I was talking with my mother in person and she told me that she does not want me to evangelize Christian Universalism by writing Bible verses with the Christian UR Gospel on them and spreading them in public areas. Therefore, I showed her Bible verses to prove that writing Bible verses to spread the Gospel is good.
https://biblehub.com/jeremiah/30-2.htm
Jeremiah 30:2 “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Write in a book all the words I have spoken to you.
Write
כְּתָב־ (kə·ṯāḇ-)
Verb - Qal - Imperative - masculine singular
Strong's 3789: To grave, to write
My mother argued that the writing here was referring to chiseling it into stone tablets. Certainly, that’s a type of writing. But if the people of old had invented pens, then they would use that writing utensil as well. Thus, it’s good for me to write Bible verses on paper with pen.
https://biblehub.com/isaiah/30-8.htm
Isaiah 30:8 Go now, write it on a tablet for them, inscribe it on a scroll, that for the days to come it may be an everlasting witness.
a scroll;
סֵ֣פֶר (sê·p̄er)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 5612: A missive, document, writing, book
Notice how this is a document, like the papers I use to write Bible verses. Literally, a writing. My mother says the problem is that I interpret the Bible literally, and while I do agree there are parts that are metaphoric, this is literally talking about writing! So she has no place to ban the writing of Bible verses for the purpose of evangelism/
Here it even references a scroll
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scroll
A scroll (from the Old French escroe or escroue ), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing.
Here it even mentions paper! So the Bible verses I write to promote Christian Universalism is literally like a scroll.
My mother says because she’s my mother I must obey her command to stop spreading Christianity through written Bible verses.
https://biblehub.com/acts/5-29.htm
Acts 5:29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!
“We must obey
Πειθαρχεῖν (Peitharchein)
Verb - Present Infinitive Active
Strong's 3980: From a compound of peitho and archo; to be persuaded by a ruler,
A ruler, who is our ruler? It is Christ! There’s a hierarchy of authority. Certainly, parents must be honored by their children,
Ephesians 6:2 “Honor your father and mother"—which is the first commandment with a promise—
But who is our father? Our Holy Father in Heaven, God! We must honor God. Therefore, I will continue to write Bible verses to spread the Gospel of Christ, even when my mother commands me not to, because the command of Our Father is greater than the command of my mother.
Of course, I don’t want to intentionally go out of my way to disrespect my mother. If she sees my evangelism as disrespectful, then that’s what she perceives, but to the Lord, it is respectful.
My mother argues that you can’t use literal verses to promote evangelism, only metaphoric ones. Obviously, you can use literal verses to promote evangelism. But, here’s a metaphoric one that promotes evangelism too.
https://dailyverses.net/evangelism?p=2
Matthew 4:19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”
I debunk her claim that all Christianity must be confined to a physical church building. What is a church? An assembly of people.
https://www.biblehub.com/matthew/18-20.htm
Matthew 18:20 For where two or three are assembled in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (ABPE)
My mother is worried that she may interpret the Bible wrong which could lead to the sin of bearing false witness. Surely, there are false prophets that exist. But just because false prophets exist, should we ban all prophets? No! There are good and bad prophets, but we must not ban the interpretation of the Bible just because false prophets can twist scripture to fit false narratives.
gather together
συνηγμένοι (synēgmenoi)
Verb - Perfect Participle Middle or Passive - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 4863: From sun and ago; to lead together, i.e. Collect or convene; specially, to entertain.
https://biblehub.com/greek/1577.htm
ekklésia: an assembly, a (religious) congregation
Original Word: ἐκκλησία, ας, ἡ
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: ekklésia
Phonetic Spelling: (ek-klay-see'-ah)
Definition: an assembly, a (religious) congregation
Usage: an assembly, congregation, church; the Church, the whole body of Christian believers.
So, I show her that they do not have to be a physical collection of people in a building, but rather, a spiritual metaphoric one too. I tell her something along the lines of. “I’m a believer in Christ, and if there’s a believer in Christ all the way on the other side of the planet, both of us are still in the same church spiritually because we both believe in Christ”.
Therefore, my mother argued that a company could be a church. I agree, as there are unfortunately many businesses that completely commercialize aspects of Christianity and make it more focused on getting revenue rather than telling people the good news of Christ. For me, I’m not interested in monetizing Christianity. I believe the good news must be given free of charge, at no cost, because evangelism is about having people become believers in Christ by faith alone, not by how much money they pay!
She says that a regular business would not advertise their company by having someone write a description about them and posting it around. The problem with that argument is that… business actually have made handwritten letters to people for advertising purposes.
Example: This random company I found online that made handwritten letters for business
https://www.lettrlabs.com/post/handwritten-letters-the-ultimate-guide-to-handwritten-marketing
https://www.lettrlabs.com/company/about-us
“It all started with our Co-founder, Brandon, spending countless hours handwriting letters to clients for over a year.”
Physical businesses work hard to get physical money, which goes away. Imagine how much more we, as believers in Christ, will be rewarded by our spiritual ministries, which do not go away. Colossians 3:23-24. All people will gain spiritual rewards. And therefore, all people will gain the gift of permanent life by faith alone in Christ, which does not go away. Hebrews 11:6.
Overall, I find it confusing that my mother wants to ban me from writing Bible verses in the first place. I saw a relative write Bible verse numbers on a card that they gave to another relative of mine, and that was good. So, does my mother want to ban that as well? Or does she just want to ban me specifically from writing Bible verses because I am a Christian Universalist and she is not. Either ban is bad.
We must not ban the Bible; we must not ban writing related to the Bible. Just because there may be writing about the Bible that is wrong does not mean that ban the Bible altogether.
https://biblehub.com/jeremiah/30-2.htm
Jeremiah 30:2 “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Write in a book all the words I have spoken to you.
Write
כְּתָב־ (kə·ṯāḇ-)
Verb - Qal - Imperative - masculine singular
Strong's 3789: To grave, to write
My mother argued that the writing here was referring to chiseling it into stone tablets. Certainly, that’s a type of writing. But if the people of old had invented pens, then they would use that writing utensil as well. Thus, it’s good for me to write Bible verses on paper with pen.
https://biblehub.com/isaiah/30-8.htm
Isaiah 30:8 Go now, write it on a tablet for them, inscribe it on a scroll, that for the days to come it may be an everlasting witness.
a scroll;
סֵ֣פֶר (sê·p̄er)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 5612: A missive, document, writing, book
Notice how this is a document, like the papers I use to write Bible verses. Literally, a writing. My mother says the problem is that I interpret the Bible literally, and while I do agree there are parts that are metaphoric, this is literally talking about writing! So she has no place to ban the writing of Bible verses for the purpose of evangelism/
Here it even references a scroll
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scroll
A scroll (from the Old French escroe or escroue ), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing.
Here it even mentions paper! So the Bible verses I write to promote Christian Universalism is literally like a scroll.
My mother says because she’s my mother I must obey her command to stop spreading Christianity through written Bible verses.
https://biblehub.com/acts/5-29.htm
Acts 5:29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!
“We must obey
Πειθαρχεῖν (Peitharchein)
Verb - Present Infinitive Active
Strong's 3980: From a compound of peitho and archo; to be persuaded by a ruler,
A ruler, who is our ruler? It is Christ! There’s a hierarchy of authority. Certainly, parents must be honored by their children,
Ephesians 6:2 “Honor your father and mother"—which is the first commandment with a promise—
But who is our father? Our Holy Father in Heaven, God! We must honor God. Therefore, I will continue to write Bible verses to spread the Gospel of Christ, even when my mother commands me not to, because the command of Our Father is greater than the command of my mother.
Of course, I don’t want to intentionally go out of my way to disrespect my mother. If she sees my evangelism as disrespectful, then that’s what she perceives, but to the Lord, it is respectful.
My mother argues that you can’t use literal verses to promote evangelism, only metaphoric ones. Obviously, you can use literal verses to promote evangelism. But, here’s a metaphoric one that promotes evangelism too.
https://dailyverses.net/evangelism?p=2
Matthew 4:19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”
I debunk her claim that all Christianity must be confined to a physical church building. What is a church? An assembly of people.
https://www.biblehub.com/matthew/18-20.htm
Matthew 18:20 For where two or three are assembled in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (ABPE)
My mother is worried that she may interpret the Bible wrong which could lead to the sin of bearing false witness. Surely, there are false prophets that exist. But just because false prophets exist, should we ban all prophets? No! There are good and bad prophets, but we must not ban the interpretation of the Bible just because false prophets can twist scripture to fit false narratives.
gather together
συνηγμένοι (synēgmenoi)
Verb - Perfect Participle Middle or Passive - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 4863: From sun and ago; to lead together, i.e. Collect or convene; specially, to entertain.
https://biblehub.com/greek/1577.htm
ekklésia: an assembly, a (religious) congregation
Original Word: ἐκκλησία, ας, ἡ
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: ekklésia
Phonetic Spelling: (ek-klay-see'-ah)
Definition: an assembly, a (religious) congregation
Usage: an assembly, congregation, church; the Church, the whole body of Christian believers.
So, I show her that they do not have to be a physical collection of people in a building, but rather, a spiritual metaphoric one too. I tell her something along the lines of. “I’m a believer in Christ, and if there’s a believer in Christ all the way on the other side of the planet, both of us are still in the same church spiritually because we both believe in Christ”.
Therefore, my mother argued that a company could be a church. I agree, as there are unfortunately many businesses that completely commercialize aspects of Christianity and make it more focused on getting revenue rather than telling people the good news of Christ. For me, I’m not interested in monetizing Christianity. I believe the good news must be given free of charge, at no cost, because evangelism is about having people become believers in Christ by faith alone, not by how much money they pay!
She says that a regular business would not advertise their company by having someone write a description about them and posting it around. The problem with that argument is that… business actually have made handwritten letters to people for advertising purposes.
Example: This random company I found online that made handwritten letters for business
https://www.lettrlabs.com/post/handwritten-letters-the-ultimate-guide-to-handwritten-marketing
https://www.lettrlabs.com/company/about-us
“It all started with our Co-founder, Brandon, spending countless hours handwriting letters to clients for over a year.”
Physical businesses work hard to get physical money, which goes away. Imagine how much more we, as believers in Christ, will be rewarded by our spiritual ministries, which do not go away. Colossians 3:23-24. All people will gain spiritual rewards. And therefore, all people will gain the gift of permanent life by faith alone in Christ, which does not go away. Hebrews 11:6.
Overall, I find it confusing that my mother wants to ban me from writing Bible verses in the first place. I saw a relative write Bible verse numbers on a card that they gave to another relative of mine, and that was good. So, does my mother want to ban that as well? Or does she just want to ban me specifically from writing Bible verses because I am a Christian Universalist and she is not. Either ban is bad.
We must not ban the Bible; we must not ban writing related to the Bible. Just because there may be writing about the Bible that is wrong does not mean that ban the Bible altogether.