The Dilemma. Preacher Man, Father, Universalism and Love.

Universalism is not blasphemy, Universalism is not an end to Christianity. A simple preacher man can figure it out. Love is in fact the answer. Being a father teaches us about how a father loves. A simple preacher man can be a father and Universalist, a preacher man and love. (To be sure here we are talking about Universalism as the notion that everyone gets to go to heaven) First let us make clear how we use Universalism. For this purpose Universalism is the idea that we do have free will. And that we all get to go to heaven. However we can refuse to go to heaven. Our choice.

Heaven we speak of here as the place and or space you would like to go after death. “You” would be your soul not your flesh. “Choice” would be the idea of you having the power to choose. “preacher man” would be someone who preaches but is not ordained by a particular religion or denomination or sect. Unless otherwise noted a preacher man preaches Christian philosophy and faith and the Bible. A father is just that, someone who fulfils a real position of the male parent to another. (I suppose that would cover LGBT’s, big brothers, step dads, and single moms, if they fulfil that role) We are not judging with a large J but we do not leave our judgments at the door either.

Choices

We all have the choice to accept or reject the following:

1. Love
2. Jesus Christ
3. God
4. Universalism
5. Hate
6. Soul
7. After mortal death life of the soul or afterlife
8. Peace
9. Conflict
10. The spiritual
11. The Bible
12. Tolerance and acceptance

Now most of these we can choose today and reject tomorrow. In fact we can do it with all of them. There are some aspects that once accepted cannot really be rejected again. Sometimes we become convicted. Once convicted you give up choice in a certain area. Much like the “convict” does. It commits (committed) a crime and then convicted he now has lost his choice as to where to live. Such is the dilemma of becoming truly baptized in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. And the dilemma of love. Once accepted and being convicted thereof one cannot just pretend or believe differently anymore, it over we made an irreversible choice. Oh we can “divorce” our bodies and our minds even from those two convictions but it is like the Hotel California, you can check out but you can never leave. You can leave a church or even a home physically but a piece of you will always be there. So sometimes we have a choice but we give it up.

On the other hand we can choose today to believe in peace, tolerance, acceptance and afterlife but change our minds tomorrow. Changing our minds is like changing our clothes or hair color.

What of Universalism and the Bible?

They are not exclusive of each other. The Bible makes very clear that only through Jesus Christ can you get to heaven. That is great. St. Peter really is not the gatekeeper with big old golden gates, sorry to all you vizualists out there. Christ decides. And Christ Loves everyone. Try as we might we cannot change that clear fact, as being part of the Bible. It does not suggest that Christ only loves ________ (you fill in the blank). So the only way that you cannot be loved and accepted into heaven is to choose not to go. It would be nice if we had a cool rule book to decide how you have to manifest that choice but we only do for ourselves and not for others. My rule book says to accept Christ. We have choices so your rule book might say something different. That is the big “J” Judgment that we leave at the door.

Now do not take that any further than that. No one is suggesting that bad behavior or sin does not have consequences. Of course it does. Imagine you just go around violating all the Ten Commandments, big sin, not just little sin. The only way you can justify that in your head and heart is to reject morality, spirituality, Love and God. (no that is not to say if you reject all those you will…..) It is to say the only way you can truly choose to live like that is to reject that which is good as a choice. And if there is no good, we must consider that hell.

The Choice of Hell

I have seen Hell on earth. No not because I have seen great human suffering and horrible deaths but because I have seen people in mind, body and spirit condemn themselves over and over and over again. And we have all seen people who put themselves through constant torment. Perhaps the obscenely drunken alcoholic who chooses not to get help or help themselves. Who intentionally makes a choice to continue to poison themselves as some kind of sick punishment they believe they deserve. And this is not to say that it did not start out as an illness not chosen. And this is to say that they face incomprehensible demoralization without hope or love and have given up a choice. But that is the physical hell on earth we speak of in that instance.

We certainly can make the same choice for our souls. Why one would do that often comes down to actually “sensing” that there is no other reality than self. Here is the bad news for such types. Jesus Christ still loves you. Your belief in him is irrelevant. This is true without your belief. This we reference as a Biblical truth, whether you believe it or I believe it or not within the construct of the logic of what Christ is, it is just fact. But again you can choose to reject that. And so condemn yourself. But you cannot have it happen just by a continuum of a timeline, you have to choose to accept hell and embrace it.

So the dilemma for the preacher man.

He can know in his heart what is true to him. He can espouse the Bible and he can even embrace the doctrines of religion. But he cannot preach the idea of you “must” or else. Who is he? So how does the father and the preacher man teach good rules to follow? How can he lead? Without saying this is wrong and this is right he is an empty gong. There is good news for the preacher man and the father. They can teach others to make decisions based on the universal concept of Love. Here one can find solace and acceptance of the dichotomy of life and afterlife.

Here one does not even need to force themselves into a choice in order to “be safe” or hedge bets. One can choose to live in love and not in hell. For love does not know rejection either coming from or being received. But this preacher man and father can tell you that if you do reject love, you enter into a hell of your own making. Notice the imagery used in the Bible for hell. Clearly it is a manmade construct. I cannot possibly tell you what your hell would be like. Oh we can talk about it, but I cannot imagine your hell.

Now our only dilemma is what you should choose today. And that is a fine dilemma.