Indeed... Frustrating too when people lump a perfectly scriptural conclusion like UR together with liberalism and those who seem to disregard God's word to suit themselves.
When people ask me why I have changed my mind to accepting universal reconciliation, my answer is "because I started taking the Old Testament seriously". And it's true; studying around the Greek words translated as "hell", "torment", "destroyed" etc. did help, but it was the fulfilment of the feast days (almost never read or studied by most
Christians) that made the truth of it clear and obvious to me, rather than some kind of clever argument.
But if the subject comes up in discussion with Christians, they often say "oh, like Rob Bell" and then trot out something from John Piper. But there is a world of difference between not supporting the doctrine of eternal conscious punishment on scriptural grounds, and tossing out scripture you don't like. Indeed, I often point out that UR is a "harder" position for a Christian to accept; it may ultimately be better news for non-believers but it is more demanding on the Christian who previously thought that praying the sinner's prayer was their get-out-of-jail-free card.
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Topic: love wins (Read 5254 times)