BLUE CHEESE AND HELL FIRE

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The moon is NOT made out of 'blue cheese'! But, if one were told this long enough from an early age, they would believe it. So it is with the concept of an ever burning, fiery, torturing, suffering, damnable 'hell fire' for recalcitrant "unsaved" and "lost" sinners. Does that sound bad, or what?

Did you know that for the first nearly 500 years of the early New Testament Christian Church that concept was NOT preached? Why not? Well, because the early church leaders knew better. They knew the truth of the Good News. The truth of Jesus' Adopting of all humanity into His life and the Father's and the Holy Spirit's life.( See, Irenaus, Athanasius, and others) They knew that the concept of a "punishing" hell was an invention of the Greek mind, especially that of Plato. They knew that the kind of love the Father had for his children would not allow that kind of retribution against His children who simply did not know or did not believe their position in Jesus.

In the 5th century A.D. along comes a tremendously influential individual by the name of Augustine of Hippo in the Catholic Church who was the "BLUE CHEESE" man of all time. He especially liked Plato and other Greek philosophers. He liked the concept of "hell" so much that he introduced it into the church as a true doctrine in order, (in his own words) " to keep church goers in line in the straight and narrow."

Fear. Fear worked so well that it remained in the church until this day in the promotion of a torturing hell as doctrine. The problem came in when certain scriptures had to now be interpreted to be consistent with that 'hot' topic. Lazarus and the Rich Man, Worms that die not, smoke ascending up forever, lakes of fire, and other verses now had to be reinterpreted in order to support Plato's Hell.
And they were. Blue Cheese reigned supreme now. Truth had been overcome by a fable.
But the truth shall set one free. And that Truth of all Truths is that God is love,
Jesus lived and died to connect us all to the Triune God and He has redeemed, reconciled, saved, and seated all of humanity with the Father--Eph.2:6.

Even blue cheese will stink if it is left out in the open long enough to spoil.

There is a fresh wind blowing in the world right now and you are reading about it here.

Love,

Pastor Paul
www.newlifewcg.org
Madison, Alabama

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