My Testimony of how I came to understand the glorious Gospel,
the "Ultimate Reconciliation of ALL men unto God.""The greatest thing that has ever happened in my life, is when the Lord Jesus saved me and showed me, that in the end, He will save all mankind."
by Allen Steinhauer - Seattle, Washington.
I now believe in the glorious Gospel of grace, not of works lest anyone should boast.
If we could travel on every continent on this earth and visit the many different places of worship, different churches, mosques, monasteries, temples, shrines and even the Vatican, one thing is certain, we would see that mankind has made a mess of religion, in his search, in his quest while looking for salvation and in his desire to serve his god.
We would see some men take a block of wood and carve into it the image of his god or chisel an image into a piece of stone and then setting that image before him, he would bow down before it and worship it.
Likewise, we would also see others who use the Bible, the Holy Scriptures, but then they would begin to add all sorts of extra rules, extra writings and extra requirements and add all kinds of works, to try and obtain their salvation and worse yet, then they would go out and try to get others to become a follower of the 'god' that they have made.
I remember as a young child, I completely believed what my church leaders and my pastor told me about God. However, I now have come to understand that they had told me certain things that were simply not true about Him and because of these errors, it caused me much needless pain and suffering throughout my life.
For one thing, when I was young, I feared going to Hell. I feared very much going to a place, that these men of God spoke of, a place called ‘endless torment.’
You see, I was told by these men, that there were certain things that would be required of me, certain things that I must perform to their expectation before I could become saved, before they would accept me as saved.
The problem was, that their rules, their requirements were beyond my capability to perform. So no matter how hard I tried, no matter how hard I begged, no matter how hard I pleaded to God, I was unable to meet these requirements for salvation. How well I remember, I prayed to God, many many times asking Him to save me.
So I was stuck, I was damned. Damned because I simply could not perform to the expectation of these men, because in their eyes and according to the standard that they had set up, I was not yet saved, and if I would happen to die before becoming saved, my destiny was an endless hell.
So it is unexplainable, to portrait the anguish I went through as a child, I was so afraid to go to sleep at night, for years and years of fearing death, fearing to face an eternal torment and judgment.
You see I feared God all right, not out of love or respect, but out of a fear that of an eternal judgment and damnation. And in MY CHILDLIKE MIND, I knew I dared not question the authority of these men. After all, these were supposed to be men of God. These were men who supposedly knew and studied the Scriptures. These were the people to whom I was supposes to respect, honor and obey.
But AH, our God is faithful, He is so wonderfully faithful unto His creation, especially unto those living under fear. So, during this same time of confusion and fears, I also received divine insight, I also knew, that I knew that God loved me. This knowledge and understanding of God’s love wasn’t so much taught unto me by men, but came from my loving Heavenly Father Himself.
This love, His love, is what kept me going, kept me pressing on, kept me striving, kept me longing for more of God, to get closer and closer unto Him. My head was confused with the teachings of men, the teachings that brought despair and fear to my soul, but at the same time, God in his mercy was speaking to my heart. His Spirit brought love and comfort through this maze of my turmoil.
There finally came a day when I was 16 years old, when I experienced the baptized in the Holy Spirit. I was given a new glorious heavenly language in which to praise God in. I was so relieved, because NOW (according to the theology of these men) I was accepted by them as saved and I also then believed that God finally accepted me too.
Since then I have come to understand the fallacy of their teaching on salvation. Yet I still shudder when I think of the many in that church system that I grew up in, that they are still proclaiming that terrible error, that error that had so tormented me. They continue to proclaim this teaching and continue to bring untold pain and misery to their followers.
You see, receiving Jesus Christ’s salvation is so simple. He has already done all the work of salvation, yet so many stumble over it, trying to add all sorts of requirements and extra rules and standards and works, to try and bring about their salvation and then they go out and pass on these UN-Biblical works and performances for others to follow.
I have now come to understand, that all anyone must do to be saved,
is to BELIEVE, to just believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that
he died on the cross for our sins, yes, even the sins of the whole world,
that he was buried and rose from the grave and has ascended on high. That
Christ Jesus wants each person to acknowledge and confess that they are
sinners and repent and thereby through faith receive forgiveness and the
free gift of life.
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Many months ago, a friend of mine died and by all of ‘my’ indications,
I had believed that he died as unsaved. That is, at least according to
the standards that I had been taught and that standard in the churches
that I have attended is: --- "If anyone dies without being saved, (without
accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior) the Bible leaves them no hope beyond
the grave."---
I was quite troubled when my friend died, but at the time, I could find no further hope for him. Neither through the churches I attended, nor through the God of endless torment I was taught to serve. So for over a half a century, this teaching of an 'ETERNAL HELL' has tormented me in one way or another.
Then quite by accident, (not really) I came upon a teaching that ‘God
is the Savior of all men’ in January 2000. I remember I had punched in
SALVATION on my PC , and Ken Allen’s site, True Grace Ministries came up.
https://tgulcm.tripod.com/cu/index.html
It was a real shocker to me, to read that my God is truely "the Savior of All mankind" and He won't torture endlessly most of humanity, as I had formerly been taught. My, this was an awesome awakening!!
Though my first reaction was “What do these guys believe anyway?” “What Scriptures could they possibly use?”
But after reading many articles, and much study, at sites such as:
https://tgulcm.tripod.com/cu/index.html
www.tentmaker.org/
sigler.org/slagle/
www.godstruthfortoday.org/
www.sigler.org/
people.zeelandnet.nl/wjanse/welcome.htm
This understanding ‘THE RECONCILIATION OF ALL MEN’ really hit home. It literally captivated my whole being. After spending the last number of months in constant study and research on this subject, I soon realized I had to repent to my Lord for believing that He was a "god of eternal torment and torture" to those whom He’s already destined to save.
Praise be to Our Great and Glorious God. I feel very ashamed I ever thought and taught the Conscious Endless Torment position. How Great was my blindness.
I am now convinced, of the truth of ‘Ultimate Reconciliation of ALL’ by the abundance of Scripture and the love that God has for His creation. Upon learning that Christ did not sacrifice in vain for anyone, I was set free. Free to learn, free to explore, free to question, free to imagine, free to worship in spirit and in truth.
Yet I must admit, I did have feelings of contempt, at the many ministers and teachers who had duped me, for proclaiming their teaching of 'eternal torment' for the lost, that I had been feed for all those years. But I have come to realize that some of those ministers are just plain ignorant or are merely parroting what their headquarters tells them.
I forgive these ministers and teachers and I pray that God will soon open their spiritual eyes and hearts to this wonderful truth, that is that He truly is going to reconcile ALL and bring EVERYONE into the knowledge of His glorious salvation.
I soon as my feet hit the ground, I ran with this glorious truth and I've been telling those at work and those at the different churches I fellowship with. Most do not receive it, but some do. I've been told "you're crazy," “you're loony." I've been ridiculed, but I really don't care what the doubters think. If I can spare some, (with this wonderful truth), from the pain and torment that I went through as a child, it'll be worth it.
I honestly believe that this damnable teaching of ‘ETERNAL TORMENT FOR
THE LOST’ is one of the biggest lies Satan has conjured and the Body of
Christ has bought it hook, line and sinker.
My God use to be an 'eternally tormentor' of cruel and unusual punishment for most of His creations destiny.
My God use to be a 'monstrous failure' because He made a creation but was unable to reconcile all the lost ones unto Himself.
My God use to be 'not smart enough' to provide an all inclusive salvation for the stubbornness of some men.
My God use to be ‘a sham’ when he would command his followers to “love and forgive their enemies” and “to forgive 70 X 7” to “forgive without limit,” then He the Commander in Chief, does not do likewise. Rather he’d say, “To Hell with lot of Them.” That would make *us* better than our God, wouldn't it? In reality, Satan was more powerful then my 'god' because he was victorious through his deception in damning billions of souls to an eternal hell.
My God’s will use to be ‘Botched’ because the will of a man that he created, now has become stronger and more powerful than His will was to save them.
I may be looked down on for teaching that Jesus is the Savior of all, I may be looked down on for uphold love and grace at the highest level, I may be looked down on for accepting forgiveness for our enemies, because that is what our Perfect Father in Heaven is going to do for all his creation, I may be looked down on for rejecting a doctrine that contradicts the wonderful love and grace of our God, this doctrine of ETERNAL TORMENT,
BUT THAT’S O.K. BECAUSE - now I want to leave you with ( 8 ) reasons why I now believe in the REAL GOOD NEWS, - THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL of Christ. II Cor. 4:4.
(1.) I now understand and serve a God who is all powerful, well able to perform that which is necessary, to fulfill His will for the saving of all mankind.
(2.) A God who is all wise, foreseeing every problem with men and then creating a solution, thereby redeeming all mankind.
(3.) That the blood of Christ Jesus, that was spilled at Calvary, not only provided salvation for all men, but is great enough to liberate and eventually redeem all mankind that are lost.
(4.) That Satan was unable to forever damn even one soul.
(5.) That none of God's plans will ever be thwarted.
(6.) That God is not holding the trespasses of the world against us. The one who is reconciling the world to himself. The one who bore all our sins, and not just ours but the whole world. The one who is the Savior of all mankind.
(7.) That God's mercy truly does endure forever, for every single person.
(8.) That there is wonderful hope for all mankind, and always has been.
TO GOD BE THE GLORY, AMEN (so let it be)
Allen S.
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"Someday we will all be friends." - Allen S.