there is no hell

"Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves." matthew 7:15

rob bell, a pastor, has recently come out with a book stating that hell does not exist. another evangelical pastor was recently fired because he questioned why we are continually justifying a GOD that allows bad things to happen. the new niv translation of scripture has recently changed to become more politically correct. for example instead of saying that mary was a "virgin" she is now called a "young woman."

in the book of revelations GOD specifically tells us not to change scripture. the love of GOD is that of a father to a child. what we choose to do with our lives and the opportunities that are given to us is our choice. we can either learn and move forward, or we can ignore the situations that we learn from. for most of us we rarely learn from the good things, just the bad. for some reason the line from will smith's movie "i am legend" pops up into my head; "GOD didn't do this we did."

i like this line because it's true. it was not GOD'S choice for us to turn from HIM. it was not GOD'S choice for us to remove HIM from our lives. we have done that in justifying and choosing to turn from HIS rules. we have chosen the world and it's rules over HIS. interpretation of the bible is just that, interpretation. how we apply scripture to our life is another. "for they knew HIM, but they did not honor HIM."

when i was teenager, actually well into my early twenties i used my father's love for me no matter what, because of my parent's divorce; it was a guilt trip. i would push him into things that he did not want to do. i would make him feel guilty because i was his child and he loved me. i abused his love. it has taken me a long time to admit this about myself and what i did. when my father finally had, had enough he said no more. i had to learn that the choices i was going to make have consequence. if i hadn't stopped and listened to him we probably wouldn't be in each other's lives. this would have been my fault, not his.

in 1 corinthians 13 paul talks to the corinthian church about what love is. love is not only patient and kind, but love is also saying no. the church was abusing GOD's love for them. abusing our relationships because of love is wrong. abusing the love of GOD is wrong. GOD loves us, but if we fail to understand and learn from HIS words there will be consequences. mr. bell i feel is trying to remove hell because he doesn't want to face that there is consequence when we continually do the wrong thing. GOD's love is not an enabler, GOD's love is not a reason for us to continue in our sins.

see i made my dad feel guilty because he loves me. i never should use love as weapon to force someone to do something that they don't want to do. just because you love someone doesn't mean that you continually enable them to abuse that love. we are to forgive, but what if we have to keep forgiving the same sin over and over again. for most of us there is a breaking point; why wouldn't GOD have that? see it doesn't come down to why the person can't understand why you aren't forgiving them any longer, it comes down to why that person isn't willing to change their hearts.

we have a choice to make in our relationships. do we continue to abuse the love that we have from our loved ones, or do we realize that we are wrong in that? do we continue to abuse the love of GOD, or do we choose to learn from our sin and become more christ-like? do we choose to face the consequence of our actions, or do we choose to continually think we are always going to have a get out of jail, free card?

i look at the government this way. the united states government, as well as some individuals have abused citizens in the united states because of our love for our country and fellow man. we are at the breaking point. it's not that we don't want to help individuals it's that we can't give any more without individuals learning that they have to stop abusing our trust and love. this is what happens when we try to change GOD's word; GOD didn't do this we did.