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: Why are you (Gary Amirault) preaching to us so fervently? If we are all going to end up in heaven anyway, what does it matter?
Your friend, ed - the participant formerly known as Unimpressed.No-Heller:
There are MANY reasons why I preach the Good News of the salvation of all mankind through Jesus Christ, all of them unselfish, which is why many of those who believe in Hell can't understand or hear or understand those who teach the salvation of all mankind. The teaching of Hell is SELF-centered. It shuts one's mind to messages of selflessness. Selfless messages bring conviction which causes those filled with selfishness to harden their hearts towards messages demanding that their selfishness be laid down. Once one swallows this poisonous selfish teaching of Hell, it is difficult to hear or understand a message which comes from selflessness. But for those whose hearing is not completely impaired, here are a few of the many reasons I preach and teach the Everlasting Gospel of Grace--a gospel FULL of GOOD NEWS. And the only people this gospel is bad news to, is Satan and those he has seduced into believe God is a complete and utter failure, that is, those who have swallowed the poisonous teaching of Hell.I preach and teach the Gospel of the salvation of all mankind because:
1. I preach this message in the same manner I eat, I breathe, I love. It's part of my nature, the nature which I received with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into my life many years ago. When selfishness was replaced with Unconditional love, it became very natural to preach a message which sets people free instead of bringing them into the bondage of the "traditions of men and doctrines of demons." But it was not too long after I because a Christian, that certain individuals felt I needed to be discipled. Little did I know that this "discipleship" would rob me of all the love, joy, and peace which came into my life when Jesus poured into my heart the everlasting gospel of the salvation of all mankind. Yes, this glorious gospel was given to me directly from God through the Holy Spirit at my conversion. After several years of being "disciplined" by fundamentalist, evangelical, Pentecostal and Charismatic teachers and ministers, I was more miserable than I was when I was an atheist! I didn't realize as I was being "discipled" that I was actually being poisoned spiritually.
It was not until several years of what I now know was brain-washing that the Holy Spirit showed me what had happened to me. On one particular day, I was so disgusted with the hypocrisy in my life and the life of all the Christians around me that I asked God to just strike me death--send a lightning bolt and just take me home. I was tired of the rotten religious life I was living. I was in the most evangelical, on fire type churches there were and yet it felt awful. On that very same day, God put a little booklet in my hands on a four-letter Greek word--aion. This booklet, written by a J. Preston Eby basically said this Greek word had been mistranslated in most leading selling Bibles and that the mistranslation of this word had greatly effected the church in a very negative way. I realized that if what this author said was true, then the problem I had had during all these years of "discipleship" was that I was being taught a false concept of God which stemmed from a handful of words being mistranslated by the Bible I was reading.
Being the zealot that I am, I combed the world for any information on those words. I went to leading conservative evangelical seminary libraries, bought thousands of dollars of Greek and Hebrew reference books and software and became fully convinced that what was contained in that little booklet was true and my "discipleship" in traditional churches was false. By that time, I had been in over 300 different churches.
So, first and foremost, I believe in the Salvation of all mankind because the Holy Spirit revealed it to me when I was first saved. He let me walk this earth filled with a love in which I was incapable of hating anyone of this earth. It took NO EFFORT to love everyone and I knew God loved everyone that way and that He would eventually draw ALL mankind into this wonderful love though the Cross. God also showed it to me in a vision. And then He showed me many Scriptures which revealed it to me.
Where I got stuck was in the "discipleship." When I shared the message of the salvation of all mankind to those who had "authority" over me in the churches I attended, they immediately told me this was NOT so. I could NOT rely on the actual love which was in me. I couldn't rely on "feelings" they said. And I couldn't rely on the vision God gave me where He showed me how He was going to save all mankind, because Satan can give us visions, they said. No, the only thing we can truly absolutely trust they said, was the Word of God…the King James Bible.
They took me to Matt. 25:46 and showed me "everlasting punishment." They took me to 2 Thess. 1:9 to show me "everlasting destruction." They brought me to the lake of fire in which people are "tormented day and night forever and ever." And they took me to a few other favorite Hell-fire scriptures in the "inerrant" Word of God, the King James Bible, which described a "Hell" of eternal torture forever. They DIDN'T tell me there were MANY Bible translations which did NOT contain word like "Hell," "everlasting punishment," and "everlasting destruction." They didn't tell me there were Bible translations which actually agreed with what the Holy Spirit showed me when I was first saved. I have to assume they didn't even know these Bible translations existed.
The effect the teaching of hell was to my spirit was devastating. The love, joy, peace…the fruit of the spirit began to leave. It was gradual so I didn't notice it. I never dreamed that the church-world could be full of traditions of men and doctrines of demons. I knew the Catholic church was evil. I saw that some of the old Protestant churches were pretty dead, trapped in rituals. But I never dreamed the born-again "spirit-filled" church were in just as much bondage to false traditions and concepts of God as the older denominations…NOT until I began to study these Greek and Hebrew words AND the writings of the early church. THEN I saw what the real problem was. THEN I saw why I felt like a hypocrite and saw great hypocrisy in the church. It was because I WAS a hypocrite in the midst of a church system FULL TO THE BRIM OF HYPOCRISY.
I began to see that the end of the church age will probably be just like the end of the Jewish age. Josephus, the Jewish historian in his "Wars of the Jews," tells us that the Jewish people became the most corrupt people on earth. It was as if all the demons in the world entered God's own people. No wonder the angel said in Revelation, "Come out of her my people…she has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!" This spoke of Jerusalem, NOT the Roman Catholic Church. However, it may be that Jerusalem is a type of what the institution called the "church" may be like at the end of this dispensation. Anyway, I began to see the source of the hypocrisy in the church and in my life. "Come out of her my people!" And out I came. The teaching of Hell and everlasting punishment is a leaven which poisons the whole church-world. It produces self-righteousness and hypocrisy. It kills! There is very little life in the church, Catholic, Protestant, or otherwise.
2. Because I have been called and chosen to preach Good News to all mankind.
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified." (Rom 8:28-30)
"For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel! For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me. What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel. For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more." (1 Cor. 9:16-19)
So then, I have been called to preach Good News to ALL men. A fire is in my bones and woe to me if I don't preach that which the Jesus put in me that burns brightly. I'm miserable if I hold it in and I feel great joy when I'm "about my Father's business."
3. My natural mother and Father may not be the most perfect people in the world, but the Bible tells me to honor them. If someone starts maligning them, I would come to their defense because it's the right thing to do, period. When my heavenly Father, WHO IS PERFECT, is said to be an utter failure desiring that everyone come to Him but having failed almost completely to bring this about, it gets me angry. Many Christians tell the world that God set up from the foundation of the world a lake of fire in which He is going to eternally barbecue all those who somehow didn't say the magical words "I have decided to follow Jesus" and who didn't practice holiness perfectly which varies greatly within the 30,000 different denominations each with their own concept of what rules are required for entry into the kingdom. When I hear these contradictory and unbiblical "other gospels, something inside of me gets stirred to say, "Liar!" I'm amazed how many Christians get incensed when THEY are called a few names yet when the very God they pretend to serve is called an eternal torturer, a failure who couldn't overcome His enemies with love while DEMANDING that Christians overcome their enemies with love, they don't get offended. There are millions of Christians who say God planned from the foundation of the world to burn billions of babies alive in a literal lake of fire and millions of Christians don't scream in protest at this outrageous lie. Amazing!! You are amazed that I preach so boldly and fervently the Good News to all mankind--I am amazed at how millions of Christians are so luke-warm in their witnessing when according to their own doctrines most of those around them are on their way to Hell. If what they preach was true, why aren't they preaching their hellish doctrines a thousand times more fervently than I? Because if they really took to heart what they believed they would go insane. I know. I took it to heart, begged my family to accept Jesus before it was too late. They wanted to have me committed for insanity. And if I held onto the doctrine of Hell seriously in my heart, I surely WOULD have gone insane. It is impossible to hold the doctrine of Hell firmly in one's HEART AND have the love of Christ in there at the same time. No would surely go raving mad. Christians who believe in Hell, hold it in the minds, not their hearts. And most Christians still it WAY in the back of their minds--they don't pay attentions to it. Most of those who preach it fervently for any length of time are full of hate, revenge, anger, jealousy and hatred for most of mankind. These types delight in dangling others over burning flames. They are demon-possessed. And there are MANY such types in the church. They usually become fundamentalist preachers. The reason the teaching doesn't drive them insane is because there is no real love in their hearts.
4. I fervently preach the salvation of all mankind through Jesus Christ because it is His WILL that it be preached; it is His will in heaven; it is His will in Scriptures and we, the body of Christ are to manifest His will here on earth. "Thy kingdom come, they will be done ON EARTH as it is in heaven." As a member of the body of Christ, I am to be an expression of His heavenly will. "God WILL have all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth." (1 Tim. 2:4, KJV)
5. The Glory of God will never come the earth UNTIL this message goes out in full force. I believe the time is coming when the everlasting gospel will come forth in greater magnitude than ever before--therefore I add my voice to this glorious gospel.
6. I have always been a man of conviction. When I believed something I put my life into it. I have studied this subject thoroughly. Since seeing this glorious truth, my Bible study time has GREATLY increased. I now have tens of thousands of dollars of books, tapes, Bibles, Bible research software to help me understand the original writings of the Bible in Greek and Hebrew. I don't like to teach anything I'm not certain about. All of my intense research on this subject affirms the teaching of universalism and opposes the "traditional" view of Hell.
7. Since Jesus called me, I have a genuine concern for other people around me. I WANT to see them free from addictions and wrong life-styles. Having preached Hell for several years and having preached the message of Unconditional Love for all mankind, there is NO COMPARISON as to which is more effective in bringing true healing and restoration in people's lives. The teaching of Hell which is a teaching of CONDEMNATION produces self-righteousness, exclusivism, cold-heartedness, etc. We conform to what we hold passionately in our heart. If our image of God is one who SAYS He is love and all powerful but will actually loses most of those He created because He couldn't love them enough to overcome the evil which holds them in bondage, then we start acting out like that God. This God will eventually hate almost all of mankind and pour out a vengeance no human fiend is capable of. We begin to emulate this image and become hateful, judgmental and quick to reject. This forum provides ample examples of such behavior. You become what you believe. If you have a God Who says but does not do, those who follow such an image will become a people who say and do not do...perfect description of the modern church.
8. "The joy of the Lord is my strength." I get filled with great joy when people are set free of bad habits of life which rob people's joy. I see hope when Christians get freed from the traditions of man and doctrines of demons. The 30,000 denominations of christendom are a testament to the fact they are NOT the body of Christ. There is NO CONFUSION in the body of Christ. Babylon represents confusion. That there are so many divisions of christendom with difference rituals, different means of salvation, different concepts of God, etc. is proof to me and to those in the world that institutional Christianity is NOT the body of Christ. Freedom and Joy is found IN CHRIST, not in some church building or denomination. I enjoy seeing people get freed from bondage to traditions to live the abundant free life in Christ Jesus.
9. I preach the Gospel of Pure Grace, a gospel which does NOT mix paganism with Grace, nor does it mix legalism with it because Paul, who wrote over half the New Testament preached it. Paul NEVER preached that salvation was deliverance from Hell. Go to a concordance. The "apostle to the nations" never used the word Hell once. Why? Because He didn't believe in it and couldn't find it in the Scriptures.
10. I preach the message of the salvation of all mankind because that is why Jesus came to this earth. That is what the prophets foretold. That is what Jesus said he came to do. That is what Jesus said is the will of His Father. And if Jesus loses a single soul, He did NOT fulfill the Word, Work, and Will of the Father.
God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:17)
Who comes down from heaven and gives Life to the world. (John 6:33)
The Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them. (Luke 9:56)
And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself. (John 12:32)
As you have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as you have given Him. (John 17:2)
The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.
(John 3:35)
God, Who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, Whom He has appointed heir of all things, through Whom also He made the worlds. (Hebrews 1:1,2)His purpose is very clear: to reconcile all things back to His Father.
(Col. 1:16-20)According to Scripture, Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, created all things, reconciles all things, is Heir of all things, has authority of all things, will have all men to be saved, His grace comes to all men, He takes away the sin of the world, He gives His flesh for the life of the world, He is the propitiation for the sins of the world, whose gifts are irrevocable of which life is one of the gifts, He manifested to put away sin, He preached to the spirits in prison and holds the keys to death and hell, who changes not, He is Lord of both the living and the dead, he will destroy all enemies of God the last one being death, Who made all things alive, Who completes the work the Father gave Him to do, Who restores all things, gave Himself a ransom for all, He takes away the curse and said He came to do the will and work of the Father who wills that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth so that God, the Father may be all in all! I could lengthen this paragraph considerably, but I think the point has been made.
Jesus said He finished the work and accomplished His purpose which was also the Fathers purpose…to be the Savior of the whole world…to reconcile everyone back to His Father and our Father!
According to many Christians, billions of people are going to a place called Hell to be tormented by God for all eternity. Please hear this very carefully. If Jesus loses just one soul, he will become the world’s biggest sinner. How so, you say? Because He will have missed His mark…that is, to reconcile all things back to His Father.
“For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And he is before all things and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the ecclesia, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”
(Colossians 1:16-20)
Please understand that when the scriptures talk about “things” being reconciled back to God, He is not talking about rocks and trees. It was descendants of Adam who were cast out of the presence of God in the garden of Eden, remember? We need to be restored, reconciled, redeemed and the Scriptures make it abundantly clear that His purpose, goal, will and work was to reconcile all.
11. I preach the Everlasting Gospel of the Salvation of All mankind through Jesus Christ because once one's eyes are opened to this glorious truth, one finds it on every page of the Bible. Scales begin to fall off the eyes and Glory fills every page of the Bible. Here are a few of the hundreds of Scriptures which declare the salvation of all who died in Adam, that is everyone:
1) 1Tim 2:4 God will have all to be saved. (KJV) Can His will be thwarted?
2) 1Tim 2:4 God desires all to come to the knowledge of truth Will His desire come to pass?
3) 1Tim 2:6 Salvation of all is testified in due time Are we judging God before due time?
4) Jn 12:47 Jesus came to save all Will He succeed?
5) Eph 1:11 God works all after the counsel of His will Can your will overcome His?
6) Jn 4:42 Jesus is Savior of the world Can He be Savior of all without saving all?
7) 1Jn 4:14 Jesus is Savior of the world Why don't we believe it?
8) Jn 12:32 Jesus will draw all mankind unto Himself To roast or to love?
9) Col 1:16 By Him all were created Will He lose a part of His creation?
10) Rm 5:15-21 In Adam all condemned, in Christ all live The same all?
11) 1Cor 15:22 In Adam all die, in Christ all live Again, the same all?
12) Eph 1:10 All come into Him at the fulness of times Are you getting tired of seeing the word, all?
13) Phl 2:9-11 Every tongue shall confess Jesus is Lord Will the Holy Spirit be given to everyone?
14) 1 Cor 12:3 Cannot confess except by Holy Spirit See what I mean?
15) Rm 11:26 All Israel will be saved But most Jews don't believe yet!
16) Acts 3:20,21 Restitution of all How plain can you get?
17) Luke 2:10 Jesus will be joy to all people Is there joy is "hell"?
18) Heb 8:11,12 All will know God How long, O Lord?
19) Eph 2:7 His grace shown in the ages to come Have we judged Him before the time?
20) Titus 2:11 Grace has appeared to all Experientially or prophetically?
21) Rm 8:19-21 Creation set at liberty How much of creation?
22) Col 1:20 All reconciled unto God There's that word "all" again.
23) 1Cor 4:5 All will have praise of God What for?
24) Jms 5:11 End of the Lord is full of mercy Is "hell" mercy?
25) Rev 15:4 All nations worship when God's judgments are seen Could His judgment be mercy?
26) Rm 11:32 All subject to unbelief, mercy on all All?
27) Rm 11:36 All out of, through, and into Him All into Him?
28) Eph 4:10 Jesus will fill all things Including "hell?"
29) Rev 5:13 All creation seen praising God Including Satan?
30) 1Cor 15:28 God will be all in all What does that mean?
31) Rev 21:4,5 No more tears, all things made new "All" made new?
32) Jn 5:25 All dead who hear will live How many will hear?
33) Jn 5:28 All in the grave will hear & come forth How will the "righteous" judge?
34) 1 Cor 3:15 All saved, so as by fire How can fire save you?
35) Mk 9:49 Everyone shall be salted with fire Including you?
36) Rm 11:15 Reconciliation of the world Will fire save the world instead of destroy it?
37) 2Cor 5:15 Jesus died for all Did He die in vain?
38) Jn 8:29 Jesus always does what pleases His Father What pleases the Father? (1Tim 2:4)
39) Heb 1:2 Jesus is Heir of all things Does "things" include people?
40) Jn 17:2 Jesus gives eternal life to all that His Father gave Him How many did the Father give Him?
41) Jn 3:35 The Father gave Him all things (Repeated for emphasis) Study the word "things" in the Greek.
42) 1 Tim 4:9-11 Jesus is Savior of all! Jesus is Savior of all! Can't seem to get away from that word "all."
43) Heb. 7:25 Jesus is able to save to the uttermost How far is "uttermost?"
44) 1Cor 15:26 Last enemy, death, will be destroyed Including "lake of fire" which is "second death?"
45) Is 46:10 God will do all His pleasure Does Old Testament agree with the New?
46) Gen 12:3 All families of the earth will be blessed Here comes that word "all" again.
47) Dan 4:35 God's will done in heaven and earth What can defeat His will?
48) Ps 66:3,4 Enemies will submit to God Can any stay rebellious in "hell?"
49) Ps 90:3 God turns man to destruction, then says return How can one return from "destruction?"
50) Is 25:7 Will destroy veil spread over all nations All nations?
51) Deut 32:39 He kills and makes alive Kills to bring life?
52) Ps 33:15 God fashions all hearts "All" hearts, including men like "Hitler?"
53) Prv 16:9 Man devises, God directs his steps What about "free will?"
54) Prv 19:21 Man devises, but God's counsel stands So much for "free will."
55) La 3:31,32 God will not cast off forever Why does He cast off in the first place? (1 Cor 11)
56) Is 2:2 All nations shall flow to the Lord's house "All" nations?
57) Ps 86:9 All nations will worship Him "All" nations!
58) Is 45:23 All descendants of Israel justified Including the wicked ones?
59) Ps 138:4 All kings will praise God Are you catching on?
60) Ps 65:2-4 All flesh will come to God That sounds wondrous.
61) Ps 72:18 God only does wondrous things I wish we would believe that.
62) Is 19:14,15 Egypt & Assyria will be restored Really?
63) Ezk 16:55 Sodom will be restored to former estate Sounds impossible.
64) Jer 32:17 Nothing is too difficult for Him Nothing? No, nothing!
65) Ps 22:27 All ends of the earth will turn to Him For what purpose?
66) Ps 22:27 All families will worship before Him Praise His name!
67) Ps 145:9 He is good to all Including your worst enemies.
68) Ps 145:9 His mercies are over all his works Let's start believing that.
69) Ps 145:14 He raises all who fall Who hasn't fallen in sin?
70) Ps 145:10 All His works will praise Him For "eternal torment?"
71) Is 25:6 Lord makes a feast for all people And you are invited.
72) Jer 32:35 Never entered His mind to eternally torture his children with fire Came from man's mind.
73) Jn 6:44 No one can come to Him unless He draws them You can't "chose" to follow Him.
74) Jn 12:32 I will draw all mankind unto Myself Amen!!!
75) Ps 135:6 God does what pleases Him. If it pleases Him to save all that He might be in all, are you upset?12. I fervently preach the message of the salvation of all mankind because I have diligently compared dozens of English translations, Greek and Hebrew texts and have found out there are MAJOR differences among various translations. This forced me to study to find out which were correct and which were based upon traditions and mythology. I discovered MANY Bibles which DID NOT CONTAIN Hell or the concept of everlasting torments. THESE translations were more true to the original Greek and Hebrew and that was easy to prove once I decided to take the time to research this thoroughly. Some of the Bibles I found which did NOT contain the concept of Hell or everlasting tortures are:
Rotherham's Emphasized Bible (Kregal Publishers, still in print), Young's Literal Translation of the Holy Bible (Baker Book House Publishers, still in print; Robert Young is author of the famous Young's Concordance), Concordant Literal Translation of the N.T. (Concordant Publishing Concern, still in print), Scarlet's New Testament (Nathaniel Scarlett, 1798), The New Testament (Abner Kneeland, 1823) Emphatic Diaglott (Greek/English Interlinear), The New Covenant (J.W. Hanson, 1884), New Testament in Modern Speech (Weymouth, 1910), The Restoration of Original Sacred Name Bible (1976), The Twentieth Century New Testament (1900), The New Testament of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Anointed (James L. Tomanek)1958), The Western New Testament (1926), The New Testament, a Translation (Rev. Edgar Lewis Clementson, 1938), The People's New Testament (Arthur Overbury), The Holy Bible in Modern English (Ferrar Fenton, still in print), The New Testament, A New Translation based upon the Oldest Manuscripts (Johannes Greber, 1980).
There are other translations like the Companion Bible King James Version, American Standard Version (1901), the Newberry Reference Bible (Still published by Kregal Publications), and the Riverside New Testament by Ballantine (1934) which contain footnotes, marginal readings and appendages which point out that several key Greek and Hebrew words have been MIStranslated by such Bible versions as the King James Bible.
13. I have spend countless hours combing through church history and studying the religions which were among the heathen nations in the Roman Empire and have discovered who invented the concept of Hell and why. It is NOT found in ancient Judaism; it is NOT found in the Torah (the Books of Moses), it is NOT found among the writings of the prophets of Yahweh; it is NOT found in the entire Old Testament and most English Bible translations today will attest to that fact. Go to the NIV, NASB, NRSB, etc and look for Hell. It's not there. Only the archaic and error-ridden KJV have the word Hell in the Old Testament because they MIStranslated the Hebrew word Sheol. The Jews of today do NOT have Hell in their Bibles (our Old Testament) because Biblical Judaism NEVER TAUGHT such concept and they do NOT teach it today. Here is where the concept of Hell came from:
The Ancient Inventors of Hell
1. Polybius, the ancient historian, says: "Since the multitude is ever fickle, full of lawless desires, irrational passions and violence, there is no other way to keep them in order but by the fear and terror of the invisible world; on which account our ancestors seem to me to have acted judiciously, when they contrived to bring into the popular belief these notions of the gods, and of the infernal regions." B. vi 56.
2. Dionysius Halicarnassus treats the whole matter as useful, but not as true. Antiq. Rom., B. ii
3. Livy, the celebrated historian, speaks of it in the same spirit; and he praises the wisdom of Numa, because he invented the fear of the gods, as "a most efficacious means of governing an ignorant and barbarous populace." Hist., I 19.
4. Strabo, the geographer, says: "The multitude are restrained from vice by the punishments the gods are said to inflict upon offenders, and by those terrors and threatenings which certain dreadful words and monstrous forms imprint upon their minds...For it is impossible to govern the crowd of women, and all the common
rabble, by philosophical reasoning, and lead them to piety, holiness
and virtue - but this must be done by superstition, or the fear of the gods, by means of fables and wonders; for the thunder, the aegis,
the trident, the torches (of the Furies), the dragons, &c., are all fables, as is also all the ancient theology. These things the legislators used as scarecrows to terrify the childish multitude." Geog., B. I5. Timaeus Locrus, the Pythagorean, after stating that the doctrine
of rewards and punishments after death is necessary to society, proceeds as follows: "For as we sometimes cure the body with unwholesome remedies, when such as are most wholesome produce no effect, so we restrain those minds with false relations, which will not be persuaded by the truth. There is a necessity, therefore, of instilling the dread of those foreign torments: as that the soul changes its habitation; that the coward is ignominiously thrust into the body of a woman; the murderer imprisoned within the form of a savage beast; the vain and inconstant changed into birds, and the slothful and ignorant into fishes."6. Plato, in his commentary on Timaeus, fully endorses what he says respecting the fabulous invention of these foreign torments. And Strabo says that "Plato and the Brahmins of India invented fables concerning the future judgments of hell" (Hades). And Chrysippus blames Plato for attempting to deter men from wrong by frightful stories of future punishments.
Plato himself is exceedingly inconsistent, sometimes adopting, even in his serious discourses, the fables of the poets, and at other times rejecting them as utterly false, and giving too frightful views of the invisible world. Sometimes, he argues, on social grounds, that they are necessary to restrain bad men from wickedness and crime, and then again he protests against them on political grounds, as intimidating the citizens, and making cowards of the soldiers, who, believing these things, are afraid of death, and do not therefore fight well. But all this shows in what light he regarded them; not as truths, certainly, but as fictions, convenient in some cases, but difficult to manage in others.
7. Plutarch treats the subject in the same way; sometimes arguing for them with great solemnity and earnestness, and on other occasions calling them "fabulous stories, the tales of mothers and nurses."
8. Seneca says: "Those things which make the infernal regions terrible, the darkness, the prison, the river of flaming fire, the judgment seat, &c., are all a fable, with which the poets amuse themselves, and by them agitate us with vain terrors." Sextus Empiricus calls them "poetic fables of hell;" and Cicero speaks of them as "silly absurdities and fables" (ineptiis ac fabulis).
9. Aristotle. "It has been handed down in mythical form from earliest times to posterity, that there are gods, and that the divine
(Deity) compasses all nature. All beside this has been added, after the mythical style, for the purpose of persuading the multitude, and
for the interests of the laws, and the advantage of the state."
Neander's Church Hist., I, p. 7. 11
(The above quotes were taken from "The Origin and History of the Doctrine of Endless Punishment" by Thomas Thayer.)14. I found that the early church taught the salvation of all mankind and that this teaching was not snuffed out until the 6th century AD. Even during the Dark ages, there were writers who taught it even though it could have cost them their lives. Many of the Anabaptists were drowned for their belief in universalism. When comparing the fruit of the lives of those who embraced the message of the salvation of all mankind and compared them with the lives of those who most fervently taught Hell, the difference in disposition and spirit becomes rather obvious. Here the words of some of the leading proponents of the angry god of a Hell of everlasting tortures and see if you can reconcile their words to the picture of Jesus on the cross saying "Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing."
Tertullian
“At that greatest of all spectacles, that last and eternal judgment how shall I admire, how laugh, how rejoice, how exult, when I behold so many proud monarchs groaning in the lowest abyss of darkness…”
"How shall I admire, how laugh, how rejoice, how exult, when I behold so many proud monarchs groaning in the lowest abyss of darkness; so many magistrates liquefying in fiercer flames than they ever kindled against the Christians; so many sages philosophers blushing in red-hot fires with their deluded pupils; so many tragedians more tuneful in the expression of their own sufferings; so many dancers tripping more nimbly from anguish then ever before from applause."
Jonathan Edwards (A Calvinist of the "Great Awakening" fame. Newspapers reported people leaving his sermons and committing suicide from the fear he instilled in them.)
“Reprobate infants are vipers of vengeance, which Jehovah will hold over hell, in the tongs of his wrath, till they turn and spit venom in his face!”
“The view of the misery of the damned will double the ardour of the love and gratitude of the saints of heaven.”
"The world will probably be converted into a great lake or liquid globe of fire, in which the wicked shall be overwhelmed, which will always be in tempest, in which they shall be tossed to and fro, having no rest day and night, vast waves and billows of fire continually rolling over their heads, of which they shall forever be full of a quick sense within and without; their heads, their eyes, their tongues, their hands, their feet, their loins and their vitals, shall forever be full of a flowing, melting fire, fierce enough to melt the very rocks and elements; and also, they shall eternally be full of the most quick and lively sense to feel the torments; not for one minute, not for one day, not for one age, not for two ages, not for a hundred ages, nor for ten thousand millions of ages, one after another, but forever and ever, without any end at all, and never to be delivered."
Thomas Aquinas
“That the saints may enjoy their beatitude more thoroughly, and give more abundant thanks for it to God, a perfect sight of the punishment of the damned is granted them.”
Jeremy Taylor
“Husbands shall see their wives, parents shall see their children tormented before their eyes…the bodies of the damned shall be crowded together in hell like grapes in a wine-press, which press on another till they burst…”
Jeremy Taylor of the Church of England
"The bodies of the damned shall be crowded together in hell, like grapes in a wine-press, which press one another till they burst; every distinct sense and organ shall be assailed with its own appropriate and most exquisite sufferings."John Calvin (Who had some of his theological enemies burned to death in green slow-burning wood.):
Calvin describes hell as: "Forever harrassed with a dreadful tempest, they shall feel themselves torn asunder by an angry God, and transfixed and penetrated by mortal stings, terrified by the thunderbolts of God, and broken by the weight of his hand, so that to sink into any gulf would be more tolerable than to stand for a moment in these terrors."
The Reverend C. H. Spurgeon in his sermon Sermon on the Resurrection of the Dead:
"When thou diest, thy soul will be tormented alone; that will be a hell for it, but at the day of judgment they body will join they soul, and then thou wilt have twin hells, thy soul sweating drops of blood, and thy body suffused with agony. In fire exactly like that which we have on earth thy body will lie, asbestos-like, forever unconsumed, all they veins roads for the feet of pain to travel on, every nerve a string on which the devil shall forever play his diabolical tune of 'Hell's Unutterable Lament.'"
(Quoted from Christ Triumphant by Thomas Allin)I could go on and add, but if you are sincere in heart, I think you will have enough info to see that I have VERY GOOD REASONS to preach the everlasting gospel PASSIONATELY. And if you are NOT sincere in heart (the condition of most of the church) not matter what I say to you will not be received. I'm becoming what I worship...My God is an "all-consuming fire"--a completely different kind of fire than commonly taught by the traditional church.
"Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:4)
This fire took them out into the streets of Jerusalem. The fire in their bones opened their mouths and they began to glorify God. Nothing stopped them--even being threatened with death by their own Jewish leaders and pagan rulers. They glorified God. They preached a brand new message. The message of Hell at that time was preached by all the pagan religions around them. Even some Jews began to preach this ungodly teaching. They got it when they were in captivity in Babylon; wrote some writings which became known as the apocrypha which contained it which infected a part of the Jewish population and later a part of the Church. What these Jewish believers filled with the fire of God preached was new...it was GOOD NEWS...not the old pagan BAD NEWS of Hell. This Good News gave its believers power over death itself. The superstitious doctrine of Hell did NOT stop them. NOTHING stopped them. And nothing will stop me from glorifying my heavenly Father, Yahweh, and His precious Son, Jesus the Messiah...NOTHING.
Here's something from another precious brother who preached and taught the message of Hell for many years. He explains what this teaching did to him and to those he preached it to. He also explains what the message of the salvation of all mankind did for him:
Why Live a Good Life If All Will Be Saved?
by Charles Slagle
Why live a good life if God plans to save everyone in the end -- no matter what they have done? It's amazing how often folks ask that question without giving more thought to it before they voice it. My first response to people who pose that question is another question: "Are you saying the only reason you don't cheat on your spouse, abuse your children, or steal from your neighbors is because you're afraid of going to hell?"
Hmmm… Awkward question, that one... It usually brings a blush to folks who insist that people need to be threatened with never-ending punishment to give them "incentive" to seek the Lord, to live morally and ethically, and to love their neighbors as they love themselves. Why do those who advocate the dogma of endless hell find my question embarrassing?
It is because they have a conscience, that's why.
The human conscience knows that right is right, because it is right. So we find it shameful to suggest that the only reason we would do right by others is to avoid being trashed and burned forever. And rightly so! How would you react if your neighbor told you that fear of endless hell was his main "reason," bottom line, for not stealing your wife, or molesting your children, or running over you with his car if you got in his way? Would you look forward to developing an intimate friendship with him?
By no means! You might do your best to treat him kindly. But you would also buy the biggest guard dog you could find to protect your family and property! For you'd not be able to find any "common ground" for relating to such a monster as an "intimate friend." The best you'd be able to do would be to treat your demented neighbor courteously, while also watching your backside. And that, with extreme diligence!
Yet, much of today's church tells us that God is looking for those kinds of "friends." He's looking for friends who will follow His Savior-Son in love and righteousness -- because -- their only other option is a never-ending and hopeless hell.
But if the doctrine of eternal punishment is actually what the Bible teaches, let's get real! We're talking about eternal destinies here. If that doctrine is true, then it is also true that God loves and values people who perform successfully, but He plans to trash all who do not -- forever! Thus, "God" (!?) has put Himself between the devil and the deep blue sea. Has He not?
For He says He wants His creatures to be his "friends" and to love Him wholeheartedly, with all their soul, mind, and strength. Yet He also (allegedly) warns that He plans to doom to eternal agony all people who fail to "make friends" with him. And--within a certain time limit!
To my mind, that's hardly a good way to "win friends and influence people"! Or don't you agree?
Say the president asked you to join him for regular golf games and friendly chitchat and to share mutual heart-aspirations together, as well as to co-labor with him in charitable enterprises. Yet he also told you he would have you burned alive if you missed too many appointments with him. Would you consider that to be a legitimate invitation to friendship? I would not! Coward that I am, I'd be sorely tempted to treat him as an "intimate friend." However, in my heart I would abhor the very thought of him. Any authority figure who so abused his position of power to have "friends" would be incapable of winning my trust, my faith! Let alone my admiration and loyalty! Secretly, I would yearn for the day of his overthrow or impeachment. Wouldn't you?
That's why the world is now filled with agnosticism and atheism and theological liberalism, which is mostly agnosticism, thinly veiled in religious semantics. A corrupt and double-tongued version of "Christianity" has held sway for too many centuries. The message has been "God is love/hate." Or in it's mildest form, the message has been "God loves you, but..." Or the glad (?) tidings has been, "The Lord desires to save everyone!
Isn't this marvelous?"
(There has always been a segment in the church that prefers to incline toward "grace" while reserving the more grisly dogmas for catechism classes, have you noticed?)
Thus, many sincere people of rational mind and tender conscience have concluded that the idea of there being no God is far preferable to the "God" that organized religion has advertised--either overtly or subvertly--to a hurting world. And they are right! The myth of (a Godless) evolution, sad as it is, is far preferable to the myth of a "Loving Creator" who (supposedly) has "foreordained" to consign most of His intelligent creation to eternal agony! At least, there's a merciful--end--to the atheistic story... Right?
So, there you are. Christianity has become severely crippled because it's vast majority of members finally bought into the lie of conditional love. That tragedy occurred within five centuries after Christ had founded His church. You see, the great majority of the early church AND its leaders did NOT teach Hell as we know it.
EXIT: The true "glad tidings of great joy which shall be to ALL people." (Lk.2:11)
ENTER: The dark ages---which still cast their grim shadow over much of the church and world today.
I grew up under that lingering shadow.
My family and I constantly suffered the abuse of the hope-destroying message, "God loves you--but--He plans to get rid of most people, and if you're not careful you just may be one of them!" The message was not framed in those exact words, of course. The actual words were often far worse. Then, at other times they sounded much nicer. When we endured spiritual abuse in it's harsher form, the words were horrifying. Graphic descriptions of fiery torture fell on our ears, and we listened to long sermons describing what an "eternity of endless ages" actually means--as compared with the longest time stretches the human mind can conceive. Say the sun were turned into a stainless steel globe, for example. Then say a tiny ant were to crawl the entire circumference of it's equator repeatedly until, over millions of ages, the microscopic imprint of its tracks finally dug so deeply that it divided the gigantic orb in half...And? Eternity would only have just begun...
Then, these horrifying threats often were interspersed on other occasions with more "loving" ones: "Would you like to spend eternity with Jesus?" Or here's another one: "If the Lord were to come tonight, do you know if you would be ready for heaven?" And I heard this one fairly often: "Tch! Tch! There's so much lack of personal holiness around here, there's good cause to question if a lot of people in this church have really been saved... Not that I'm judging anyone!"
Sound familiar? Right. It matters not if you are a Baptist or a Methodist or a Pentecostal, or a Roman Catholic or a Protestant, or a Calvinist or an Arminian. There is just no way to escape the tyranny of cruel legalism--in some form--where the unscriptural dogma of eternal punishment is seriously proclaimed and believed.
So...The toxic seed of conditional love was sown into my life at an early age. Then it was repeatedly watered with hints of "are you sure your heart is right with God?" It was also fertilized with the debilitating dung of "God is NOT only 'love'! He is HOLY and a God of eternal wrath!"
However, by the time I had reached my early forties, my internal "God- Picture" had begun to improve dramatically. Our Heavenly Father Himself had begun revealing His true nature to me in my prayer journaling. However, because what He revealed of Himself in my journaling conflicted with how I had been trained to understand certain "dark passages" of Scripture, I found myself experiencing increasing inner turmoil! This really became a problem after I had stumbled across some of George MacDonald's old novels and sermons. Mac Donald appeared to be a "universalist"--and --his understanding of God's heart coincided exactly with all the revelations of it I had thus far received!
What if I were being deceived? Horrors...This Heavenly Father, so gentle and sagely, who often chuckled inside my heart and always lavished me with the most tender mercy--what if He were a counterfeit? What if it was not God at all, but a deceiving spirit? Too often, I experienced a "knot" in my stomach. It was born of the suspicion that maybe the "legalists" (who sometimes confronted me with harsh criticism) were right. Perhaps I did emphasize grace too much in my ministry! Perhaps I was leading folks down the primrose path to eternal destruction!
(In traditional Christian circles, "legalists" are folks who take their hell-fire doctrine seriously. Whereas "grace oriented" Christians-advocate that we must "believe" in eternal torment, but, at all costs, we should try not to think of it or speak of it often. I was trying desperately to be one of these.)
I finally suffered a massive nervous breakdown in 1995.
Nine months later I woke up--healed--on May 1st of 1996. I was "bonkers in love" with my Heavenly Father. My doctors and counselors were amazed at the sudden and dramatic change that had occurred in my personality. What had happened? Overnight, God had saturated my heart with the healing revelation of His committed love. I just simply knew He would restore all of his creation--myself and yourself included--because Christ would fulfill His promise to draw ALL MANKIND to Himself.
Suicidal manic depression--zap!--disappeared from my life and has never returned. Chronic binge alcoholism also vanished, along with a load of other garbage that had been dumped into my life when I was molested in childhood.
So why do I not try to sin all I can, since I know Christ will save me no matter what? I love Him. That's why. Furthermore, I know the healing power of love. I have experienced the healing power of love.
My heavenly Father has won my heart with his unconditional and committed love. Besides, He is never--not ever--going to resign from His commitment to heal and restore me. So why should I want to complicate my life--again? Why only make it harder on myself by trying to go on as many excursions to Cookooland as possible? Been there and done that! Every fiber of my being thirsts to know God better. I yearn to live in His presence, to experience His power, and to see His Love-kingdom invade the hearts of all who weep under the shadow of darkest despair.
But as long as I imagined that God's commitment to my eternal well being was conditional, there was a part of me that detested the very thought of Him. I secretly wished that neither He nor myself existed. I yearned for His overthrow, His impeachment! There were times when atheistic philosophy attracted me like a huge electronic magnet. Why? Life was a curse. Or so it seemed, as I then perceived it.
So I was a prisoner of destructive iniquity patterns--because--I did not know how to cease wishing I were non-existent and to stop "needing" my bad habits as "painkillers." Besides, I probably was going to spit hell wide open anyhow--no matter how hard I tried to avoid it! So, part of me reasoned, "Why not feel good at least some of the time?"
Inside myself, I was torn asunder. My spirit loved God and yearned after Him, for it was created for that very purpose. Yet my poor, religion-abused brain and deepest emotions had come to abhor my Creator. And why? I hated Him for (supposedly) offering me only conditional love. How could I love my Heavenly Father with ALL MY BEING while He loved me with mere conditional commitment? I could find no way of giving my Creator something which He Himself did not possess! Could I?
Of course not. And neither can you. No human being can do that. What is finite cannot supersede that which is infinite. Is this not a self-evident fact? Of course! We don't even need a Scripture verse to confirm that truth, anymore than we need one to confirm the law of gravity! Our Heavenly Father is the "Sun" and we are the "moon." Unless He shines, we cannot shine. We love Him--because--He first loved ( and does love) us.
Would you like to be set free from the lie of conditional love? If so, then let's pray:
"Dear Heavenly Father,
My spirit knows that Jesus Christ is your Son, and He died to heal and restore me completely. My deepest heart knows You raised Him from the dead. It also knows His resurrection set all creation free--myself included--from the death-curse that came down to us all because our first parents sinned, when they fell prey to satan's deception.
Please, Father God. Set me free from the lie of conditional love. Heal my wounded heart from all the abuse that came from (myself and) others because of a wrong and confused understanding of Your good heart. I long so much to experience the height and depth and length and width of your love that the Bible talks about. Religious tradition has denied me that joy. The opinions of broken people have bombarded me for years. So I can hardly imagine what unconditional love is. And Father, I don't even know how to receive your unconditional love for myself. Far less do I know how to give it away to others. Will you please help me now?
By your grace and with your help, I choose to forgive those who have brought me pain. I forgive even those who have confused abuse for love and transmitted error to me about Your loving nature. They gave what they had. So bless them, Heavenly Father. Heal their wounded hearts. Cause them to have far more and--far better--gifts to share in days to come.
In the name of my Strong Deliverer and Lord, Jesus Christ,
Amen.
May God ravish your heart with deepest assurance of His committed and unfailing love.
Charles Slagle
======================So I hope you can see that my beliefs are NOT based upon wishful thinking, but based upon conviction which came from the Holy Spirit, careful study, and the Bible. May my Father and yours send you this glorious truth as well--because without it, this world NOR anyplace in the universe will experience peace. Jesus IS the Savior of the world, whether most of His people believe it or not. Most of Israel didn't recognize God when He walked this earth 2,000 years ago. Most of His people today, Christians, wouldn't recognize Him today either. May the Lord open your eyes and ears that you may see and hear. Peace to you, Gary Amirault
For a summary of some of the things I found during my intense search for the truth, visit the Tentmaker Internet site at:
and for full information about the subject of Hell visit:
http://what-the-hell-is-hell.com
Tentmaker Publications
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