I have been studying NT wright for a little bit now and it's almost like that he is afraid to offend the world and ungodly and is very careful not to make a firm stand on any doctrines proclaimed as an absolute truth ,which to me I read it offends Jesus.😢
Who decides who is good or bad? In a family, one of the sons behaves like he is a curse to the family doing all sorts of horrible things any parent would hate to keep up with. Not a day goes without a quarrel between the son and the father. But the father shows extreme patience and tries to be as helpful and friendly with the boy while shouting and beating him then and there. This goes on for several years and the boy never seems to improve. Rather his character worsens. He just comes and goes like a foreigner in the family. One day when things got seriously nasty, the boy tells the father that its not him who is the father but the neighbour. You think the father will let the guy enter his home after that? So Allah SWT is the ONLY ONE CREATOR WHO IS WORTHY OF WORSHIP. HE HAS NO EQUALS NEITHER PARTNERS. HE CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN. HE IS THE ONE WHO FEEDS YOU AND WHO NOURISHES YOU. HE forgives every sin other than SHIRK which is attributing equals or partners to HIM. "Whoever commits evil or wrongs themselves then seeks Allah's forgiveness will certainly find Allah All-Forgiving, Most Merciful." "Whoever seeks a way other than Islam, ' it will never be accepted from them, and in the Hereafter they will be among the losers." The fundamental pillar of Islam is obedience and surrender to the Almighty Allah SWT alone. Now you may have a clear idea about who is good or who is bad.
I really appreciate NT's comments on the idea of heaven as our destination after death. This idea is simply not biblical, but I hear Christians say it constantly (I usually bite my tongue). Indeed, our destination is the kingdom of God as the new and reunited heaven and earth.. God himself comes to dwell forever with his people in this kingdom--the earth is where we were created to live forever--this is what was lost in the fall. Christ, the God-man, reunites these two realities.
Yes, but believers who die are with the Lord… in heaven….not the ultimate eschatological state of things, but nonetheless WHERE YOU WANT TO BE when you die. The celestial city coming down to earth is at the END. I don’t claim to know all about the “timing” of these things….the resurrection,people having glorified bodies, etc. It seems NT Wright is too educated for his own good. More of a philosopher than anything. Thinking about hell developed in reformation times?! Jesus described it quite well….it didn’t need development.
Rev. Chaps 21-22 pr loves, Christians will live forever with God in a Spiritual existence. I disagree with most Intellectuals, as most view things thru philosophy, more than literal.
I don't want anyone to go to hell. That's why I point people to Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross. He paid our sin debt in FULL and came back from the dead. Anyone who simply believes in Jesus Christ as Savior has (present tense) everlasting life (John 3:16). The whole reason Jesus shed His blood on the cross was to pay our sin debt so that we don't have to go to hell. Those who reject Christ as Savior will suffer eternal conscious torment in a literal fire-burning hell (Rev. 20:15). This is true regardless of whether or not they believe in the reality of hell.
@@DougandMax no they wont. Rather than seeing the "lake of fire" as a place of unending torment, its the final and complete destruction of those who reject Christ. The term "eternal punishment" in this context refers to the permanence of the punishment, not the duration of conscious suffering. In other words, the punishment is eternal because it results in complete extinction-those who reject Christ cease to exist, rather than being tormented forever. The Bible often uses fire as a symbol of destruction, such as in Malachi 4:1, where the wicked are compared to stubble burned up, leaving "neither root nor branch." This suggests total annihilation rather than ongoing agony. The bible constantly uses hyperbole also. Iyts good to understand the way people wrtote back then. For example, in Joshua 10:40, it says Joshua "left no survivors" in his conquests, and yet we find in later chapters that there were still people living in those areas (Joshua 11:22). This use of hyperbole is common in ancient Near Eastern writings and was understood as a way to express the totality of victory or destruction, not always a literal, exhaustive extermination. this view aligns better with the character of a just and merciful God. Eternal conscious torment for finite sins seems inconsistent with God's nature, whereas annihilation still upholds His justice by removing evil completely without eternal suffering.
In Revelation we are taught that the beast and the Antichrist will be thrown into the lake of fire and suffer eternally and then those whose names are not written in the book will be thrown in and this will be the second death. Therefore they will be annihilated.
The New Heaven and New Earth are ONE place. Lots of Bible verses describe what The Newly made Earth-merged with Heaven will be like. “Death, the final Enemy, is Swallowed up in Victory”.
As a child of the 60s .in evangelism we were shown 2 pictures of someone on there death bed,One was surrounded by Angels the other by devils complete with pitchforks,red suits ,etc.,
Instead of the lengthy theological talk we have here, for me it was simply what Jesus said very clearly about Heaven and Hell in Matthew 25 that led me to reject Him - dividing mankind very clearly into sheep and goats, with endless fire for the goats. I thought to take the problem to a clergyman, and to prepare I wanted to find all the places where Jesus spoke in this way. I sat down with Luke. As I read the Holy Spirit came to me through every word, and the Love of Christ enfolded me. No answer to me about Hell, just the overwhelming presence of the Saviour. I wish big name theologians could convey to us something of this - even though the Hell question is left unanswered, Christ will always triumph for us even in our angry opposition to Him.
@Starchaser63 the problem is our English translations have taken 4 different words that have different meanings- sheol, hades, gehenna, and tartarus and translated them all into the word hell. So, be careful when you assume Jesus is speaking about hell. Sometimes Jesus is speaking to the Jews about the upcoming destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and the language he uses could sound like he us speaking of the end of the world.
@@zacdredge3859 your a good example, because if you had sufficient evidence you would have included it in your response.. also the real deal is Jesus actually showing up now and again...
@@Starchaser63 So to be clear your answer is Jesus 'showing up and now and again', are you claiming these visitations as the evidence in question? Otherwise I didn't think you addressed my question at all.
As an EO believer (who is a big fan of Wright), I have to share that 1. how we do eschatology is, in fact, the Lewis approach: hell is a chosen state; and 2. the angst over unbelieving loved ones is mitigated, in part, by the apostolic practice of praying for them.
His answer is that Heaven is actually going to be a summation of Earth and Heaven in the new creation, that there is a holding place after death called paradise, and that he believes in some sort of final hell - but he can’t decide between some measure of annhilationism (the imaged ones rejecting their image of God) and eternal conscious torment, but he seems to lean fairly more toward annhilationism, given his reference of Lewis’ talking beasts.
I greatly appreciate N.T. Wright's brilliant mind, his eloquence, and his depth of scriptural insight. He’s undoubtedly one of the great Christian thinkers of our time. However, I find his lack of clarity on key theological issues, particularly heaven and hell, frustrating. He seems to vacillate between different views, such as annihilationism and universalism, without offering a concrete position. He leaves the fate of those who reject God somewhat unclear, not fully addressing what Jesus said about eternal punishment. While I agree with Wright’s emphasis on trusting God's justice-that He will judge fairly-I believe we must also acknowledge the clear biblical teaching on hell. Jesus’ use of the word "fire" signifies the intense pain and suffering of separation from God. While the concept of eternal, literal burning isn’t exactly scriptural, the image of fire reflects the seriousness of eternal loss. The consequences of rejecting God are real, and we can already see the devastation caused by separation from Him in this life.
It's the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that opens our spiritual eyes to understand God's Word which means that wherever we find ourselves on society's intellectual gradings, we all have the same opportunity to hear from God. His Word tells us that if we seek Him with all of our hearts, we will find Him. Jesus spoke about hell an awful lot and I prefer to rely on what Jesus said in the Gospels and Revelation. If hell wasn't such an absolutely devastating place why would Jesus have gone through all of that suffering to save us from it. When Jesus speaks of perishing, I believe it is always ultimately in regards to eternal loss - loss of the soul - even if it is also in regards to events that occur on this side of eternity. 'What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul? Sometimes too much intellectual thought on these matters can lead us down false path, which i think, is also the reason why some of the traditional theological colleges are well suited to scholars who don't necessarily hold the Bible in highest esteem. I'm not referring to NT Wright here, but rather to so many of those within the Church of England hierarchy who seem to value their own opinions more than the Word of God. Sadly much of the Church of England seems to have already gone or be going apostate.
God hasn't made some things clear, on purpose, and so NTW doesn't presume to claim one view over another, at times. The Greek is clearer than English; Hebrew also at times, but usually a quagmire!
@@larryrue6673 So when the book of Revelation says "lake of burning sulfur", it means, what, Elvis is alive, or that cows are aliens from another planet? When the book of Revelation says that the Beast and the False Prophet are there, it means something else other than what it says?
He does answer the questions actually, but maybe not how you would want it to be answered. he's making a point every time, listen more closely :) And don't forget, there are multiple questions fired at him at once :)
I think the problem is that you want him to choose sides in a debate. Wright says that the debate is framed wrongly (i.e. not consistent with the biblical worldview).
The master equivocator. He wants to be seen as an intellectual and a "theologian", sell lots of books to people that prefer religion academically. They don't want to talk about what the Bible is ACTUALLY about, which is how to handle sin. Nobody wants to talk about such things at society parties. Wright wants the respect of his secular peers. John the Baptist said "Repent, the Kingdom of heaven is at hand"....not this word salad.
How can you ... When family inot in heaven? As my mom days: 'you'll be rejoicing at His Righteous Judgement, in perfect peace, perfect perfection, always forever rejoicing never in infinity ever being able to comprehend the beauty, Glory, 'Mind', depths of the depths of .. I have no words
And I find the opposite is true: Those who are sure that they and their group are the only ones not going to hell just might be surprised where they end up. "EVERYONE shall be salted by fire"
If I don’t believe in a literal hell, then I’m going there? The Bible doesn’t teach this. It does say; “Then said they to him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent.” John 6:28-29. Pretty simple message.
"That is not a Jewish or Christian idea, it's an ancient pagan idea" - the problem is in Luke 16 Jesus is recorded as saying - 'The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.' So Jesus seemed to be painting the EXACT picture which Dr Wright rejects as Jewish or Christian. Even if it's viewed as some sort of parable, it seems very odd that Jesus presented such an image if Dr Wright is correct. How does he reconcile this?
I completely agree. Luke 16 treats the fires of hell very literally, which seems to make sense within the Jewish context of belief in a bodily resurrection. Clearly the writer of the parable, or Jesus himself, if he truly told the parable, pictured hell in a very specific way, as a place of never ending bodily torment. It is not easily written off as a metaphor.
John 3:16 Sums up the two human destinies in one text! Through faith in Christ we have the assurance of Eternal Life, we need not “PERISH” ! John 5:28-29 What the 2nd-death fire 🔥 destroys, is destroyed forever! Revelation 20.
A question always in my mind not resolved yet: when Christians died and Christ’s return to renew a new heaven & earth, what will be new heaven & new earth likes? Does this mean world technology will cease ? No more cars, TVs, phones, etc..? Do we still have businesses? Do we still have our hobbies? Etc…?
I love the distinctions between Hebrew/Christian understandings of soul/life after death and those of Plato. It seems one's conception of soul is the crux of many of these conundrums. Why not ask Dr. Wright about his view of near death experience, which points toward the reality of what he called the Platonic view of the soul: eternal in its nature. Near death experience forms the basis of so many people's faith these days. But if the Hebrew/Christian soul is dependent on the body and needs the gift of eternality from God to continue after death, what of these reports, many of which express certainty of a loving God as the essence of everything?
Loved it!! Suggestion, doing a podcast about this other views that we often see as christianity, but in fact are platonism, gnosticism and so on... I would love to see some comparisons
Jesus said he was going to prepare a place for us in His Father’s house and would come receive us to Himself so we can be together where He is. And Jesus went to Heaven, so we are going to Heaven too. In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus taught about the great tribulation and warned everyone to repent from sin, watch and pray always to be accounted worthy to _escape_ all the things that are coming. So when we go to Heaven, we will also escape the greatest tribulation in human history.
I was very disappointed with this. Much of it was vague and abstract, often using mythical language, when what I wanted was as clear as possible an explanation of what is really going to happen to us after death. "Heaven" and "Hell" are place names and to understand the issues I think it essential to start by providing an understanding of cosmic geography. The Bible has many terms that imply a cosmic geography. A good example is "Sheol" - Hebrew for the underworld - in the OT. This need not mean what Dante meant by "Hell", but is definitely "down", not up. Similarly Jesus told the repentant thief he would be in "Paradise" with Him after death. Elsewhere we learn Jesus went "down" not up before the resurrection, which at the very least implies Paradise then (maybe not now!) was "down". Paul tells us that he went up to the "third Heaven", which implies there are two other heavens. I could go on... With a bit of time and effort I think it is certainly possible to construct a coherent understanding of cosmic geography from the Bible, so why not do it? It may lack detail, but tells us enough to know quite a lot. Once we have that, then describe what goes on in each place. There is enough to give as a decent idea. Incidentally, I have found modern NDE research very helpful in putting flesh on the Biblical bones to coin a phrase. (See Dr J Steve Miller's excellent books on the subject.) A second disappointment was NTW's implicit acceptance that there are many "good" people, who for understandable reasons don't come to faith before death and who seem ideal material for Heaven. The problem is that according to the Bible there is only one genuinely "good" person (Mar 10:18) and that is Jesus. Only those united with Him and who therefore share in His goodness get to Heaven. It's elementary stuff - the basic gospel - yet NTW didn't say it. Sadly I have lost a lot of respect for him.
but the hebrew Sheol isn't the same things as the more recent (from west)idea of hell. A righteous man(and the bible describes that there are righteous people: before Jesus; that doesn't mean they were totally without faults) was in Sheol and was contacted by Saul, and got angry he got disturbed in his resting in Sheol. Sheol wasn't a place of torment. Also the Bible is pretty clear about how God will judge all people by their actions later: so a "good person" will possibly meet Jesus after death and get to accept Him as lord, and be given the grace Jesus death has given us (in the face of God's judgment). I think you need to read more of N.T. Wright to understand more what he believed, and this video can not give the full picture.
@markquigley No. Look at the final Judgement - Matt. 25 and Rev. 20. This is the judgement of unbelievers in which some - the righteous - are saved. Not the glorious salvation of the faithful perhaps, but still a salvation.
I'm thinking of the Jesus that said " no one that does not hate his mother and father and brother...is fit to be my disciple". St Symian predicts that Jesus will bring great strife. Jesus speaks dismissively about his mother and brothers when they ask to speak to him, and dismissive of his mother when the townswoman cries blessings on the womb that bore him. When he says in that in heaven there is no meeting a former spouse- he says we are like angels, we are all pure souls! Oh, where do we get the idea that heaven will be a family reunion!?
I'm sorry but I just find NT Wright confusing. I wish I didn't. But I always have so much trouble just trying to figure out what he's actually saying and what he actually means. At the end I just don't really understand what he believes.
I'd love to go with all this philosophical, scholastic prettification and I really abhor the Dantic depiction of hell. But this gentleman here, is a "New Testament scholar", so what about the Lord's very own words about hell? Because...He was rather very clear about it!
Jesus spoke more of hell than heaven.also a parable doesn't mention names .he talks of the rich man in hades and Abraham and laxarus in paradise..where jesus took the thief. To paradise. Idk if hell is eternal..or finalized in the lake of fire second death..but i just dont want to find out.. accept jesus because there is no promise of tmr..if good could get u to heaven. We didn't need jesus did we..ty very much
And he didn’t say much about hell much either. What he did talk about-a lot-was that the Kingdom of God/Heaven was at hand and all the blessings that would flow from that would come too. So, no, hell wasn’t a big part of his preaching. And, by the way, he used the word “Gehenna,” not hell. Gehenna was a garage dump outside Jerusalem, which sometimes would burn and sometimes not. May he intended to mean “hell, but I wouldn’t so eagerly conclude that’s what he meant. Unless you’re eager about sending people to hell.
The idea that Jesus “spoke more of hell than heaven” simply isn’t true, and I’m sad the idea hasn’t gone away. By far, the most prominent topic of Christ’s preaching was the Kingdom of God, specifically how that Kingdom is breaking through into our world, which is why he told his disciples to pray that God’s will be done “in earth, as it is in heaven.” Additionally, Christ preached a call to repentance: he taught us a new way to live in THIS lifetime, as members of the family of God. “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” - Matthew 4:17
The common objection to universal salvation goes like this: "Why assume God will save everyone? That’s just your own wishful thinking projected onto God. You're assuming that everyone has some goodness in them that God will eventually restore. But God is just-He knows who to save and who is beyond salvation." But isn’t this critique also an assumption? On what basis do you believe that some people are beyond salvation? Did God ever say that? In fact, everything we know about God points to the opposite-that He can do whatever He wants, and He has clearly said that He desires to save everyone.
Everything in religion is an assumption. Everything. You don't truly 'know' anything about God. Theists mistake religious beliefs for factual knowledge and then create dogma and traditions to support those beliefs until everything feels like its real. But there is absolutely no way show that. Then men spend lifetimes arguing obscure points based merely upon opinions debating opinions about beliefs.
@@RKLCan But that depends entirely upon believing a number of assumptions. That God exists precisely as you imagine and that the bible is God's word. And the only assurance we have of that is, the bible. We have absolutely no way to show either of these assumptions is true and i'm sure you don't question them. But why not? I would also, respectfully, suggest you read the bible a little more critically and you will see that there is no single agreed upon route to salvation, or even a single description or understanding of God.
Before watching the video, here's my answer to the question: There are no good people. We are all bad people and we are sending ourselves to hell. God mercifully chooses to save some and take them to heaven instead. (Very Calvinistic, I know.)
Despite claiming to reject modern reinterpretation, he’s still doing it. In Jesus’s time, it would have been well-understood that he was talking about a new Kingdom of Israel, which only the righteous would be permitted to enter. When Jesus mentions Gehenna, he’s referring to a physical place (look it up). It’s also clear that Jesus himself preached repentance, and a return to righteousness, while Paul introduced salvation through faith. At 17:24, notice how he reframed the second question as though anyone who can’t accept the Gospel has been hurt in some way, and that it’s at least somewhat their fault for refusing to see the good side of Christianity. That’s not the problem, it’s the evidence. This is directly related to the Problem of Divine Hiddenness and the existence of non-resistant nonbelievers. His statement at 19:39 was telling. This is not an answer, it’s an excuse. Without wiping people’s memories, it’s impossible for people to be fully satisfied with Heaven. Here’s a thought: Why not bypass suffering and skip straight to the best possible world? If it’s better than Earth there’s no point in creating Earth at all.
That’s actually a common misconception. The archeological and textual data do not reference Gehenna as a physical place of punishment until about 1,200 years after the composition of the New Testament. Before the New Testament, within the New Testament, and after the New Testament, Gehenna was understood as a postmortem place of divine punishment. I don’t like to make claims by my own authority, so I’ll refer you to Dan McClellan’s video “Was Gehenna a Place for the Punishment of the Living?” which he made two years ago. Edit: I should say that Gehenna was not a burning trash heap in the 1st century.
@@user-kv1po2dm5j Thank you for the correction. I’ll have to do some more research on that. There must be some reason why it was associated with Hell (or vice versa) but his video didn’t fully clarify that for me.
"why not bypass suffering and skip to the best possible world"... This is like spoiling our children with every possible luxury instead of letting them learn how to become responsible adults God doesn't want eternal babies, he made us in his image
@@Yonen1688 I guess we should let the children play with knives, then. It’s one thing to challenge people and quite another to inflict suffering. Those of us in countries with access to the internet sometimes forget that. In order for your theodicy to work, every bit of suffering would be there to teach us a lesson, and I don’t think that’s the case. After all, there are some people who suffer and never hear the Gospel, in which case they will end up suffering for all eternity in Hell.
I have a concept that I call "A Snowball's Chance in Texas." Of course, it's a riff on "You don't have a snowball's chance in hell." In the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, would it slightly alleviate the torture of the rich man if someone indeed were to persuade his brothers to repent?
Just an insight into Wright’s mind… Usually he doesn’t answer a question directly when the question is inherently flawed and bogged down by poor presuppositions. So he spends a good deal of time fixing the question to what should have been asked and then answering that. This is why it is important to listen to someone and not just look for them to signal the “correct answer “. When we wait for someone to use a buzzword, we end up like the world around us. We become more concerned with people agreeing with us than hearing what they have to say. Just my experience.
Wright's teachings, while popular, can be dangerous as they undermine core Christian doctrines like justification and the reality of hell, leading many believers away from the true Gospel.
Jesus's comment that body and soul are destroyed in Gehenna couldn't be more clearer that there is no eternal torture. Those who have heard the gospel and rejected it are destroyed - not tortured forever.
@@Wander4self You're wanting proof for a God and the Lake of Fire for the unsaved who don't place their faith in Christ? You'll find out in less than the next 100 years, within that timeframe the evidence will be overwhelming.
@ I’m So sorry you have been convinced without evidence to believe such nonsense. Religion has removed your critical thinking skills, and your humanity.
Add the unforgiving servant story to the one of the rich man pleading for a sponge to soothe his own tongue (Luke 16) sheds light on being judged as we judge (Matt. 7:2). After all, how we judge others explains how we already judge ourselves. An eternity won't provide enough time to flee self-condemnation.
@@williamoarlock8634 He did. The judgmentalism is necessary. (It at least gets us in out of the rain.) But it also gets out of hand. This is what the Gospel (the whole Bible for that matter) addresses. So to the self-condemning God says (at the start), "Your sins are forgiven."
Plato - Dante - forget Helll, as depicted in Scripture, is a place of torture to be avoided. Heaven is a place to gain- through repentance and trusting in the death of Christ for our sins. The Bible talks more of hell than Heaven. N.T.Wright - read your Bible. You won't have to read far before you find hell is a place reserved for those who reject God's Son and His provision of salvation. Nothing helpful in his talk (couldn't listen further than 10 minutes - waste of good time.)
The more I listen to NT wright the more that I believe that he should be a Roman Catholic in his doctrines, most of that was almost in agreement with the Roman Catholic teaching of purgatory and universalism that God will accept all people eventually no matter what religion for God they worshiped in this life after they die... It's quite sad 😢
The idea of Hell as something other than a place of suffering and pain may not sit well with many modern Christians, who often find satisfaction in the imagery of non-Christians receiving the punishment they deserve. I believe William Lane Craig calls it "the demands of divine justice".
You're right. It's very seductive to the dysfunctional ego which loves to be "right". Eternal hell is the ultimate satisfaction for the believer; the eternal " I was right, you were wrong" ego trip. It is devoid of love, although it cannot see it.
I really enjoyed watching this video, I believe NT Wright did a very good job discussing what the BIBLE taught, not what people teach or what modern Christianity teaches. What I found particularly intriguing was when he discussed the Greek Orthodox man who was confused at the idea of heaven and hell. The man and people like him know a later form of the language used and are able to better understand the original texts of the Bible without having to translate it, so it’s meaning is more understandable to him and people who know the language without the confusion of translation. So he knew that the Bible doesn’t talk about heaven or hell the way people think about it today. Also the discussion of the different views of what happens “after” was interesting and had me thinking about what exactly I believe. There were so many cool things said that definitely has given me some good food thought. Thank you so much for posting this video!!
I do believe that NT wright is absolutely wrong about hell and not for sure what he stands for or confirms when it comes to specific doctrines of the Christian faith because it's almost like he's afraid to offend the world and the ungodly. It kind of reminds me of the Pope the way that he speaks because it's hard to nail down exactly what he is confirming
@@abrahamnorwood5361 Dismiss 'new age teachings' at your own risk. All teachings were, at the time, 'new age teachings'! Some are so much better than medieval thinking and ignorance!
Nop, he’s teaching about heaven and hell in their original context, but most Christian’s won’t accept this. If you don’t agree you should better provide an argument instead of complaining and attacking the person rather than the argument, which btw is a fallacy. (attack the person instead of the argument)
@@05TheMilo First, the Xtian version is not the only story of Hell, nor is it the original/earliest. And every Heaven/Hell story is metaphor! (look it up) And what, exactly, did I say that you disagree with? Feel free to stop attacking me, as you say, a fallacy, and provide a focused 'argument', if you can. What a great example of; "We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are!"
The same part of me that God awakened by His Love (I became a Christian as an adult) is the same part of me that longs, yearns for all people to know God and His resurrection power. I know that is from God. I think the answer of whether people are thrown into hell lies not in solely looking and analyzing biblical passages about hell. It does, but the full answer lies in analyzing the entire Bible, passages about God's heart, passages about hope and God's ability and plan.. We need to look at the entire Bible, the overarching message of the Bible. The Bible is about the revelation of Jesus to humans, and about God's plan for creation.
@@IamGrimalkin I know, my point was these were terrible arguments for their view and terrible objections to Universalism. Even though I personally am a Universalist, I know they can do better. ESPECIALLY NT Wright.
As a former Protestant who converted to Eastern Orthodoxy over 25 years ago, nothing was more refreshing than Orthodoxy's absolutely profound understanding of who Christ is and what he accomplished (Christology). One's view of eternity hangs on a rock solid Christology. There are several things that I think need mentioning, and I think I would start with the idea of the eternal soul. This idea, as far as I've found, has absolutely no basis in Scripture. Only God is eternal. Period.He can grant us eternal life (which always includes the body, as the Incarnation/resurrection makes clear) through the work of Christ, but it is not innate to humanity--the Tree of Life was taken from us. Christ became that very Tree of Life in a cosmic inversion of the dead tree of the crucifixion and His dead body into the life-giving tree and the fruit of his body as eternal life. This event also includes Christ's destroying of Death AND Hell through his resurrection. I often ask evangelical Christians where hell is if He did in fact destroy it? Did he destroy the power of death and hell or not? I believe many evangelical/Protestant believers have embraced a very distorted and harmful Christology. There is a great deal of fallout from this and much more that could be said about, but I think I'll stop there for now.
The destruction of sin and death is yet to come, as evidenced by the fact the Creation is still frustrated (Romans), our loved ones are still dying and Christ’s Kingdom is yet to come on earth as it is in Heaven.
Again, I would say that this is evidence of a less than cosmic Christology. Jesus speaks of his kingdom in the present tense because where Christ is there his kingdom must be fully present. He says, “the kingdom is upon you”, “the kingdom is among you”, “the kingdom is within you”-ALL present tense. On what basis can you say that Christ’s resurrection didn’t fully accomplish the destruction of death?
@@PatrickAdams-q7r well, quite obviously death still abounds all around us and also the Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthian church, in 1 Corinthians 15:24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
Like Gregory Nazianzus, I would like to keep that door open. Not on the basis of our goodness, but on the basis of God’s goodness and the radical depths of His love for us. Can a Hitler be saved, you ask? Well, if he can’t, then God’s love, grace, and goodness apparently have their limits. What is the depth and depravity of any human soul? Yours? Mine? Do you presume to sit in judgment over another? The teachers of the law certainly thought they did. They were God’s chosen people, yes? Yet who received Jesus’s harshest rebukes? It wasn’t the tax collectors and “sinners”.
This was a mixture of truth and lies. But it is sadly obvious that he deviates from classical Christian beliefs when it comes to hell. And he often mentions Plato, and that is often a warning bell that you are on the wrong track when it comes to hell. He also talks fast, so it's not easy for everyone to catch all his weirdness. Thumbs down.
My issue with NT Wright is that he never just gives us the saith the Lord and answers the question. He always goes off on some long intellectual or philosophical explanation and when he's done you still don't know what to believe. If the Bible is so complicated that it takes an intellectual genius to understand it and we can't just take it for what it says we're all in trouble.
I am sad how NT has dismissed the case for universal restoration. There are many variations. Including versions which are very biblically based and not 'easy' or cheap grace. Check out Robin Parry in lectures, interviews and on his channel.
@@Yonen1688 Robin Perrys version of Universal Salvation is basically that there is a Hell, but it's not eternal. And that in the very end of all things, all of creation (including those in hell) will be restored to God. His views are actually pretty interesting, even if you disagree with them.
Knowing NT wright He probably just gave a 30 minute long nuanced speech and danced around the whole answering of the actual question. Jesus makes it abundantly clear that yes God sends people to hell. I just saved you 32 minutes. 1. Matthew 10:28 "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." 2. Matthew 25:41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'” 3. Matthew 25:46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." 4. 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 "He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might." 5. Revelation 20:15 "Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire." 6. Mark 9:43 "If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out."
I ca not believe NT Wright says Hell is Plato. Satan with red skin and a 3 teeth fork is Greek mythology but not Hell. Hell is all over the New Testament. If we throw out Hell we might as well throw out hom0$€xuality, which these preachers nowadays so badly want to do.
Counter Point God will judge some by their own conscience (see "EXCUSING" end of v15) Rom 2:14 This is how it works out. Gentiles don’t possess the law as their birthright; but whenever they do what the law says, they are a law for themselves, despite not possessing the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their conscience bears witness as well, and their thoughts will run this way and that, sometimes accusing them and sometimes excusing them, 16 on the day when (according to the gospel I proclaim) God judges all human secrets through Messiah Jesus.
Let's make this easy ::: Ro 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 (NKJV) Ps 37:20 But the wicked shall perish; And the enemies of the LORD, Like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish. Into smoke they shall vanish away. Psalm 37:20 (NKJV)
Heaven and Hell is just a framework of the good and evil man has inside him - the internal struggle we all have between the animalistic side of us and the spiritual side of us. Both are evolutionary traits that have evolved for survival.
Some people find the end of final loss offensive? Yes, of course. How could one not find it offensive? On the basis of limited knowledge and limited awareness, not to mention finite sins, God allows one to ruin oneself forever? It is just not compatible with the notion that God is love or good or merciful, unless one uses these terms equivocally (as Calvin does). And why would anyone reject God forever? If God is the source and end of all goodness, truth and beauty, we could only reject God as a consequence of a deep seated ignorance. Why would anyone in their right mind knowingly choose misery over infinite happiness and goodness? One would have to be either ignorant or insane and therefore God would have to be less than perfect goodness to permit that. To know God is to want God. How could it be otherwise?
@@JoBo301 Yes, exactly. You could only choose "hell" under the aspect of the good, in which case you would misperceive it, and so you wouldn't be choosing it. Moreover, you cannot reject God if you fully understand what God means. If God = the true, the good and the beautiful, you cannot reject him as your will is always orientated to them, as even St Thomas Aquinas says. You cannot will evil qua evil.
At the end of the day, the Bible is a Holy book and if you have been “Born Again”, you can ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth to you as you read God’s word. Don’t rely on the different interpretations from numerous Theologians.
God is available to those that seek him, not everyone has sinned, and they have been denied eternal life by Adam, so they can claim their just rewards if they have faith in Christ.
@@keelyemerine-mix1051 Do you know the meaning of Romans 3:23? Let me enlighten you. "All" in the Greek is "pas" which is a total incremental in the context, the context is Romans 3:20, about the defining of a sinner. Romans 3:23 is better expressed as "For all that have sinned", as not everyone has sinned which Paul mentions twice in Romans. I have a Ytube video 'Original sin? No. #21 Myths in so-called Christianity', and that point is covered. Christianity only reflects the NT in that it is the false teaching that was warned of by Paul, the subject of my #31 video.
Jesus said to a group of Jewish religious leaders, "How will you escape the damnation of hell?" After the Great White Throne judgement, "Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire." In contrast, death and hell are not a place but more of a condition, knowing that God created the lake of fire and brimstone for the devil and his angels. It is surprising that a Roman Catholic would speak at length on this topic, without mentioning Purgatory. Jesus made a clear distinction between heaven and hell; especially, in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. The rich man was not in the lake of fire, since no brimstone was mentioned. Additionally, the use of philosophy and intellectualism in this video put the simplicity of the Gospel practically in a state of limbo.
Biblically there is no good people ever. It is only the mercy of GOD through Jesus Christ that gets people to heaven. That also only for those who cast themselves on the mercy of GOD.
Best study on topic ::: The Fire that Consumes by Edward Fudge --- Fudge's in-depth study proved the idea's of eternal suffering is PAGANISM brought in by early Greek believers who were raised on greek philosophy - specifically Plato who argued man had an immortal soul --- WHICH IS NOT BIBLICAL. If man had an immortal soul - then God is not the Creator!
It’s interesting that right leaves out the parable that Jesus told about the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man himself says that he is in torment because of these flames And Abraham says that there is a great barrier set up for neither from any side can go to the other. Luke 16: 19-31. book of Revelation also speaks of the white throne judgment of those whose names were not found in the lamps book of life. They were cast in the lake of fire with the beast and the false prophet. Rev. 20:12-15
NT says the meanings of words are slippery. But not as slippery as theology which he just makes up to sit his culture and time. There is no word of god. Every generation makes up it's own meaning. Nothing could be more obvious.
If God wants all to be saved and He says He can give humans a new heart to believe and obey and know Him, and God can do anything, why would we think God cannot do what He wants, which is get all the lost sheep safely home, leaving the 99 to seek the one “until He finds them”? The Bible says God will not keep His anger forever, and all flesh will sing praise to God, Psalm 66:4. Every tongue will willingly profess Jesus as Lord, according to the Bible.
I don't follow the conclusion of the last poster, NTWs ability to waffle around any subject drives me mad. I think it's because he wants to keep in with as many as possible. So don't say anything definite in simple language. I've still no idea what he believes. But I suspect he really believes in eternal conscious punishment, but like CSL thinks hells not too bad a place. I'm a Universalist, and I admit the difficulties but NTWs casual dismissal is a pity.
Did God decide to create humans (knitting them together in their mothers womb)knowing that some of them wouldn't believe that a man rose from the dead thousands of years before they were born. He could have just made the ones that would believe.
I love our Bible, but it seems wrong to limit God’s actions to what we read in the Bible. My view of our Scriptures is not so rigid as to think this is the only source for knowing The Holy One.
The truths most plainly revealed in the Bible have been involved in doubt and darkness by learned men,with pretence of great wisdom teach that scriptures have a mystical,a secret,spiritual meaning not apparent in the language employed in the Bible. 🇰🇪
The Christian creator-god is deeply evil. It created the human soul, a set of rules applying to human thoughts and behaviors, and sends some of them to an eternity of torture for having used their free will. And who created free will and installed it into humans? The creator god. And did this creator god know ahead of time that some of these souls would be tortured for all eternity? Yes. And while alive, does this god demands his followers be grateful to it and love it unconditionally? Yes, again. Is there another top-pantheon god in any other religion who is even remotely close to the Yahweh’s odium? No. Here’s the good news. Yahweh, and all the other gods, do not exist. We imagined them into existence, and we can think them away.
Why do intellectuals refuse to just say “yes, hell is real. The Bible clearly teaches hell is real.” None of this “final loss” nonsense. Hell is real. Jesus believes in it and taught it.
I find some of this problematic. NT Wright does not seem to be able to give a clear response to what people are clearly after in their questions. When pointing out in this context how Paul himself said that he was afraid to be "discarded", what hope is there for us normal Christians? How do we know that we're on the right track when it ultimately seems to be about our "imaging of God", i.e. our works? When of course Paul/the Reformation point out that it's faith alone? How about our eternal security in Christ, that nothing can take us out of His hand?
Is there a place called Heaven? Yes. Is there a place called Hell? Yes. Where do saved people go? Heaven. And unsaved people? Hell. Simple answers from the word of God.
@@Yahshuaismyeverything My comment was about hell ,not heaven . Ouranos in Greek and Shamayim in Hebrew is translated as heaven. There's no hell in the original scriptural languages.
Jesus presents a sharp, vivid choice of Heaven or Hell, not between Earth and Heaven. It isn't vague and it isn't complicated, and evangelism should have an urgency derived from this. We can have discussions about exactly what we mean by the terms Heaven and Hell, but these are rightly very secondary. There's a simple duality about the essential nature of post-death destiny which is surely the important thing and most believers have this right thankfully. We use Heaven as a term for a perfected destiny and that works fine for most purposes including evangelism; similarly Hell for a corrupted, denigrated, decaying destiny. God used Greek thinking as the basis of the New Testament. CS Lewis has interesting ideas but they are a good step away from Scripture.
@@amoy3508 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: - Eph 2:8 KJV Not of works, lest any man should boast. - Eph 2:9 KJV
Hello, Mr Tom is Anglican as per the description. So Hell & Heaven exist for Anglicans. How about the Purgatory? And its multilevels . A purgatory is where a soul goes to reclean itself through fire, and only God decides when it is time to lift thst soul to heaven. Take a man who had several affairs for example, and dies without confessing etc ;/
Yes, we used to tell the children scary tales about merciless Judgment and tortuous Punishment. We never expected the kids to get older and older and still believe that crap! (and still cannot behave! ;) Is there anything, in all the Hell mythologies and metaphors, from any scriptures anywhere/anywhen, that do not exist somewhere on Earth at this moment? Hell/Heaven is not 'where' you are, Hell/Heaven is 'who' you are! If you are not in Heaven Here! Now!, you are in Hell! If you are mortal, you are in Hell!
JESUS Himself stated, “do not be afraid of those who can kill the body ; but Fear the One, Who can destroy BOTH BODY & SOUL in HELL!”
Hell is real!
"Destroy" does not mean eternal torture. When a car is destroyed in a junkyard it is not eternally crushed over and over again😂.
Gehenna: the valley of Hinnom, a place of refuse/criminal body disposal.
@@budekins542 Daniel 12:2
Mark 9:48
@@stephenbailey9969 an archetype for the lake of fire
Why can't the questions be answered directly? The answers sound political. I'm left confused.
How often does Jesus answer questions directly? Didn't the disciples ask him to speak plainly?
I have been studying NT wright for a little bit now and it's almost like that he is afraid to offend the world and ungodly and is very careful not to make a firm stand on any doctrines proclaimed as an absolute truth ,which to me I read it offends Jesus.😢
I agree 100%. A lot of the time with NT Wright I feel like he's sort of afraid to say what he actually believes. It's very strange and disconcerting.
Who decides who is good or bad?
In a family, one of the sons behaves like he is a curse to the family doing all sorts of horrible things any parent would hate to keep up with. Not a day goes without a quarrel between the son and the father. But the father shows extreme patience and tries to be as helpful and friendly with the boy while shouting and beating him then and there.
This goes on for several years and the boy never seems to improve. Rather his character worsens. He just comes and goes like a foreigner in the family. One day when things got seriously nasty, the boy tells the father that its not him who is the father but the neighbour. You think the father will let the guy enter his home after that?
So Allah SWT is the ONLY ONE CREATOR WHO IS WORTHY OF WORSHIP. HE HAS NO EQUALS NEITHER PARTNERS. HE CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN. HE IS THE ONE WHO FEEDS YOU AND WHO NOURISHES YOU. HE forgives every sin other than SHIRK which is attributing equals or partners to HIM.
"Whoever commits evil or
wrongs themselves then seeks
Allah's forgiveness will certainly
find Allah All-Forgiving, Most
Merciful."
"Whoever seeks a way other
than Islam, ' it will never be
accepted from them, and in the
Hereafter they will be among
the losers."
The fundamental pillar of Islam is obedience and surrender to the Almighty Allah SWT alone. Now you may have a clear idea about who is good or who is bad.
Me too! No direct answers here.... won't help my non-Christian friends....
I really appreciate NT's comments on the idea of heaven as our destination after death. This idea is simply not biblical, but I hear Christians say it constantly (I usually bite my tongue). Indeed, our destination is the kingdom of God as the new and reunited heaven and earth.. God himself comes to dwell forever with his people in this kingdom--the earth is where we were created to live forever--this is what was lost in the fall. Christ, the God-man, reunites these two realities.
If i ever convert, this is what id believe.
@@PatrickAdams-q7r Amen
We must be born again to see heaven. Seek Jesus and ask for his salvation x
Yes, but believers who die are with the Lord… in heaven….not the ultimate eschatological state of things, but nonetheless WHERE YOU WANT TO BE when you die. The celestial city coming down to earth is at the END. I don’t claim to know all about the “timing” of these things….the resurrection,people having glorified bodies, etc. It seems NT Wright is too educated for his own good. More of a philosopher than anything. Thinking about hell developed in reformation times?! Jesus described it quite well….it didn’t need development.
Rev. Chaps 21-22 pr loves, Christians will live forever with God in a Spiritual existence.
I disagree with most Intellectuals, as most view things thru philosophy, more than literal.
Some people here in the comment need to investigate their heart and ask themselves: why do I want people to go to hell?
What made you think that's the matter behind their comments? "Wanting" it?
@@danielnatzke6733 those who feel spoken to know. Thats for who it is
I agree with you. The people we hate, often we create a "god" who hates the same pple we do..... perhaps often unknowingly.
I don't want anyone to go to hell. That's why I point people to Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross. He paid our sin debt in FULL and came back from the dead. Anyone who simply believes in Jesus Christ as Savior has (present tense) everlasting life (John 3:16). The whole reason Jesus shed His blood on the cross was to pay our sin debt so that we don't have to go to hell. Those who reject Christ as Savior will suffer eternal conscious torment in a literal fire-burning hell (Rev. 20:15). This is true regardless of whether or not they believe in the reality of hell.
@@DougandMax no they wont. Rather than seeing the "lake of fire" as a place of unending torment, its the final and complete destruction of those who reject Christ.
The term "eternal punishment" in this context refers to the permanence of the punishment, not the duration of conscious suffering. In other words, the punishment is eternal because it results in complete extinction-those who reject Christ cease to exist, rather than being tormented forever. The Bible often uses fire as a symbol of destruction, such as in Malachi 4:1, where the wicked are compared to stubble burned up, leaving "neither root nor branch." This suggests total annihilation rather than ongoing agony.
The bible constantly uses hyperbole also. Iyts good to understand the way people wrtote back then. For example, in Joshua 10:40, it says Joshua "left no survivors" in his conquests, and yet we find in later chapters that there were still people living in those areas (Joshua 11:22). This use of hyperbole is common in ancient Near Eastern writings and was understood as a way to express the totality of victory or destruction, not always a literal, exhaustive extermination.
this view aligns better with the character of a just and merciful God. Eternal conscious torment for finite sins seems inconsistent with God's nature, whereas annihilation still upholds His justice by removing evil completely without eternal suffering.
In Revelation we are taught that the beast and the Antichrist will be thrown into the lake of fire and suffer eternally and then those whose names are not written in the book will be thrown in and this will be the second death. Therefore they will be annihilated.
The New Heaven and New Earth are ONE place.
Lots of Bible verses describe what The Newly made Earth-merged with Heaven will be like.
“Death, the final Enemy, is Swallowed up in Victory”.
Heaven isn’t a place.
@@GodDutyHonorCountry Amen
As a child of the 60s .in evangelism we were shown 2 pictures of someone on there death bed,One was surrounded by Angels the other by devils complete with pitchforks,red suits ,etc.,
Instead of the lengthy theological talk we have here, for me it was simply what Jesus said very clearly about Heaven and Hell in Matthew 25 that led me to reject Him - dividing mankind very clearly into sheep and goats, with endless fire for the goats. I thought to take the problem to a clergyman, and to prepare I wanted to find all the places where Jesus spoke in this way. I sat down with Luke. As I read the Holy Spirit came to me through every word, and the Love of Christ enfolded me. No answer to me about Hell, just the overwhelming presence of the Saviour. I wish big name theologians could convey to us something of this - even though the Hell question is left unanswered, Christ will always triumph for us even in our angry opposition to Him.
@@WPFinlay Jesus speaking about heaven and hell in the bible is not evidence....
@Starchaser63 the problem is our English translations have taken 4 different words that have different meanings- sheol, hades, gehenna, and tartarus and translated them all into the word hell. So, be careful when you assume Jesus is speaking about hell. Sometimes Jesus is speaking to the Jews about the upcoming destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and the language he uses could sound like he us speaking of the end of the world.
@@Starchaser63 What kind of definition for evidence are you going by to make that assumption?
@@zacdredge3859 your a good example, because if you had sufficient evidence you would have included it in your response.. also the real deal is Jesus actually showing up now and again...
@@Starchaser63 So to be clear your answer is Jesus 'showing up and now and again', are you claiming these visitations as the evidence in question? Otherwise I didn't think you addressed my question at all.
As an EO believer (who is a big fan of Wright), I have to share that 1. how we do eschatology is, in fact, the Lewis approach: hell is a chosen state; and 2. the angst over unbelieving loved ones is mitigated, in part, by the apostolic practice of praying for them.
???????
What is his answer as it was very waffling and maybe I missed it.
lol, when listening to NT Wright I usually end up knowing less about the topic than when he started.
His answer is that Heaven is actually going to be a summation of Earth and Heaven in the new creation, that there is a holding place after death called paradise, and that he believes in some sort of final hell - but he can’t decide between some measure of annhilationism (the imaged ones rejecting their image of God) and eternal conscious torment, but he seems to lean fairly more toward annhilationism, given his reference of Lewis’ talking beasts.
@@chronicmango thanks so much I was worried someone would reply negatively for asking. I appreciate the time and clarity.
I greatly appreciate N.T. Wright's brilliant mind, his eloquence, and his depth of scriptural insight. He’s undoubtedly one of the great Christian thinkers of our time. However, I find his lack of clarity on key theological issues, particularly heaven and hell, frustrating. He seems to vacillate between different views, such as annihilationism and universalism, without offering a concrete position. He leaves the fate of those who reject God somewhat unclear, not fully addressing what Jesus said about eternal punishment.
While I agree with Wright’s emphasis on trusting God's justice-that He will judge fairly-I believe we must also acknowledge the clear biblical teaching on hell. Jesus’ use of the word "fire" signifies the intense pain and suffering of separation from God. While the concept of eternal, literal burning isn’t exactly scriptural, the image of fire reflects the seriousness of eternal loss. The consequences of rejecting God are real, and we can already see the devastation caused by separation from Him in this life.
I think you're saying that Wright doesn't fit into your predefined categories. Perhaps it's those categories that are wrong?
@@stevependray His categories according to the ideas inside his head, or, what the Scriptures, THE SCRIPTURES say ?
It's the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that opens our spiritual eyes to understand God's Word which means that wherever we find ourselves on society's intellectual gradings, we all have the same opportunity to hear from God. His Word tells us that if we seek Him with all of our hearts, we will find Him.
Jesus spoke about hell an awful lot and I prefer to rely on what Jesus said in the Gospels and Revelation. If hell wasn't such an absolutely devastating place why would Jesus have gone through all of that suffering to save us from it.
When Jesus speaks of perishing, I believe it is always ultimately in regards to eternal loss - loss of the soul - even if it is also in regards to events that occur on this side of eternity.
'What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?
Sometimes too much intellectual thought on these matters can lead us down false path, which i think, is also the reason why some of the traditional theological colleges are well suited to scholars who don't necessarily hold the Bible in highest esteem. I'm not referring to NT Wright here, but rather to so many of those within the Church of England hierarchy who seem to value their own opinions more than the Word of God. Sadly much of the Church of England seems to have already gone or be going apostate.
God hasn't made some things clear, on purpose, and so NTW doesn't presume to claim one view over another, at times. The Greek is clearer than English; Hebrew also at times, but usually a quagmire!
@@larryrue6673 So when the book of Revelation says "lake of burning sulfur", it means, what, Elvis is alive, or that cows are aliens from another planet? When the book of Revelation says that the Beast and the False Prophet are there, it means something else other than what it says?
NT, give a straight answer. You can then take your time to elaborate. :)
His idea of forgiveness reminded me of a the Beatles “the love you take is equal to the love you make”.
I like NT Wright but I find that he meanders all over the place and never answers the question.
So, why do you like him?
Spot on.
He does answer the questions actually, but maybe not how you would want it to be answered. he's making a point every time, listen more closely :) And don't forget, there are multiple questions fired at him at once :)
I think the problem is that you want him to choose sides in a debate. Wright says that the debate is framed wrongly (i.e. not consistent with the biblical worldview).
The master equivocator. He wants to be seen as an intellectual and a "theologian", sell lots of books to people that prefer religion academically. They don't want to talk about what the Bible is ACTUALLY about, which is how to handle sin. Nobody wants to talk about such things at society parties. Wright wants the respect of his secular peers.
John the Baptist said "Repent, the Kingdom of heaven is at hand"....not this word salad.
Pretty clear to me that the New testament teaches hell is the eternal abode of all those who reject Christ as Lord & Savior.
How can you ... When family inot in heaven? As my mom days: 'you'll be rejoicing at His Righteous Judgement, in perfect peace, perfect perfection, always forever rejoicing never in infinity ever being able to comprehend the beauty, Glory, 'Mind', depths of the depths of .. I have no words
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
The people who are going to hell always have the “strongest” arguments for why hell doesn’t exist
And I find the opposite is true: Those who are sure that they and their group are the only ones not going to hell just might be surprised where they end up. "EVERYONE shall be salted by fire"
@@fightintheshade That’s presuming a lot.
If I don’t believe in a literal hell, then I’m going there? The Bible doesn’t teach this. It does say; “Then said they to him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent.” John 6:28-29. Pretty simple message.
Then they end up there 😂
If you don’t come to the Lord and receive him as savior, you don’t go to heaven Jesus says he’s the only way❤
"That is not a Jewish or Christian idea, it's an ancient pagan idea" - the problem is in Luke 16 Jesus is recorded as saying - 'The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.'
So Jesus seemed to be painting the EXACT picture which Dr Wright rejects as Jewish or Christian. Even if it's viewed as some sort of parable, it seems very odd that Jesus presented such an image if Dr Wright is correct.
How does he reconcile this?
I completely agree. Luke 16 treats the fires of hell very literally, which seems to make sense within the Jewish context of belief in a bodily resurrection. Clearly the writer of the parable, or Jesus himself, if he truly told the parable, pictured hell in a very specific way, as a place of never ending bodily torment. It is not easily written off as a metaphor.
John 3:16
Sums up the two human destinies in one text!
Through faith in Christ we have the assurance of Eternal Life, we need not “PERISH” !
John 5:28-29
What the 2nd-death fire 🔥 destroys, is destroyed forever! Revelation 20.
Amen 👍
A question always in my mind not resolved yet: when Christians died and Christ’s return to renew a new heaven & earth, what will be new heaven & new earth likes? Does this mean world technology will cease ? No more cars, TVs, phones, etc..? Do we still have businesses? Do we still have our hobbies? Etc…?
I love the distinctions between Hebrew/Christian understandings of soul/life after death and those of Plato. It seems one's conception of soul is the crux of many of these conundrums. Why not ask Dr. Wright about his view of near death experience, which points toward the reality of what he called the Platonic view of the soul: eternal in its nature. Near death experience forms the basis of so many people's faith these days. But if the Hebrew/Christian soul is dependent on the body and needs the gift of eternality from God to continue after death, what of these reports, many of which express certainty of a loving God as the essence of everything?
Loved it!! Suggestion, doing a podcast about this other views that we often see as christianity, but in fact are platonism, gnosticism and so on... I would love to see some comparisons
The only way you can go to heaven through Jesus❤
Jesus said he was going to prepare a place for us in His Father’s house and would come receive us to Himself so we can be together where He is. And Jesus went to Heaven, so we are going to Heaven too.
In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus taught about the great tribulation and warned everyone to repent from sin, watch and pray always to be accounted worthy to _escape_ all the things that are coming. So when we go to Heaven, we will also escape the greatest tribulation in human history.
Amen
Amen
I was very disappointed with this. Much of it was vague and abstract, often using mythical language, when what I wanted was as clear as possible an explanation of what is really going to happen to us after death. "Heaven" and "Hell" are place names and to understand the issues I think it essential to start by providing an understanding of cosmic geography. The Bible has many terms that imply a cosmic geography. A good example is "Sheol" - Hebrew for the underworld - in the OT. This need not mean what Dante meant by "Hell", but is definitely "down", not up. Similarly Jesus told the repentant thief he would be in "Paradise" with Him after death. Elsewhere we learn Jesus went "down" not up before the resurrection, which at the very least implies Paradise then (maybe not now!) was "down". Paul tells us that he went up to the "third Heaven", which implies there are two other heavens. I could go on... With a bit of time and effort I think it is certainly possible to construct a coherent understanding of cosmic geography from the Bible, so why not do it? It may lack detail, but tells us enough to know quite a lot. Once we have that, then describe what goes on in each place. There is enough to give as a decent idea. Incidentally, I have found modern NDE research very helpful in putting flesh on the Biblical bones to coin a phrase. (See Dr J Steve Miller's excellent books on the subject.)
A second disappointment was NTW's implicit acceptance that there are many "good" people, who for understandable reasons don't come to faith before death and who seem ideal material for Heaven. The problem is that according to the Bible there is only one genuinely "good" person (Mar 10:18) and that is Jesus. Only those united with Him and who therefore share in His goodness get to Heaven. It's elementary stuff - the basic gospel - yet NTW didn't say it. Sadly I have lost a lot of respect for him.
but the hebrew Sheol isn't the same things as the more recent (from west)idea of hell. A righteous man(and the bible describes that there are righteous people: before Jesus; that doesn't mean they were totally without faults) was in Sheol and was contacted by Saul, and got angry he got disturbed in his resting in Sheol. Sheol wasn't a place of torment. Also the Bible is pretty clear about how God will judge all people by their actions later: so a "good person" will possibly meet Jesus after death and get to accept Him as lord, and be given the grace Jesus death has given us (in the face of God's judgment). I think you need to read more of N.T. Wright to understand more what he believed, and this video can not give the full picture.
@markquigley No. Look at the final Judgement - Matt. 25 and Rev. 20. This is the judgement of unbelievers in which some - the righteous - are saved. Not the glorious salvation of the faithful perhaps, but still a salvation.
If you’re watching this, you must check out John Crowder and his series on Hell for a comprehensive and vastly more hopeful take on these issues.
I'm thinking of the Jesus that said " no one that does not hate his mother and father and brother...is fit to be my disciple". St Symian predicts that Jesus will bring great strife. Jesus speaks dismissively about his mother and brothers when they ask to speak to him, and dismissive of his mother when the townswoman cries blessings on the womb that bore him. When he says in that in heaven there is no meeting a former spouse- he says we are like angels, we are all pure souls! Oh, where do we get the idea that heaven will be a family reunion!?
I'm sorry but I just find NT Wright confusing. I wish I didn't. But I always have so much trouble just trying to figure out what he's actually saying and what he actually means. At the end I just don't really understand what he believes.
I feel the same exact way. I tend to be Leary of these people.
He just doesn’t know what he is talking about. He is the New Age teacher. False teaching
@@abrahamnorwood5361 Well I wouldn’t go that far.
I'd love to go with all this philosophical, scholastic prettification and I really abhor the Dantic depiction of hell. But this gentleman here, is a "New Testament scholar", so what about the Lord's very own words about hell? Because...He was rather very clear about it!
This gentleman tried to water the reality of hell. I will follow the teaching Jesus Christ better.
Jesus spoke more of hell than heaven.also a parable doesn't mention names .he talks of the rich man in hades and Abraham and laxarus in paradise..where jesus took the thief. To paradise. Idk if hell is eternal..or finalized in the lake of fire second death..but i just dont want to find out.. accept jesus because there is no promise of tmr..if good could get u to heaven. We didn't need jesus did we..ty very much
And he didn’t say much about hell much either. What he did talk about-a lot-was that the Kingdom of God/Heaven was at hand and all the blessings that would flow from that would come too. So, no, hell wasn’t a big part of his preaching. And, by the way, he used the word “Gehenna,” not hell. Gehenna was a garage dump outside Jerusalem, which sometimes would burn and sometimes not. May he intended to mean “hell, but I wouldn’t so eagerly conclude that’s what he meant. Unless you’re eager about sending people to hell.
@@kentzepick4169I can't believe people think Jesus talked more about hell than his coming kingdom.
The idea that Jesus “spoke more of hell than heaven” simply isn’t true, and I’m sad the idea hasn’t gone away. By far, the most prominent topic of Christ’s preaching was the Kingdom of God, specifically how that Kingdom is breaking through into our world, which is why he told his disciples to pray that God’s will be done “in earth, as it is in heaven.” Additionally, Christ preached a call to repentance: he taught us a new way to live in THIS lifetime, as members of the family of God.
“From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” - Matthew 4:17
@@ShawHortonMusic Amen
Amen
The common objection to universal salvation goes like this: "Why assume God will save everyone? That’s just your own wishful thinking projected onto God. You're assuming that everyone has some goodness in them that God will eventually restore. But God is just-He knows who to save and who is beyond salvation."
But isn’t this critique also an assumption? On what basis do you believe that some people are beyond salvation? Did God ever say that? In fact, everything we know about God points to the opposite-that He can do whatever He wants, and He has clearly said that He desires to save everyone.
Everything in religion is an assumption. Everything.
You don't truly 'know' anything about God. Theists mistake religious beliefs for factual knowledge and then create dogma and traditions to support those beliefs until everything feels like its real. But there is absolutely no way show that. Then men spend lifetimes arguing obscure points based merely upon opinions debating opinions about beliefs.
Well put. Fellow Universal Restorationist here.
@@Outspoken.HumanistAll opinions on salvation are opinions. Unless we have an authority. Like God and his word the Bible
@@RKLCan But that depends entirely upon believing a number of assumptions. That God exists precisely as you imagine and that the bible is God's word. And the only assurance we have of that is, the bible.
We have absolutely no way to show either of these assumptions is true and i'm sure you don't question them.
But why not?
I would also, respectfully, suggest you read the bible a little more critically and you will see that there is no single agreed upon route to salvation, or even a single description or understanding of God.
@@RKLCan "Like God and his word the Bible" which is another assumptive leap and not at all conclusive or provable.
Before watching the video, here's my answer to the question: There are no good people. We are all bad people and we are sending ourselves to hell. God mercifully chooses to save some and take them to heaven instead. (Very Calvinistic, I know.)
The Father dosen't send anyone to hell
We send ourselves through our free will choice to turn against Him
Despite claiming to reject modern reinterpretation, he’s still doing it. In Jesus’s time, it would have been well-understood that he was talking about a new Kingdom of Israel, which only the righteous would be permitted to enter. When Jesus mentions Gehenna, he’s referring to a physical place (look it up). It’s also clear that Jesus himself preached repentance, and a return to righteousness, while Paul introduced salvation through faith.
At 17:24, notice how he reframed the second question as though anyone who can’t accept the Gospel has been hurt in some way, and that it’s at least somewhat their fault for refusing to see the good side of Christianity. That’s not the problem, it’s the evidence. This is directly related to the Problem of Divine Hiddenness and the existence of non-resistant nonbelievers.
His statement at 19:39 was telling. This is not an answer, it’s an excuse. Without wiping people’s memories, it’s impossible for people to be fully satisfied with Heaven. Here’s a thought: Why not bypass suffering and skip straight to the best possible world? If it’s better than Earth there’s no point in creating Earth at all.
You are right
That’s actually a common misconception. The archeological and textual data do not reference Gehenna as a physical place of punishment until about 1,200 years after the composition of the New Testament. Before the New Testament, within the New Testament, and after the New Testament, Gehenna was understood as a postmortem place of divine punishment.
I don’t like to make claims by my own authority, so I’ll refer you to Dan McClellan’s video “Was Gehenna a Place for the Punishment of the Living?” which he made two years ago.
Edit: I should say that Gehenna was not a burning trash heap in the 1st century.
@@user-kv1po2dm5j Thank you for the correction. I’ll have to do some more research on that. There must be some reason why it was associated with Hell (or vice versa) but his video didn’t fully clarify that for me.
"why not bypass suffering and skip to the best possible world"... This is like spoiling our children with every possible luxury instead of letting them learn how to become responsible adults
God doesn't want eternal babies, he made us in his image
@@Yonen1688 I guess we should let the children play with knives, then.
It’s one thing to challenge people and quite another to inflict suffering. Those of us in countries with access to the internet sometimes forget that. In order for your theodicy to work, every bit of suffering would be there to teach us a lesson, and I don’t think that’s the case. After all, there are some people who suffer and never hear the Gospel, in which case they will end up suffering for all eternity in Hell.
I have a concept that I call "A Snowball's Chance in Texas." Of course, it's a riff on "You don't have a snowball's chance in hell." In the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, would it slightly alleviate the torture of the rich man if someone indeed were to persuade his brothers to repent?
Just an insight into Wright’s mind… Usually he doesn’t answer a question directly when the question is inherently flawed and bogged down by poor presuppositions. So he spends a good deal of time fixing the question to what should have been asked and then answering that.
This is why it is important to listen to someone and not just look for them to signal the “correct answer “. When we wait for someone to use a buzzword, we end up like the world around us. We become more concerned with people agreeing with us than hearing what they have to say.
Just my experience.
This man is a gift to the global church. ❤
Wright's teachings, while popular, can be dangerous as they undermine core Christian doctrines like justification and the reality of hell, leading many believers away from the true Gospel.
Jesus's comment that body and soul are destroyed in Gehenna couldn't be more clearer that there is no eternal torture. Those who have heard the gospel and rejected it are destroyed - not tortured forever.
Amen 👍
There are no good people, just the saved and the unsaved!
what are you saved from? critical thinking skills?
@@Wander4self Is the Bible God's Word, or no?
@ first you must prove the god exists before you can tell us you have captured its words in a book.
@@Wander4self You're wanting proof for a God and the Lake of Fire for the unsaved who don't place their faith in Christ? You'll find out in less than the next 100 years, within that timeframe the evidence will be overwhelming.
@
I’m So sorry you have been convinced without evidence to believe such nonsense. Religion has removed your critical thinking skills, and your humanity.
Remember everyone that this man is an expert on Heaven and Hell, the way JRR Tolkien is an expert on Hobbits
Add the unforgiving servant story to the one of the rich man pleading for a sponge to soothe his own tongue (Luke 16) sheds light on being judged as we judge (Matt. 7:2). After all, how we judge others explains how we already judge ourselves. An eternity won't provide enough time to flee self-condemnation.
This god should have thought of this before making us in its judgemental 'image'.
@@williamoarlock8634 He did.
The judgmentalism is necessary. (It at least gets us in out of the rain.) But it also gets out of hand. This is what the Gospel (the whole Bible for that matter) addresses. So to the self-condemning God says (at the start), "Your sins are forgiven."
@@tedclemens4093 There is no 'eternity'. Your 'gospel' and bible address nothing - only indoctrinate.
@@tedclemens4093 It's still a stupid franchise fantasy.
Plato - Dante - forget Helll, as depicted in Scripture, is a place of torture to be avoided. Heaven is a place to gain- through repentance and trusting in the death of Christ for our sins.
The Bible talks more of hell than Heaven.
N.T.Wright - read your Bible. You won't have to read far before you find hell is a place reserved for those who reject God's Son and His provision of salvation.
Nothing helpful in his talk (couldn't listen further than 10 minutes - waste of good time.)
The more I listen to NT wright the more that I believe that he should be a Roman Catholic in his doctrines, most of that was almost in agreement with the Roman Catholic teaching of purgatory and universalism that God will accept all people eventually no matter what religion for God they worshiped in this life after they die... It's quite sad 😢
Why do you think it's sad?
This is why I cannot stand NT Wright. He doesn’t answer questions. He tap dances around them to avoid being unpopular. He is a coward.
The idea of Hell as something other than a place of suffering and pain may not sit well with many modern Christians, who often find satisfaction in the imagery of non-Christians receiving the punishment they deserve. I believe William Lane Craig calls it "the demands of divine justice".
You're right. It's very seductive to the dysfunctional ego which loves to be "right". Eternal hell is the ultimate satisfaction for the believer; the eternal " I was right, you were wrong" ego trip. It is devoid of love, although it cannot see it.
@@DIBBY40 But 'dysfunctional ego' is the 'image of god'.
I really enjoyed watching this video, I believe NT Wright did a very good job discussing what the BIBLE taught, not what people teach or what modern Christianity teaches. What I found particularly intriguing was when he discussed the Greek Orthodox man who was confused at the idea of heaven and hell. The man and people like him know a later form of the language used and are able to better understand the original texts of the Bible without having to translate it, so it’s meaning is more understandable to him and people who know the language without the confusion of translation. So he knew that the Bible doesn’t talk about heaven or hell the way people think about it today. Also the discussion of the different views of what happens “after” was interesting and had me thinking about what exactly I believe. There were so many cool things said that definitely has given me some good food thought. Thank you so much for posting this video!!
Must be a confused person to believe in NT Wright
I do believe that NT wright is absolutely wrong about hell and not for sure what he stands for or confirms when it comes to specific doctrines of the Christian faith because it's almost like he's afraid to offend the world and the ungodly. It kind of reminds me of the Pope the way that he speaks because it's hard to nail down exactly what he is confirming
This gentleman sound like the new age teachings.
@@abrahamnorwood5361 Dismiss 'new age teachings' at your own risk. All teachings were, at the time, 'new age teachings'! Some are so much better than medieval thinking and ignorance!
Nop, he’s teaching about heaven and hell in their original context, but most Christian’s won’t accept this. If you don’t agree you should better provide an argument instead of complaining and attacking the person rather than the argument, which btw is a fallacy. (attack the person instead of the argument)
@@05TheMilo First, the Xtian version is not the only story of Hell, nor is it the original/earliest.
And every Heaven/Hell story is metaphor! (look it up)
And what, exactly, did I say that you disagree with?
Feel free to stop attacking me, as you say, a fallacy, and provide a focused 'argument', if you can.
What a great example of;
"We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are!"
@@nameless-yd6ko Jesus was a new ager, or, is He GOD who became Man?
If annihilationism is true, then, no one will "find" anything thing, or "know" anything after death.
The same part of me that God awakened by His Love (I became a Christian as an adult) is the same part of me that longs, yearns for all people to know God and His resurrection power. I know that is from God. I think the answer of whether people are thrown into hell lies not in solely looking and analyzing biblical passages about hell. It does, but the full answer lies in analyzing the entire Bible, passages about God's heart, passages about hope and God's ability and plan.. We need to look at the entire Bible, the overarching message of the Bible.
The Bible is about the revelation of Jesus to humans, and about God's plan for creation.
What about Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16?
Yea I think you guys just made quite a few Universalists. Would be fruitful to dive deeper and really put your objections under a microscope.
Justin is a (true) annihilationist, he just doesn't project his views on his guests.
@@IamGrimalkin I know, my point was these were terrible arguments for their view and terrible objections to Universalism. Even though I personally am a Universalist, I know they can do better. ESPECIALLY NT Wright.
As a former Protestant who converted to Eastern Orthodoxy over 25 years ago, nothing was more refreshing than Orthodoxy's absolutely profound understanding of who Christ is and what he accomplished (Christology). One's view of eternity hangs on a rock solid Christology. There are several things that I think need mentioning, and I think I would start with the idea of the eternal soul. This idea, as far as I've found, has absolutely no basis in Scripture. Only God is eternal. Period.He can grant us eternal life (which always includes the body, as the Incarnation/resurrection makes clear) through the work of Christ, but it is not innate to humanity--the Tree of Life was taken from us. Christ became that very Tree of Life in a cosmic inversion of the dead tree of the crucifixion and His dead body into the life-giving tree and the fruit of his body as eternal life. This event also includes Christ's destroying of Death AND Hell through his resurrection. I often ask evangelical Christians where hell is if He did in fact destroy it? Did he destroy the power of death and hell or not? I believe many evangelical/Protestant believers have embraced a very distorted and harmful Christology. There is a great deal of fallout from this and much more that could be said about, but I think I'll stop there for now.
The destruction of sin and death is yet to come, as evidenced by the fact the Creation is still frustrated (Romans), our loved ones are still dying and Christ’s Kingdom is yet to come on earth as it is in Heaven.
Again, I would say that this is evidence of a less than cosmic Christology. Jesus speaks of his kingdom in the present tense because where Christ is there his kingdom must be fully present. He says, “the kingdom is upon you”, “the kingdom is among you”, “the kingdom is within you”-ALL present tense. On what basis can you say that Christ’s resurrection didn’t fully accomplish the destruction of death?
So Patrick, do you believe in the end all will be saved?
@@PatrickAdams-q7r well, quite obviously death still abounds all around us and also the Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthian church, in 1 Corinthians 15:24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
Like Gregory Nazianzus, I would like to keep that door open. Not on the basis of our goodness, but on the basis of God’s goodness and the radical depths of His love for us. Can a Hitler be saved, you ask? Well, if he can’t, then God’s love, grace, and goodness apparently have their limits. What is the depth and depravity of any human soul? Yours? Mine? Do you presume to sit in judgment over another? The teachers of the law certainly thought they did. They were God’s chosen people, yes? Yet who received Jesus’s harshest rebukes? It wasn’t the tax collectors and “sinners”.
This was a mixture of truth and lies. But it is sadly obvious that he deviates from classical Christian beliefs when it comes to hell. And he often mentions Plato, and that is often a warning bell that you are on the wrong track when it comes to hell. He also talks fast, so it's not easy for everyone to catch all his weirdness. Thumbs down.
Wright would make a great politician. Don't get me wrong; I like the guy a lot. But I've never heard anyone talk so much and not answer the questions.
My issue with NT Wright is that he never just gives us the saith the Lord and answers the question. He always goes off on some long intellectual or philosophical explanation and when he's done you still don't know what to believe. If the Bible is so complicated that it takes an intellectual genius to understand it and we can't just take it for what it says we're all in trouble.
I am sad how NT has dismissed the case for universal restoration. There are many variations. Including versions which are very biblically based and not 'easy' or cheap grace. Check out Robin Parry in lectures, interviews and on his channel.
Brad Jersak’s book “Her Gates are Never Closed” might be an interesting read.
It's really the only position that makes sense given a good God.
can you at least give a teaser explanation so I don't potentially waste my time
@@Yonen1688 Robin Perrys version of Universal Salvation is basically that there is a Hell, but it's not eternal. And that in the very end of all things, all of creation (including those in hell) will be restored to God. His views are actually pretty interesting, even if you disagree with them.
@@DIBBY40 A good God must also be just.
Prof Wright states that he believes what Lewis believes, leaning towards annihilationism.
Have we received an official word on this podcast? Will it just be re-released content from here on out?
Knowing NT wright He probably just gave a 30 minute long nuanced speech and danced around the whole answering of the actual question. Jesus makes it abundantly clear that yes God sends people to hell. I just saved you 32 minutes.
1. Matthew 10:28
"Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell."
2. Matthew 25:41
"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'”
3. Matthew 25:46
"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
4. 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9
"He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might."
5. Revelation 20:15
"Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire."
6. Mark 9:43
"If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out."
Well done.
I ca not believe NT Wright says Hell is Plato. Satan with red skin and a 3 teeth fork is Greek mythology but not Hell. Hell is all over the New Testament. If we throw out Hell we might as well throw out hom0$€xuality, which these preachers nowadays so badly want to do.
🤦🏼♂️
AMEN!
Counter Point
God will judge some by their own conscience (see "EXCUSING" end of v15)
Rom 2:14 This is how it works out. Gentiles don’t possess the law as their birthright; but whenever they do what the law says, they are a law for themselves, despite not possessing the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their conscience bears witness as well, and their thoughts will run this way and that, sometimes accusing them and sometimes excusing them, 16 on the day when (according to the gospel I proclaim) God judges all human secrets through Messiah Jesus.
goes above my head. Too comlpicated for me to understand ....
This is like asking what house your going to be in when you go to Hogwarts.
‘So much of the Biblical language is a web of inconsistent metaphors.’
Let's make this easy ::: Ro 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 (NKJV) Ps 37:20 But the wicked shall perish; And the enemies of the LORD, Like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish. Into smoke they shall vanish away. Psalm 37:20 (NKJV)
Heaven and Hell is just a framework of the good and evil man has inside him - the internal struggle we all have between the animalistic side of us and the spiritual side of us. Both are evolutionary traits that have evolved for survival.
Some people find the end of final loss offensive? Yes, of course. How could one not find it offensive? On the basis of limited knowledge and limited awareness, not to mention finite sins, God allows one to ruin oneself forever? It is just not compatible with the notion that God is love or good or merciful, unless one uses these terms equivocally (as Calvin does). And why would anyone reject God forever? If God is the source and end of all goodness, truth and beauty, we could only reject God as a consequence of a deep seated ignorance. Why would anyone in their right mind knowingly choose misery over infinite happiness and goodness? One would have to be either ignorant or insane and therefore God would have to be less than perfect goodness to permit that. To know God is to want God. How could it be otherwise?
If God is as good as the Christians say he is, and hell is as bad as the Christians say it is, who in their right minds would knowingly chose hell??
@@JoBo301 Yes, exactly. You could only choose "hell" under the aspect of the good, in which case you would misperceive it, and so you wouldn't be choosing it. Moreover, you cannot reject God if you fully understand what God means. If God = the true, the good and the beautiful, you cannot reject him as your will is always orientated to them, as even St Thomas Aquinas says. You cannot will evil qua evil.
At the end of the day, the Bible is a Holy book and if you have been “Born Again”, you can ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth to you as you read God’s word. Don’t rely on the different interpretations from numerous Theologians.
God is available to those that seek him, not everyone has sinned, and they have been denied eternal life by Adam, so they can claim their just rewards if they have faith in Christ.
Friend, all have sinned, all, and we all have fallen short of the glory of God
@@keelyemerine-mix1051 Do you know the meaning of Romans 3:23?
Let me enlighten you. "All" in the Greek is "pas" which is a total incremental in the context, the context is Romans 3:20, about the defining of a sinner.
Romans 3:23 is better expressed as "For all that have sinned", as not everyone has sinned which Paul mentions twice in Romans.
I have a Ytube video 'Original sin? No. #21 Myths in so-called Christianity', and that point is covered.
Christianity only reflects the NT in that it is the false teaching that was warned of by Paul, the subject of my #31 video.
No one is good; no, not one.
Jesus said to a group of Jewish religious leaders, "How will you escape the damnation of hell?"
After the Great White Throne judgement, "Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire."
In contrast, death and hell are not a place but more of a condition, knowing that God created the lake of fire and brimstone for the devil and his angels.
It is surprising that a Roman Catholic would speak at length on this topic, without mentioning Purgatory. Jesus made a clear distinction between heaven and hell; especially, in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. The rich man was not in the lake of fire, since no brimstone was mentioned.
Additionally, the use of philosophy and intellectualism in this video put the simplicity of the Gospel practically in a state of limbo.
I’m not sure how you can read the book of Matthew and not see a hell/ an eternal damnation.
Simple. God is the giver and sustainer of LIFE. If you decided you do not need/want a relationship with this God, you lose LIFE.
Biblically there is no good people ever. It is only the mercy of GOD through Jesus Christ that gets people to heaven. That also only for those who cast themselves on the mercy of GOD.
Best study on topic ::: The Fire that Consumes by Edward Fudge --- Fudge's in-depth study proved the idea's of eternal suffering is PAGANISM brought in by early Greek believers who were raised on greek philosophy - specifically Plato who argued man had an immortal soul --- WHICH IS NOT BIBLICAL. If man had an immortal soul - then God is not the Creator!
Let me tell you about death. Falling asleep in front of the tv without the waking up. That’s death for you in all its magnificent glory.
If God designed a creation which results in people going to hell then God sends people to hell. God is ultimately responsible for EVERYTHING
Non is good but God- God came to us as the son of man and died so that we may be reconciled onto HIM - Jesus Christ is the only way!
It’s interesting that right leaves out the parable that Jesus told about the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man himself says that he is in torment because of these flames And Abraham says that there is a great barrier set up for neither from any side can go to the other. Luke 16: 19-31. book of Revelation also speaks of the white throne judgment of those whose names were not found in the lamps book of life. They were cast in the lake of fire with the beast and the false prophet. Rev. 20:12-15
NT says the meanings of words are slippery. But not as slippery as theology which he just makes up to sit his culture and time. There is no word of god. Every generation makes up it's own meaning. Nothing could be more obvious.
If God wants all to be saved and He says He can give humans a new heart to believe and obey and know Him, and God can do anything, why would we think God cannot do what He wants, which is get all the lost sheep safely home, leaving the 99 to seek the one “until He finds them”? The Bible says God will not keep His anger forever, and all flesh will sing praise to God, Psalm 66:4. Every tongue will willingly profess Jesus as Lord, according to the Bible.
So, how many angels can fit on the head of a pin?
No, he doesn’t send good people to hell. Now the question is “who is good?” None are good. No one is good.
I don't follow the conclusion of the last poster, NTWs ability to waffle around any subject drives me mad. I think it's because he wants to keep in with as many as possible. So don't say anything definite in simple language. I've still no idea what he believes. But I suspect he really believes in eternal conscious punishment, but like CSL thinks hells not too bad a place. I'm a Universalist, and I admit the difficulties but NTWs casual dismissal is a pity.
Did God decide to create humans (knitting them together in their mothers womb)knowing that some of them wouldn't believe that a man rose from the dead thousands of years before they were born. He could have just made the ones that would believe.
There is no place as hell.....hell-fire annihilates the sinner and is punished for his sins in that temporary fire
THE HELL OR THE PARADISE BEGIN FROM THIS LIFE HERE IN THIS CORRUPTED WORLD.
I love our Bible, but it seems wrong to limit God’s actions to what we read in the Bible. My view of our Scriptures is not so rigid as to think this is the only source for knowing The Holy One.
The truths most plainly revealed in the Bible have been involved in doubt and darkness by learned men,with pretence of great wisdom teach that scriptures have a mystical,a secret,spiritual meaning not apparent in the language employed in the Bible.
🇰🇪
He is wrong
Tell us where he is wrong then
Check the original meaning of the word "hell".What was the word translated hell in the first place?
The Christian creator-god is deeply evil. It created the human soul, a set of rules applying to human thoughts and behaviors, and sends some of them to an eternity of torture for having used their free will. And who created free will and installed it into humans? The creator god. And did this creator god know ahead of time that some of these souls would be tortured for all eternity? Yes. And while alive, does this god demands his followers be grateful to it and love it unconditionally? Yes, again. Is there another top-pantheon god in any other religion who is even remotely close to the Yahweh’s odium? No.
Here’s the good news. Yahweh, and all the other gods, do not exist. We imagined them into existence, and we can think them away.
Keep fooling yourself
@@lesleyh4437 ... Can you actually address the theology I challenged, or are you content to cower behind threats of hell?
Why do intellectuals refuse to just say “yes, hell is real. The Bible clearly teaches hell is real.” None of this “final loss” nonsense. Hell is real. Jesus believes in it and taught it.
Because intellectuals used their intelligence.
The bible is never 'clear' on anything that is why you have all this 'interpretation'.
Hell? Jesus taught it and believed? Research Gehenna and its meaning! Not Hell (a pagan concept and actually a pagan word Hel)
@@benindahl9233Matt. 25:46 “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life”.
Don’t be so stupid. There is no heaven, no hell and no god. Show evidence of hell, show evidence of a god. Religion is absolutely made up nonsense 😅
I find some of this problematic. NT Wright does not seem to be able to give a clear response to what people are clearly after in their questions. When pointing out in this context how Paul himself said that he was afraid to be "discarded", what hope is there for us normal Christians? How do we know that we're on the right track when it ultimately seems to be about our "imaging of God", i.e. our works? When of course Paul/the Reformation point out that it's faith alone? How about our eternal security in Christ, that nothing can take us out of His hand?
Is there a place called Heaven? Yes. Is there a place called Hell? Yes. Where do saved people go? Heaven. And unsaved people? Hell. Simple answers from the word of God.
Except it's NOT in the original Hebrew and greek .
It's translations of the original text that has the word hell.
@@davidmansfield1796 Ah, the originals! And where would they be per chance?
@@barrysanaloginsights original as in original language.
@@davidmansfield1796 it's obv those that are svaed by Jesus go to heaven if u reject him he will reject u😂
@@Yahshuaismyeverything
My comment was about hell ,not heaven .
Ouranos in Greek and Shamayim in Hebrew is translated as heaven.
There's no hell in the original scriptural languages.
Jesus presents a sharp, vivid choice of Heaven or Hell, not between Earth and Heaven. It isn't vague and it isn't complicated, and evangelism should have an urgency derived from this. We can have discussions about exactly what we mean by the terms Heaven and Hell, but these are rightly very secondary. There's a simple duality about the essential nature of post-death destiny which is surely the important thing and most believers have this right thankfully. We use Heaven as a term for a perfected destiny and that works fine for most purposes including evangelism; similarly Hell for a corrupted, denigrated, decaying destiny. God used Greek thinking as the basis of the New Testament. CS Lewis has interesting ideas but they are a good step away from Scripture.
Life is my religion.
Catholicism is a works based false religion.. you are saved by grace thru faith.
Faith without works is dead from the book of James.
@@amoy3508 that verse has nothing to do with salvation
@@amoy3508 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: - Eph 2:8 KJV
Not of works, lest any man should boast. - Eph 2:9 KJV
@@georgekrats2573 You have to read the NT in its entirety. It all applies.
@@georgekrats2573 You still have to serve God by works. Build up your crown.
So the answer is, reject the Scriptures and use the ideas from your head instead?
I would love to see a debate between NT and John MacArthur.... John does not speak in word salads...
Hello, Mr Tom is Anglican as per the description. So Hell & Heaven exist for Anglicans. How about the Purgatory? And its multilevels . A purgatory is where a soul goes to reclean itself through fire, and only God decides when it is time to lift thst soul to heaven. Take a man who had several affairs for example, and dies without confessing etc ;/
Wright is getting worse and worse theologically. Hell is clearly taught by Jesus.
Yes, we used to tell the children scary tales about merciless Judgment and tortuous Punishment. We never expected the kids to get older and older and still believe that crap! (and still cannot behave! ;)
Is there anything, in all the Hell mythologies and metaphors, from any scriptures anywhere/anywhen, that do not exist somewhere on Earth at this moment?
Hell/Heaven is not 'where' you are, Hell/Heaven is 'who' you are!
If you are not in Heaven Here! Now!, you are in Hell!
If you are mortal, you are in Hell!