Shift in Focus

Hello all of my readers,

Recently, I have become a contributor at the website Rethinking Hell (www.rethinkinghell.com), a website devoted to expressing and defending the evangelical conditionalist view of final punishment, namely, that the Bible teaches that the lost, after the resurrection, will be permanently killed, destroyed, or otherwise stripped of conscious existence, as opposed to the traditional view that Hell is a place of eternal torment. It is a view I have openly expressed and defended here at 3-Ring Binder, as well as in my free online books The Bible Teaches Annihilationism.

Anyway, since I will be regularly contributing  to that website (along with Chris Date of the Theopologetics podcast, Dr. Glenn Peoples of the Beretta blog and podcast, and others), I will be posting less about Hell on 3-Ring Binder because, well, for anything about it from me you might want to read you can just go there and read as freely and easily as you could here (actually, it's easier, because Rethinking Hell is pretty easy to find on Google). So, if you love my insights on the topic, do no be sad or disappointed, because you can still get plenty of it. And if it was something you kind of were turned off by, or something you didn't find ll that relevant (since if you follow Jesus you won't be going there), then here you'll be able to get more of the stuf you're looking for.

So then, I recommend you all check out www.rethinkinghell.com. You might love it, you might hate it, but at the very least if you go there and read some of the material (most of which is by Chris who is by far the most active contributor), you can at least say you've read it ;)

Once again, that's www.rethinkinghell.com. Joey out.

The Depths of True Christian Forgiveness in Light of Matthew 18

As Christians, we know we are supposed to forgive, and that forgiveness is supposed to go deeper than some may suspect.

Now, if you've been going to church for any extended period of time, I have no doubt that you're aware of the parable of the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18. I realized a good summary was almost as long as the passage itself, so I have posted the text below:

10 Things That Aren't Taught in the Bible (But That Are So Common You'd Think They Were)

I'm feeling kind of snarky (and as observant as always), so here you go:

1. If you are a woman, and a man says anything that you don't like, anything at all, no matter what it is and whether or not he is right or wrong, saying he's being "inappropriate" will put an end to any unpleasant conversation.

2. Similar to #1, as a female you can always get out of ever having to deal with anything unpleasant by rebuking the man for addressing you directly, and insist that he has someone of your same gender talk to you. It is especially effective because you don't have to be at all consistent about it - it's a sin for that particular male to address you directly about whatever it is, even if it's okay for others to do the same thing.

Book Review - Hell: A Final Word by Edward Fudge

For what it sets out to do, Edward Fudge’s Hell: A Final Word, is very successful. It gives a good overview of the arguments for conditional immortality and against the traditional view of Hell as a place of eternal conscious punishment. It gets just in-depth enough to where you can understand what he means and to where you can follow his reasoning, without getting specific enough to demand a much more lengthy book. This book is relatively short, and it actually reads much more like a first-person novel than a doctrinal theology book, drawing the reader in.

Things Are About To Get Real - Would You Only Marry A Virgin?

As the title indicates, things are about to get real. If open talk about sex, sexual sin, and sexuality make you uncomfortable, then you should not read further. You also shouldn't read the Bible, since it talks about sex a lot more than I will (despite what your pastor may have told you)...

Anyway, I was directed to this website and poll yesterday:
http://thechristianmanifesto.com/archives/4820

"Would You Only Marry A Virgin?" was the poll question. I'm not totally sure what to make of the overall message of the blog post (since they have left us hanging, waiting for part 2). That said, would you only marry a virgin?

Literal and Innerrant Are Not the Same Thing - Part II

Hello everyone. In a previous post titled "Literal and Inerrant Are Not the Same Thing," I pointed out how absurd the Bible becomes if we take every word absolutely literally (which is okay, because...inerrant and literal are not the same thing). There, I focused largely on the Old Testament, so here, I'll focus on the New Testament.

Neither Conditionalists Nor Traditionalists (Nor Universalists) Can Claim That They Rely on the "Plain Meaning" of Scripture

(Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission).

I am an annihilationist. I believe that the Bible teaches that the unsaved will be destroyed at the end of time, not subject to eternal torment as Christians have traditionally believed (though I do have some of the early church on my side).

One thing that comes up way too often is the claim that annihilationists have to twist clear passages of scripture, and have to rely on way to complex interpretations while traditionalists can take what the scripture says at face value, and therefore they are right.

I should note that annihilationists also make the claim that they are the ones who rely on the simple and apparent meanings of scripture (though they tend to emphasize it a lot less). Edward Fudge, in his otherwise very apt and helpful review of Robert Morey's Death and the Afterlife, does this. Ultimately, however...