Day 19

There are just as many bullies in religion as there are in politics.  Religion of every strip is a human construct that has a top down politic.  Anyone who rocks the boat, gets the treatment!  Most of us shy away from the unavoidable threat of the religious order, wrongly thinking it is not that important.  After all, we say, I am busy getting an education, building a career, starting a family and doing all the stuff that is unavoidable.  Bucking the religious politic is a dumb idea.

This is understandable, however, if I could turn back the clock, if I could change one thing about the events of my lifetime, it would be that I would have heard about the good news of universal Christian salvation at an early age.  The second wish, like the first, is that I would have set aside my theological assumptions and listened.  Instead of a life time of being uncomfortably stuck in the extremes of religious dogma or the extreme of no dogma at all, I might have come out of the fog in time to understand who I am and the power of my birthright, a birthright we all share, our personal spiritual potential.  I might possibly have discovered a belief system that more adequately fits the broad range of human circumstances as well as opening up the Holy Scriptures to a more consistent understanding of the words of Jesus.

According to the scholarship of my religious genre, there is no better person to communicate the words of Jesus than William Barclay.  Mr. Barclay was the most quoted Bible scholar preacher of the more conservative understanding of the original language of the scriptures.  He wrote a series of commentaries on almost all of the New Testament, his words were authoritative, settling any dispute in the mid 1900's.  The last book he wrote was entitled, "A Spiritual Autobiography", I have the Eerdmans Publishing edition, 1975.

On page 58, Professor Barclay states, "But in one thing I would go beyond strict orthodoxy-- "I am a convinced universalist.  I believe that in the end all men will be gathered into the love of God".  Some will not believe or ignore the words of Dr. Barclay because we have been so thoroughly steeped in the hell scenario.  After making this shocking statement he goes on to give his reasons for universalism and where the Bible points to it's veracity.  If you care to check it out just google William Barclay and universalism.

I would like to ask, Professor Barclay, why did you wait until your life was almost over, your influence at a low point, to tell us about your belief in universalism?  Could it have been because you would not take on the bullies?  Or, was it more important for you to sell books?

G.Goslaw
Landers, CA