-Quote from George Washington-

"When the government fears the people, we have liberty, but when the people fear the government, we have tyranny." - George Washington, American Revolutionary and first President of the USA

Sunday, September 4, 2011

universalism

"Universalism is the teaching that all people will be saved.  Some say that it is through the atonement of Jesus that all will ultimately be reconciled to God.  Others just say that all will go to heaven sooner or later, whether or not they have trusted in or rejected Jesus as savior during their lifetime.  This universal redemption will be realized in the future where God will bring all people to repentance.  This repentance can happen while a person lives or after he has died and lived again in the millennium (as some "Christian universalists" claim) or some future state.  Additionally, a few universalists even maintain that Satan and all demons will likewise be reconciled to God.
Nevertheless, both facets of universalistic belief are in serious error.  People will suffer eternal damnation (Rev. 14:11) and the demonic forces have no redeemer.  But, in my opinion, though universalism is a grave error, holding to the idea that all will be saved in itself does not automatically make someone a non-Christian.  Please see Can a Christian be a Universalist?
However, there are those within the universalist camp (who claim to be Christian) who also deny the doctrine of the Trinity and, thereby, the incarnation of the Word of God as God the Son.  They also deny the personhood and deity of the Holy Spirit. Usually, these denials are held by Unitarian Universalists, though others who are not of the Universalist camp also deny the Trinity.  Those who deny these essentials cannot be classified as Christians.
To deny the deity of Christ, is to deny one of the essential doctrines of salvation.  In this sense, those universalists who deny the deity of Christ are in a false religious belief system.  Of course, when one essential doctrine is denied, many other historic biblical doctrines are also denied and salvation is void because the object of faith is false.
There is no official "Universal Salvation Church" denomination but there is a Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA).  The UUA can be classified as non-Christian because it denies the deity of Christ, the personhood of the Holy Spirit, etc.
It is not possible to categorize all of universalists into one tidy doctrinal category.  Its adherents vary in belief.  Some are Arian (God is one person, Jesus is a creation).  Some are Trinitarian.  Others even lean toward new age concepts of man's divinity.
So, universalism is not really a doctrine that identifies a group.  Rather, it is a doctrine of different, even contradictory groups, who all claim universalism."
I am a Wiccan.  I am not a universalist.  One time, a woman named Christine Reyna, once a Wiccan from Eladauen Coven, a Celtic coven told me she was a universalist.  I suspect she either wants to get me to preach this or preaches it herself. Universalism is false.

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