Re: Lecture on Hell...

"Annihilation is the ear tickling doctrine. Who in their right mind would not want that to be true instead of eternal torment? "

My point was that whether a teaching is pleasing to my ears or not, i wish only to know truth regardless... and most truth from scripture is indeed ear tickling to me. As only one example among many, the following tickles my ears too, yet i'm sure you would agree that it is truth. John 3:“16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." If i believed in ear tickling for the sake of ear tickling, would i teach the importance of living Holy unto the Lord when it is so much easier for people to simply live in sin which is what the vast majority choose with their free will to do? I do try to tickle ears with this message though, letting people know how amazing their life can and will become when they begin to say yes to God's will and no to sin. Jesus said "repent for the kingdom of Heaven is near". When we truly repent, we begin to experience the kingdom of heaven here and now while living on earth and this includes the deep beautiful peace and joy of the Lord in our lives as well as His signs and wonders following us wherever we go.

"May I ask you, Ed, what your religious background was before you became a Christian. Were you raised in any religion or Christian denomination or cult?"

Only the great big brainwashing cult called mainstream christianity that powerlessly trains the majority of christians to be lukewarm rather than passionate for my Lord Jesus and to live lives that look nothing like the disciples and apostles in the book of Acts. How about you? Is there much brainwashing in your background?

Thankfully God did not have to break me of too much bad religion when He filled me to overflowing with His Spirit and began teaching me Himself. I only had to re-learn a few things that 2.5 years of seminary influenced nondenominational christianity had indoctrinated me into, a typical mainstream church that looks nothing like the book of acts because (God bless them) they don't believe in the life transforming baptism in the Holy Spirit or understand how essential it is to a disciple's walk... and they don't believe that Lord Jesus meant "us" when He instructed His followers to heal the sick and cast out demons and said that we would be doing so in His name. I was a willing vessel to let every lie go and to be filled only with my Lord's truth, however unpopular it was with the mainstream or with those who were at the time my pastors and leadership. I'm not saying i have reached doctrinal perfection, but i am way less clingy to doctrines of man than are most and i keep my heart open to my Lord that He would continue to teach me.

Rainy you talk about how the bible is your source for truth and not "youtube", but so it is with most everybody who comes up with a doctrinal opinion on eternal torment or on anything else... and who makes a youtube video on the subject... including Mr. Fudge who did this youtube video but bases it predominately in scripture as you would be able to discover if you were to watch it. Also He speaks the same words in the churches he visits that become youtube videos. Youtube is no worse a place than the average church or seminary to go to for truth.

I visit a lot of churches as a part of my calling, so i have a fair amount of experience with seeing many weak and otherwise bad teachings that train christians to be powerless, nothing like the disciples and apostles in the book of acts... and like the pharisees and the devil who also misinterpreted and misused scriptures, they use the bible to do it. In many ways much of mainstream christianity seems like a counterfeit religion to what existed in the early church. Whenever a man is speaking or whenever we are attempting to interpret the bible, we need to have very strong discernment which comes only as a blessing from God to those who seek Him intimately and deeply in Spirit and in Truth.

What is your opinion of this paragraph i had posted which i post again here:

Regarding the doctrine of "eternal torment in hell", i found the following quote in the video by R. F. Weymouth, a greek scholar and new testament translator quite compelling. He says, "My mind fails to conceive a grosser misinterpretation of language than when the five or six strongest words which the greek tongue possesses signifying "destroy" or "destruction" are explained to mean an everlasting but wretched existance. To translate black as white is nothing to this."

Rainy, are you among those who translate "destroy and destruction" to mean everlasting torment in hell? Tweet