Ephesians 4:14 – “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming…”

1 Timothy 4:1 – “The Spirit explicitly says that in the latter times some will fall away from the faith, praying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.” NASB

(KJV) – Seducing spirits.

The word doctrine means in its simplest form, teaching. The danger is that those who embrace doctrines not biblical become followers of seducing spirits of deception and fall away from the LORD and live according to the flesh.  False teachers creep into the church and promote apostasies that are inconsistent with the Words of Jesus and the tenets of the Bible.  When you manipulate the Word of God to accommodate your theory and dismiss the value of the Cross and ignore the aspects of God’s Character that include Holiness and Justice but embrace only the dimension of Love, you are heading down a destructive path.

There is one doctrine that has been resurrected from obscurity and is dangerous because it plays to the selfishness of human hearts excusing them from godliness and dismissing the idea of eternal separation from God.  It may sound logical to deny the existence of an eternal hell, but it is taught in God’s Word and although the adherents of this doctrine insist the translators got it wrong and they are setting things right, they are wrong. 

What is that doctrine – “Universalism.”  The followers of this heresy teach that everyone will eventually get into heaven regardless.  That is foreign to the words of Jesus, the teachings of the apostles, the early church, and the entire Bible.  God is a Holy God as well as being Love.  He is just and for God to ignore sin that is not repented of would be to render Him less than genuinely loving and divest Him of His Holiness.  God is Love but He cannot wink at sin. To believe this would make the Great Commission without value.

The misapplication of Acts 3:21 and Colossians 1:20 regarding the restoration of all things as meaning that He will return man to the condition of Adam before the Fall is in contradiction to the rest of the Bible.  They use Romans 5:18 and Hebrews 29 as their proof that everything will be returned to that state through Jesus.  They contend that eventually everyone will be brought into a right relationship with God (1 Corinthians 15:24-28).

The Bible says that “ALL who call upon the name of the LORD” will be saved and united with Jesus eternally not that ALL people, in general, will be saved.  Jesus taught that those who reject Him as Savior will spend eternity in hell after they die. 

Matthew 10:28 – “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but who cannot kill the soul; but above all, be afraid of him who can destroy both the soul and the body in hell”

Matthew 23:33 – “O you serpents, and seed of scorpions! how can you flee from the judgment of hell?”

Matthew 25:46 – “And these shall go into everlasting torment, and the righteous into eternal life.”

Luke 16:23 – “And while he was tormented in Sheol, he lifted up his eyes from a distance, and saw Abraham, with Lazarus in his bosom.”

John 3:36 – “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; and he who does not obey the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God shall remain on him.”

Those are just a few of the many declarations of Jesus regarding eternal judgment and separation from God.  We can ignore that, and it may seem rational in the mind of man and meet our need of not being accountable for our sins, but it is not biblical.  We are told that it is appointed unto me, once to die and after that the judgment. (Hebrews 9:27).

Universalism ignores God’s Justice which is as much a part of God as His Mercy, Grace, and Love.  In fact, it is out of the Love of God that He is Just and Holy.  We can deny the self-existing attributes of God of holiness and justice and embrace only His love and we reduce God to a being of our creation for our own purposes rather than being transformed into His image and nature.

The Psalms are filled with references to God’s Justice.  How do we ignore the horrific genocidal maniacs such as Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc.?  How do we so weaken the work of Jesus on the Cross to make it meaningless?  We are told that without holiness we will not see God. (Hebrews 12:14).

If everyone gets into heaven regardless of how they live their lives, regardless of their beliefs, and without repentance, then Jesus died for nothing.  The idea that God would not be a loving Father if He allowed or sent anyone to eternal hell needs to be pressed to the fullest consideration.  If that is the view, and everybody gets in regardless then Jesus died for nothing, and the Father would be incredibly sadistic sending His Son to the Cross for nothing.  Yes, that is ridiculous but so is the doctrine of no hell and that everyone gets to heaven.

They take the Greek word ‘aion’ which means ‘age’ and contend that it has been consistently mistranslated proving that the doctrine of hell is false.  However, if they would be a little more thorough, they would discover that the identical Greek term ‘aionas ton aionon’ which means ‘ages of ages’ is used to both describe the eternal worth of God and the eternal fire of hell. 

Think about it this way.  Based on that translation of the phrase then either God’s worth, like the fire of hell must be limited in time or the fire of hell must be eternal like God’s worth.  You cannot pick and choose when something is limited. It either is or it is not.  If hell is limited, then so is God and we know that God is Eternal.

I remind everyone of Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, declares the LORD.  As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

I have heard some famous people and some nationally known preachers insist that there are many paths to the same God.  They believe that as long as you believe in a supreme being you are okay.  That is foreign to the words of Jesus, that He is the Way, the Truth, the Life, and the Door.   Paul informed us in Romans 10:9, “IF you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made to salvation.”  You cannot avoid the IF because that indicates that IF you do you are saved and IF you do not you are not.

God placed the idea and description of hell in the Bible to warn us. He places that reality alongside His invitation to come and receive His mercy.  He never intended for mortal man to go to hell, but He cannot and will not violate His Holiness and Justice by winking at sin.  He will not and cannot say, “It’s okay, I wasn’t serious in my commandments.”

That would mean that God did not send His only begotten Son to die for mankind if that sacrifice were not required to satisfy the divine justice and make a way for us to be restored to Him and become part of the Family of God through Salvation. 

I have gone long and only touched the high points.  I may do more on this because I see it as an incredibly harmful doctrine that places people are risk of being lost forever.  Teaching people that no matter what you are getting in tosses off all restraints and makes God’s command to be Holy because He is Holy a meaningless doctrine. 

Jesus has provided the way to salvation and invites WHOSOEVER WILL to come.  Will you come? 

God bless you as you enjoy this day in Jesus!