Earlier this year when I stated in a church service that I did not believe in an eternal torture chamber (traditional hell), I caught hell for saying so. Why do people get so upset about one of three positions that it’s easy to develop from the Bible? There’s evidence for an eternal hell, annihilation, and divine judgment. Pick one! I’m fine with whatever your conscience leads you to- just allow me the same privilege. One family left the church for fear that teaching divine judgment would be a license for people to sin. Want to know my thoughts on that?
I believe in a day of reckoning, what I call divine judgment. Punishment for corrective purposes and restoration, not for unending retribution that basically says to God- you lost! You’re claim of omnipotence evidently wasn’t true as you lost by far the majority of your creation to an eternal hell. Why did you come up with such a plan since you also could see the end of it- omniscience.
I don’t think God did come up with that plan.
I see God as a redeemer and ultimately ALL (as the Bible says in dozens of places) of creation will be saved. Ultimately EVERY knee will bow. If this is so clear why does the majority of the church not believe it? Let me give you seven reasons starting with the one I mentioned above.
1-Preaching no eternal tormenting hell will cause people to not fear and sin! Oh really? And how’s that been working out so far in history? Seems to me that after threatening people with an eternal hell for thousands of years, no one is worried.
2-People love following a crowd and the herd instinct is stronger and feels safer than going with a minority opinion. But when has the majority been the crowd to follow? Was Jesus ever in the majority? Come on! 
3-People deserve hell! Yep. There are some that want to see people burn in hell. Others who think they are so righteous surely don’t want to see those they judge as unrighteous getting off scott-free! Jealous judging is never a good place to be.
4-The church is a conservative institution and it doesn’t like change. Even if divine judgment was the norm before St. Augustine came along, it doesn’t matter. Even though St. Augustine and the Romans emperors teamed up with the “control motive” in hand, the church still wants to stay the course. You gotta make people be good! Really?
5-Forget the facts! People don’t want to have to “rethink reality“. To wake up one day and find that a cornerstone in your theology was wrong not only hurts your pride, but it means you have to dig and and see what else might need some “spring cleaning”.
6-If there’s no hell, what advantage is there in even being a Christian? This is a biggee. Few want to admit it, but we want privileges- we want classifications of people. We want to know who is IN and who is OUT!
7-And then let’s get really real! The biggest reason people believe in a Hollywood Hell is because everyone is winking at each other! Say what? Pastors keep teaching a Hollywood Hell (especially the far right), so people keep believing it. And pastors are afraid to teach it because they might lose their church (can you say be voted out?). Or worse yet, not be voted out but lose members ,and therefore their salary. Can you say cowards? May be a bit too harsh or, maybe not.
I would work for free (and I have) before I’d violate my conscience with God. That’s not pride, it’s just intimacy and respect for God.
A for me and my house, as Joshua said, I’m following God the best I know, And unfortunately, following God means taking up your cross. Taking up your cross means it’s going to COST! It’s the opposite of the “prosperity gospel“, the “destiny in God” messages that we love to be told over and over again. There’s nothing wrong with either prosperity or destiny, so long as it’s Gods and not ours.
God is love and God is just. And Jesus described a Father to me that could never conceive of an eternal torment chamber as a plan for humanity. That’s my God, the one I’ve created, the one I see in the Scriptures, the one Jesus described to me.
Think about it.
Man, this is getting clearer and clearer! Yet, part of my intellect/ego is uneasy about that which is yet to be uncovered that will temporarily be cloudier and cloudier until the rain/reign of the Holy Spirit washes away the old dust/rust of previous arches & nuerogrooves….
God is good, and I say “Yes” to his providential deliverance and design (embracing HIM making room for the NEW WINE)!
Gratefully,
wlb
What he said!
The bottom line as to why the “Mainstream Church” is a “Hell based church” is the bottom line. Money, to get the monies to pay the multiple staff salaries, to pay the mortgage on the building, to advertise on billboards, to put the pastor on radio and TV takes money and lots of it.
To get the money you instill fear in your people, if they do not tithe, if they do not attend, if the do not serve, if they do not etc., they will go to hell. Can’t preach too much grace and forgiveness, because if the fear disappears, then the bottom line might suffer, the attendance might drop and the bottom line will be affected.
The spititual imaturity of the average preacher is evident in the lack of grace that they preach. When the average preacher and average Christian realizes that they can do nothing to improve their position with God, that God’s grace covers everything, that God as a loving father loves us as we are, that as we who are fathers would not burn are own kids, God will not do the same to his kids, the ones he crated, the whole world. We are truly legitimate as God’s kids. We can do nothing to improve it. He loves us totally.
When we understand this we do not need to control at all, nor will we be controlled, especially through the fear of hell.
Unfortunately CONTROL is what drives us all (the ego), be it church, work, relationships, or just alone with ones own self. We want it as we want it. Death to the false self is the answer for us ALL.
It is Great to see the Truth preached and proclaimed!
Isaiah 54:8 states that in Everlasting Kindness will God
have mercy on us. verse 9 says He swore enver to be wroth
with thee, or rebuke thee. verse 10 but my kindness shall
not DEPART from thee, neither shall my covenant of peace
be removed! I believe that God’s fire will correct us,
and free from what shackles our destiny. It is amazing
to me the fact that this truth is being seen by many,
but only a few are willing to take the risk to share it.
God is not wroth with us, and will never Depart from us!
Thats’ Good News!
Two comments from Marina del Rey? Ed and Mark- God bless you!
Lamentations 3:31 God will NOT abandon us FOREVER!
I totally agree that God is Redeemer and will save
ALL of mankind. This is the “Oath” mentioned in the
New Testament. The word “Oath†in the New Testament is the Greek word #3727 horkes. Orkos is from the Greek word Herkos which means “fence, perhaps it is related to the Greek word horion which is a derivative of the
word horos meaning a “boundary or limit.†The best translation of this Greek word horos is “A border, a boundary.†What is the Boundary of God from the Beginning, Jesus is the Savior of the Whole World(I John 2:1,2). Thayer’s Greek Lexicon says this Greek word means “an enclosure, a confinement. The Latin word is orcus. It is used 10 times in our Greek New Testament. The Amplified Translation of Hebrews 6:17 is helpful:
Hebrews 6:17 The Amplified New Testament
“…the Unchangeableness of His
Purpose and Plan, intervented
(Mediated) with an Oath.â€
Mark
Hard to disagree, and why would want to?