THAT DIRTY "H" WORD!

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  Dangerous pastime!

  I posted this today in response to a God Journey broadcast called:Ultimate Reconciliation: The Hell with it! podcast of 8-5-2009. With Rob Bell's recent book it seems as Hell is being hushed up again (not a good idea). I'm genuinely not into Christians sniping at each other so lets be declare here how much I love the God Journey and if they veer off the road a wee bit...Bless them Lord!! I hope they'd bless me and not blast me if I too were to drift onto dodgy ground. Here's the text:
  Brad / Wayne, I love the God Journey but I wonder have you swung the pendulum too far on this one. The greek mindset speaks of either/or while the Hebrew mindset speaks of on the one hand this/ on the other hand that. It is in this context that we can begin to understand the reconciliation between the Love of God (which suggests all go to heaven)  and the Holiness of God (which suggests hell for all). The cross brings sense to all this (while being an offense to the universalists). Jesus went to hell, like all who died before him (though some were kept safe in Abraham's bosom) and the hope of escape is in Him alone. When you raise children you seek to lovingly encourage and coax them to do good but there are times of severe warnings also. Such warnings do not deny our love for them but recognizes the grave consequences of ongoing defiance. We live in an unredeemed humanistic world where God is simply seen as a means to an end (happiness and heaven) and not an end in HImself (to be worshipped). The average unredeemed person has no desire for an eternity of worship. SIn brings punishment to people on this earth and many call it their hell yet the truth is that this is their heaven while for those who follow Jesus in the new life this beautiful but fallen planet is their hell (relatively speaking). I understand where you are coming from but would respectfully suggest that we should not only warn of hell while speaking of the wonders of our saviour but do so with love in our heart and tears in our eyes. God takes no pleasure in seeing any person ending up in  a Christless place which was not even created for them, a place of no grace. I met Jesus at aged 23 and I know that I deserve hell and would have gone there had I died before my new birth ("perished' as referred to in John 3:16) I was drawn in by God's love but stepped into HIs kingdom over the threshold of a godly repentance from sin (all by His grace).  Let me know your thoughts. Keep up the good work. Your brother in Jesus from Ireland Anthony