Nov 262015
 
bible key

I have covered many aspects of the faulty doctrine of an eternal burning hell, logically pointing out that the penalty for sin is death (Romans 6:23) and how Yeshua came and suffered that very penalty.  I have also logically argued that in the end of time God will have a perfect creation without sin, which could not be so if he were to sustain an eternal penal colony of lost souls roasting in a “hell”.  Such lost souls would be sustained sinners and not reconciled by any sane definition! I need not rehash here every aspect of the faulty doctrine of an eternal burning hell!!!

Last night I prayed for something new to point out and shortly thereafter noticed a new point.  It stood out with new luster.  I started to study about the fact that God is “longsuffering” in Numbers 14:18.  In the Hebrew this is “long-faced” [Strong’s H750 and H639].  The Hebrew is concrete in this case pointing at the sad long face of a suffering personality.  I also wanted to see how the Septuagint translated this and found the Greek word, “makrothumia”, which means “long-endurance” of pain and being patient with others.. [see Strong’s G3115].  The Hebrew and Greek work well together in touching all bases on what God experiences.  He suffers with his creation!

There has been a debate on just how much God experiences pain.  Under Greek philosophical influence the early church often held that God does not suffer and is basically above it all.  The term “impassable” has often been used to describe God in this regard.  God is supposedly “not emotional” or does not feel pain. Many theologians will label any verse that describes face, eyes, hands, and suffering of God “Anthropomorphisms” and “Anthropopathisms” (emotions).  In other words, God is described with human features (physical and mental) to help us understand certain points about the divine.  I am persuaded when God is described with hands and face, for God is spirit, but not persuaded about God not having certain mental and emotional attributes.  If God is without emotions than God would be less understanding and could not see things fully. God is “passable” not “impassable”.  He truly loves the created world and all his creatures!!!

To wrap this up, because God is both omnipresent and omniscient (all knowing) he is both above his creation and within it.  God is within everything, every single atom and particle.  God sees out our very eyes and is in our very nerves.  In him we move and have our being. God suffers what we suffer.  God knows each of us better than we know ourselves, something required for a perfect and devine judge. NOW if God were to sustain unredeemed sinners in and endless fiery hell God would suffer with them because he would be sustaining them.  Remember anything completely separated from God has no existence.  God will have a perfect creation in the end where all is completed and reconciled, which cannot be so if God as well as most people suffer in hell forever. God would suffer with them and to some extent the redeemed would also knowing that their loved ones did not earn salvation..

It is time to put the unbiblical and illogical Traditional view of Hell in the catagory of fables where it truly belongs.

Pastor S. Zomok   (note: The above post is found on several other sites and has several thousand views.  I hope to get the popularity of this site up…)

Sep 172015
 
bible key

Several years ago a pro-Islamic lady said to me, “Why would I choose the Biblical Jesus over the Muslim Jesus (Isa) as they mention him too in their Koran”?

I said to this lady that indeed the Koran does mention Jesus about 96 times but why would you consider what the Koran says about Jesus as equal to what the New Testament says?  Do you not know that the New Testament Gospels were produced between 64 and 94 AD, by the disciples and the people that knew them in the first century, whereas, the Koran did not appear until about 800 AD, about 700 years later!!!!  My dear lady lets change the whole chronology and lets say the ministry of Jesus took place in 1929 America at the time the stock market crashed, and lets keep the relative chronology going.  With this in mind the whole activities of the original disciples and Paul would have been from 1930 to about the 1990s and even now (2010 then) there would be eyewitnesses to Jesus around, moreover, all the gospels would have been spread around by now.  And my dear lady you would have to wait until about the year 2800 AD for the Koran, so which testimony of Jesus would be more accurate?  The lady seemed stunned with eyes wide open! Then She looked flush and deflated..

At any rate I gave a good answer!  It is true that the Koran (or Quran) does mention Jesus (isa) but it is not as accurate in its view of Jesus and denies facts about Jesus. Here is a verse of the Koran—

And they said we have killed the Messiah Jesus son of Mary, the Messenger of God. They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, though it was made to appear like that to them; those that disagreed about him are full of doubt, with no knowledge to follow, only supposition: they certainly did not kill him. On the contrary, God raised him unto himself. God is almighty and wise.

— Quran surah 4 ……..

Historically speaking Jesus was crucified and put into a tomb, as the gospels say, and historically speaking a few days later, the tomb was empty, and historically speaking the disciples, now apostles (sent ones) changed the world in a few generations.  The Koran denies these truths.  Even Jewish and secular sources of the first and second centuries mention Jesus and his execution (Josephus as one example)..

pastor zomok