Im not stuck on titles or labels. In my opinion ive grown pass that. I was just wondering because we believe in universal restoration, does that make us universalists or christian universalist? I was reading one of rays emails and some one called him a gnostic. I dont know much about gnosticism except it comes from the greek word gnosis which means "to know". I read an article where a guy called himself a gnostic universalist. If we are universalist then thats what we just are.
Hi Micah,
Your Thread compelled me to make some brief comments. I don't have too much time to devote to this, so my response may seem somewhat limited, as I'm currently working on a New Thread which is taking me a couple of weeks. Anyway, Universalism was the prevailing Doctrine for the First 4-5 Centuries and "Saint" Augustine accompanied by Emperor Justinian were the main villians in stamping it out as a Mainline Orthodox teaching.
Generally, I consider myself a Christian Universalist, but with qualifying considerations to any that might have questions as to my beliefs. Ray has mentioned that He didn't like going by that label because alot of their "Understandings" of Being Saved, Chastisement(GK-Kolasin), Judgement(GK-Krino-Krisis, Heb-Misphat), Length of the Ages(Aions) and their interpretations of Eschatology(Study of Last Days) are Heretical. For Instance: Being Saved is a process that takes time with much suffering, God's Gehenna Spiritual Fire is meant for God's Chosen Elect in this Lifetime and is Spiritual with the purpose of correcting, burning the Carnal Garbage from those receiving it, in this Lifetime.
The only thing that we(Bible Truths) fully agree on with other Christian Universalist Groups is that everyone will eventually be saved, but the process is certainly different from the standpoint of these other Sites. Some Universalist groups believe in " The Immortality(GK-Athanasia) of the Soul " like Origen did, Some believe that God is a Trinity, Some believe that the God the Father is Jehovah(No Man has seen God at any time or heard His voice). Some believe that the Creative Days were 24 hour days, Some believe that the Correction or Chastisement that Mankind receives for Their benefit is Physically Literally. Ray has stated: " Nobody is Saved Anyway." They tend to give the impression that the Salvation of All is automatic and you can do anything you want without any consequences or Accountability for ones actions. God is responsible for everything, but Humans are still accountable for their actions, because they desired to commit them.
Please don't anyone ask me about the the difference between "Responsibility" and "Accountability,"
, there are many Past Threads on this Forum explaining this and Ray thoroughly goes over this in His Freewill Series. Sorry if I didn't adequately answer your question, but a Label(Universalist, Christian, Unitarian,etc,etc) is just a Label. I believe God is using Ray as the best possible channel of accurate Truth regarding representing Universalism that I know of and I did much research on Universalism prior to joining this Forum.
Kind Regards and Hope this helps, Samson.