June 23, 2020 Tuesday 1:25 a.m.
@jriley555 @BillySlater @db20db
First off, I would like to thank each of you for letting me explain myself with friendly and open discourse. Such apologetics, and less controversy like polemics, is what makes discussions of religious nature worthwhile. There's a lot I want to say and address. Please have patience and I will do my best to answer all of your questions. This may get kind of long and likely cover over more than one post and take some time due to having a tight schedule on my end currently.
Expressing my beliefs as 'Universalist' is accurate, which I need to clarify. It's 'Christian Universalism' not 'Unitarian Universalism'. The difference is I have taken a vow to place my full faith in Jesus Christ. I 'do not' mix and match with other religions like Unitarian Universalists do. I understand the concern of moral relativism and its heresy in deluding the importance of Christ's earthly ministry.
This said, you are probably thinking, " Well, if all it takes in order to have salvation is to be a good person, what's the point and following the way of Jesus?"
I am not advocating the heresy of works-based only salvation as implied in my preceding question. Quoting James 2:18-24 :
18 "But some one will say, âYou have faith and I have works.â Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believeâand shudder. 20 Do you want to be shown, you shallow man, that faith apart from works is barren? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works, 23 and the scripture was fulfilled which says, âAbraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousnessâ; and he was called the friend of God. 24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone." (RSV)
If understood properly, James was writing to some people who seemed to fit into this category, because they did no works and their faith (if any) could not be seen. Just so we're clear, good works (or good deeds) never override or become more important than faith, but is a demonstration of it when there is no personal boasting. Faith is complemented through the visible sign of the Holy Spirit. What I'm describing might make more sense if you hold, or rather, have room to allow the Christus Victor view of atonement besides the other acceptable doctrines of the atonement.
Because, like all believing Christians, I regard Jesus to be God personified, 100% divine and 100% human, each differing aspects unitely joined together. Thus, the heresies of arianism and docetism are not an issue, which each stress a more uniform (not united) nature of being completely one or the other.
Back to the concern of moral relativism above, I believe in only the God of Israel, no other deity. I do not believe in "All paths lead to God". While I do believe 'fragments', if you will, of God's truth can be found in all cultures and societies, only God's full presence was revealed to the ancient Israelites, whom God chose because they listened to God, meaning, they saw beyond themselves. Instead of being an exclusive social club, where it's easy to mistakenly believe that they're better than everyone else in self-righteousness, they had consideration for all the nations living among them too.
I have no problem providing my religious convictions here. Given the personal venue of this topic, I'd like to continue this on the religion board, feeling more comfortable going deeper there for further insight. Each of you will get a private message from me for part 2 later.
Edit - June 24, 2020 part 2 follow-up:
https://moviechat.org/bd0000108/Religion-Faith-and-Spirituality/5ef3e3cde968e810776427c4/Universalism-in-Christianity-not-UU-or-New-Age-something-to-think-about
~~/o/
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