And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. Rev 20:14

Faith is a journey and as such the point from which one sets out is not the place to which one arrives. What I now believe and understand concerning the gospel and the nature and character of God, is not what I believed when I was a spiritual babe. That’s not to say all I believed was wrong, but truth has a way of undoing our carnal preconceptions. As followers of the way, our lives will always exemplify a sense of this journey, of moving from the darkness of this present world, toward the light of a heavenly kingdom.

In all fairness to myself and many who might read this post, as spiritual babes we are not well acquainted with righteousness. Paul alludes to this when he speaks of the need to move from milk to meat, from carnality to righteousness.

Each and every one of us are brought into the kingdom as carnal creatures of the flesh. We may be counted amongst the brethren, and we may be called with a holy calling, but we remain creatures of the flesh until that seed of His Spirit begins to bring forth life in this mortal body of death.

The way, or the faith, is a journey from death to life; from darkness to light; from serving the flesh and the kingdoms of this present world to abiding in the spirit and truth of His word, and serving the living God.

For me now, to speak of hell and eternal torment in a fiery pit where flesh and sinew sizzle forever, is a concept which finds no fertile ground. Yet, in the beginning, at the outset of this journey it was a doctrine I wholeheartedly embraced. To my shame and with all of the religious zeal a pharisee could muster, I too concluded that the vast majority of humanity would burn or be destroyed in a literal inferno forever.

Eternal torment is a concept which found fertile ground in a callous and unregenerate mind. It motivated certain behaviour in me which I now see as being altogether ungodly. But again, in all fairness to myself, I was a babe in Christ, a creature of the flesh, seeking to make sense of this world through the doctrines of the institutional church.

In my zeal for God and for truth and righteousness, the doctrine of eternal torment made sense. That measure of wrathful vengeance of a Holy God on a wicked and evil creature. Yes, I wholeheartedly nodded my head in agreement to the comments of preachers throughout the age who would say “we deserve hell” or “hell is God’s holy justice upon a most depraved creature”. This I now realize was that same spirit that led to the murder of Abel, just dressed up in a religious garment.

Of course my carnal understanding wasn’t helped by the many and various versions of the bible which translate the word judgment into damnation(2 Thess 2:12). Damnation kinda fits with the doctrine of hell, yet, the original intention of the word is judgment, which speaks of something else altogether.

On top of that one of the first books I read when coming to the faith was a book called the “vision of Marietta Davis” an account of one woman’s journey into heaven and hell. I could go on about the many testimonies I’ve read or heard concerning eternal and unending torment in literal flames of fire, to which I thought only as truth revealed to God’s servants.

When I look back now at this most awful doctrine I consider it nothing less than a miracle that I escaped it’s hideous claws with all of it’s great lying signs and wonders


Eternal torment is an abomination!

Any doctrine which hides the nature and character of God is an abomination. Any doctrine which removes underlying truths from the gospel like justice, equity, mercy; love, is no less than a doctrine of demons.

When God’s true nature and character are tainted, when His truth is hidden, the minds of the very ones who have set out to follow Christ will end up on the broad way.

Hellish torment creates a culture of “fear” which is in itself an incredibly powerful driver for cultish behaviour. Fearing torment does not normally compel one to go out in the love of Christ and serve, rather it stands back waving a banner “repent or burn”

By all means apply a godly fear to your lives in order to motivate you to flee sins of the flesh, but why impose your hellish torments upon others.

A lot of that which hell believing followers do is motivated not by love, but fear of torment. It’s strength is not in the love of Christ, but the fear of damnation. Furthermore it leaves little room for justice in this present world, it suggests that God will not deal with men in an equitable and just manner, but rather repay them in a form and measure many times greater than the wages of their sin.

This inequity is also lived out in a more personal way when the believer, knowing he is loved by God sees himself as infinitely more worthy than the sinner, who is despised and hated by God and fit only for eternal torment and damnation. Self is exalted, selflessness is denied. “God loves His enemies” is nothing more than some kind of momentary lapse of God’s reasoning pending the great day of unending torment in flames of fire. Therefore this becomes a powerful motivator for how ones life is lived. It is not lived in selfless sacrificial agape love toward God and man, but inwardly self serving, self exalting, protection mode that does not see others as better than themselves.

Furthermore, where is mercy? Mercy triumphs over judgment! That’s what the word says and yet the doctrine of hell concludes that judgment triumphs over mercy. This is an abomination. If the Lord said that Mercy triumphs over judgment who are you oh man to deny His word?

Where is the love? God is love! The God who created the heavens and the earth who loves His enemies, and compels us to love; agape; selfless and sacrificial love, our enemies, shall He now go forth as a complete hypocrite and torment the ones He came to save? What happened to “love never fails”

Where is the power of God? the love of God? the mercy of God? the justice of God? when it comes to the inequitable, unjust and merciless doctrine of burning flesh and sinew forever more.

I spent many years in a church which wholeheartedly believed that God would send unrepentant sinners to eternal torment. I’ve seen it’s fruit and it’s not Christlike. Sure, there is a zeal for truth and righteousness, but the people rarely ever actually find these things. What they find is religion and the life as promised to them in Christ, alludes them. They remain within the walls of the institution, hunkered down, lest they stumble into damnation. Supposing that their separation from the world (in a literal sense) is the security of their salvation, which it is not.

If you think that standing in your congregation warning the world that they are all going to burn in eternal torment is somehow like Christ, or is somehow a demonstration of the love of God ; justice, mercy and truth, then you too have been taken captive by the lie. Why don’t we just read our bible and follow Him, imitate His life, live out a life which demonstrates love toward God and men.

Agape love is the fruit of the believer, Christ like agape, selfless and sacrificial love toward both God and man. This is the narrow way by which men enter into life.

Eternal torment is a founding doctrine of the man of sin, who sits in the temple of God proclaiming himself to be as God. He declares a merciless, loveless, callous and judgmental god that is reconciled with his own callous and carnal mind. A god of his own making. But for the grace of God, there go I.

The truth to that is far more profound than many perceive, that the Lord God Almighty will allow us to choose our own delusions because we would not receive a love of the truth. Now that my brothers and sisters is the manifestation of His wrath! Not unending torment.

But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. Jer 9:24

Source

DrummaBoy: Frosbel

Your write up generates questions as U will expect but while the article sounds nice, I cannot find in it any analysis of the myriads of scriptures that makes reference to hell.

Now someone said that hardly is there a mention of hell after the gospel but Jesus spoke of a God who can destroy body and soul in hell for all eternity. He said we should fear Him. I cannot find the ref' now but know what I mean.

How do U explain that?

DrummaBoy: Frosbel

Your write up generates questions as U will expect but while the article sounds nice, I cannot find in it any analysis of the myriads of scriptures that makes reference to hell.

Now someone said that hardly is there a mention of hell after the gospel but Jesus spoke of a God who can destroy body and soul in hell for all eternity. He said we should fear Him. I cannot find the ref' now but know what I mean.

How do U explain that?

obadiah777: FROSBEL YOU SCARCER THAN A PACK OF DOGS IN CALABAR. WHATS GOOD ?

frosbel:

Dogs in Calabar , oh yes, they have all ended up in the soup pot !

frosbel:

Dogs in Calabar , oh yes, they have all ended up in the soup pot !

Pygru: Hell is Real!
https://www.nairaland.com/1249906/fires-hell

Bidam: JW and their false doctrines.SMH!

frosbel:

Dogs in Calabar , oh yes, they have all ended up in the soup pot !

christemmbassey: ;Ddog with plantain? The best meal ever, once a week keeps the doctor away Obadia u need some, it will bless u. Ah ah ah ah ah.

alexleo: The usual noise making. As if the noise can change God's plan. NEVER. Those who wants to be deceived can go ahead.

frosbel:

What is God's plan ?

Let me give you a clue !

Jeremiah 29:11
New International Version (NIV)
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

alexleo:
Yes he has good plan for us as you quoted and that's why he sent his son Jesus Christ that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. That God has a good plan for us doesn't cancel his punishment for offenders.

DrummaBoy:
The lake of fire seem to me a place of eternal torment too.

frosbel:

could it be that the same God who made the following statements will also subject his creatures to eternal torment ?

Matthew 5:43-48
New International Version (NIV)
Love for Enemies
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous....48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.


Ezekiel 33:11
21st Century King James Version (KJ21)
11 Say unto them: ‘As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?’

Jeremiah 27:13
Why will you and your people die by the sword, famine and plague with which the Lord has threatened any nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?

Ezekiel 18:31
New International Version (NIV)
31 Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel?

Psalm 103:9 He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever;

Psalm 30:5
New International Version (NIV)
5 For his anger lasts only a moment,
but his favor lasts a lifetime;
weeping may stay for the night,
but rejoicing comes in the morning.


2 Peter 3:9
New International Version (NIV)
9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.




Surely you are not saying that a GOD who is so keen to save mankind to the uttermost , whose anger does not last forever but only for a moment, is also trying to harm him, torment him, torture him, inflict unimaginable cruelty on the crown on his creation ? Check up bro, this is not the GOD of the bible but SATAN.

frosbel:

could it be that the same God who made the following statements will also subject his creatures to eternal torment ?

Matthew 5:43-48
New International Version (NIV)
Love for Enemies
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous....48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.


Ezekiel 33:11
21st Century King James Version (KJ21)
11 Say unto them: ‘As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?’

Jeremiah 27:13
Why will you and your people die by the sword, famine and plague with which the Lord has threatened any nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?

Ezekiel 18:31
New International Version (NIV)
31 Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel?

Psalm 103:9 He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever;

Psalm 30:5
New International Version (NIV)
5 For his anger lasts only a moment,
but his favor lasts a lifetime;
weeping may stay for the night,
but rejoicing comes in the morning.


2 Peter 3:9
New International Version (NIV)
9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.




Surely you are not saying that a GOD who is so keen to save mankind to the uttermost , whose anger does not last forever but only for a moment, is also trying to harm him, torment him, torture him, inflict unimaginable cruelty on the crown on his creation ? Check up bro, this is not the GOD of the bible but SATAN.

alexleo:

Yeah God is love I know but it doesn't cancel his judgement. All he is saying in the scriptures you quoted is that he does not have pleasure in anyone to perish. God's punishment stands and because it stands that's why he is passionately calling man to repentance.

Segeggs: @Alexleo

do you think it right, as you claim, that God should punish a man in fire for billions of uncountable years for crimes committed for just a few years of his life spent in a miserable world of disease, hunger, pain, crime, poverty and worst of all, death?

well, you can say God's plan wont change. Yes, it wont! But its not what you think it is.

Bidam: freewill my friend..freewill..God never meant it that way but man should face the consequences of the choices he makes.

Segeggs: if you cant burn your sinful child alive then dont think God will, even for all eternity.

its people like you that will call ALUU community people evil and still support the demonic doctrine that says God will do worse than that.