Free Republic

If Warren Buffett has one recommendation investors should follow, it's this: stay away from long-term fixed-income bets in U.S. dollars -- the dollar's purchasing power is heading south. According to Bloomberg, the Berkshire chief said in India yesterday: I would recommend against buying long-term fixed-dollar investments. If you ask me if the U.S. dollar is going to hold its purchasing power fully at the level of 2011, 5 years, 10 years or 20 years from now, I would tell you it will not. I would much rather own businesses. It’s very easy to take away the value of fixed-dollar investments.

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...

Methodist pastor who voiced support for a book questioning the view of hell as a place of eternal damnation is "shocked" by his church's decision to fire him. Chad Holtz, who served as pastor of the United Methodist church in rural North Carolina, said he hoped his personal belief posted on Facebook would engage -- not anger -- members of his congregation. Holtz was dismissed this month as pastor of Marrow's Chapel in Henderson after he wrote a note on his Facebook page supporting a new book by Rob Bell, a prominent young evangelical pastor and critic of the traditional...

The debate about hell incited by Rob Bell and his book Love Wins is far from dying out. A month into the controversy, two theological heavy weights are just beginning to duel it out about the ideas Bell raises regarding hell and God’s love. Conservative Christian defender R. Albert Mohler, Jr., of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, responded Wednesday to emerging church leader Brian McLaren’s blog post, saying he welcomes McLaren’s rebuttal essay. “Some theological disputes amount to very little and serve mostly as exercises in missing the point, if indeed there is a point. Other doctrinal exchanges are quite...

Do you fear hell? Yes. I am afraid my soul could be condemned there for eternity. No. I believe God's love and forgiveness extends to everyone. I don't believe in hell. I'm certain I'll be in heaven when I die. Not sure. I guess I'll find out when I get there.

Martin Luther once said that God reveals Himself in the contrary. Love is revealed in a man, contorted with pain on a cross. And an inability to understand how this can work is what creates problems for those who can find someone like Rob Bell compelling. Justin Taylor has a good summary of some of Kevin DeYoung's work on this, and I commend it to you. But my purpose here is just a little different. I want to point to the present effects of denying the truth about our future in the hereafter. The future effects should be obvious --...

Hell 834. What is hell? According to Christ, it is a state of eternal misery and suffering, the pain of which is best likened to that caused by fire. As there is both good and evil in this world, so do their counterparts exist in eternity. And as evil is the opposite of good, so hell is the opposite of heaven. If heaven is light and happiness, liberty and peace, hell is darkness and misery, servitude and torment. As a man sows, so shall he reap. If a man dies identified with the good, he will save his soul and...

As is so often the case, most of us first learned of Rob Bell’s new book by means of Justin Taylor and his blog, “Between Two Worlds,” at the Gospel Coalition. Justin reminds me of the steady folks at the National Hurricane Center. He is able to advise of looming disaster with amazing calmness. That is why I took special notice of Justin’s stern warning: “It is unspeakably sad when those called to be ministers of the Word distort the gospel and deceive the people of God with false doctrine.” Why would Justin feel the need to issue such a...

A new book by one of the country’s most influential evangelical pastors, challenging traditional Christian views of heaven, hell and eternal damnation, has created an uproar among evangelical leaders In a book to be published this month, the pastor, Rob Bell, known for his provocative views and appeal among the young, describes as “misguided and toxic” the dogma that “a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better.”

QUIX: SHORT EXCERPTS ARE OFFERED IN A SORT OF EXECUTIVE SUMMARY FIRST--THEN THE ENTIRE NARRATIVE AS AVAILABLE AT SPIRITLESSONS.COM I found this to be another anointed, Biblical narrative about a very convincing Heavenly visitation--actually, as usual, to hell, too. There's an item or 3 in this one to potentially trouble the RC's and Maryolators, . . . as well as some potentially troubling things for some Calvinists, however. Read at your own risk. Those exposed to The Truth are responsible before God for what they do about and with The Truth.On the other hand, ignorance affords no eternal protection....

The ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the ungodly shall perish.(Psalm 1:4-6)Psalm One is a wisdom psalm. The Spirit shows us by contrast the difference between the truly happy man, and his antithesis, the ungodly. In the sparest of language, two ways of life are shown side by side, the essence of the truly happy and of the miserable. The ungodly are...

Our Goal As Parents Posted on January 14, 2011 by billrandles Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.What...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Department of Motor Vehicles employee who sent a letter to a transgender woman warning of eternal damnation after she sought to record her sex change on her driver's license has quit his job, the DMV said today. Thomas Demartini, who had worked as a customer service representative at the department's San Francisco office for about two years, submitted a letter of resignation Wednesday evening, DMV spokesman Michael Marando said. The department placed Demartini on administrative leave, with pay, shortly after the woman reported the incident in late October. Marando said the DMV has nearly completed an...

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.(Romans 8:1-4)One thing I...

Did you know that the English-speaking world is in the midst of an Atheistic revival? It is fueled by a small but widely celebrated group of authors and thinkers who call themselves “the Brights”, and who lecture, debate and write best-selling books which have a wide following among young college and University students. These are not your father’s atheists either. They are articulate, impassioned, and effective at the use of the media, and the internet. The “new Atheists” believe that the old atheists were too tolerant of religion, and not aggressive enough in their attacks upon it. To them, religion...

Joy Behar calls Sharron Angle a bitch, and then predicts that she is also going to hell. On Tuesday’s "The View," (read: show primarily for stay-at-home moms) that crotchety, ill-tempered and relentlessly vitriolic Joy Behar lashed out at Sharron Angle, simply an average, regular American woman who happens to have a solid, conservative belief system. In other words, it was just another typical broadcast of "The View," a show that lately has become known for nothing but its uncontrollable, excessively emotional, liberal female hosts’ outbursts that are much of the time at odds with the opinions of most Americans. Apparently,...

If God is Love, why is there Hell? And why is it eternal? In a word there is Hell because of respect. God has made us free and respects that freedom. Our freedom is absolutely necessary if we are to love. Now suppose a young man wanted a young lady to love him. Suppose again he found a magic potion with which to lace her drink. So she drinks and suddenly, presto., she “loves” him! Is it love? No, it’s chemicals. Love, to be love, has to be free. The yes of love is only meaningful if we were free...

Iran confirmed on Tuesday that some companies were refusing to refuel its planes at European airports and said it would retaliate if the situation continued. Iran has played down the impact of international sanctions, which were tightened in June, and previously said news reports that Iranian airlines were having problems refuelling abroad were part of a "psychological war."

The Biblical Truth About the Immortal Soul Ideas about us going to heaven or hell hinge on belief in the immortal soul, which must go somewhere when the body dies. Yet the Bible nowhere teaches the soul is immortal. So where did the idea originate? Traditional beliefs about heaven and hell are based on an under-lying teaching—that everyone has an immortal soul that must go somewhere when physical life ends.This belief isn't unique to traditional Christianity. "All religions affirm that there is an aspect of the human person that lives on after the physical life has ended" (World Scripture: A...

,i>Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were do…(Acts 8:13) It must have been heartening to Phillip, and to the new Christians of Samaria, on the day when the notable Simon the Sorcerer was converted. What a testimony!Think of what kind of impact this man will have on the community for Christ! It was the “signs and wonders” of Phillip that got his attention, the dramatic deliverances from demonic possession, the undeniable physical healings, and of course the changed lives. He would attach himself to...