Wednesday, October 14, 2009

McClaren denies Hell

This video has been around for a while, but I just stumbled across it. Interesting enough, I clearly remember hearing Brian McClaren affirm belief in Hell about three years ago at a conference held at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. It seems, however, that he does what so many other emergent types do---use traditional terminology but secretly give it radically different definitions.

The audio below is one of those rare moments where he is actually honest with his true beliefs.

Posted by at 6:44 AM

2 comments:

  1. I suppose another explanation might be that McLaren came to his current view about Hell only in recent years.

    But the real question is, "Why does ANYONE believe that God intends to torture billions of people for all eternity?" Apart from many other reasons, it really is impossible to reconcile the core message of Jesus with this notion.

    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: www.ricklannoye.com), but if I may, let me share one of the many points I make in it--that Jesus could not have believed in Hell!

    As just one 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 gospels 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.
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  2. Rick, what Greek manuscript can you refer me to that does not include Jesus' statements on Hell? Obviously, there are none--so your claim has absolutely no proof (also, you don't seem to be aware that Jesus didn't use the Greek term Hades, but rather the Hebrew term Gehanna. Odd isn't it, that Greek converts would use a Jewish word to "import their belief in Hades". Those silly Greeks).

    Of course it is easy to make Jesus say anything you want him to when your willing to take a knife to scripture and cut out the parts you don't like.
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