How can we know that hell and eternal punishment exist? Have you ever heard of a Universalist argument against eternal punishment?
Some say that most early Christian believed in universal salvation with maybe temporary punishment. I did notice one of their arguments was a rational standpoint like, "how can God be a God of love and eternally punish people". Universalists even go as so far as to say that the church changed the Bible to support hell...or that hell was a belief believed by the early civil leaders that influenced the church...so that the masses would have something to fear.
How would you defend the Biblical position regarding hell. When someone questions the authenticity of the Scriptures and how they came to be...I can have trouble and even doubt sometimes. How can I take comfort in knowing the Bible as we know it, is what God wants us to have for today and is not a scam?
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GJ - The Universalists are all around us. Tholuck, the mentor of Hoenecke, was a Universalist. Getting something wrong in the Word, such as claiming absolution without faith, based on God's mercy, is always going to lead to error.
Karl Barth, the official theologian of Fuller Seminary, taught Universalism in the guise of "the restoration of all things." Barth probably did only a small portion of the work, letting his live-in mistress Charlotte Kirschbaum do the hard stuff. Barth was not only an open adulterer, but also an avowed Marxist.
Confidence in the Biblical message comes from abiding in the Word. When people spend their time with heretics and heresies--and I don't just mean with Church and Change--the truths are supplanted by the semi-truths.
Dow Chemical keeps their factories from burning and exploding (most of the time) by using a layer of nitrogen. The value of nitrogen is its ability to supplant oxygen and prevent fires. Since an explosion is a fast fire, nitrogen also prevents explosions.
Universalists want to insert their propositions into the thinking process. The Biblical message remains but it goes off track because of false assumptions. If God is merciful, then why not forgiven the sins of the entire world? If God is all love, how can He have Hell to punish people? We are all sinners, so why do some go to Hell and others not? We are all too good to punished for eternity. Whatever works.
John's Gospel is the best antidote because it unites and integrates the Gospel message--all four Gospels at once--in the words of Christ. That is why apostate scholars have declared war against John for the last century.
John and Paul also show a remarkable harmony in many different ways, using different words to express the same concepts.
Another antidote is to read the Confessions and Luther. I suggest the early parts of the Augsburg Confession and all of the Large Catechism.
Reading heretical material to find out what's wrong with it is akin to eating poison to see if it really works.
Sometimes we have to study both sides of the issue, but the delving in false doctrine too long is fraught with danger. The Shrinkers are proof that someone can engage in activity and believe he is doing good while slowly leaving the Christian faith altogether.
