Christian with these beliefs

[Blue3]

Which Christian denominations believe the following, or come closest to believing the following?
(whether it's a form of being Eastern Orthodox, or Oriental Orthodox, or Catholic, or Mormon/LDS, or Congregationalist, or Anglican, or Baptist, or Anabaptist, or Adventist, or Lutheran, or Calvinist, or Presbyterian, or Methodist, or Quaker, or Pentecostal, or Charismatic, or Evangelical, or Jehovah's Witness, or or something else)





Which Christian denominations believe:


1. The story of Jesus: from Incarnation of one of the Trinity, to suffering and death on the cross on Good Friday, to the Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

2. The moral teachings of Jesus: from compassion to the sick & poor, to the forgiveness of sins and loving even one's enemies.

3. The salvation from death, suffering, and sin by Jesus: that by his story or by his teachings, or the combination, that God would like to forgive us and bring us into a heavenly afterlife after death (whether it's literal bodily resurrection, or more like spirits roaming either this universe or a spiritual dimension to forever learn and explore and build new/existing loving relationships while God's direct omnipresence is always filling you with blissful joy, or becoming one with God).



and also believe the following (or come very close to it):


4. Priests, rituals, traditions, organizations -- while helpful to some -- can also be obstacles to God, and are not necessary.

5. Parts of the Bible are divinely-inspired, but not all of the Bible is literally true, in historical or scientific understanding or even moral teaching -- and that truth from God can come from other sources besides the Bible too, whether it's by other religious texts or non-religious texts or improved scientific understanding of the world or personal intuition or other people.

6. The equality of all before God -- no individual, family, ethnicity, race, tribe or nation is inherently favored or loved by God more than any other, though of course people may have different destinies and challenges -- this also includes the equality of men and women, as well as same-sex desires/relations/marriages not being sinful, because gender isn't a factor in God's moral law.

7. Hell is not judgment or punishment or torture by God, but a state of mind for at least some after death --  they feel repulsed by the illuminating presence of God's perfect love, and disgusted with themselves. They now know how perfect God and God's love is, contrasted with also now knowing everything in their own life from a more universal/objective point of view due to the illuminating presence of God, coming to terms with the truth of what they did and its gap with what they were meant to do. They now know how far they missed the mark, truly feeling the harm they caused to others, and feeling powerless to change the past now. They also know all of their most secret and shameful thoughts, feelings, words and deeds have been exposed naked to everyone else too. This all results in them lingering in this hellish state of mind, with some actually trying to cut themselves off from God or thinking they deserve to suffer and not be forgiven -- This state of mind is temporary for all who experience it, with eventually all making peace with God's illuminating presence and forgiving/loving each other as well as themselves; and therefore everyone will experience a good, blissful, heavenly afterlife for eternity.

8. We should train ourselves to be at peace with life, death, and the universe -- even if there is no God and/or no afterlife. We should have no fear of death. To believe in God and Heaven, but to also accept there's at least a small possibility that they might not exist, yet still be at peace. Believing that every person, at their core, is good; believing that life itself, at its core, is good; believing that he universe itself, at its core, is good; believing that these truths don't change even if there is no God or Heaven. Being at peace whether the previous beliefs about God, Jesus, and the Afterlife are right or wrong. Same for being at peace if another form of afterlife is true, like: reincarnation, or a neutral/varied afterlife in this universe or a spiritual dimension, or losing personal identity to become one with something. Being at peace with the actual process of dying, being at peace with the potential end of you and your relationships, being at peace with your life's work potentially going unfulfilled, being at peace with potentially never knowing the future of your loved ones or society or the universe, being at peace with death inevitably being forced upon you and everyone else and not knowing when or how.



In short, Christianity with Christians who are Christian for love of God, not greed for heaven or fear of hell, loving God for the sake of God, loving Love for the sake of love in itself.




(Also, if you identify as Christian, how close do you come to these 8 beliefs?
And if you're not Christian, what would you think about Christians with these beliefs?)

[°Leprechaun]

To be perfectly blunt none of the above.
One should follow their conscience; that's all; so nobody needs any of this.
Buddhism is much better, because no supernatural beliefs are required.
I am not a Buddhist, but I would certainly prefer it to religions like Christianity, Islam and Judaism, although I mostly am familiar with Christianity of those three.
I think that although there may be a tiny bit of good in those three, predominantly they are too sectarian, dogmatic and divisive for me.
However, I hope that this doesn't offend you.

I have studied a number of religions, Taoism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Sufism to name a few.
Philosophy appeals to me more than religion, so I would describe myself philosophical but not religion. "Philosophy" literally means "love of wisdom" and that's enough for me.

As I said humans have an inherent knowledge of right and wrong. Which one they chose is up to them. Following a particular religious path, by itself doesn't necessarily make someone a good or better person, especially if that path includes a lack of morals or a lack of a belief in logic/science/reason, etc.

[Mopsus]

Buddhism is much better, because no supernatural beliefs are required.

"Easier". The word you're looking for is "easier".

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Most mainstream denominations believe the first 3, so I won't spend too much time on those. They are considered basic tenets of Christian belief.

     4 characterizes a distinctly Protestant view. Catholics and Orthodox will strongly reject this one.

     5 is really hard to parse because it mashes together a few different things. The concept that only parts of the Bible are divinely inspired is quite fringe. The idea that, say, improved scientific understanding is a source of divine knowledge is a very strange one, but most Christians accept that God can personally confer truth on those who believe in Him. Also being non-literalist is very common in non-evangelical denominations.

     As for 6, you'd probably find teachings like that in Mainline Protestant denominations. The concept that demographic factors do not confer favored status is a pretty basic Christian teaching, but hardly any Evangelical denominations will perform same-sex marriages, nor do the Catholic or Orthodox Churches condone this practice. Equality between men and women is kind of a gray area since it depends on what you mean by this; the Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that men and women are equal in Christ, but that they have different roles to play in the life of the church. To my understanding the Roman Catholic Church is the same. I am well aware that such a position does not pass modern progressive muster and there are those who would not recognize that position as representing real equality.

     The first sentence of point 7 touches almost directly on an eschatological teaching of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Eastern Orthodox Church rejects the rest of point 7 however; for those found wanting on the final day, there is no hope of salvation. The doctrine that you describe is called universalism, which should help you with that.

     With 8, the concept of "if there is no God" is a nonstarter, and it runs into much the same problem as 5. It would be equivalent to a physics professor pondering if there is no gravity. We approach the situation with the conviction that God exists, and the Bible is His revealed truth. If there is a Christian church that spends much time pondering what it would imply if God didn't really exist, I don't know of it.

     To conclude, look into Christian Universalism. I don't know too much about that corner of Christendom, but you should find what you want there if anywhere. Unitarian Universalism is the best known church in that movement, but it violates your point 1, and I'm not sure they actually consider themselves Christian anyway.

[Blue3]

For Christian Universalism, are there any major branches or churches besides UU? Ones that would align with those first three points?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

For Christian Universalism, are there any major branches or churches besides UU? Ones that would align with those first three points?

There are some Universalist churches that refused to be part of the merger with the Unitarians. There are also a few UU churches that have a Christian focus. However, in neither case would I consider them to be major groups.

[Blue3]

Why do you think they're not major groups anymore?

[Kingpoleon]

Why do you think they're not major groups anymore?

For the most part, mainline Protestants (ELCA, UMC, etc.) are the most tolerant/inclusive of Christian Universalism. Most others (Catholics, evangelicals, Mormons, Orthodox, etc.) would consider it at least somewhat heretical.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Why do you think they're not major groups anymore?

The UUA is more interested in its Unitarian heritage than its Universalist heritage. It also tries to distance itself from its Christian roots. So Christian Universalism isn't particularly present in the UUA these days. Also there are a number of different denominations that are accepting of Christian Universalism these days.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Why do you think they're not major groups anymore?

For the most part, mainline Protestants (ELCA, UMC, etc.) are the most tolerant/inclusive of Christian Universalism. Most others (Catholics, evangelicals, Mormons, Orthodox, etc.) would consider it at least somewhat heretical.

     In the interest of disclosure I would note that Eastern Orthodox Christianity has some universalists in it (most notably David Bentley Hart), though you are correct that most of us consider it heretical.

     I learned recently that Mormons are actually pretty much universalist. Unlike most Christians who believe that Christ's ministry to the dead was a one-time deal to rescue the Old Testament patriarchs and prophets from Sheol, the Mormons believe that every person, upon dying, has the opportunity to hear and accept the Gospel from Jesus Himself. The result of this is that everyone except the most wickedly evil goes to (some form of) Heaven.