Posted on 02/17/2017 6:51:33 AM PST by metmom
Have you taken a close look at your theology lately?
Have you caught yourself thinking maybe everyone will be saved in the end? Maybe you've started to accept some of the hallmarks of our culture that the Bible defines as sin—some without even noticing, such as greed and materialism, and some out of fear since Christians are vilified for opposing them, such as homosexuality and abortion. Or you may be thinking, "If God is loving, surely He wouldn't send people to hell for their lifestyle choices. Right?"
Perhaps you see people who do not follow God, yet they work tirelessly to serve the marginalized, and you question whether the Bible really tells us the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ. Why would God punish people who are doing such good?
(Excerpt) Read more at charismanews.com ...
Ping
One of my favorites is from Alfonzo Rachel:
“You either believe the bible, or you don’t.”
Did you ever read the novel Lilith, by George MacDonald? He believed everyone would be saved. It’s been a very long time since I read it, but iirc, the ‘salvation,’ of dead sinners—even the worst of the worst—was accomplished in a strange way. To wit: they slept. And slept and slept, until eventually they were saved.
A very weird book.
I heard of it and him but never read any of his stuff.
Sounds a bit like purgatory.
One of my favorites is from Alfonzo Rachel:
“You either believe the bible, or you don’t.”
A simple case in point: Romans 6:23 says that “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is immortality.”
OK, I believe the bible. It says sinners will die and those that receive the gift of God will be immortal. But not so fast! Many people think that is heretical thinking. They believe that “death” is a metaphor for spending eternity in conscious torment in hell*. And the argument begins...
*Many argue that Jesus talked of hell a lot. He didn’t. Not once. He talked of Gehenna, which is a real place with a real history. He used it as an example of what would happen to the lost. But “hell” was invented as an euphemism used to this day to represent something else.
Gehenna:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gehenna
And after reading that, you have a hard time swallowing this: http://www.theopedia.com/gehenna
The writer there makes assumptions and precedes them with “obviously”. But John F. Walvoord’s assumptions are dead wrong. They are complete fabrications, especially when one knows the actual Jeremiah reference to Gehenna. But he is speaking to those that only read what he and others like him write and don’t know the REAL history of the valley, nor the personality of God as described in His word.
Grace and Peace for Stubborn Sins
http://www.christholdfast.org/blog/grace-and-peace-for-stubborn-sins#.WKTzJR6rPEc.twitter
In Orlando, the two main heresies are Universalism and Disneyism...
OK, I’ll be Sirius. The universalism in today’s society is basically low-grade Eastern theology, that has infected popular Western thinking since at least the 1950s and Aldous Huxley, and Western philosophy since Christ was replaced by Hegel in the early 1800s.
If you want to understand the anti-universalism of Christianity, you look at, not the cross, but at the thieves that are on each side. Accept the salvation that comes from the cross, and you are with Jesus in paradise; scoff at it, and you are without Jesus in hell. And as is often pointed out, Jesus talks much more about hell than He ever does about heaven; my guess is that this is because it is harder to convince people that there is a hell to which they belong if they reject Him, than that there is a heaven to which they can belong, but only if they accept Him.
I’m no expert on purgatory, but isn’t it supposed to be fiery, painful and ultimately cleansing? All these dead sinners in Lilith—including the title character, who was a kind of Jezabel, in terms of wickedness—were just peacefully sleeping. Even for a universalist, how does that make sense? We can’t go to sleep at night with unconfessed sin, and wake up forgiven the next day. So how would adding centuries of undisturbed sleep change the equation?
It’s like evolution. The idea is, just add the phrase, ‘billions and billions of years,’—and the impossible becomes possible.
Well, yes, that’s correct about purgatory, but both involve long periods of time with sin forgiven by some means besides the cross.
Agree with your bottom line! It’s just that from a purely human POV, burning in fire for a long time at least *sounds,* like it could accomplish something. [I don’t believe in purgatory, btw.] Peaceful sleep doesn’t even make sense from a non-Biblical POV, imo.
When they are done with universalism, Charisma needs to focus some attention on the false prosperity gospel.
Many people assume that universalism means there are no consequences for sin when it does not. They also interpret every Biblical reference to judgment or punishment as meaning eternal torment when that really goes way beyond the text. Personally, I believe that Christ will be victorious.
There’s another article that does that to a degree that I posted.
FWIW, I have recently been hearing pentecostal leaning preachers starting to preach against that.
I was surprised at first but it seems to be gaining momentum and I hope it puts that accursed theology to bed very soon.
No.
He has uttered many wise opinions. Sadly, most black people will refuse to listen to his wisdom. ... and many non-blacks could use a dose of his macho-sauce.
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