clarification

Big day...two posts!

My parents started reading this blog, and got a little worried about some things, so I'm going to try to clarify a little bit of what I've been saying.
I'm not convinced that one has to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ in order to be saved. That doesn't mean that I am not a follower of Christ. I think that when people heard Jesus' message they didn't think about being saved from hell and getting into heaven. Try reading the new testament without any presuppositions about what it's saying about heaven and hell. I'm not even sure of a place where Scripture confirms that there is a place where it confirms that there is a place called hell where people will suffer eternally. Revelation talks about a place called "Hades"-this is where Jews believed everyone goes when they die. Revelation talks about death and Hades giving up the dead that are in them at the final judgement, and then death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death. Where does the idea come from that this second death isn't just a permanent cessation of being-that makes a lot more sense to me. Why would death and Hades (once empty) be cast into a place of permanent suffering? It makes more sense if they just cease to be. Revelation goes on to say that anyone whose name is not found written in the book of Life is cast into the Lake of Fire (the second death). This, along with several other references to some sort of judgement, make it pretty hard for me to be a universalist, but I still haven't found anything that flat out repudiates pluralism. My mom told me to read Romans, so I read it in the Message and the NIV, and I found myself leaning more toward universalism while I was reading it, which was the opposite of what she intended. Paul tells the Romans that all Israel will be saved. He also says "the result of one act of righteousness was justification for all men...through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous." There are other verses that make me lean toward univeralism too, but I don't see the need to write all of them here. Paul does say, "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe." Paul doesn't elaborate in this section on what we need to believe, and he doesn't make any exclusive claims as to this belief being the only way to be saved. I think we read that exclusivity into a lot of things...so if you find yourself disagreeing with what I've been saying, go do some reading in the New Testament and rather than looking for verses that prove your point, try to imagine that you have never been taught anything about your way being the only way.
I got a little off topic, but I was talking about how I don't believe that there will be a place of eternal suffering for those who don't believe in Christ. I also don't think that those who do believe in Christ will be spending the rest of eternity in heaven. Revelation talks about the creation of a new heaven and a new earth-I think those who God chooses to save will spend eternity on that new earth, and probably not in heaven.
What is salvation? I kind of started out with saying that most of Jesus followers weren't looking to be saved from hell and to get into heaven...what then was this message of Salvation that he came preaching? If Jesus had said "I'm going to get you out of hell and into heaven," I don't think it would have meant a lot to the Jews of that day. Jesus came to invite people to be part of his revolution, to join him in a new way of doing things that would set things back to the way they were supposed to be. In Romans 10 (the Message), Salvation is defined as "with your whole being you embrace God setting things right." The Message also uses this language in the gospels-Jesus calls people to be part of his setting things right, and to join in God's revolution. The NIV (and at times The Message) use the language of God's Kingdom come on earth, or the Kindgom of Heaven (in Matthew). In inviting people to be part of his Kingdom, Jesus was inviting people to take part in changing the way things are done on earth, he wasn't inviting them into heaven. Even in the Lord's prayer, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray for God's kingdom to come, and his will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven. In the Message, Eugene Peterson uses the words "set the world right. Do what's best, as above, so below." If the last two thousand years are any indication, the worlds not going to be set right without some serious intervention. We just keep making things worse (and a lot of Christians are part of making things worse, rather than making things right, like all Christians should be.) I think it's pretty likely that the world is going to see some pretty intense divine intervention (like the vision recorded in Revelation) in order to set things right, but I hope that we can at least start moving things in the right direction. Start taking care of this world (that's the first thing ever commanded in the Bible!), start living lives of love, start taking care of people, and changing the terrible conditions that so many people live in on this world.