'Pope: There is No Hell' - Cnsnews.com
Excerpts from this article:
"In another interview with his longtime atheist friend, Eugenio Scalfari, Pope Francis claims that hell does not exist and that condemned souls just 'disappear.'"
--------------------------------------------
Pope Francis I was elected 'Pope' on March 13, 2013. One week later Rev. Ian Brown preached a sermon titled What Does A Jesuit Pope Mean? His text was Judges 14 (Audio). A few years earlier Rev. Brown preached a sermon titled Religion Without Regeneration: The Personal Testimoney of John Wesley. On the surface it would seam these 2 sermons are totally unrelated. But they are actually very closely related. I highly recommend them both!
Anyway, the Vatican quickly responded to the 'alleged' quotation by the Pope by claiming he did not say there was no hell. (Source)
Whether or not the Pope denied the existance of hell has nothing to do with whether hell exists. Hell does exist. Here are some sermons on hell you may wish to listen to:
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)
The Burning Hell Which Jesus Preached, by Dr. Ian R. K. Paisley (1926-2014)
Turn or Burn, by Pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
But a belief in hell is not enough to keep you from going there. In C. S. Lewis' fictional work The Screwtape Letters, which shows Satan plotting against Christians, he provides the following dialog between two devils:
"Murder is no better than cards if cards will do the trick. Indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one." (Source)
In other words, this devil is saying (to his junior devil) that it doesn't matter if one goes to hell by committing big sins (murder) or small sins (gambling). The imortant thing is that people go to hell.
A belief in hell is not the same in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ which alone can spare you from hell. I can't help but wonder what Martin Luther (1483-1546) would say if he were alive today and heard the Pope's (alleged) words about hell. Here's what I think he would say:
"You alone ... have attacked the real thing, that is, the essential issue. You have not worried me with those extraneous issues about the Papacy, purgatory, indulgences, and such like - trifles, rather than issues - in respect of which almost all to date have sought my blood...you, and you alone, have seen the hinge on which all turns, and aimed for the vital spot. For that I heartily thank you; for it is more gratifing to me to deal with this issue." (Source)
The issue was this: Does man have a free will? To learn more on this 'vital issue' why don't you listen to the following sermon by Rev. Paul den Butter:
Total Depravity
And if you are a Catholic who is disturbed by what the Pope may or may not have said, why don't you check out the following book by the late Dr. R. C. Sproul:
Faith Alone: The Evangelical Doctrine of Justification by Faith
Here are some excerpt from this great book:
"I can imagine no Reformed theologian from the 16th century to the present day suggesting that the Roman Catholic view is not a serious threat to the gospel."
"Does saving faith require a trust in the righteousness of Christ alone as the grounds of our justification? Or may a person have a different view of the gospel and still be a Christian?"
"The Reformation was waged, not over the question of justification by faith, but over the issue of justification by faith alone. It was the sola of sola fide that was the central point of dispute."
"It is to Rome's credit, in my opinion, that she placed anathema on what she believed to be a false and heretical gospel. If sola fide is a distortion of the biblical gospel, surely it deserves such anathama. If the Reformers were preaching and teaching a false gospel, then they were apostates and deserve the labels put on them by Vatican I 'schismatics and heritics.'"
"I said that if justification by faith alone is essential for salvation, and if Rome rejects justification by faith alone, then the conclusion follows by resistless logic that Rome rejects an essential truth of Christianity. When I use the word, if, here, I do so for the sake of the present argument. In my mind there is no if about it. I am convinced, as were the Reformers, that justification by faith alone is essential to the gospel, and that Rome clearly rejects it."
"To indicate that the Roman view is inadequate, or it falls short, is a quite gentle criticism. In my estimation, it is too gentle. One could construe this statement to mean that, though it has short comings and is less than adequate, the Roman 'version of the gospel' is still just that, a 'version of the gospel.' The New Testement makes it clear that there is only one gospel. An 'inadequate' gospel is not the gospel. A gospel that 'falls short' of its essense is not a true gospel and must be vigorously rejected."
"Agreement between Rome and Evangelicals can be reached in several ways. One is for Evangelicals to abandon their historic position of sola fide. A second is for Rome to adopt sola fide as its official doctrine. The third is for agreement to be reached that sola fide is not essential to the gospel."
Excerpts from this article:
"In another interview with his longtime atheist friend, Eugenio Scalfari, Pope Francis claims that hell does not exist and that condemned souls just 'disappear.'"
--------------------------------------------
Pope Francis I was elected 'Pope' on March 13, 2013. One week later Rev. Ian Brown preached a sermon titled What Does A Jesuit Pope Mean? His text was Judges 14 (Audio). A few years earlier Rev. Brown preached a sermon titled Religion Without Regeneration: The Personal Testimoney of John Wesley. On the surface it would seam these 2 sermons are totally unrelated. But they are actually very closely related. I highly recommend them both!
Anyway, the Vatican quickly responded to the 'alleged' quotation by the Pope by claiming he did not say there was no hell. (Source)
Whether or not the Pope denied the existance of hell has nothing to do with whether hell exists. Hell does exist. Here are some sermons on hell you may wish to listen to:
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)
The Burning Hell Which Jesus Preached, by Dr. Ian R. K. Paisley (1926-2014)
Turn or Burn, by Pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
But a belief in hell is not enough to keep you from going there. In C. S. Lewis' fictional work The Screwtape Letters, which shows Satan plotting against Christians, he provides the following dialog between two devils:
"Murder is no better than cards if cards will do the trick. Indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one." (Source)
In other words, this devil is saying (to his junior devil) that it doesn't matter if one goes to hell by committing big sins (murder) or small sins (gambling). The imortant thing is that people go to hell.
A belief in hell is not the same in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ which alone can spare you from hell. I can't help but wonder what Martin Luther (1483-1546) would say if he were alive today and heard the Pope's (alleged) words about hell. Here's what I think he would say:
"You alone ... have attacked the real thing, that is, the essential issue. You have not worried me with those extraneous issues about the Papacy, purgatory, indulgences, and such like - trifles, rather than issues - in respect of which almost all to date have sought my blood...you, and you alone, have seen the hinge on which all turns, and aimed for the vital spot. For that I heartily thank you; for it is more gratifing to me to deal with this issue." (Source)
The issue was this: Does man have a free will? To learn more on this 'vital issue' why don't you listen to the following sermon by Rev. Paul den Butter:
Total Depravity
And if you are a Catholic who is disturbed by what the Pope may or may not have said, why don't you check out the following book by the late Dr. R. C. Sproul:
Faith Alone: The Evangelical Doctrine of Justification by Faith
Here are some excerpt from this great book:
"I can imagine no Reformed theologian from the 16th century to the present day suggesting that the Roman Catholic view is not a serious threat to the gospel."
"Does saving faith require a trust in the righteousness of Christ alone as the grounds of our justification? Or may a person have a different view of the gospel and still be a Christian?"
"The Reformation was waged, not over the question of justification by faith, but over the issue of justification by faith alone. It was the sola of sola fide that was the central point of dispute."
"It is to Rome's credit, in my opinion, that she placed anathema on what she believed to be a false and heretical gospel. If sola fide is a distortion of the biblical gospel, surely it deserves such anathama. If the Reformers were preaching and teaching a false gospel, then they were apostates and deserve the labels put on them by Vatican I 'schismatics and heritics.'"
"I said that if justification by faith alone is essential for salvation, and if Rome rejects justification by faith alone, then the conclusion follows by resistless logic that Rome rejects an essential truth of Christianity. When I use the word, if, here, I do so for the sake of the present argument. In my mind there is no if about it. I am convinced, as were the Reformers, that justification by faith alone is essential to the gospel, and that Rome clearly rejects it."
"To indicate that the Roman view is inadequate, or it falls short, is a quite gentle criticism. In my estimation, it is too gentle. One could construe this statement to mean that, though it has short comings and is less than adequate, the Roman 'version of the gospel' is still just that, a 'version of the gospel.' The New Testement makes it clear that there is only one gospel. An 'inadequate' gospel is not the gospel. A gospel that 'falls short' of its essense is not a true gospel and must be vigorously rejected."
"Agreement between Rome and Evangelicals can be reached in several ways. One is for Evangelicals to abandon their historic position of sola fide. A second is for Rome to adopt sola fide as its official doctrine. The third is for agreement to be reached that sola fide is not essential to the gospel."
