By Jana Reis
here.
I think I missed this when it was first published over a year ago. Quote:
Mormons have always believed in a God who refuses to dispatch anyone to an everlasting hell, which is a critique Bell makes again and again of traditional evangelical views. (Bell asks us which is "more terrifying to fathom: the billions who burn forever or the few who escape this fate?") In this way, Mormon universalism is not unlike the universalist views that swept the early American nation in the generation before Joseph Smith. Clearly, Smith imbibed the waters that had also nurtured earlier New England universalists like Charles Chauncy and Benjamin Rush.
Like some of that generation, Mormon theology also embraces the idea that this short human life is not our only chance to make decisions that may affect eternity. After this life, people who never got the chance to hear God's good news, or who rejected God for reasons that made perfect sense at the time, will have the opportunity. And in Mormonism, everyone means everyone, from serial killers to soccer moms. The Mormon God is a god of second, third, and fourth chances . . . unto eternity. That doesn't necessarily mean that punishment for sin does not exist—the 18th-century Universalists entertained the idea of a temporary "hell" that would purge evil and purify a person to dwell with God, and Mormons speak of a comparably short-lived "spirit prison" in which individuals may learn, repent, and eventually cross over into paradise.
11 comments:
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Of course, religion is a contrivance of human culture; so, one would expect thart the later models would appeal more to the senses than the early ones that are all sooper supernatural.
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Sin does not exist except within a religious frame. Crime exists within the frame of States. Therefore, is religious co-ercion the means to bring people to repentance when they do not prescribe to "sin"? a short term hell to break the person's spirit so that paradise can be experienced? or revealed? What makes then the Christian, Mormon or Universalist understanding of "sin." and repentance different from other religious frames?
I missed IT too -- back then. No wonder, IT has been changing so fast, and there is so much information to be grasped! Thanks for bringing this article to our attention again. drCCY
I don't know, Jon---I tell people to go to hell all the time.
Sometimes I sort of mean it.
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We've all noticed that, big guy.
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Every one of us.
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Phil Johnson
Burn in hell
Burn in hell!
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/zz_top_zz_top/
Please gentlemen, can't we all just look on the brighter, perhaps lighter, side of life?
Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best...
And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...
Woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo....
[hard to convey whistling without musical notation]
from: http://www.thebards.net/music/lyrics/Always_Look_Bright_Side_Life.shtml
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What gentlemen are you addressing.
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I'm a curmudgeon and the dork is a sick puppy.
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He's the sole thing keeping this blog site down.
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Do the site a big favor and block him.
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Phil,
My reference is to Monty Python's song, Look on the Bright Side of Life, which appeared in the video that Tom linked to and also quoted. Just having a spot o fun.
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He's a sick puppy and everyone knows it.
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It's too sad.
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Ms. Reis was incorrect about one aspect of mormonism. It does not have a "hell" per se, but recognizes that some people are "sons of perdition" and shall spend eternity in "outer darkness" and will never interact with those who made it to one of the kingdoms of glory. Outer darkness is pretty much like an 1890's newspaper ad would describe a New York tenement, hell without heat.
Interestingly, sons of perdition is obviously masculine, so can a woman be a one? Pretty much the official answer is, "we do not know."
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