I was never able to believe what I was taught at Bible school.
Fortunately for me, my wife Helen couldn’t believe it either.
I guess an appropriate question would be, “Why did I bother to go to Bible school”?
I would say that I went to learn how I best could influence people to get them to trust in Jesus for their salvation from everything from which they needed to be saved. I had been taught from childhood that we need to be saved from “eternal torment,” but I was never able to really believe that. In fact just the thought that it might be true caused me continual intense emotional distress.
Since I was not much of a preacher, I concluded after graduating, that I would be most useful in Christian literature distribution which Helen and I did for forty years.
Everyone has an “opinion,” including Ray Prinzing (my earthly hero and mentor).
I’m just so glad that I discovered his “opinion” that enabled me to recover from a horrific twelve year nervous breakdown (1966-78, I’m 78 now) caused by my inability to love or trust a god who would let anyone suffer forever or annihilate them. During that period of time I had continual panic attacks both night and day.
During my breakdown, every morning, as I washed my family’s dishes and before I went to sleep at night, I would listen to one of Ray Prinzing’s many tapes.
I have listened to 178 of them twice, and 23 of them several times.
In addition to these tapes, I always read every issue of his periodical GOSPEL ECHOES which he later renamed LETTERS OF TRUTH (because someone else had the copyright on GOSPEL ECHOES) and I gleaned many pages of his writings into my personal journal.
Many people have an earthly hero, someone in their life that made a contribution to their welfare so significant that it is far above the influence that anyone else has had.
Ray Prinzing is that earthly hero to me.
For several years my 104 year old dad (who is still living) called me from his nursing home each evening. Each time he called I read a portion of my over four thousand page journal to him, and many of these readings are the gleanings that I wrote from Ray Prinzing’s writings and tapes. Many nights my dad fell asleep listening to one of Ray’s tapes.
As I listened to Ray’s tapes I gradually became more and more sure that I was going to recover. The contents of his tapes gave me the courage, in 1978, to take a public stand that I believe that the Bible teaches universal transformation, not endless suffering in hell, or even annihilation.
Now I spend most of my time offering people, in various ways, the information that helped me recover and helps me stayed recovered, and I am pleased to report that the info I share is helping other people in the same way that it helped me.
All of Ray Prinzing’s writings can be accessed by typing his name into Google. There are several pages of Google links about him.
The theme of universal salvation is prominent in all of Ray’s writings, but his book
REDEMPTION ALL IN ALL is especially good
Ray Prinzing has now passed on, but he will not likely be forgotten on this earth for many years, if ever. And that is a very good thing!