But, the Jews believe in Eternal Hell, don’t they?
No, they don’t – they believe in “Sheol.” Do I need to go over the meaning of that word again? Actually, modern Jews are conflicted on what happens in the afterlife. According to what it says in one Jewish website,
“It is described as a region “dark and deep,” “the Pit,” and “the Land of Forgetfulness,” where human beings descend after death. The suggestion is that in the netherworld of Sheol, the deceased, although cut off from God and humankind, live on in some shadowy state of existence.
While this vision of Sheol is rather bleak (setting precedents for later Jewish and Christian ideas of an underground hell) there is generally no concept of judgment or reward and punishment attached to it. In fact, the more pessimistic books of the Bible, such as Ecclesiastes and Job, insist that all of the dead go down to Sheol, whether good or evil, rich or poor, slave or free man.”
This website also confirms the existence of “Gehinnom” as a “valley (Gei Hinnom) just south of Jerusalem, once used for child sacrifice by the pagan nations of Canaan (II Kings 23:10). Some view Gehinnom as a place of torture and punishment, fire and brimstone. Others imagine it less harshly, as a place where one reviews the actions of his/her life and repents for past misdeeds.
The soul’s sentence in Gehinnom is usually limited to a 12-month period of purgation before it takes its place in Olam Ha-Ba (the World-to-Come).”
(Source: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/heaven-and-hell-in-jewish-tradition/, underline mine)
Well, well…this should prove that not all Jews believe that Hell is Eternal – and that’s even if they believe such a place of torment even exists!
There is another Jewish website, which says,
“The Jewish mystics described a spiritual place called “Gehinnom.” This is usually translated as “Hell,” but a better translation would be “the Supernal Washing Machine.” Because that’s exactly how it works. The way our soul is cleansed in Gehinnom is similar to the way our clothes are cleansed in a washing machine.
Put yourself in your socks’ shoes, so to speak. If you were to be thrown into boiling hot water and flung around for half an hour, you might start to feel that someone doesn’t like you. However, the fact is that it is only after going through a wash cycle that the socks can be worn again.
We don’t put our socks in the washing machine to punish them. We put them through what seems like a rough and painful procedure only to make them clean and wearable again. The intense heat of the water loosens the dirt, and the force of being swirled around shakes it off completely. Far from hurting your socks, you are doing them a favor by putting them through this process.
So too with the soul. Every act we do in our lifetime leaves an imprint on our soul. The good we do brightens and elevates our soul, and every wrongdoing leaves a stain that needs to be cleansed. If, at the end of our life, we leave this world without fixing the wrongs we have done, our soul is unable to reach its place of rest on high. We must go through a cycle of deep cleansing. Our soul is flung around at an intense spiritual heat to rid it of any residue it may have gathered, and to prepare it for entry into Heaven.”
(Source: https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1594422/jewish/Do-Jews-Believe-in-Hell.htm)
In other websites, it’s to be noted that the Jewish meaning of “Hell” is up for debate, based on personal viewpoints, but is still a non-dogmatic (non-essential) teaching.
A Jewish writer, Rabbi Daniel Cohn-Sherbok, in his book, “The Jewish Doctrine of Hell,” had this to say on the matter,
“In a wide variety of introductions to the Jewish religion, Jewish apologists maintain that there is no explicit Jewish doctrine of the afterlife. Chaim Pearl and Reuben S. Brookes, for example, in A Guide to Jewish Knowledge argue that in regard to life after death, ‘Judaism adopted a stand of its own. … Having provided the belief in the deathlessness of the soul, the authoritative teaching of Judaism warns us against useless speculation about the details of the afterlife.’ According to these writers, Judaism is concerned with earthly existence: ‘The Jewish faith teaches us to concentrate all our efforts and energy in conducting ourselves as children of God in this world, here and now.’”
(Source: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230375970_5)
I think we can safely put to rest this myth that all Jews believe in Eternal Hell, as most still do not!
Well, what about the early Church Fathers? Surely they believed in Eternal suffering in Hell, right?
The majority in the early church between Pentacost and about 400 AD did not. There were six schools of thought in early Christianity. Four of them taught the universal reconciliation of all, one was said to possibly have taught annihilationism, and, of course, Augustine the Bishop of Carthage, as well as others, such as Tertullian, taught eternal torment1. That was, however, still only one school of thought, but it influenced and sounded good to the “itching ears” of some prominent people, such as Emperor Constantine. The vast majority of the primitive church taught that one day, God will reconcile ALL of Creation back to Himself! One of those was Origen2, who was a student of Clement of Alexandria. Both of these men believed in universal salvation. As did Gregory of Nyssa. To those who object to universal salvation on the false premise that it is a “get out of hell Scot-free” card – think again! There is warning after warning in the Bible that state the punishment for crossing God. One such verse is found in Hebrews 10:31, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (NASB). Another is “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap” (Gal 6:7, NASB). People like Pharaoh, people like Pilate, the Pharisees, Hitler, Mao, and the like, will pay dearly for what they’ve done! God is a God of Perfect Justice! And, in doing so, He will inflict the penalty of eonian chastisement for their error…but with just the right amount of punishment – no more, no less! The Great Jehovah said, “‘Vengeance is Mine, and retribution” (Deut 32:35, NASB), and in other places in the NT “…but be giving place to His indignation, for it is written, Mine is vengeance! I will repay!” (Rom 12:19, CLT), and “For we are acquainted with Him Who is saying, Mine is vengeance! I will repay! the Lord is saying, and again, "The Lord will be judging His people" (Heb 10:30, CLT).
It’s clear that there is a penalty for those who sin, but it is a just penalty. How anyone can even think that unending suffering for trillions of years in literal fire for – what – 70-90 years of sinning is fair…why you wretched, evil, depraved people! That’s insane!! That’s not even in the same neighborhood, zip code, county, country, world or even universe as fair!! If I were a judge, would I put a man in prison for 50 years doing hard labor for committing the crime of “jay-walking?” Yet, what demented infernalists say about God is much worse than that! Origen and others would disagree heavily with these people. A scholarly article concerning the way Origen thought says this,
“Among the most common objections to the idea of a universal salvation—the restoration of all things, as patristic theologians called it—is the thought that so reckless a doctrine of grace lacks any notion of eschatological judgment adequate to the utter depravity of human sin.[1] Essentially, it is a worry that the wicked among us will get a free pass. And it is a justified anxiety. Surely justice for wrongdoing is as inescapable a deduction of reason as it is a running theme throughout sacred scripture. The mistake, then, is not the commonsensical assumption that sin cannot go unpunished, but rather the presumption that classical Christian arguments in favor of a universal salvation lack a clear concept of judgment.
On the contrary, there is good reason to think that apokatastasis, the term of art for universal salvation in Origen of Alexandria and his heirs, entails a concept of judgment just as exacting, just as rigorous, and every bit as righteous as the sort of purely punitive punishment on offer in any version of the doctrine of eternal damnation. To make this case is both to defend the strong claim that all shall be saved and, just as importantly, to chasten those for whom this restoration is already a foregone conclusion. The ancient Christian teaching of the apokatastasis, in other words, is no romantic reverie; it should, quite literally, scare the hell out of you.
Consider Origen’s gloss on the “eternal fire” of which Jesus warns in Matthew 25:41. The Alexandrian exegete characteristically connects the mention of “fire” here to another place in scripture where the word also appears—in this case, Isaiah 50:11. “Walk in the light of your fire and in the flame which you have kindled for yourself,” says the prophet. Origen takes the intercanonical injunction as a clue to what kind of punishment Jesus promises. The eternal fire cannot be something that precedes the sinner himself, as if lit by someone else. Rather, it must be that “every sinner kindles for himself the flame of his own fire,” with his own sins providing the tinder.[2]
Origen, notice, describes an eschatological judgment fitted to—indeed, furnished by—the specific sins of individual souls. Unlike the indifferent inferno in which the massa damnata supposedly languish, punishment is here figured as a radically personal affair—which is, to my mind, just as terrifying a prospect for those of us who have already stockpiled enough sins to keep a fire burning for many ages to come.
But Origen develops the image further. Our sins are not only like straw fed to a roaring flame but like an excess of nasty germs ingested from eating filth which overrun the body and produce a broiling fever. Hallucinations accompany this fever, and the sickly sinner is forced to relive every wrong he or she has ever done as they bubble to the surface of perception. The mind, says Origen, “will see exposed before its eyes a kind of history of its evil deeds, of every foul and disgraceful act and all unholy conduct.” Thus, he concludes, the soul “becomes an accuser and witness against itself,” made to suffer a sickness of its own making.[3] One need only revisit any great work of tragedy to be reminded that suffering a fate fashioned by one’s own hands is far more painful than enduring the blows of a blind providence…
It would, in other words, be little more than bad faith to presume patristic apologists for a universal salvation let the wicked off too easy. For the Christ of whom Origen and Gregory speak demands nothing less of sinful creatures than the perfection of their Father in heaven. Furthermore, the God of whom they speak refuses to bring this good work to completion among his sons and daughters without their full consent…
Redemption here requires the making one, again, of human relations sundered by the soul’s selfish regard. Which is to say, MacDonald adds to Origen’s inventory of evil deeds a social reckoning: the soul must not only relive its many crimes against fellow creatures but also reconcile with its countless counterparts, replace the graces it deprived them with services still owed. At every turn, MacDonald’s watchword: “Only good where evil was, is evil dead. An evil thing must live with its evil until it chooses to be good. That alone is the slaying of evil.” This, says Adam, under the aspect of the winsome Mr. Raven, is a path more toilsome than mere “annihilation,” but truer nonetheless…
Thus, despite the oft stated offense at universal salvation’s alleged injustice, we arrive, inexorably, at questions of speculative theology—which cannot, I would submit, be resolved simply by pointing out the pathos of an ultimately comic eschatology, however worthwhile that task may be. Settling these underlying objections to apokatastasis would require candid debate over theology’s first things themselves—God, world, and their identity in Jesus Christ, I mean. Getting clearer about these should allow us a better vantage on the last things. But that is only to say eschatology is neither a mere ornament placed atop a freestanding doctrinal edifice nor an opportunity to exercise epistemic humility, but rather the very substance of Christian faith. Of course, Origen knew this better than anyone.
Perhaps, then, it would be best to close with words from another one of his disciples:
Since as our Lord Jesus Christ is the beginning, middle, and end of all the ages past, present, and future, one could say that through the power of faith, “the end of the ages”—I mean that end which will be actualized by grace according to its proper form in the divinization of the worthy—“has already come upon us” (1 Cor 10:11).[15]
The end has already come, say Origen and his heirs; what is left is the difficult work of making ourselves worthy of it.”
(Source: https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/the-severity-of-universal-salvation/)
Just because God’s punishments are not “eternal” does not mean that His punishments are to be taken lightly. Yes, He does hold Himself responsible for what happens to humanity – but, that does not means that everyone gets to do whatever they want. What one sows, that they shall also reap. Everyone is still accountable to God, including Christ! Have you not read in 1Cor15:28, where it reads, “When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all” (NASB)? Christ Himself, after every last human and celestial body has been saved, will turn toward our Father and His God, and will give an account of what He did.
Don Bast writes in his book, Secrets of the Kingdom3, “The purpose of God’s righteous judgments is to recompense all victims and restore all offenders” (pg 27). The purpose of judgment. Think of that. Contrast that to what Queen Mary said, “As the souls of heretics are hereafter to be eternally burning in hell, there can be nothing more proper than for me to imitate the Divine vengeance by burning them on earth4” (which, by the way, she did shortly to Protestants after giving this speech)5. Some people have said that God is right in burning people eternally for their sins and unbelief. Does that make any sense?? For what purpose could that possibly serve – except for a sadistic “god” to get his jollies from having an eternal BBQ! That would not be fair in the least! It would also be highly hypocritical of Him, as He told us to forgive our enemies – yet, He will roast His enemies in hell for all eternity! We must never forget that we all were once God’s enemies, alienated from Him – and we would still be, were it not for His Grace and Mercy, His Divine Plan of Salvation!! Praise the Lord! Bast goes on to say, “God’s judgments may be severe at times, but they are always remedial or for making things right” (pg 25). “Making things right” is the purpose of God’s judgments! That is what judgment is – to make things right. What did Isaiah say? “For when the earth experiences Your judgments The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness” (Isa 26:9, NASB). Righteousness comes through judgment! It’s kind of like when you got a spanking as a child when you acted badly (not used anymore in today’s world, unfortunately). Did it hurt? Yes. Did it correct you and teach you not to do wrong? Yes. Point proven. That is the entire purpose of judgment. Your parents “judged” you as being in the wrong, and so they “chastised” you so that you would act right! Does the Scripture not say,
“7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. 11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Heb 12:7-11, NASB, underline mine).
That, right there, is the purpose of Divine punishment. The Lake of Fire is reserved for people (and disobedient angels) that need to have their flesh (and sinful nature) burned away, saving the soul!
But, there’s a “Well to Hell!” It’s been proven, with an audio recording and everything!
This one is just laughable. It’s been thoroughly debunked as a hoax. Basically, the story goes that Russian scientists went drilling in Siberia, sometime in the 1990’s. They apparently went too far, because when they lowered a microphone, they could hear the screams of the damned. Creflo Dollar actually played this recording in one of his services6 (probably to scare more money out of his congregation). Here’s the thing – it was all made up! Let’s read about this urban legend,
“According to legend, a team of Russian geologists drilled an 8.9-mile hole into the permafrost-covered ground of a remote region of Siberia. When they neared the 9-mile point, however, their drill bit began to spin wildly, indicating that it had broken through into a larger area.
A man identified only as Mr. Azzacov was said to be the manager of the project. He made the decision to lower several heat-resistant microphones into the hole, along with an array of other measuring tools.
To the surprise of the geologists, the temperatures in the hole measured an incredible 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The microphones returned something even more astounding: the sounds of wailing human voices.
That led the scientists to make an uncomfortable hypothesis: The center of the Earth, at least at this point, was partially hollow—and they’d drilled into Hell itself.”
Oooooh! Sounds scary! However, a little digging on the internet will show that this was clearly a hoax! This makes Mr Dollar a false prophet, but you probably already knew that! From the rest of the article,
“TBN (the Trinity Broadcasting Network) cited Ammennusastia, a Finnish newspaper, as their primary source.
Ammennusastia, however, wasn’t actually a newspaper; it was an Evangelical Lutheran magazine. A staff member had written the story from memory after reading it in a newspaper called Etela Soumen.
The story ran in a section of that paper that was purposely unmoderated—readers could submit anything that they liked without any sort of verification whatsoever.
We know all of this, by the way, thanks to the work of Rich Buhler, a radio host who’d heard the story from some of his callers. Buhler did all of the legwork, tracking the story back through various publications until he eventually found Ammennusastia.
“Characteristic of many urban legends, this story was alleged to have occurred in an obscure part of the world where it would be virtually impossible to track down the facts,” Buhler wrote on his blog. And once the story got started, people began quoting one another’s newsletters to validate their own. This is the stuff of which tabloid newspapers are made.”
As for the ghastly audio recordings, well, they’re fake. Myth-busting website Skeptoid dug up this YouTube video, which effectively shows that the Well to Hell audio recordings use looped sections of screams.
The sounds probably come from an Italian horror movie called Baron Blood.”
(Source: https://www.urbo.com/content/the-fascinating-truth-behind-the-well-to-hell-hoax/)
From the Snopes website,
“Geologists working somewhere in remote Siberia had drilled a hole some 14.4 kilometers deep (about 9 miles) when the drill bit suddenly began to rotate wildly. A Mr. Azzacov (identified as the project’s manager) was quoted as saying they decided that the center of the earth was hollow. Supposedly, the geologists measured temperatures of over 2,000 degrees in the deep hole. They lowered super sensitive microphones to the bottom of the well, and to their astonishment they heard the sounds of thousands, perhaps millions, of suffering souls screaming.”
(Source: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-well-to-hell/)
I recommend you read both articles in their entirety – they’re hilarious! It was more like seven miles, not nine, and was 180 degrees, not 2,000 degrees. Seriously, they just happened to have heat-resistant super sensitive microphones ready to be used…in Siberia??? Ahahahahhaha!!! How easily people are fooled, and how easily gossip goes around. Thanks, TBN! This is probably why God warned not to gossip, huh? Maybe Christians should take His advice! Oh, and also hilarious are all of these “NDE” experiences where people go to Heaven or Hell. There have been people that have come out saying that they just completely made the whole thing up!
Closing Thoughts
I hope I have dissuaded you from believing in this bogus lie of people being eternally separated from God forever in fire. Here are some additional verses for you to consider:
Heb 12:19 – God is a consuming fire
Mk 9:49 – Jesus said that ALL will be salted with fire
1Cor 15:22 - As in Adam all die, so all will be made alive in Christ (the “all” in the first part of the sentence is the same “all” in the second part – it sounds obvious, but I’ve seen people argue even this clear point).
Lamentations 3:31 it clearly states: "For no one is cast off by the Lord forever.”
Ps 65:2, it states that ALL flesh will come to God
Ps 86:9 claims that ALL nations will worship God
Ps 22:27 says that “ALL the ends of the earth will remember and
turn to the Lord,
And
ALL the families
of the nations will worship before You” (NASB,
capitalization, italics and underline mine).
Isa 25:6-8 says “The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples… 7 And on this mountain He will swallow up the [burial] covering which is over all peoples, Even the veil which is stretched over all nations. 8 He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces…” (NASB, italics mine). How is death going to be swallowed up in victory if most of humanity is annihilated? How is the Lord God going to wipe all of our faces clean if most of humanity is screaming and crying for the rest of eternity – for trillions of years?!
Jeremiah 7:31 - "And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind." If it never came to God’s Mind, why would He then build a torture chamber to burn His children??
Jer 32:35 also states how it "Never entered His mind to torture His children with fire"
In Micah 7:18, it says that, "God does not stay angry forever"
Ps 139:8: "If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there."
Isa 45:22-23 - “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth;
For I am God, and there is no other.
I have sworn by Myself; The
word has gone out from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn
back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear
allegiance.
Lk 19:10 says “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (NASB). He said that His mission was to save that which was lost, which is EVERYONE in Adam. Will He ultimately fail?
Jeremiah 31:33 states: "All men will know God, from the greatest to the least. (to ‘know’ is to know intimately, not from afar off; ex: as a man ‘knows’ a woman)
1Tim 2:4 – “[God] desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth…” The word translated as “desires” in this verse is the Greek word “θέλω or theló” which means “to will, wish” (Strong’s #G2309) and is used over 200 times in the NT. It can also mean “to intend or to delight in, to do as one pleases.” Now, let me ask you something. Do you honestly think that God is up there in Heaven “wishing” that all men would come to know Him? Is He up there crossing His fingers hoping that people will “choose” Jesus? Or, does He take an active participation in making sure people are saved?? You know it!! Whatever He delights in or intends to do, He does it! He sent His word out, and it will not return to Him empty! Remember He said, “So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it” (Isa 55:11, NASB). Who is God’s Word? The Christ of God – the Logos! Christ will not fail in His mission and will not return to the Father void. To say otherwise would mean that Christ “missed the mark” and would therefore be a sinner! Think about that!
Romans 11:11 - “Again I ask: Did they (the Israelites) stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious” (NIV). Paul said that the Israelites did not fall away beyond recovery. They did temporarily fall away when they rejected their Messiah, but God will take them back again. And, because of that, we Gentiles can also partake in the salvation that should have been exclusively Israel’s! The Gentiles were always on God’s mind! To Him, there’s no difference between Jews and Gentiles, and that made the Israelites mad with envy! But the Lord is full of mercy, and there will be a time when He will wipe ALL tears from ALL faces. Look at what another website on this matter says,
“Colossians 1:20 And, having made PEACE THROUGH THE BLOOD OF HIS CROSS, by HIM TO RECONCILE ALL THINGS UNTO HIMSELF; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. How can all things be reconciled back to God if billions of people will be eternally separated from Him in the literal fires of hell? The phrase “all things” is translated from the Greek word “pas” and it is used in other scriptures to illustrate all things as in all humanity (mankind). The Greek word “pas” actually just means “all” as in everyone. The word “things” was added by the King James translators in this verse but it is translated as just “all” in 748 other scriptures in the New Testament. If we understand that God is going to reconcile all humanity back to Himself, this is a direct contradiction to what the Christian church teaches.”
(Source: https://therealgospelofchrist.com/exposing-the-counterfeit-gospel-of-christianity/, underline mine.)
That last line needs to be said again, “if we understand that God is going to reconcile all humanity back to Himself, this is a direct contradiction to what the Christian church teaches.” What the Christian church teaches is not the Truth! This passage doesn’t go against inspired Scripture – the (false) church goes against the Truth and inspired Scripture!
By the way, the apostles did have a word that meant “endless” but only used it once. That word is “ἀπέραντος or aperantos” (Strong’s # 562) – literally "un-other-side" – in other words, no end to it. It is used in 1 Tim 1:3 - "As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do" (KJV). This is used only once in the Scriptures and was never used in conjunction with hell, death, or even life. Also, in common Greek in that period was the use of the word ateleutetos, which meant “without end,” but that term is found nowhere in the Bible! If the writers of the NT really wanted to communicate a truly “endless” duration, they had these words ready to use. Let me say that again, because it bears repeating. They actually did have words which meant "endless" but decided not to use it, inspired to write "aonion" instead!!
Quite telling, am I right? Another thing to consider is that when Jesus was asked by His disciples why he spoke in parables, they asked Him if He did it so that people around him would understand. He told them He did it so that people listening would not understand, because by understanding, they might be saved. Why would Jesus not want to save people if that was His mission and He knew (if the traditionalist view is true) that these people would burn in Hell forever?? So, why did He not want these people saved? He did want them saved – just not yet! It just wasn’t their time to believe. That will come in the future when they repent at the Great White Throne judgment with tears!
Do you know where the origin of the concept of “eternal hell” apparently came from? The early Egyptians.
So where did the teaching that man has an eternal nature that transcends death come from? Historical evidence reveals that it first appeared among the ancient Egyptians. With the expansion of the Greeks under Alexander, the Egyptian philosophy of life and death became a subject to be examined by Greek philosophers. Plato is credited with modifying the Egyptian philosophy of man having two natures so that it could be incorporated into the religion of the Greeks. Plato taught that man had a nature that lived on after death and went on to a higher plane of being:
"The soul, whose inseparable attitude is life, will never admit of life's opposite, death. Thus the soul is shown to be immortal, and since immortal, indestructible [and] we believe there is such a thing as death? To be sure. And is this anything but the separation of the soul and body? Being dead is the attainment of this separation, when the soul exists in herself and separate from the body, and the body is parted from the soul. This is death [and] death is merely the separation of the soul from the body." Plato, 428-347 BC.
The Greeks prided themselves on their superior intellect and philosophy. Their philosophers had been teaching an undying nature of man. The teaching of the Greek philosophers found its way into Jewish society 300 years prior to the birth of Yeshua, through the Pharisees and the Hellenization movement.
Furthermore, Josephus gives a glimpse as to what the Hellenistic Jews believed. It appears from what he wrote that the Pharisees tended to believe in eternal punishment, while the Sadducees believed in annihilationism. Taken from Josephus: Of the War, Book II, Chapter 8, we read,
14. But then as to the two other orders at first mentioned, the Pharisees are those who are esteemed most skilful in the exact explication of their laws, and introduce the first sect. These ascribe all to fate [or providence], and to God, and yet allow, that to act what is right, or the contrary, is principally in the power of men; although fate does co-operate in every action. They say that all souls are incorruptible, but that the souls of good men only are removed into other bodies, but that the souls of bad men are subject to eternal punishment. But the Sadducees are those that compose the second order, and take away fate entirely, and suppose that God is not concerned in our doing or not doing what is evil; and they say, that to act what is good, or what is evil, is at men’s own choice, and that the one or the other belongs so to every one, that they may act as they please. They also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul, and the punishments and rewards in Hades. Moreover, the Pharisees are friendly to one another, and are for the exercise of concord, and regard for the public; but the behaviour of the Sadducees one towards another is in some degree wild, and their conversation with those that are of their own party is as barbarous as if they were strangers to them. And this is what I had to say concerning the philosophic sects among the Jews7 (italics and underline mine).
The Sadducees were right in saying that the soul was not immortal, but what they got wrong was that man could do as he pleased, since they denied the resurrection from the dead. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were wrong all the way around. They still are, as there are modern-day Pharisees in every church, both in America and around the world. The ones who hold onto the teaching of eternal torment are their spiritual descendants. Do I sound harsh when I say that? I’m not sorry. Speaking to the Pharisees in Mt 23:30, Jesus tells them, “and [you] say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets” (NASB). Guess what? There are churches today that say, “If we had been there at the time of Jesus, we wouldn’t have crucified Him!” Think about that. As I said, modern-day Pharisees.
Even worse, for most infernalists, Hitler could have repented before he died and gone to heaven and yet his 6 million Jewish victims all went to eternal torment in hell because they did not believe in the Messiah before death!! Talk about adding insult to injury! On that note, can anyone point to me where it says in the Bible that suicide is a one-way ticket to hell? I believe that rule was made up by the Catholic Church to prevent people from killing themselves. Dead people can’t pay tithes, after all…
The purpose of Jesus is to unravel and undo ALL the works of Satan (1Jn 3:8), as well as undo what Adam did! That includes damning anyone to eternal fire!
Many intelligent people become Atheists and Agnostics specifically because of this doctrine of demons! They correctly ponder, “How can a loving god torture people forever?” I can’t blame them for that rationale. As Charles Darwin was quoted as saying, “I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so….my father, brother and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished.” What a different world this would be if the Christian religion didn’t adopt this heinous theology of the Dark Ages! Perhaps Darwinism and the Theory of Evolution would have never been invented and seen the light of day had ECT not been so widely used as a fear tactic to “save” the wicked.
Finally, in Rom 14:11, Paul says, ““‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will declare allegiance to God” (NLT, underline mine), same with Isa 45:23, “I have sworn by my own name; I have spoken the truth, and I will never go back on my word: Every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will declare allegiance to me” (NLT, underline mine). Every knee will bow to Jesus, and every tongue confess that He is Lord…and don’t even think for a second that this will be forced. Phil 2:10 says, “…at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (NASB, underline mine). “To the glory of God.” Do you think that God got any glory from false worship? What about when the Roman soldiers were mocking Jesus? He even said it Himself to the Pharisees, “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: 8 ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. 9 ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men (Mt 15:7-9, NASB, italics and underline mine). Clearly, this will be true and sincere worship to the Son, and so also to the Father! All of us will offer up acceptable worship to the Lord of Lords, as found in places like the Psalm, which says that “All the earth will worship You, And will sing praises to You; They will sing praises to Your name” (Ps 66:4, NASB).
To sum up, the Gospel – the real Evangel – of Jesus Christ is…
1) All of mankind is raised from the dead by God through Jesus Christ, and the only way to be reconciled with God the Father is through Jesus Christ (or Yehoshua, His Hebrew Name, which means “YHWH is Salvation”8)
2) Those who go through the judgment are punished in a manner that refines their hearts like a gold refiner refines the lead out of gold
3) The end result is that all people willingly, and joyfully, declare allegiance to God at the feet of Christ that God may be ALL...in ALL!
1 https://www.mercyuponall.org/2015/08/11/j-w-hanson-universalism-the-prevailing-doctrine-of-the-christian-church-during-its-first-five-hundred-years-1899/
2 A good read on Origen’s early life can be found here: https://earlychurch.com/origen/
3 Secrets of the Kingdom by Don Bast, © 2019
4 https://www.bereanpatriot.com/the-early-church-fathers-on-universal-restoration/
5 If you want to learn more about what people have said about this subject, watch this video: https://youtu.be/FwbpNS61-N8
6 https://youtu.be/s-My_-9yjnU
7The entire book may be read at: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/war-2.html?fbclid=IwAR3DxmO9HVZ2NH7uJGIS8RoPSMFxi4uKU5WVPsMrjbwFIHKy2qOET4hQzHQ
8 https://blogs.blueletterbible.org/blb/2012/01/31/yahweh-is-salvation/
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