I'm new to the forum, and this is my first posting. I recently listened on-line to a sermon titled "Is There Really A Hell" given by our Pastor. My wife and I have been attending this non-denominational church since 2006. This is the first time I've heard him teach on the subject of Hell. Parts of his sermon reminded me of the sermon "The Seven Wonders Of Hell" given by John Hagee. My Pastor stated, in substance, that to deny Hell is to deny Jesus. And if we deny Jesus we deny Salvation. He also stated that no one can deny Hell without denying the bible, that if there is no Hell there is no Heaven, that no one is sent to Hell they go there by choice. He stated it's "Fair" and that "Justice demands Hell."
My wife wants to continue going to our church, but I have mixed feelings about it. I'm not sure I can continue going as I don't believe in his teaching. I also didn't agree with his teaching on the subject of Tithing. It's causing me emotional stress as we have known him and his wife for two years.
Please help guide me in the right direction.
Thanks, Fstamp...
Hello Fstamp & Welcome to the forum,
What your Pastor seems to be using is " Circular Reasoning "(maybe I'm incorrect), but when he says Denying Hell equals Denying Jesus equals Denying Salvation. Firstly the Greek Word Hades mistranslated Hell is equivalent to the Hebrew word Sheol both meaning imperceptable, the unseen place where dead people are really dead likened to a deep sleep, no conscious thought, awaiting a Resurrection. Where was Lazarus when he died, before Jesus Resurrected him, Jesus said that Lazarus has died, he's asleep; John. 11:5-26. Where was Lazarus during that interim period while dead and not yet Resurrected by Jesus, he was in that tomb, dead, without consciousness, asleep. Jesus loved Lazarus and he was his friend; If Lazarus was conscious somewhere before Jesus resurrected him, he might have been highly upset about being raised back to this wicked world.
Read Rays Articles about Sheol, Hades, Gehenna and The Lake of Fire series, I'm sure he will explain things much better than me. Your Pastor like most people looks at things as having to all transpire in one lifetime: Getting Saved, Repentance, Forgiveness, he might believe that all the correction a person requires to get saved must take place in an individuals Lifetime(70-80 yrs if were lucky). One last point about the word Hell, most translations of the Bible render three Greek words: Hades, Gehenna and Tartarus as Hell or Hell-fire, sometimes they put Gehenna in the footnotes below in the Twelve places of the New Testament where Gehenna should be in the main text, instead of Hell-fire. In Old Testament times Gehenna was equivalent to the Valley of the son of Hinnon, a garbage dump where the carcasses of dead animals, criminals who they thought were not worthy of a decent burial and the trash of the City, nothing thrown in that garbage dump was alive when brought their for disposal, the fires of Gehenna do not represent literal fire, it's spiritual fire. I will stop at this point and let Ray's writings fully explain what that spiritual fire does for our benefit, not our detriment.
Anyway, glad you have joined us and hope you enjoy the fellowship and instruction from Ray in learning God's Truth's, because Ray tells it like it is, no watering down the Scriptures, he digs deep to be sure.
Samson.