Review of Erasing Hell by Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle

First I want to tell you what I think:

Jesus Christ is the best person for erasing hell. He has been erasing hell for people, one person at a time, for a long time, and He is very good at it!

This is a quick read written mainly by Preston Sprinkle and not Francis Chan. It is worth reading because it is a good Bible Study and reflection on 2 important questions

1. How could a loving God send people to hell – a place of torture – forever and ever? The short answer is God doesn’t have to do what we want him to do, which is not to send the people we love to hell, and he doesn’t have to give us a reason (see Romans 9).

2. Will people have a chance after they die to believe in Jesus and go to heaven? Francis Chan does not unequivocally answers this question in either direction, but says that it is not responsible to give this question an absolutely Yes answer:

“So where Do I land?

The Debate about hell’s duration is much more complex than I first assumed. While I lean heavily on the side that says it is everlasting, I am not ready to claim this with complete certainty. I encourage you to continue researching, but don’t get caught up on this debate that you miss the point of what Jesus was trying to communicate. I even deleted several pages that I wrote about the issue because I feared it would distract from the heat of Christ’s message.” (p. 86)

Francis, I am curious about your missing pages, and if you will send them to me I promise to give you more stars in my review! And I will not be distracted or fail to miss the point of what Jesus was trying to communicate!

The other really helpful thing I got from this book is that there are different kinds of Universalism. There is (1) non-Christian Universalism that claims that there are many ways to get to heaven besides Christ (Jesus taught there is only one way to heaven – through Him John 14:6). (2) Hopeful Christian Universalism that hopes that everyone will go to heaven by believing in Jesus Christ as the only way to get there, but perhaps because of free will some will choose eternal hell, and (3) Dogmatic Christian Universalism – that teaches that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord (phil 2:10). Everyone will end up in heaven. The Bible says it. I believe it. The book does an adequate job of knocking down dogmatic Christian Universalism (by looking at each verse) and the New Testament does not teach non-Christian Universalism, so that only leaves us with hopeful universalism. He rejects hopeful universalism as bad spiritual advice that is not backed up by the urgent message of repentance in view of the coming of God’s Kingdom. Teaching hopeful christian universalism could damn people to hell if they use that as an excuse for ignoring believing in Christ today.

There is one verse he did leave out which I wish he hadn’t – baptism for the dead in 1 Cor 15:29. Paul, who is sometimes difficult to understand, throws out some rhetorical questions about whether if the dead are not raised, why are you getting baptized for them? Could the Corinthians have believed that somehow getting baptized for their dead unbaptized relatives could effect their eternal destinies? The reason I thought of that is that he says “No passage in the Bible says that there will be a second chance after death to turn to Jesus”

This book has many good things to recommend it but Crazy Love was much better. I got through this entire review without mentioning Rob Bell! (oops)

The Fate of Every Person

Rob Bell recently wrote a book called “Love Wins- a book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of every person who ever lived.”  This is serious topic. A lot of people of people believe that the people who are exactly like them and believe in Christmas and Easter are going to heaven, while those who believe in Eid or Hannakuh or same sex marriage are not going to heaven. They are going to hell.

There was a carpenter who lived 2000 years ago who was born in a very religious society that was not Christian who also addressed the topic of “Love Wins” as it deals with the fate of every man and woman.

He accepted as completely true the words of the prophets of his religion, but he rejected the religious systems that had been built up around them.  He preached that religious systems are worthless, or worse than worthless, in trying to earn God’s favor, and that what God really requires is for us to love our fellow humans – all of them  -and to love God genuinely from the heart.  He gathered 12 men around him and taught them. These men applied his teaching, for the most part. So perhaps we can find out what he believed as the fate of every man by looking at their fates.  What was their fate? One committed suicide. 9 died in other countries rather than Israel including Turkey, Greece, India, Iran, Italy, and Syria. Atleast 7 of the 12 were publicly executed by foreigners usually gruesomely. They impacted the world living lives of proclaiming a Kingdom of God, healing people, and casting out evil spirits.

Disciple	Fate
1.Simon (Peter)	Crucified upside down in Rome, buried under St. Peter’s Church
2. James (Son of Zebedee, Son of Thunder)	Put to death by the sword  in Jerusalem Act 12:2
3. John (Son of Thunder #2)	Exiled to Patmos after poison did not work where John had a revelation. Died in Ephesus. Maybe. In his 80s or 90s. MIA
4. Andrew	Crucified on a St. Andrews cross (x-shaped) in Greece
5. Philip	Crucified in Eastern Turkey
6. Bartholomew (Nathaniel)	Skinned Alive and then beheaded in India
7. Matthew (Levi)	Left everything, wrote a gospel, died in Iran
8. Thomas	Killed by spears in India
9. James (Son of Alphaeus)	Stoned in Jerusalem
10. Thaddaeus	Died in Syria, many healed at his funeral
11. Simon the Zealot	Evangelized in Iran, little is known about him
12. Judas Iscariot	Suicide

 

 

 

 

 

Christian Slaughter through rose colored glasses

Nigeria elected a Christian President, Jonathan Goodluck, on April 18 2011 and this provided enough of an excuse for Muslim rioters to start massacring hundreds of Christians and burning churches in North Nigeria.

This is what the State Department had to say about this when questioned about it in a news conference I found here:

QUESTION: Might you be soft-pedaling the violence a little bit? I’m reading some wire material today about perhaps 500 people killed and Christian churches set afire. And also people from the elections say that they’re very discouraged by this and that they prefer to not have an election if this sort of thing happens. Might you be looking through rose-colored glasses at this sort of thing?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CARSON: Absolutely not. But let me first say we deplore the violence that occurred particularly after the conclusion of the presidential elections a week and a half ago. We saw widespread violence throughout much of northern Nigeria. Both the president and the main opposition candidates – both called on their supporters to not support violent activities and to work to restore peace as quickly as possible.

I think that there has been a history of violence associated with Nigerian elections in the past. But in this election, we have clearly seen a much more responsible security force and a security presence in and around the electoral sites. So it’s important that violence not be a part of the democratic process. We deplore it, and I think senior officials in Nigeria have also deplored it as well. We hope that these elections will be a baseline for greater improvement in both their technical procedures as well as in their security as well.

The Beginning of the Gospel of Mark

The Gospel of Matthew starts out with Abraham begetting Isaac. The Gospel of Luke begins with Zacharias having a spiritual experience burning incense in the Temple of the Lord. The Gospel of John begins at the true beginning where the WORD is.

The Gospel of Mark begins with the baptism of Jesus- not at the year zero but at the year of 30 AD. We meet Jesus and his Father God in verse 1. We then meet Isaiah the Prophet and John the Baptist in verse 2 and we meet John the Baptist baptizing and baptizing Jesus in Verse 9.

We do not meet Jesus’s Uncle, or his mom or dad and we do not encounter his birth, or a political situation.

We do meet the words of the Prophets straight away which comes from Isaiah 40 and the words that this section of prophecy is fulfilled in John the Baptist.

We learn that John the Baptist is very popular among the people living in Judea and Jerusalem. People came out of the woodwork to be baptized by him and to confess their sins.

What does this say about discipleship?

1. Humankind has a need to repent

2. Humankind has a need to confess their sins

3. Humankind has a need to have their sins remitted

4. Even Jesus got John’s baptism

5. The Prophets spoke the truth, and therefore are worthy of study

6 Supernatural things happened when Jesus was baptized that are recorded in all of the gospels. Heaven parted and the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove. God the Father spoke. “You are my Beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

7. The Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness.

Jesus first speaks preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God:

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.

Jan 29, 1861 – Jan 29, 2011 Happy 150th Birthday to the state of Kansas!

On January 29, 1861 – 150 years ago today – Kansas joined the Union as a free state by vote of Congress. This was a tumulus time – right after Abraham Lincoln had been elected president on Nov 6, but before he took office on March 4th. The news of Kansas becoming the 34th new state was buried by the news that other states were seceding from the Union, and the status of forts in the south – such as Fort Sumter. One of the reasons that Kansas finally entered the Union as a free state was because so many southern congress members were resigning their seats so the no vote did not show up. The Civil War was about to start in April of 1861.  The New England Emigrant Aid Society (1854-), in Boston,  had talked many men into becoming Kansans so that Kansas would not have slavery in it.  20K of the 30K eligible Kansas men would end up fighting in that terrible war that resulted in the end of slavery.

The Kansa Indians who resided in Kansas were moved to smaller and smaller reservations, and then to Oklahoma,  as homesteaders were given 160 acres (there was a $10 filing fee, and an agreement to improve the land for 5 yrs) when the homestead act passed in 1862 – helping to populate the state.

Some of the events to celebrate Kansas Day – a toast to Kansas – at 7 PM EDT – right before the Kansas-K-State basketball game that Kansas is going to win. The Free State Brewery in Lawrence and a facebook event is making this a national event. There is also people making Kansas Day Cakes, which are a lot like birthday cakes, and there are many events of educational nature that are scheduled.

Kansas Stamp Issued Today

 

 

Wandering children of Kansas away,
By mountain, by desert, or sea,
Feasting or fasting, at prayer or at play,
Whatever your fortunes may be,
Open the doors of your hearts to the breeze,
Prairie winds never are still,
Hark to the surf in the cottonwood trees,
The breakers that boom on the hill.
Open your soul’s windows-let in the sun-
The prairie sun gay with delight.
Where’er your wandering pathways have run,
Come home tonight.
“A Song for Kansas Day” by William Allen White

Christianity in 2011 – Take 2

I wanted to make sure that I actually said what I intended to say from my last post.

The modern world provides us with many tools to do things that were not available in the world that the Bible was written in.

Instant communication to all nations on a social network is an example of this. In a few hours and an affordable plane ticket I can be in India with somebody pounding on my taxi wanting a few rupees. I can make a micro-loan over the internet that can give a poor family a new income.

On the other hand, a politician can press a button and make an entire city disappear, or a terrorist can put a vial of cheap poison in a city’s water supply, or blow herself up at a Sunday service with a homemade bomb.

JFK is correct that technology (not government, I am not talking about government here, I am interested in technology)  can make life miserable or wipe out disease (like Malaria or Polio).

What does the gospel have to say to the billions of people who are on earth who are poor in 2011?

 

Christianity in 2011

50 years ago this month JFK, in his “Ask Not” speech had this to say about the modern world:

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God

(by the way the whole speech is worth rereading).

Right.

So now it is 50 years later and there has been no apocolypse and no utopia. Pretty much there is a ton of good that is not being done and a ton of bad that could be done but is not. Technology itself has improved dramatically in those 50 years – and the ability to cheaply kill and cheaply rescue lives has also greatly increased.

How should this impact us as Christians? How is this different from being a Christian in the first century?

I am looking for a conversation here. I will continue this line of thought if anyone comments.

Bye

 

 

 

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.

About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 58,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 7 days for that many people to see it.

 

In 2010, there were 13 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 647 posts.

The busiest day of the year was January 19th with 461 views. The most popular post that day was The 27 Amendments to the United States Constitution.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were eureferendum.blogspot.com, google.com, search.aol.com, facebook.com, and search.conduit.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for 27 amendments, the 27 amendments, 27 amendments to the constitution, all 27 amendments, and what are the 27 amendments of the constitution.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

The 27 Amendments to the United States Constitution July 2007
174 comments

2

$1 Bus Rides from Philadelphia to New York April 2008
6 comments

3

The Thirteen Colonies in order of settlement July 2008
8 comments

4

Free Way to translate YouTube Videos April 2007
2 comments and 1 Like on WordPress.com,

5

Is the Airbus A380 safe? October 2007
5 comments

Remembering the 7 days of Creation

On day 1 God created light,  because light is Primary

On day 2 God created the sky, because he wanted to separate 1 – the heavens from 3- the earth

On day 3 God created the fertile earth, because earth is the third planet from the sun

On day 4 God created the sun and moon and stars because Four and Fiery both start with F

Now we only have 3 days left and we know the last day God rests so He has to get busy creating everything biological!

On day 5 God creates the birds and the fish- inhabitants of the sky and sea.

On day 6 God creates the animals including mankind – land creatures.

On day 7 God creates rest and relaxation because it is the Sabbath day – Saturday!

Bible Book Names on Jeopardy

“Bible Book Names” in Double Jeopardy on 10/29/2010.
$400 7 letters:Phil Collins,Mike Rutherford,Tony Banks
$800 4 letters:Of a drama,of contrition,of mercy
$1200 10 letters: OMG! [Oh my God!] We learned Amy was Fabio’s long-lost sister! & that’s the only item we uncovered! The sole singular one!

(this was a triple stumper!)
$1600 12 letters: Why?! Why didn’t I buy Microsoft when it hit the market in 1986?! & wearing that speedo?! What was I thinking?!
$2000 6 letters:Learned hand, Joseph Crater (once “the most missingest man in America”)

answers tomorrow unless someone wishes to clean out the category!

source: http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=3492