Is Hell Eternal? | Part 4

We need to deal with some of the key words used in Scripture to describe hell. This will get a bit more technical, but I encourage you to stick it out. If we believe that God inspired the very words of Scripture, we must be concerned with the specific meanings of those words. Much of the Conditional Immortality framework depends on subtle redefinitions of language. Read More

Is Hell Eternal? | Part 3

Edward Fudge uses Psalm 37:10 as the starting point for his presentation on Annihilationism, interpreting it as conclusively teaching that the wicked will be annihilated in the judgment. But is that what it means? Read More

Is Hell Eternal? | Part 2

I think we can admit that there’s a certain appeal to the Conditional Immortality understanding of hell. Hell is uncomfortable to talk about and horrifying to think about. Conditional Immortality creatively weaves Scriptures together to soften the severity of hell without erasing it entirely. There’s a good deal of emotional appeal to the idea that God will eventually release sinners from suffering. It portrays a kinder God and eases the terrors of hell. But is it what the Bible teaches? Read More

Is Hell Eternal? | Part 1

You’ve likely been taught that we all will live eternally in one of two places. There are two choices we can make, and two destinies available to us: Eternity with God in heaven, or eternity in hell under God’s judgment. But not everyone agrees. Recent scholarship has resurfaced an alternate view of hell. Read More

Conditional Immortality

I’m hearing rumblings of an alternate definition of hell, one that’s contrary to the historic Mennonite position, and indeed, to the position of nearly all biblically-minded believers since the beginning of the church in the first century. This view is more palatable to our human nature, but it departs from Scripture. Read More

The Necessity of Divine Revelation | Part 3

The Bible is necessary for us to understand God’s will. By God’s will, I mean “that which God desires to do and to have done on the earth.” This includes both what God Himself intends to do and is even now doing, and what He wills for mankind to do. Read More

Powerless Absolution

The nature of Christ’s atonement is becoming a common discussion. It’s an important one, one upon which our salvation rests. What exactly did Christ do in His death that freed us from sin? Bound up in this is our understanding of what it is that separates us from God. What interferes with full fellowship? What prevents God from embracing all of His creatures in His love? What must we be saved from if we are to be saved to God? Read More

The Necessity of Divine Revelation | Part 2

God is not silent, and He is not distant. God is working in this world for good. If we are His, we experience that goodness even now in tangible ways. Yet how great is the glory of His works throughout history! These are ours to enjoy as they are preserved for us in Scripture. Read More

The Necessity of Divine Revelation | Part 1

The created world cannot be rightly understood without the Bible. God cannot be known without it. We cannot understand ourselves without it. We do not rightly know our need for salvation or the way of salvation without what God has revealed to us in Scripture. We would not know how God expects us to live, except He has shown us in His word. God has shone into our darkness with His marvelous light, the light of His revealed word. Read More

What Arminius Taught About Salvation | Part 6

The four issues I’ve outlined are genuine problems in our generation. We have drifted from biblical center, and it is vital that we again find our moorings. Beyond Arminianism, we need to moor ourselves to the Scriptures. In our laxity and our preference for comfortable beliefs over biblical beliefs, we have lost track of some of the essentials of the gospel. Read More