I must say I disagree with your views which are highly unorthodox and, I believe, just plain unscriptural. One the one hand you point to the Lucan passage for proof that Jesus rejected the idea of burning people and then you turn around and argue that the Scriptures are adulterated. You really cannot have it both ways.

You are corrected that the doctrine of inspiration relates to the autographs. But it doesn’t follow that copies are in error. If a given passage occurs in a wide variety of manuscripts and fragments from a wide variety of locations scattered throughout eons of time and yet read nearly identical to one another then I am happy that it is accurate. To suggest that we cannot know the true Scriptures suggests that God is unable to communicate truth through the centuries.

You are faced with more problems than just that which is on Jesus’ lips. For his inspired apostles offered the same teachings. If you can demonstrate these validity of these “interpolations” please do. But the fact is Hell is real. The horror of Hell points both to the ugliness of sin and the beauty of God’s grace which saves.

But more to the point is that there will be no eternal punishment, not in the traditional view of God torturing billions of people for all eternity, not if what Jesus, originally, had to say about God’s nature is correct!

I’ve actually written an entire book on this topic–”Hell? No! Why You Can Be Certain There’s No Such Place As Hell,” (for anyone interested, you can get a free ecopy of my book at my website: http://www.thereisnohell.com), but if I may, let me share one of the many points I make in it to explain why.

If one is willing to look, there’s substantial evidence contained in the gospels to show that Jesus opposed the idea of Hell. For example, in Luke 9:51-56, is a story about his great disappointment with his disciples when they actually suggested imploring God to rain FIRE on a village just because they had rejected him. His response: “You don’t know what spirit is inspiring this kind of talk!” Presumably, it was NOT the Holy Spirit. He went on, trying to explain how he had come to save, heal and relieve suffering, not be the CAUSE of it.

So it only stands to reason that this same Jesus, who was appalled at the very idea of burning a few people, for a few horrific minutes until they were dead, could never, ever burn BILLIONS of people for an ETERNITY!

True, there are a few statements that made their way into the copies of copies of copies of the gospel texts which place “Hell” on Jesus’ lips, but these adulterations came along many decades after his death, most likely due to the Church filling up with Greeks who imported their belief in Hades with them when they converted.

Bear in mind that the historical Protestant doctrine of the inspiration of the Scriptures applies only to the original autographs, not the copies. But sadly, the interpolations that made their way into those copies have provided a convenient excuse for a lot of people to get around following Jesus’ real message.

I posted this article on my blog.

Terry Finley

http://cofcwebsites.blogspot.com/
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