Bible Question:
Will you please support your statements with Bible scripture? Otherwise, your statements are nothing more than your opinions, or second-hand knowledge from men who profess to be wise. "Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" 1 Cor 1:20 "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness" 2 Timothy 3:16 "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life." John 6:36 Respectfully, prazn |
Bible Answer: Dear Prazn, I appreciate your thoughts. However, in order to understand the true meaning of the Scriptures, we must of a necessity know the historical aspects to the Scripture which we hold in our hands. I'll admit that my views are RADICALLY different than most on this board are, but that's okay. We all have LIBERTY in Christ Jesus to agree to disagree, agreeably. I do not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, nor do I believe in the immortality of the human soul or the eternal torment of the wicked. What I do believe in is the Gospel of the Kingdom, which Jesus and the Apostles taught! The world is NOT condemned any more than we are, as the WRATH of God upon us all is the death penalty, for the 'wages of sin is DEATH' Romans 6:23 plainly states, not eternal LIFE in torments, but DEATH the opposite of life. However, the GIFT of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord! My heart PRAISES HIM each day for His marvelous LOVE that is boundless, His Wisdom that is wiser than us all, His power that is matchless and His Justice that WILL NOT exact a more stiffer penalty for sin than what is deserved. If Eternal Torment in Hell fire were the penalty for sin, then Jesus would still be roasting in flames and thus He would be for all eternity, as HE TOOK OUR PLACE IN DEATH, in Hades, the Bible grave. By believing in the Devil's lie that death is but a door to the next life, you open yourself up to all kinds of error and bondage to the 'god of this world who hath blinded the minds of them which believe NOT' the True Gospel of the Kingdom. Eternal Torment—Not Sin’s Penalty. Question (1977)—How do we know that the penalty of sin is not eternal torment? Answer.—The Bible plainly states that the penalty of sin is death (Rom. 6: 23). Consider well the fact that our Lord Jesus took the place of sinners under the first (Adam’s) condemnation for sin (Rom. 5: 12, 15-19). Had the penalty for sin been everlasting torment, He, in paying our penalty, would have been compelled to suffer whatever the sinners were condemned to suffer as sin’s penalty. It is written (Isa. 53: 6) that Jehovah “hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Jesus bore our sins in His own body on the tree (1 Pet. 2: 24). He died, “the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” (1 Pet. 3: 18). Jesus “gave himself a ransom [a corresponding price] for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Tim. 2: 6)—for we were all in Adam’s loins when he sinned and brought upon himself and his race the death penalty (Gen. 2: 17; 3: 19; Rom. 6: 23; Ezek. 18: 4, 20). One perfect human life was thus lost and one perfect human life was laid down as a ransom, or corresponding price; for “the Word was made flesh” (John 1: 14) and Jesus said (John 6: 51): “The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Thus in providing the ransom-price, the corresponding price, for Adam and the race that was in his loins when he sinned, Jesus, in paying the debt for sin, tasted death for every man (Heb. 2: 9). He “died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15: 3)—note carefully, He does not suffer everlasting torment for our sins. Hence if there were no other evidence on the subject, this alone would be sufficient to prove that “the wages of sin is death” and not everlasting torment. Those who like to think that the wages of sin is eternal life in torment (always for others, of course, but never for themselves!) will have a hard time explaining how they can themselves possibly escape such a fate, seeing that such a debt as the wages of sin has never been paid on their behalf! If the wages of sin is eternal life in torment, then Adam and all his race must suffer eternal torment, for Jesus never paid such a debt on our behalf! Furthermore, it is hard to understand how Christian people who claim to be civilized to such an extent that they would not tolerate parents roasting their children in an oven, or roasting or otherwise practicing cruelty to dumb animals, and who claim to have too much love in their own hearts to torture their own children in fire, no matter what the children would do, can truly worship, reverence and love a God who they claim is not even up to their own standards of civilization and love and compassion, and who they claim will eternally torture and torment the great bulk of His human creatures. ’77-87 |