universalism

There’s a lot of talk about universalism these days. The strangest thing to me about all of this talk is how pejorative a term “universalist” has become. “Yer a no good, yellow bellied, puppy-killing Satan worshipper!” “Oh ya? Well, yer a universalist!” In the conversation thats been going on, being a universalist is apparently the worst thing one can be. And, this raises some questions for me.

Are we saved through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus – or, through belief in hell? If someone claims that there is no hell, a certain portion of the Christian family thinks that is enough to label them a heretic and a blasphemer – which automatically excludes them from participating in eternal life with Jesus. Or, to put it another way: not believing in hell is enough to send one to hell.

That’s weird.

I wonder if we shouldn’t be more concerned with what we believe about Jesus rather than what we believe about hell.

P.S. If you search google images for “jesus” and “devil” you get a surprising amount of pictures of Mike Huckabee.