skyseeker Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 Hi there, I'm Daniel from Germany. Raised as an atheist, I found Jesus when I was 22, although I always thought that God is to be found in Jesus' direction. I tried at first to remain unchurched, but then I got in touch with an evangelical christian online who taught me the conservative way of being a christian, and I was scared into this system and also read the bible and the book seemed to confirm evangelical christianity. I did not enjoy my faith life in this way, but I could not convince myself that the evangelical system was wrong. Sometimes I tried to escape it, but I did not have the courage to follow through with that. I must add that roughly in the same time when I found Jesus, I became sick with schizophrenia, so I had entered a life and a reality that was complicated, burdensome and difficult. The tidy and neat theology of evangelical christianity (somewhat congruent with Marc Driscoll's theology) appealed to me because it basically seemed to explain things to me and that it was faithful to the biblical account. However, there was another theology that I frequently returned to in my thoughts, although I didn't dare to believe it fully, the theology of Universal Reconciliation, also called Universal Salvation. But then happened some things that changed a lot. My beloved dad died. He remained an atheist until the end and while I tried to persuade him about Jesus, dad didn't want to hear it. Me and my mother took care of him, he became rather demented and needed help in many things. After some months he died and I experienced that in such an intense way that I couldn't help but look into universalism again. And then my agnostic sister got dreams about dad about which she told me that they felt like inspired from God, for example my dad would come to her in a youthful appearance, clothed like an artist, and he told her, dare to hope, Jane, this is better than doubting. My mother had dreams about my dad walking through grain fields with her. And I frequently felt an intense and otherworldly presence of beauty when I listened to my dad's music. At some point I concluded, my dad had been accepted by God despite being an atheist. I don't know how that exactly worked out, but for now I tend to think that everyone goes to God after death and enters His judgment, and this judgment is never hostile or damning but instead it is always fatherly, loving and omniscient. So I think Dad simply picked up faith in Jesus after death, and that this is the case for everyone who dies. God's just supergood to the newly "immigrants" to Heaven, and there are the angels, and especially the real Saints who all help in this Judgment making sure that everyone finds heartfelt faith in Jesus and doesn't want to go to hell. I'm sorry, I just realized again I had just meant to write a short intro, and I already blabbered about my theology stuff. Apologies! I just want to add that I enjoy theology, philosophy and poetry a lot, I do some photography, spend much time in the internet and I also enjoy doing civil discussions. I've been baptized into the evangelical-lutheran state church of Saxony in Germany. In case you don't know this church, it's rather anglican-esque. We have conservative christians, moderates, and liberals. We have church goers and those who prefer to walk the faith alone or with their family. Our preferred theologians are Bonhoeffer and related writers, although there are still lutheran ideas believed and celebrated. My main theology interest would be creating a theology of salvation that goes by "salvation by God's love", and not by grace and faith ... but it's not that easy to do. I'm not even sure if I can make such a theology, but my heart cries for it and I need to explore it for some time. Thank you for this cool forum and I hope we can have many good exchanges. Blessings! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeorgeW Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 Willkommen, Himmel Suchenden (Hopefully, Google translate is correct). George Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vridar Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 Daniel, Welcome. Appears you have much to offer. Ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulS Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 Welcome Daniel, I sit more toward the doubter end on the God scale, but I can relate with the message your sister received - 'Dare to hope, this is better than doubting'. Having been raised as an evangelical myself, I gave up my faith at 19. This place, and authors such as Spong and Borg, find me rebooking at Christianity through different eyes. I like what I see. I hope you enjoy it here. Cheers Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyseeker Posted January 6, 2013 Author Share Posted January 6, 2013 Thanks for the welcome. WIsh you happy days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soma Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 Daniel, Welcome and look forward to your post. I have met many athiest who in my mind are good examples on how to live a good life. They can teach us Chrisians a thing or two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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