God has the right to do whatever He pleases. — Psalms 115:3
If we dig deep and find the caring, loving part God has placed within us, the angels cannot be restrained from actively being our associates. — Elaine Street
Anyone who knows God cannot describe him. Anyone who can describe God does not know him. — Paulo Coelho
Erasing Hell may not be brimming with hatred but is certainly lacking in grace.
Francis Chan plays the proof text game.
One can prove almost anything playing the proof text game.
Fancy engaging in a little genocide? There are Biblical texts you can quote. Slaughter all men, women and children. Spare not even the women and children.
The Lord´s Army in Uganda use biblical texts to justify their atrocities. As do suicide bombers, Islamist fundamentalists use The Koran.
Yes, God is all powerful. He could destroy the earth tomorrow in the blink of an eye, but could is not the same as would.
We have a loving God, a God who cares. Why would such a God condemn to an eternity in Hell for sins committed in a finite lifetime?
But Francis Chan commits to Hell, not for sins committed, but for not believing what he says we must believe.
We have not free will if we must believe what we are told to believe, and will be punished if we do not comply
Desmond Tutu addresses this very well in Tutu: A Portrait.
Does God say to the Dalia Lama, yes I recognise you are a Holy Man, but because you chose a different path, I will condemn you to an eternity in Hell?
At a St Joseph’s Day party at a medieval Venetian castle, Paulo Coelho told of dying at birth, of being strangled by his umbilical cord. His mother prayed. She promised she would mark St Joseph’s Day as thanks. She never kept her promise. God did not punish her. He recognised the frailties of human beings. Paulo Coelho now keeps his mother’s failed promise. He celebrates St Joseph’s Day with his friends, and has done so for the last 25 years.
In, I think, The Valkyries, an encounter with angels, Paulo Coelho speaks of the angel with a flaming sword guarding the entrance to heaven. The angel no longer guards the gate. The way is open to all. There are many paths. No one person has the right to say theirs is the right path. There are those bigots who have the arrogance to claim theirs is the one and only, the true path.
As Ron Bell says in Love Wins, not all would wish to enter heaven as they would have to change. Would the racist wish to sit with peopple of all races and colours? Would the bigot wish to sit with those of other faiths?
When asked, Master how do we enter heaven? Jesus gave as many different answers as those who asked.
In the Koran, we learn that to enter heaven is to recognise the one true God and to do good.
In The Shack we learn God is not a God of wrath.
Francis Chan is not though content to play the proof text game. He performs mental gymastics to claim words mean other than what they mean.
Erasing Hell is an evil book. It is like those odious people who stop you in the street and tell you if you do not believe what we believe you will suffer eternal damnation. They of course are always counted with the chosen few.
Tags: books, Christianity, Erasing Hell, faith, Francis Chan, God, Jesus, religion
Keithpp's Blog 
March 1, 2012 at 6:46 pm |
I suggest you get to know your bible before attacking Francis Chan’s thoughts on hell. Yes, God is loving, but He is also just. All of humanity is born into sinful nature. The penalty of sin is death. No one is excluded from that, except of course Jesus, who died to give life to those who believe. Those who don’t, their penalty is death (in hell). People can choose to believe what they want about God, but all Chan does is offer up the truth of the biblical texts.
March 1, 2012 at 6:58 pm |
No, he is a fundamentalist who distorts. Time permitting I will write more. These people cause a huge amount of harm.
March 1, 2012 at 6:59 pm
Then I’m interested to know how you think his opinion differs from the text of the bible