One Love – Christian Universalism - Is it Possible?

  Christian Universalists - What They Believe

1. We believe in a God who is Love, Light, Truth, and Spirit, the Creator of the universe, whom we are called to seek, know, and love; and whose nature was revealed to the world in the person and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ.

The Bible tells us that God is Spirit (John 4:24), transcending such physical attributes as gender, race, species, and any other categories of this world. God is pure Light, and in Him there is no darkness, no evil (1 John 1:5). God is perfect Love (1 John 4:8,16), full of kindness and patience, never failing (1 Cor. 13:4-8). God is the Truth, meaning that He determines what is real and what is imaginary (Ps. 51:6, Isa. 65:1-2,17, John 3:33, Rom. 1:18-20, 11:33-36). Our own fantasies and ideologies may seem real to us, but there is such a thing as Absolute Truth -- and that is God and that which emanates from the mind of God.

Learn more about this teaching: Who Is God?

2. We believe that the universal commandment is to love and serve one another as each loves oneself.

All people are God's children (Mal. 2:10, Rom. 8:16, Eph. 4:6), and therefore we must view and treat each individual as our brother or sister. Anything less is to demean the station of the human being, and therefore to demean oneself. There are no exceptions to this rule: not even the most wicked, crooked, corrupted, vile, filthy, deviant, or otherwise undesirable person is beneath our spiritual obligation to love (John 13:34-35, Eph. 3:16-19, 1 Pet. 4:8). And that includes oneself! Loving others begins with loving oneself as the son or daughter of God that you are. No matter who you are or what you have done, you are worthy of God's love, and therefore worthy of love from yourself and others. And if worthy to be loved -- with your faults and all -- then you are called to give love to others regardless of their faults. This is the universal commandment.

Learn more about this teaching: The Golden Rule

3. We believe in the law of justice by which actions generate consequences, whether to be manifested in this life or the life to come.

Another thing the Bible makes clear is that the purpose of "hell" or suffering is not to torture people, but to cause them to learn from their mistakes and grow closer to perfection. Divine judgment is reformative, not vindictive. The word used in the original Greek New Testament is kolasis, which means a beneficial chastening such as a gardener prunes a vine to remove dead vegetation and make it grow more fruitfully.

Learn more about this teaching: Divine Justice and Life After Death

4. We believe in the ultimate triumph of divine mercy and grace: that no being ever created will be condemned or allowed to suffer forever, but God has arranged through a benevolent plan of learning and growth for all souls to attain salvation, reconciliation, restoration, and reunion with the Source of All Being, in the fullness of the ages.

Our belief in the ultimate salvation of all is based on a strong trust in God's omnipotence and benevolence. He is neither powerless to save rebellious and suffering souls, nor is He unwilling to do so. Instead, God is both powerful enough and loving enough to cause all souls to be rescued from a state of separation and returned to their intended state of unity and harmony with the divine (Isa. 46:10-11, 55:11, 1 Tim. 2:4-6). All things that are good will be preserved and restored to their fullest manifestation, but all things that are bad will perish (Mat. 3:12, 1 Cor. 3:13-14). Since no human being is totally bad, no human will perish eternally. It is God's plan to take what is good in each individual and multiply it, and replace the bad within us with an infusion of His divine goodness, until only the good remains.

Learn more about this teaching: Universal Salvation

5. We believe every person is the divine offspring of God, created in the image of the Heavenly Parent of all; and that every person is destined to be raised up from imperfection to maturity according to the pattern of the archetypal Christ, the Son of God, the Perfect Human in whose image all humanity shall be transformed.

The Bible makes it clear that God should be regarded as the Father of all people (Mal. 2:10, Mat. 6:9, Eph. 4:6); that all human beings, both male and female, are created in the divine image according to God's own likeness (Gen. 1:26-27), which therefore encompasses both genders (Isa. 66:13, Mat. 23:37); that the Light or Spirit of God is within us (Job 33:4, Ps. 51:10-11, Mat. 5:14, Mark 1:8, Luke 11:35-36); that we are literally God's offspring (Acts 17:28), and in a sense are "gods" (Ps. 82:6, John 10:34); and that someday we will actually be able to manifest the powers of gods, as Jesus was already able to do (Mat. 17:20, Luke 6:40, John 14:12, 1 Cor. 6:2-3).

Learn more about this teaching: Human Nature and Destiny

6. We believe in miracles and mysterious spiritual phenomena, such as the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which transcend materialistic views of reality.

Modern philosophies and ideologies that limit their horizons solely to the realm of material science are impoverishing themselves, in our opinion, by shutting out other important truths that go beyond what any scientific instruments or purely materialistic theories could ever measure or understand. One of the reasons why miracles sometimes happen is because God wants to open people's eyes and minds to the realms of reality that transcend their present understanding and worldly limitations (John 14:11). We do not know all that there is to know about how the universe works. There is such a thing as mystery, and it is an essential element of religious faith (1 Cor. 13:12).

Learn more about this teaching: The Mystery of Faith

7. We believe that God's Holy Spirit has inspired numerous prophets, saints, philosophers, and mystics throughout history, in a variety of cultures and traditions; and that by reading the Bible and other great texts of spiritual and moral wisdom with a discerning mind, and meditating to connect to the Spirit within, we may all gain a greater understanding of truth, which should be applied for the betterment of ourselves and our world.

As Universalists, we also recognize that the revelation of divine truth is not limited to the pages of the Bible. For one thing, many great Christian thinkers, such as church fathers, saints and mystics, have written texts which are just as inspiring and valuable as canonized Biblical books. Looking beyond the confines of Christianity, all people throughout history have been able to seek and find God in nature (Rom. 1:20), as well as through the rational discourse of philosophy (Prov. 4:5-9, 24:14, Isa. 1:18, Acts 17:28). Some attained great levels of understanding in these ways. Furthermore, there have been various holy persons and prophetic figures who have lived within the context of a wide variety of cultures and spiritual and philosophical traditions, whose explorations led them to gain and share important ideas in the progress of humanity's search for the divine.

Learn more about this teaching: Divine Revelation and the Pursuit of Truth

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Christian Universalist Association: In the Christian Universalist Association, there are several important spiritual and moral beliefs that we as an organization agree upon and proclaim. This list is short and simple, leaving much room for diversity of thought, personal opinion and conscience, while upholding the basic essentials of the Gospel. Here are the beliefs our organization teaches as truth. Click on the links below each statement to read a short article explaining it, including Biblical references in support of our beliefs.

Learn more about these teachings online:

What We Believe: http://www.christianuniversalist.org/beliefs.html

Christian Universalist Association: www.christianuniversalist.org

Comments

[Justin Bieber Shoes]

Thanks,for this beautiful post and it's fascinating questions!
Something about a view opens up a world of possibility. I'm sure he'll enjoy it though and hope you raise LOADSAMONEY for your charity.
I am sure that he will absolutely love it. My son has done it a couple of times.