Today I listened once more to a couple of teachings James Flanders did on the topic of hell which focused in on the word Sheol which is often translated as Hell in the KJV version of Bible. At other times it is translated as the grave.
If you have never taken time to study the topic of hell on your own, especially the original words that have been translated as hell, it may very well be worth your time to listen to these teachings.
Here are the links to them:
http://www.jamesflanders.com/3/post/2012/11/sheol-an-inferno-or-a-grave.html
http://www.jamesflanders.com/3/post/2012/11/sheol-an-inferno-or-a-grave-part-2.html
As I consider the very different translations used for this word in the KJV, it boggles my mind.
How could the same word refer to the grave (which every dead person enters into) and also refer to a chamber of eternal torture and torment?
Doesn't it seem to be more than a little strange?
At this point, I'm convinced that the proper rendering is "the grave" which is how literal translations such as Young's and the Concordant Literal New Testament word it.
The more I think about it, it seems that the doctrine of eternal torment is a doctrine of demons which has been used by religious institutions to control, manipulate, and profit from people who have not come to know the truth.
The doctrine of eternal torment also diminishes the work of Christ and makes the work of Adam greater.
My mind is still boggled that I spent so many years in the institutional religious world and never thought to question what was being taught.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Monday, May 20, 2013
What the Hell? I've Never Heard These Things Before!
For my entire life, I never thought to question the traditional/institutional.orthodox teachings on the topic of hell. The way eternal torment has always been presented, I never saw the need. For some reason I assumed that what my denomination was teaching had to be truly Biblical.
After looking into the topic for myself I realized that the words translated as hell in the Bible in no way resemble (not even in the least bit) the sterotypical Dante's Inferno idea of hell.
It was the same when it came to the topic of God judging people. It was always presented to me as pure retribution, when the reality is that God is into correction and re-direction even after death.
The end of the previous sentence may have thrown you for a loop since we have been taught that the deal expires when we do. After all, "It is appointed for man to die once and then to face judgment." However, have you ever truly looked at what that judgment entails or the purpose behind it?
"Yes I have! It entails being burned and tortured forever and ever and ever without end!"
That's what I used to think too. However the word translated as forever in the lake of fire passages is the same word repeatedly translated as age (referring to a segment of time with a definite beginning and end).
James Flanders did several teachings on the topic of hell toward the end of 2012 which confirmed to me what I had been discovering on my own time in the word. It was good to find that there are others out there who are diligently seeking the truth from Scripture.
Here is a link to a page with several audios that will be eye opening. They are arranged with the most recent teachings at the top of the page, so I would recommend scrolling to the bottom of the page and starting there. That way you can hear the study progress chronologically and logically.
http://www.jamesflanders.com/3/category/hell/1.html
If you are convinced that God has created a torture chamber where people who He claims to love will be tortured without end, if you believe you rest in the truth, then you should not be afraid to listen to these teachings. If anything they will help you to better communicate with people like me and James Flanders regarding how we are wrong.
If you or I believe we stand in the truth, we should have no fear of hearing the ideas of others. After all, if we are wrong, wouldn't we want to know about it?
By the way, here is a link to another teacher who you might enjoy. His name is Martin Zender. He has written several books including one called "Martin Zender Goes to Hell" which briefly covers the things Flanders covers in his teachings. Zender has a warped sense of humor, so his book might not appeal to everyone. Yet regardless, you really ought to check him out.
http://martinzender.com/
After looking into the topic for myself I realized that the words translated as hell in the Bible in no way resemble (not even in the least bit) the sterotypical Dante's Inferno idea of hell.
It was the same when it came to the topic of God judging people. It was always presented to me as pure retribution, when the reality is that God is into correction and re-direction even after death.
The end of the previous sentence may have thrown you for a loop since we have been taught that the deal expires when we do. After all, "It is appointed for man to die once and then to face judgment." However, have you ever truly looked at what that judgment entails or the purpose behind it?
"Yes I have! It entails being burned and tortured forever and ever and ever without end!"
That's what I used to think too. However the word translated as forever in the lake of fire passages is the same word repeatedly translated as age (referring to a segment of time with a definite beginning and end).
James Flanders did several teachings on the topic of hell toward the end of 2012 which confirmed to me what I had been discovering on my own time in the word. It was good to find that there are others out there who are diligently seeking the truth from Scripture.
Here is a link to a page with several audios that will be eye opening. They are arranged with the most recent teachings at the top of the page, so I would recommend scrolling to the bottom of the page and starting there. That way you can hear the study progress chronologically and logically.
http://www.jamesflanders.com/3/category/hell/1.html
If you are convinced that God has created a torture chamber where people who He claims to love will be tortured without end, if you believe you rest in the truth, then you should not be afraid to listen to these teachings. If anything they will help you to better communicate with people like me and James Flanders regarding how we are wrong.
If you or I believe we stand in the truth, we should have no fear of hearing the ideas of others. After all, if we are wrong, wouldn't we want to know about it?
By the way, here is a link to another teacher who you might enjoy. His name is Martin Zender. He has written several books including one called "Martin Zender Goes to Hell" which briefly covers the things Flanders covers in his teachings. Zender has a warped sense of humor, so his book might not appeal to everyone. Yet regardless, you really ought to check him out.
http://martinzender.com/
Sunday, May 19, 2013
"Why Adam Had No Clue" (audio transcript from James Flanders)
This one made a lot of sense. In fact, it made a lot of things that have always been cloudy suddenly clear. I always wondered why Adam and Eve would have eaten the fruit. Now it makes sense!
You can find the original audio as well as several others dealing with the topic of evil at this link: http://www.jamesflanders.com/3/category/evil/1.html
---
Imagine what it would be like right now this second for you to be whisked away to THE GARDEN OF EDEN.
Eden! Think about it. My goodness… the weather is perfect year round… Your job is basically to pick fruit and eat it… and it doesn't even make you sweat. There's all sorts of amazing animals there… and there is no enmity between you and them…
Lions and tigers and bears…. Oh my… they don’t eat meat… Neither do you… so all creatures are getting along… Can you imagine that? Giving a lion a hug?
And there you are… the perfect picture of health… a perfect body… no stains of sin… no sickness… imagine that…
For you and me… living where we live… in this age… in this eon… having experienced all that we have experienced… seeing all that we have seen… Oh man… the thought of Eden… it truly is paradise… and if we were taken there now… appreciation is probably too weak of a word.
We would so very much appreciate it… We’d ge giddy with delight… We would be singing songs of praise!!!! Saying "Thank you God, you are wonderful."
Because we would be able to understand and appreciate Eden as a paradise.
Now strangely enough, if you’ve ever read the first two chapters of Genesis… you've probably noticed that not even once do we see Adam expressing any appreciation… or thankfulness… or praise to God?
Check it out for yourself… read through those first few chapters of Genesis.
Here’s Adam… he's in the Garden…. It’s beautiful… his job is to pick fruit when he’s hungry… Eve is there with him…. They’re both the most perfect specimens of male and female… running around naked… they don’t wake up to an alarm clock… the weather is perfect year round…. Life was good… so good that I can’t imagine it being any GOODER than that…
Yet… Adam had zero knowledge that it was good at all.
He didn’t know that perfect health was good. He didn’t know that having wonderful tasty fruit readily available was good. He didn’t know that having the perfect woman Eve by his side in all of her beauty was good.
It was so amazingly good… but yet unlike you and unlike me… living where we're living, when we live... he had no point of reference… he had nothing to compare it to… he could not comprehend what good was because he had no knowledge of good.
Try to wrap your mind around this.
He was surrounded by goodness… but he had no comprehension that it was good… He had no knowledge... no understanding of good. He was missing it.
So in that Garden God planted a tree.
Remember what it was called? It was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…
Now here’s the thing… Although that’s what it’s called… Typically we don’t see it or understand it as being what GOD calls it.
We just assume Adam knew good because he was surrounded by good. But he didn't understand good.
So this tree is the tree of the knowledge of GOOD and EVIL.
The name of that tree helps us to see that Adam… surrounded in goodness…. Had no clue… no understanding… no appreciation for that goodness… he had no knowledge of what he was surrounded by.
You’ve heard me talk about it before… in fact over the last couple of days as we have grappled with the issue of evil… or the problem of evil… trying to comprehend why God would have allowed evil… or better yet… as Scripture states… why God created evil… He created the adversary… right? We saw that over the last couple of days.
And ecause Adam had nothing to contrast good with… he could not comprehend it… He had ZERO appreciation for it… ZERO thankfulness….
And think about this… Adam had no sense of joy… he knew no joy… because he had never experienced misery.
He did not know that good was so good… because he had known no evil.
So… Adam simply being placed in Eden… a place beyond good… that place of absolute goodness… in and of itself could not reveal to Adam what goodness itself was or the goodness of God because there was no contrast.. nothing to relate it to… no point of reference for Adam.
You have a point of reference. You have here and now and what you've experienced. Adam did not have that.
We always picture Adam and Eve being in perfect bliss… giddy with joy over their living conditions… but again… we only imagine that because of our point of reference.. the contrast.
We have the hardness. We have the difficulty. We experience the pain. We've experienced the pain of sin... The sin of others and the pain of our own sin right here where we live.
Adam and Eve had no clue… So… again it tells us that GOD planted the tree.
The tree was planted to serve a purpose. And when you begin to understand the vastness and the greatness of God’s ultimate plan… and where all things lead to… at the end of the ages… the end of the eons… You see that God’s plan itself… was good… and it would all be for the good… for the benefit of and for the blessing of His creation.
What the adversary would do… thinking He would make a mess of things… Which from the temporal perspective he did make a mess of things…. However… He would ultimately be accomplishing the will of God.
Now hang in there with me... keep listening.
I say that in the same way that I believe the adversary as he worked to plot against Christ leading to the crucifixion... from the temporal perspective it seemed the adversary had thwarted God’s plans. But had he? No.
It was God's plan that from before the disruption of the world that Christ would die.
The adversary was unwittingly helping to fulfill what God had declared from before the disruption of the world.
Think about it… Was God’s will thwarted when Christ was betrayed? When Christ was beaten? When Christ was crucified? The answer is no.
Christ Himself prayed in the Garden… “Father if there is any other way, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless… not my will but yours be done.”
God’s will was done… Christ was betrayed. Christ was arrested. Christ was beaten. Christ was crucified.
The adversary and all of his scheming appeared to get the upper hand. But he was was actually fulfilling God’s purpose, fulfilling God's will in this whole thing we call redemption, and I'm convinced it was the same in the Garden.
A verse I mentioned yesterday of the day before in Ephesians 1 Paul tells us that God works all things according to the council of His will… which would include the death and resurrection of Christ.
And if all things are working according to the council of God's will that would also include what theologians frequently call "the fall of man" even though that terminology is nowhere in Scripture.
Adam having his eyes opened… knowing good and evil… death entering in… it must have been... it had to be... God working all things according to the council of His will.
God was not the instrument causing Adam to sin... that was the adversary. However, who created the adversary? Who planted that tree?
We saw yesterday that "the adversary was sinning from the beginning." It was what he was designed to do. If y9u missed that study, give it a listen.
I’m convinced nothing at any point in time was God’s plans being thwarted even when the enemy has worked his hardest.
At no point in what's called "the fall of man" was creation slipping through God’s fingers. It was all part of His perfect design… which would eventually take all of his creation in the earthly and in the heavenlies into a place of appreciation… joy… happiness… and praise that could otherwise never be experienced… if all we had was an Eden experience.
Now let be intentionally redundant just to drive these things home because it's every important.
Let me ask...
How could Adam appreciate perfect health without understanding imperfect health... and without having an understanding of sickness and disease?
There would be no way for him to even know what perfect health was without those things entering in.
Adam had an abundance of food… but it meant nothing to him because he had never felt deep hunger much less a famine…
And what we looking back imagine as being sheer pleasure between Adam and Eve… the perfect physical specimen of manliness… and the perfect physical specimen of womanliness… those two had to be stunningly gorgeous... right?
We imagine whoa!!! They must have experienced incredible pleasure and appreciation for one another. However it seems that it didn't mean much to them.
They wouldn't have even know pleasure as being pleasureful because they had never experienced pain.
And so in Scripture… we don’t read anything about them being thankfulness or having an appreciation for the amazing blessings in spite of the fact that they were surrounded by goodness..
The goodness of GOD was not even acknowledged by them even though they lived immersed in it… to them it was meaningless.
Adam was apparently incapable of love and adoration or worship because of what he did not know.
So… in the wisdom of God… GOD planted the tree…
The tree didn’t just spring up and take God by surprise… The adversary didn’t plant it…
GOD planted the tree. God created the adversary. The serpent came and tempted them. They ate of the tree.
And what we have been taught to call the “fall of man” actually in reality... because of God's greatness... set in motion the very forces that would remedy the defect… the defect which caused them to eat from the tree in the first place.
It's kind of mind blowing. Isn't it?
The goodness… and love… mercy… and grace of GOD… would only be able to be known through those events that took place.
Think about it… How could God display mercy and grace and love without beings who would need mercy and grace and love.
God is love... but no one would truly know God's love without being put in a position of being absolutely unworthy recipients of it.
God is light!!!!! How would we ever know light and appreciate light without experiencing darkness?
Think about the creation of God... the stars in the sky... they are constantly shining… burning brightly non stop… but we can only see them when darkness comes comes upon us. It's through the darkness that we see their beauty. If there was no darkness we would never see their beauty. We couldn't comprehend it.
All things are known through contrast. Contrast is a necessary part of knowing. Without it, there is no knowing.
Something else… it’s obvious… but I’ve got to say it… God did not plant two trees.
There was not a tree of the knowledge of good… and a separate tree for the knowledge of evil... because they go hand in hand. You can't know one without the other.
So… again... How can a God who is good… who is called love… reveal Himself without contrast?
HE can’t…. so He did things as He did… With the goal… of ultimately fully engaging the affection of all his creatures. That's what He wants. He wants love.
And in 1st Corinthians chapter 15… although Paul words it a bit differently... he let's us know that when everything wraps up... even going beyond what we read in the book of Revelation... that God's gonna get what He wants. Read through 1st Corinthians chapter 15 and see if you can find it. It's a very short little phrase.
So anyway, through all the ages… through the eons… God is at work doing things in such a way… that we will be taken to the place of knowing Him… and for lack of a better way of putting it… appreciating fully and completely what He has prepared for us and being capable because of what we've gone through here to absolutely enjoy it, and relish it, and celebrate it, and give God praise and honor and glory for it.
Think about it... How much of a drudgery might it have been…if God simply created all of us and threw us in some place like Eden to experience perfect goodness... but to never be able to KNOW it.
GOD wants us to KNOW it!!!!
And so God has put in place periods of time…in Scripture it calls them the ages… or the eons… depending on what translation you are using... through which during these ages He will accomplish His goal… and He will bring His plan to what we would call the perfect consummation.
And those ages… those eons… what God is doing in the midst of them... I think that’s what we'll talk about next time because it's something that is very rarely talked about in religious circles even among those who call themselves Christians.
My friend I’m so glad you are with me as we grapple with some super heavy topics.
My names is James Flanders and I sure appreciate your love, prayers, and your support.
Be blessed my friend. Be blessed.
You can find the original audio as well as several others dealing with the topic of evil at this link: http://www.jamesflanders.com/3/category/evil/1.html
---
Imagine what it would be like right now this second for you to be whisked away to THE GARDEN OF EDEN.
Eden! Think about it. My goodness… the weather is perfect year round… Your job is basically to pick fruit and eat it… and it doesn't even make you sweat. There's all sorts of amazing animals there… and there is no enmity between you and them…
Lions and tigers and bears…. Oh my… they don’t eat meat… Neither do you… so all creatures are getting along… Can you imagine that? Giving a lion a hug?
And there you are… the perfect picture of health… a perfect body… no stains of sin… no sickness… imagine that…
For you and me… living where we live… in this age… in this eon… having experienced all that we have experienced… seeing all that we have seen… Oh man… the thought of Eden… it truly is paradise… and if we were taken there now… appreciation is probably too weak of a word.
We would so very much appreciate it… We’d ge giddy with delight… We would be singing songs of praise!!!! Saying "Thank you God, you are wonderful."
Because we would be able to understand and appreciate Eden as a paradise.
Now strangely enough, if you’ve ever read the first two chapters of Genesis… you've probably noticed that not even once do we see Adam expressing any appreciation… or thankfulness… or praise to God?
Check it out for yourself… read through those first few chapters of Genesis.
Here’s Adam… he's in the Garden…. It’s beautiful… his job is to pick fruit when he’s hungry… Eve is there with him…. They’re both the most perfect specimens of male and female… running around naked… they don’t wake up to an alarm clock… the weather is perfect year round…. Life was good… so good that I can’t imagine it being any GOODER than that…
Yet… Adam had zero knowledge that it was good at all.
He didn’t know that perfect health was good. He didn’t know that having wonderful tasty fruit readily available was good. He didn’t know that having the perfect woman Eve by his side in all of her beauty was good.
It was so amazingly good… but yet unlike you and unlike me… living where we're living, when we live... he had no point of reference… he had nothing to compare it to… he could not comprehend what good was because he had no knowledge of good.
Try to wrap your mind around this.
He was surrounded by goodness… but he had no comprehension that it was good… He had no knowledge... no understanding of good. He was missing it.
So in that Garden God planted a tree.
Remember what it was called? It was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…
Now here’s the thing… Although that’s what it’s called… Typically we don’t see it or understand it as being what GOD calls it.
We just assume Adam knew good because he was surrounded by good. But he didn't understand good.
So this tree is the tree of the knowledge of GOOD and EVIL.
The name of that tree helps us to see that Adam… surrounded in goodness…. Had no clue… no understanding… no appreciation for that goodness… he had no knowledge of what he was surrounded by.
You’ve heard me talk about it before… in fact over the last couple of days as we have grappled with the issue of evil… or the problem of evil… trying to comprehend why God would have allowed evil… or better yet… as Scripture states… why God created evil… He created the adversary… right? We saw that over the last couple of days.
And ecause Adam had nothing to contrast good with… he could not comprehend it… He had ZERO appreciation for it… ZERO thankfulness….
And think about this… Adam had no sense of joy… he knew no joy… because he had never experienced misery.
He did not know that good was so good… because he had known no evil.
So… Adam simply being placed in Eden… a place beyond good… that place of absolute goodness… in and of itself could not reveal to Adam what goodness itself was or the goodness of God because there was no contrast.. nothing to relate it to… no point of reference for Adam.
You have a point of reference. You have here and now and what you've experienced. Adam did not have that.
We always picture Adam and Eve being in perfect bliss… giddy with joy over their living conditions… but again… we only imagine that because of our point of reference.. the contrast.
We have the hardness. We have the difficulty. We experience the pain. We've experienced the pain of sin... The sin of others and the pain of our own sin right here where we live.
Adam and Eve had no clue… So… again it tells us that GOD planted the tree.
The tree was planted to serve a purpose. And when you begin to understand the vastness and the greatness of God’s ultimate plan… and where all things lead to… at the end of the ages… the end of the eons… You see that God’s plan itself… was good… and it would all be for the good… for the benefit of and for the blessing of His creation.
What the adversary would do… thinking He would make a mess of things… Which from the temporal perspective he did make a mess of things…. However… He would ultimately be accomplishing the will of God.
Now hang in there with me... keep listening.
I say that in the same way that I believe the adversary as he worked to plot against Christ leading to the crucifixion... from the temporal perspective it seemed the adversary had thwarted God’s plans. But had he? No.
It was God's plan that from before the disruption of the world that Christ would die.
The adversary was unwittingly helping to fulfill what God had declared from before the disruption of the world.
Think about it… Was God’s will thwarted when Christ was betrayed? When Christ was beaten? When Christ was crucified? The answer is no.
Christ Himself prayed in the Garden… “Father if there is any other way, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless… not my will but yours be done.”
God’s will was done… Christ was betrayed. Christ was arrested. Christ was beaten. Christ was crucified.
The adversary and all of his scheming appeared to get the upper hand. But he was was actually fulfilling God’s purpose, fulfilling God's will in this whole thing we call redemption, and I'm convinced it was the same in the Garden.
A verse I mentioned yesterday of the day before in Ephesians 1 Paul tells us that God works all things according to the council of His will… which would include the death and resurrection of Christ.
And if all things are working according to the council of God's will that would also include what theologians frequently call "the fall of man" even though that terminology is nowhere in Scripture.
Adam having his eyes opened… knowing good and evil… death entering in… it must have been... it had to be... God working all things according to the council of His will.
God was not the instrument causing Adam to sin... that was the adversary. However, who created the adversary? Who planted that tree?
We saw yesterday that "the adversary was sinning from the beginning." It was what he was designed to do. If y9u missed that study, give it a listen.
I’m convinced nothing at any point in time was God’s plans being thwarted even when the enemy has worked his hardest.
At no point in what's called "the fall of man" was creation slipping through God’s fingers. It was all part of His perfect design… which would eventually take all of his creation in the earthly and in the heavenlies into a place of appreciation… joy… happiness… and praise that could otherwise never be experienced… if all we had was an Eden experience.
Now let be intentionally redundant just to drive these things home because it's every important.
Let me ask...
How could Adam appreciate perfect health without understanding imperfect health... and without having an understanding of sickness and disease?
There would be no way for him to even know what perfect health was without those things entering in.
Adam had an abundance of food… but it meant nothing to him because he had never felt deep hunger much less a famine…
And what we looking back imagine as being sheer pleasure between Adam and Eve… the perfect physical specimen of manliness… and the perfect physical specimen of womanliness… those two had to be stunningly gorgeous... right?
We imagine whoa!!! They must have experienced incredible pleasure and appreciation for one another. However it seems that it didn't mean much to them.
They wouldn't have even know pleasure as being pleasureful because they had never experienced pain.
And so in Scripture… we don’t read anything about them being thankfulness or having an appreciation for the amazing blessings in spite of the fact that they were surrounded by goodness..
The goodness of GOD was not even acknowledged by them even though they lived immersed in it… to them it was meaningless.
Adam was apparently incapable of love and adoration or worship because of what he did not know.
So… in the wisdom of God… GOD planted the tree…
The tree didn’t just spring up and take God by surprise… The adversary didn’t plant it…
GOD planted the tree. God created the adversary. The serpent came and tempted them. They ate of the tree.
And what we have been taught to call the “fall of man” actually in reality... because of God's greatness... set in motion the very forces that would remedy the defect… the defect which caused them to eat from the tree in the first place.
It's kind of mind blowing. Isn't it?
The goodness… and love… mercy… and grace of GOD… would only be able to be known through those events that took place.
Think about it… How could God display mercy and grace and love without beings who would need mercy and grace and love.
God is love... but no one would truly know God's love without being put in a position of being absolutely unworthy recipients of it.
God is light!!!!! How would we ever know light and appreciate light without experiencing darkness?
Think about the creation of God... the stars in the sky... they are constantly shining… burning brightly non stop… but we can only see them when darkness comes comes upon us. It's through the darkness that we see their beauty. If there was no darkness we would never see their beauty. We couldn't comprehend it.
All things are known through contrast. Contrast is a necessary part of knowing. Without it, there is no knowing.
Something else… it’s obvious… but I’ve got to say it… God did not plant two trees.
There was not a tree of the knowledge of good… and a separate tree for the knowledge of evil... because they go hand in hand. You can't know one without the other.
So… again... How can a God who is good… who is called love… reveal Himself without contrast?
HE can’t…. so He did things as He did… With the goal… of ultimately fully engaging the affection of all his creatures. That's what He wants. He wants love.
And in 1st Corinthians chapter 15… although Paul words it a bit differently... he let's us know that when everything wraps up... even going beyond what we read in the book of Revelation... that God's gonna get what He wants. Read through 1st Corinthians chapter 15 and see if you can find it. It's a very short little phrase.
So anyway, through all the ages… through the eons… God is at work doing things in such a way… that we will be taken to the place of knowing Him… and for lack of a better way of putting it… appreciating fully and completely what He has prepared for us and being capable because of what we've gone through here to absolutely enjoy it, and relish it, and celebrate it, and give God praise and honor and glory for it.
Think about it... How much of a drudgery might it have been…if God simply created all of us and threw us in some place like Eden to experience perfect goodness... but to never be able to KNOW it.
GOD wants us to KNOW it!!!!
And so God has put in place periods of time…in Scripture it calls them the ages… or the eons… depending on what translation you are using... through which during these ages He will accomplish His goal… and He will bring His plan to what we would call the perfect consummation.
And those ages… those eons… what God is doing in the midst of them... I think that’s what we'll talk about next time because it's something that is very rarely talked about in religious circles even among those who call themselves Christians.
My friend I’m so glad you are with me as we grapple with some super heavy topics.
My names is James Flanders and I sure appreciate your love, prayers, and your support.
Be blessed my friend. Be blessed.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Where Did Satan Come From? (notes from James Flanders)
Who created Satan? Unless he has existed from eternity past, then the answer must be that God created him. If God created him, then did God create him to do what he has done? Or did the adversary somehow override the will of God? If he did override or thwart the will of God, would that mean that it would be possible for him to do it again? If so, how much peace could we ever experience?
Have you ever wondered about questions like that? I have.
Here's some more for you to consider. What if God created Satan to do exactly what he has been doing? Is it possible that the events which transpired in the Garden of Eden could have been part of God's plan from the beginning? If so, why would he do that?
Below you will find a written transcript of an audio program recorded recently by James Flanders in which he tackles some very difficult questions which most thinking people have had to wonder about.
Below the transcript I will provide a link to the audio. You might want to listen to the audio teaching while reading the notes. This is definitely thought provoking stuff.
Allright… We know that sin came into the world through one human being… right?
That is widely taught…. Round the globe….
We’ve all heard that. One man brought sin into all humanity… But let me ask you… Iis that where sin originated? By that I means, was that man the cause that brought the effect called sin into the world?
I think this is a good question and to answer it, let’s look past that person as I ask you another question.
Was there anyone or anything else in the garden before Adam sinned?
Yes. It was the serpent, right? He was there BEFORE Adam sinned.
So we could say that sin is FROM the devil.
Sounds good, but should we stop there? Or can we go further?
Let me ask you something. Is the adversary… the devil… an eternal being who has always existed in eternity past?
Or is the adversary a created being???
My friend… just as Adam was a creature… a created being… Scripture teaches that the adversary is also a created being.
So if the adversary is a created being… Who created him???
Hhhhmmmmm….
Think about it. The devil, you could say led Adam into the fall…. tempted him to sin… and the devil is a created being…. Which would mean that either he was created to be the adversary from the beginning… with that objective for him in his creation. Or it was influenced from outside of him. Or it was something he did to himself. Which is this?
Now regardless, think about this. There always has to be a cause for every effect. So what or who would have caused the devil to be who the devil is… and adversary who would enter the garden to do what the devil did?
Did God’s creature somehow slip from God’s intended purpose?
Was God’s will and plan thwarted?
Some would say “yes that has to be.” But then let me ask you, what kind of God would God be? One whose will and desire is thwarted by a creature that he himself made.
Let me give you a verse for your consideration. It’s one that kinda blew my mind the first time I ever paused and gave it some serious thought. It’s a verse that throws a monkey wrench into a lot of popular orthodox doctrine about satan and God’s creative purpose.
It’s 1st John chapter 3 verse 8. Jot it down. 1st John chapter 3 verse 8.
Here’s how it’s worded in the Concordant Literal New Testament:
“from the beginning is the Adversary sinning. For this was the Son of God manifested, that He should be annulling the acts of the Adversary.”
I love that last part. Christ came to annul the acts of the Adversary.
But did you hear the first part? It doesn’t say that the adversary went through a transformation at some point and began to sin. It says from the beginning is the adversary sinning. From the beginning he is actively sinning.
By the way, if you missed our last study, we talked a lot about the word sin. We looked at evil and asked the question “Has God ever sinned?” Well, we’re going to be considering that again today.
Realizing that the word sin means to miss the mark, to not hit the target you are aiming for, to fall short, to fail to hit your objective.
Scripture tells us that God is love. It also tells us that love never fails. I believe God has never missed the mark. God has never sinned. In all that was created things were put in place exactly as He aimed to put them to do exactly what He aimed for them to do. Or else, God would be a sinner because He would have been missing his own objective… He would have missed his mark.
If you missed that teaching… please give it a listen after we wrap up today.
Let me read you this same verse from a common translation.
1st John chapter 3 verse 8…. From the New King James.
“for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”
Again, from the beginning he has sinned. From the beginning. Apparently it has been by God’s design that he would be doing what he is doing.
By the way, again keeping in mind that sin means “missing” I believe at times the devil misses the point because he has thought that he has been victorious as he has plotted and planned… even by Christ being crucified… I’m sure that he thought “Hey I’ve got it!” Nope, he missed it. Christ rose from the dead.
Through it all he was actually accomplishing what Father had planned.
He has sinned from the beginning. So there is a creature… the adversary… satan… and to him Scripture traces back all sin. Sin has been what he’s been about from the beginning. But, he is a created being made by God.
So again, what we’re inquiring about… what we’re asking… Was the devil created to do exactly what he has done? Has he been fulfilling the purpose that God has for him in the economy of God?
Or as some teach… did something slip through God’s fingers or was the adversary was self-made, somehow thwarting God’s plan?
Man, that’s scary. If he thwarted it once, he could thwart it twice… couldn’t he?
And if God created Satan to be the adversary… and to sin from the beginning… Am I right in saying GOD has never sinned? Was it a sin for God to create a being who you could say plunged humanity into death and sin?
WELL…. That would depend on God’s intention. Man, is this dizzying stuff or what?
Was it God’s intention that sin should invade the universe? Or did sin invade the universe due to some error on God’s part?
Now remember, sin was defined as “to miss.”
If sins entrance was a mistake…. Or outside of God’s intent… If it wasn’t what He aimed for in creating satan, that would mean that God missed the mark, He didn’t hit His goal. Then God by definition of what sin is… would be a sinner!
Now keep thinking this through… Since so much of the world of religion paints the picture of sin and the fall not being the will of God or part of the plan of GOD… then the very fact that HIS creation fell… would mean that GOD sinned! He missed His own target!
My friend, that cannot be!
Now let me try and drive this home a little more intensely.
If God created Satan perfect and his defection away from perfection was a surprise or disappointment to God… Then to be really blunt… God could not be all powerful… and again to be really blunt, God failed to accomplish his goal… He missed his target… God fell short… God would be the one who sinned, because He set out to create a flawless creature who turned out bad. See, there is no one else in charge of that failure, except God because God is God.
But listen… I know I’m repeating myself a lot, but this is such important stuff.
God is love. Love never fails. God never misses His target. He always accomplishes His will.
Therefore, we think about these things… In the economy of GOD… Within the framework of God’s ultimate… big plans… Sin itself… the introduction of it through the adversary who was created by God must be an essential part in God’s purpose… Or else it would never have entered into being.
Think about it. Unless it was an essential part of God’s purpose He would have never allowed it to enter into being.
If what has happened from the beginning was not God’s plan… And His plan was thwarted… we would be in a terrifying place not knowing if there could be some creature who could thwart God’s plan again absolutely disrupting everything.
Are you understanding this? It’s a tough topic but it’s absolute important for us to wrap our minds around it.
Scripture tells us that the lamb of God was slain from before the foundation of the world. A better translation is that the Lamb was slain from the disruption of the world.
That’s telling us that cross of CHRIST was not some afterthought. It was not part of Plan B because Plan A fell apart. No, that’s not it at all. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
Think of it this way…
Looking at the beauty of creation as Scripture tells us we can look at creation and it reveals to us certain aspects of God… His power… His wisdom… It testifies of the glory of GOD. But it doesn’t testify everything about God’s glory. There are other things God had to make aside from the natural beauty of the universe.
Think about it… And we brought this up in our last study… How could God ever display love, which is what HE is… GOD IS LOVE!!! How could He ever show that to the universe, without there being in this universe seeds of hate that have been sown?
See, it’s a contrast.
Light is only understood because we have experienced darkness.
There can be no Savior without sin. And from before the disruption of the world, Christ was crucified… from the perspective of God… it was part of the plan. There can be no reconciliation without enmity or separation.
Last time we read several verses in Romans chapter 11 together. One of them was verse 32, which tells us: “God locks all up together in stubbornness so that he can be merciful to all.”
What’s that mean? God needs to have objects of mercy in order to demonstrate His mercifulness.
Another translation words it this way: “God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.”
Let those words sink in.
Again, God would have no one to show mercy to without first committing humanity to disobedience.
“God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.”
He wanted all of us to be objects of His mercy, so He created everything to go the way it went.
Wow!
I’ve been reading a very challenging book… called “The Problem of Evil” by A.E. Knoch. My friend Clyde recommended it to me. Thank you Clyde for disrupting everything I’ve ever thought about everything.
This book is anything but light reading.
I want to share with you a couple of paragraphs, which are really a couple of the lightest paragraphs I’ve read in this book. It’s from page 21. Listen carefully.
“Shall God’s affections remain forever pent up in His own bosom? Shall He never taste the sweet response of love? Then all He needs is a perfect universe, where His creatures have no need of Him and His gracious ministrations. But if He wants the deep satisfaction of requited love, and desires to impart to His creatures the delicious sense of His fatherly affections, then there must be distance, distress, and condemnation, to form the field for the exercise of His favor.”
“Since sin must enter into this scene and play its part, since it is essential in God’s purpose, and absolutely under His control, since it will eventually change the universe from cold, independent creatures into a loving family circle, and God from a distant creator into an affectionate Father, it was by no means a mistake (or sin) on God’s part when He created a creature who should not only commit sin but scatter it in all creation.”
That’s some heavy stuff.
Now, let me make a point I’ve made several times over the last couple of days.
We have to believe that it was NOT a mistake for God to create Satan… and that the adversary has in reality… even though it doesn’t always look this way… he’s been accomplishing the purposes of God.
Again, it’s super hard for us to grasp, but, if this is Not the case… If GOD did not intend that Satan would sin… and that Satan transformed or did something on his own outside of the will of GOD… if Satan did it of his own initiative… thwarting God’s plan and twisting God’s design… Then God failed. God missed His own mark. And again, by definition, that would make God a sinner.
And by saying that… let me be kind of bold in saying this… Traditional doctrine… what’s called orthodoxy does make GOD a sinner… who missed the target he was aiming for.
As hard to grasp as all of this may be because of our religious programming… and our need to unlearn a LOT… as we continue to learn the truth of Scripture…
My friend… GOD IS TRULY GOD… and He is working in and through everything as he wills.
And hold on… Here it is… He created the adversary to do exactly what the adversary has always done.
Now let me give you a few verses to chew on.
In Isaiah chapter 54 verse 16 God speaks and says:
“Behold, I have created the blacksmith
Who blows the coals in the fire,
Who brings forth an instrument for his work;
And I have created the spoiler to destroy.
What? Any destruction in the world must be the work of the devil because he is called the destroyer!
Yep, but who created the destroyer? God!
God credits Himself for creating the one whose purpose on this planet is to bring destruction.
The adversary… the destroyer didn’t create himself. God takes credit for creating him.
In John chapter 1 as it speaks of creation it tells us that ALL came into being through the Word… everything that exists is due to him creating it… and that same word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Everything that exists… He made.
In Colossians chapter 1 we’re told that through CHRIST all things were made… all things in the heavens and all things on earth… all things visible and invisible… thrones… and principalities, dominions, lordships and authorities. Uh, would that include the devil? The adversary? Yes.
In Ephesians chapter 2 it tells us that it does. And it also tells us that in Ephesians chapter 6. The devil is mentioned as it speaks of principalies and powers… and… you know that passage.
The point of this is… It’s not like the movies and it’s not like what were so often presented in religious circles.
People get the idea that there are two great powers struggling to be supreme… One good… and one evil. There’s God and the devil and they’re arm wrestling and sometimes the devil seems to have much bigger arms. And so they’re fighting back and forth and it never really deals with the issue of where the evil one came from. “Who knows? Let’s not even try to think about that.”
That view is not true… and I’m glad because it’s very very scary because ultimately, it paints a picture of a feeble God whose will can be thwarted.
On the other hand, if we look at God truly being God creating all things, and working all things according to the council of His will, we see something grand and glorious.
We see a God who in His perfect knowledge knows that the way things were created was the way it had to be… in order to truly ultimately reveal the greatness of who HE is… and even more than that, for our own benefit… for us to enjoy to the utmost… and to experience and to relish what is to come… when ultimately we could say… things are set right. Or as it says in 1st Corinthians chapter 15, “When God becomes all in all” and when the works of the devil are all destroyed… and death is destroyed… it’s going to be wonderful! At the end of the ages… oh my goodness!!!
Without everything being as God has made it we wouldn’t be able to relish and enjoy what is to come.
My name is James Flanders. Thanks for listening. Be blessed my friend… be blessed.
---
Here is a link to site which has many audio teachings from Flanders including the one above:
http://www.salvationofall-av.org/indexEN/Flanders/Flanders.htm
Have you ever wondered about questions like that? I have.
Here's some more for you to consider. What if God created Satan to do exactly what he has been doing? Is it possible that the events which transpired in the Garden of Eden could have been part of God's plan from the beginning? If so, why would he do that?
Below you will find a written transcript of an audio program recorded recently by James Flanders in which he tackles some very difficult questions which most thinking people have had to wonder about.
Below the transcript I will provide a link to the audio. You might want to listen to the audio teaching while reading the notes. This is definitely thought provoking stuff.
"Who Made That Guy?" (evil part 2)
Allright… We know that sin came into the world through one human being… right?
That is widely taught…. Round the globe….
We’ve all heard that. One man brought sin into all humanity… But let me ask you… Iis that where sin originated? By that I means, was that man the cause that brought the effect called sin into the world?
I think this is a good question and to answer it, let’s look past that person as I ask you another question.
Was there anyone or anything else in the garden before Adam sinned?
Yes. It was the serpent, right? He was there BEFORE Adam sinned.
So we could say that sin is FROM the devil.
Sounds good, but should we stop there? Or can we go further?
Let me ask you something. Is the adversary… the devil… an eternal being who has always existed in eternity past?
Or is the adversary a created being???
My friend… just as Adam was a creature… a created being… Scripture teaches that the adversary is also a created being.
So if the adversary is a created being… Who created him???
Hhhhmmmmm….
Think about it. The devil, you could say led Adam into the fall…. tempted him to sin… and the devil is a created being…. Which would mean that either he was created to be the adversary from the beginning… with that objective for him in his creation. Or it was influenced from outside of him. Or it was something he did to himself. Which is this?
Now regardless, think about this. There always has to be a cause for every effect. So what or who would have caused the devil to be who the devil is… and adversary who would enter the garden to do what the devil did?
Did God’s creature somehow slip from God’s intended purpose?
Was God’s will and plan thwarted?
Some would say “yes that has to be.” But then let me ask you, what kind of God would God be? One whose will and desire is thwarted by a creature that he himself made.
Let me give you a verse for your consideration. It’s one that kinda blew my mind the first time I ever paused and gave it some serious thought. It’s a verse that throws a monkey wrench into a lot of popular orthodox doctrine about satan and God’s creative purpose.
It’s 1st John chapter 3 verse 8. Jot it down. 1st John chapter 3 verse 8.
Here’s how it’s worded in the Concordant Literal New Testament:
“from the beginning is the Adversary sinning. For this was the Son of God manifested, that He should be annulling the acts of the Adversary.”
I love that last part. Christ came to annul the acts of the Adversary.
But did you hear the first part? It doesn’t say that the adversary went through a transformation at some point and began to sin. It says from the beginning is the adversary sinning. From the beginning he is actively sinning.
By the way, if you missed our last study, we talked a lot about the word sin. We looked at evil and asked the question “Has God ever sinned?” Well, we’re going to be considering that again today.
Realizing that the word sin means to miss the mark, to not hit the target you are aiming for, to fall short, to fail to hit your objective.
Scripture tells us that God is love. It also tells us that love never fails. I believe God has never missed the mark. God has never sinned. In all that was created things were put in place exactly as He aimed to put them to do exactly what He aimed for them to do. Or else, God would be a sinner because He would have been missing his own objective… He would have missed his mark.
If you missed that teaching… please give it a listen after we wrap up today.
Let me read you this same verse from a common translation.
1st John chapter 3 verse 8…. From the New King James.
“for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”
Again, from the beginning he has sinned. From the beginning. Apparently it has been by God’s design that he would be doing what he is doing.
By the way, again keeping in mind that sin means “missing” I believe at times the devil misses the point because he has thought that he has been victorious as he has plotted and planned… even by Christ being crucified… I’m sure that he thought “Hey I’ve got it!” Nope, he missed it. Christ rose from the dead.
Through it all he was actually accomplishing what Father had planned.
He has sinned from the beginning. So there is a creature… the adversary… satan… and to him Scripture traces back all sin. Sin has been what he’s been about from the beginning. But, he is a created being made by God.
So again, what we’re inquiring about… what we’re asking… Was the devil created to do exactly what he has done? Has he been fulfilling the purpose that God has for him in the economy of God?
Or as some teach… did something slip through God’s fingers or was the adversary was self-made, somehow thwarting God’s plan?
Man, that’s scary. If he thwarted it once, he could thwart it twice… couldn’t he?
And if God created Satan to be the adversary… and to sin from the beginning… Am I right in saying GOD has never sinned? Was it a sin for God to create a being who you could say plunged humanity into death and sin?
WELL…. That would depend on God’s intention. Man, is this dizzying stuff or what?
Was it God’s intention that sin should invade the universe? Or did sin invade the universe due to some error on God’s part?
Now remember, sin was defined as “to miss.”
If sins entrance was a mistake…. Or outside of God’s intent… If it wasn’t what He aimed for in creating satan, that would mean that God missed the mark, He didn’t hit His goal. Then God by definition of what sin is… would be a sinner!
Now keep thinking this through… Since so much of the world of religion paints the picture of sin and the fall not being the will of God or part of the plan of GOD… then the very fact that HIS creation fell… would mean that GOD sinned! He missed His own target!
My friend, that cannot be!
Now let me try and drive this home a little more intensely.
If God created Satan perfect and his defection away from perfection was a surprise or disappointment to God… Then to be really blunt… God could not be all powerful… and again to be really blunt, God failed to accomplish his goal… He missed his target… God fell short… God would be the one who sinned, because He set out to create a flawless creature who turned out bad. See, there is no one else in charge of that failure, except God because God is God.
But listen… I know I’m repeating myself a lot, but this is such important stuff.
God is love. Love never fails. God never misses His target. He always accomplishes His will.
Therefore, we think about these things… In the economy of GOD… Within the framework of God’s ultimate… big plans… Sin itself… the introduction of it through the adversary who was created by God must be an essential part in God’s purpose… Or else it would never have entered into being.
Think about it. Unless it was an essential part of God’s purpose He would have never allowed it to enter into being.
If what has happened from the beginning was not God’s plan… And His plan was thwarted… we would be in a terrifying place not knowing if there could be some creature who could thwart God’s plan again absolutely disrupting everything.
Are you understanding this? It’s a tough topic but it’s absolute important for us to wrap our minds around it.
Scripture tells us that the lamb of God was slain from before the foundation of the world. A better translation is that the Lamb was slain from the disruption of the world.
That’s telling us that cross of CHRIST was not some afterthought. It was not part of Plan B because Plan A fell apart. No, that’s not it at all. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
Think of it this way…
Looking at the beauty of creation as Scripture tells us we can look at creation and it reveals to us certain aspects of God… His power… His wisdom… It testifies of the glory of GOD. But it doesn’t testify everything about God’s glory. There are other things God had to make aside from the natural beauty of the universe.
Think about it… And we brought this up in our last study… How could God ever display love, which is what HE is… GOD IS LOVE!!! How could He ever show that to the universe, without there being in this universe seeds of hate that have been sown?
See, it’s a contrast.
Light is only understood because we have experienced darkness.
There can be no Savior without sin. And from before the disruption of the world, Christ was crucified… from the perspective of God… it was part of the plan. There can be no reconciliation without enmity or separation.
Last time we read several verses in Romans chapter 11 together. One of them was verse 32, which tells us: “God locks all up together in stubbornness so that he can be merciful to all.”
What’s that mean? God needs to have objects of mercy in order to demonstrate His mercifulness.
Another translation words it this way: “God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.”
Let those words sink in.
Again, God would have no one to show mercy to without first committing humanity to disobedience.
“God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.”
He wanted all of us to be objects of His mercy, so He created everything to go the way it went.
Wow!
I’ve been reading a very challenging book… called “The Problem of Evil” by A.E. Knoch. My friend Clyde recommended it to me. Thank you Clyde for disrupting everything I’ve ever thought about everything.
This book is anything but light reading.
I want to share with you a couple of paragraphs, which are really a couple of the lightest paragraphs I’ve read in this book. It’s from page 21. Listen carefully.
“Shall God’s affections remain forever pent up in His own bosom? Shall He never taste the sweet response of love? Then all He needs is a perfect universe, where His creatures have no need of Him and His gracious ministrations. But if He wants the deep satisfaction of requited love, and desires to impart to His creatures the delicious sense of His fatherly affections, then there must be distance, distress, and condemnation, to form the field for the exercise of His favor.”
“Since sin must enter into this scene and play its part, since it is essential in God’s purpose, and absolutely under His control, since it will eventually change the universe from cold, independent creatures into a loving family circle, and God from a distant creator into an affectionate Father, it was by no means a mistake (or sin) on God’s part when He created a creature who should not only commit sin but scatter it in all creation.”
That’s some heavy stuff.
Now, let me make a point I’ve made several times over the last couple of days.
We have to believe that it was NOT a mistake for God to create Satan… and that the adversary has in reality… even though it doesn’t always look this way… he’s been accomplishing the purposes of God.
Again, it’s super hard for us to grasp, but, if this is Not the case… If GOD did not intend that Satan would sin… and that Satan transformed or did something on his own outside of the will of GOD… if Satan did it of his own initiative… thwarting God’s plan and twisting God’s design… Then God failed. God missed His own mark. And again, by definition, that would make God a sinner.
And by saying that… let me be kind of bold in saying this… Traditional doctrine… what’s called orthodoxy does make GOD a sinner… who missed the target he was aiming for.
As hard to grasp as all of this may be because of our religious programming… and our need to unlearn a LOT… as we continue to learn the truth of Scripture…
My friend… GOD IS TRULY GOD… and He is working in and through everything as he wills.
And hold on… Here it is… He created the adversary to do exactly what the adversary has always done.
Now let me give you a few verses to chew on.
In Isaiah chapter 54 verse 16 God speaks and says:
“Behold, I have created the blacksmith
Who blows the coals in the fire,
Who brings forth an instrument for his work;
And I have created the spoiler to destroy.
What? Any destruction in the world must be the work of the devil because he is called the destroyer!
Yep, but who created the destroyer? God!
God credits Himself for creating the one whose purpose on this planet is to bring destruction.
The adversary… the destroyer didn’t create himself. God takes credit for creating him.
In John chapter 1 as it speaks of creation it tells us that ALL came into being through the Word… everything that exists is due to him creating it… and that same word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Everything that exists… He made.
In Colossians chapter 1 we’re told that through CHRIST all things were made… all things in the heavens and all things on earth… all things visible and invisible… thrones… and principalities, dominions, lordships and authorities. Uh, would that include the devil? The adversary? Yes.
In Ephesians chapter 2 it tells us that it does. And it also tells us that in Ephesians chapter 6. The devil is mentioned as it speaks of principalies and powers… and… you know that passage.
The point of this is… It’s not like the movies and it’s not like what were so often presented in religious circles.
People get the idea that there are two great powers struggling to be supreme… One good… and one evil. There’s God and the devil and they’re arm wrestling and sometimes the devil seems to have much bigger arms. And so they’re fighting back and forth and it never really deals with the issue of where the evil one came from. “Who knows? Let’s not even try to think about that.”
That view is not true… and I’m glad because it’s very very scary because ultimately, it paints a picture of a feeble God whose will can be thwarted.
On the other hand, if we look at God truly being God creating all things, and working all things according to the council of His will, we see something grand and glorious.
We see a God who in His perfect knowledge knows that the way things were created was the way it had to be… in order to truly ultimately reveal the greatness of who HE is… and even more than that, for our own benefit… for us to enjoy to the utmost… and to experience and to relish what is to come… when ultimately we could say… things are set right. Or as it says in 1st Corinthians chapter 15, “When God becomes all in all” and when the works of the devil are all destroyed… and death is destroyed… it’s going to be wonderful! At the end of the ages… oh my goodness!!!
Without everything being as God has made it we wouldn’t be able to relish and enjoy what is to come.
My name is James Flanders. Thanks for listening. Be blessed my friend… be blessed.
---
Here is a link to site which has many audio teachings from Flanders including the one above:
http://www.salvationofall-av.org/indexEN/Flanders/Flanders.htm
Friday, May 17, 2013
James Flanders asks "Has God Ever Sinned?"
I found something kind of neat on "The Path of Grace" site today. It looks like they are now putting written transcripts of James Flanders teachings online to go along with the audio.
I listened to a thought provoker entitled "Has God Ever Sinned?" while reading along. I suppose that it is true you can absorb more when you engage multiple senses. Reading along while listening worked great. I was really able to focus on on what was a topic I had never really thought about?
I copied the transcript and am going to post it below. Since it is a transcript of a person talking, it's not like reading a book. There are some fragmented sentences and major run on sentences as well, but I think you might enjoy reading it.
Here it is:
===============
Today I want to begin
to deal with a topic we touched on a while back. It’s somewhat startling
to some people. It’s very challenging. It’s difficult to try and
comprehend. However when you begin to grasp what we’re going to begin to
look at today, let me tell you, it will take you to a place of greater
faith, greater trust, and greater rest, as you begin to see God as truly
being God.
Let me share with you a verse that freaked out several of my friends a few weeks ago.
It’s Isaiah chapter 45 verse 7.
In this verse God is talking about GOD and God says:
I form the light and create darkness,
I make peace and create calamity;
I, the Lord, do all these things.’ (NKJV)
That’s the way it’s worded in the New King James version.
Here is God taking credit for light and darkness… peace and calamity. Saying “I the LORD do all these things.
Now the word calamity is not a great translation. In fact, the word translated as calamity is worded very differently in other verses.
Let me read another English translation to see if it clarifies it at all. The Holman Christian Standard Bible words it this way.
God says:
I form light and create darkness,
I make success and create disaster;
I, Yahweh, do all these things. (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
What? God credits himself with creating disaster?!
Yep. That’s what it says.
However for consistency sake, this work probably shouldn’t have been translated as disaster, because it’s translated as something else in other places in Scripture.
Let me read that same verse from Young’s Literal Translation.
It says this:
“Forming light, and preparing darkness, Making peace, and preparing evil, I [am] Jehovah, doing all these things.” (YLT)
What? God says “I form light, I prepare darkness, I am making peace, and preparing…”
What was that word? Evil.
I am Jehovah doing all these things. That is a literal translation. The word translated as evil is translated as evil pretty consistently throughout Scripture.
Here’s the Concordant Literal New Testament:
“Former of light and Creator of darkness Maker of good and Creator
of evil, I, Yahweh, make all these things.”
The literal translation use the word EVIL.
Oh my goodness! God calling himself the former of light. We get that. We can comprehend that. But God also takes credit for the darkness. God says “I am the creator of darkness.”
I am the maker of good… and God says “I am also the creator or evil.”
Oh man!
Does that just tend to rub you the wrong way? Maybe you’re wondering how can that be?
It just doesn’t sound right.
Well, here’s the reason it doesn’t sound right and the reason these words can seem so abrasive… and why some translators tried to avoid the word evil altogether.
It’s because we tend to think that the word evil means the same thing as the word sin.
But the truth is that evil and sin and not synonyms. They aren’t the same thing They don’t mean the same thing.
Let me say right here and right now, I believe what this verse says. God does create evil, but, let me say this… keep listening… GOD does NOT sin!!!!
He cannot sin or else He would not be God.
“But James, how can He create evil? That’s gotta be sin!”
No, no, no. The word evil is not sin.
Let me talk about the word sin.
word sin means “to miss.”
That’s it in it’s simplest sense. A one word definition would be “miss.”
Sin equals miss.
To miss the mark… to miss the target… to not hit what you are aiming for… to fail to meet your goal.
In Judges chapter 20 verse 16… we find a Hebrew word that is frequently translated as the word SIN… but in this particular verse… in the English translations I looked at… it’s translated very differently… and believe it or not the different translation will actually help you understand what the word sin means… as we look at how this word is used and how it’s worded in Judges chapter 20 verse 16.
In Judges chapter 20, it’s talking about a war going on between the tribes of Benjamin and Israel and in verse 16 it talks about 700 men going into battle who were so good with their sling shots they could sling a stone at a hairs breadth and NOT miss. The word translated as miss is the same word translated as sin.
It’s saying these guys could sling a stone with a sling shot at a hair and not sin. They would not miss. They would hit the target.
Again, the word translated as MISS is also in other places translated as SIN. So this helps us to understand what sin means.
It means to miss. This verse paints a perfect picture of the meaning of the word!
It’s missing the target. You take aim but you fail to hit the target. You fail to hit the goal. That’s the meaning of the word SIN… to miss… to fail.
Does God fail? Can God sin?
Scripture tells us that GOD is love and it also tells us that LOVE never fails. Therefore if sin is failing then GOD can never sin. What’s that mean? He always hits the desired target. He accomplishes exactly what He sets out to accomplish. He never makes a mistake.
Even in the creation of evil? Yes.
You’ll understand that more as we continue through these studies.
Now, let me talk a bit more about sin.
Some sin that you commit and that I commit… that all of humanity commits… could fall into the category of a mistake. Like a person at an archery range… Let’s say we’re out at the archery range. We’ve got our targets down range from us… and you get confused about which target is yours and you start shooting at my target. You sin. You miss the target. Because you made the mistake of shooting at the wrong target. Does that happen in life? Yes. At some point it happens to everyone. Like a little kid getting confused on a soccer field and kicking the ball toward the wrong goal. They’re intentions are good. The attitude is right. They’re wanting to do what’s best, but they make a mistake. They’re going the complete wrong direction. They fail. They miss. They sin.
Let me ask you again… Does God make mistakes?
If God has ever made a mistake we could say God has sinned. God may have had great intentions but, oh man… He shot at the wrong Goal. God went the wrong way.
No, no, no. That could never happen.
You can’t say that about God or else GOD wouldn’t be much of a God at all.
Now there is other sin that people commit. It’s called a transgression. It’s when you know where the goal is but you say “Forget it, I’m not even going to aim at that goal.”
Has God ever done that? No!
God knows what His goal is. God always aims at His goal. And God always hits His goal.
Other sin… is more of what would be called a transgression… it’s intentionally aiming at the wrong target… knowing what target to aim for… and saying… “ah… forget that… I’m aiming over here…”
Let me read that passage again that I read a few minutes ago.
“Former| of light and Creator of darkness Maker of good and Creator of evil, I, Yahweh, make all these things.” (Concordant Literal New Testament)
If it was God’s intent to make something that we would call evil then God did not sin because He created exactly what He set out to create. He didn’t miss His mark. It came out exactly the way He wanted.
Now I’m intentionally being redundant here. The reason this verse is so disturbing is that we equate the word evil with sin… but the word doesn’t mean sin… It can’t in this case… Because if GOD creates something… BEING GOD… he creates and prepares things exactly as He intends… He always hits the target… He never misses. Therefore He cannot sin. He’s never sinned.
If anything in creation is not as God intended then God missed His mark. He failed to hit the target and he would have sinned.
Again, I propose my friend and I believe that God cannot and does not sin. God never fails. He always hits the target and things are just as He intended them to be in order for something great.
There is a rhyme and reason… there’s a plan… there’s a purpose. He made things the way He made them, including the creation of evil… again He takes credit for creating evil… and He is going to do something, reveal something, show us something that could not have been shown or done or demonstrated… it could have never been displayed… if everything… including the creation of satan, the fall of man had not taken place, just as He planned, designed, and aimed for… Again, if anything happened that is not in His design or His aim or His plan, then He missed the target and you would then say that God has sinned.
Listen. God has not sinned. He has never been taken by surprise. God is always working all things according to the council of His will. Paul tells us that in Ephesians chapter 1.
ON the other hand, popular religious thought and teaching leads people to believe something very different from that. It paints a picture of GOD… creating things with a particular intent… God has a goal He is aiming for… God has hopes and desires for His creation, but something happened… outside of Him and it veered everything off course away from God’s intended target. Now God has… well He’s got Plan B He’s put into place and God is scrambling to somehow salvage what slipped through His fingers. But that’s not it at all.
Now you may be saying, “But James… What about sin? Where did this all come from? I just can’t believe that it could have possibly been God’s intent… the target HE had aimed for… it couldn’t have been part of His design… for sin to enter into anything… wouldn’t He have been wanting everything to be perfect all along from the very beginning?”
Well… hold on. You’re getting ahead of me here. We’ll talk more about that in our next study.
Right now let me give you some things to consider. Think about this. How could God have ever demonstrated, His true love… compassion… mercy… forgiveness… His desire to justify and reconcile… Without creating beings by design who would need that type of love… compassion… mercy…. Forgiveness… who would need justification… and reconciliation? Without creating things to go just as they have gone, there would be no way for God to reveal who He is.
So…. By God designing and creating things in such a way that sin would enter in… I propose to you that GOD did NOT sin by creating things to bring sin in. … because God hit the very target He was aiming for with even sin entering into humanity.
Let me give you another passage that might startle you in much the same way as the passage from Isaiah.
It’s Romans chapter 11…starting in verse… let’s start in verse 32… and go down to verse 36. Here’s how it’s worded in Young’s Literal Translation.
“for God did shut up together the whole to unbelief, that to the whole He might do kindness. O depth of riches, and wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable His judgments, and untraceable His ways! for who did know the mind of the Lord? or who did become His counsellor? or who did first give to Him, and it shall be given back to him again? because of Him, and through Him, and to Him [are] the all things; to Him [is] the glory -- to the ages. Amen.”
Let that last last verse sink in. All things are of God… Through God… and to God…
ALL THINGS!
I quoted Ephesians 1 a few minutes ago. “God works all things according to the council of His will.”
And here we read “All things are of God, all things are through God, and all things are to God.”
All things. God is the creator, the designer, the author of everything. In other words, in all that He has done and created, He has never missed His intended target.
Here’s the same verses from the Concordant Literal New Testament.
“For God locks up all together in stubbornness, that He should be merciful to all. O, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How inscrutable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways! For, who knew the mind of the Lord? or, who became His adviser?”
In other words who of us could have come up with a better way of doing this? God is beyond our wisdom, beyond our knowledge, we can’t understand it at this point because we’ve got these finite minds. But He’s doing it just the way He wanted to do it for a specific purpose.
The passage goes on…
“or, who gives to Him first, and it will be repaid him? seeing that out of Him and through Him and for Him is all: to Him be the glory for the eons! Amen!”
Wow… All that GOD has done… all that God will do… all that He has designed… He has perfectly hit his target. It’s gone just the way He planned it. And that would include everything God has done though every part of His creation, including the creation of satan… it was for a purpose. And it would include the things we experience in life that we would call evil.
I was just talking to my dad a few minutes ago. He has been going through a lot of physical suffering throughout the last twenty five years or so. Before the physical suffering there was all sorts of other suffering that he has experienced through life and it’s been extremely painful.
As we were talking, he said, “ya know what? I know it is by God’s design.”
Why? Paul tells us this: “The suffering we face in this life is not worth comparing to the glory that awaits us.”
This is good stuff. See, the suffering we experience… the fact that evil came into this world and into our lives… the things we experience… it is all working for us a far greater glory to help us to fully experience ultimately what God wants us to experience… which is going to be goodness and gloriousness!
Is gloriousness a word? I think it is!
Goodness and gloriousness beyond what we can imagine at this point. And all that has taken place in this universe… there’s a purpose for it.
Romans 8:28 I believe is true!
Without the suffering of this life we would not be able to appreciate what is to come.
This is a heavy thought… and worth considering… all the suffering… the hardship… the things we call evil… is actually for our good according to God’s purpose.
Wouldn’t all those things fall into Romans 8:28?
Man, there’s so many little side routes… and rabbit trails connected to the things we’ve began to touch on, but I need to wrap up because you’ve probably already gotten enough to chew on for today…
My name is James Flanders… thank you so much for spending some time with me.
I truly appreciate your, prayers, encouragement, and support.
We’re going to be looking at some great things in the future so please coming back and listening. I don’t want you missing any of it.
Be blessed my friend…be blessed!
universal reconciliation, conciliation, james flanders, salvation of all, concordant literal new testament, missing the point
Let me share with you a verse that freaked out several of my friends a few weeks ago.
It’s Isaiah chapter 45 verse 7.
In this verse God is talking about GOD and God says:
I form the light and create darkness,
I make peace and create calamity;
I, the Lord, do all these things.’ (NKJV)
That’s the way it’s worded in the New King James version.
Here is God taking credit for light and darkness… peace and calamity. Saying “I the LORD do all these things.
Now the word calamity is not a great translation. In fact, the word translated as calamity is worded very differently in other verses.
Let me read another English translation to see if it clarifies it at all. The Holman Christian Standard Bible words it this way.
God says:
I form light and create darkness,
I make success and create disaster;
I, Yahweh, do all these things. (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
What? God credits himself with creating disaster?!
Yep. That’s what it says.
However for consistency sake, this work probably shouldn’t have been translated as disaster, because it’s translated as something else in other places in Scripture.
Let me read that same verse from Young’s Literal Translation.
It says this:
“Forming light, and preparing darkness, Making peace, and preparing evil, I [am] Jehovah, doing all these things.” (YLT)
What? God says “I form light, I prepare darkness, I am making peace, and preparing…”
What was that word? Evil.
I am Jehovah doing all these things. That is a literal translation. The word translated as evil is translated as evil pretty consistently throughout Scripture.
Here’s the Concordant Literal New Testament:
“Former of light and Creator of darkness Maker of good and Creator
of evil, I, Yahweh, make all these things.”
The literal translation use the word EVIL.
Oh my goodness! God calling himself the former of light. We get that. We can comprehend that. But God also takes credit for the darkness. God says “I am the creator of darkness.”
I am the maker of good… and God says “I am also the creator or evil.”
Oh man!
Does that just tend to rub you the wrong way? Maybe you’re wondering how can that be?
It just doesn’t sound right.
Well, here’s the reason it doesn’t sound right and the reason these words can seem so abrasive… and why some translators tried to avoid the word evil altogether.
It’s because we tend to think that the word evil means the same thing as the word sin.
But the truth is that evil and sin and not synonyms. They aren’t the same thing They don’t mean the same thing.
Let me say right here and right now, I believe what this verse says. God does create evil, but, let me say this… keep listening… GOD does NOT sin!!!!
He cannot sin or else He would not be God.
“But James, how can He create evil? That’s gotta be sin!”
No, no, no. The word evil is not sin.
Let me talk about the word sin.
word sin means “to miss.”
That’s it in it’s simplest sense. A one word definition would be “miss.”
Sin equals miss.
To miss the mark… to miss the target… to not hit what you are aiming for… to fail to meet your goal.
In Judges chapter 20 verse 16… we find a Hebrew word that is frequently translated as the word SIN… but in this particular verse… in the English translations I looked at… it’s translated very differently… and believe it or not the different translation will actually help you understand what the word sin means… as we look at how this word is used and how it’s worded in Judges chapter 20 verse 16.
In Judges chapter 20, it’s talking about a war going on between the tribes of Benjamin and Israel and in verse 16 it talks about 700 men going into battle who were so good with their sling shots they could sling a stone at a hairs breadth and NOT miss. The word translated as miss is the same word translated as sin.
It’s saying these guys could sling a stone with a sling shot at a hair and not sin. They would not miss. They would hit the target.
Again, the word translated as MISS is also in other places translated as SIN. So this helps us to understand what sin means.
It means to miss. This verse paints a perfect picture of the meaning of the word!
It’s missing the target. You take aim but you fail to hit the target. You fail to hit the goal. That’s the meaning of the word SIN… to miss… to fail.
Does God fail? Can God sin?
Scripture tells us that GOD is love and it also tells us that LOVE never fails. Therefore if sin is failing then GOD can never sin. What’s that mean? He always hits the desired target. He accomplishes exactly what He sets out to accomplish. He never makes a mistake.
Even in the creation of evil? Yes.
You’ll understand that more as we continue through these studies.
Now, let me talk a bit more about sin.
Some sin that you commit and that I commit… that all of humanity commits… could fall into the category of a mistake. Like a person at an archery range… Let’s say we’re out at the archery range. We’ve got our targets down range from us… and you get confused about which target is yours and you start shooting at my target. You sin. You miss the target. Because you made the mistake of shooting at the wrong target. Does that happen in life? Yes. At some point it happens to everyone. Like a little kid getting confused on a soccer field and kicking the ball toward the wrong goal. They’re intentions are good. The attitude is right. They’re wanting to do what’s best, but they make a mistake. They’re going the complete wrong direction. They fail. They miss. They sin.
Let me ask you again… Does God make mistakes?
If God has ever made a mistake we could say God has sinned. God may have had great intentions but, oh man… He shot at the wrong Goal. God went the wrong way.
No, no, no. That could never happen.
You can’t say that about God or else GOD wouldn’t be much of a God at all.
Now there is other sin that people commit. It’s called a transgression. It’s when you know where the goal is but you say “Forget it, I’m not even going to aim at that goal.”
Has God ever done that? No!
God knows what His goal is. God always aims at His goal. And God always hits His goal.
Other sin… is more of what would be called a transgression… it’s intentionally aiming at the wrong target… knowing what target to aim for… and saying… “ah… forget that… I’m aiming over here…”
Let me read that passage again that I read a few minutes ago.
“Former| of light and Creator of darkness Maker of good and Creator of evil, I, Yahweh, make all these things.” (Concordant Literal New Testament)
If it was God’s intent to make something that we would call evil then God did not sin because He created exactly what He set out to create. He didn’t miss His mark. It came out exactly the way He wanted.
Now I’m intentionally being redundant here. The reason this verse is so disturbing is that we equate the word evil with sin… but the word doesn’t mean sin… It can’t in this case… Because if GOD creates something… BEING GOD… he creates and prepares things exactly as He intends… He always hits the target… He never misses. Therefore He cannot sin. He’s never sinned.
If anything in creation is not as God intended then God missed His mark. He failed to hit the target and he would have sinned.
Again, I propose my friend and I believe that God cannot and does not sin. God never fails. He always hits the target and things are just as He intended them to be in order for something great.
There is a rhyme and reason… there’s a plan… there’s a purpose. He made things the way He made them, including the creation of evil… again He takes credit for creating evil… and He is going to do something, reveal something, show us something that could not have been shown or done or demonstrated… it could have never been displayed… if everything… including the creation of satan, the fall of man had not taken place, just as He planned, designed, and aimed for… Again, if anything happened that is not in His design or His aim or His plan, then He missed the target and you would then say that God has sinned.
Listen. God has not sinned. He has never been taken by surprise. God is always working all things according to the council of His will. Paul tells us that in Ephesians chapter 1.
ON the other hand, popular religious thought and teaching leads people to believe something very different from that. It paints a picture of GOD… creating things with a particular intent… God has a goal He is aiming for… God has hopes and desires for His creation, but something happened… outside of Him and it veered everything off course away from God’s intended target. Now God has… well He’s got Plan B He’s put into place and God is scrambling to somehow salvage what slipped through His fingers. But that’s not it at all.
Now you may be saying, “But James… What about sin? Where did this all come from? I just can’t believe that it could have possibly been God’s intent… the target HE had aimed for… it couldn’t have been part of His design… for sin to enter into anything… wouldn’t He have been wanting everything to be perfect all along from the very beginning?”
Well… hold on. You’re getting ahead of me here. We’ll talk more about that in our next study.
Right now let me give you some things to consider. Think about this. How could God have ever demonstrated, His true love… compassion… mercy… forgiveness… His desire to justify and reconcile… Without creating beings by design who would need that type of love… compassion… mercy…. Forgiveness… who would need justification… and reconciliation? Without creating things to go just as they have gone, there would be no way for God to reveal who He is.
So…. By God designing and creating things in such a way that sin would enter in… I propose to you that GOD did NOT sin by creating things to bring sin in. … because God hit the very target He was aiming for with even sin entering into humanity.
Let me give you another passage that might startle you in much the same way as the passage from Isaiah.
It’s Romans chapter 11…starting in verse… let’s start in verse 32… and go down to verse 36. Here’s how it’s worded in Young’s Literal Translation.
“for God did shut up together the whole to unbelief, that to the whole He might do kindness. O depth of riches, and wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable His judgments, and untraceable His ways! for who did know the mind of the Lord? or who did become His counsellor? or who did first give to Him, and it shall be given back to him again? because of Him, and through Him, and to Him [are] the all things; to Him [is] the glory -- to the ages. Amen.”
Let that last last verse sink in. All things are of God… Through God… and to God…
ALL THINGS!
I quoted Ephesians 1 a few minutes ago. “God works all things according to the council of His will.”
And here we read “All things are of God, all things are through God, and all things are to God.”
All things. God is the creator, the designer, the author of everything. In other words, in all that He has done and created, He has never missed His intended target.
Here’s the same verses from the Concordant Literal New Testament.
“For God locks up all together in stubbornness, that He should be merciful to all. O, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How inscrutable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways! For, who knew the mind of the Lord? or, who became His adviser?”
In other words who of us could have come up with a better way of doing this? God is beyond our wisdom, beyond our knowledge, we can’t understand it at this point because we’ve got these finite minds. But He’s doing it just the way He wanted to do it for a specific purpose.
The passage goes on…
“or, who gives to Him first, and it will be repaid him? seeing that out of Him and through Him and for Him is all: to Him be the glory for the eons! Amen!”
Wow… All that GOD has done… all that God will do… all that He has designed… He has perfectly hit his target. It’s gone just the way He planned it. And that would include everything God has done though every part of His creation, including the creation of satan… it was for a purpose. And it would include the things we experience in life that we would call evil.
I was just talking to my dad a few minutes ago. He has been going through a lot of physical suffering throughout the last twenty five years or so. Before the physical suffering there was all sorts of other suffering that he has experienced through life and it’s been extremely painful.
As we were talking, he said, “ya know what? I know it is by God’s design.”
Why? Paul tells us this: “The suffering we face in this life is not worth comparing to the glory that awaits us.”
This is good stuff. See, the suffering we experience… the fact that evil came into this world and into our lives… the things we experience… it is all working for us a far greater glory to help us to fully experience ultimately what God wants us to experience… which is going to be goodness and gloriousness!
Is gloriousness a word? I think it is!
Goodness and gloriousness beyond what we can imagine at this point. And all that has taken place in this universe… there’s a purpose for it.
Romans 8:28 I believe is true!
Without the suffering of this life we would not be able to appreciate what is to come.
This is a heavy thought… and worth considering… all the suffering… the hardship… the things we call evil… is actually for our good according to God’s purpose.
Wouldn’t all those things fall into Romans 8:28?
Man, there’s so many little side routes… and rabbit trails connected to the things we’ve began to touch on, but I need to wrap up because you’ve probably already gotten enough to chew on for today…
My name is James Flanders… thank you so much for spending some time with me.
I truly appreciate your, prayers, encouragement, and support.
We’re going to be looking at some great things in the future so please coming back and listening. I don’t want you missing any of it.
Be blessed my friend…be blessed!
universal reconciliation, conciliation, james flanders, salvation of all, concordant literal new testament, missing the point
What is James Flanders Teaching?
I've been listening to James Flanders audios on the internet for a while now and have realized that in many ways I have missed the point of Scripture, sold Jesus short, and basically had a very limited and cloudy view of what God is doing in the grand scheme of things.
When I heard that he had changed his views from traditional orthodoxy/fundamentalism to a belief called Universal Reconciliation, I thought that meant he no longer believed the Bible, didn't think the death and resurrection meant anything, and that he though there was no such thing as future judgment.
However, after taking some time to actually listen to what he had to say, with Bible in hand, taking careful notes, and then following the example of the Bereans to search the Scripture to see if these things are so... I discovered that I had been wrong about more than I ever thought. The truth is I had taken way too much for granted and had never actually searched the Scriptures on the topics of hell, justification, and the Evangel of Paul (it turns out it is different than what Peter was teaching and what Jesus was teaching before His death and resurrection).
I didn't realize that there were several different words that had all been translated as hell, but none of them fit the picture of Dante's inferno, and in fact some of them simply mean "the grave" and were actually translated that way in Scripture when it talks about the death of so called good people.
Anyway, I decided to put this blog together primarily for myself to make notes of some of what I have learned from James Flanders. If other people want to take a look at what I've been learning, then I consider that great!
If you are brave enough, the first teachings I would recommend listening to are on the topic of hell.
Here is a link to his website: http://www.jamesflanders.com/3/category/hell/1.html
I also found some teachings on YouTube, but I think they are the same as what is on his mainsite.
Here is a link to a really good teaching about "the secret" that Christ shared with Paul after Hi resurrection from the dead. This stuff is mind blowing to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_uU04wNa9M
I hope you enjoy it!
Also, here is James Flanders Facebook link:
https://www.facebook.com/james.flanders1
When I heard that he had changed his views from traditional orthodoxy/fundamentalism to a belief called Universal Reconciliation, I thought that meant he no longer believed the Bible, didn't think the death and resurrection meant anything, and that he though there was no such thing as future judgment.
However, after taking some time to actually listen to what he had to say, with Bible in hand, taking careful notes, and then following the example of the Bereans to search the Scripture to see if these things are so... I discovered that I had been wrong about more than I ever thought. The truth is I had taken way too much for granted and had never actually searched the Scriptures on the topics of hell, justification, and the Evangel of Paul (it turns out it is different than what Peter was teaching and what Jesus was teaching before His death and resurrection).
I didn't realize that there were several different words that had all been translated as hell, but none of them fit the picture of Dante's inferno, and in fact some of them simply mean "the grave" and were actually translated that way in Scripture when it talks about the death of so called good people.
Anyway, I decided to put this blog together primarily for myself to make notes of some of what I have learned from James Flanders. If other people want to take a look at what I've been learning, then I consider that great!
If you are brave enough, the first teachings I would recommend listening to are on the topic of hell.
Here is a link to his website: http://www.jamesflanders.com/3/category/hell/1.html
I also found some teachings on YouTube, but I think they are the same as what is on his mainsite.
Here is a link to a really good teaching about "the secret" that Christ shared with Paul after Hi resurrection from the dead. This stuff is mind blowing to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_uU04wNa9M
I hope you enjoy it!
Also, here is James Flanders Facebook link:
https://www.facebook.com/james.flanders1
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