K____ wrote:
Hello Mike,
I saw some of your articles touching the subject of what is called ‘universalism’
http:// www. iswasandwillbe. com/ search. php? q= universalist
It is only my opinion, but I think that a ‘summary’ article showing the differences between them and you may assist readers in distinguishing.  A ‘key’ so to speak. Since the belief in eternal torment seems so prominent…(and all the implications which follow)… it would be easy for a listener to just group you with the Unitarian Universalists, who do not even believe Jesus ‘saved’ us from anything, when He himself pronounced that through Him all are ‘saved’.  Being ‘saved’, etc… is central throughout our modern Christian beliefs… it would be nice to see a simple column next to column comparison of “Unitarian Universalist” and the biblical differences stated on your site.
A follow- up comment of mine: Is there an identified/ named group of today which incorporates the statements/ articles throughout your site?  I find it disconcerting when in conversation with someone and they declare…”Oh, so you are a ______ “… my response is always “I’ve never heard of ______, so I cannot say.”  But regardless, for them, it is as if the conversation ends at that point.  This has happened on more than one occasion.
However, I looked up Unitarian Universalist and their stated beliefs are not at all similar, (any more than those of the Catholic Church’s stated beliefs) to those of us who agree with your points.
Thanks for your time, Mike.
K____

Hi K____,
Thank you for your question and your comments,
You ask:
 “Is there an identified/ named group of today which incorporates the statements/ articles throughout your site?”
As a matter of fact there is. It is called “the body of Christ, the church of the living God.” It is older than the Catholic Church by about 325 years.

1Ti 3:15  But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God , the pillar and ground of the truth.
Eph 4:11  And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
Eph 4:12  For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

As always I try hard never to offend those who take the time to write to me. That being said I must tell you that I go to great lengths to see to it that my writings do not come to be thought of as just another Christian denomination.
Iswasandwilbe. com was established for the purpose of pointing out what has been there all along. Lord willing this will never become a new movement. We are nothing more then one of God’s symbolic “seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal… a minister by whom you have believed.”

1Co 1:12  Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.
1Co 1:13  Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?
1Co 3:5  Who then is Paul, and who [ is] Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?

Can you imagine Paul or any of the apostles saying that theirs is the gospel of any particular denomination? The fractured church witnesses against itself.

Rom 16:25  Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
Rom 16:26  But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:

“The preaching of Jesus Christ… now is made manifest… according to the commandment of… God… for obedience of faith.”
Contrary to the false doctrines of Babylon we have no faith of our own. It is “the faith of Jesus Christ… a gift of God.

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [ it is] the gift of God:
Rom 3:22  Even the righteousness of God [ which is] by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

When Paul says “my gospel”, he is not separating “his gospel” from that of Peter, James, John and the rest of the apostles, as many universalists such as Darby, Scoffield and A. E. Knoch’s Concordant Publishings Concern would have you to believe. Paul’s gospel is “according to… the preaching of Jesus Christ… according to the… mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but is now made made manifest [ not by any one man or apostle but] by the scriptures of the prophets…”
Anyone who is faithful to “the scriptures of the prophets” is not some new movement. He is part of a very old movement which ‘was first called Christianity at Antioch.’

Act 11:26  And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.  

But anyone who has ever been faithful to “the scriptures of the prophets” has always been labeled a cult by the majority cult.
This verse of “the scriptures of the prophets” is as true or truer now than ever:

Mat 26:31  Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.

I have said more than once that my statement of beliefs is God’s Word from Gen 1:1 to Rev 22:21 and we will all eventually “live by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God.” I have never been shy about answering those who ask about my differences with others about God’s Word, but I just don’t have the time to do so in a systematic way. What I want to concentrate on is “the scriptures of the prophets” and what they really say.
I know this is not what you wanted to hear, but there certainly is no denominational church which teaches the Truth of God’s Word. This is the state of the orthodox Christian church with all of its various names:

Isa 3:1  For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,

They have not one single doctrine which is not tainted with heresy. That certainly includes such basic doctrines as the death and resurrection of Christ.
Seven thousand is a symbol for Christ’s complete body, but nevertheless when Christ tells us “many are called but few are chosen,” the few are fewer than you even want to imagine.

Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen.
Mat 24:37  But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Rom 9:27  Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:
1Pe 3:20  Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
Luk 17:26  And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
Luk 17:27  They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
Luk 17:28  L ikewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
Luk 17:30  Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed
Luk 18:8  I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh , shall he find faith on the earth?

This is all very sobering, and to the flesh it is very negative. But for those who are given eyes to see and ears to hear, these are words of encouragement and an exhortation that:

Php 1:6  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Christ Himself actually tells us that we are not to have any anxious thoughts of what tomorrow holds:

Mat 6:25 For this cause, I say unto you: Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink,- or for your body, what ye shall put on: Is not, the life, more than, the food? And, the body, than, the raiment? (REV)

Mat 6:34  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (KJV)

There is nothing that brings the peace of mind that a knowledge of God’s total sovereignty brings. Here is how that knowledge affected Paul:

Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We are called to a life of “separation from our own brothers.” It is the prerequisite for the blessing that are to bestowed upon those who “endure to the end.”

Gen 49:26  The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.

That is how the knowledge that “many are called but few are chosen” affected Joseph and the apostle Paul. It may be a trial by fire now, but it will pale into insignificance in comparison to what God has in store for those few who do come up in that blessed and holy first resurrection

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

I hope you can see why the only “identified/ named group” with which I can associate myself is that which the scriptures calls “the body of Christ… the church of the living God.”
Mike