If you’ve never visited this site before and don’t know what it’s about, it has one purpose:  To prove, using Scripture alone, that God is far more merciful than He has been portrayed for centuries due to a couple of faulty doctrines within mainstream Christianity. I should note that I am a mainstream Christian, but one who has studied final judgment for well over a decade now, and found that the traditional teaching that those who reject salvation will be in conscious torment for all eternity is simply wrong.

It’s the mistaken concept that all souls are immortal and indestructible, combined with some misconceptions of what actually happened in the Garden of Eden, and a handful of verses and passages from the bible, misused and/or taken out of context, that has led to the traditional view. But careful research shows that every human’s choice comes down to life or death. God is a harsh judge, but not a maniacal tormentor of souls. This is not another among many blogs and websites that are popping up trying to prove that everyone is going to be saved and in heaven one day (Universalism). Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus said that many are going down the broad path that leads to destruction, and few are taking the narrow path that leads to eternal life.   But death(destruction) is in fact the wage for unforgiven sin, not eternal torment. And death should not be redefined as “eternal life, separated from God” as it has been being traditionally redefined for centuries now.  Chapter 8 of my book A More Merciful God addresses Universalism and you can read the entire chapter from the link over to your right under the Chapter Selections heading.

Click on the Garden of Eden tab above for a good introduction as to how we (the Church) go wrong in this area, or read the Chapter 2 link to your right to see the full chapter from the book that addresses this.  And for a biblical challenge to the traditional take on the 10 passages of Scripture that lead people to believe that suffering in hell will be eternal, click on each verse/passage over to your right in the sidebar under “Traditional Proof Texts”, and you’ll probably want to begin with the Introduction (This is essentially Chapter 4 from the book, but broken down into its various parts). You’ll see that these verses do not teach eternal hell. When considered in context, and sometimes looking beyond the English to the original languages of Scripture, you’ll find that some make no comment on final judgment at all, and some actually give weight to the argument that death, true cessation of any form of life and existence, is the actual punishment that will result from being cast in the lake of fire at final judgment.

But because I’m challenging a long held belief system, and challenging people who I also respect, I needed to offer a few disclaimers, and that’s what follows. I hope you’ll take a minute to read those four disclaimers, and then begin navigating around the tabs, blog posts, chapter summaries of the book that’s available, and especially the verse links to the right. And I hope you gain as much from the information on this site as I have in discovering it through hundreds of hours of study. And please know that the ultimate point of this website is not to say I’m right and someone else is wrong. It’s to help others come to see the more merciful God of Scripture that’s really there. And in turn, this will deepen your love for Christ. Or if you’re a non-believer and have been rejecting the Christian God because of false teachings about him burning people for all eternity in hell, then this blog is for you as well, so that you will see that the bible doesn’t actually teach this. The fate of the lost will be awful. But it will have an end. No human soul will suffer into eternity. And the evidence for this is overwhelming. The full book that I’m writing is still unfinished and will contain every pertinent piece of information I’ve discovered during the last 12+ years. This blog may eventually hold the majority of that information, but right now, it’s probably less than 50% of the full study. Now the disclaimers….

4 Disclaimers

  1. I’m not challenging the authority of Scripture with what I write. I’m challenging the traditional interpretations of a handful of concepts, verses, and passages that I believe have been in err for a long time.   And I’m also in a couple of places challenging even the translations of the Hebrew or Greek into English. But I’m not challenging the truth, accuracy, or authority of Scripture in its original languages.
  2. While I believe the traditional view of immortality and eternal conscious suffering can at times be a stumbling block to a closer relationship with God, I’m not suggesting that people who hold that view which seems to be in opposition to what Scripture really teaches, can’t have a close relationship with God. I know that many of them do in fact.  I am a sermon junkie. I wouldn’t last a day without listening to the wisdom that comes through our local Christian radio station and Oneplace.com where numbers of Christian preachers and bible teachers teach through Scripture, all who I assume hold the traditional view.  And I don’t doubt that most all of them have solid relationships with the Lord.  And I’ve met and known quite a number of people who were God-fearing, God-loving people, but who hold the traditional view of hell and immortality.  The Holy Spirit is all-powerful and can overcome and supersede all sorts of doctrinal error (and we all have some of that. Nobody’s got it all correct) as long as we don’t deny the most primary doctrine: That Jesus Christ was God with us, and that he suffered and then died an atoning death to save us from the eternal death we are headed for before repenting from unbelief and putting our faith, hope, and trust in Him. There’s no room for give on this issue, and anyone teaching anything else is teaching a dangerous heresy. And just from personal experience, I remember a number of times feeling very close to the Lord and having “mountain top” experiences prior to finding these errors in our traditions that have to do with the eternal conscious suffering of the lost. But I also know from personal experience that years back when I semi-believed the traditional doctrine of eternal conscious suffering, it was often a stumbling block in coming to know and love God even more.
  3. I am not trying to harm the Christian ministry of any of God’s servants who have given their lives to teaching and preaching God’s Word. As I said above, I listen daily to people who I believe are led by God, but who I’d disagree with on this topic. I would be heart-broken if our local Christian radio station disappeared or if the other sermon sources I use ever went down. But by the same token, Scripture tells us to correct one another when we see error. If I’m wrong in my conclusions, then I’ll answer to God for that one day, but when I pray and ask God for answers, and study the bible, it gives me the answers it gives. I don’t try to change it, and I can’t deny it. So if those answers are in opposition to tradition, I can’t help that. And while I’m claiming that satan has pulled the wool over our eyes with some of these erroneous ideas about immortality and eternal conscious hell, I’m not suggesting that any Christian pastor or teacher is spreading this on purpose.  I believe most of them are simply doing what they‘ve been taught to and teaching what they currently believe is correct. I hope that many of them will somehow find this information and reconsider their position.  Another thing about Christian pastors, especially here in America where for as long as I can remember, they’ve received a great deal of respect…  That tide is turning quickly.  Even in America, Christians are becoming the enemy of the world now, as the bible predicted.  And pastors and teachers who hold to their faith and their flocks as the days get darker have nothing but my highest respect.  However, I hear many of them say things like “Hey, you need to check what I’m preaching to you.  Don’t take my word for it”.  Well I think that’s good advice, since no one has every single thing correct.  And that’s what I’ve done on this subject.  So there is no disrespect intended by trying to point out an error.
  4. If you read through some of the evidence on this blog and begin seeing the validity of it, don’t go running to your pastor telling him how wrong he’s been. He won’t love that. And by all means, don’t leave your church in an effort to find a church that teaches final judgment more biblically. You probably won’t find it. I don’t attend a church that agrees with me about judgment and I never have. I attended and was also a deacon and elder at varying times over a decade of membership at a non-denominational church that constitutionally held to the traditional view of hell and immortality that I completely disagree with.  My family has now been attending another church for going on five years now, whose pastor also believes and teaches “the eternal conscious separation from God” view of final judgment.  I disagree, but it doesn’t stop me from wanting to worship and serve there.  No group of Christians are going to see every single issue the same.  So even if you find the information I share to ring true, don’t break fellowship with your current church unless you have other reasons that have nothing to do with this, because this is not a break-fellowship type of issue. If your church is teaching faith in Christ who was crucified for our sins as the only means of attaining eternal life, that’s enough to remain.  And as you read through this study, and add to it with your own study, if it becomes evident to you that we’ve had this one wrong, as it has to me, rather than leave a situation where the traditional view is being taught, pray for an open door to share what you’ve found, so that others too can come to know God more completely, by understanding His nature in judgment more biblically.