What saved my faith

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For many months (less than a year) I doubted wither Christianity was true. It even came to the point where I believed in a positive sense that it was not. I decided if it was not, I’d become Hindu.

Anywho, what brought me back was a conversation I had in spiritual direction. I was told that I could believe that all will be reunited with God in the end. That all will be saved.

If I believed that even one person would be in hell for eternity I would be worshipping Vishnu and Lakshmi right now.

I post this not to convince anybody else to hold this particular belief, but instead as a counterpoint to the claim that universalism leads to the destruction of faith, because at least in my case it saved my faith.

I end this with a question, an honest one: is there an infallible magisterial document that holds a quotation that specifically condemn the belief that all will be reconciled to God in the end?
 
All beings saved, included the devil.and those in hell is a belief named Apocatastasis. Origen believed in it. It was officially condemned by the Fifth Eccumenical Council in 553.
https://orthodoxwiki.org/Apocatastasis
At the chapter called history you can read all the arguments against this theory from Augustine, Gregory of Nissa and from the Council who.excommunicated Origen for it and this teaching.
 
Catholics can hope for the salvation of all; Catholics should pray for the salvation of all. Indeed, God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth”; <1 Tim 2:4> that is, God wills the salvation of everyone through the knowledge of the truth. Salvation is found in the truth. (CCC 851)

But a faithful Catholic cannot profess or teach that every person must be saved:

“Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.<LG 14; cf. Mk 16:16; Jn 3:5>” (CCC 846)

Faith is necessary for salvation. The Lord himself affirms: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mk 16:16). (CCC 183)
 
Here’s one thing that helped me, simple as it sounds. During the Black Plague Julian of Norwich, a 13th or 14th century visionary whose revelations the Church approved of and quotes in the Catechism, prayed to God about the eternal fate of so many who were dying around her, heavily burdened as she was about this matter.

At some point God “shewed” her a simple yet profound truth that resolved her anguish. Without receiving specific details she was told, “All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.” She took this to heart, knowing it to be the truth, knowing that somehow God will bring things to a just and glorious end such that all will be satisfied, and not distraught, at the end of the day.
 
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My understanding is that the section of the council of 553 that condemns Origenism was an add on and because of that it is not considered authoritative since the 19th century.

I guess, is it possible for a council to be authoritative even if the document was not actually from the council?
 
You are free to have hope that all will be saved.
You cannot say definitely that all will be saved. We simply don’t know.
There is no infallible document stating that Hell must have X number of human souls in it, or that it must have particular people in it.

I note that the devil and demons are infallibly (to my knowledge) stated to be in Hell, but they are not and never were human souls.

Trust in God and don’t worry about this. Also, pray that souls will be saved.
 
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So you have regained your faith and know Christianity and all it teaches to be true but you will knowingly worship false idols if even one person condemns themselves to Hell? I sincerely hope you are being hyperbolic!
Yep said:
If I believed that even one person would be in hell for eternity I would be worshipping Vishnu and Lakshmi right now.
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I guess why this question is so perturbing is that it goes to the heart of God’s nature. It’s as fundamental as the Trinity, and the question is: is God good? How do I know? What does that mean? How do I reconcile seemingly contradictory beliefs in God’s goodness, providence and salvation? What does it mean for the different possible conclusions?

I guess the reasoning goes something like this: Hell is eternal vengeful torture (eternal retributive conscious torment). Because hell is within God’s control, God is the one torturing people for vengeance. Torturing people for vengeance is bad. Therefore God is bad. Therefore the Christian conception of God is wrong because a bad God can not exist.

It’s difficult not to worry about it. I honestly end up crying sometimes. I’m around 60% sure that Christianity is true. Which is more than other religions, so that’s pretty good for me.

It’s just hard to worship a torturer. In fact, I can’t. Even if the torture is just in some way, like that people just keep choosing to be tortured, I still find myself unable to worship a God that does that.

I don’t write any of this to be inflammatory. These are real problems I have, and I apricate the help I’ve gotten on this forum as well as spiritual direction at the local parish.

One day at a time.
 
Yep said:
I guess why this question is so perturbing is that it goes to the heart of God’s nature. It’s as fundamental as the Trinity, and the question is: is God good? How do I know? What does that mean? How do I reconcile seemingly contradictory beliefs in God’s goodness, providence and salvation? What does it mean for the different possible conclusions?
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You can have faith that God is doing his very best to save as many people as he possibly can. There may be people who just absolutely hate God, don’t want anything to do with him, and willingly hurl themselves into the worst place of torment just to be away from him. If somebody continuously rejects God, much like Satan did, then God lets them do what they want to do.

God does not put people in Hell, people put themselves there. I know it sounds crazy, because you think who in their right mind would choose Hell, who would do that to themselves? But people might do it. Especially if God is asking them to do something they don’t want to do at all, like forgive someone who has done them wrong.
 
I think you’re right, people choosing “not God” does sound crazy to me. Why would people ever do that? Of course people commit horrible sins (I’m sadly well aware of that), in fact many if not most commit horrible sins. That’s why we all need God’s love so much. There is nothing that we can do to earn his mercy, but he is always giving it.

Who’s heart can not be melted by contact with God’s love? I guess I don’t really believe that anyone can still hate God once they know Him. This isn’t a A + B = C statement so much as… well I just like God a lot.

(As you might be guessing, I’m less of an astute student of Dominican Thomistic philosophy, and more of an admirer of the Franciscan order. I don’t need to understand God I just want to know his love and love him back.)
 
If you don’t need to understand God, and just want to love God and others, then do so. By loving others and praying for them you may be the thing that softens the hardened heart that otherwise might not accept God, or might not recognize God when they meet him - for example, in the person of someone they really do not like.
 
Ask our Lord to give you the grace of knowing Him. Begin the prayer by saying Jesus Christ you are Lord and savior. Permit that I may better know you and that I may love you.
 
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