Apocatastasis

Today I deleted my religion from my okcupid profile. Their multiple choice is not sufficient. I did have "Christian" selected. Unfortunately I have a couple strongly held views which are anathema. They do not have a category for Christian with a couple of strongly held views which are anathema. So for now I just left it blank.

There are three respects in which I am not in compliance with the church where I belong, which I attend at least ten times yearly, where I profess the creed in good faith while I am there saying it. I never use the creed in any other context because I do not believe in eternal damnation. I subscribe to the doctrine of apocatastasis; everybody including Satan himself, gets a get out of hell free card after the dust all settles. Origen and Clement and a large number of third and fourth century Christians also believed in the apocatastasis.

The second respect in which I am out of compliance is evangelism. If the topic comes up I am happy to state my views, but I do not market them and I cannot recall ever giving anybody a pitch one time in my life. According to the books, this is a requirement.

Lastly my preferred term for God is The Big Model Railroader in the Sky. I like model railroads and I think it is the most useful metaphor if we need a term. If my pastor heard me use it I do not think he would be offended. He absolutely does not care for my deviance points one and two one little bit however. I never voice any of these views on the church property.