risk: if they reject the message, they are condemned to hell. Which is the more loving option?)

Yes, it is our duty to tell others. But I don’t think we should beat ourselves up about it when we do a bad job or have a day when we just don’t feel like doing it. God knows this. He knows where we’re weak, and he knows when we’re weak. When a father teaches his child to ride a bike, he doesn’t get mad when the child falls over: but with encouragement and patience he helps his child to learn. I think God’s like that. He desires for us to “get it right” but I don’t think he’ll hold us accountable for when we get it wrong. It’s not so much about our actions, it’s about our heart attitude. (In my opinion.)

…sins of commission and ommission!

Umm… I have issues with that… I’ll start a new thread for it though.