Hello Everyone,
Here is a copy of the E-mail that I wrote and sent to " Pastor " Goodwin in regards to the conversation that the Freckle Girl had with him and his wife, as a follow up. Read below:
Dear Pastor Goodwin, Firstly, I'd like to introduce myself, my name is Brad Mathews and I'm a Forum member at Bible-Truths.com Web-Site. Apparently my Wife Pam had a brief conversation with you and your Wife regarding some teachings at this Site. I would like to take the time to briefly touch upon some of the things that were discussede with her. It's not my purpose here to elaborate on every detail and Subject contained at this Bible Site. My wife suggested that you read more thoroughly on the information provided by Our teacher, L Ray Smith. Salvation, Punishment and Eternal: Firstly, whenever the word Eternal, Everlasting or Forever is mentioned in the New Testament, the Greek Word Aion and it's adjective Aionios is translated into our English Eternal or Forever, it's an incorrect translation of this Greek Word. Aion literally means in the Greek Age-Lasting or Age-Abiding, it wasn't until sometime in the second century that this word had added meanings, by that time,the Bible Canon was already accepted and circulated. It wasn't until the Fourth Century through the order of Emperor Justinian and persuaded by " Saint " Augustian that this word was fully accepted as meaning Eternal. Most of the Latin Church fathers didn't understand Greek very well, Eternal comes from the Latin Eternus. Prior to the second century, the word Aion never meant Eternal or Forever. So whenever a Bible verse mentions Eternal Punishment or Eternal Fire, it should be rendered Age-Lasting Chastisement or Age-lasting Correction. Punishment is taken from the Greek Word Kolasin which primarily means " the pruning of the Luzurian Tree " or chastisement with a view to correction. Just like a Human Father disiplines his children, so our Heavenly father disciplines his children with a view to correction and improvement, just like pruning a tree. This punishment is not Forever, but temporary. Also the greek word for Destruction or Perish Apollemi and Oleuthron means desolation, lost or losing, but does not mean Annihilation or endless Death. Jesus came to save the Lost and Sinners. The Scripture at Rev. 20:10 regarding the Devil being Tormented Forever and ever, should read Tormented for ages unto ages. Just consider this Pastor Goodwin, how many forevers can there be, there can be only one Forever, not more than one as expressed in this verse. Fire is never literal in regards to punishment, it's Spiritual Fire, the literal fire's of Gehenna burned out long ago. Hell-fire and Hell(Mistranslations): The Greek Word Hades is equivalent to the Hebrew Word Sheol and literal means Imperceptible or The Unseen and is commonly mistranslated Hell. Actually the Old English Word Hell original meant that and often referred to someone " Helling Potatoe's ". It never denotes any type of conscious Torment. The Word Hell-fire is taken from the Greek Word Gehenna, Gehenna was a garbage dump during and prior to Jesus Day, only garbage, wicked criminals and the carcasses of dead animals were tossed there, nothing conscious or alive was thrown there. Hades is mentioned twenty two times and Gehenna is mentioned twelve times in the New Testament. Our God is a consuming and refiners Fire. This Spiritual Fire of Gehenna and Spiritual Lake of Fire is going to purify all the Carnal Garbage and desires that are within our minds and hearts. The kind of things mentioned at Matt. 15:18-20. We don't believe in inherent immortality of the Soul, immortality is eventually given to all of us, but at different times and stages as expressed at 1Cor. 15:18:56. If you would like more details, read Ray Smith's Hell and Lake of Fire series. Eventual Salvation for All. See 1 Tim. 2:3,4; 1 Tim. 4:10; 1Cor. 15:22,28; Acts. 3:21. Also a clear way of proving Salvation for All is at 2 Peter. 3: 9. " God Wills that none shall perish, but all attain to repentance. " The Greek word for WILL is the strong form like expressed at Matt. 6:9 " Thy Will be done " In other words, it's not merely a desire or wishfull thinking on God's part. but it's his WILL that none perish. The word none means their can't be anyone in that group, so if none perish, their can't be anyone that does. 1 John. 4:14 " The Father sent Jesus to BE THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD " This isn't contingent on what we do, Jesus is either the Savior of the World or he's not, he cannot fail his commission to Save the World. The Myth of Free Will: I'm not going to get into this subject today, only a brief mention of this, adding what Pam already mentioned, Our Teacher Ray Smith can more fully answer this. Pam mentioned the Apostle Peter, it was Peter's " Will " that he would stand by Jesus and not abandon him as the other's did, Jesus told him exactly what he would do, so much for Peter's free will, if Peter had free will, he could have altered the outcome of Jesus prediction for him. You know the story of the Apostle Paul, he changed his entire direction in less than ten seconds, after meeting the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus. There is no prior evidence that Paul wasn't going to change his murderous and plottting against Christians, prior to his very quick conversion. An Accurate definition of Free Will: A choice that has no prior cause, it's a proven Scientific fact that everything has a Cause/Efffect relationship. There are no choices that we make without a conscious or unconsious prior cause. If we had Free Will, we could perfectly control and alter our choices. As it stands, no one is capable of knowing exactly how a choice will end up or be able to alter the end result of that choice. Does anyone have Free Will, Yes, God The Father does. In conclusion: I'm not going to mention our entire belief structure from A to Z in one Email, my wife is thankfull for that; Ha Ha. The origin of Evil, the scenario in The garden of Eden, male and female being created or creating( a gradual process) in God's image and likeness, is for another time. MY BEST SUGGESTION IS TO EMAIL RAY SMITH AND TO READ HIS ARTICLES WHICH GO WAY BEYOND IN DETAIL AND EXPLANATION, THAN I'M CAPABLE OF. Respectfully Yours, In God's Love expressed through his Son, Our Savior God, Jesus Christ. Brad & Pam Mathews.
Comments by forum members are appreciated and expected.
Kind Regards to all, Samson.