My biggest problem with Christianity has always been the view that God sends to people to be tormented in Hell forever. I just could not reconcile the idea that God is love and benevolent and that he burns people forever.
The ideas for why people go to hell and who goes to hell is Sometimes varied. Some say only really evil people go to hell, and some say anyone who is non Christian goes to hell no matter how good of a person they were. These views make me feel sick to my stomach. I think people who believe this can’t imagine themselves in the shoes of someone they see as irredeemable.
This view also separates people who were close. It would separate a good mother from her son who went down a bad road and died young. How can there be no tears in heaven if such separations happen?
I watched a few videos from a YouTube channel from a person I would call a fundamentalist catholic that made me sick. He said things like only Catholics go to heaven, the pope is the “antipope” and anyone who agrees with him about his “liberal” positions goes to hell, anyone who divorces goes to hell. I don’t know if I ever found another person as sick and cold hearted as this man.
However I have been doing a lot of research into the doctrine of Universal Salvation that basically says in the end God will be “All in all” and “Every knee will bow to Jesus.” There is also the idea that the flames of hell represent flames that purify you in a similar to a way that heat and fire purify gold. There will be punished for people who have done evil but all those people will eventually repent and be accepted into heaven.
A lot of the Ancient Greek words in the Bible meant different things then modern translation mean.
I feel that this view makes far more sense since Jesus said “forgive your enemies” “don’t judge lest you be judged.” and “forgive them father, they do not know what they are doing.”
I feel this view of Universal Salvation is profound and positive.
Here is an example.
