Have you ever lost a love-one and to all indications they went to hell? Do you believe, as most do, that hell is everlasting, endless? What are your feelings toward God when you think about an endless hell? How do you feel when you think that you too might end up in hell?
I'm going to tell you something that most will not agree with. HELL IS NOT EVERLASTING. Think of hell as God's penitentiary. When its purpose has been fulfilled, you are let out. (I was first seeing hell as a place but after much scripture reading, I now think hell is our un-reconciled sin that we carry with us to God's new heavens and new earth. Once it is reconciled, the grief goes away.)
A book, rather miraculously, came into my possession. It is called “Hope Beyond Hell” by Gerry Beauchemin. I truly believe that this book is God inspired; He breathed it into existence through the author.
I said that the book miraculously came into my possession. I'll explain. God has been doing things in my life for a long time to prepare me for this book. Even the path that the book came to me and my wanting to read it was all directed by God. It would take too much time to tell the whole story so here is a shorten version beginning October of 2009. (I know, it's not all that short, but anyway)
I hurt my back which led me to a chiropractor who happened to be a Christian – only doing periodic visits to the chiropractor but now shoulder hurts so go back to chiropractor – chiropractor just hired a Massage Therapist and prescribes treatments with her – she invites me to a book study of a 2nd Joyce Meyer book, “Power Thoughts” which was a continuation of another book of hers “Battlefield Of The Mind” which I had read a year or two before (this book also came into my possession miraculously but won't go into that one right now) – go to “Power Thoughts” book study and meet loving Christian friends – they invite me to their small church – had no home church at the time so decided to visit theirs – the Pastor prophesied over me that God was going to use me for some great works – not used to this kind of church but kept going anyway– God gave me a vision (I was talking with the Lord about some sin I just couldn't let go of. I told Him that I wished He could just beat me into obedience. All of a sudden, I felt Christ and Holy Spirit leave me and I am in a kind of hell, thinking OMG is this were I will go for eternity when I die – now have an inward fear of loosing my salvation and going to hell – prayer life changes (seems I'm talking directly with God The Father and not, as before, to Christ within) -- tell several people at church about my vision – they comfort me telling me that The Loving Father would not take away my salvation but they did believe that you could give it up – about two weeks after vision I awoke from a dream and felt Christ's presence ( I asked, “oh, are you back?” I heard no response but felt at peace; as though He was checking up on me.) – even though felling better, started studying the Bible more on the subject of loosing ones salvation – personal studies of the Bible led me to see what appeared to be conflicts on that subject – now feeling that God is telling me that the mindset of “Once Saved Always Saved” is wrong – remembered that around the end of last year, 2010, I was led to the last chapter of Revelation and feeling that Christ was talking to me personally wanting me to tell the churches that He is coming soon (didn't do anything at that time because felt there was more to it and, how was I going to tell all churches) – at a family reunion, talked with a cousin about “Once Saved Always Saved” which he is a strong believer of -- sense we live very close to each other, he suggested getting together to search scriptures and see if we could come to some agreement – cousin and I are getting together once a week reading scriptures but he still feels strongly about “Once Saved Always Saved” and I still feel strongly against (that is at time I wrote this) – even though we still have our differences, we still enjoy getting together to study God's word – cousin gives me books supporting “Once Saved Always Saved” and pastor gives me books that does not – I was to the point where I didn't want any more books and wanted to go back to just studying the Bible -- my wife gives me yet another book – because its my loving wife, I decided to read this book; you guessed it, (“Hope Beyond Hell”) – still reading the book and now convinced that hell is not eternal and all peoples will be saved.
– Sunday, August 21st, is my turn to open our small church and feel the Lord leading me to tell this during the opening of the service – Saturday night, before church, asked the Lord for a sign if this indeed was from Him – no sign but still felt strongly that this is what I should do and this was how I was going to say it, “As God is my witness, hell is not eternal.” (is there any stronger statement?) – I had a bad headache and felt hot with fever and every time I said, “As God is my witness, hell is not eternal.”, the headache got stronger and I felt hotter – I thought that if this was from the Lord, He would take this away, but He didn't so now not sure if I should do this or not – halfway trusting that the Lord did want me to say this in the morning services, I told Him, “Lord, I am going to say this tomorrow so if this is not of You, You might as well take me tonight. If I am alive in the morning, then, of course, this is from You.” – I awoke in the morning, wahoo, feeling at peace with what I should do – I didn't prepare anything that I would say along with the statement; recalling to mind the scripture verse that said He would give me the words, which He did – I didn't tell anyone at the church what I was going to say, not even the pastor who had just gotten back from his family vacation – when pastor got up, rather startled, to take over the service, he had to tell the congregation that he appreciated that I studied God's word and had this new revelation but the official stand of the church doctrine was that hell is eternal. But he would investigate it – near end of church, pastor prophesied that the day marked the beginning of great growth – after church he asked that in the future would I please tell him before hand, especially when it was something of this great magnitude which I agreed to – I gave him the “Hope Beyond Hell” book information – Monday, more studying God's word and was directed to Isaiah chapter 25 (beautiful picture of our Lord preparing a lavish banquet for ALL people) and checked out chapters before and after – had a vision of God being like a super computer who processed all possible scenarios for every person, picking the best plan for all and putting that into being (wow, He picks the best for us, lets us still have our will, but directs our path to comply with His will) --
Wed. 8/24/11
Woke up around 2:30 AM. Have been waking up around this time every day sense Sunday; reading scriptures and working on these writings. Today, my thoughts were strongly on discerning reason why those at church are turned away from reading the book, “Hope Beyond Hell” or even showing an interest in it?? Even after I said, “As God is my witness”??? Remembering back to Sunday Aug 21, noticed atmosphere during pastor's sermon somewhat estranged. Right away at end of sermon, he called us all to quickly come to the front to lay hands on each of us, he and his wife; his hands on forehead and wife's hands on belly and would prophesy over each person. Most people fainted to the floor after they were prophesied over. I didn't faint but noticed as his hands were on my forehead that he did it with a pulsing motion pushing my head backwards with some force. Could pastor be a false prophet? Just don't know – strongly feel God has lead me to this church for a reason. This morning I was led to Ezekiel chapters 12 and 13; talks about false prophets. Yesterday I posted to Facebook about the book, , “Hope Beyond Hell” and pleading for all to read it but it doesn't seem to be getting out where others can see it; I can only see it if I click me. I tried sending a copy of the book (pdf format) to wife's mom from three e-mail accounts but all crashed; had seen Satan's power before back in 1998 or 99, when trying to expose Satan's work. (Another time being used by the Lord but didn't know that at the time.)
Thur. 08/25/11
Reading, thinking, and talking to the Lord all day until going to church -- I felt like a student of His; led directly to scriptures dealing with questions I'm having – using Bible, Bible Dictionary, and Greek to English translation – read some in “Life beyond Hell' – studies made me remember some things in the book I had read quite a while ago “The Shack” so found the book and it opened directly to the things I was curious about ( Mack in cave and woman was interrogating him) – points made in this part of the book: We judge God for all the bad that happens in our lives; we blame bad men, who God owns, which leads us to blame their fathers and their father's father all the way back to Adam, who God created, so now we have to blame God for creating them. – God knows before hand everything that will happen, even all the bad stuff, why doesn't He do something to stop it? -- woman gives Mack a decision. He has to choose two of his children to spend eternity in God's new heavens and new earth and three of his children he must choose to spend eternity in hell. – Mack, tormented, was not able to choose which three of his five children to send to eternal hell, he pleads with the woman to let him go in place of the three. – woman tells Mack that he judged well, Mack confused, and says, “But I haven't judged anything.” She tells him that he had, judged, he judged them worthy of love even if it cost him everything. This is how Jesus loves. This shows us the heart of God who loves His children perfectly.
Evening, went to church for book study of last chapter in “Understanding Your Potential” – wondering if pastor might be a false prophet, I asked him if he could say, “As God is my witness, I am a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.” – He was able to say it so now confused.
Fri. 08/26/11
Wondering why people believe pastor that he is a disciple of Christ but they will not believe me when I said that hell is not eternal even though both of us preceded what we said with “As God is my witness.” Is God not a good witness? – getting more confused with what the Lord wishes for me to do – thought about it quite a bit today. – I was kind of tired so tried to take a nap – couldn't get it out of my mind why people at church could believe pastor but not me? – I knew the Lord would work it out some how but it just wasn't making any sense; and then I understood – couldn't sleep and with this new revelation, I got up, turned on the computer to try entering my new found knowledge into Facebook but wasn't very hopeful because of Facebook and e-mail crashing – sure enough FB let me in this time – Started typing in my new found knowledge but when I tried to post it, it told me there were too many characters – I couldn't cut anything; it just wouldn't get out all of what I needed to say.-- noticed that I could turn it into a note instead, which is what I did. – when I tried to post this, it went to a new note form screen that was completely blank, like I had lost the whole thing. – I thought OMG it's gone and I didn't save anything. There was no way I could duplicate it again. – after some long moments of thought, I wandered if I clicked the back arrow that maybe it was there (I didn't think that was very promising because I had tried this before only to find another black screen and no other thoughts of how to recover what I had lost; completely gone) – To my surprise, there it was and not only was the text there but it had been posted to Facebook. (Lord, you are a funny guy, I mean God) – God has done this kind of thing to me before as though He played a joke on me. It's usually at a time when I need it most. Wow, we have such an amazing, loving God. I which everyone could meet God the way I have!
The following is my new revelation that I posted to Facebook:
I'm confused! I did the opening of our church services last Sunday and I said,"AS GOD IS MY WITNESS, HELL IS NOT ETERNAL". Last night at church I asked the pastor to say, "AS GOD IS MY WITNESS, I AM A DISCIPLE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST." which he said. Our people believe him but they will not believe what I said that hell is not eternal. Is God not a good enough witness? Do we worship a God who is not powerful enough to send one of us to eternal hell for saying something He does not agree with?
We people are sick. We choose to believe our traditions, what man teaches, over what God tells us in His word, the Bible. Yes, our English bibles say in places that hell is eternal but if you look at God's word as a whole, it can't be. Our loving Father is not that way. He will not send any of His children to punishment everlasting.
Think about this. Our Bibles have been translated by man from the original texts and many Bibles have even been translated from other translations. Wherever man is involved, there can be problems.
The following five principles of interpretation to consider when studying the Bible comes from the book "Hope Beyond Hell" by Gerry Beauchemin:
- Pray for understanding.
- Trust Scripture to interpret Scripture, not man.
- Base your beliefs on the total forest of Scriptures, not just a few trees.
- Put aside what your spirit reveals is not right or good until the Lord resolves the issue in your heart (1Th. 5:21; Lu. 12:57)
- Remember that the ancient eastern customs was to use language in the most vivid possible way.
PS, I am not trying to single out the church I attend. This would have happened in just about any church that I would have done this in.
The following is a link to a beautiful song on Hope Beyond Hell's website:
Stay tunned to what happens next.
