WesleyGospel Ministries

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The Jesus Trip, “Church History on Hell.”

Dr. Robert Peterson, Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal Punishment (P&R Publishing, 1995), pp. 97-108.

Enough has been said in reply to those who acknowledge the authority of the same sacred Scriptures as ourselves, but who, by a mistaken interpretation of them, conceive of the future rather as they themselves wish, than as the Scriptures teach. –St. Augustine, City of God 21.26

Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.   –Jeremiah 23:16

Isaiah 66:24 might be dated to 750 B.C.

Daniel 12:2 might be dated to 550 B.C.

1 Enoch, the Old Testament apocryphal book quoted in Jude 14, is from 100 B.C.

Virgil’s Aeneid Book 6 might be dated to 19 B.C. (Greek underworld). During the reign of Caesar Augustus, the same Caesar during the early life of Jesus (Luke 2:1). Virgil’s vision of Hell was so similar to the Hell taught by Jesus in Luke 16, that not only Dante’s Inferno considered it partly inspired, but so did many other medieval theologians.

Jesus’ teaching on Hell might be dated to 30 A.D.

When all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. –1 Corinthians 15:28 (KJV) [THIS IS THE FAVORITE VERSE OF UNIVERSALISTS]

When this is done, and all things are put under his feet, then shall the Son become subject to him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all, 1 Corinthians 15:28. The meaning of this I take to be that then the man Christ Jesus, who hath appeared in so much majesty during the whole administration of his kingdom, shall appear upon giving it up to be a subject of the Father. Things are in scripture many times said to be when they are manifested and made to appear; and this delivering up of the kingdom will make it manifest that he who appeared in the majesty of the sovereign king was, during this administration, a subject of God. The glorified humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, with all the dignity and power conferred on it, was no more than a glorious creature. This will appear when the kingdom shall be delivered up; and it will appear to the divine glory, that God may be all in all, that the accomplishment of our salvation may appear altogether divine, and God alone may have the honour of it. Note, Though the human nature must be employed in the work of our redemption, yet God was all in all in it. It was the Lord’s doing and should be marvellous in our eyes. —MATTHEW HENRY COMMENTARY

When the administration of the kingdom of grace is finally closed; when there shall be no longer any state of probation, and consequently no longer need of a distinction between the kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory; then the Son, as being man and Messiah, shall cease to exercise any distinct dominion and God be all in all: there remaining no longer any distinction in the persons of the glorious Trinity, as acting any distinct or separate parts in either the kingdom of grace, or the kingdom of glory, and so the one infinite essence shall appear undivided and eternal. And yet, as there appears to be a personality essentially in the infinite Godhead, that personality must exist eternally; but how this shall be we can neither tell nor know till that time comes in which we shall SEE HIM AS HE IS. 1 John 3:2. —ADAM CLARKE COMMENTARY

“Jews, Mohametans, Deists, Heathens, are all members of the Church of Christ! Should we not add devils too?…There can hardly be any doctrine under Heaven more agreeable to flesh and blood; nor any which more directly tends to prevent the very dawn of conviction…These are your arguments to prove that Christ is in every man — a blessing which St. Paul thought was peculiar to believers. He said, ‘Christ is in you except ye be reprobates,’ unbelievers (2 Cor. 13:5, KJV). You say, Christ is in you whether ye be reprobates or no. ‘If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His,’ saith the Apostle (Romans 8:9, KJV). Yea, but ‘every man,’ saith Mr. Law, ‘hath the Spirit of God. The Spirit of Christ is in every soul’ (Spirit of Prayer, Part I. p. 63). ‘He that hath not the Son of God hath not life,’ saith St. John (1 John 5:12, KJV). But Mr. Law saith, ‘Every man hath the Son of God.’ Sleep on, then, ye sons of Belial, and take your rest; ye are all safe: for ‘he that hath the Son hath life.’” (“Letter to William Law,” (January 6, 1756) 2.5, in Thomas Oden’s John Wesley’s Scriptural Christianity, p. 218). –JOHN WESLEY

²⁴ Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:²⁵ Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.²⁶ For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:²⁷ And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.²⁸ And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient. –Romans 1:24-28 (KJV)

He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. –Psalm 107:20 (NKJV)

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Anita Bryant, “Anti-Gay Rights Activism.”

NOTE: I’m not against fundraising for the right reasons.

I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. –Revelation 3:15-18 (ESV)

The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. –2 Timothy 4:3 (ESV)

I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.   –Matthew 7:23

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Harald Lindstrom, Wesley and Sanctification (Zondervan, 1984).

Robert Peterson, Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal Punishment (P&R Publishing, 1995).

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. –Colossians 2:16-18 (KJV)

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2:17 shadow…reality. The ceremonial laws of the OT are here referred to as shadows (cf. Heb. 8:5; 10:1) because they symbolically depicted the coming of Christ; so any insistence on the observance of such ceremonies is a failure to recognize that their fulfillment has already taken place. This element of the Colossian heresy was combined with a rigid asceticism, as vv. 20-21 reveal.   —NIV STUDY BIBLE

Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.   –Jeremiah 6:16 (KJV)

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J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism (Eerdmans, 2009).

Roger Olson, Against Liberal Theology (Zondervan, 2022).

Dr. Shelton Smith, Liberal Choices: Losing Causes (Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1997). Typifies Lot in the book of Genesis as a liberal Christian.

Vinson Synan, The Century of the Holy Spirit (Thomas Nelson, 2001), chs. 7-8.

R. A. Torrey, ed. The Fundamentals. 4 vols. (Baker Books, 2000).

Thomas C. Oden, John Wesley’s Scriptural Christianity (Zondervan, 1994).

—. John Wesley’s Teachings. 4 vols. (Zondervan, 2014).

The Works of John Wesley. 3rd ed. (Baker Books, 2001).

Robert Peterson, Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal Punishment (P&R Publishing, 1995).

— with Christopher Morgan, ed. Hell Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents Eternal Punishment (Zondervan, 2004).

Dr. Hugh Pyle, The Truth About the Homosexuals (Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1978).