Simon Says

Recently I have been getting into what could loosely be called 'debate' with fellow co-religionists regarding the life to come.

Traditionally it has been the Church's teaching that after death people are separated into 2 groups: those destined for Heaven, and those destined for Hell. This is the stated view of my own denomination (which is Calvanistic in leaning, though many do sway from the official line) but many Christians shy away from the whole idea of Predestination towards the 'freewill' option i.e. we as individuals choose our own eternal destinies by either accepting or rejecting Jesus Christ as personal Saviour.

Over the last couple of years I have found even this more 'moderate' position difficult to swallow. The idea that somehow we 'choose' our own salvation seems out of step with the loving image of God that is so often projected by modern day churches. This, "well you've only got yourself to blame if you end up in Hell" attitude would be fine if life was a level playing field - but as anyone with eyes in their head will know, it's not.

The point of this blog is to try to develop a 'fairer' theology to deal with life beyond THIS life. I should probably point out that for the last 14 months I've been an unapologetic Christian Universalist and have been trying to read all that I can to support my new found theology. There's actually a lot of it about, especially on the Net.

I will leave you at this point with this thought: if you, with the simple push of a button, could end all suffering. Would you do it? If you had the power to cure all disease with the utterance of a single word, would you say it? If you could bring about peace and harmony by only raising your hands, would you lift them? I imagine the answer would be "yes". We don't have that power, unfortunately, but as Christians we believe that God does. Why then does the Church teach that the majority of people will not go to Heaven, but to Hell to be tortured for all eternity? Why doesn't the Church teach that God loves all people and as a consequence will save all people?

Keep reading..................

# posted by Simon Henning @ 8:47 AM