I confess that I've never seen a website such as yours. I personally would love to know where you received your biblical knowledge. Did you get any degree in any bible related topics ? Do you know what "hermeneutics" are?

I wish you would put on your website where you went to school because you apparently do not know the difference between proper hermeneutics and most of the doctrines of the bible.

I'd love to see your qualifications listed on your website.

In Christ love,

Fred

[Ray Replies]

Dear Fred:

Actually my credentials are listed a dozen times in my papers on my site. But just for you, Fred, once more:

Peter was a FISHERMAN
Paul was a TENTMAKER
Jesus was a CARPENTER
And I?  I am a ROOFER.

Pretty impressive, huh?

Now for a little lesson in "hermeneutics--roofer style"--

In Revelation 20:10, we find this phrase in the King James Bible:

"...and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever"

Probably many TENS OF THOUSANDS of scholars, translators, and men of the cloth skilled in "hermeneutics" have looked and read this phrase from the King James, and found it to stand the test of time and scrutiny, to remain as it was originally stated four hundred years ago.

Let's look at that phrase once again, not through the eyes of AWESOME (to be worshipped) "RELIGIOUS SCHOLARS," but through the eyes of a "roofer."

Tis true: I don't know a lick of Hebrew or Greek, and struggle horribly with the English language, but bear with me for a few moments:

Here is what this phrase "ever and ever" looks like in the Greek when in English, word for word, and then with the word for word English translation underneath each Greek word:

"tous     aionas      ton     aionon"
  the       eons     of the      eons

[1]  The article "the" (tous) has been completely LEFT OUT in the King James!

[2]  The NOUN "eons" or "ages" (aionas) has been changed to an ADJECTIVE, "ever."

[3]  The PLURAL noun "eons" has ben changed to the SINGULAR adjective "ever."

[4]  The GENITIVE "of" has been changed into the CONJUNCTION, "and."

[5]  The NOUN :"eons" (aionon) has once more been changed to an ADJECTIVE, "ever."

Three little words, "ever and ever" has been a hermeneutical NIGHTMARE!  It has spawned visions of billions and billions of defenseless humans WRITHING IN UNSPEAKABLE TORTURE BY FIRE FOR ALL ETERNITY, and supposedly perpetrated by the god that should be WORSHIPED for such crimes.

But what are the facts?  Here are the facts ... Three little words:

FIVE UNSPEAKABLE CRIMES AGAINST ALL KNOWN RULES OF LANGUAGE, GRAMMAR, AND TRANSLATION!!!

And that ends our lesson in "Christian Hermeneutics" for the day, boys and girls.

God be with you,

Ray

Well, Mr. Smith, you are a little late in trying to convince me there is no eternal lake of fire! Or eons as you put it. Why? Well, just before I was baptized I told GOD that I didn't believe in hell, lake of fire or torment. He was to loving of a GOD to do that to anyone! HA! Long story but to make it short I was under the water being baptized.

I suddenly found myself IN THE LAKE OF FIRE! I felt its horror, torment, pain is not even close to a word I could describe. I saw so many, 1000s of other souls being tormented like me. Clawing to get out, looking up to only see long shooting flames above the darkness I was in! All I wanted to do was get out of such horror. Like a 1000 needles poking my soul with hotter than hotter tips that, well, I never have thought of a word that could even come close to its description of terror, pain, torture. I do know I knew I would never get out, escape, ever! I knew NO GOD! All I remember was I was in a prison of torment forever...! Never to get out. Every time I tried to claw my way up hoping for one gasp of air, I would be pulled down under, back into the darkness of pain I cannot describe. Then I would start all over again trying to escape that fire that was more hurt, pain, torment than I know how to explain. But somehow I knew that I would NEVER be free from it all.

That was 18 yrs. ago & to this day I still cannot find a word or words to describe it, pain of a burning soul in the lake of fire! Then the pastor I guess brought me up from water of baptism & suddenly I found myself leaving the earth & landing right in front of HIM! GOD! But I will not get into that. I knew I was sitting on mercy seat in third heaven.

IF GOD had not taken me there after the Lake of Fire experience I think I would have came up without a sane mind! It was that bad! There was more that happen to me down there but I am not going into that. I was fully awake of course as I was in church being baptized. No vision, dream it was not! BUT God did prove to me there is a lake of fire of torture for all who reject Christ as HIS son that died on a cross, shedding His blood for all who WILL receive Him!

I can't write as well as you or have great worldly knowledge like you, but I sure know one thing. Lake of Fire exist for so many! So you are never going to convince me there is no torment waiting the evil men on earth or those good men that will never accept Jesus as the only son of GOD!

So you see, I know not every one will make it. In fact not as many as I thought at one time.

I don't watch john Hagee myself, or TBN much & do consider most teachers to be lacking in bible knowledge of much truth, but at least they are trying to save all they can from going into that horror of the lake of fire in the very end!

So that is my comment to you. Believe what you want but I know what is going to happen to all that turn their backs on Jesus! No doubt in my mind. GOD all ready proved it to me.

Pat

[Ray replies to us]

I cannot believe that people can actually revel in such utterly shameful, blasphemous FILTH!  Just how SICK can the human heart and mind get?

Not only does this person think that God will torture billions of humans in literal fire, but as that is not enough pain, he will supposedly be sticking thousands of needles in their burning bodies! Thank God that all such sick sick minds and hearts will have all this filth burned out of them one day in the real LAKE OF FIRE!

Ray

Dear L. Ray,

I am enjoying your site very much and am learning new and am unlearning the old.  Frequently in your papers and emails on 'aion' and 'aionios' you will make comments similar to this, "It is a law of grammar and language, NO ADJECTIVE can take on a greater or different meaning from the noun from which it is derived."   I was unable to find this law anywhere (naturally that does not mean it does not exit) and have some examples which do not seem to follow this law.   I believe these adjectives do take on a greater meaning than their nouns; time/timeless, super/superior, age/ageless, etc.  These are only three examples of what appears to be an adjective taking on a greater meaning than the noun from which it was derived.  How am I missing the 'grammatical boat' here?

God bless you,

Wes

[Ray Replies]

Dear Wes:

I am sorry, but I really don't have the time to fully cover this guy's stupid and foolish arguments against my paper on "Everlasting." I hope to do this in the future, but as of now, I am hopelessly behind in my writing and people get really really angry if I don't answer ever silly question they have.

Yours is a good question, however, but it will take me several days to answer it properly. But here it is in a nutshell.

First you state: "I believe these adjectives do take on a greater meaning than their nouns: time/timeless, super/superior, age/ageless, ETC."  No, Wes, there is NO "ETC." to it. "Age and time" is IT, there is no "etc., etc., etc."

This Holding fellow is as deceived as the rest of the Christian world.

The word "superior" is NOT SUPERIOR to the word "super."  You merely took this guy's word for it without checking. Look up the word "superior" in a dictionary, and you will find that the definition is "SUPER"  Super and Superior have the same meaning, it's just that one is a noun and one is an adjective. The same is true with a few other words which people think mean more than they do.

Example: "priceless" does not mean THE LARGEST PRICE POSSIBLE, or higher than ANY price. It means that it HAS NO PRICE--NONE, it is said to be "priceLESS."  Most things do or can have a price, but something that is "priceLESS" DOESN'T HAVE A PRICE!!

Now then, to tell me that "ageless" and "timeless" take on a GREATER MEANING that "age" or "time," makes about as much sense as to prove to me that "aionion" mean "eternity," by showing me how the King James TRANSLATES IT!!

That is the point of my papers. There words have been TAMPERED with by the theologians. The Latin "Eternus" which is used exactly the same way that "world," "age," and "seculum" is used by Jerome proves that even He did not believe this word had to mean "endless."  It was the theologians who changed the meaning of these words. It was the Christian theologians that began speaking of ENDLESS ages/ENDLESS eons/ENDLESS aionios.

Just where do you think modern dictionaries got their definitions for words? Where do you suppose they go to find the definition of a Christian "hell?"  To some pagan or heathen? To the scholars of Russia? The dictionaries got their definition of "timeless" and "ageless" (whether they know it or not) through CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.

Technically and according to ALL dictionary definitions of words, "ageless" does NOT mean never ending time, nor does "timeless."

The suffix "-less" NEVER means MORE!! And that is the end of your "Etc."

Look up ANY word ending in "less" and see what the definition is. "Less" means "not as much as," not "MORE than."

What does it mean to be "homeless?"  Do the homeless have homes or do they not?

What does "hopeless" mean? "clueless?"   "meaningless?" "penniless?" ETC., ETC., ETC.

Here you can use you "Etc." because there are many many of them, and they all mean "LESS THAN," not "MORE THAN."

Hope this helps your understanding.

God be with you,

Ray

Hi Mr. Smith

My name is Charles and I am a regular reader of your material. I must say that most of the things you have written were an eye opener however there are still some things that are still un-clear to me and I'm hoping that you can enlighten me.

(1) You wrote about free will and proved it scripturally to be a myth of which after doing the studying myself concluded that it is a myth. But my question is, since the scriptures prove that man has no free will why is it that the Bible always says God will give to each man according to what he has done when it is God Who causes man to will and to do what they do? It sounds like the scriptures are holding man responsible for his actions. I mean God causes us to do all things then he must reward us according to what we have done? What about those He caused to do evil? What is their reward? It's not like they chose to do evil of their own "free will." God caused everything now how does He reward them when He Himself caused them to do those evil things in the first place?

(2) The scriptures prove that man has no free-will, but in your exposing those who contradict the Word you make [it] seem like it's up to those people to repent of their evil, and on the other hand you have proven to us scripturally that man cannot repent of his own will. Do you think I would be hard on you if I were to use the word CONTRADICTING Mr. Smith? Because you keep saying "Free will is an idol of the heart and if not repented of...... "It sounds like the responsibility is on man to repent." And again you say, "hell and lake of fire torture is a Christian hoax it must be given up" Again Mr. Smith it sounds like you expecting man to give it up of themselves without the aid of God.

(3) Lastly, since all is of God including evil and since God causes us to will and to do why is it then that God says He does not want us to sin when He causes us to make e decisions which lead us to sin? For example, God says I hate divorce, do not lie, steal,fornicate, commit adultery... etc but then He uses circumstances to cause us do these things which he says we must not do. Please help me understand!!!!!

[Ray Replies]

Dear Charles:

As these are matters of the spirit, only God can ultimately help you to understand. I will, however, attempt to point you in the right direction.

I realize that almost all people when dealing with this matter of free will, unknowingly use words that are not accurate and often defamatory in trying to rectify God's works in their minds.  We cannot force God's ways in to OUR WAYS. Yet we have all been guilty of trying to do this most of our lives.

God plainly speaks at times, and at others He speaks in mysteries. Here is a plain statement from God that explains the mysterious ones: 

"For My thoughts ARE NOT your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, SO [in like manner] are My ways HIGHER than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts"  (Isa. 55:8-9).

Now there IS the answer, yet we will not accept that answer because we don't understand that answer.  Why then do you and most of the world have a problem with God and His operation of things, and I don't?  Why do you use the "CONTRADICTION" and I don't.  Is there any way to bridge this dichotomy of God's thoughts and our thoughts?  Yes there is: 

"Let this MIND BE IN Y-O-U, which was also in Christ Jesus..." (Phil. 2:5).

Without the mind of God, we will never understand the spiritual things of God. They will ALWAYS seem like "foolishness" to the carnal mind.

"But the natural man receives NOT the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are SPIRITUALLY DISCERNED"  (I Cor. 2:14).

As it is absolutely Scripturally true that man has no free will, and therefore is always subject to the higher powers that be, when people begin to see this truth, they often balk at it and feel that God is unfair and that man is being judged for things that God MADE HIM DO AGAINST HIS WILL. When in reality, NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH!!

Most of the human race has always believed that it possesses "free will."   And so as long as any man believes this falsehood, he is operating in his own little world with absolutely no grudge against God for his personal decisions.  But when he begins to see that he has no free will, he then does begin to think that he has a justifiable grudge against God for MAKING HIM SIN. He was wrong when he thought that he had free will, and he is just as wrong when he thinks that the only alternative is that God MAKES HIM SIN AGAINST HIS OWN WILL.

I have stated many times that God DOES NOT MAKE OR FORCE ANYONE TO SIN AGAINST HIS OWN WILL-- MAN DESIRES TO SIN, WANTS TO SIN, AND THEREFORE VOLUNTEERS TO SIN.  God did not FORCE or MAKE Eve eat of the forbidden fruit. Her own DESIRES caused her to lust and eat of the forbidden fruit.

And so the real question is: "Does God have the right to make mankind subject to the desires of their own heart?"  Think about it, as I have, for a few thousand hours, and maybe God will grant to you the spiritual understanding of this matter.

Hundreds of totally deceived and spiritually blind Christians have told me that: "God does not want robots to love Him-- He desires people to love Him by their OWN FREE WILL." Oh really? And can the carnal mind indeed love God by its own nature; its own heart; its own desires? NO IT CAN'T! And so the very thing that Christians demand as necessary for our love for God to be genuine, is the very thing that totally disqualifies it from being genuine. The natural mind is totally incapable of  loving God:

"For the carnal mind is enmity [deep-seated HATRED] AGAINST GOD..." (Rom. 8:7).

It all starts with God, not with us: 

"We love Him [God] because He FIRST LOVED US"  (I John 4:19).

God created mankind spiritually WEAK--subject to the lusts and sins of his own heart, so that man will learn that he CANNOT love God first; he cannot obey spiritual laws and commandments; he cannot please God; he cannot accomplish anything of lasting value through his wicked and deceitful heart. (Jer. 17:9). And therefore God's ways will justify His means. The rewards and the blessings are not even to be compared with the glory that God is creating in the human race (Rom. 8:18).

And so here is the answer to your question:

BEFORE spiritual conversion man FALSELY THINKS that he has free will and is for all intent and purpose a god unto himself.

AFTER spiritual conversion man will be eternally thankful that God never gave his such a foolish concept as "free will," or he would never ever realize the marvelous highest of power and glory that God has in mind for him.

And presently, you and some few others, are in between these two extremes of human understanding. I will pray for God to grant to you "spirit of wisdom" so that you will comprehend and apprehend the marvelous and mysterious working of our God.

God be with you,

Ray

Hello Ray,

Cheers to your spreading the truth! I really admire someone with intelligence.

A quick question, please. If we are to love our enemy, does that mean we should not defend ourselves?

Scenario: A person breaks into your house and attacks your family. Should we not fight off the attack?

Thank you, Matt

[Ray Replies]

Dear Matt:

That's a fair question, and I do not wish to offend you in any way for asking it, but let me use your email as a teaching tool for others as well, okay?   I really hate answering hypothetical questions. Five minutes ago while having my coffee and watching the morning news, Chris Wallace asked Jim Baker, "IF the President were to put YOU in charge of negotiations between the US and Iran, how would you go about it?"  Mr. Baker said: "The President won't put me in charge, so I won't be doing any negotiations." When asked a second time, he replied, "I don't answer hypothetical questions.."

I have seen people backed into corners over hypothetical questions. Not that you are doing that, but if I were to put some "limitation" on the amount of force to be used in this hypothetical family attack, let's say "hypothetically 5 pounds" of force, then the question would be, "But what if the situation required 5 pounds and 1 ounce to be administered?"  What about 5 pounds and 2 ounces? 3 ounces?   What if it were a situation in which one had to shoot a person in the head with a 57 Magnum or your whole family would die? Would you shoot him? What if your family would die and the whole city with them, unless you personally would SHOOT this person?   "What if one shot in the head would SAVE THE WHOLE WORLD, would you do it, Ray?"

You know what? I don't think I want to answer hypothetical questions either. God said that we should not try to rehearse in our minds just what we would say if brought before a board of persecutors, neither do I think we need to try and rehearse what we would do if someone broke into our home. You don't know what you would do, number one, and most would not follow my advice anyway, number two. Jesus didn't say: "If a bully strikes your little girl on her right check, turn to him the left cheek of your daughter also," now did He? Although, someone will now probably ask, "But what would you do, Ray, if that happened?" You know it is possible to physically defend oneself and one's family without "hating" the offender.

Trust me when I say that if it has not yet happened, it will, when your faith with be tried in a way that is just between you and your God, and there won't even be time to send me an email.  Bottom line: Don't try to come up with 'hypothetical' situations in which you think that the laws of God and the ways of God would not be fair, or practical, or logical, and therefore would have to be changed, altered, or just totally thrown away as useless in practical, real life situations.

The shame is that many people who have used alternative measures to God's ways, and have failed in so doing, will never know how things would have been different had they just trusted God in the first place.  It is oh so true, that "we learn obedience by the things WE SUFFER."

God be with you,

Ray

1 John 5:7-8 -

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

The Holy Ghost is a person. Jesus said he was a person, a comforter.

Re: Hell

If Hell does not exist then why did Jesus talk about it a lot? Why did he talk about the rich man in hell wishing he could warn his family that hell exists?

Dear Robbins:

I John 5:7-8 should read:

"For there are three that bear record, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one." 

The words "...in heaven the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And thee are three that bear witness in earth..."   are not Scriptures and are found in NO Greek Manuscripts or even the early Latin Fathers writings and translations. These spurious words appear in no reputable manuscript, and no manuscript period, before the FIFTEEN CENTURY!  No Biblical Scholar thinks those words are part of any original manuscripts or Scriptures. They are as spurious as the pagan trinity doctrine. 

The Holy spirit OF God is certainly not a "person" as you suggest. The Holy Spirit is the "Spirit OF God the Father." I assure you, however, that God the Father is not the "Father OF the Holy Spirit." Think about that for a few years and it might come to you. Paul ALWAYS addressed and praised God the Father and His Lord Jesus Christ in EVERY salutation in EVERY epistle He ever wrote.Example: 

"Paul, an apostle of JESUS CHRIST by the will of GOD, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in CHRIST JESUS:  Grace be to you, and peace, from GOD OUR FATHER AND FROM THE LORD JESUS CHRIST" (Gal. 1:1-2).

But Paul never ONCE mentioned or addressed the Holy Spirit in ANY of his epistles EVER.  Do you have a good explanation for such an gross omission and degradation of the Holy Spirit, if the Holy Spirit is  PERSON, and VERY GOD?   Well do you?  No, of course you don't.

Jesus Christ was "conceived by THE HOLY SPIRIT."  Now then, whose Son is Jesus Christ?  Is he "The Son of the Holy Spirit?"  NO?  And why not?  Since when is the man who "conceives" a child with a women, no longer the "father" when the child is born?  Do you know of any such unscientific nonsense, Robbins?  Every little school boy in the street knows that the man who caused his mother to conceive IS HIS FATHER, not some other man or some other ghostly person.  The reason that Jesus is the "Son of the FATHER" (I1 John 3)   The reason little Johnny is the Son of his father is because his mother became pregnant by HIS SPERM.  And the reason that Jesus is the Son of the Father {II Jn 3), and not the son of some other person, is because his Mother, Mary, was made pregnant by His Father "Holy Spirit."  Am I going to fast for you?

Jesus never said the word "hell" in His entire ministry. He never said it in English, or in Greek, or in Hebrew, or in Aramaic. No responsible Bible Translation translates "sheol" as hell, or "tartarus" as hell, or "hades" as hell, or "GeHenna" as hell. You have not a clue as to what you are talking about.

Sincerely,

Ray

My dad died on this earth in 1994; in 1998 God brought hell up before my eyes, I was fully awake. And out of the huge flames came my dad, wailing with a look of horror and terror I have never seen before. His fists were clinched extremely tight and he saw me and my little girl also. I did not acknowledge him because there was nothing I could do. My dad knew if I had ever seen him in that much distress while he was on earth I would have come to his aid with all that was in me.

I was put on this earth to love my dad, he was 40 years old when I was born and he was of a immoral shallow character; he was an established drunk and as a child I never saw any of his sins and faults, I loved him sooooo very much, but now he is in hell although as a Christian I tried to help him accept Jesus, but he defiantly walked away from God. How very sad that you preach only part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Hell is real and more terrible than I have words to tell you .

[Ray Replies]

Dear Nameless:

Why do you say that "I lovED him sooooooo very much...." in the pasted tense?

Do you no longer love him? Why not?

And is your god's love no better than yours--here today; gone tomorrow?

Why did this god show YOU hell, seeing that you already claim to trust in Jesus and don't need to be warned concerning hell in your present spiritual condition.

Why didn't this god rather WARN YOUR FATHER about this hell so that he could have done something about it? 

Why did this god of your's stop loving your father? 

Why did you stop loving him?

What does you "little girl" think of this god of yours who would ROAST HER GRANDFATHER IN REAL FIRE LIKE A PIECE OF BAR-BE-QUED MEAT? 

I'm glad that you aren't my son.  May the real God have mercy upon your wretched soul.

Sincerely,

Ray

Dear Bro. Ray:

It seems that T.V. ministers get a lot of revelations about sending them money, some are talking about a "First Fruits" offering right now.  What do you think of this, Is it scriptural? ...In Kentucky, Thanks

[Ray Replies]

Dear Reader In Kentucky:

There is not one single Scripture in the entirety of the Bible that commands, suggests, or hints that anyone should be giving these two-faced, lying, deceiving, hypercritical, widow robbing, worldly, materialistic, social climbing, vain, egotistical, morally bankrupt heretics, blasphemers, false prophets, scam artists, and religious charlatans, a single penny in the name of firstfruits, secondfruits, or any other kind of seed offering or money making scam!

These flim-flam, carnival barking, extortionists will all be "cast in prison" in Judgment and will not come out until they "...have paid [back] the UTTERMOST farthing [of fraudulent and extorted money]"  (Matt. 5:26).

So the answer is, "No, it's not Scriptural."

God be with you,

Ray

Do people that take their own life spend their eternity in hell / Heaven ?   Dixie

[Ray Replies]

Dear Dixie:

Get read for a REVELATION!   Whenever someone takes their own life as in suicide, they DIE!  That's right, they're DEAD.  They don't spend an eternity ANYWHERE.

Now then, there is coming a resurrection of the DEAD (dead people, not dead bodies), both the just and the unjust (Acts 24:15).  Those in the resurrection of the just, receive eonian/age-abiding life with Jesus reigning on the earth (Rev. 5:10).  When the reign of Jesus is completed (I Cor. 15:24-26), we continue to live because God has given us not eternal life, but rather IMMORTALITY (which means 'death-less-ness' I Cor. 15:53). Those who come up in the resurrection of the unjust (which will include those who committed suicide), will be Judged. In this Judgment, they will repent, and learn to live godly and righteous lives and they too will receive immortality (Isa. 26:9, etc.).

You will need to read my Lake of Fire series to fill in all the hundreds o f details of this Judgment/Lake of Fire.

God be with you,

Ray

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