Monday, March 2, 2015

Universalism turns Christianity upside down

Richard Trudeau writes in his book, Universalism 101 on page 19 "While mainstream Christianity viewed God as having turned away from humanity because of human sin, Ballou's view was that it was humanity that had turned away from God; and that God sent Jesus not to pay the price, but to remind human's of God's love."

Jesus says in A Course In Miracles: "I was not punished because you were bad. The wholly benign lesson the Atonement teaches is lost if it is tainted with this kind of distortion in any form." T-3.I.2:10-11

We humans create our own hell by separating ourselves from God. God loves us unconditionally, but out of our guilt and fear of punishment we can't believe that God loves us. What kind of God is this that exudes unconditional love? It is the God of Universalism and of Jesus and not the God of mainstream Christianity that has manipulated people with hellfire and brimstone and engendered a belief in a vengeful God who damns people to hell for all eternity. What kind of people would make up and teach such a God? This teaching is what John Bradshaw has called the "poisonous pedagogy."

Jesus was never vengeful, and never engaged in retribution. He said He came to change the Code of Hammurabi which influenced the depiction of a wrathful Old Testament god. Universalism teaches quite of different gospel, one of truly good news, that Love is ever present if we can overcome the blocks to our awareness of Love's presence.

2 comments:

  1. Wonderful message. In our guilt we believe because we are told that Jesus, God's son, died for our sins. This is a sadistic belief about God. Jesus died to show us that the key to life is spirit not our body. Jesus rose above the body and as they tortured and crucified him laughed and as much as said but didn't have to because He demonstrated it, "you can kill my body, but you can't kill my soul."

    Amen! That's the message of Universalism the true message of Jesus' life and death. Would that it would be preached and believed and applied around the world. It would be quite a different world we live in.

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  2. Adin Ballou, the great Universalist evangelist truly believed Jesus' injunction to love one's enemies. He was an original practitioner of non-violence. Unfortunately, contemporary Unitarian Universalist social teaching has moved away from Ballou's understanding of Jesus' teaching and has been supportive of people engaged in military activity even a UU Chaplaincy. Ballou would be rolling over in his grave if he could see how Universalism has sold out to the militarism of Caesar.

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