The Hell Debate: Eternal Torment, Annihilation, or Universalism?

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“Many Christians seem to think that hell is where an unsaved person goes immediately after dying, but it’s not. The church has always affirmed that one day all the dead will be resurrected. Only then will the lost be sentenced to hell as final punishment.5 So, hell is where the unsaved are sent after being raised back to life from the dead.” - Word by Word

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Review of Brian Recker’s ‘Hell Bent: How the Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back from a Spirituality of Love’

I have never read a book that I would categorize as a “Satan-breathed”; a book where the author defends the devil’s dogmas of “ye shall not surely die” and “ye shall be as gods” by using the words of Scripture. Now I have.

In Hell Bent: How the Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back from a Spirituality of Love, Bob Jones University (BJU) alumnus and former evangelical pastor Brian Recker characterizes the doctrine of Hell as “a black hole, sucking in and crushing every other priority under its weight” (13).

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Spurgeon on the Eternality of Hell

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“There is a suspicion that sin is not, after all, so bad a thing as we have dreamed. There is an apology, or a lurking wish to apologise for sinners, who are looked upon rather as objects of pity than as objects of indignation, and really deserving the condign punishment which they have wilfully brought upon themselves.” - C.H. Spurgeon (PyroManiacs)

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Putting the Authority Back in the Gospel

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“I do not want to manipulate people into a false profession of faith. However, I also want to be as direct as the Bible is regarding the desperate consequences of sin, the reality of eternal punishment, the urgency of the gospel, and God’s command for people to place their dependence on the finished work of Christ for forgiveness of their sin and restoration to God.” - P&D

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How Could a Loving God Send Anyone to Hell?

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“To understand the doctrine, we first need to ask if we believe in retributive justice. In other words, do we, as people who claim to be loving, believe that people guilty of horrifying, sickening acts of evil need to face punishment for what they have done? Or should Stalin, Hitler, and Pol Pot simply have been sent to reformatories to improve their behaviour?” - David de Bruyn

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What Lewis Had Wrong about Hell

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“Despite my love both for Lewis and The Great Divorce, this is a prime example of how his views on hell have had a negative influence on the doctrine of eternal punishment.” - Ref21

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Jesus Is Jehovah, Part 6: Excursus—Descent into Hell

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“The phrase is rare, but it does appear twice in the OT. In Isaiah 44.23 it appears in contrast with heaven: “Sing O ye heavens; … shout, ye lower parts of the earth.” Here it clearly means the earth as distinguished from heaven; grammarians would call this a ‘genitive of apposition’—’ye lower parts, that is to say, the earth.’” - Olinger

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