The controversy over Hell erupted earlier this year with the publication of Pastor Rob Bell's Love Wins, a Universalistic's complete rejection of the concept of Hell. (For more on Universalism read A fairy tale Gospel Where Everybody Lives Happily Ever After)
The issue has finally been resolved. Apparently all it took was for one "Highly Esteemed Theologian" to figure out what no one else has been able to do in the last 2,000 years.
The great "Theological scholar," John Noe, Ph.D, tied up all the loose ends that Bell left dangling. According to Noe, the Bible says absolutely nothing about Hell and neither did Jesus. It's all just been a horrible mistake in translation. And this horrible mistake led to "one of Christianity's most offensive doctrines."
All translation matches are mistranslations from biased translators. This misleading began in the 4th century A.D. when the language of the Bible was changed from Greek to Latin!
Imagine that! Who would have thought it was all based on "biased" translators? Thousand upon thousands of theologians just simply overlooked this simple fact. Hard to believe isn't it?
Well before you ditch your Bible and go off on a sinning rampage, you might want to check out the info below. I don't know who is correct about Noe's theological qualifications, Christian News Wire or Reformation Online, but somebody has it wrong.
According to Recent Developments in the Eschatological Debate by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr. Th.D. dated Tuesday October 25, 2011, Noe isn't a theologian at all.
A “Foreword” to one work from this movement inadvertently highlights the (all too typical) problem: “John Noe is not a professional theologian. He has had no formal seminary training, but that may be an advantage.” Then again, lacking training in biblical languages, careful study of exegetical principles, in-depth instruction in systematic theology, and formal schooling in historical theology may not be helpful at all.
Not being a biblical scholar either I can note that opposites seem to be the way of things in God's Universe. God/Satan, Light/dark, sinful/not sinful, warm/cold, man/woman, thus I have no trouble in believing Heaven/hell. But then, I'm just an ordinary Christian and what do I know.
ReplyDeleteA red flag goes up when a 21st century writer claims that something is the result of translation errors. It suggests that there is no commonsense use of words preceding the errors. Sound a bit like Islam claiming that Jews and Christians perverted Genesis in order to teach that Isaac, not Ishmael, was Abraham's promised son.
ReplyDeletePAUL RICHARD STRANGE SR
Waxahachie Texas
I'm doubtful that all the scholars toiling within translations of Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Aramaic could have been mislead, particularly when we are talking about 'hell.' What else has the 'theologian' found to be inaccurate?
ReplyDeleteOutside of official 'theology,' today Christians have massive study aids available to them. We are no longer sheep, because we also have insight and we can question, and we have access to numerous discussions and opinions on all facets of God's Holy Word.
That's why we have to know when our pastors are right and when they are wrong. Methinks Bell needs to sell some books.