M____ wrote:
Dear Brother,
I have received your response and I deeply appreciate you taking the time to answer my concern, and it is well received. Thank- you.
My religious back ground has been the pre- existist of Christ, you see I was for some 20 years a Jehovah’s Witness, and they do teach Jesus as the first of all  God’s creation, but since I left that organization, I found my self questioning all those things I had once held true. I totally embrace universal salvation and reconciliation now and God’s wonderful plan for His creation through Christ. Question:
In the religious circle there is fellowship and friends to share thoughts with, gatherings and such, but as a universalist thinker you feel isolated from everyone else, how do you deal with this aspect of our faith?
M____

Hi M____,
I am happy that you were able to see that Christ is God’s original creation and His channel for all the rest of His works.
You ask how we deal with the isolation of being Biblically oriented. Believe me when I tell you I know what you are feeling. When I first came to see universal salvation, I too was isolated and completely alone for many years. Being separated from our brothers in the churches is simply part of our calling:

Gen 49:26  The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.
Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.

Mat 26:31  Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.

As is so often the case, the spiritual understanding seems almost the exact opposite to the physical understanding. In the original, physical application of this event of “casting out the bondwoman and her son” it was the bondwoman and her son who were in physical distress. But in the spiritual application of this verse, everything is reversed and the son of the bondwoman has taken over “all the churches,” casting the apostles Paul and John out of the very churches they were instrumental in raising up. “The sheep shall be scattered” is truer today than it ever has been. The apostasy of the church was complete before the apostles were dead, and evil men and seducers have only gotten worse:

2Ti 1:15  This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia [ the “seven churches of Asia” of Revelation one] be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.
2Ti 3:13  But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
2Ti 4:9  Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me:
2Ti 4:10  For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
2Ti 4:11  Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.
2Ti 4:12  And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus.
2Ti 4:13  The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, [ but] especially the parchments.
2Ti 4:14  Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:
2Ti 4:15  Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words.
2Ti 4:16  At my first answer no man stood with me, but all [ men] forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
2Ti 4:17  Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and [ that] all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.

We all, at our appointed time, forsake those who bring us God’s truth. You are feeling forsaken now, and the answer to your question is right here in 2Ti 4:17. “The Lord will stand with you and strengthen you.” There is no substitute for Christ. All of Christ’s own apostles, in experiencing this part of their own lives, were simply experiencing what they themselves had done to their Lord. So it is with us:

Mat 26:35  Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples.

Like all of us, Christ’s apostles actually thought they were above ever denying their Lord. But what actually was the Truth? What actually happened?

Mar 14:50  And they all forsook him, and fled.
Mat 26:67  Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote [ him] with the palms of their hands,
Mat 26:68  Saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee?
Mat 26:69  Now Peter sat without in the palace: and a damsel came unto him, saying, Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee.
Mat 26:70  But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest.
Mat 26:71  And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him, and said unto them that were there, This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth.
Mat 26:72  And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man.
Mat 26:73  And after a while came unto [ him] they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art [ one] of them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee.
Mat 26:74  Then began he to curse and to swear, [ saying], I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew.
Mat 26:75  And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.

So we all “keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book. We are all guilty, at our appointed time, the time “written in His book,” of forsaking, denying and blaspheming our Lord. Those who deny ever doing so are guilty of doing so even as they deny it:

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.

1Ti 1:13  Who [ Paul] was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

We all “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” We all “ignorantly and in unbelief, blaspheme the name of God,” and in His mercy God forgives us.
You ask:

“In the religious circles there is fellowship and friends to share thoughts with, gatherings and such, but as a universalist thinker you feel isolated from everyone else, how do you deal with this aspect of our faith?”

The answer to your question is not what any of us want to hear. The simple answer is that we “endure to the end.” We are plainly warned of this lonely fact:

Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

As I pointed out above, Joseph spent 13 years being separated from his brothers. But he saved Egypt from death before he saved his brothers. We to will “be hated of our own [ spiritual] household.” It will be our “seed of the bondwoman” brothers and sisters in Christ who will most hate us.

Gal 4:28  Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Joseph, Christ and all of us must endure this trial. There is no getting around it. If our Lord was hated of His own people, why would we expect less?

Mat 10:24  The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.
Mat 10:25  It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more [ shall they call] them of his household?
Luk 6:40  The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master.

Joh 15:24  If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

“The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is [ being] perfect[ ed] shall be as his master.”  Or to put it another way…:

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 

So we endure our isolation and lying dead in the streets of Babylon, till the time allotted to do so.

Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies [ shall lie] in the street of the great city [ Babylon the Great], which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

It is the capital of God’s own people who is “spiritually called Sodom and Egypt:”

Isa 1:10  Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom [ Jerusalem, verse one]; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city [ Jerusalem] become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
Jer 24:8  And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the LORD, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt:

It is God’s own people, claiming His name, who are the great harlot of Rev 17 and 18. It is in the street of this great city that God’s elect lay, and it is out of this great city that God’s elect must come.
But we do have this very encouraging promise “in this life.” Christ has us to understand that His brothers, sisters and mother are His own disciples. “As He is so are we in this world.” Our brothers, sisters and our mother are God’s elect, and here are some encouraging words concerning what we can expect, even in this life:

Mar 10:28  Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.
Mar 10:29  And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s,
Mar 10:30  But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.

This is probably one of the most abused verses of the New Testament. The prosperity ministers love to point to this verse as proof of their doctrine of physical prosperity “in this time.” But they somehow fail to point out that in order to reap this blessing one must first “leave his house, brothers, sisters, father, mother, wife and children.”
Nevertheless, when we come to understand what mothers, siblings and children are in the mind of Christ, we are still told “But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time,” and here is what those things mean when spoken by the spirit in Christ:

Mat 12:46  While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.
Mat 12:47  Then one said unto him, Behold, Mat 12:46  While he yet talked to the people, behold, [ his] mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.
Mat 12:47  Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.
Mat 12:48  But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?
Mat 12:49  And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!
Mat 12:50  For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

What this tells us is that the lives and witness of God’s elect will indeed bring forth fruit even “in this time.”
But like every word concerning the gospel of the kingdom of God, The old man within must die first, then the new man and his rewards will be made manifest. We must first fill up in our bodies what is behind of the afflictions of the Christ, then the benefits of our sufferings will bear their fruits:

Mat 13:23  But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

I hope this encourages you to continue in Christs words. The sufferings of this present time really are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be revealed in us:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike