If you ever felt that something was off, that the gospel you were handed was incongruent with A God who claimed to be love and assured us He was in control, this letter is for you.

The first breakthrough for me was the profound relief of discovering that God has no intention of tormenting any of His children in eternal flames. The doctrine of eternal torment has always troubled me. I was told from childhood that Scripture taught it, but it always troubled me. Discovering that Scripture does not teach such a thing was incredibly freeing. I knew that God is love, but the doctrine of Hell created a mental conflict I couldn't resolve. Now I wholeheartedly embrace the truth that God is love and love never fails! Everyone was redeemed at the cross, and His love and wisdom will ultimately work together to bring every one of His children home!

Rejecting the false doctrine of eternal torment opened the door for another discovery. I was told (with great confidence on the part of the tellers) that God never sends anyone to Hell. Instead, people choose their fate with their own free will . If you place your faith in Jesus, you go to heaven; reject him, you go to Hell. The free will theory lets God off the hook for the cruel and unusual punishment of eternal torment, but it created another dilemma for me: How could God grant humans free will while maintaining His absolute sovereignty over His creation? Is God truly in control, or has He left man's destiny up to man? The term "free will" is not in Scripture (then again, neither is Hell!). So, if Hell is a myth and eternal torment is not taught in Scripture, God no longer needs to be defended from the unjust punishment of eternal torment.

 The answer was clear. God is sovereign, and man’s supposed free will cannot override His plan. God will, as He promised, ultimately draw all to Himself and reconcile everyone through His Son’s death and resurrection.

But wait! (as the ad man says) It gets better! The realization that God will reconcile all led to the next big Aha! If God did not send His Son to save us from Hell, from what exactly did He save us? This is found in the story of Adam and Eve. The only penalty ever connected to sin is death. Death entered the world through Adam’s sin, and every problem in our lives and world stems from death’s corruption of our flesh. Satan wasted no time in the Garden getting Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. He knew it would introduce death and ruin God’s plan for His new creation. The first lie Satan told was the false claim that eating the fruit would not result in death.   He is God’s adversary. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy.  But God (the most exciting two words in scripture!) had another plan! We don’t need fire insurance! We need to be set free from the law of sin and death.

The Gospel narrative now sounded completely different. The God I used to know loved us and made it possible for us to save ourselves. But the true God, the God of the Bible, is Love, and He is Sovereign. He has a plan that will not fail and is not dependent on man. He will eradicate death and restore His creation, granting immortality to His creatures whom He created to reflect His image and glory. 

These truths are not new. They have been in our Bibles all along.  How did we miss them? The answer is found in another happy discovery on my journey. Scripture warns us sternly against false doctrines. The problem is that most false doctrines cleverly quote certain scriptures to support themselves. You will hear teachers and preachers discuss Hell and Free Will and use scripture to substantiate their claims. But scripture gives us another warning we rarely hear about. Paul tells us to endeavor to ‘rightly divide’ the scriptures. The literal translation would be to “correctly partition or cut” the scriptures. I grew up attending church three times a week, went to Bible College, spent 8 years in full-time ministry as an associate pastor, and I was never taught what it truly means to ‘rightly divide’ God’s Word.

Here’s a brief explanation: All scripture is inspired and essential for knowing God. However, not all of it is directly addressed to us. Some of it pertains to, is meant for, or concerns other people, times, or circumstances. It is included because it is beneficial for us to know. But if it wasn't addressed to us, reading it as if it contains our marching orders is a mistake. One false doctrine gaining ground in Christianity is called replacement theology (also known as Covenant theology). It claims that God cast aside Israel for rejecting Christ (which is true) and then replaced Israel with us (often referred to as New Testament Christians). This part is false! It dismisses the need to consider the intended audience when interpreting Scripture. Replacement theology asserts that even if a message was written to Israel (such as the letters of Peter, James, and John), we can assume it now applies to us.

Replacement theology creates contradiction and confusion. That's why many Christian denominations cannot agree on straightforward issues. For instance, most scriptures thought to support the idea of Hell, come from Jesus speaking to the Jews about the Messianic Kingdom on Earth.  Faithful Israelites will rule and reign with Christ on Earth for a thousand years. There will be a judgment early in this period that involves punishing defectors and sinners with capital punishment and then casting their corpses into the fires of Gehenna (a valley outside Jerusalem). In our English Bibles, the proper noun Gehenna is replaced with the fictitious place called Hell. These scriptures, which fail to consider the time element of this judgment, claim they belong to a judgment that occurs after the 1,000 years, not on Earth but at God’s great white throne. By not discerning who is being judged—rebels and defectors alive at the start of the Kingdom versus those raised from the dead a thousand years later—these scriptures have been misunderstood as warnings about eternal fires in a fictitious hell where sinners are kept alive to suffer forever.

These false doctrines (Eternal Torment, Free Will, Replacement Theology) obscured my ability to grasp the most liberating truths in scripture. Once I was able to study Scripture without these false assumptions clouding my view, everything changed. Confusing passages suddenly made glorious sense, and the gospel I thought I knew became bigger, and far more hopeful than I had ever dreamed. Pieces that never quite fit suddenly locked together with breathtaking clarity.  

The articles and study guides on this website represent the last 30 years of searching, wrestling, and finally seeing.  I invite you to read them with an open Bible, an open mind, and the courage to let go of your false assumptions. (we all have them)

My constant prayer is that you will know, deep in your spirit, the freedom Jesus spoke of when He declared, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free!”

Grace and Peace!

Tom