Well, last night was a good night!
Went to church and gave my talk on the existence of Heaven and Hell. Had a good crowd show up. Unfortunately, as usual, I had far more prepared than I could deliver in 45-minutes. :: Sigh ::
So, I’ve put the entire manuscript online, and it’s available on my PulpitRodent page.
Some comments I received: My wife noted that she really liked the section on proofs and whether we require the same high level of evidence for most of the things we believe as we do for religious things. She mentioned that it was the kind of thing that once I said it, she felt a “Well, duh!” sort of reaction. The kind of thing you always know, but don’t always articulate. I liked that.
Someone else told me they didn’t know Christ delivered more teaching on Hell and avoiding it than he did on Heaven, that really struck them. A couple guys (Tim and Dave) stayed late and wanted to find out what the best resources were, because they wanted to do a small group study on the topic. Very good.
All in all, it went well, and nobody picked a fight with me. I guess that’s good, right? No audio. They weren’t taping, and I forgot to bring my PDA to record with.
Next week, my friend Dr. Steve Badger talks about “Magic or Miracles” and he asks what Harry Potter, The DaVinci Code, and St. Luke have to do with each other. Should be fun!
If you’re not in the area read the article on his website. It’s worth it.
[tags]BlogRodent, Heaven, Hell, afterlife, death, eternity, Steve-Badger, theology, Christianity, Pentecostal, Assemblies-of-God, Assembly-of-God[/tags]
Rich,
Just read your sermon. A few years back I remembered an author promoting her book on people who died, went to Heaven and came back to tell the wonder and beauty they saw. when asked about Hell she stated in fact she came apon many of those stories, but left them out of the book to keep it positive. My heart breaks in countless ways for those who have a Hell story, and sadly cannot come back to tell it.
PREFACE
Here is a copy of a an essay I posted on another forum that mentions how Moses presented arguments to God in Exodus not to go through with the [tenative] plan to destroy the Israelites, when he witnessed them worshipping the golden calf in the wilderness , and persuaded God to not go through with the planned destruction. If Moses interceeded and persuaded God to not go through with fostering a grim state of affairs for the wayward Israelites in the Sinai , there is a precedent on how God could be persuaded by polite , reasonable argument to reverse some punitive judgement . Thus, the thesis of the essay (I’d like to post below) is that if God was persuaded by argument to reverse a judgement against the Israelites, it is then plausible that God might be persuaded by the prayers and intercession of Christians to let people out of whatever “hell †they may have been dammed to and send them somewhere else.
Even if that somewhere else is some sort of neutral place which has neither the privations of hell nor the rewards of heaven .
In Exodus 32:7-14 and Numbers 24:11-30 Moses presents respectful arguments to Yahweh (God) for God NOT to go ahead with an apparently tenative plan to destroy the Isrealites after the Isrealites had severely offended their Lord . According to both texts God is evidently persuaded by the arguments presented by Moses and does NOT go ahead with the announced plan to destroy or disinherit the Israelites .
Moses thus interceeds on the behalf of these people who have severely offended God and persuades God to show them mercy / grant them clemency .
THE QUESTION WHICH WE OUGHT TO ASK IS :
If it is a good act for Moses to interceed on behalf of those in Old Testament times who had offended him and to try to persuade God grant them some sort of pardon —wouldn’t it behoove us to take an approach in the spirit of Moses and ask God to pardon the souls of whatever atheists and sinners might be in “hell†and have Jesus redeem those souls out of hell –or at least give them remediation –if not full redemption so that nthey may be taken to another place than a “hell†?
After all , a person doesn’t have to be Moses to adopt the example of interceeding on behalf of the fallen and /or unbelieving , that Moses adopted .
According to the book of Revelation, Jesus has the keys to death and hell (or Hades —to use the apparent word in the original Greek) . A key can be used to unlock as well as lock in .
Many Fundamentalists like to quote Hebrews 9:27 that reads , ‘It is appointed unto men once to die and after that cometh judgement’ , yet here with the case of Moses interceeding on behalf of the Isrealites we have a case of a Divine Judgement being *reversed*, by someone presenting respectful to God arguments, on behalf of the other people .
(It is interesting to note , by the way, that Hebrews 9:27 does NOT state that the judgement takes place immediately after death —it reads ‘after’ but it does NOT read “immediately after†. It is also interesting when unpacking the concept of divine Judgement in the Bible that Isaiah 1:27 refers to judgement as having a redeeming and NOT just punitive role , ‘Zion shall be redeemed with judgement ‘) .
Perhaps as the Isrealites were shown clemency by Moses interceeding on the behalf of those unbeliving Israelites, perhaps the souls of atheists and sinful hedonists who are in a “hell†might be shown clemency by us, who are Christians asking God to send Jesus to let them out of such a realm of damnation ?