Focusing on Hell is all about Ego

[Shirley]

My post went up before I read Angel7 post. I am not a preacher or a teacher. I am sure God does call us to tell people the truth.
It reminds me of Deuteronomy 30:19 ....I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses, choose life so that you and your descendants might live., loving the LORD your God, obeying him and holding fast to him, for that means life to you and length of days......

 

[Duckybill]

Focusing on Hell is all about Ego

here are my thoughts on the matter. we need to look at how Jesus taught. i find it hard to believe that Jesus taught by scaring people about hell. read through his sermons sometime and study them and see how he preached.

I have read them, MANY times.

Matthew 13:49-50 (NKJV)
49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, 50 and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

 

[aspen]

Robbie, Prentis, Comm - you guys really get it - thank you

Ducky - I continue to pray for you, brother. I believe a greater freedom in Christ, is about to dawn in your life! How exciting!

 

[FHII]

Lately, being on this board makes me feel like I'm in a room full of Joel Osteens! It's all about LOVE and what God wants to do for you, and lets through doctrine and truth out the window.

 

[Robbie]

Because it should be all about HATE and what God doesn't want to do for us?

So I guess God sent His only begotten Son to die for us because He doesn't want to do anything for us and because it has nothing to due with LOVE?

And I guess if God sent His Son to die for our sins we should probably still be afraid that He might not want to take care of us or do anything for us and we definitely shouldn't focus on His LOVE He showed for us on the cross?

 

[Foreigner]

If you were to follow Jesus in how the scripture is preached, He ensured that both the 'Love' portion and the individual responsibility portion were covered.

He warned MULTIPLE TIMES about the dangers of sin and the possibility of ending up in hell if you do not address that sin.

Apparently the way Jesus witnessed is not the way that Aspen, Robbie, Prentis, and Comm feel witnessing should be.

Focus on hell alone? Absolutely not.

Just "love completely" and and call it a day? That is not how Christ did it.

 

[Prentis]

I am not perfect, Robbie, and I need God's help. Only I've learnt that I cannot use my humility and cries to God asking his help to say I'm eternally saved, otherwise I'd be justifying myself.

We must come humbly, I agree. But as Christians, we need both to be humble, know we haven't attained, and have faith that if we seek God we will find him. What does that do? Justify us? No, it makes us seek him more.

 

[Robbie]

You're far from humble guy...

I mean you're actually so desperate to justify your ego and pride and glorify yourself that you're actually trying to say that me acknowledging that I'm only saved by Christ and that salvation is assured because it's all Him is self justification... haha

Then you go on to say how humble you are in that you're going to save yourself by seeking Him more...

Until you recognize the wretchedness of self and perfect Love of God... you'll always be learning but never able to come to the truth of self or God...

 

[Prentis]

I'm not humble enough brother! On that, you are right.

I'm not going to save myself. I'm going to seek him more, because he commands me to. Saying I want to obey him is self-righteous? I'm telling you, I might rise to everlasting shame. I don't fear God enough. If you want to point at my weaknesses, that's okay with me, brother. They do need to be brought to the light and die.

I might not make it. But I know that God tells me to be faithful, I know he tells me to run the race, and I do know that if a man keeps his eyes on Christ, he will be saved from all things. I do trust in the faithfulness of God, but not my own. And he says I must obey.

I know he doesn't think I'm more special than anyone else, so if I'm disobedient, I will receive the same punishment as others who are disobedient. Only I have a hope, that through Christ who lives in me I can overcome. And so I press on, in hope of attaining him.

The Lord bless you brother, may he guide you in his paths!

 

[Robbie]

You're religion is going to kill you because it's teaching you self salvation...

I really hope you get free and find the only One you'll ever find true assurance in and that's Him alone... so that you can have assurance...

Because as long as it's you... you have no assurance... and yes... fear God man... seriously picture yourself standing in His presence in any of your own righteousness and be scared to death of that and then find the only righteousness that will ever stand in the presence of God... and that's Christ.

 

[Prentis]

Brother, I do hope my religion will kill me, otherwise how will Christ live in me?

Jesus calls us to pick up our cross and die daily. In those steps of Jesus, who went before me to make a way, I do want to follow, that I may be found worthy of him.

Noah was righteous, did it not matter if he built the ark or not? It matters. It is not the hearers of the law who are justified, but the doers. Yes, by his commandments GOD justifies man. Romans says we can't justify OURSELVES!

We have a part to play, otherwise God is just picking favorites.

 

[Robbie]

You're not dieing daily... you're still trying to earn your righteousness... haha

You're not hanging with Jesus on the cross... You're trying to save yourself by being a good enough person...

That why you have no assurance... that's why you still see God through a veil and are afraid of Him... because you're still cursed and separated... because it's about you and not Christ...

 

[Prentis]

If you wish to make yourself judge over my life, then let it be so.

 

[Robbie]

I'm not being a judge over your life...

Am I being the judge over your life if I say that if you walk off the edge of a cliff you're going to fall down and hit the ground?

I'm just stating fact...

Hanging on the cross with Christ isn't trying to be good enough to go to heaven... it's recognizing you weren't good enough and giving Him the glory for hanging on the cross for you.

And you're the one telling me I can't have assurance... so I'm telling you why I do... and why you don't... because when you make it about you... you don't have assurance... making it about you is caused by pride and ego... and you'll never stand righteous in front of God in your own righteousness...

So don't play the hypocrite...

 

[Prentis]

I make it about me only in the sense that God doesn't think I'm any more special than anyone else, so if I am not faithful with what he gave me, I will be rejected.

Our walk is about him, it's about our death, and his life, in us. We are to follow Christ to the cross, and die daily.

 

[Robbie]

No... our walk with Him is about knowing Him... and knowing ourselves...

That's the same way it was when Christ walked with the disciples...

The disciples learned to see the wretchedness of themselves... and the revelation of the perfect Love of the Father seen through Christ... it wasn't his own righteousness that caused Peter to change from telling Jesus to get away from him because he was sinful... to swimming as fast as he could to Him...

It was the revelation that God loved him even though he was unrighteous... even though He had denied the Lord while warming his hands by the fire... there was no fear in Peter... because Peter understood that Christ's love towards him was perfect... and because of that revelation He swam to Christ as fast as he could without fear...

The pharisees couldn't accept the truth of their own wretchedness and the revelation of the perfect Love of the Father seen through Christ...

They couldn't deny themselves... I deny myself... every time I acknowledge it's only by the blood of Christ that I'm saved... it has nothing to do with me... and because of that I have no right to boast... it's all His glory...

 

[Prentis]

Yes, Christ does want us to see who we are and who he is. And once we see it, he is mighty to put to death what we were, and by the new creation make us like him.

Peter denied him the first time, and saw who he was. But then, when Peter himself was threatened with the cross, he asked to be crucified upside down... He did not deny his Master, but glorified him even in his death. He praised God even while being killed!

The Gospel has power, brother, power to conform us to the image of Christ, not of our own, but by our death, he lives in us!

 

[Robbie]

Dude... I'm done talking to you... you can't hear anything I'm saying... all you're doing is feeding your ego and your pride with self righteousness and I'm done... time to shake the dust off my feet... peace...

 

[Prentis]

Peace to you also, brother

I've heard what you're it before, only I've found that when I searched for myself, it wasn't true, but used one part of truth to contradict another. God bless you!

 

[Templar81]

maybe for some prachers/Priests preachign on hell is ego, but not for all.

I think that Hell and the Devil are very real and we need to be aware of them, but what I really don't like is a Preacher who will spend all his time talking "Fire and Brimstone," instead of talking about the love that God has for us. God's love has to coem first but all Chrsitians need to be taught about sin, death, the devil and Hell because they are very very real. I'm saying this because in the C of E we very rearely and i mean extremely rarely hear any kind of preaching on the subject to the point that your average Churchgoer does not even think about Hell.

However, saying all that you all know that I have a very rpofound fear of hell, which ahs been ingrained in me from an early age and I'm still a sinner who falls very short of God's standards, so what about someone who doesn't even think about Hell. Would you not say that they should at least be taught about these things, frightennign though they are?