Program transcript …
Good morning, good morning and welcome once again on Sunday morning, beautiful Sunday morning here in Houston, Texas, and I trust that you’re having a great day wherever you are.
We’re going to get into the word this morning and actually we’re going to start a little series that I’ve, I’m really excited about. I’ve wanted to do this for some time and so we’re going to, we’re going to spend about four weeks, maybe five, I’m not sure yet.
We’ll see how it rolls out on a series that I’m calling Hell’s Illusion, Hell’s Illusion. And I picked that title from several suggestions that people made on the Wednesday night live. I asked people for some suggestions on titles for this series I wanted to do on debunking hell and I got a lot of great titles and I picked this one, Hell’s Illusion, and I like it because an illusion, I looked up the word illusion and it actually means false idea or belief.
An illusion can be a mirage or a deception. So, what we’re going to talk about for the next four or five weeks is this illusion of a man-made doctrine that we have come to call hell. And as I said, I’ve wanted to do this for some time.
This has been rolling around in my spirit. I wanted to uncover truth about this long-held doctrine of hell. It’s a doctrine that the more, the more closely you look at it, the more you study it and believe me, I have spent a lot of time in research and study and looking at this from so many ways and the longer that I look at it, the more that I ponder the goodness of God, the crazier this whole concept of what we have in the Western church that we’ve come to call hell.
I’ve wanted to do it for some time but I haven’t, honestly, I haven’t felt free to. And I think I haven’t felt free to because there’s just a lot of people that aren’t ready to give up their hell. When you start messing with people’s hell, I mean, you got a war on your heads and I’m sure that there are going to be some people that still aren’t ready to even sit down and look at this and analyze it from a scriptural standpoint and just from some reasonable logic when we look at the character of God and how he manifests himself through Jesus.
So I hope that you come to this with an open mind. I know there’s a lot of rumblings right now about this. It’s being kind of talked about in different areas.
Pastors that I talk to feel handcuffed by this. They don’t dare say anything about this because of the fallout from the people in their church. So it’s being talked about, it’s being researched, it’s being studied.
But there’s just not a lot probably being taught publicly like this. So what I’m doing is I’m kind of breaking the ice, maybe give some other guys some courage to take off with this. And what I’d like to do, I’d like to start this kind of slow and easy if I can.
I want to build momentum as I go on through the weeks. I’m not going to probably speak as long as I normally do. I’m going to try to stick this to maybe 35 minutes or so, no longer than that.
I want to drop some thoughts. I want to present you with some ideas that you can then ponder about during the week. Maybe look up some scripture yourself, research it out and see what you come up with.
So I don’t want to overload you because I know for many, many, many of you, this is a tough one. This is a tough subject. So, to even be hopeful, you know, some people have a real problem with when you begin to prod around and mess with hell.
And to even come to people with a hopeful expectation that people will not spend eternity in hell being tortured in literal flames of fire. It’s almost more than they can handle because it’s so deep, entrenched. To tell people, to begin to explain and just hope that everybody’s going to show up at the big party … that makes religious people go bonkers sometimes.
So I understand if you’re going to have a little struggle with this. So just stay with me. Be patient with me.
And by the time we get done after four or five weeks, I hope that you see things maybe in just a little bit different light. Then maybe what you do now, we’re just going to stretch a little bit because when you begin to plummet the depths of grace, here’s how this thing begins to work. When you begin to plummet the depths of grace, you begin to see everything in a different light.
You begin to see the Bible in a different light. You begin to read it with different eyes. You begin to see people differently.
You begin to see the Father with new eyes. See that the Father is a whole lot better than religion taught you that he was. You begin to see Jesus is a lot bigger than you were told, and you see that the cross is far more inclusive than you ever imagined.
And when I started this grace journey about 15 years ago, I had no idea. I really had absolutely no idea of all the things that I would begin to see as my eyes were open to more and more truth. I had no idea of the revelation that would begin to flood my spirit.
And honestly, I wasn’t looking for it. I wasn’t asking for it. I was just going on about my business.
And this whole thing of grace began to flood into my heart and just resonated and made so much sense and brought so much peace that I began to teach it. And at that time, I had no idea all the trails and all of the depths that this whole message would take us. Because you see, grace is a person.
Grace is not a doctrine. Grace is not just some kind of revelation. Grace is a person.
So when you awaken to grace, what you awaken to is a person named Jesus, and you awaken to everything that he represents and has brought to the table even before time. So what I’m saying is that grace opens a door, and it leads us on this journey of discovery that is phenomenal, a discovery far beyond anything that we could ever imagine. And the journey has just begun.
One of my favorite verses of Scripture has become Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 7. And just before I get into all this, let me just remind you that it says in the ages to come, he will show us the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. So, you and I have an eternity of continual unfolding of how good the Father is. So, when we begin to look at this doctrine of hell in the light of the exposing of the goodness of God for the ages to come, it gets kind of hard to balance it out.
Then we read over in Ephesians chapter 3, the very next chapter, verse 18 and verse 19. It says, Paul says, I want you to be able to comprehend with all of the paints what is the width, the length, the depth, the height, and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge. This is all important foundation as we get into this doctrine, because you have to understand what love is about and the depth of the love that God has for all of us.
So, when Paul says, I want you to begin to delve into the length, the depth, the width, the height, this love of God that passes knowledge that you might be filled, that you might be filled, listen, with all the fullness of God. That means that you might be able to see everything like God sees it. So we’re going to be discovering some interesting things as we’re part of this tidal wave, this tsunami of grace revelation that multitudes are coming into and as they come into it, they’re coming out of the slavery of religious bondage.
And some of these doctrines that we’re exploring like this, this illusion of hell is one of the things that God is bringing. It’s one of the Egypts that has held us in slavery. It’s held us in great mental torment.
There have been people that have had emotional difficulties because of this doctrine. And so, as we discover grace and we discover the love of God, it takes us into some things that begin to expose the good news beyond anything we imagined.
And so let me remind you, the good news is not something we have to do.
The good news is something that Christ has done freely for all of us. So, multitudes are seeing this and multitudes are getting freer and freer and the more free you get, honestly, the more free you get, the more you feel able to look at a lot of things that we’ve never felt like we could look at or question before. So that’s been my journey.
My journey has been very specific. My journey started with grace in 2004, being a good evangelical Christian for years and years I’ve discovered grace that took me to the fatherhood of God revelation … and that made me start to see things like this, this particular topic that we’re talking about for the next four or five weeks. I began to see it from a different perspective that took me then to a better understanding of what love is all about … love people and not seeing people after the flesh.
And then that took me to the revelation of sonship in a dimension that I hadn’t seen before. And that took me over then to embracing divinity, which we’re still in that series about 23, 24 messages deep and out of embracing divinity, I begin to see this thing of manifesting sonship in maturity. So, I feel that my assignment is I’ve come through every one of those phases.
If you’ve been with me over a period of years, I feel like my assignment has been to uncover and expose all of the obstacles that have deeply ingrained within us. Some of us for decades and decades and decades of being a Christ follower, they have been ingrained into our psyche that have stopped this revelatory process. And that’s one reason I’ve got a hold of this, this illusion of hell, like a bulldog has a hold of a bone … because I feel with all of my heart that this is one of the things that has held us back from walking in a deeper revelation of God’s love … of the fatherhood of God manifesting his sons, understanding that our identity is divinity.
And once we get this off the table, once we begin to look at this, the way that the father looks at it, the way that scripture rightfully presents it, I think it’s going to free us up. So I’ve had to work through a lot of religious garbage. I’ve come through decades of religious and mental garbage that I don’t want the next wave to have to come through.
I for sure don’t want my grandkids to have to come through it. And so this is, we’re working our way through things. And this is a huge doctrine we’re working our way through.
This is the Goliath of obstacles. If I can say it like this, this is the Goliath of obstacles that’s standing. And it has been for hundreds and thousands of years now, mocking and intimidating people on the entire planet.
And this Goliath is called eternal conscious torment. So, I’ve looked, I’ve looked at this Goliath and I’ve got, I’ve got my five messages in my bag. All right.
And I’m going to begin to bring one message at a time out until we can bring this giant down that has tormented people in their minds since the fourth century, when Augustine actually developed this doctrine. He’s the father of Western church. And he took some things and twisted them and invented a fiery, customized torture chamber that has been taught that the majority of creation will spend eternity there.
But when we pull out our stones, when we pull out our message and we bring this Goliath down, I think it’s going to create an exponential wave of love for the Father. That’s why this hell illusion is coming to a head. God is, God is flooding the earth with a revelation of his love.
One of the prophets said that he’s going to cover the earth with his glory as the waters cover the sea. And that’s what’s going on today. So as we can move some of this, this, these things out from in front of us that have, that have stopped us from seeing things as we ought to see them.
People’s full trust is not going to be in one that they don’t fear. It’s going to be in one that they feel security with. You know, you’ll never feel secure with someone that you fear.
And so, a lot of us have not felt real secure with, with God, with the father, because we’ve, we’ve had this driven down fear that we’re just not quite sure how this whole thing is going to shake out. We hope we know, we hope we can secure an eternity that will be in his favor, but we’ve never been sure. And it’s all been because of this one doctrine.
So, I expect pushback on this. I know that I’m not going to do this and everybody’s going to be happy with me. I’m probably going to lose a few friends, but I believe that if I can relieve people of needless fear and insecurity, that whatever price that I’m going to pay for doing this is going to be well worth it.
All right. So, if you have been in bondage, or if you’ve been fearful, mentally harassed with the thought that you might be eternally, and boy, eternities, you know, the way we’ve had a perspective on it is a long time. If that has been a mental harassment to you, my goal is by the time we’re done with this, that you’ll no longer feel that insecurity.
So just as I get into this, just a couple of questions I want you to think about. And I told you, we’ll be starting this out nice and easy. I’m going to start with kind of where you’re at.
And by week two or three, four, we’re going to take you to where you’re, you’re, you’re not probably in your thinking. But just a couple of questions for you to think about as we get into this.
Question number one would be this …
How can an all-powerful, all-loving God create billions of people ahead of time, knowing that they’re going to be tormented in fire forever?
Think about that question. How can an all-powerful, all-loving God create billions of people knowing ahead of time as he creates them, knowing that the majority of them are going to spend eternity tormented in fire?
Now, think about this with me. Right now, there’s about 6 billion people on the planet.
2 billion of those 6 billion would claim to be Christians.
So, the evangelical community would look at those, those 2 billion that claim to be Christians and 1 billion would be Catholics. And so they would immediately say that 1 billion of the 2 billion that claim to be Christians are not in fact Christians because they didn’t pray the prayer. They didn’t do what needed to be done to be a Christian.
So, the church that you and I have been part of, that most, a lot of us grew up in, spent years in it, honestly looks at the 6 billion people and would say 1 billion at best. And boy, there’d be a lot of bickering even among that billion as to who really was right with God or who was saved.
But at best case scenario, 1 billion out of 6 billion would actually be saved.
That means 1 sixth is actually .166% (sic) or 16% would make it.
That means that you and I have grown up in an environment where 84% of the people ahead of time were thought that they were going to be eternally lost.
Does that bother you at all? I’m telling you, it bothers me a lot that we have put a percentage like that that just seems unrealistic and unreasonable.
All right, here’s another question … Is the power of our free will greater to damn ourselves? Is it greater than the free will of God to save us? Does our free will trump God’s free will?
2 Peter chapter 3, I’m going to give you a couple of scriptures on this.
Does our free will, as much as you think your will might be free, does your free will actually trump the will of God?
And here’s what God said his will is. 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 9. 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 9 says this. The Lord’s not slack concerning his promises as some count slackness, but as longsuffering toward us.
Now watch, he’s not willing. That’s his free will exercise. He’s not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Then we read in Psalm chapter 24. Psalm chapter 24 and verse 1. Watch this. Psalm chapter 24 and verse 1 says: The earth is the Lord’s and all of its fullness, the world and all those that dwell therein.
All right. So, the scripture is expressing that the will of God is that he owns everything in the world, including the people.
And that his will is that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So is the power of our free will, is that power stronger than what God says his will is? At the end of the day, whose will is going to, whose will is going to trump whos? If I were a betting man, I would say that the free will of God is going to trump the free will of man and God’s will will be done.
Question number three.
Think about this. How can last Adam, Jesus, be considered greater than first Adam … if first Adam had power over all of the human race to condemn it, and last Adam is only able to save a few? How can that be? I want you to be with me this week.
Think about that. We have given first Adam more power than we have given last Adam. We have said first Adam has affected every person that has ever been born, brought them into a world.
And here, you know, I’ve debunked this before, but here was our thought pattern.
- That they came into the world with a fallen nature, depraved, separated from God. Every human being because of first Adam.
- Then when the son of God comes along and scripture calls him the last Adam, we say that last Adam is only able to save a few that first Adam caused to be lost. Does that seem reasonable? I don’t think so. Neither does the scripture.
In first Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 22, it says, bottom line, it says, just as all died in first Adam, so shall all be made alive in last Adam.
All right. So, the scripture doesn’t teach us that first Adam is more powerful than last Adam.
I’m just laying some foundation down here.
And then we read, we read in Romans chapter 5 and verse 17. It says this, for if by one man’s offense, death entered into the world. Even so much more, much more … They which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Christ Jesus.
So there again, there’s a verse that tells us, yeah, okay. One, one got us off track, opened the door that we walked in. But those that receive abundance of grace and a gift of righteousness because of what the second man did, they will reign in life.
So I don’t think that we can ascribe a greater ability and power over all of humanity to first Adam than what we did last Adam.
If first Adam came and brought sin into the world, last Adam came and saved all that had been ensnared by first Adam. So we’ve got a serious problem. We really do.
Here’s the problem. The problem is the general belief of the vast majority of Christians today is that the far greater percentage are going to a place of eternal conscious torment. Now down deep inside, I got to think down deep inside at some point in your life, you probably looked at that and you go, something’s not right with that.
Something’s wrong with that concept. It just makes no sense. It bothered me for years, honestly.
I would look at this and I would think, man, are we just polishing brass on a sinking ship? I mean, have we really aligned ourselves with such a minority of people that we are think like we’re the select club that’s going to make it and everybody else isn’t? And you look at this and you begin to know something’s not right with it. It makes no sense. I would always take those questions that I had and I would just push those thoughts and questions down because frankly, that’s all we ever heard.
That’s all we knew. That’s what we were told the Bible says. So, we’ve come by this embedded illusion rightfully.
99.9% of us that are watching this morning, you’re with me this morning and you’re watching me as I begin just to ponder this series, begin to unwind it and maybe do a little bit of poking around where you’ve been … or poke some of the things that you’ve held on to.
99% of us have come through two theological streams where hell was never questioned. It was just simply accepted as the way that it is.
Some of us that are watching this morning, some of us that are part of the digital cathedral came from a Calvinistic background. Calvinism says essentially this, it’s a doctrine of predestination. It says essentially that God is not willing and does not desire to save all of his children.
In fact, as I was researching some of this out, I caught a little clip by a pastor named John MacArthur who is definitely a Calvinist and here’s what he said. I wrote this down because I thought this highlights this position. He said, and I quote, ”God purposely created most people to be damned forever and that gives God great glory”.
Calvinism says, yeah, God’s all powerful and he destined some to be saved and he destined from the very beginning when he creates them, he knows in his mind they’re going to hell. In fact, he creates them for that and that gives him great glory. And frankly, it’s just the luck of the draw.
If you are fortunate enough to have been predestined for heaven, then part of a Calvinistic belief is that you will encounter grace. It’ll be irresistible. You’ll go for it.
If you weren’t, you’ll never encounter it and you’ll just be lost forever. And that’s what God destined. God controls it and God built some of us for heaven, some for hell.
And the whole doctrine or the whole stream of theology says that it gives God great glory. And even when you listen to someone like John MacArthur, he will actually tell you at times that God will look over the edge of heaven and he will laugh at those that are in hell and it brings him great delight to see those that are being punished eternally.
Presbyterians have a Calvinistic background. The Reformed Church … some very fundamental Baptist churches are Calvinistic … United Church of Christ … They represent Calvinism and the predestination that all are either going to heaven or hell.
The person has nothing to do with it. That’s what they were created for. Some of us came through that.
Some of us came, most of us came through the Armenian stream, the Arminianism.
Arminianism says this. It says God desires … Arminians believe that God desires to save everybody but that God will not, he cannot infringe on man’s free will.
Even if that person is uninformed, self-destructive, suicidal, can’t comprehend, has emotional problems, all that God can do is offer to man the opportunity to be born again. That we were born in, check this out, God gives the opportunity, God gives the chance … to people … Arminians would believe … that are born with an endemic nature, a bend toward evil, no spiritual perception, prone to make bad decisions by their very nature … This person that is in that jacked up condition is supposed to be able to make a logical, spiritual, free will decision for Jesus.
All right, does that seem a little bit convoluted to you? That you could put a person in that position of being so disadvantaged … and then expect them to be eternally accountable for making a good, sound, spiritual decision.
All right, Arminianism is represented by Methodist, Seventh-day Adventist, Assembly of God, Church of the Nazarene … and most charismatic Pentecostal churches have their roots in Arminianism.
So, John Calvin birthed Calvinism in the early 1500s.
James Arminius birthed Arminianism in the late 1500s … and Arminianism was actually a reaction to Calvinism’s brutal doctrine of predestination.
But now I just bring Calvin and Arminius to light to say this, these two positions are simply theologies that two men developed. Two men developed these, but they have been so prevalent in our nation and in the Western world that these have been the only two avenues any of us ever came down.
Now, I want to say more on the history later when I get into some of the other messages and teachings. But what I wanted you to see in this first teaching, I wanted you to understand where you’ve come from and why you’re where you’re at.
You’ve come by this doctrine of eternal conscious torment rightfully because there was no other, there was no other alternative.
We absolutely knew nothing else. Those were the only two choices in the Western world and both of the choices — Calvinism and Arminianism — had hell as a linchpin for gaining converts. And then for keeping converts … That’s why you got saved ,,, most of us. That’s why you lived a life for the Lord.
That’s where I was at for 50 years and I had no inclination to change. That’s the way that it was.
That’s the way it was … and life was just a test to see if you could make the cut to get into heaven … so that you didn’t go to hell. Now those two doctrines were developed in the 1500s. John Calvin, Calvinism … James Arminius, Arminianism.
Now let’s just trace a little bit further.
In the 1700s, during the time of Reformation, men like John Wesley, George Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards, the reformers, they preached a hell that was hot and heavy. And then later in the 1950s and 60s, Billy Graham, in our generation, used the “get saved to get out of hell” card as his main message.
I remember sitting in Chicago when I was just a young boy listening to Billy Graham. My family, we went to Chicago and heard Billy Graham at Soldier’s Field and that was the message of Billy Graham. ”Come to Jesus so that you don’t go to hell”.
And so it’s been ingrained in us since the 1500s. Think about that. That’s over 500 years. 500 years. That’s all we have known … is Calvinism and Arminianism.
We have the central part of this man-made … two man-made theologies have a central part in it with a message of hell and then it’s been affirmed by the reformers in the 1700s … Billy Graham later … and now you know most evangelical fundamental churches have used that as the message.
So, when anyone comes along and questions it … just questions it … or doubts it … doubts this accepted truth … you’re immediately written off as a false teacher … a heretic … because we don’t wanna hear anything else. Right? You know, what … Do you know? Why?
You know why we don’t want to hear anything else? Because that’s the main motivation.
I remember as a little boy, brother, that’s why I came to Jesus. I didn’t want to go to hell. At six years old … and I remember hearing a message about hell … I tell you what
that was not a place that at 6 years old. It scared the hell out of me … So I got down to the altar as fast I could go and prayed the prayer.
You know why? Because I didn’t want to go to hell .
Heaven … Yeah! …Heaven’s a good deal … but I didn’t want to go into that place … and so, when someone comes along and questions it … and says maybe we’ve looked at this wrong … we immediately think well … why did I get saved then? and when I talk to people about well let’s … let’s examine this …
people either react one of two ways: either makes them angry that they’ve been lied to … or they deny that they’ve been lied to and hold on to what they’ve been taught
People, look at when you come and you begin to explain … Look, this … this is an illusion, guys.
Let’s look at this … let’s start tracing this … They feel like they’ve been tricked or duped
They’ve lived this life of feeling relieved … like I’m in … I’ve got it made … I did what I need to do to miss out … so you come along saying there’s no hell, you shake what they’ve held on to as the basis of their walking with Jesus all of their life. But here’s the thing guys …
Did Jesus teach this? Did the apostles teach this? Did Paul teach this in scripture?
You’d think such an important doctrine would be profusely taught, especially in the New Testament. And we’re going to get into this and you’re going to find some things.
Next Sunday, I’m going to cover all of the times that hell is mentioned in the Bible.
I’m going to cover every single time it’s mentioned … and what you’re gonna find is this: that John, for example, the one that was the arguably the closest to Jesus … at least John thought he was the one that Jesus loved the most … in his gospel of John, or first second and third John … any writing of John … John never used the word hell one time in his writings.
There’s also something else you’re going to discover … as we get into it … Paul, who was the messenger to the gentiles, wrote 2/3 of the New Testament … he never used the word one time in any of his teachings.
He’s our guy … he brought the gospel … He brought the gospel to the gentiles.
If such an important subject as hell was to be emphasized … and was to be ingrained within us, don’t you think that Paul would have at least in every letter to every church he would have gotten down with this and would have explained it in a minute detail as to how to avoid it?
Let me ask you … in all your years in church did any pastor ever tell you that Paul never taught on hell? Any pastor ever tell you Paul never taught any message one time and used the word hell do you know why they didn’t tell you that? … Because he never did. That’s why.
So we’ve got… what we’ve got is … are two man-made theologies, with hell as the whip and Heaven as the carrot … and yet, we will discover that … neither Jesus nor Paul made anything close to that as the center of their message … to the Jews by Jesus … or to gentiles by Paul. Right?
Jesus’ core message was the inclusive love of the Father for everybody. Is that what John 3:16 is about? God so loved the world he so loved the world that he gave his son … an inclusive love for all humanity.
The core of Paul’s message was this inclusive work of the cross that encompassed all of us … the reconciliation of the entire cosmos by Jesus.
So how has this hell illusion affected the spread of the of the gospel?
How has it … how has it changed the pure gospel of Jesus plus nothing?
Why hasn’t our culture been affected and why? Why are multitudes not drawn to organized religion? Why has the good news been perverted so much?
How has this message affected us?
I’m going to give you 6 things real quick with some scripture … then I’m gonna stop.
This message … number one … has affected us because it contradicts the unending unfailing love of the father … it perverts (the Gospel, by promoting) the idea that we have to love him before he loves us … when, in fact, 1 John 4:19 says that we love him because he first loves us.
So what am I saying ? I’m saying that one of the blows against this doctrine is this … the Father takes responsibility to love … and to nurture … and to bring all of his creation into safety. That’s what love does.
Another thing I’ve noticed …
#2 here’s how this doctrine has affected us that affect our culture it has made our worship more out of fear than love.
I found a lot of times … as I’ve stood in church and we’ve gone through the … praise and the worship service … I have felt a lot of times … that people were actually worshipping God in a way to convince God how much they loved him … in a … in a way to convince God that through their worship, they were expressing how much they loved him … in order to be accepted by him.
Do you know what the motivation of that is? I’m afraid I’m not accepted … if I’m not accepted, I’m going to spend eternity in a place I don’t want to spend it … so let me just worship you … Let me show you how much I love you … Let me show you that my heart is towards you so that you’ll accept me.
You know what the Bible says? The Bible says this there is no fear in love … perfect love casts out fear … because fear involves torment. Anything that has torment attached to it has not come through the filter of love yet … So, when you take this whole doctrine of hell … this illusion of hell … and you pass it through the filter of love, what comes out the other side is something that is free of torment.
So, if you’ve looked at hell as a doctrine that carries torment with it, I can tell you something … you’ve not been perfected … you’ve not understood the love of God.
But here’s another way (3) that it has affected us … it has denied his ability to accomplish his will.
We read in second Peter chapter 3 verse 8 and verse 9, that God is not willing that any should perish … but you know what? I want … I wanna add what 1 little part on that … I’m gonna … let me just read this for you again … because this is so important … that we need to understand that what God’s will is will be performed.
In second Peter chapter 3 verse 8 … Let me read verse 8 and 9. Verse 8 says “Beloved, do not forget this one thing that with the Lord one day is as 1000 years and 1000 years as is one day”
God’s got a lot of time to work his will.
Then he goes on and says “the Lord is not slack concerning his promises … as some may count slackness of his long-suffering toward us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
Now, let’s read this … look at Isaiah chapter 46 … this whole idea of an eternal conscious torment brings about this … this entire feeling that God’s will not be accomplished … Isaiah chapter 46 and verse 9 … it says “remember the former things of old, for I am God there is no other.” He said, “I am God; there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure.”
That tells me that God’s will is the greatest will. So, when God … when God begins to say things like “He’s not willing that any should perish” … it’s his will to bring all to repentance … it’s his will that has reconciled all men … it tells me that the will of God will be done.
Now what we’ve done is we’ve taken … with Arminianism … we have taken man’s will and we have made it the God … and we have said that God will not violate man’s will. Excuse me. Excuse me … God’s will be done.
Well, you know what you’re saying is
and this is #4 … we’ve made man’s will greater than God’s will.
We’ve made man having the last word and not God.
Alright, let me just concede this: God will never override your will … He doesn’t have to … You know what he will do? He will influence you … UNTIL you make the right choice.
Come on … Isn’t that what happened to the apostle Paul … Saul, who became Paul??
he was on the Damascus road … and the Lord knocked him to the ground … and he looked at … he said “Lord, what do you want me to do?” Did God violate Saul’s (free) will??? … NO. Saul made the decision … but, let me tell you something … if God knocks you to the ground and shines a great light on you, that’s an influence. Yes … Yes, Paul made the decision … but God influenced him … and that’s how any of us ever came to him … He influenced us … it was a song … it was a message … it was a testimony … it was something.
Yeah, we made the decision, but … He brought the influence that made the decision.
#5 … it totally … this doctrine of hell totally denies the finished work of the cross. It says that death and hell are not defeated … and yet revelation chapter 1 and verse 18 (Rev.1:18) tells us that (Christ) has the keys to death and to hell.
Luke chapter 19 verse 10 (Luke 19:10) says that Jesus came not only to seek, but also to save that which was lost.
The “finished” work of the cross made everything that Jesus came to accomplish finished.
and number six … it contradicts a multitude of verses that promises a glorious hope for everybody.
Doesn’t the Bible say in Philippians chapter 2 verse 9,10 and 11 (Phil.2:9-11) that Jesus has been given a name that is above every name … that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Let me submit to you that is not a forced praise … That comes out … That comes out of a heart that has had a revelation … that has had an influence … that has had light shined on it.
Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6 says that he is faithful who started the good work who also will finish it.
There’s a multitude of scriptures that we can run through that give us a great glorious hope for all men.
Now it’s tragic … it’s very tragic … but it’s true that this whole illusion of hell has polluted this abundant life that Jesus came to give us … to live in denial … It’s polluted us until … listen to me … I’m concluding … it’s polluted us until the only mission many of us have is … to get ourselves prepared to go … there … off into a heaven … out yonder someplace.
This doctrine of hell has polluted us until now the only mission of life is to make sure we’re ready to go to heaven … and miss hell … and all that is because we’ve come from 2 streams of theology that took 3 words … and I’m gonna get into this next Sunday morning … so you don’t wanna miss this … taking 3 words: sheol; hades and Gehenna … and has redefined them … to fit the narrative of eternal conscious torment … we’re gonna get into that next week.
So, all I wanted to get through to you this morning was that … this doctrine … you’ve come by it rightfully … and the reason it is so ingrained in you is because that’s all you’ve ever heard. There’s never been an alternative … Nobody’s challenged it … nobody’s questioned it … The pastors you’ve had over the years … they learned it in seminary … they haven’t questioned it. It’s just we see the word in the Bible and so there it is. It’s the only thing we can do .
So, next week, I’m going to take on the illusion held … the illusion the Bible never mentions … not even once … You don’t want to miss that one.
Alright, now, Wednesday night … what I’m going to do on Wednesday nights … while I’m doing this little series … I’m going to take questions that are often asked, as you begin to debunk this doctrine of hell … like … one of the questions already that has come to me is What about the unpardonable sin? What about the unpardonable sin? or people often ask me, Well, if there is no hell, then, why live for God? Well, we’ll answer that. Well, if there’s no hell, why evangelize? Well, we’ll answer that. We’re going to take often asked questions what kind of review the Sunday teaching on Wednesday but I want to take 3 or 4 questions every week that people ask and we’ll answer them on Wednesday night to help you with this.
Alright … this morning you got the thrust of the message. We’ve opened the door … We’ll begin to unwind it on a deeper level next week. God bless you. Have a wonderful week. Keep your heart open to what the Lord says to you this week about this subject. Do a little study yourself … and see what you find. God bless you. We’ll see you next Sunday morning on the digital but great week.