ALL INCLUDED

The first thing to remember in understanding anything spiritual is that we have to have the proper foundation. Without that it is not possible to understand scripture the proper way and we will tend to place our own interpretations to whatever it is we are trying to understand. We know that before any thing can be built, the first thing that has to be secure and steadfast is the foundation. If you try and build a house and the foundation is not properly constructed, it will not be long before you will have a building that will not stand or it will be crooked.

As we know the footings have to be poured, everything has to be level; the measurements have to be right and so on. This of course is the most important part of a building. The rest of the building will just not work right without this.

It seems that most people are constantly trying to find another way to attain the perfection they already have, through whatever means they can conjure up. They are not looking at the foundation in order to see this and are trying to build on some very shaky ground. Is it any wonder there are so many people out there frustrated as they try to build their own empires without having learned what the proper foundation is.

The Bible says we already have a sure foundation. 1 Corr 3:11 says the foundation is already laid which is Jesus Christ. No other foundation can be laid as the foundation has already been laid. This is the one you need to build on. We are trying to lay our own foundation by our good works and that is laying another foundation and it will crumble. Jesus is already the foundation I need. If we follow that foundation, then everything else will be level and the building will stand.

The word of God is the foundation of God. We also know the Word of God is Jesus as the Word became flesh. If you build on what Jesus did then you cannot go wrong. Jesus said in John 14, I am the way. He did not say there were a number of ways. He said He was The way. It is important to know the plan of God from before the foundation of the world. The plan was for all mankind to be redeemed. I believe that was and is the foundation we are to build on. If you are trying to build on anything apart from that, then you are setting up your own foundation and it is like building on sand.

Out thought process has to be the thought process of Jesus because we do have His mind. If I try to do or understand anything with and through my own mind, then the foundation changes to what I have laid and it cannot stand. We have to look to the scriptures and see what God said He would do in His great redemptive plan. There are so many formulas and doctrines out there that are just something concocted up from some man’s mind and people are trying their best to follow these things. When it doesn’t work they wonder what on earth is going on. I can tell you what’s going on. You are looking at the wrong foundation. It can’t work and it will not work.

When you see that Jesus was the chief cornerstone of this foundation, then you have something to build upon. Don’t try to build on your own works and programs of others. Don’t forget you/we are part of Him because we are in Him. If I am in Him then I am part of that foundation too. Your thought process has to be His thought process. Then you can begin to see His great plan that was instituted before the foundation of the world.

If people are in constant danger of burning for all eternity, should not each one have warned of this awful place there was to shun? Especially Paul, who wrote the majority of the NT, should he not have warned people of this awful place where there was a possibility they could go to and burn for all eternity. The only ones that used it in the NT were Acts 2 times, James once, Peter once and revelation four times. None of these places mean eternal fire and torment.

Paul also says in Acts 20:27 that he declared unto them all the counsel (advice, purpose, will) of God and he never told them they could be in danger of burning forever? Isn’t that a bit strange that he would have told them he had preached to them the whole counsel of God and left something as important as hell fire out of it? We know the answer to that is simply Paul knew the whole counsel of God did not include any torture chamber created by God for those that would even dare to disobey Him. It is impossible to find the meaning for how the church teaches it. I guess we have to decide whether the teaching of man is wrong or the teaching of God. Romans 3:4 says let God be true and every man a liar. I rest my case on that one.

I think we all agree that God is love. Now ask yourself this question….what part of love creates a place where a Father will burn and torture His children? How many Dads out there have ever used fire to punish their children when they were disobedient? How many have taken a torch for even 1 minute to make sure they understood what being punished meant? I know these questions are quite drastic but no more drastic than to say God created a place where His children can be placed into if they have not believed what He says and not only for a minute, but for eternity without any hope of escape!!

We are talking about something that will never stop and without any chance of escape, according to traditional teaching. Can anyone even begin to see how anything like this can be believed? Can anyone explain to me how in one breath we can say He is a God of mercy and love and then in the next breath say He has created a torture chamber for the disobedient ones? It is almost maddening to even think that anyone that says they love God could preach something as ludicrous as that.

I have certainly not exhausted this subject and I am not sure how much longer I will post on this. Maybe this will be the last one, I’m not sure. I hope I have brought out some points here that have made someone think seriously about this. One thing I will say is this….if you claim to believe people are in danger of burning forever in God’s eternal torture chamber, then you had better be out there 24/7 screaming this warning from the housetops as people are in extreme danger. If you are not out there doing this, then if I was you I would question whether I believe this or not. To say you believe it and not do anything about it is very heartless. I don’t have to be out there screaming this out because I know the Lord has looked after the issue of the grave and He has the keys. I prefer to proclaim Christ and Him crucified so that people can see the freedom that was purchased for them at
Calvary.

You young couples out there starting a family. If you are to believe what the traditional churches preach on hell, then do you realize there is only a 10% or so chance your children will make it into heaven? That leaves a 90% or so chance they may not make it and burn forever in God’s torture chamber. This is not what I teach but what the traditional church teaches. If I believed something so ludicrous, the last thing I would want is to have children and place them in such a predicament that there exists a possibility that they may burn forever. Isn’t that an awful big chance to take? I have two grown children (19 & 25) and the least of my worries is that they will end up in a burning hell.

I am not here to warn anyone about the possibility they may burn forever but to tell them they are free from ever having to pay the consequences of their sin. Jesus tasted death for EVERY man (Heb 2:9). How many does that leave out? A loving God is just waiting to reveal these things to your hearts and bring salvation to your soul (mind, will, emotions, intellect). Your redemption is already secure in Him and you have been bought with a great price. Rest in this.

He says He has the keys of the grave. He conquered death as He went to the grave and He rose again from the grave. If He went in the grave and came out than what did we do? We did the exact same thing as we were in Him when He went to the grave.

Revelation 20:13 says the sea and hell (Hades, the grave) delivered up the dead that were in them so we see here as well that it not something eternal. I believe this is speaking about when Jesus descended into Sheol or Hades and the grave gave up its captives. And every man was judged at that time as well. If Jesus has the key to death and the grave (you can use hell if you wish) then He has control over it. When you have the key to something you control it.

One interesting thing is that Paul wrote the majority of the NT and he not once used the word hell in all of his writings. I think he had already figured out the true meaning of the word and He knew Jesus had already conquered it and there was no need in even mentioning something that had been looked after by Jesus and people no longer needed to fear it. God had given Him a revelation of its true meaning and He said he needed to focus upon Christ and nothing else. In preaching circles today the fear of hell is used on a continuous basis. “You better be good and keep the faith or you will burn forever”. What control to use over people.

If someone wants to believe in hell and continue using it for whatever purpose, that is all well and good. I choose to not deal with these issues in my life as the Lord has set me free. My focus and mind/heart is on Christ because I am Christ conscious and not dwelling on issues that have already been quite clearly looked after by Jesus. I have no fear that someday I will end up burning somewhere for all eternity. And remember in most circles they will tell you that you can lose what you have, even if you have said the prayer after the pastor, and still end up in a burning fire.  Now that I see what Jesus did at the cross I have absolutely no fear of such things.

The subject of hell has been preached as a place where people burn for all eternity for hundreds and hundreds of years. Some say that the ones that began preaching this were doing so in order that they could hold something over someone’s head to have control over them. I don’t know if that is so or not and it really makes no difference.

I challenge anyone to find even one verse in the bible that says God will throw someone that disobeys Him or has not called Him by His right name or did not say a sinner’s prayer, into a fire to burn them forever. In Psalms 49:14,15 David says people are laid in the grave but verse 15 says God will redeem his soul from that grave. The word there is Sheol and it is properly translated as grave and not hell. This is written before the cross of course and what David was talking about was the day that Jesus would descend into Sheol and redeem those that were being held captive there.

So we see that God’s plan was not to leave anyone in Sheol (grave, not hell) and would redeem them. Since most teach there is no redemption from hell, there is no way they could use the word hell in this case as they say hell is eternal. However, it is the exact same word as throughout the OT where it has been translated hell with the word of course being Sheol.

How can we say that Sheol is a burning hell when it is the same word in the entire OT that is used? Only the translators inserted the word hell and then the word was picked up and somehow a burning fire was added to it which is far from its meaning. If you prefer to use the word hell there it is ok I guess because if it is hell, then it is quite clear as well that God will redeem David from it. You cannot make eternity out of that word because that is just not there in its meaning. I guess the word itself makes no difference but it is the true meaning of it that is important. It is grave (Sheol) and God has redeemed all from there through Jesus descending there and taking the captives that were there and making them His own captives to righteousness. (He took captivity captive Eph 4:8)

There’s nothing in this world or in heaven or anywhere else (if there is anywhere else) that God did not create. He’s the creator and He made it all. He made hell and the devil and demons and angels and trees. Some of you are reading this and thinking “hey, I thought you didn’t believe in hell”. I do believe in hell (grave) but not in the way it is taught by the evangelical community. I do not believe it is a torture chamber that God sends people to burn for all eternity.

The hell I believe in is the hell of the OT which is where people went when they died. It was the grave (Sheol) and the place of the dead and it was where people were until Jesus went there and took them captive. We see in the above quoted verse that everything God created, He created for His pleasure. These are not words I am twisting or adding as some have said I do at times. This is very plainly stated in this verse.

So today you have to believe that God created a place of torture where He burns people for all eternity and not only that, He does that for His pleasure. You have to believe that even with all the screams that are ongoing in this place of torture falls on deaf ears as far as God is concerned as He has no intention of putting an end to this torture that is going on because He created it for His pleasure.

I think at this point in time, you either have to admit you have seen hell in the wrong light and not only that, but you have seen God in a wrong way as well, if you can still say you believe in this fiery place of torment as is being preached today and has been for a long, long time. You must take an honest look at scripture and the meaning of hell if you are to take verse 11 for what it says. Or you can continue believing that God is a God that loves to torture people and keep on believing what you have been told hell is.

The word hell is only in the KJV because it was placed there by the translators. The word Sheol (Strong’s 7585) is actually in the Hebrew text 65 times. In the KJV the word hell was placed in there 31 of those times. There is another 31 where they translated it grave and there are 3 times they translated it pit. All 65 places this word is in the Hebrew it is the exact same word so we see the translators were correct in putting the word grave 31 times but were not correct in using the word hell in the other 31 as that is not the true meaning of the word.

So when Jesus was talking to the Jews in the gospels about hell he was actually talking about the grave (Sheol) the place of the dead and never about a place of burning torture as the Jews had no idea such a place existed as it was not in their Bible. They knew what He was talking about and that was the only hell they knew which was the grave, the place where dead people went. It’s the preaching of evangelical Christianity that has twisted this word around to mean something it doesn’t mean at all.

This is not a subject that I have been looking forward in looking into but I am convinced the meaning of the word hell has been used totally wrong and the view of what it actually was has been presented totally wrong as well. I hope your thinking has been challenged today by what I wrote here.

I remember the first time I heard this taught that I couldn’t believe just how clear the Bible was on hell and I just couldn’t believe I had thought all along that God was a God that didn’t think twice about burning 90% or so of His creation. Look all these things up for yourself. Don’t take my word for it but ask the Lord to show you. Keep in mind that any doctrine you believe should be according to the character of God. God is love. How does a fiery torture chamber fit into that? I think we all know it doesn’t of course.

Before I go into some Bible verses I want to quote a survey that was done a number of years ago with the question being, according to Acts 2:21, saved from what? This was done by asking this question to the Christian community. The result was as follows: 67% said saved from hell, 25% said saved from God’s anger, 5% said saved from sin and 3% said saved from self.

Acts 2:21 says that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. A well known verse used by many to say we need to call upon the name of the Lord for salvation or suffer the consequences. In verse 22 we see who Peter was talking to. He was talking to “ye men of
Israel” which of course were Jews. He was talking to the Pharisees as they were Jews as well. This verse taken out of context can be very confusing. We must remember who he was talking to and also the meaning of the word (s) he used.

When Peter said these words to them we must remember that the word hell was not in their Bible. The word hell was only placed there through translations and some translations use it more times than others when the translators changed it from sheol, place of the dead or the grave. So the thought never entered their minds that Peter was telling them to call on the name of the Lord to be saved from hell. Remember the only Bible they had was the OT and the word hell was not in it. It wasn’t in their doctrine or thoughts at all because it had no reason to be.

So these men when listening to Peter, never once thought they would be saved from hell. It never entered their minds that Peter meant saved from a fiery torture chamber that would last for all eternity. Remember they had no concept of what modern day believers think today when it comes to hell. They knew God and at no time did they think that if they disobeyed Him He had a fire prepared for them so they could burn forever. Peter did not have to tell them he was warning them about hell because that is not what he was talking to them about.

So what were they being saved from? They were being saved from what Adam was told had happened on the day he sinned…he was told he would surely die. It was death they were being saved from. They were being saved from the consequences of sin which was death. There are consequences for sin but a redeemer came and has saved us from the consequences of sin. He suffered my consequences. The bill has already been paid by Jesus.

The word saved is “sozo” in the Greek language and it means healed, preserved, made whole, delivered, and protected. Healed and preserved are the two most used. In verse 27 the word hell appears again and it is NOT talking about a place of torture but it is the same word as the OT word sheol (grave, place of the dead) This has absolutely nothing to do with burning forever because we didn’t say some prayer or whatever else you can think of.

Here’s something to think about. If the penalty for sin is burning in an eternal fire and Jesus took upon Himself our sin, shouldn’t Jesus still be suffering the penalty and be in this so-called fiery furnace? And for all eternity as well? No, Jesus went to the grave (sheol). Verse 31 …his soul was not left in hell (sheol) and He was raised up.

Look at Jeremiah 32:35. This scripture talks about how some people would actually sacrifice their first born to the god of Baal and they would actually burn them. The latter part of the verse will tell you what God thought of this that they were doing and He says that to burn anyone was never commanded by Him and it sis not even enter into His mind to do such a thing. It was never in the mind of God to put anyone into a fire. This scripture says they were doing it to their false god and it had nothing whatsoever to do with God. There is no place in the Bible that you can find that a God of mercy will burn people. It just isn’t there.

I heard a preacher say the other day that all doctrine must be in keeping with the heart and the nature and the character of God. Doctrine can not go against these things. Bear in mind that God is merciful, loving, and not only loving but God IS love. The Bible is clear that His mercy endures forever. How does that fit with a God that will burn people for all eternity?

II Samuel 14:14 says that although some people will not fetch back their banished (v13), but that God is not a respecter of persons and He has devised means that His banished be not expelled from Him. People may walk away from Him and be banished but God had a plan that people would never be expelled from Him. None will be forever out of His presence because His plan included the cross which would pay the penalty for sin for every man. Should hell, the way the evangelicals preaches it, be a place where people go to burn forever when sin has already been paid for in full by the Christ? Most of us have been taught that God’s plan includes the banishment of disobedient sons and daughters. That is not what scripture teaches as we have seen in this verse from II Samuel.

Another thing to keep in mind is that when God gave the Ten Commandments, which are actually only a small part of the commandments contained in the OT as there are 613 that he would not mention even once the existence of hell where people would pay in eternal fire as punishment for their sin? Why would this be kept as such a secret, with no warnings whatsoever if there was even a remote possibility that people could end up burning for all eternity. Also remember that evangelical Christianity preaches that upwards of 90% of people ever born end up in hell.

When the word hell is properly understood it is just another word that has been twisted to mean something that it does not mean at all. I am not going to go to any more scripture to try and prove that God did not mention it once in the OT. It just isn’t there and you can read it for yourself. If it is there and I somehow missed it, kindly let me know where it is and I will gladly look at it. In the next few days I will post more on this and go into the meaning of the word hell. The proper meaning I mean.

I know it is preached as a place where you go and burn forever and ever, if you haven’t asked the Lord Jesus Christ into your heart. That, I now know, is not in the least bit scriptural but has been and still is used extensively to try and make people come to an altar so they won’t burn forever.

I was thinking this morning that if the punishment for sin was eternal fire then should not God have made this clear when sin first entered the world. Should He have been silent on an issue of such great importance if the consequence of sin was going into a fire that will never end? If this was true and God did not warn His people of these dire consequences, then I think that would have been very unfair.

I am going to touch on a few things here beginning in Genesis which is of course where sin reared its ugly head when Adam went into unbelief in the Garden. Since Adam and Eve were the first ones to fall into sin, it is made very clear that the consequences of what he had done were not something that was endless. In Genesis 2:15-17 we see that Adam is told that on the day he eats out of this tree he will surely die. His penalty for sin was dying. It was not the death of the body because he continued to live on and raised a family. His punishment was not eternal but here on earth. It was a moral and spiritual death and there is not even a hint that it had eternal consequences.

Cain’s punishment when he killed his brother was also made clear that it was here on earth he would suffer the consequences. (Gen 4:9-14) He would be a fugitive and a vagabond here on earth and nothing is mentioned he would suffer eternally for the world’s first murder. Remember this was a great crime and yet eternal punishment is not even hinted at. His punishments were temporary.

When Noah warned of the flood coming in Genesis and he only warned them of the fact they were going to drown. Not once did he mention that they would be burning forever. And if you read Gen 6:17 you will see that when God spoke to Noah he only told him he would destroy all flesh from the earth and nothing mentioned about eternal punishment.

In
Sodom and Gomorrah there is no mention of any punishment that would be theirs after He destroyed the two cities. (Gen 19:24-28) I could go on and on and run through the entire OT and we would see that there is not one place where punishment for sin has eternal consequences. Should this not have been made clear by God if this was the fate that the vast majority of people would be facing? Would that be fair for people to only find out there was a hell to stay away from after they had died and could do nothing about it?

We could look at Abraham, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Moses and I could go on and on but it would just take too much time and space. But rest assured that not a single one of the prophets said anything about punishment for wrong doing or unbelief were eternal. It just isn’t there.  One thing I want to say here is that as far as “standing on something” and saying that is what I believe, I have to see it in scripture and what Jesus, Paul and all the others called scripture was the OT. Jesus especially made that quite clear when He talked to the two men in Luke 24. He was opening their hearts to understand the scriptures and at that time the NT was not even written so He was talking about the OT.

I have barely scratched the surface here but I just wanted to show that the scriptures DO NOT mention anything that would even remotely hint that there is any kind of eternal punishment. It just isn’t there. I may over the next several days look at some of the meanings of the word hell. It is NOT what we have all been told over the centuries. Some of the meanings may surprise you.

I believe there are many required qualifications in order to make it safely into the
Kingdom of Heaven. We see in the Bible that sin will not enter in for one thing. If sin will not enter then I suppose you could look at most of us, well maybe even all of us as not making it.

Another thing that is required is perfection. Anything not perfect will not make it as there will be no imperfections in Heaven. I’m not sure if I want to examine myself just in case I find some flaw and see that I may come short of this perfection.

And holiness. Be ye holy even as I am holy says Father. Oh boy, what am I going to do now? I guess I could continue ignoring my shortcomings and sweep those I find in my life under the rug and hopefully God won’t look there. I’m sure we all need a rug to do this with but then what if I find my rug is not big enough? What am I to do then?

I have heard that saying a prayer can qualify me but what about the sins after I have said this prayer? Do I keep on praying and hoping nothing happens to me in-between prayers and asking for forgiveness? What if I don’t have time to ask forgiveness when I see this huge bus heading towards me as I cross the street?

The list of “what if” could go on and on but I think we can see that if this depends on us and anything we do or don’t do, we would constantly be in trouble. In fact we would be in deep enough trouble that none of us would even come close to making it. Let’s not forget that those things mentioned above are a real requirements in order for us to enter into His presence when we pass on from this life. So what am I going to do now?

I said all those things to simply say that Jesus looked after each and every one of those things on our behalf. This has already been done and He has already presented us to the Father holy, perfect and without sin. I think we all know that if any of it depended on us we would be in trouble every minute of every day and we wouldn’t stand a chance. I thank my Saviour for having brought the human race into Himself at the cross and then presented us to His Father and His Father was satisfied with the sacrifice He did for the entire human race.

We have seen the qualifications for entering Heaven are quite extensive and we know we already have these qualifications in Him. Now, what about the qualifications for going to hell, according to evangelical Christianity? Don’t forget they say you either go to one or the other.

There are none. According to evangelical preaching all you have to do is nothing. If you DON’T say the sinners prayer, if you DON’T repent, if you DON’T stop smoking, if you DON’T stop drinking, if you DON’T stop your sex, drugs and rock and roll, if you DON’T….and the list goes on. So we see from what they say you can burn for all eternity by simply doing nothing. Seems like a high price to pay for doing nothing.

I know this is not like my regular posts but I really felt someone needed to read this today. For anyone reading this, rest assured that your entrance into His Kingdom has already been purchase by His blood. He took the keys of hell and there is no more fear of anyone ending up there because it doesn’t exist any longer. Not only that, it was never a place where people burned for all eternity. This was just another twist that started way back when, I am not sure exactly when, but it is rampant still today. We now have a Gospel of grace and peace. No more threats. No more judgment. It is finished.

Needless to say that Bill is a man that this Gospel of Grace and Peace has deeply touched and It is very obvious each time I talk to him that the Lord is bringing him deeper and deeper into an understanding of this simply awesome Gospel that the Lord is revealing to some of us here in this part of the country. I have known Bill for a long time but the change that is happening in his heart is very evident and you don’t have to be around him long before you see the evidence of this transformation that has and is taking place. I am not saying this to in any way uplift my friend but I am just saying this to say just how powerful this Gospel really is when it begins transforming our hearts and minds.

Bill told me of a conversation he had a while back with someone ( I will call him Sonny, not his real name) he has known for a long time and I guess since we see the freedom that is in this Gospel of grace and peace, we would have to say that Sonny is steeped in legalism. Of course the conversation turned to redemption as that is what is on Bill’s heart and he discussed several issues with Sonny. One thing that did come up was the question of the rapture.

He asked Sonny if the rapture was to occur, according to legalistic teachings, would he, Sonny be included. Of course Sonny said yes and then Bill asked why he thought he would make in the rapture. Was it because he had done something or what exactly was it that would include him in this event. Of course Sonny said it was all because of what Jesus had done at the cross that he would be included in this so called rapture.

Bill then asked him what his qualifications were for being included in this event (rapture) and he said it had nothing to do with him but had everything to do with Jesus. The next question of course was “if this has everything to do with Jesus, then what about the guy leaning at the bar having a drink, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and buying another man’s wife a drink”. Would he meet the qualifications? Of course the answer was no. We see right away that this takes a turn and the onus is placed back on people to qualify for making into heaven. The qualifications for Sonny were because of what Jesus had done but when it came to the guy at the bar, the qualifications then changed dramatically. Needless to say, when Sonny was questioned as to why he was qualified and he answered it was because of what Jesus had done, he was not being very honest and I’m sure the day he said some prayer and “accepted the Lord” flashed through his mind as that is when he saw himself being qualified for this event.

So can we say it is all because of what Jesus did if we do not include everyone else on the face of the earth as far as making it to Heaven goes? How can we say it was all Jesus and the cross if we exclude anyone? Did He not die for the whole world? Of course we all know the answer to this and that is people say it is all about Jesus and then add “but, if, I etc. There is nothing to add to this. If you add anything it becomes Jesus plus what I do. Jesus excluded everyone from belief when He went to the cross and then brought all those that were in unbelief, which was the entire human race, into Himself and went to the cross, died and rose again and presented the human race holy and perfect and totally acceptable to the Father.

Bill proceeded to tell me that he said he loves to discuss these events, going to heaven or anything else but it is not long before its plain to see they include themselves and what they have done to qualify. We have seen over time that although people say it is all about Him, it is not long before I or but is included in the equation. There are no qualifications we have to have when it comes to redemption. I and but have no place in this plan.

I am not sure if I am relating this properly as to the gist of their conversation but what Bill was trying to put across was that each and every time redemption/salvation is mentioned everyone agrees that it is all a work of the Lord and His cross. However, it is not long before the word “but” comes along and most find it very difficult to continue on a conversation that it is all about Him without saying “but” we have to do something. Sorry folks, it cannot be both. If you say it is all Him then you cannot and should not come up with the word “but”. It is either all Him or it isn’t. No buts needed.