I’ve written against the usual doctrines of hell and eternal punishment now and again on this blog…you can see the works by choosing the Hell category from the list at right. However until we changed to WordPress I never had a good way of providing my original source material for others to evaluate or critique. This post is just to make that material available. At the following link you can download a PDF table of all the references I found in the New Testament, that I believe contribute to the question of eternal destiny, along with my assessment of who the target audience was, and what insight (if any) each reference brings to the question. Here’s the document:
https://www.nailtothedoor.com/eternal-destiny-part-1/hell_reference/
Last Sunday, we heard what I believe to be the best succinct summary of the real situation, when our brother observed, “When Jesus called us, it was not to a destination to anticipate, but to a journey in which to participate, in company with him and with all others he has called.”
Try that on for size.
Yup. Exactly that!
Great comment Ruth. Very well stated.
Very good, thanks for sharing. Would God tell us to love our enemies and then turn around and torture His? He will judge, punish and correct- how He sees fit. He will not write people off forever. This is the Good News!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjRcO1Sm0HU
Thanks, Jackson.
I think it’s one thing to deny there’s a scriptural case for eternal conscious punishment (which you and I both deny), but it’s another entirely to state with certainty “he will not write people off forever.” While that’s a logically attractive option, I don’t know that we can either prove or disprove it from the balance of scriptural evidence. I’m much more comfortable saying that we’re not as sure as most want to be, and then trusting to God’s mercy. In other words, I think the best case that can be made from the scriptural evidence is that we don’t have enough evidence to reach a conclusion.