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Many participating on this board are already acquainted with all of the proof texts of nonbelievers in universal reconciliation and those of believers thereof. So again, I'm dealing with the pragmatic impact of one's belief structure on his or her everyday life. For example, when
it came home to my heart that God plans to restore ALL people in Christ, the "love affair" that ensued with my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ "swallowed up" MASSIVE mind-binding bondages that had held me captive for many years, as many readers already have heard me report. So as one whose life has been transformed by the revelation of
God's--unconditionally committed--love I will demonstrate HOW my belief (mine was ACTUAL not theoretical "belief") in endless punishment kept me in bondage. By that I mean bondage to alcoholism and manic suicidal depression for many years...(1) I could never rest in God's love because I was always wondering "How much faith is ENOUGH?" For faith without works is dead. Do I have SAVING faith? How could a failure like me have been TRULY born again? Have I ALREADY made too many wrong SMALL choices so that my character will be incurably locked into the BIG choice of apostasy? Yes, I care, but do I REALLY care--enough? Is my caring about this issue AUTHENTIC caring, or is only a desire to save my own hide? Besides, sometimes I get so exhausted that I DON'T care anymore and I go out and do what FEELS good. What if I were to DIE while I was not caring? Would I never be able to care again? (The rich man in the parable about Lazarus SURE didn't talk like he "didn't care" about his loved ones or his own miserable state, did he.)
(2) I was always wondering "How many works are ENOUGH?" In other words, how much do I *HAVE* to do in order to assure that my faith is genuine and that I'm not sent to hell forever? How much do I *HAVE* to love Jesus--as shown by obedience--in order to love Him enough so He won't "allow" me to be tortured forever? How MUCH sin can I get away with? [Note here how the REAL fear of God's (Unfailing Love's?) hopeless abandonment causes one to FOCUS on sin and wonder how much of it one can commit--and--how much one HAS to
love the Lord.](3) I was always full or RAGE which for the most part I was not even aware of--though my loved ones could see it in my cynicism, depression, and periodic "binges" into booze and promiscuity. And from whence came my hidden and smouldering rage? I now realize that I had believed the lie: "You shall love the Lord your God with (the unconditional and total commitment of) all of your heart, soul, mind and strength--*while not forgetting* that His commitment to you is CONDITIONAL on YOUR performance in THIS lifetime." I labored, therefore, under the illusion that my Heavenly Father demanded a quality of love and commitent from me that DID NOT EXIST in Himself. I was a victim of spiritual abuse for having injested that satanic lie: The lie of conditional love. (By that I mean conditional ACTIVE and COMMITTED love.)
Closing out, I maintain that a person is burdened with deep and debilitating and highly stigmatized bondages simply cannot --*ACTUALLY*-- believe in endless hell (as I did) and at the same time rest in the love of God. It was being able to rest in his (committed and meaningful) love that--energerized--my will to wage a good warfare. And I COULD do that BECAUSE I could love and serve Him with all of my heart. And absolute assurance of His committed love is where my energy to love Him still comes from this very day. I--KNOW--that His commitment to me (and all of us) is FAR STRONGER than mine can possibly be to Him. Especially in this lifetime as I sojourn in this earthly "veil of tears." No longer do I have to try to keep God's judgments mentally "back filed" in order to love and serve Him. No, like David of old I can actually sing of of His judgments and hope in them too!
Can you sing of your Heavenly Father's righteous judgments and sing of them--as you presently understand them? Or do you have to try to keep them mentally "back filed" and try to trust God in your everyday--AS IF--you believed in universal salvation? Are you surviving by compartmentalized thinking? (A well developed, or perhaps a poorly cultivated habit of doublemindedness.) Or can you presently love God with all of your *MIND*? If there is not solid assurance of God's committed love for EVERYONE, then there can be no solid assurance for ANYONE. Not if you take your own sin seriously and God's warnings of ETERNAL (eonian) judgment--SERIOUSLY AND DAILY--in your real life. Pray about it. Unfailing Love Himself WILL lead you into truth that transforms you heart. Then you'll also have a message of REAL Hope in Jesus for the world's brokenhearted who have lost all ability to ope--one iota--in themselves.
Yours Rejoicing in His Never-failing, Committed Love,
Charlie