A Losing Battle Being Waged to Save the Doctrine of Hell

There is somewhat of a war going on right now between those who wish to preserve the Dark Ages doctrine of eternal torment in hell versus the emerging common sense (and biblically-based alternative) view that Love Wins and God will ultimately reconcile all things to himself.   That this battle is really going on became very clear to me last week when a particular lady began to post on a friend’s facebook wall warnings of a sort to reconsider and believe in eternal hell.  The giveaway that these hell supporters are active and working hard after being put on the defensive by books such as Love Wins and Raising Hell came in the middle of this conversation on Facebook.  The lady mistakenly cut and pasted something to people she was carrying on multiple (who knows how many) conversations with… the proof was there was another person’s name in the middle of the post.  I busted her for cutting and pasting, of course, in fun.  There is no law against pasting the same thing to multiple walls.  But, that was exactly what she was doing.   So she was launching this attack against the universal love and mercy of God under the same old guise of being concerned for our souls.  Now, she very well may have been.  But what is this really?  This is mistrust of God, plain and simple.  The lady was pleading in a personal tone as if the message was crafted specially for this one person.  In fact, she was distributing this message of fear en masse to hundreds if not thousands of people who are ever realizing that eternal torture and God being Love are things that cannot both be true.

The warped reasoning of these folks is that if people become convinced God is really Love and really will save all, and this turns out not to be the case….that is, if it turns out that the supreme being really is the Eternal torturer instead of Love, then believers who trust God to reconcile all to himself and have mercy on all are actually deceived and are leading millions of people – billions potentially, into eternal torment!   What is behind all this sudden defensiveness of the medieval doctrine of hell?  Well, three huge reasons continue to be--fear, fear, and fear!  More of the same, but these folks are getting more desperate as the battle for Hell is being WON by those who believe God will have mercy on all and hell is in no way a place of everlasting torment.   If God created a place of everlasting torture for his own creatures, don’t think for a minute that God can be trusted because he can’t.  Even people who think he has provided a way out (how nice of him, considered he made the place, right?  This is totally irrational), are not really safe and must “tremble” lest this being, this fiend send them to eternal torture themselves.  Such a being would not be god, he would be a demon, and that is unthinkable.  Thankfully, we know it is also not true.  God is love!  And Love wins.  Realizing this will cause you to read the Bible in an entirely different light.  Your eyes will be opened to this glorious truth! 

Blessings,

David

Life is a Free Gift, BUT you have to (insert work here)

It is refreshing to have a conversation, a kindly argument with someone who sincerely believes in everlasting torment, that doesn’t turn ugly.  I had one of these recently, hot off the heels of another one that had an entirely different tone.  Most recently, the sincere believer in eternal damnation almost immediately brought up Hitler and Stalin.  Why do they do this, I wonder?  It seems to be an effort to show how universal salvation is somehow unacceptable or show that everlasting punishment may be appropriate for some people.  As if when you may be trapped into admitting it is acceptable for Hitler or Stalin, then the door is open for anyone else.  That is the tactic.  Of course eternal torture is not acceptable for anyone, but we cannot let the focus remain on such people as Hitler.  We say God will deal with him appropriately, and then move on.

This is really a dishonest tactic for the eternal torment believer to use, but when it comes to discussions, it is intended to win an argument.  The reason it is so dishonest is that these folks don’t go around converting the Hitlers and Stalins of the world to save them from this fate;  rather, they believe ALL people who do not believe as they do are going to hell forever, with no escape.  The Hitler argument is therefore a distractor.  What eternal hellfire believers really believe is that all the people Hitler and Stalin are responsible for murdering are all going to the same place, forever, with no hope of escape!  They believe that people living on the same block as us, in the same neighborhood, are ALL destined for everlasting torture unless they believe certain things about Jesus in this lifetime.  Some say you have to be baptized, go to the altar call publicly, accept Jesus into your heart as “personal Savior” (a development of the past couple 150 years or so), and then demonstrate that you are truly “saved” by doing good things, by “bearing fruit.”

 

Preachers sometimes put a spin on Romans 6:23, which reads in the NRSV translation: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Preachers will  often say this means "spiritual" death, and that you "have to reach out and take the free gift," or you're not saved.  But the plain meaning of the first half of this sentence is this:  we all die!  Every one of us.  If Paul wanted to put “spiritual” in front of death, he certainly could have, but he didn’t.  Physical death is the destiny for all human beings.  However, even if one wants to interpret this as “spiritual” death (and this may be correct), this does not mean that a spiritually dead person cannot then become a spiritually alive person by the transforming power of God!  This also is not limited to this lifetime.  God can do as he pleases with his creation and the idea that any chance for spiritual growth, any chance for repentance, or any change is impossible after death is simply absurd, not to mention it is clearly shown to be otherwise in the Bible.  1 Peter 3 and 4 contain clear passages of Jesus’s activities after death that should remove all doubt as to whether post-mortem changes or repentance are possible.  

Then we have the idea of a “free gift.”  This is true grace, my friends: a free gift.  Paul contrasts Adam and Christ to illustrate this in Romans 5.  Verse 15 states:  “But the free gift is not like the trespass.  For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.” (NRSV translation)  Here Paul uses “the many,” in a clear parallel comparison to those (“the many”) who died as a result of Adam’s sin.  This usage of “many” may be simply explained that all people had yet to be born and Paul was using the past tense.  Additionally, “Adam,” is used to create an argument here, but since the Hebrew can refer to humans in general, one may interpret this as the disobedience of human beings, in general.  In any case, the two groups refer to all people up to that point as “the many” in this case.  Verse 18 is clearer and more all-encompassing with respect to time and so more clearly includes future events:  “Therefore, just as one trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.” 

In other words, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life!  For all people!  Not just a few, but the many, multitudes, ALL people.  Almost invariably, the hell-believing preachers are forced to add to what the Bible teaches by saying “but you have to take the free gift…you have to reach out and take it, and you can do that today, by coming forward, and publicly accepting Christ as Savior,” or something to that effect.  My friends, there are no conditions here like that.  Christ said “It is finished!”  He has defeated the powers of sin and death and there will be justification and life for ALL!  The free gift is yours, mine, everybody's, because God is love and God is awesome!!

There is nothing in the Bible that says repentance and change are impossible after death, as we saw in 1 Peter 3 and 4 .  In fact, Jesus’s answer to the disciples’ question in Mark 10:26: “who then can be saved?” was cryptic, but encouraging and unlimited in its scope:  “…With God ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE,” he answered. 

God desires all mankind to be saved according to 1 Timothy 2:4.  Do we doubt that God has the power to accomplish his will.  Are we so stubborn as to believe an absurdity like God will allow people to choose everlasting torture if that is what they want because he is “all-loving”?  Who would want or choose that?!  Is that really “all-loving?”  No-one in their right mind would choose to be tormented forever (and probably no-one not in their “right mind” either); still for free will to be truly free will, someone needs to be in their right mind and have knowledge of what they are choosing.  People on earth today and through the ages have not had this knowledge! 

Be that as it may, in any case, I say, God gets what he wants and his will is going to be done, whether fire and brimstone believers like it or not!  They will like it ultimately, I hope!  No-one languishes in the pit forever, but the purifying fire of God will “burn” away impurities and whatever is false and evil within each person, until with clear vision and clear consciences “every” knee will bow in Philippians Chapter 2.  There is, truthfully, some good in all people.   This is true even among the most obviously evil people in history.  Each person’s illusions and delusions and evil of all sorts will have been “burned” away and all God’s children, all people, will dwell forever with him, fully restored, enjoying the truly free gift, as the Bible promises.

God bless,

David  

Actions over Beliefs

What is our image of God?  What do we think he is like?  For the Christian, this important question is something we should spend time on by reading and studying about the life of Christ.  Theologians debate the nature of the incarnation of God in Christ, the Trinity, how Jesus could have been fully God and fully man at the same time, and so on.  This can get very complicated and it seems there is going to be no complete agreement on this or any number of other topics in this lifetime.  But most Christians would agree that God was in Jesus and if we want to know what God is really like and what he cares about then we should look at how Jesus lived.  Then, what is important is to follow his example and to obey his commands to love God and neighbor.  

If we look at the life of Christ and somehow see him going door to door preaching to people that they must believe certain things about him or be tormented forever, then that would be the way believers might legitimately act in following him.  But clearly, Jesus did not do this.  In fact, recall Jesus forbidding people and/or “evil spirits” to even say who he was?  His message and parables are full of lessons on what God is passionate about.  His life is an example of how people should strive to bring about the kingdom of God (not meaning the afterlife, primarily, here) on earth as well.  So we have the prayer “your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”  And so it shall be.  The way to do this, as Jesus showed, was non-violent, yet passively resisting the kingdoms of this world – that would have been the Roman Empire at this time, and those collaborators with Rome among the Jewish elite, the very wealthy.  Instead of taking care of the poor and working for justice in the world, the rich and powerful became more so, unjustly, at the expense of the poor. 

No wonder Jesus’s followers wanted him to exact justice against their rich oppressors.  But violence generally begets more violence and the kingdom of God is above that.  It wasn’t an option, ever, that Jesus even considered.  Jesus considered this to be “satanic” even.  Jesus counseled and lived out service and non-violent resistance then, to the end.  He told us to love our enemies, even.   That’s what God is like.  The kingdom of God (and the healing, justice, compassion Jesus demonstrated that goes along with it) was a threat in the minds of the Jewish elite—Jesus was winning over the multitudes—who convinced the Romans ultimately to have Jesus killed to preserve their positions as elite and favored by Rome. 

The crowds in the Gospels were clearly for Jesus, but they would on occasion demonstrate to him that they would have him be king “by force,” which would have caused him to appear or be the same, essentially, as the kings or “Caesars” in the kingdoms of the world.  They wanted Jesus to crush the enemy, by force!  This partly explains why he would hide himself or go away at times.  The way of force would wind up with just more of the same with the Jews exacting bloody vengeance on their oppressors.  We’ve seen this back and forth in history…think of Yugoslavia as one prime example of this. 

And so the week Jesus was killed we see him riding in humility on a donkey, no less, while the Romans marched in from the other side with swords, armor, horses and so forth to give some additional security during this period when thousands of Jews would be flocking in to Jerusalem.  They were ready to put down any troublemakers, by force.  Clearly, this is not the way God works—by force and violence and coercion. 

However, after Jesus’s death, after he sacrificed his own life, many of the Jews chose the path of violence and rose up against Rome.  After much bloodshed and thousands of crucifixions, they ended up completely crushed and Jerusalem was sacked, the temple destroyed, as Jesus said it would be.  Later, with the marriage of the church and the Roman Empire, we saw the beginnings of corruption, violence – the opposite of the kingdom of God working its might against enemies.  Christians began to persecute each other.  Heretics were hunted and their books burned.  And so we saw the working out of the doctrine of eternal, everlasting torment by the early Latin theologians, Augustine in particular.  Before Augustine, Tertullian also believed this, but he was in the minority.  

The authorities realized, of course, that such a doctrine was fear-based and that fear is a fairly good (I should say “effective”) way to control human beings. All who would not submit to certain beliefs about God would be forcefully crushed and tormented for all eternity.  Enter the Dark Ages, inquisitions, bloody wars, crusades, tortures, burnings, drownings, and worse.  The heretics were going to be crushed by God and/or Jesus and so the worldly church would send them on their way with a taste of the everlasting torments to come.  What a total and complete opposite of what Jesus lived and taught!!  This “you are headed for everlasting torment if you don’t believe such and such” fear-based traditional religion is STILL preached and taught in way too many churches throughout this land today. 

Can you imagine Jesus torturing anyone?  How about Pilate, or Herod Antipas, or perhaps those who were flogging the daylights out of him in preparation to kill him?  Wouldn’t that have been the time to show them what God is really like – kill them all, torture them, whatever?  No, he didn’t do that…rather, he forgave them from the cross.  The agony of death on a cross he submitted to instead of yielding to the temptation to operate as the world systems operate, by force.  Now remember James and John wanting to strike down Samaria and Jesus rebuking them for it.  Or Peter rebuking Jesus, or chopping off a man’s ear with a sword.  Jesus was not pleased.  Violence, according to Jesus, is not the way to get someone to believe or obey from the heart; nor is it the way to treat someone who doesn’t happen to believe as you or I do.  Do we actually think that Jesus is going to do an about-face and come back for some serious revenge?    Justice?  Yes.  Revenge?  No.   He told us to forgive not seven times but seventy times seven – in other words, do not EVER stop forgiving. 

Therefore, justice will demand that punishments fit crimes.  This will be done perfectly, since God is perfect. It certainly was not done in the Roman Empire, with crucifixions being administered to any who opposed them as an example of what happened to the disloyal.  In fact, no society has gotten it perfect, not one.  But God’s justice must be perfect and so it boils down to a matter of trusting God to take care of everyone with compassion and mercy depending upon each person’s circumstance.  It’s most definitely not going to be a lining up of those who accepted Christ as Lord and Savior in this life on one side, and all others on the other side, followed by a sweeping of the unbelievers into everlasting damnation to no purpose except bloodthirsty wrath.  Believe that and you are buying into the theology invented by the kingdom of this world, not the kingdom of God. 

We are told that humans are in a condition of sin; in other words, we are born flawed.  Surely this will be taken into consideration.  Romans 11:32 tells us that God, in fact, has “bound” or kept people in this state for the express purpose of having mercy on everyone!  Then, life will be abundant for all, there will be enough to eat for everyone, and no more sickness, death, jealousy over another man’s wife, murders, etc. etc. because the evil systems of wealth and power will be no more and all will be satisfied and reconciled to God.  There will be no more addictions because God will satisfy every need with more than anyone can ask or imagine.

In the meantime, our mission is to obey with the knowledge that we have.  This means to follow Jesus in helping to bring about a more just world; at least it means to strive to bring about the kingdom of God on earth by helping those in need and obeying commands to love God and love neighbor by our actions toward them.   We really need to rid ourselves this “you must believe this or that or be damned” doctrine and go out and help someone today, each day.  If Christians did this more, instead of going around trying to convert everyone to a set of beliefs, then this would be a major step in the right direction.  Things are looking up.  Yes, if you’re in a fundamentalist-type church, they’ll shun you as an apostate, de-friend you, backstab you, and more.  So be it!  That is their image of God and they have grown into it. 

Keep on following Jesus in spite of them, forgive them, move on even as they may reject you, and do as much good as you can (a rough quote from John Wesley) to as many people as you can, wherever you can, for as long as you ever can.  Do this, and you will truly be growing into the image of God, whose mercy and compassion never ends.  Yes, his mercy endures forever!!  (Psalm 136, repeat over and over).  Thank God for Jesus, who showed us that God is not a vicious being, but one who loves all his children and has all the time in the universe to transform them into all they can be.  It’s a privilege to be able to help and serve others, as this is what Jesus would have us do – it’s what he did, and when you run into the powers of the world, don’t let them turn you into one of them!  They’re in God’s merciful hands.  Trust him with everything.  And do not be afraid!!  Jesus will take care of you and all your loved ones in his true, infinite grace.  What you have in many churches today, including those with “grace” in their name even, is not really grace – it is conditional grace.  And conditional grace is no grace at all.  It's an oxymoron.

God bless,

David     

Happy Father's Day! Let's Just Rest Awhile

John 12:32 - "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” - Jesus

Matt 11:28 - "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."

Everyone loves the Matthew passage! Not everyone, of course, accepts the John passage. But isn't that glorious?  Eventually, all people come to Jesus and (perhaps after some celestial spankings are administered, but they will come, every knee will bow!  Check out Philippians 2)…all people will find rest for their souls. God is good, all the time!! I believe it! 

Somehow when we used to sing that in my former church I would look around and see people who were strong believers in the hideous doctrine of eternal torment singing this song so joyfully.

I was thinking, how in the world can they sing and believe these words if God is going to torment some of their friends and loved ones - forever!! It's just stupefying, really. I realize they probably were singing that thinking God is good by saving THEM and really believed that eternal torment for unbelievers is just, simply because they think God says it is. But he doesn't, and it isn't!  God gave us our brains, and common sense should be enough to tell us that eternal, everlasting retributive punishment is no justice for any crime.  The injustice of such a punishment is comparable to administering the death penalty for a person doing 58 miles an hour in a 55 zone, really, but much, much  worse if someone really thinks about it.   Please think about it and let’s do our part in spreading the glorious news that God really is good, all the time, punishments will be truly just, and he will indeed draw all men (all people, that is), to himself.  His mercy knows no bounds.  It lasts forever! 

I thank God so much for that, for being the truly merciful and kind God he is.  And as I see the truly good news of universal (ultimately) restoration of all things which includes all people, of course, it fills me with a great joy. No wonder Paul could spontaneously erupt into praises to God. I think Paul knew or received the revelation and although (as Peter probably tells us in his disputed 2^nd epistle – disputed or not, the statement is true!) he is sometimes difficult to understand, one can definitely see that there is tremendous, overwhelming support for this good news that it just makes me want to go out and serve him with all my might!!... After a short nap, that is...I'm a little lazy sometimes, at least in my own mind - I'll admit it.

Sleep is a really wonderful gift from God though; there is nothing wrong with a nice snooze.  Sometimes we need to slow down, rest, and just realize that all is well and all will be well.  We are overworked and need to rest.  I can see why God made a Sabbath day.  Never mind the literature the Seventh Day Adventists drop on my front porch when I run my weed-eater on Saturday!  The point is, we need to take some time and just rest in the Lord every week or we are going to burn out.  

God bless! And Happy Father's Day! -David

Sin is Not Sin

One of the most frustratingly annoying statements that I used to hear repeated over and over again by Christians is this one:  “Sin is Sin.”  Even before I became a convinced believer in the truly good news that 95 percent of the human race is not going to be eternally tormented or annihilated, I would cringe as I heard that phrase repeated.  Often I would feel an urge to speak up and would gently but very clearly say , “no, sin is NOT sin,” and then make the case. 

Why isn’t this a valid statement?  Because the statement in its clear meaning is that ALL SINS ARE CREATED EQUAL.  Believers in eternal torment think God sends you to this “hell” forever because you disobeyed – no matter whether you stole a piece of candy, cursed at a rude driver and gave him the bird, or killed someone – and didn’t believe Jesus died for your sins prior to your death.  You see, they have to maintain that “sin is sin” or else the doctrine of eternal torment goes down the drain.  As it very well should!   They would have to say that there will be different levels of punishments in this “lake of fire,” taken literally from the book of Revelation, if gradations of sin are admitted.  For this reason, you’re going to hear a lot of silence if you challenge the statement “sin is sin.” 

But sooner or later, someone will attempt to justify it.  For many, they will resort to the old misuse of Isaiah 55 that tells us that Gods ways are higher than our ways (they use it to attempt to show that God is merciless and that this mercilessness is justice because God is smarter than we are), and some will even pull things out of the book of James, such as where he states in Chapter 2 verse 10 that a person who has failed at the law at one point is guilty of all!  Really?  Does this mean me having a lustful thought is the same as committing rape?  I sure hope not.  That’s not James’s point at all.  The point is only that all have sinned, not that all people have sinned equally! 

So, before the fulfillment of what God has promised concerning the universal salvation and mercy on every human being that he has created happens, it is clear from the Bible and common sense that there are different levels of sin.  The Bible states even that punishments (and rewards) will be different in a number of cases.   These are good to keep in mind when you hear that phrase “sin is sin” tossed around as if you are just as guilty as a serial murderer because you don’t happen to be a perfect person. 

I just want to give a couple examples to show gradations of sins in the Bible.  First, in the parable in Luke 12, we read the conclusion in verses  47 and 48:  “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

So then, the servant who did not know was not only beaten with few blows, the blows came to an end.  The blows also came to an end for the servant who did know the master’s will!   Eternal torment doctrine would have the servants both equally receiving blows, for no corrective purpose other than to satisfy God’s anger, forever!   The blows would not be few or many, they would never end!   Think about that.  That’s utterly merciless.  So this is one example of different levels of punishment.  Bring this up in church and you’re going to get a lot of silence most likely before they change to a cherished passage that seems to teach eternal torment (but really doesn’t).  Don’t let them get away with this!!  Point out the gradations of punishments for gradations of sin, and that the punishments come to an end.  Repeat until the point is hammered home.

Then, we have Jesus talking warning a couple cities in Matthew 11:21-24.  Concerning the town of Capernaum (where they tried to toss Jesus off a cliff), he says:  “And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades.  For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”

Now, a big mistake I believe people make in coming up with the doctrine of eternal torment is to take Jesus literally, especially when he’s giving warnings and so forth.  But what does this passage mean?  One thing that can be said for certain is that Jesus is saying that in some sense, the city of Sodom is going to have an easier time of it at the judgment day than Capernaum is!  Without getting too much into the why or how, the point is, Sodom was considered and still is, the epitome of evil!  It was destroyed by “eternal fire” according to Jude. (Note:  where is that fire now?  “Eternal” fire should still be burning according to eternal torment doctrine).  

Now we see different levels of punishment being taught again, by Jesus.  Sodom gets an easier time of it than Capernaum does.  It’s not equal.  Sin is not sin here. 

But other than being an evil city, what else has been said about Sodom later on in the Old Testament?  This is a really amazing part that a lot of people might skip over because Ezekiel isn’t the most exciting of books to read.  But what it says is that GOD IS GOING TO RESTORE SODOM, and not only that, he is going to restore Israel (who he says committed sins that were “more vile” than the sins of Sodom and Samaria).  So here we see clearly that some sins are  more vile than others, the phrase “sin is sin” is once again just flat wrong. 

Here is this final passage showing differing levels of sin, which also shows how God will ultimately restore all of these places.  Just to make it clear, there is clearly going to be some pain, in this life or the next for sins.  But to say all sins are equal, and all sins warrant the sending of a person to be eternally tormented is irrational, unbiblical, and just a monstrous lie that people often are made to believe.  If a person questions this, their fellow church-members might start giving them strange looks at church, wondering if they are straying from the faith.  They might even be questioned as to what they believe about Jesus and the Trinity to test and see if they are really Christians or not.  What a brainwashing people are given on Sundays in many churches today!!

To sum this up, here is the passage of restoration from Ezekiel 16, verses 52 – 53.  At first, Ezekiel is speaking for God in warning the remaining kingdom of Judah (Israel, the northern kingdom with its capital at Samaria had been virtually destroyed by Assyria already) 

⁵² Bear your disgrace, for you have furnished some justification for your sisters. Because your sins were more vile than theirs, they appear more righteous than you. So then, be ashamed and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous.

⁵³ “‘However, I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and of Samaria and her daughters, and your fortunes along with them….”

So in verse 52, Ezekiel says that Judah’s sins are greater than Israel’s were, and so Israel had been made to “appear righteous” since Judah’s sins were so much more heinous, evidently.

But then, check out the shocker in verse 53!  God says he will restore SODOM (and her daughters – as in, the cities like Gomorrah around there that were probably wiped out in an eruption or whatever constituted the “eternal fire”).  Note that this has not happened yet.  Sodom is thought to have been in the general area of the southern Dead Sea.  Then, Israel is to be restored as well, Ezekiel says, and “your fortunes along with them,” meaning the kingdom of Judah which had been divided after King Solomon’s sons bickered over some internal political issues.  Anyway, we see the restoration of EVERYTHING here after whatever judgment and punishments are meted out for the sins of these nations and their people. 

And so, there are many different levels of sin.  Punishments will be perfectly just.  Some are promised to be painful, whether in this life or the next.  Stealing a piece of candy – slap on the wrist.  Harm someone, a child perhaps in some way?  I would expect some serious and very painful punishment, perfectly just, but not merciless.  There are Bible passages to back that up but I won’t give examples unless someone would like them. 

Eventually, all will be restored.  It might take a long time for some!  (Romans 11:32 is but one of many, but particularly clear passages telling us the grand purpose of God:  ^“For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.”    The ULTIMATE purpose is that God may have mercy on  ALL!!   That’s everyone.  That is the gospel, folks, not:  did you make Jesus your personal Savior before you died? (never mind if you grew up in Burma or the Congo or wherever)   If not, you’re going to the same place Hitler and the Jews and the Devil is going where you will be tormented forever.  That’s bad news, not good.

The good news is that God will eventually have mercy on all his creatures.  We are told to try to be like God, who we see most clearly in Jesus, as believers.  If we believe God will be merciless to some; well then, we are more likely to also not show mercy to certain people: homosexuals and people in other religions are special targets for many fundamentalist-type churches.  The “sin is sin” mantra is used when it is convenient, but ignored when it is not. 

The truth is, sin is NOT sin.  All sins are not equal by the Bible and the law of common sense!  And, God is going to have mercy on all his creatures.  THAT is the good news.  Jesus is the Savior of the whole world, not just a few.  So, love wins and God is not defeated by anything.  If most people go to hell forever, God as the heavenly parent of all (Acts 17 states we are all God’s children), seriously loses.  Folks, God doesn’t lose.  He loves us, all his children.  Think of those parables where God doesn’t rest until he finds the last sheep, or the lost penny.  He’s the Savior of everyone! 

God bless,

David

Is God a Malevolent Serial Torturer?

I had a feeling I was heading for a bit of trouble when the question read as follows:  “Melchizadek was, like Christ, an eternal priest.”  True or False?   I answered “false” and got it wrong.   I made a mild protest over that one.  I lost. It turns out the Professor in charge of the New Testament Bible Studies curriculum and the test writer was the same one who attempted to have me expelled from seminary during a class on how to interpret the Bible. Interpret literally, whenever possible, was what he taught us.  The reason for his attempt to have me expelled was for not acknowledging that God would send any of his children to eternal torment, with no hope for escape ever, as a “just” payment for sins.  I argued in a forum designed for debating issues that eternal torment was not justice, not for anything done in a short lifetime and backed it up with scriptures, logic and plenty of real life examples and scenarios. 

  

Now this Professor knew all about Melchizadek; he was an “expert” on the book of Hebrews and took it all literally.  Advice:  watch out for people who can tell you all about Melchizadek!  Anyway, if you were to put hard questions to this Professor on anything, even politely, he would become somewhat belligerent, acting as if the person questioning needed to be quiet and learn the material.  But if he perceived that you had bested him in any exchange, then he would put you up for disciplinary action for disrespect.  One wasn't allowed to best the big man in any debate or exchange!  I wasn’t the only one, that’s for sure.  A lot of those students were a tad smarter than me, and better debaters.  Some would buckle a little easier though, on occasion, and apologize.  Others would just stop debating.  And others would continue, fearlessly, and some did pay the price for “crossing the line.”  But it’s not about that.  In any case, I believe God saw to it that the dean saw things my way when he refused to expel me.  From his personal response to me it seemed he was a closet Christian Universalist even!  But, alas, his job was at stake and to admit that would leave him unemployed.  Months later, the Professor was still seething with rage that I wasn’t expelled.  I have his email response to a question I put to him about an upcoming class and it’s nasty.  It seems this man resembles the god that he serves.  Now I’m not judging him.  Judging means condemning someone to eternal torment and that’s exactly what millions of church folks implicitly do when they let that doctrine go unchallenged or outright support it, especially.  

I suppose me not letting this New Testament Professor walk all over me with all his 350 pounds of doctorate bulk might have had something to do with his failed attempt to expel me.  Would the Christian thing to do have been to silently let him fill our heads with nonsense?  No, I don’t think so.  There is a time to speak up without fear of the consequences a human can deal to us, even if the hammer is going to potentially seriously drop.  It is my belief that the time to speak up is when people attempt to brainwash you with a view of God as cruel, vicious, vindictive and so bloodthirsty that his wrath will never be satisfied forever and ever.   In any case, this Professor attempted to force me acknowledge the Bible taught eternal torment.  He asked me to substitute the word “hell” for “death” in Romans 6:23, meaning eternal torment.  The reason being was, in his mind, that if God sentences a human to eternal torment then it must be just.  Whether it said death or hell or torture or anything didn’t matter to him.  Why?  Because he is God, that’s why.  If God says something is just, it must be just.  Just like that.  I refused.

Didn’t Paul tell us to “test everything” and “hold onto what is good?”  What is good about everlasting torment?  Dump the doctrine, I say, and rejoice in the merciful arms of the Lord as we know he welcomes all his children home – sooner or later.  Sometimes it might be a lot later!  That’s up to God.  Punishments all must have a purpose or they are cruelty.  That purpose cannot be revenge either.  I think even my dog understands this.

 

Isn’t God more merciful than human beings?  Isn’t it actually human beings who have done relatively merciless things (maybe not approaching the horror of everlasting torture) and then on occasion attributed them to God?  “Kill them all!”  (said God)  But did God really say this?  “Save the virgins for yourselves,” saith the Lord.   Did God really say that?  Or did humans say that God told them to do it.  I wasn’t there, but that sounds like human sinfulness in war and brings to mind more recent events such as the rape of Nanking.  Did God tell the Japanese troops to do that to the Chinese civilians of Nanking?  If you are brave and have a strong stomach, just google that one for a seriously bloodcurdling account of human evil.  I’ve had people in church tell me of the genocides in the Old Testament:  “yep, that was a brutal time…brutal!”  And some of them have a little twinkle in their eye, a knowing security that they are the chosen and will never be on the receiving end of any stripes or any fire like the non-elect.     

Anyway, just because something happened 3000 years ago in a brutal time period doesn’t lessen the horror of it at all.  Thanks be to God I don’t have to believe the accounts of slaughter in Numbers, Joshua, and Judges were commanded by God.  If someone else wants to believe this then that’s fine, but we’re talking about the God of the universe here, commanding puny humans to stab and slaughter each other and demanding all kinds of things be killed.  Let the blood flow!!  What insanity is that!  It leads to our view of God though.  Is God benevolent?  Is God love, as the Bible testifies?  Did Jesus show us what God is like?  Did he go around telling the Jews to slaughter every Roman in sight?  Couldn’t he have?  Maybe that would be a little more justified than the slaughter of the Canaanites who had never lifted a finger against the invading Hebrew hordes, wouldn’t it?  If God wanted to give them the land, why couldn’t he take the mighty hand of God and thrust them out of the land to live in peace instead of all that gore?  Slay them!!   What a load we’ve been fed to imagine that the Lord Jesus was behind any of this slaughter and killing.    

And now let’s return to consider the even worse fate of eternal torment.  Let’s try to think of one man who might sentence his children to everlasting torture to no purpose.  Imagine this man is invisible.  One day, he appears to his children who didn’t believe in him because they couldn’t see him so he impales each one with a pitchfork.  But you see, this man is an immortal, powerful magician and has the power to keep his children alive so they can suffer and not die.  For not believing in him, this man allows his children to writhe on the pitchforks for days.  Days turn into months.  Months into years.  The pain never ends and the man is never satisfied that the punishment is enough, that justice has been fulfilled.  Since he is smarter and more powerful, this action of his must be correct and it must be accepted.  

This is pretty similar to the satanic doctrine of eternal torment.  Maybe someone who would actually do this, if he had the power would be an insane serial killer?  Perhaps someone like John Wayne Gacy or Ted Bundy.  Or the Green River Killer.  But what’s striking there is even these evil murderers eventually put their victims out of their misery.  The Green River Killer even said “I didn’t torture ‘em.”  The BTK killer talked of “putting his victims down” after he had punished them for a time.  

Terrible, terrible, heinously evil acts these men did.  But their victims are suffering no more.  The Nazis put the Jews in ovens, experimented on them and so forth, often in agonizing ways.  But their suffering is thankfully over.  Or…is it?   According to the doctrine of eternal torment, the victims may have never believed in Jesus for some reason or another.  The Jews horribly massacred by the millions in the holocaust certainly didn’t – at least, the vast majority.  Maybe other people who were victims of killers were abused, weren’t born in the right neighborhood or any number of understandable reasons.  If that was the case, those victims of the killers are looking forward to a much worse fate:  torture that NEVER ENDS!!  No rest, day or night – Revelation is taken literally.  Tossed alive into a lake where they can burn and experience the anguish of burning, but not ever have it relieved, ever!  Can anyone really, truly believe this without putting up a huge wall in their brain blocking out how horrific this insane doctrine really is?  And people go and sing praises to this being on Sunday?  What’s wrong with this picture?   

What is wrong is the doctrine of eternal conscious torment.  It's wrong because it maligns the nature of God and prevents people from coming to him.  This prevents them from doing good works and following Jesus because they hate God.  They reject the eternal torturer, understandably!  Marx, Lenin, and Friedrich Nietzsche all said that they rejected the Christian God because of the doctrine of hell.  Think of the horrific influence these men have had on millions of people.  Even if not directly responsible, Lenin led to Stalin and Stalin bears responsibility for the deaths of millions of people.  The doctrine is satanic and the fruit it has borne, for one, was Joseph Stalin.

Thank God that he is not a malevolent divine serial torturer.  If he were, we would ALL be in big trouble!  God is not a demon from the pits of “hell.”  That is utterly unthinkable.  And thank God, it is not true.  God is LOVE.  Believe it!  Therefore, we’re ALL in for a royal, wonderful surprise because our God is benevolent and he is awesome, all-powerful and all-loving.  It is true that we sometimes create our own bit of hell on earth sometimes and this is designed to strengthen us spiritually.  It may also serve to make us all the more appreciative of the infinite mercy of God and the eternal life that he has in store for ALL his creatures after a life of sickness, turmoil or other heavy burden is ended.  God will have all men be saved, Paul says to Timothy.  Romans 5 uses an exact parallel to describe how what “Adam” (that is, sin) does is reversed by Christ.  And to a much greater degree!   

 For those of us who think of persons who have done great evil in this life, God does promise justice will be meted out, but the punishment will fit the crime.  I can think of no crime that would warrant eternal conscious torment.  Maybe tormenting someone for all eternity.  That might warrant eternal conscious torment, in which case that god would go off the high dive (picture that in a Chick tract) into the lake of fire himself.  One last thought – if the punishment for sin is eternal conscious torment, and Jesus had to suffer the due punishment – why is Jesus not writhing about in the flames even as we speak?  He would have to, if that were the just penalty.  Of course, there’s nothing just about eternal conscious torment.  We need not fear any of our loved ones are being tormented by God.  Instead, they are in his care and we can trust him because he is merciful and kind. 

Be not afraid, says Jesus, it is I – I am always with you!!  We can all rest in this knowledge.  This is one reason to share this truly good news.  It can remove all that horrible anxiety and depression people might have, thinking about the fate of “lost” loved ones.  Remember, God loves those people and he is going to take care of them and do what is best for them because they are his children.  God, being the perfect parent, will see to it that they receive fair and merciful treatment designed for their benefit until they come back home and he comes running to them with arms wide open like the Father in the prodigal son parable.  May we not be like the eldest son in that parable, annoyed that God is merciful and infinitely forgiving!  Even with the eldest son sulking, the Father said to him:  “everything I have is yours!”  

God bless!

David     

Hope for All, Even for Those Without Hope!

Greetings Everyone!

Today what has been on my mind is the word “hope.”  Specifically, what has been going over in my mind are verses like 1 Thessalonians 4:13, where Paul writes:  “…we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” (New Revised Standard Version/NRSV)

Verses like this can be incredibly misleading.  The difference is between objective hope and subjective hope.  Let’s imagine people who do not believe something wonderful is going to come to pass (e.g. they don’t believe God will have mercy on all people, as he has promised in Romans 11:32; their loved ones, they believe, who have passed away are just ‘no more’) or let’s imagine people who believe something terrible is looming (e.g. eternal torment) – in both these cases these people do not have subjective hope (at least for others…they may have it for themselves).  In light of this example, Paul wanted the believers to not grieve about those who died (surely not all of their relatives were believers)…he wanted them to have subjective hope in objective reality:  that is, Jesus is going to take care of those folks, being the Savior of the world.  That’s why he came!    

As for those “others,” (the unbelievers) let’s go on to see that the very wonderful thing that they never had even hoped for (“they had no hope”), did, in fact happen.  God did (and he will) have mercy on all, as he has promised.  In this case, all along they had objective hope, but grieved because they didn’t have subjective hope.  So to sum it up, Paul is saying that for those that do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world--those that do not believe that he will, in fact, take care of a person’s loved one, how can they possibly have that hope within themselves?  And yet, when God does treat the loved one fairly and with mercy, this shows that there was hope for that person all along and for the loved one, but the one who did not believe simply did not have that hope.  So to say “they had no hope” is NOT the same as saying “there is no hope for them” or “there is no hope for their loved ones who have passed.”    

As an example, before Paul had his vision on the road to Damascus, he was Saul, and did not have subjective hope.  But destiny would have it that all along, even when he had no subjective hope, he did, in fact, have objective hope!  And so it is for all of God’s creatures.  This may be one valid explanation for the conclusion of 1 Timothy 4:10:  “…we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.”  I cannot even express how supporters of the doctrine of a God who eternally torments his own creatures either dodge this verse entirely or desperately wish it wasn’t in their Bibles.  But it is!  And it ruins their theology of eternal torment when it says so clearly that God is the Savior of all people.  What makes sense is that the word “hope” is right in the verse, and so those who have this subjective (and objective!) hope are spared from subjective despair (NOT objective if God is the Savior of all people!) at the loss of loved ones.  God saves the believer in his amazing grace from despair and other anxieties, due to the believer’s possession of this hope NOW.  This would warrant the word “especially,” I believe.  The word “exclusively” is not an option in any translation.  The King James goes with “specially.”  Ask eternal torment folks about 1 Timothy 4:10, not in a mocking way, but really ask them to explain what it means to them.      

In passages like 1 Thessalonians 4:13, you may have someone point to this and try to rob you of you hope for the salvation of all mankind.  They may say something like:  “oh, you see there!  There’s no hope for those people,” and sincerely mourn this fact.  We’ve already shown that not having hope is not the same as there not being hope.  I know very few Christians (they are out there though!) who actually say this with a sort of glee.  This is a terrible sickness of the spirit, that one day will be purged by a metaphorical fire.  As Mark 9:49 tells us, we ALL get some fire!  I can’t stress that enough.  I mentioned this to an eternal hell believer and he just shrugged and said basically “I don’t know what that fire is, but I know it’s not hellfire.”  This is right after those verses in Mark 9 about immortal worms and unquenchable fire!  That, said the man I was debating, definitely was hellfire.   I don’t believe this man was cruel or gleeful, but brainwashed.  The good news just couldn’t possibly be THAT good, could it?    Yes, my friends, it can, because our God is THAT awesome!  He is, indeed, the Savior of the entire world.

  When people realize that God will exact perfect justice but ultimately reconcile all his creatures to himself (Colossians 1:20 reads: “and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross”), including “lost” loved ones, then we really and truly are filled with an unspeakable joy.  It’s a little ironic then, that believers in eternal torment today (which was not anywhere close to being the majority doctrine of the early church), have been robbed of this hope that Paul says that they are supposed to have in 1 Thessalonians 4:13…that is, unless ALL of their loved ones believed or “got saved” in their short life. 

What a destructive doctrine – eternal torment in hell.  No hope, no mercy.  Is that justice?  I had a wonderful man at my former church who told me with tears in his eyes how his family was not saved, but he still accepted the doctrine of eternal torment and said that we would not care after death because we would be so close to God after death!  Now, if I believed God was going to eternally torture any of my relatives, he wouldn’t be a being worthy of worship.  I don’t think I’d want to get very close to him at all!  Rather, he would be a malevolent being, a sadistic rejected loser taking out his wrath, forever and ever, on his own creatures, his own children – many of our loved ones. (Acts 17:28-29 clearly tells us who God’s children are: ALL of humankind…this is Paul giving a sermon to the Greeks in Athens).  He is trying to convince them that there IS hope.  That’s the message for everyone:  even if we have no hope, there is still hope for us!  Why?  Because God is not a monster, God is love, and God is the Savior of all people.  We all have a lot to look forward to.  There is hope for all because His mercy endures forever!

God bless,

David

UNMC Visit and a "Parking Ticket" from Family Radio

Well, better late than never!  I hope you all had a wonderful Easter, wherever you were at.  As planned, I went to the historic Universalist National Memorial Service in Washington D.C.  The whole experience was just fantastic.  The greeter at the door was a kind man with whom I enjoyed speaking for a few minutes before the service.  Soon there entered a very nice lady who seemed genuinely interested in talking to me and welcomed me heartily to the service as well.  I had the chance to speak with a couple other nice folks before and after the service as well.  The service itself was really pleasant and I felt completely at ease, something I can’t say for every church I visit!  I never got the slightest feeling that I was being pressured or scrutinized.  It was the pastor’s final sermon there and I felt privileged to be able to attend this church with the wonderful people there and hear her final message to this group of folks.    

Then, as I was driving home, I noticed a leaflet tucked snugly into my wiper blade.  At first I thought it was a ticket for parking in a questionable area.  When I arrived home I plucked it out of my windshield wiper and was intrigued and slightly amused to read that the end of the world was going to happen very soon, apparently.  The title said “Holy God will bring judgment day on May 21, 2011.”  I read the back and saw that the leaflet was produced by Family Radio!  Anyone scared yet?  I began to read.  In one short paragraph, I read the words “Holy God” three times. 

Throughout the leaflet, God was consistently called “Holy God” over and over again.   The Great Flood, “by careful study” happened, per the pamphlet, in 4990 B.C.  Then, some numbers that people might be likely to ignore out of sheer boredom are manipulated to come up with a date for Judgment Day!  This is really unconscionable.  The leaflet struck me as actually bordering on being venomous; it reminded me just a little bit of Chick tracts (truly venomous!), minus the comic illustration of a huge angel tossing live human beings into a burning pit to suffer forever. 

Anyway, the bottom line message was: “Holy God hates you!”  I crumpled it up and threw it in the trash.  Then I retrieved it just to serve as an example of how why our image of God matters so much.  I can’t ever imagine myself loving “Holy God” as described in this leaflet.  He’s waiting to torment his own creatures for all eternity!  As Ellen White says somewhere about eternal torment:  “O, dreadful blasphemy!”  I’m no Seventh Day Adventist, but their stock went up considerably when I read that quote from their beloved founder and leader. 

In any case, this pamphlet was playing upon people’s fears: upon our realization that none of us are perfect before our Creator, an all-knowing being that has never made a mistake, knows everything about us, and (implied by this pamphlet) is VERY ANGRY with all of us!!  But let’s take a step back into the wonderful reality for a moment and see how Jesus, the perfect manifestation of God here on earth treated imperfect people like us when he was on earth…prostitutes, lepers, outcasts.  I’m repeating here, but this is so important that we strive to follow his example as best we can.  He ate with hated people, drank with them, healed the sick and paralyzed people and liberally forgave them – even when they did not ask for it!  And, we read of a good many religious leaders who scowled and seethed with hatred at him.   

Therefore, when we want to know what “Holy God” is really like, let us look to Jesus and read about how he treated people.  Let us meditate on the parable of the lost sheep and those like it – how we are all God’s children (per Paul’s speech to the Greeks in Acts 17, and elsewhere) – and how the Shepherd will not rest until all his sheep come home.  I believe the New Testament does clearly teach true justice.  But the punishment must fit the crime!  In Deuteronomy (25:1-3) even, the number of lashes a person could receive was limited to 40 and it was to be “according to his guilt!”  This was a brutal period, and even here we see justice tempered with mercy.  

Nowhere in the leaflet is there anything said about how God is Love or how Jesus treated people.  In fact, there’s virtually nothing at all in there about Jesus’ example and teachings to love one another and God (because he first loved us!).  Rather, the leaflet is designed to scare the living daylights out of people with a guilty conscience or the gullible, perhaps, who have yet to subscribe to some formula that Family Radio has cooked up that you and I need to believe in in order to escape this judgment.    

We know that God will have all people to be saved (1 Tim 2:4 – efforts to water down this verse don’t change the tremendous strength of the Greek verb there – see Gerry Beauchemin’s book Hope Beyond Hell or ask me for it and I’ll send you a free copy that details this); God is in charge of who gets saved of course; and we are told over and again that he will have mercy on ALL (Romans 11:32).  1 Tim 4:10?  Believe it! He really is the Savior of the whole world, not just the religious elite; and when he was on earth, he acted like it, by hanging around those who would be deemed by churches today to be “lost” or “damned forever”! 

Clearly there may be some pain to come, more or less.  Mark 9:49 tells us EVERYONE will get some fire.  We are all imperfect.  But as we know, God’s mercy endures forever, mercy triumphs over judgment and his wrath lasts but a moment!! (Psalm 136, James 2:13,  Lamentations 3:31-33)  What a change this makes in our lives in how we look and treat others when we realize this truth.  And thank God, this is the kind of God we serve – a God of mercy and love.  Yes, God is Love! (1 John 4:8; 1 John 4:16) And I’ll end it with 1 John 4:18 – “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.” Again, none of us are perfect, so there is bound to be some unhealthy fear and problems of all kinds in life associated with fears of all kinds.  But we know that God is going to take care of us all, wipe away every tear and fear will be no more!! 

God bless!

-David