BRI International Internet Yeshiva Forum Notes, August 17, 2013
CAUTION: BRI Yeshiva notes are not available to the general public. They are not for distribution. They are not for reproduction. The notes may also bear little or no resemblance to the actual audio or video recorded BRI Yeshiva lecture.
Copyright © BRI 2013 All Rights Reserved Worldwide
Lectures on "The Apocalypse" [153]
REFLECTIONS ON HELL
There are some students who have sat beside me in this sharing ministry over many years but I can't help but wonder how they would cope if they were engaged in a debate by other Christians on the subject of salvation and redemption.
I concluded my last lecture with this summation: Our Lord Yeshua made it patently clear. To accept the PEACE of God there are CONDITIONS. (I am not talking about salvation here, which is entirely by God's Grace and
unconditional love; I am speaking rather of our need to overcome anxiety replacing it with peace.)
What are these conditions to be granted peace -- peace of mind, THE peace of God, God's very own peace or
shalom? The conditions are enunciated in
Matthew 11.28,29.
"
Come unto me [that's a condition to receiving peace] all you who labour and are heavy-laden and overburdened and I will cause you to rest. I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.
Take my yoke upon you [this is another condition to be granted peace] and
be educated by me [here is yet another condition], for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart,
and [as a consequence]
you will find rest [here is the fulfilment of the promise concerning peace] -- relief, ease, refreshment, recreation and blessed inner quiet -- for your souls" (
Mt 11.28,29).
Relief, ease, refreshment, recreation and blessed inner quiet are the qualities of peace, not anxiety.
Peace,
shalom, is what will get us through the next few years now ahead of us.
Without God's PEACE we will
not endure the life and times of the Antichrist.
Before we enter into the wonderful visions of
Revelation 20 I wish to take time out for some reflections. I think for some this may prove to be spiritually beneficial. It will help some of us to rehearse some of
the essentials that form the bedrock of the contents of the following chapter in this series on the
Apocalypse.
After my own Damascus Road in 1981 I was given an insight into that which God the Father had planned for this end of the age. I was given a Scripture which has never left me. It is a Scripture that constellates around hope, faith and love. It is located in
Isa 43.19:
"Behold, I
will do a
new thing;
now it shall spring forth; shall
you not know it?"
God the Father has been doing an entirely new thing through this Teaching ministry for the past 40+ years, in re-educating Christian believers into God's very own word as understood and reinterpreted
through a restored lost Jewish thoughtform. Over the past 20+ years we have seen other organisations and other church affiliations and internet websites adopting this phrase "lost Jewish thoughtform." Tens of thousands are now accessing our site and many of those are believers who see the value of this ministry and Work of God. If they feel pleased to use our terminology then
B'ruch HaShem. Praise God. The Messiah is once more being elevated and preached.
In our recent trip overseas I was asked by a believer: "What is it that we teach that is different to the other churches that we see around us?"
It was a sincere question, and I gave him a quick reply. But in this
Apocalypse lecture I would like to answer it more fully before we progress to
Revelation 20. In my forthcoming lecture devoted to that chapter I will share with you the rabbinic response to the lie about an eternal burning hell called Gehenna. I will reveal to you the rabbinic teaching about just how long the period of trial for the unregenerate in Gehenna will last. And, of course, its decidedly
not eternity!
Over many years believers have desired to have a rabbinic response to this age-old question and in two weeks from now I will answer it thoroughly. I ask you all to bring along your friends and/or family for that lecture, so that they might be liberated once and for all from the devil's demonic doctrine of abject filth and degeneracy. Remember this one fact above all others: HaSatan, the Dark Lord, desires above all else to make God the Father out to be a sadistic monster who delights in torturing souls non-stop in the most fiendish and cruel of ways possible. The horror really is that people believe this crap.
My wife and I were touched by the reaction of an Anglican Rector we knew many years ago. Whenever he thought of his deceased father (whom he loved deeply) burning in hell forever he would cry uncontrollably. His wife could not help him for he thought he knew the truth about hell -- his father was a Mormon, and so was unsaved and therefore God's judgment of torment had already been pronounced. He was writhing in eternal unceasing torture burning yet never being consumed.
When I suggested that his view was in error, and that it was contrary to what Christians and early church fathers originally held to be the case for the first 300+ years of the history of the church, he was shocked. I do not care how nice your Rector is, how educated your pastor may be, or how erudite and loyal to conscience your priest may profess to be -- if he believes in this image of God then he has made God the Father in his own damned image and he needs to repent!
Hosea said it correctly millennia ago: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge!" cries God. And who does he blame for this spiritual ignorance that leads to destruction? Why, the religious leaders of the day. "Because
you have rejected knowledge I also reject
you as my
priests!" (
Hos 4.6).
Most Christians fail to realise that it is God -- a God of unconditional love -- who brought Gehenna into an existence in the first place. God created hell. If hell is eternal, and if hell is filled with hopelessness and doom and if hell consists of never-ending torturous horror for those who reject His Son -- pray tell what kind of "Love" is this? "God is love," John tells us (
1 Jn 4.8,16).
How is it that we Christians speak and sing of God's endless Grace, God's endless unconditional, unmerited favour, only to be confronted by an eternity promised for those who reject His Grace filled with the terror of a
Graceless Night. We are really admitting that Grace is
not unconditional. It is
not endless love. Is there a termination point for God's Grace and Love? Church doctrines when compared to the biblical revelation are in fact a brutal declaration that God is a liar. And a very cranky one at that.
For the first 300 years the Fathers of the church taught a universal salvation. For the first 500 years the belief in a universal salvation was never denounced in any church creed or list of heresies. Then suddenly with the introduction of the notions of Latin "justice" ("pay-back") and then (later) Purgatory, universal salvation was deemed heterodox -- a damnable doctrinal lie. Did you know that
atheists did not exist in the eastern church until the Roman church spread its doctrines of a hostile God into Constantinople? Atheism is the fruit of the doctrinal aberration called "eternal torment." Yes, we are faced today with a dilemma of monumental proportions. Is God true or not? Can we really take Him at His word?
What do we teach that is markedly different to the Gospels others promulgate? (And, remember, I am here to educate people,
not indoctrinate them.)
In Jewish thoughtform salvation is not a matter of being saved
from an ever-burning hell. That's a very negative view of salvation. It's a "save your skin" theology. It's as corrupt as the stupid Rupture (er, sorry, Rapture doctrine). Rather, salvation consists of being saved
into ALL that God IS. On that basis, believing that God is a God of PURPOSE (and theologians all agree that hell is utterly without purpose)
we believe that the Christ, Yeshua the Messiah, is a satisfied Saviour. He's not the
provider of salvation (and nowhere in the Bible is he called that) but the Saviour. Yeshua was and is "the Passover Lamb" and
that Lamb was never offered to Israel -- it was GIVEN. It was never a "sin offering."
We believe Yeshua is a satisfied Saviour because if God is LOVE then God is truly love, endless love, unconditional love. In fact, when Yeshua came he made the
loving character of God the issue. Notice what he said in
Mt 5.43-44 "You have heard that it has been said, You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I tell you this:
Love your enemies!
Bless them who curse you,
do good to them who hate you, and
pray for them who despitefully use you, and who persecute you."
What a hypocrite is God! He wants us to be one way while he intends to be entirely another on Judgment Day! He will
hate his enemies,
cursing them into the ever-burning lake of fire and brimstone,
condemning them to burn eternally with only increasing agony,
and totally forget about them -- forever!
Well, that's what the Anglicans teach, that's what the Baptists teach, that's what the Uniting church teaches! That's what hundreds of millions believe. But Yeshua adds a word of comfort in this passage:
"In order that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven...become you therefore spiritually mature even as your Father in heaven is spiritually mature" (
Mt 5.45,48).
If we are the children, the sons and daughters of God, we will carry God's DNA:
we will emulate the character and nature of the Father.
Forty years ago I started asking some poignant questions about current Church theology and no single minister of ANY Christian persuasion has answered them. They cannot answer these questions because if they attempted to do so they would condemn themselves for teaching Satanic demonic doctrines of evil. I now pass these questions by you (as I have in the past) for your consideration.
QUESTION: How can it be that in
Romans 13.10, Paul tells us that love works no ill to his neighbour. We are commanded to love our neighbour for God Himself is the embodiment of love and we are to be like Him. If this is the case could God inflict an endless ill to even those His enemies He professes to love?
QUESTION: It is the teaching of the churches that sin is
infinite and man must justly be punished, as a consequence,
infinitely. Stop please, and use your brain for a minute. Isn't man a
finite creature? How can a
finite creature commit an
infinite sin? If man as a
finite creature cannot commit an
infinite sin, then is justice served by punishing him endlessly?
QUESTION: If one sin is really infinite, can a hundred billion transgressions be any more? And if one transgression isn't infinite, does a hundred billion transgressions amount to an infinite sin? Moreover, if sin itself is infinite, how can one sin be greater than another? Further, if sin (which is the transgression of God's Torah --
1 Jn 3.4) is infinite, is it really the case that "where sin abounded GRACE DID MUCH MORE ABOUND" (
Rom 5.20)?
That's GRACE brethren, and not judgmental fury and castigation!
QUESTION: When we pray to our heavenly Father, should we pray in faith without doubting (
Jam 1.6-8)? We are told to do so by God Himself. Should we pray for the salvation of all men? I think all Christians, no matter what denomination they belong to would give consent to this proposition, because it is written that God desires the salvation of humankind. And, God makes it patently clear that there is only one Name under heaven given among men by which that salvation can come (
Acts 4.12).
I well recall, when employed with the world's largest international missionary radio organisation many years ago, that the Australian Director of that worldwide work enthusiastically embraced the concept that God desired the salvation of all men and he stated often that we ought to pray effectively and intelligently for that salvation to be implemented (
1 Tim 2.1).
I challenged him then as I challenge you all now.
The Word of God informs us that "whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (
Rom 14.23). If we are to pray without doubting for the salvation of all humankind, can it not be that God
intends all to be saved? If we are praying for this result other than in faith then we are actively sinning before God and we are doing so in His plain sight.
Unfortunately, he couldn't answer (or perhaps wouldn't answer) the obvious point of my perceptive thrust. I really don't think he ever prayed the same again after that, especially for the lost. I mean, if today is the only day of salvation (which he held to be a self-evident fact of Scripture -- which it isn't by any means) and endless misery is the just lot of the lost (who fail to accept Yeshua as their Saviour in their present lifetime for the simple reason God hasn't called them to do so) then WHY should any of us "desire and pray" that endless misery and eternal torment may prove FALSE?
Ecclesiastical history tells us that the fourth century Roman emperor Constantine created
a new church during his reign and he called that church "the Catholic church." The Constantinian church in all three major divisions today has been spoon-fed a corrupted Gentile Gospel for over 1,700 years. The prophet Jeremiah says about the days of the coming of the Messiah: "The Gentiles shall come...and say 'Surely our fathers have inherited lies...'" -- from prophet, priest and minister alike (
Jer 16.19).
FACT: "Faithful is the saying and worthy of all acceptance. For to this end we labour and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, Who is the Saviour of all men,
especially [NOT exclusively] of them that believe. These things command and teach" (
1 Tim 4.9-11).
This speaks of a salvation within a salvation. Because the church early rejected the Jewish agricultural festivals and their meaning in relation to the Cosmic Plan of God for humanity, the church forgot that WE TODAY who follow Yeshua do so because we are the "Firstfruits" of the harvest of God. We are not THE harvest, only the
firstfruits of that coming harvest. We are called "firstfruits" on a number of occasions in the Bible. The church has forgotten WHO we are and has really lost its way!
Romans 9,10,11 tell us that we have arrived at the time when God is reappointing Jewish people to deliver the original Gospel
back to the Gentiles.
FACT: "For God so loves the world, that he gives his uniquely-begotten Son, that everyone who is believing in him should not be perishing, but may be having everlasting life. For God sends not his Son into the world [not the church] that he should be condemning the world, but that the world [not the church] may be saved through him" (
Jn 3.16,17 correct tense).
Why do we consistently read "church" into these verses when the text spells it out as WORLD?
FACT: "We see Yeshua, who was made a little lower than the angels
for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God
should taste death for every man" (
Heb 2.9).
Nobody was left out of the equation when Yeshua died for the sins of the world. He was our Representative Man. He represented all of us to God the Father. ALL were included in Christ's death. All were included in His resurrection too! You can't have one without the other. They go hand in glove, so to speak.
If Christ became every man, woman and child that has ever lived or will ever live and He took upon Himself all the personal sins we have ever committed or evil thoughts we have ever had, then He must become a Personal Saviour to each of us in order to save each of us personally. That means there must be a time period during which he will reveal himself to every human being that has at some time walked this planet. Hence
Jn 3.16,17 is written in the present continuous tense.
FACT: It is the blood of Mashiach that has made possible the gathering "together in one THE UNIVERSE in Christ, all things whether they inhabit the heavens or the earth. In him" (
Eph 1.10). "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who WILL [not desires, hopes, aspires or wishes] have ALL men to be saved [that's "all men" -- not all
sorts of men] and to come to the knowledge of the truth that there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Messiah Yeshua, who gave himself a ransom for ALL
the testimony of which is to be given in strategic seasons having a unique character of their own" (
1 Tim 2.4-6 Greek).
The Greek word which we translate as "age" or eon is
ainios. It does not mean "eternity." It does not mean "everlasting," "forever," or "never-ending." It means "age" and is the equivalent of the Hebrew word
ol'm which also means (in biblical Hebrew) "an age." Jonah, we are told, was in the belly of the great fish "forever." But he was soon spewed out onto the sandy shores of Assyria, watched by the locals in amazement as he struggling up the beach covered in seaweed and fish spew, his skin broken all over in seeping acidity sores. The word the scroll of Jonah uses for "forever" is
ol'm!
FACT: "Who among us shall dwell with the DEVOURING FIRE? Who among us shall dwell with EVERLASTING BURNINGS? He that walks righteously, and speaks uprightly; he that despises the gain of deceit, that won't accept bribes, and closes his ears from plans to shed blood, and who shuts his eyes from seeing evil" (
Isa 33.14,15).
I preached to a group of ex-SDA's on a few occasions. These people have no sense of eternal security. Their prophetess Mrs E.G. White (egg white) made it candidly plain to her churches that nobody can claim to believe they are already saved. That would be presumptuous, she said. They could fail spiritually in life and miss out on the reward of heaven. So SDA's trudge along wanting to believe that Christ will save them, but never having an assurance of salvation. They might be devoured by the fires of "Jesus" when he burns up the wicked at his advent.
On one of my preaching occasions I left them stunned when I shared the above text of Isaiah with them. Our God is a consuming fire. The Bible tells us that twice. As such we will live forever in the fires of God. Better get used to it now! We will burn forever...in God's all embracing consuming love. Its not the wicked who will burn forever. It is us.
FACT: "Behold the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world" (
Jn 1.29).
The Lamb of God is not just any lamb. It is the Passover Lamb which was never a sin offering. The
Passover Lamb was never offered. It was given. And it had to be consumed completely so that nothing of it was left over in the morning.
FACT: "As
IN ADAM
all die, even so
IN CHRIST shall all be made [spiritually] alive" (
1 Cor 15.22). "Death [the state of death] is swallowed up in victory. O death [the death state], where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?" (
1 Cor 15.54,55). "For he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed [annulled] is death" (
1 Cor 15.26)... "that God may be all in all [not all in some]" (
1 Cor 15.28).
There's the equation! "
As in" = "
even so." All will ultimately arise "IN Christ" as spiritual creatures. This cannot be talking of a physical resurrection after which the second death is experienced, as some Christians erroneously teach. We all died in Adam. We will all live IN Christ. Furthermore, if one person remains in death, the death state will not have been abolished, and death will remain as God's enemy and that for all eternity. Ain't gonna happen.
FACT: "My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Yeshua the Messiah, the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins,
and not for ours only but
also for the whole world" (
1 Jn 2.1,2).
Clearly, none of the above Scriptures testifies to an eternal hellfire. And nor do we at the BRI/IMCF. Rather they plainly state that God's purpose is the salvation not just of men but of the entirety of the universe.
These Scriptures
and these arguments need to become artillery and ammunition to use in our present warfare against the Principalities and Powers that exercises relentless control over a religious community that sadly resides in darkness experiencing the grief that is endemic to the state of unenlightenment.
"You shall know the truth," said Our Lord Yeshua, "and the truth shall make you free."
Let us not be hesitant in sharing the JOY and PEACE of mind that comes with a proper understanding of the loving heart of God.
-- Les Aron Gosling, Messianic Jewish Lecturer![Welcome to the Forum and Educational Boards of the International Messianic Community of Faith [IMCF]](https://biblicalresearchinstitute.com/imcforum/Themes/default/images/BRI.png)
