For those unfamiliar with the subject, dating is a relatively simple procedure that must always be hopelessly complicated for any Christian daring to try it out.

If you’re feeling lucky, try Googling “christian dating advice.” We’ll see you next week…

But wait! Christians aren’t the only ones obsessed with the dating scene. If you search “rules for dating,” you may notice the unchurched are just as guideline-happy as the rest of us. It seems that dating might be universally confusing. So what’s the difference with Christians?

What makes Christian dating so hopelessly complicated is the Christians themselves. We bring our love for out-of-context scripture and applied-only-when-convenient principles into the mix, making for an entirely unique brand of utter ridiculousness.

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We’ve covered quite a bit so far in our discussion on Hell. We looked at every time the word “Hell” is mentioned in scripture (and discovered it basically isn’t… ever) and then we looked at every passage seeming to suggest eternal torment (and found how poorly we understand stuff that wasn’t written to us).

But get excited, because like Jesus distributing wine at a wedding, we’ve saved the best for last.

While our past work has established that the concept of Hell can’t be adequately sourced from the Bible, today, we’ll be looking at Church history to see how Hell lodged itself into Christian beliefs. We’ll show you where on the timeline eternal torment became a thing people believed in, we’ll look at the decidedly non-Biblical sources where it originated, and we’ll even examine why it stuck around.

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No matter where you look, you can’t convincingly defend the idea of eternal torment through Scripture.

Last week, we looked at every single time the Bible mentions “Hell”, and we discovered that, in essence, it doesn’t. While there are 4 words that are sometimes translated as “Hell”, none of them actually mean anything resembling our modern concept of Hell.

BUT… as many of our intelligent readers were quick to point out, showing the word “Hell” is missing from the Bible does not conclusively prove the concept of Hell is not present in the Bible.

So that’s what we’ll be looking at today – the other parts – the Biblical passages that seem to suggest eternal torment without using the word “Hell”. We’ll cover:

1. Weeping, Gnashing of Teeth & Outer Darkness
2. The Parable of the Sheep & The Goats
3. The Parable of Lazarus & The Rich Man (featuring Brad Jersak)
4. Revelation & The Lake of Fire
5. Paul’s “Everlasting Destruction” In 2 Thessalonians

Plus, we’ll take a look at a key word in John 3:16 that is mistranslated!

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Hell is not a Biblical concept.

Much of the Bible is debatable. Much of the Bible is open to numerous interpretations. There are many theological stances that can be convincingly argued both for AND against.

The modern concept of Hell as a place of eternal conscious torment is not one of them. Today, we are going to look at every mention of “Hell” in the Bible, and we are going to demonstrate this conceptual staple of Western Christianity to be virtually untenable.

But don’t get me wrong… I believe in Hell.

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I’ve been a “Charismatic” my entire life. I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the very, very ugly. I’ve seen the awe-inspiring and the cringe-worthy. I’ve seen the real and the fake.

Today, I’m trying to sum up some of my observations, because I believe a healthy approach to supernatural healing is profoundly important for the future of the Church.

Let me open with a big fat clarification that many of my observations are cumulative generalizations based on a wide range of experiences. I am not attempting to judge the heart of specific individuals or ministries, and no, I am not subtly referring to ________ who you personally dislike.

With that said, let’s get started.

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