Posted on 03/24/2011 6:18:23 AM PDT by Flightdeck
DURHAM, N.C. -- When Chad Holtz lost his old belief in hell, he also lost his job.
The pastor of a rural United Methodist church in North Carolina wrote a note on his Facebook page supporting a new book by Rob Bell, a prominent young evangelical pastor and critic of the traditional view of hell as a place of eternal torment for billions of damned souls.
Two days later, Holtz was told complaints from church members prompted his dismissal from Marrow's Chapel in Henderson.
"I think justice comes and judgment will happen, but I don't think that means an eternity of torment," Holtz said. "But I can understand why people in my church aren't ready to leave that behind. It's something I'm still grappling with myself."
The debate over Bell's new book "Love Wins" has quickly spread across the evangelical precincts of the Internet, in part because of an eye-catching promotional video posted on YouTube.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Someone who has been hired to teach Scripture stops believing in Scripture. OF COURSE he should lose his job. He no longer suports “the cause”. duh!
“The near-relish with which some Christians stress the torments of hell, Bell argues, keep many believers needlessly afraid of a loving God, and repel potential Christians who might otherwise be curious about the faith’s teachings.”
Oh, it’s the believers who are repeling potentials and not Gods word throughout the bible that repeats the punishment of those who chose opt not to believe in God and His Son and His teachings. This guy is an anti Christ spoken about in the bible who will win people with sweet words and lead them astray.
The Bible talks of Hell. If the Bible is wrong on Hell, then why take any other part of it seriously?
God made man in his own image...In return, man returned the favor.
Rob Bell seems to exclude NO ONE from his "Christianity", thus making it a "Universalist" religion. Such is contrary to biblical teaching.
He makes a good point about how Christians need not seemingly delight in the news of eternal separation from God, but his "answer" to that problem looks like an unbiblical response.
“The near-relish with which some Christians stress the torments of hell, Bell argues, keep many believers needlessly afraid of a loving God, and repel potential Christians who might otherwise be curious about the faith’s teachings.”
This is undoubtedly how our secular minds think but God has stated otherwise.
Clearly this former minister has chosen popularity over faith.
The audacity and arrogance of one who claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ, and yet ridicules His very specific teaching on the subject of hell, astonishes me.
This is a good sign. Elements within the Methodist church still believe in the gospel.
So we should water down and misrepresent God's truth to accomodate the world and become more attractive to worldly people. If the goal is to scratch ears and generate more money then that makes sense. If the goal is preach the word and help convert more Christians then it is apostasy.
The question isn’t whether Christians “relish” the idea of hell for unbelievers. The question, really, is whether we ought or ought not to enable unbelievers in their unbelief — whether Christians should point out “the way”, the one that’s narrow and strait, as spoken of by the way-maker Himself or simply say “your way’s as good as the one He spoke of”.
I think everyone already has a sense of his own unworthiness and either turns to the Gospel for a solution to it, or spends a lifetime self-justifying.
If there is another way, then why did Christ say “no man comes to the Father but by me”? If we can self-justify, then why did Christ die?
We need to be purified before entering Heaven/The World To Come. I think this is what the Tribulation is for.
Zechariah 13:1; 8-9 (JPS-DNR)
(1) In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for purification and for sprinkling. (8) And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith YHWH, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. (9) And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried; they shall call on My name, and I will answer them; I will say: ‘It is My people’, and they shall say: ‘YHWH is my God.’
A Mishnah passage says, “This world is like a lobby before the Olam Ha-Ba. Prepare yourself in the lobby so that you may enter the banquet hall.” The tractate Moed Katan teaches, “This world is only like a hotel. The world to come is like a home.” Yet it is also emphasized that this world provides the ability and privilege of doing good works and performing the mitzvot:
There will be three groups on the Day of Judgment: one of thoroughly righteous people, one of thoroughly wicked people and one of people in between. The first group will be immediately inscribed for everlasting life; the second group will be doomed in Gehinnom [Hell], as it says, “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to reproaches and everlasting abhorrence” [Daniel 12:2], the third will go down to Gehinnom and squeal and rise again, as it says, “And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried. They shall call on My name and I will answer them” [Zechariah 13:9]... [Babylonian Talmud, tractate Rosh Hashanah 16b-17a]
Maimonides:
In the world to come, there is nothing corporeal, and no material substance; there are only souls of the righteous without bodies — like the ministering angels... The righteous attain to a knowledge and realization of truth concerning God to which they had not attained while they were in the murky and lowly body. (Mishneh Torah, Repentance 8)
Gehinnom is the postmortem destination of unrighteous Jews and Gentiles. In one reference, the souls in Gehinnom are punished for up to 12 months. After the appropriate period of purification, the righteous continue on to Gan Eden (Rabbi Akiba and Babylonian Talmud, tractate Eduyot 2:10). The wicked endure the full year of punishment then are either annihilated (”After 12 months, their body is consumed and their soul is burned and the wind scatters them under the soles of the feet of the righteous (Rosh Hashanah 17a)”) or continue to be punished.
This belief is the basis for the Jewish practice of mourning and asking blessings on deceased loved ones for only 11 months (one would not wish to imply that the departed needed the full 12 months of purification).
2Ch 7:14
14 if My people, upon whom My name is called, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
This line of teaching goes right along with the liberal/progressive movement. People are poor so let’s water everything down so they can be rich as well. It’s sad to see it slowly creep into Christianity.
This false teacher with his Christ-denying fabrications is leading astray some who might otherwise have found Salvation. While the word "Hell" may only appear in scripture a limited number of times, in the New Testament, Jesus warns of Hell, damnation, and eternal torment for unforgiven sin three times as often as He mentions Salvation and Heaven.
If Christ Himself felt that the message of "the wages of sin" was that important, then this clown is clearly denying Christ's teaching (and, therefore, denying Christ) to spread his revisionist, apologist, enabler blather.
Christ told His followers, "The path to Damnation is wide and easily traveled, but the path to Salvation is narrow and difficult to tread." Nothing worth having comes easily. This false teacher is going to be held to an even more strict standard when he is judged than will most people, as will all who deign to teach on The Word.
Good luck.
;-\
What that means is what Dante wrote about. Those in hell can rise to heaven if they accept Jesus and through the son they will come to the father.
Meant to ping you to #12
This is the kind of thinking from the “false teachings” that have led to man believing he/she (godhumans) are all powerful.
So Jesus was wrong when He taught, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed, rather than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched and where their worm does not die.” ( Mark 9:43. ) He emphasizes the importance of this warning in followiing verses concerning sin. If people go to hell, they can’t blame God. Scripture is replete with His warnings about evil thoughts, words and deeds.
The primary Christian creed is “Jesus is Lord.” If you do not accept the teachings of Jesus, you are not a Christian and should not fool yourself and others by false teaching.
My faith is in YHWH, the G-d that Yehoshua prayed to.
“The near-relish with which some Christians stress the torments of hell, Bell argues, keep many believers needlessly afraid of a loving God, and repel potential Christians who might otherwise be curious about the faith’s teachings.”
Sounds like his response is baby-with-the-bathwater. I really enjoyed his presentation, “Everything is Spiritual”, and I haven’t read/seen this one yet, but if it is as presented, I’m concerned.
Colonel, USAFR
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