Thanks for your encouragement … it’s good to hear from you! Ah yes, the universal salvation of the world question.

…and like you i see the grace of Jesus Christ oozing out of it.

Now, I’m thinking you may have read someone else’s comment in regards to this particular teaching (maybe in one of the questions I responded to) because even though I see much life in some of the aspects of it, I’m not a proponent of the overall teaching.

…to me it just makes my Lord and Saviour that much more loving, more powerful, more awesome.

I’ve heard this stated a lot by those who are either looking into the teaching and/or by those who are sold on it. I think our religious fears and perceptions have been so bent by the constant need to determine who’s going to heaven vs. who’s going to hell that we still think we need to have an answer for that atrocity! It seems those most impressed by this come out of heavy evangelical denominations that were always focused on the heaven vs. hell issue. Hey, I was one of those evangelicals … and I thoroughly understand the rationale behind it that makes Christ appear much more loving, more powerful, more awesome.

…instead of us doing anything about salvation or anything else He did it all.

Now, before even hearing this viewpoint I was already convinced that salvation was totally accomplished by Christ … having absolutely nothing to do with anything we do. But I understand why this viewpoint has many believing that it is the only way to come to this supposed total-grace conclusion. Do you know why? Because it holds to the same false perception of faith and/or believing we learned from the preachers of condemnation. What I’m saying is that we have so bought into the LIE that defines faith as a decision we now have to come up with something else to re-establish the idea that He did it all. Did you follow me on that? :)

Jim Minker