Podcasts about Gehenna

How can a loving God send people to hell? Explore the tension between divine love and the concept of hell to find clarity.This video addresses the difficult question of how a loving God relates to the reality of hell. It is designed for anyone wrestling with theological doubts or seeking a deeper understanding of divine judgment. We examine common perspectives on this topic to help you reconcile these seemingly contradictory ideas.By engaging with the theology of hell, you will gain a clearer framework for processing this challenging subject. Whether you are questioning your faith or simply curious about Christian teaching, this discussion provides a thoughtful way to approach the nature of God and hell.Subscribe for weekly theology breakdowns and comment below with your own questions on faith.We'll cover:• Why love and judgment are NOT opposites• What Gehenna actually means — and why Jesus used it 12 times• The C.S. Lewis framework from The Great Divorce that changes everything• What hell actually IS according to Jesus (it's not what hellfire preachers say)• How to hold this doctrine with urgency AND humility• What to do if this question is personal for you—because of someone you've lostThis isn't a comfortable episode. But it's an honest one. And by the end, you'll have a framework for hell and judgment that doesn't fit neatly into either the conservative or progressive box.------------------------------------------------------

Today’s Topics: 1) Gospel – Matthew 5:20-26 – Jesus said to His disciples:  “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven. “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.” Memorial of Saint Barnabas, Apostle Saint Barnabas, pray for us! Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2, 3) Terry speaks on the importance of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and how that adoration is good four our soul 4) Oscar Delgado joins Terry to discuss his new movie: Sacred Heart – His Reign Has No End

Original Post Date: June 13, 2024 === Gospel Matthew 5:20-26 Jesus said to his disciples: "I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven. "You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.” Reflection The Pharisees were noted for following the letter of the law, but their hearts were not where God wanted them to be. What this passage is pointing out, is that we are called to always look deeply into who we are in relationship to those around us. Do we judge them? Do we criticize them? Do we call them stupid or foolish? It may not seem like such an important thing, but when you look at it, what it reveals is that we do what we're told, but we aren't becoming what we're called to be. We are called together to come to an altar and to invite God to enter into us, and to be a source of love and forgiveness. Closing Prayer Father, reveal to us how we treat each other. Make us more sensitive to our comments and our criticisms, so we can be aware of how easy it is to fall into a trap of a kind of righteousness about people who aren't what they're supposed to be. Make us loving, forgiving human beings. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jase, Al, and Zach discuss how envy, entitlement, and political promises to punish success can quietly reshape a culture that already struggles with work, maturity, and personal responsibility. The guys dig into the subtle road from desire to destruction, warning that ruin is often sold as personal freedom long before anyone recognizes it as bondage. Zach gets hilariously roasted by a stranger who had no idea he was insulting “The Blind” to someone who helped make it. In this episode: James 3, verse 6; 2 Chronicles 28; 2 Chronicles 32; Jeremiah 7; Luke 23, verse 43; 2 Thessalonians 1, verses 8–10; 1 Corinthians 6, verses 19–20; Matthew 5, verses 27–30; 2 Corinthians 12, verses 1–4; John 17, verse 3; James 1, verses 2–18; 1 Corinthians 15, verses 20–26; Hebrews 12, verses 26–28; Job 23, verses 8–11; 1 Corinthians 15, verses 42–58; Acts 1, verses 9–11; 1 John 5, verse 21; 2 Thessalonians 3 “Unashamed” Episode 1352 is sponsored by: https://www.wildalaskan.com/UNASHAMED — Get $35 off your first box of wild-caught, sustainable seafood delivered right to your door. https://myphdweightloss.com — Find out how Al lost 80+ pounds. Visit the website or call 864-644-1900 and mention "AL" to get 2 weeks free in the program! https://fastgrowingtrees.com — Get 20% your first purchase when using the code UNASHAMED at checkout. https://unashamedgold.com — Get a free 2026 Gold & Silver Guide and a no obligation consultation!  http://unashamedforhillsdale.com/ — Sign up now for free, and join the Unashamed hosts every Friday for Unashamed Academy Powered by Hillsdale College Listen to Not Yet Now with Zach Dasher on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or anywhere you get podcasts. Check out At Home with Phil Robertson, nearly 800 episodes of Phil's unfiltered wisdom, humor, and biblical truth, available for free for the first time! Get it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/at-home-with-phil-robertson/id1835224621 Chapters 00:00 Zach Gets Roasted for “The Blind” 03:52 Yay Italia! 08:48 Gehenna, Justice & Hell 14:37 What's Wrong with Mansions on a Hilltop 21:20 Paradise, Heaven & Being with Jesus 26:16 Laws That Can't Be Broken 33:33 What are Firstfruits? 40:15 Job's Faith When God Feels Hidden 45:35 The Resurrected Body & Victory over Death 50:09 From Idols to Idle Faith — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Uncle Si enters his renaissance era with new teeth, new eyes, and a perfectly timed drop-in for a deep dive into the book of James. Jase connects James to the Sermon on the Mount as the guys explore why Jesus traced murder, adultery, and sin all the way back to anger, lust, desire, and the condition of the heart. Si calls James the “action book” and warns that the little things we excuse, from careless words to devaluing others, can grow into something far more serious than we realize. In this episode: Matthew 11, verses 16–19; James 1, verses 13–15; Matthew 5, verses 21–22; James 3, verses 5–6; James 3, verse 9; Genesis 2, verse 24 “Unashamed” Episode 1348 is sponsored by: https://myphdweightloss.com — Find out how Al lost 80+ pounds. Visit the website or call 864-644-1900 and mention "AL" to get 2 weeks free in the program! https://unashamedgold.com — Get a free 2026 Gold & Silver Guide and a no obligation consultation! https://meetfabric.com/unashamed — Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family. https://vanman.shop/unashamed — Get 15% off your first order with code UNASHAMED http://unashamedforhillsdale.com/ — Sign up now for free, and join the Unashamed hosts every Friday for Unashamed Academy Powered by Hillsdale College Check out At Home with Phil Robertson, nearly 800 episodes of Phil's unfiltered wisdom, humor, and biblical truth, available for free for the first time! Get it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! https://open.spotify.com/show/3LY8eJ4ZBZHmsImGoDNK2l Listen to Not Yet Now with Zach Dasher on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or anywhere you get podcasts. Chapters 00:00 Jase & Cole Both Lose Something 03:15 Uncle Si Enters His Renaissance Era 11:20 Wisdom is Proved by Actions 17:08 How to Live an Anxiety-Free Life 23:05 The Process That Leads to Sin 29:00 What is Gehenna? 35:55 The Tongue, Dehumanization & God's Justice 44:30 Jesus' Warnings About Lust, Adultery & Divorce 48:00 Uncle Si Says the Little Things Matter Most — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why do purgatory and hell exist? The Catechism teaches us today about the existence and the meaning of purgatory and hell. We learn that purgatory is a transitional state of purification while hell is the state of permanent separation from God. Fr. Mike reminds us that nobody drifts into heaven because “we cannot be united to God unless we freely choose to love him.” Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 1030-1037. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Matt Slick Live (Live Broadcast of 05/18/2026) is a production of the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry (CARM). Matt answers questions on topics such as: The Bible, Apologetics, Theology, World Religions, Atheism, and other issues! You can also email questions to Matt using: info@carm.org, Put "Radio Show Question" in the Subject line! Answers will be discussed in a future show. Topics Include: Lazarus, Rich Man, and Paradise/ Hades, Gehenna, Hell/ Eastern Orthodox Debate/ Faith that God Grants/ Can Water Baptism Save?/ Apparitions of Mary and Heresy/ What does it mean to be Spiritual?/ May 18, 2026

Old Testament Sermons / Speaker:Berry Kercheville Becoming “Good for Nothing” Jeremiah 13 Introduction: Illustrations are quite common in prophetical writings and especially in Jeremiah. When God gives these pictures it forces us to more plainly see our own present condition in his sight. Therefore, God gives us a photograph of how we appear to him when we do not live to glorify him. Chapter 13 gives us two vivid illustrations of how God sees Israel and therefore and warning to us. The Loincloth and Jars Filled with Wine, 13:1-14 The story: Jeremiah is commanded to purchase a loincloth, take it to the Euphrates (or Perath, NET, NIV, about three and a half miles from Anathoth), and bury it, then come back and get it. But when he retrieves it, it is ruined, “good for nothing.”  The “loin cloth”— “A short skirt bound tightly around the waist and reaching some way down the thighs.” Linen would the fabric used by the priests (Leviticus 16:4) and likely was worn as an undergarment based on the analogy God used.  The symbol of the loincloth is given in verse 11. Just as the loincloth would cling closely to a man's body so it was God's intention that his people cling closely to him and become “a people, a name, a praise, and a glory” to God. Is this the way you see your relationship with God?  Notice the word “cling.” This is the same as Genesis 2:24—“a man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife.” God is not a casual partnership, or something we do when it is convenient, or a part time effort. It should be evident in every moment of our lives that we are clinging to him. But they refused to listen and therefore they would become to God like the loin cloth, “good for nothing.” Well, what would you do with a pair of underwear that was all rotten with holes in it? Throw it away!  Look at yourself. You didn't just happen. You personally were created by God. But notice, not just created, but created to cling to God The question for us is quite obvious: Do we cling closely to the Lord or do we just “put him on” as an occasional “outer apparel?”  We should be reminded that everything God has done has been to create “a people, a name, a praise, and a glory.” When we do not dedicate ourselves to that purpose, we are literally good for nothing. No wonder God created Hell. It is like a trash can, a Gehenna garbage dump where what is unusable is cast. Therefore, God is giving us a choice, be a “vessel of honor” or decide to be trash. How did Judah become good for nothing? Pride! Here is where we can get confused. We think pride is simply thinking of ourselves too highly. No, pride has to do with our relationship with God. Verse 10 describes it as “stubbornly following their own heart.” We must read “heart” as our minds. In other words, we do what we want to do. We are like Solomon in Ecclesiastes, seeking and searching whatever our eyes see and desire.  Isn't it interesting that homosexuality is promoted by the word Pride? Without even realizing what they have done, we are called upon to be proud of sexual sins. Isaiah said, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.” Here's how pride works: Very early in our lives we set a fairly ridged daily life. We get accustomed to it and we like it. We seek and search out things to do that give us some temporary pleasure, things that distract us from our work and fill that empty spot inside of us that we don't like to think about. We begin to think our little worldly idols are the only way to fill emptiness. Our distractions may not always be things that are morally evil, they are just things we like to do. But God is not in the picture. Or maybe a little bit. “Church” can be a good façade to cover up the truth that I just want to live life my way. “Every jar shall be filled with wine” (12-14)  The people's response indicated that they thought Jeremiah was telling them something that was obvious. “Of course every jar will be filled with wine! That's what we have been telling you! We will continue to live in prosperity. Babylon can do nothing to us.”  But Jeremiah explains it is not the wine of joy they will be filled with, God will fill them with the wine of God's wrath. God will dash them against one another and he will show “no pity or spare or have compassion.” They will be destroyed. That is exactly what God later said the Babylonians would do to them (21:7).  Thus God gives us a strong reminder: mercy comes to those who obey God and keep his covenant. In fact, mercy and forgiveness are embedded in the covenant (Jeremiah 31:33-34). There is no mercy outside the covenant!  God's Pain Over Judah's Demise (15-17) Vs. 15-16 God pleads with them—“hear, give ear; be not proud.” God is not saying he will stop the coming judgment. No, it's coming. “Give glory to the Lord your God” are the same words Joshua said to Achan. His death was still certain, and so was Judah's. But they could still have an eternal hope if they would give up their ways. Consequences to our sins remain, but we can still find eternal hope. Vs. 17 God's tears. Ezekiel 33:11, “As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” In our weakness and foolishness we may think that our sins are not hurting anyone. Well, that's not true, sin harms everyone around us, but what is especially not considered is that our sin harms God and is painful to God, even to the point of tears. He weeps bitterly for us just as we would for our own children.  The Shocking Consequences of Stubborn Pride (18-27) The problem with those who are prideful is they believe they can escape the consequences. “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil (Ecclesiastes 8:11). “Yep! I'm not doing what I ought to do, but everything is going fine! I'm making good money. No worries!”  Then suddenly it happens… 18-19 The king and queen are dethroned. Even the cities of the wilderness are closed up and all Judah is taken into exile. What! That can't be! We were still offering sacrifices. 20-22 “What happened to your beautiful flock? Why are these special allies that you cultivated as friends destroying you?” It happened suddenly, like a woman in labor! But worse, why are we being violated like a woman in a siege? The answer is simple: it is the greatness of your iniquity! When judgment comes, that will always be the answer! 23-27 The inability to change. In spite of God's warning, they cannot change any more than an Ethiopian can change the color of his skin or a leopard his spots. God plainly warns us of the danger of procrastinating a change of lifestyle that is at best mediocre in serving God. The longer we stay in a lifestyle that does not give God our all, the more difficult it is to change.  The people of Judah are a perfect example. It became impossible for them to change! We think in our minds, “Oh that can't be so! I'm going to change at some point, I'm just not quite ready.”  What we don't realize is how deep in a pit our mind is already. We haven't just dug a little hole when we dabble a bit in sinful activities. Patterns and addictions develop in our brains as we practice sin. Sin detaches us from God. Every day we delay pushes us deeper until we do not know how to escape and no longer have the desire in our heart for God. It is what the Lord meant when he repeatedly accused Israel of having a hard heart and a heart of stone or when Paul referred to having a “calloused” mind (Ephesians 4:21). Wife: “I caught my husband watching porn. He was really sorry, but then I caught him again and again. I don't know what to do; he says he's sorry.”  Husband: “I found out my wife has had an affair. She is really ashamed and sorry, and she said it was only once. Should I just forgive her and let it go?”  I'm sure we would all say that if there is true repentance, it would be important to save the marriage. That being said, there is something most people do not think about. Those were not little sins that just happened and we should put it behind us. As Paul said, “…the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” These sins go deep and will be remembered and replayed for years to come.  Conclusion: Now listen again to the words: “This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing.” Pride says, “I can quit my sins; I'm not too deep. What I'm doing is not that bad.” God has an entirely different take! Berry Kercheville The post Jeremiah 13: Becoming Good For Nothing appeared first on Woodland Hills Church of Christ.

Be Strong in the Lord Ephesians 6:10-24 by William Klock We've made it all the way to the end of St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians.  For just over five chapters, Paul's been explaining how the church is God's means of taking what Jesus has done in his death and resurrection and turning it into God's new creation.  He's shown us how, in Jesus and the Spirit, he's given us back the vocation that Adam rejected.  We've been restored to our position as stewards of God's presence and God's wisdom and God's glory for the sake of the world.  Even more than that, as Adam was placed in God's garden-temple, through the gift of God's indwelling Spirit, you and I—the church—have now become God's temple.  And as Jesus has been raised from death to go be the new Adam, so in him and in the power of the Spirit, you and I are now called to put off the old, corrupt, lie-based way of being human and to put on the new humanity exemplified by Jesus.  And if we will be faithful to be fruitful and to multiply—whether by having our own children and raising them in the wisdom of the Lord or through our proclamation and living out of the gospel that brings others to the Messiah—Brother and Sisters, the temple will grow and grow and grow, carrying God's presence to the ends of the earth, spreading his wisdom—the way of new creation and the way of truly being human—to the ends of the earth, until God's glory covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. And having established that this is what the church is and that this is what our mission is, he shifted in Chapters 3-5 to the how of living out this new creation, to the how of putting off the old and putting on the new.  Don't listen to the lies of the world, the flesh, and the devil.  Speak the truth and live the truth of God's new creation.  Put aside anger and wrath, and start living out love and grace and patience and mercy with all humility—just like Jesus.  And don't believe the world's lies about sex and money and power.  Be holy as God is holy and trust in his goodness and faithfulness.  In other words, as I said last week, stop trying to write your own story.  You're bad at it.  We all are.  God did not design us with the capacity to write our stories for ourselves (or to be gods, as Genesis put it).  Instead, trust in the God who gave his own son as a sacrifice for our sins, to set us to rights at such a great cost, and live the story he has written for us.  And the world will take note.  Live God's story, and you will challenge the lies of the world.  Live the story in which Jesus is Lord, proclaim that story and seeing that glimpse of new creation, of redemption and renewal, of mercy and grace people around us will believe.  But, too, live the story in which Jesus is Lord and you will challenge the Caesars of this world.  Live the story in which God is good and faithful and generous, and you will challenge the greedy, grasping lies of the world.  And the world, the flesh, and the devil will push back.  Or as Paul puts in Chapter 6, the principalities and powers.  They've lost, but they don't want to admit it.  They don't like to be challenged.  And this is where Paul picks up in Ephesians 6:10 with his final bit of wisdom for the Ephesians and for us.  [This is page 1163 in the pew Bibles.] “What else is there to say?  Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power.  Put on the whole armour of God, then you will be able to stand firm against the devil's schemes.  The warfare we're engaged in, you see, is not against flesh and blood. It's against principalities, against the powers that rule the world in this dark age, against the wicked spiritual elements in the heavenly places.” Brothers and Sisters, know who your enemy is.  When things, when people, when systems push back against the gospel.  When we try to bring new creation to the world, when we try to live out the new way of being human we have in Jesus and the Spirit, we will experience opposition.  And it's critical we stand firm and fight back  But Paul stresses here: Know your enemy.  Because fighting the wrong enemy isn't going to win us anything. Paul knew this well.  Consider that he'd been a Pharisee.  The Pharisees were the party that traced its roots back to the Maccabean revolt two hundred years earlier, when the Jews rose up and threw off their pagan Greek overlords.  Paul—like most of his fellow Jews—grew up knowing that the enemies of God's people were the pagans: the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greek, the Romans. In a couple of decades it would happen again in the Judean volt of a.d. 70 and then again in the bar Kochba revolt in a.d. 132.  Neither of those revolts ended well for the Jews. And when the Jews revolted, they went into battle with passages like Isaiah 11 in mind: The shoot from the stump of Jesse would come, full of wisdom and justice.  “He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins” (Isaiah 11:4-5)  But they added their spin to the scriptures.  The community at Qumran—the people responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls—the saw it this way: “With your sceptre may you lay waste the earth. With the breath of your lips may you kill the wicked…May justice be the belt of your loins, and loyalty the belt of your hips.  May he make your horns of iron and your hoofs of bronze.  May you gore like a bull…and may you trample the nations like mud…For God has raised you to a sceptre for the rulers before you…all nations shall serve you, and he will make you strong by his holy name, so that you will be like a lion.”[1] You can hear Isaiah in that, but then here the warrior girds himself up for battle, to trample the nations like mud.  He gores the nations like an ox and ravages them like a lion.  The picture begins with Isaiah, but it gets lost along the way.  In Isaiah 11 the Messiah's warfare ends not with a goring ox or a lion tearing flesh, but with the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the goat, the calf and the lion laying down together at peace and one like a little child leading them into a renewed creation where the lion eats straw like an ox. I fear we fall into the same trap.  Jesus said to his disciples: “Don't be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more they can do. I will show you who to fear: fear the one who starts by killing and then has the right to throw people into Gehenna. Yes, let me tell you, that's the one to fear! (Luke 12:4-5) Brothers and Sisters, God had always urged his people to stand firm and to put up a fight, but our enemy, as Paul says here isn't flesh and blood.  It's not the people, however wicked they may be.  It's the lies the devil whispers—or sometimes shouts—into our world.  It's been that way from the beginning when Adam and Eve believed the first of his lies.  It's the lie that we can write our own stories better than God can.  It's the lie that security or power is to be found in money or in politics or in sex or in education or in all the other things to which we look that are not God—all the things that use and abuse and manipulate and exploit others for our benefit.  It's the lie that we can fight the gospel battle with bullets or with politics or with violence.  Paul's people talked about principalities and powers—sort of angelic beings whom God had created and appointed to oversee the nations, but who had fallen under the power of the devil's lies.  That's how they thought. I don't know if that's how it really is, but there are powers—political, economic, sexual, intellectual—that perpetuate the devil's lies and keep us in the dark, keep us stomping on each other, keep us at each other's throats, keep us seeing everyone else as the enemy so that we never stop to think that the real problem is the devil and his lies. So Paul reminds us.  The enemy is not flesh and blood.  Yes, other people enforce those systems.  Caesar believed the lie that he was the world's lord.  And his soldiers believed that lie too, when they arrested Christians and threw them to the lions.  But they were not the enemy; the lie was.  It still is.  They needed deliverance from it just like we do.  The enemy isn't Mark Carney or Donald Trump.  The enemy isn't greedy bankers or crooked businessmen or the people who run giant pornography websites.  It's not the abortionist or the therapist pushing gender ideology.  They're flesh and blood.  They bought the lie.  They need a gospel resuce just like we do.  And so Paul warns us, yes, there's a battle, put on the armour of God, and stand firm, but know your enemy.  Take your battle to the devil and the principalities and powers that perpetuate the lies.  Don't shoot their prisoners when what their prisoners need is to know the truth, the wisdom of God.  Brothers and Sisters, to fight them, to take the battle to flesh and blood, is just to fall prey to another lie of the real enemy.  Paul says that weird thing in verse 12, that these wicked spiritual elements are in the heavenly places, but I think his point there is that—as he said back in Chapter 2, we are seated in the heavenly places with the Messiah.  In his death and resurrection, Jesus won the decisive victory and now he's enlisted us, not to just sit in the church and be holy until he returns, but to be the new humanity who takes his new creation to the ends of the earth and, along the way, confronts the lies and the systems and powers that perpetuate them and declares that they have been defeated.  As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “he must go on reigning until he has put all his enemies under his feet.”  Brother and Sisters, the church is his means to bring that day.  (See, this has turned out to be an Ascension sermon after all!) So, Paul goes on in verse 13, “For this reason, you must take up God's complete armour.  Then, when wickedness grabs its moment, you'll be able to withstand, to do what needs to be done, and still be on your feet when it's over.  So stand firm!”  Now, what is the armour of God?  Notice the echoes of Isaiah 11 here.  “Put the belt of truth around your waist; put on justice as your breastplate; for shoes on your feet, ready for battle, take the good news of peace.  With it all, take the shield of faith; if you've got that you'll be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.” Notice that everything about this picture is defensive except the sword.  Again, the Messiah has already won the decisive victory.  He's won the ground.  Creation once again belongs to him.  Our job is to hold it against the enemy.  And, notice, as Paul has said before and as he says here in verse 10: We stand in God's power and might, not in our own.  We know what this power can do, because it's the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and now, as Paul has said over and over, we are “in the risen Messiah” and that makes us strong in the strength of his might.  There's an interesting parallel to this in Romans 4.  There Paul writes that Abraham was “strong in faith”, believing God's promise even though everything around him said not to trust this strange God.  He was strong because he trusted the God who had the power to accomplish what he had promised. Brothers and Sisters, we stand in that same faith, but unlike Abraham we have every reason to believe.  No one knew this God in Abraham's day.  You and I live with the witness of all the generations who have known and experienced this God ever since.  You and I live with the witness of the resurrection of Jesus, the greatest show of God's might in history and the event by which he has inaugurated his new creation.  If Abraham had reason to be strong in faith, we have reason to be even stronger.  So stand firm in the Messiah's battle and put on his armour to guard against the enemy who wants nothing more than to take back the ground he's lost to Jesus. As the Messiah puts on his armour for the battle in Isaiah, so should we.  It shouldn't be surprising that the first thing Paul says to put on is the truth.  All along he's been warning us not to believe the lies that have brought sin and death to the world.  All along he's warned us to be committed to the truth and not to be deceived by the lies around us.  In Isaiah 11:5 the Messiah puts on the belt of justice and faithfulness.  In the Greek “faithfulness” is translated as “truth”. The truth of God's creation and his new creation are the foundation of the gospel.  Isaiah saw the Messiah setting creation to rights, and to do that demands the truth to put an end to the lies.  The gospel proclaims Jesus' victory and the new creation that has come with him out of the tomb, the truth of the goodness of God's original creation and the truth of the goodness that he's now restoring it to.  Our calling now is to stand firm on that foundation and to wrap that truth around us like a belt.  The gospel is not about our feelings or our imaginations or what we think people will like or not like.  The gospel is about truth: God's good creation and Jesus' setting it to rights. But our main piece of defensive equipment is the breastplate—the breastplate of justice—or righteousness in some translations.  The Greek word means both.  Paul takes this image from Isaiah 59:17.  It's not just righteousness as we often think of it as moral goodness.  It's truly justice.  It's God's desire to see this broken world full of pain and tears truly set to rights.  In Isaiah 59 it's the divine warrior who goes out to bring God's justice to the world, but Paul understood that the divine warrior is Jesus the Messiah.  And he didn't go out to bash heads in order to bring justice.  He went in humility to the cross.  He gave his life to free us from sin and to wash away the stain of death, so that he could fill us with his Spirit and make us his temple.  And, in that, Paul's saying we're now called to follow in Jesus' steps to bring God's justice, his righteousness to the world as we live out Jesus' new—renewed—way of being human.  This is why Jesus talked in the Sermon on the Mount, about his people hungering and thirsting for justice.  It's our breastplate.  It's the thing staves off our own temptations to idolatry and greed that would otherwise cause us to bring more pain and tears into the world. And then the shoes of peace.  Another echo of Isaiah that Paul and the Jews knew so well: “How beautiful are the feet of the messenger who announces peace…who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”  Except whereas for people like the old Paul, this had become a hope of violent military victory over the pagans, in Jesus peace has come through his resurrection.  The enemy did his violent worst, and Jesus has trounced him with life.  And now he commissions us to be his ambassadors, running to the world to announce that in the risen Messiah, the king has returned to establish the peace that Israel had so long hoped for and the peace that even us gentiles hope for, knowing that the world is not as it should be.  Put on your gospel shoes! And then the shield of faith.  Paul seems to have come up with this all on his own.  He pictured flaming arrows that would set an ordinary shield on fire, but there were things you could do to prevent that—like stretching water-soaked leather over your shield.  Faith is like that, says Paul.  The Messiah's faith and then our faith that answers in return.  Faith will protect you from the enemy.  Don't let go of it. And then, back to Isaiah 59:17, the helmet of salvation—the helmet of “rescue”.  The divine warrior has won the battle and rescued the captives.  Brothers and Sisters, we've been rescued by Jesus, put that helmet on not only to stand your ground, but as with all these things, when we take up the Messiah's armour, we take up the Messiah's task.  He's rescued creation from the devil and now we're part of the battalion called to keep the devil from taking creation back.  That helmet of salvation reminds us—maybe that's why Paul puts it on our heads—that the Messianic mission is ultimately a rescue mission—to rescue creation and to rescue humanity from the enemies lies. And then there's the one defensive bit of God's armour: the sword of the Spirit, which Paul says is God's word.  The word is the gospel, the good news of Jesus, crucified and risen.  The word that fulfils Isaiah 11:4 where the Messiah smites the earth with the rod of his mouth and slays the wicked with the breath of his lips.  His breath.  In both Hebrew and Greek the word for breath is also the word for spirit.  Brothers and Sisters, Paul knew that when he proclaimed the gospel, God's Spirit went to work: confronting idolatry with the true and living God and sinners with a message of hope.  The battle isn't won with violence.  It's won with the good news of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  But Paul knew, too, that if we're going to stand firm in the Messiah, and if we're going to put on his armour, we'd better be praying, too.  He continues at verse 18: “Pray on every occasion in the Spirit, with every type of prayer and intercession.  You'll need to keep awake and alert for this, with all perseverance and intercession for all God's holy ones—and also for me.  Please pray that God will give me his words to speak when I open my mouth, so that I can make known, loud and clear, the mystery of the gospel.  That, after all, is why I'm a chained-up ambassador.  Pray that I may announce it boldly; that's what I'm duty-bound to do.” The military imagery is still here.  Like a sentry on guard: stay awake and alert.  Pray and persevere.  Don't give up.  The lies will swirl around you like a hurricane, but stand firmly in the truth of God's new creation and pray.  Connect with him in that mysterious and inexplicable gift he's given us to speak with and to be in communion with him.  It's one of the main reasons he's given us his own Spirit.  And here, I think Paul is again thinking of Isaiah 59 and the divine warrior, driven by the Spirit.  “As for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord: my Spirit that is upon you and my words that I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth…from now on and forever” (Isaiah 59:21).  So pray.  Pray, pray, pray and pray that the Spirit will give you—will give us all—the boldness to speak God's word: his truth, his wisdom, his gospel into a world so desperately in need of them.  It doesn't matter if you're chained up for the gospel like Paul.  That's the gospel paradox.  God reveals his strength when we are at our weakest—just as he did at the cross. And then the last few verses of the letter.  Paul wraps things up saying, “It's important that you should know how things are with me, and what I'm up to; so our dear brother Tychicus will tell you about it.  He is a loyal servant in the Lord.  I've sent him to you with this in mind, so that you may know how things are with us, and so that he may encourage your hearts.  Peace be to the whole family, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus the Messiah.  Grace be with all who love our Lord, Messiah Jesus, with a love that never dies.” Tychicus is making the rounds to let them know what's up with Paul.  Again, Paul's said it several times: he's in prison.  We don't know what else beyond that Tychicus would have told them about Paul, but it's telling that whatever the news is, Paul expects them to be encouraged.  And it doesn't seem that it's news of a soon release.  I expect Paul would have mentioned something like that.  Instead, Paul seems to expect them to be encouraged by his chains.  Again, the opposition he's facing is a sign that the gospel and the Spirit are doing what they're supposed to do, that the gospel is marching on, that (so to speak) Aslan is on the move, and the principalities and powers feel threatened.  And that's good news.  So, knowing his brothers and sisters are standing firm and fighting the gospel fight, he wishes them peace and love with faith and grace—the heart of the gospel, the foundations on which God's new creation is being built. And then that last word.  I'll close with that.  To everyone who loves the Messiah: grace.  Grace with a love that never dies.  The Greek word literally means “immortality”.  Brothers and Sisters, this gracious love will never pass away.  When the battle is finally over, when we have fought the good fight, when we have stood firm and kept the faith, when the church has finally done what she was created to do and expanded God's temple until his presence, his wisdom, his glory have filled the whole earth and Jesus has made a final end of death itself, when we have done what our Lord has called us to do and find—maybe to our own surprise—that we're still standing on our own feet in those shoes of peace, when there are no more lies and Jesus is Lord, then our love for him—which may feel so imperfect and inadequate today—but our love for him that kept us strong through the storm and the battle, will turn out to have been only the beginning of the great gift of love that we will enjoy for ever in God's presence and in his creation set to rights, in that new heaven and earth in which there are no more pain or sorrows or tears or death, only grace and love. Paul began his letter by directing our gaze back before the foundation of the world and now he points forward to day when not only are all God's promises fulfilled, but when he himself sums up all things in heaven and earth himself, the fullness of all in all.  And here in the in-between, in the middle of the story we stand: rescued by love, given a new gospel life in love, equipped with God's word and God's Spirit in love, and filled with God's wisdom that, following Jesus, we will be the new humanity—the firstfruits of his new creation.  Not only for our sake, but for the sake of the whole word over which Jesus the Messiah is already ruling as Lord. Let's pray: O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.  Amen. [1] The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, ed. F.G. Martinez and E.J.C Tigchelaar (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 109.

Join Southwest Radio Ministries and  Watchman on the Wall. As Lise Cutshaw and Micah Van Huss connect the dots between the English word "hell" and the differing locations that "hell" actually depicts in the Hebrew and Greek. Micah describes the differences between biblical Sheol, Tartarus and Gehenna and who dwells there; hints at Jesus' connection with these underworld locations; and leaves us – mysteriously – with a teaser about angels and demons and their roles in the underworld.

UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION  I asked last week what went wrong with the gospel, quoting Paul who wrote concerning a wrong gospel saying there are some who trouble you (tarasso - to strike one's spirit with fear and dread - Galatians 1:7). He says they want to reverse (metastepho) the gospel. Since the time of Christ, a World population of almost 70 billion people has existed, and how many people have heard the true gospel? I believe certain English words have been prejudicially translated from the original language that have altered the nature of the gospel and reversed our perception of a loving saving God. And we will look at some of those words today. And how has that affected our current global Western culture relationally and morally 2Peter 3:9 The Lord…is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (metanoia – a change of mindset). I am proposing that the trajectory of Scripture presents God's judgment as ultimately restorative rather than purely retributive, and that words and concepts traditionally interpreted as eternal punishment may instead work through age-to-age judgment, truth, and revelation until human creation is brought into alignment with God. I am arguing that God's redemptive power and purpose is not ultimately defeated by human resistance.  Philippians 3:21 He will transform our lowly body (tapein??sis – lowly estate) that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. I would like to personally query three aspects of the nature of the gospel today. This will take more than one session. Is God's nature one of loving restoration or retributive punishment? What is hell and judgement and the consequence of sin? What is eternity? I perceive God as a divine architect who has designed a relational home where he might enjoy loving relationship with his human family, for them to find utter fulfillment in his company. The home was built on a foundation of love and peace and order. Then the foundation became destructively cracked and flawed by the pride and disorder of Satan. Immediately following that the damaged foundation was built upon with inadequate flawed human material and it has crumpled and subsided time after time. Then a new divine/human foundation was laid which was Christ and a new creation was invited to build upon this new foundation of love and peace and order. The home was made to be filled and not emptied, so the flawed foundation had to be fully restored, and the flawed human material had to be fully redeemed so that it could be filled.  In Matthew 22 a King prepared a feast for his son, and most of the invited guests were too busy or distracted to turn up, but he wanted his house filled with guests for his son so sent his servants out and they ended up having to invite people from the highways and byways, both bad and good. And the house was filled. God wants a full house. The highways and byways people can be seen as ‘fringe people' The edge or fringe becomes the meeting place of exclusion and inclusion in Scripture, and examples include Ruth as an outsider being included in Israel through marrying Boaz, and the gentile woman who touched the fringe of Jesus' garment and was healed. It is also typified in the priestly garments and the boundary materials of the tabernacle. And even one of the wedding guest fringe people resisted and was cast into outer darkness for not wearing a wedding garment and I'll cover that redemption theme at another time. I believe the plan for God's house being filled was designed before time began, and what follows in real time is restoration and the events of purifying and restoration in the history of human life.  2a. The nature of sin and its consequences – The common established belief is that Sin separates us from God and that sin can finally result in going to hell. The following Scripture is commonly taken to mean that if you believe in Jesus, you will not perish (go to hell) but you will receive eternal life (go to Heaven). John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 2b. The names implying what hell is are Hades, Gehenna, Lake of fire, Tartarus, Sheol and even Outer darkness. Hades (O.T. Sheol), does not really describe the place of eternal torment. It described the realm that is not visible to the living (ha – not and ideis – seen) the unseen, the hidden, what lies beyond the horizon of the living. It occurs in the Epistles once in Revelation, where it is done away with to no longer exist.  Jesus spoke of Gehenna, the Valley of Hinnom in Jerusalem where the fire of spontaneous combustion destroys the rubbish which symbolizes the judgment and destruction of sinful corruption (also James 3 re the tongue and corrupt speech). I've seen Smokey Mountain on a missionary trip to the Philippines with 2 young people. Thousands lived ther and made a living there scavenging what was not consumed by the fire. The epistles interpret the concept of fire as a process of transformation where God's fire removes what is of the flesh so that life in Christ remains. I'm proposing that the nature of fire called hell is purifying and corrective discipline rather than retributive punishment.  We will get to the others later…Lake of fire …Tartarus…Outer darkness… I have already compared Jonathan Edward's sermon of ‘sinners in the hands of an angry God with the writings of Athanasius in 350 AD. Edwards said ‘Why should God love you because you have never loved him'. The apostle John answers that - ‘We love him because he first loved us' (1John 4.18).  Athanasius wrote that Jesus died out of sheer love for us so that… he might turn men again to incorruption who had turned back to corruption and make them alive through death… and by the grace of his resurrection thus he would make death to disappear from them as utterly as straw from fire. The refining fire of God's love is the divine method for transformation because it looks forward to what is possible and applies the purifying trials of faith to get there. Punishment and retribution look backward at what was done and demand payment to what seems to be to no good end. The fire of judgment in this truth is not the satisfaction of divine wrath; it is the completion of divine purpose - and redemption is the restoration of what was always meant to be. God's divine wrath is the intense indignation at what sin has done to cripple the souls of his children and it is aimed at the source of evil itself and not the victims of it. That indignation shakes whatever can be shaken to rid it from his children so that what remains cannot be shaken – the Kingdom life within. And whatever evil or darkness we harbour in our own lives will get shaken from our ignorant or resistant grasp for our own sake and those around us.  Hebrews 12:1… let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith… do not despise the chastening of the LORD…He does that for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; Paul says that as a wise master builder (architekt??n) he has laid the foundation. 1Cor 3:11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. This purifying fiery judgement and Hades, and Gehenna all overlap but some are used more as warnings than encouragement. 1 Corinthians 3:13–15 distinguishes between the work and the worker. The work may be tested and found wanting, may be burned away as wood, hay, or straw. But "he himself will be saved, though as through fire." The person passes through and the fire does not consume them - it consumes what was not them. With Peter the illustration is that as that seed grows through faith, the outer husk of the seed, our outer soul-self life, is burned away by the fiery trials of faith. 1 Peter 4:12 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; 1Timothy 5:24 some mens' sins go on beforehand to judgement and some they follow after. This means we can have the wood and straw burned off in this life or in the next age. The Greek word translated judgment – krisis, throughout the New Testament primarily means decision and judgment. The word carries the act of separating, sifting, distinguishing. A crisis is the decisive moment, the point at which the true nature of something becomes apparent and that can clearly involve adverse outcomes.  The Bible uses the following words; krisis  judgment, decision, evaluation and accountability. kolasis Matthew 25:46 - corrective pruning (like trimming a tree) paideia Hebrews 12 - discipline, training of a child  dike – Justice and being weighed in the balance. Judgment is not retaliatory destruction, but a process that exposes, purifies, and restores. Even the judgment in the apocalyptic vision of Revelation which we will look at in later sessions is about sifting, not retribution, so the pattern holds even at the level of judgment itself. But is the redemption payment enough for all mankind? Did the work of Jesus do enough to satisfy his Father that he paid for the lives of all of God's created children? Supposing a child was kidnaped and the parent had to pay a $100,000 ransom. Does a parent say ‘look I can manage $50,000 but 100 is too much – and then walk away? In the Jewish Seder ceremony of Passover, the father takes three matzahs or flat pieces of bread and breaks the middle one in half. He hides half of the middle matzah, called the afikomen, somewhere in the house and the children go through the house searching for the hidden half. When it is found and returned the father gives the winning child a ‘ransom' – possibly a radical prophetic picture blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (Romans 11:25) Jesus being half taken out of sight for Israel but fully seen by those who have eyes of faith to see him. The broken middle matzah can be seen as a picture of hiddenness, brokenness, and the later revealing and restoration of Christ as our redeemer. What is broken and hidden is not lost—but sought, redeemed, revealed, and finally received as indwelling life. 3. The nature of eternity and age to age.  The Scriptures use the word eternity, but biblical eternity also means age-to-age unfolding with purposeful beginnings and meaningful completions of participation in the life of God and ongoing revelation. The Wycliffe Bible (1382) translated from the Latin Vulgate inherited the Latin aeternus, not the Greek ai?n and age to age ai?nios. The King James Version (1611) Standardised “eternal and everlasting” and cemented this meaning in English-speaking Christianity. Old Testament eternity = olam = Horizon. The theological impact was that Judgment or age-to age correction and purification was replaced by eternal punishment. And the meaning of living in the life of the age to come vaguely became eternal life in heaven instead of God's purposes across the ages. Jesus reveals the Jubilee Year as a striking model for full redemption.  Luke 4:17 Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 61:1). And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD."  Then He closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He said to them Today you have heard this Scripture fulfilled." You will notice that after Jesus proclaimed the The Jubilee Year - he closed the Book, and there was a special reason for that. The next sentence in Isaiah 61 that he would have read said ‘and to proclaim the day of vengeance of our God'. But that was not what Jesus came to do. ‘For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (John 3:17) The Jubilee year spoke of the greatest fulfillment of what might have been. This was the year of being given God's rest and blessing and provision for their lives both individually and as a people of God. It was the year when all work of any kind had to cease, debts were forgiven, Leviticus 25 says and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family and the slaves were given their freedom, and the families were to celebrate the blessings of being God's children. He also included Gentiles like the widow of Zarephath, Naaman the Syrian, but they could not absorb the implication of his supernatural promise to fulfill the Jubilee for all time for all the world. For them this was the sacred architecture of the meaning of full restorative redemption. It was the too good to be true promise of a too loving to be true God. That was Jesus. That was a little over 2000 years ago – 40 jubilees since Jesus (40x50 = 2000). The number 40 speaks of the time of trials for Israel in the wilderness, and the forty days of temptation in the wilderness for Jesus, and his forty days of resurrected life on earth before his ascension. His vision was corporate, complete, and eschatological with redeemed humans having universal restoration held out to them by the Prince of Peace. But this annoyed them, so they tried to throw him off a cliff. Good news sometimes gets resisted. Amen. Paul OSullivan   pauloss@me.com

Have you ever felt like the traditional version of Christianity sounds more like an abusive relationship than a message of love? Today, Mike Erre and Tim Stafford tackle a viral critique of the faith and dive deep into what it actually means to pray for God's will to be done on earth. This conversation moves past the idea of God as a cosmic tyrant to rediscover a Jesus who invites us into a better way of being human.In this episode, we explore the tension between our human will and the divine will, moving past the "fire insurance" version of the gospel that many are rightfully rejecting. We discuss why the church often fails by trying to "polish up" Jesus instead of letting his voice stand on its own. We also break down the phrase "on earth as it is in heaven," challenging the common belief that Christianity is just about escaping this world for a disembodied afterlife. Instead, we look at how heaven is invading earth to restore our humanity and the image of God within us. From the historical context of Gehenna to the surprising connection between holiness and the joy of play, this episode is a deep dive into the heart of the Lord's Prayer. We tackle the hard questions about suffering, judgment, and why the truth coming to light is actually the best news possible.Chapters0:00 Intro and the Best Friends Podcast3:45 Reading a Viral Critique of Christianity8:20 Why People are Walking Away from the Church13:10 Stop Trying to Dress Up Jesus18:15 Thy Will Be Done: The Heart of the Prayer23:50 Two Major Misunderstandings of Surrender28:40 Does God Cause Suffering and Cancer?34:15 Heaven is a Status, Not Just a Place39:30 Why Divine Judgment is Actually Good News45:10 The Truth About Hell and Gehenna51:00 Dehumanization vs. the Image of God56:45 Tasting New Creation Through Play and Community1:01:20 Previewing the Exodus and Daily BreadAs always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to hello@voxpodcast.com, and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV.Our Merch Store! EtsyLearn more about the Voxology PodcastSubscribe on iTunes or SpotifySupport the Voxology Podcast on PatreonThe Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology RadioFollow us on Instagram: @voxologypodcast and "like" us on FacebookFollow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerreMusic in this episode by Timothy John StaffordInstagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

En vandaag deel 2. Deel 2 van een van de meest gelezen Bijbelteksten. De Bergrede. Luister nu de nieuwste aflevering van Gelukkig De Mens: Bergrede Deel 2 via #spotify, #pocketcasts, #applepodcasts, www.gelukkigdemens.nl/205-bergrede-deel-2 in je eigen podcastapp. #bijbel #overdenking #bezinning #podcast Denk niet dat Ik gekomen ben om de Wet of de Profeten af te schaffen. Ik ben niet gekomen om ze af te schaffen, maar om ze tot vervulling te brengen. Ik verzeker jullie: zolang de hemel en de aarde bestaan, blijft elke jota, elke tittel in de wet van kracht, totdat alles gebeurd zal zijn. Wie dus ook maar het minste van deze geboden afschaft en aan anderen leert datzelfde te doen, zal als de minste worden beschouwd in het koninkrijk van de hemel. Maar wie ze onderhoudt en dat aan anderen leert, zal in het koninkrijk van de hemel in hoog aanzien staan. Want Ik zeg jullie: als jullie gerechtigheid niet groter is dan die van de schriftgeleerden en de farizeeën, zullen jullie zeker het koninkrijk van de hemel niet binnengaan. Jullie hebben gehoord dat destijds tegen het volk is gezegd: “Pleeg geen moord. Wie moordt, zal zich moeten verantwoorden voor het gerecht.” Dit zeg Ik daarover: ieder die in woede tegen zijn broeder of zuster tekeergaat, zal zich moeten verantwoorden voor het gerecht. Wie hen voor nietsnut uitmaakt, zal zich moeten verantwoorden voor het Sanhedrin. Wie “Dwaas!” zegt, zal voor het vuur van de Gehenna komen te staan. Wanneer je dus je offergave naar het altaar brengt en je je daar herinnert dat je broeder of zuster jou iets verwijt, laat je gave dan bij het altaar achter; ga je eerst met die ander verzoenen en kom daarna je offer brengen. Leg een geschil snel bij, terwijl je nog met je tegenstander onderweg bent, anders levert hij je uit aan de rechter, draagt de rechter je over aan de gerechtsdienaar en word je gevangengezet. Ik verzeker je: dan kom je niet vrij voor je ook de laatste cent betaald hebt.

Gehenna isn't on Google Maps and there's no Angel Annihilation for Dummies. To Miriam Feldman, list lover extraordinaire, this is an irritating oversight.It's fine. She's got this mission under control. Sure, her instructions are vague, and her team is trigger-happy, but she's got plenty of motivation to carry them to victory.Vengeance counts, right?Plus, if ridding the world of celestial menaces doesn't top up Miri's karmic bank, then stopping a vampire contagion will definitely earn her some good will.Unless it gets her killed. That's a distinct possibility.One which she refuses to worry about since she's got her shiny new relationship with a sexy wolf shifter to enjoy. And honestly, his family dysfunction is making hers look pretty damn insignificant.How's that for positive thinking? She's going to nail this.Happily-ever-after, here she comes.Ace of Shades, the thrilling finale, features a later in life romance, a heart-pounding mystery, and a magical midlife adventure.Read the complete series now.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Seeing the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and when He was seated, His disciples came to Him. 2 Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: 3 Blessed (happy, [a]to be envied, and [b]spiritually prosperous—[c]with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the poor in spirit (the humble, who rate themselves insignificant), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven! 4 Blessed and enviably happy [with a [d]happiness produced by the experience of God's favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His matchless grace] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted! 5 Blessed (happy, blithesome, joyous, [e]spiritually prosperous—[f]with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the meek (the mild, patient, long-suffering), for they shall inherit the earth! 6 Blessed and fortunate and happy and [g]spiritually prosperous (in that state in which the born-again child of God [h]enjoys His favor and salvation) are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God), for they shall be [i]completely satisfied! 7 Blessed (happy, [j]to be envied, and [k]spiritually prosperous—[l]with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy! 8 Blessed (happy, [m]enviably fortunate, and [n]spiritually prosperous—possessing the [o]happiness produced by the experience of God's favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His grace, regardless of their outward conditions) are the pure in heart, for they shall see God! 9 Blessed (enjoying [p]enviable happiness, [q]spiritually prosperous—[r]with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the makers and [s] maintainers of peace, for they shall be called the sons of God! 10 Blessed and happy and [t]enviably fortunate and [u]spiritually prosperous [v](in the state in which the born-again child of God enjoys and finds satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of his outward conditions) are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake (for being and doing right), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven! 11 Blessed (happy, [w]to be envied, and [x]spiritually prosperous—[y]with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of your outward conditions) are you when people revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things against you falsely on My account. 12 Be glad and supremely joyful, for your reward in heaven is great (strong and intense), for in this same way people persecuted the prophets who were before you. 13 You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste (its strength, its quality), how can its saltness be restored? It is not good for anything any longer but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men. 14 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a peck measure, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your [z]moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and [aa]recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven. 17 Do not think that I have come to do away with or [ab]undo the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to do away with or undo but to complete and fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until the sky and earth pass away and perish, not one smallest letter nor one little hook [identifying certain Hebrew letters] will pass from the Law until all things [it foreshadows] are accomplished. 19 Whoever then breaks or does away with or relaxes one of the least [important] of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least [important] in the kingdom of heaven, but he who practices them and teaches others to do so shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness (your uprightness and your right standing with God) is more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 21 You have heard that it was said to the men of old, You shall not kill, and whoever kills shall be [ac]liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the court. 22 But I say to you that everyone who continues to be [ad]angry with his brother or harbors malice (enmity of heart) against him shall be [ae]liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the court; and whoever speaks contemptuously and insultingly to his brother shall be [af]liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, You [ag]cursed fool! [You empty-headed idiot!] shall be [ah]liable to and unable to escape the hell (Gehenna) of fire. 23 So if when you are offering your gift at the altar you there remember that your brother has any [grievance] against you, 24 Leave your gift at the altar and go. First make peace with your brother, and then come back and present your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way traveling with him, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last fraction of a penny. 27 You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. 28 But I say to you that everyone who so much as looks at a woman with evil desire for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye serves as a trap to ensnare you or is an occasion for you to stumble and sin, pluck it out and throw it away. It is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be cast into hell (Gehenna). 30 And if your right hand serves as a trap to ensnare you or is an occasion for you to stumble and sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better that you lose one of your members than that your entire body should be cast into hell (Gehenna). 31 It has also been said, Whoever divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce. 32 But I tell you, Whoever dismisses and repudiates and divorces his wife, except on the grounds of unfaithfulness (sexual immorality), causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a woman who has been divorced commits adultery. 33 Again, you have heard that it was said to the men of old, You shall not swear falsely, but you shall perform your oaths to the Lord [as a religious duty]. 34 But I tell you, Do not bind yourselves by an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is the throne of God; 35 Or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you are not able to make a single hair white or black. 37 Let your Yes be simply Yes, and your No be simply No; anything more than that comes from the evil one. 38 You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the evil man [who injures you]; but if anyone strikes you on the right jaw or cheek, turn to him the other one too. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your undershirt (tunic), let him have your coat also. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two [miles]. 42 Give to him who keeps on begging from you, and do not turn away from him who would borrow [[ai]at interest] from you. 43 You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy; 44 But I tell you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 [aj]To show that you are the children of your Father Who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the wicked and on the good, and makes the rain fall upon the upright and the wrongdoers [alike]. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward can you have? Do not even the tax collectors do that? 47 And if you greet only your brethren, what more than others are you doing? Do not even the Gentiles (the heathen) do that? 48 You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into complete [ak]maturity of godliness in mind and character, [al]having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect.

“Is it a sin to marry outside your faith?” This question opens a discussion on the nuances of faith and relationships, including interpretations of 2 Corinthians and the concept of being unequally yoked. Other topics addressed include the implications of Matthew 7:6 on sharing scripture, the nature of particular judgment, and the meaning of being poor in spirit. Join the Catholic Answers Live Club Newsletter Invite our apologists to speak at your parish! Visit Catholicanswersspeakers.com Questions Covered: 04:45 – When discussing 2 Corinthians where Paul mentions not being unequally yoked, my protestant friend argued is it a sin to marry outside your own faith. I argue that Paul was giving his own opinion and not giving a commandment from God. Is this a proper response? 13:33 – Matthew 7:6 says don't throw pearls to swine. Would giving bibles to the homeless be throwing pearls to swine? 18:30 – How would I prove biblically that there is a particular judgement and not a resting in Christ until the final judgement? Do people go to Hades now or do they go to Gehenna? 37:05 – How do Catholics combat free grace theology using scripture? 45:38 – In John 21:15 Jesus says to Peter, “do you love me more than these?” Who are “these”? 48:30 – At the end of Acts, Paul was told he didn't do anything wrong. Why then was Paul beheaded? 53:01 – What does it mean to be poor in spirit?

Tuesday, 24 March 2026   “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. Matthew 18:10   “You see – not you should disesteem ‘one, the least of these'. For I say to you that their ‘messengers in heavens', through all, they see the appearance of My Father, the ‘in heavens'.” (CG)   In the previous verse, Jesus spoke about what to do if your eye ensnares you. It should be plucked out and cast from you, noting that it is better to enter into life one-eyed than to be cast into the fire of Gehenna. He now starts a new thought, saying, “You see – not you should disesteem ‘one, the least of these'.”   The context needs to be remembered. Jesus called for a little child, setting him in the midst of the disciples. He then noted that unless they were to become like little children, they would by no means enter the kingdom of the heavens.   He then noted that receiving one little child like that in His name receives Him. As such, the context refers to those who have childlike faith, not literally all little children. Those who trust God, not in themselves or their own supposed great deeds, are those who possess that childlike faith.   This then clears up any erroneous thoughts about Jesus' next words, “For I say to you that their ‘messengers in heavens', through all, they see the appearance of My Father, the ‘in heavens'.”   Understanding the context, Jesus is not saying that every little child has a “messenger in heaven.” It is great for sermon material and for promoting liberal agendas (well, except abortion), but it does not square with the context of what Jesus is saying.   Those who have messengers in the heavens are those who are redeemed by God because of their childlike faith. This notion will be fully supported by the completion of this train of thought in the next four verses.   Life application: Care needs to be taken in understanding what is happening in the world as God works through His plan of redemption. People are not saved at birth and then up until a certain age, at which time they become unsaved.   Nor do they have an angel looking over them until some point in time when the angel stops tending to them. All people are born in sin, separated from God because of that sin. Jesus came to restore the relationship between fallen man and His Father.   Until one yields himself to God through Christ, the enmity remains. For those before the cross, this applied to those who trusted in the coming Messiah. Now that Christ has come, no person is saved until he or she receives what Jesus did. This is all-inclusive.   Salvation is not determined by age, cultural background, family, wealth, or any other such thing. Salvation comes by faith in Christ. In 1 Corinthians 7:14, we find that God has graciously sanctified the children of believers. However, there is a point known to Him when those children must choose Jesus.   We need to be responsible in our discussions of what God is doing in the world. People need Jesus, all people. We cannot let this issue fall by the wayside. For example, calling the Jews “God's people” does a catastrophic disservice to them (See Romans 9-11).   A few simple questions to be considered: Is Jesus God? Yes. Did Israel reject Jesus? Yes. If they have rejected Jesus, who is God, then they have rejected God. Supporting Israel is not the same as coddling them. They need to be told of the danger they are in.   Likewise, it is not appropriate to incorrectly explain verses like Matthew 18:10 and claim that all babies have an angel looking out for them. That will inevitably provide false assurances to those who need to tell children about Jesus.   Be prepared to defend the truth of the gospel. All people need Jesus. Without Him, none can be saved. Israel, the nation, has rejected Jesus. Until they collectively acknowledge Jesus, they are not saved, nor are they God's people in regard to salvation and a right relationship with Him.   Infant baptism is unscriptural and provides false security to those who adhere to this rite. The list could go on and on concerning this most important of issues. Jesus! From the youngest person to the oldest, all need Jesus. The nation of Israel needs Jesus. Get the word out! The world needs Jesus.   Lord God, thank You for Jesus. Without Him, there would be no hope. But with Him in our lives, we have hope and assurance. Praises to You, O God, for what You have done. Amen.

Is hell real or have we completely misunderstood what Jesus actually taught? This episode cuts through the noise, exposes cultural myths, and tackles the question no one wants to answer: How can a loving God send people to hell?   In this episode, you'll learn: • What Jesus really taught about hell and eternity • The difference between Hades, Gehenna, and final judgment • Why purgatory and universalism don't align with Scripture • How to respond to “a loving God wouldn't send people to hell” • What happens to people who never hear the gospel • Why understanding hell fuels urgency for evangelism   Stand firm. Think biblically. Live free.  

Monday, 23 March 2026   And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire. Matthew 18:9   “And if your eye, it ensnares you, you pluck it, and you cast from you. It is good – you enter one-eyed into life, or having two eyes to be cast into the ‘Gehenna the fire'.” (CG).   In the previous verse, Jesus noted that if a person's hand or foot causes him to sin, he should cut it off and cast it away, noting that it is better to enter life maimed or crippled rather than be cast whole into the eternal fire. He next says words similar to Matthew 5:29, beginning with, “And if your eye, it ensnares you, you pluck it, and you cast from you.”   The eye is a factor in many types of sin. Without eyes, one would not see the beautiful face or shape of a woman and lust after her. Without eyes, a person wouldn't see the difference between his car and his neighbor's. Blind people can still covet, lust, commit adultery, etc., but the eye is one part of such things.   If the eye were the only problem, removal would be the solution. As with the previous verse, however, eventually everyone would be walking around blind. This is the severity of living under the law. Ultimately, it is the law that brings about offense. As Paul said –   “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet.' 8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. 9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. 12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.” Romans 7:7-12   If there were no law, there would be no offense for a violation of the law to come about. This doesn't mean the law is bad. What it does mean is that the law stands against us and witnesses against us.   Sin is the problem, but law is what brings about sin. As Jesus was speaking to those under the law, they had choices to make concerning sin. If the right choice was made, things might go well for them, as He next notes, “It is good – you enter one-eyed into life, or having two eyes to be cast into the ‘Gehenna the fire'.”   A new word is seen here, monophthalmos, one-eyed. It is derived from monus, sole or single, and ophthalmos, eye. Though not directly stated, Jesus' point is that there needs to be a remedy to the problem with sin. It would be unrealistic for a person to actually pluck out one eye, thinking it would take care of his sin problem. Rather, there is still the second eye that will cause the exact same problem.   Jesus is schooling the world on what is actually needed. One step at a time, we are being led to the cross where sin is atoned for, law is removed, and there is restoration with God.   Life application: How nice it would be if the Bible were to be read and considered in context by all people. There would not be churches full of people who were trying to merit God's favor through Sabbath observance, dietary restrictions, feast observances, and so forth.   The people of the world would revel in the cross of Christ, thank God for the freedom that is granted through His death, and rejoice in the hope of eternal life because of His resurrection.   Instead, though many claim they are saved by grace through faith, they sit in churches scared of losing their salvation, wondering if they have done enough to merit His grace (what a contradictory thought!), and biting their nails over the next possible infraction that will see them eternally condemned for failing to meet the measure that the law demands.   Don't be such a person! Realize that the cross is the end of the matter. Total peace and harmony are realized when one comes to God through it. Trust the gospel and keep on trusting it. This is the sweet spot in God's wonderful plan of redemption.   Lord God, thank You that the enmity is ended and that peace and contentment are restored to us once again. Thank You for what the cross truly means to this fallen world. May many come to fully realize its significance and cling to its marvelous glory. Amen.

Introduction:When faced with a problem, our instinct is to solve it. This does not mean we fully understand the problem. We can rush to judgment, minimize the problem, and then come up with the wrong solution. This is a not a great way to problem solve. The same temptation applies to the problem of sin. We reach for strategies. We can minimize the depth of sin through antinomianism. We can claim that the problem of sin is outside of us so we try to escape it through monasticism where we hide away. The most common way is to just have more gfit and manage it through better personal discipline. But none of these approaches touch the root of the issue. As Luther reportedly said of his time in the monastery, "I went to escape the rascal, only to find that the rascal followed me there." The point: the problem is not outside of us, but it is deep within us. We are sinful creatures because of the fall. So the catechism presses the question: how much trouble are we really in? We Robbed Ourselves of GloryGod created humanity with the full capacity to obey him. Man was not lacking anything nor did man need an extra gift to obey. Man had everything that he needed to obey God. Yet through his own willful disobedience, instigated by the devil Adam and Eve freely rebelled against God by deciding for themselves what was right. They forfeited the good gifts of their creation. They had goodness, peace, and communion with God, but immediately after the tree death meant losing these gifts. Satan may have sparked the rebellion, but Adam and Eve stoked the fire.The consequence of that choice is tragic. Christ's words in Matthew 25 are not easy ones: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (v. 41). The image of Gehenna, Jerusalem's ever-burning garbage heap, is the metaphor for the unquenchable fire. It never stops burning. We have chosen for ourselves a very horrible fate. We Are Called to Bear the Fruits of ChristGod is holy, and he cannot look away from sin. He is angry with the sin we inherit from our representative Adam. We are also responsible for the sin we commit. God will punish sin. That's a sobering reality. But the catechism doesn't leave us there; it turns to the question of what faithfulness actually looks like in the life of someone who is in Christ.The picture Christ paints in Matthew 25 is a shepherd separating sheep from goats. The sheep are those who fed the hungry, welcomed the stranger, clothed the vulnerable, and visited the sick and imprisoned. It is important that thgey did not even know that they were going to receive any recognition. Most of all they never thought of this as a doing this for Christ. It was simply the natural outflow of a heart shaped by him. The goats, by contrast, saw no benefit in caring for those who couldn't return the favor. The emphasis is on the least of these. Christ's point is clear: the ones in Christ have a radically different value system. The sheep care for those who will not give them mutual benefits. The sheep and the goats bear fruit of their eternal destiny. There Are Eternal ConsequencesThe catechism teaches that we begin to taste the fruit of what we sow in this life. We might say that this is a health and wealth type of message. However, there is another way to think about this. Those who tear others down find themselves isolated; those who exploit others will find few willing partners. When Christ says that you reap what you sow there is a call to do some self reflection. If life is not going the direction we want then we might consider what seed we are sowing. But the stakes don't end here. The warning is also going out to the eternal consequences. There is the language of the worm that never dies (Isaiah 66), John the Baptist speaks of the unquenchable fire (Matthew 3), the eternal fire (Matthew 25), the smoke that rises forever (Revelation 14). These are not casual metaphors. They are intended to be sobering because they communicate that a life outside of Christ in his age ends with eternal torment. This is not something that we should take lightly. When we take hold of Christ by faith we are assured that the same Christ who describes the eternal fire is the one who walked through it on our behalf. The cross was Christ enduring the eternal consequence of sin in our place, so that when he returns as the glorious Son of Man he returns to gather his sheep to himself. The goats are cast away, but the sheep will live in him because they are in Christ. Conclusion: Only Christ Can Solve ThisWe are in a great deal of trouble if we stay the course after the fall. This is not a problem we can solve in our own strategy or strength. No technique, no strategy, no monastery will solve sin's deep rooted problem. Even those who have walked with Christ for decades still feel the weight of sin at the end of their lives. If we struggle that much in the Spirit, how could we possibly overcome this on our own?The catechism's answer is not a program. It's a person. God knew the problem, God solved the problem, and God meets us with a call to life which is the call of the Gospel. So let us not minimize the fall with creative human solutions. Let us cling to our Savior who issues his gracious call. Let us find our life in him. And let us do the ordinary things of the Christian life to glorify our savior. Let us be a people who honor him.

Hope for Right Now Podcast–Desert Bloom, A Lenten Journey: Love Hurts While Walking with Purpose Founder Lisa takes time to write our next women's Bible study, Laura Phelps welcomes guest Caitlin Bean to the Hope for Right Now podcast for a seven-week series: Desert Bloom, A Lenten Journey. Lent is a time of sacrifice, preparation, and spiritual waiting—a time to prepare our hearts for Easter through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. For many of us, it has become about exterior performance, a “holy checklist” we begin on Ash Wednesday and struggle to sustain for 40 days. And preparation? Who has time for that? We are exhausted—after all, it was just Christmas! If this is how your heart feels at the start of Lent, this series is for you—offering practical encouragement, Scripture reflections, and simple ways to experience a more meaningful, peace-filled Lent. In today's episode, Laura and Caitlin talk about waiting in dormancy and why God's timing is perfect, despite circumstances screaming the opposite. Open your Heart to our key Scripture. John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. Open your Bible to other Scriptures referenced in this episode. Romans 5:8: But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Mark 9:43–48: If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where “their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” 1 Corinthians 10:31: So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. Isaiah 60:22: I am the Lord; in its time I will hasten it. Deuteronomy 32:4: The Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are justice. Galatians 6:9: Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart. Romans 4:20–21: No distrust made him waver concerning the promises of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Genesis 37:29: When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes. Job 1:20: Then Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell upon the ground and worshiped. Invite Him in with this episode's questions for reflection. Where does dormancy find you today? Are you fighting against the darkness, trying to busy yourself to keep the frustration of slow progress at bay? Or are you learning to lean into it, yielding to the season of the soul? Show mentions. For a limited time, get 15% off our Easter gift collection by using the code EASTER15. Hop on over to our shop. Sale ends March 19, 2026. Nazareth, “Love Hurts” Caitlin Bean and Laura Phelps, Desert Bloom: Discovering Unexpected Joy in the Wilderness Laura Douglass, @lauramdoug Matthew R. Please, The Definitive Guide to Fasting and Abstinence Dan and Stephanie Burke, Avila Institute Alli Koscal, Substack, “Finding Havens” Bible Hub, Topical Encyclopedia Let's stay connected. Don't miss an episode. Subscribe to our podcast on your favorite platform.  Want to keep the conversation going? Join our private Facebook community. Stay in the know. Connect with us today.  We are committed to creating content that is free and easily accessible to every woman—especially the one looking for answers but unsure of where to go. If you've enjoyed this podcast, prayerfully consider making a donation to support it and other WWP outreach programs that bring women closer to Christ. Learn more about WWP on our website. Our shop. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

In this Bible study, we explore the powerful final chapter of Isaiah and the transition into the book of Jeremiah. Isaiah 66 introduces one of the most sobering images in Scripture: “where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” This Hebrew idiom, later used by Jesus in the New Testament, points to the reality of eternal judgment and the seriousness of rejecting God. The imagery comes from the Valley of Gehenna outside Jerusalem, a place associated with continual burning and decay. Jesus referenced this same imagery in Mark 9 to warn about the eternal consequences of sin and the urgency of removing anything that keeps us from faith in Him. From there, the study moves into Jeremiah 2:13 and the powerful metaphor of “broken cisterns.” God describes Israel abandoning Him, the fountain of living water, and digging their own broken reservoirs that cannot hold water. This vivid picture illustrates humanity's tendency to seek life, fulfillment, and security in things other than God. Throughout the teaching, we examine how these ancient warnings still apply today. People continue to build modern “cisterns” in money, power, relationships, pleasure, and self-reliance, yet only Christ offers the true living water that satisfies the soul. Jesus later stands in the temple and declares, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.” The invitation remains the same today: stop trusting in broken cisterns and come to the source of living water. Topics covered in this study: • Isaiah 66 and the imagery of the undying worm • Jesus' teaching on Gehenna and eternal judgment • The doctrine of hell and God's justice • Jeremiah's warning about broken cisterns • Idolatry and trusting in false sources of life • Jesus as the fountain of living water Scriptures referenced include: Isaiah 66:24 Mark 9:47–48 Jeremiah 2:13 John 7:37–38 This message is a call to examine what we are trusting in and to return to the only source of true life: Jesus Christ. Keep looking up. Our redemption draws near.

In this Bible study, we explore the powerful final chapter of Isaiah and the transition into the book of Jeremiah. Isaiah 66 introduces one of the most sobering images in Scripture: "where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched." This Hebrew idiom, later used by Jesus in the New Testament, points to the reality of eternal judgment and the seriousness of rejecting God. The imagery comes from the Valley of Gehenna outside Jerusalem, a place associated with continual burning and decay. Jesus referenced this same imagery in Mark 9 to warn about the eternal consequences of sin and the urgency of removing anything that keeps us from faith in Him. From there, the study moves into Jeremiah 2:13 and the powerful metaphor of "broken cisterns." God describes Israel abandoning Him, the fountain of living water, and digging their own broken reservoirs that cannot hold water. This vivid picture illustrates humanity's tendency to seek life, fulfillment, and security in things other than God. Throughout the teaching, we examine how these ancient warnings still apply today. People continue to build modern "cisterns" in money, power, relationships, pleasure, and self-reliance, yet only Christ offers the true living water that satisfies the soul. Jesus later stands in the temple and declares, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink." The invitation remains the same today: stop trusting in broken cisterns and come to the source of living water. Topics covered in this study: • Isaiah 66 and the imagery of the undying worm • Jesus' teaching on Gehenna and eternal judgment • The doctrine of hell and God's justice • Jeremiah's warning about broken cisterns • Idolatry an

In this episode, we slow down and work carefully through Matthew 5:22, one of Jesus' earliest uses of the word Gehenna. As part of our commitment to examine every passage that speaks to judgment after death—without skipping anything, we ask a simple but often neglected question: what does this verse actually say, and what does it not say?

Waweru endorses the divine right of kings, Liam thinks societies should be analyzed based on lizard size, and we criticize Wikipedia for citing it's sources.Discussion of rape and cosent in literature.- Jo Walton's review of 40,000 in Gehenna- Jo Walton's review of Regenesis - Nader Elhefnawy's review of Regenesis- Roundup of 40,000 in Gehenna by Book Club - Alan Brown's review of Downbelow Station- Wikipedia Article on Themes in C.J. Cherryh- "The Human as Other in the Science Fiction Novels of C. J. Cherryh".pg 133- Meal of ThornsSupport the show

In this episode, we slow down and work carefully through Matthew 5:22, one of Jesus' earliest uses of the word Gehenna. As part of our commitment to examine every passage that speaks to judgment after death—without skipping anything, we ask a simple but often neglected question: what does this verse actually say, and what does it not say?

Today’s Topics: Joshua Charles joins Terry for Friday with the Fathers 1) Gospel –Matthew 5:20-26 – Jesus said to his disciples:  “I tell you,  unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven. “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raqa,  will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.” Memorial of Saint Gregory of Narek, Abbot and Doctor of the Church Saint Gregory, pray for us! Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2, 3, 4) In Part 2, Terry and Joshua discuss Early Father of the Church: Saint Pope Leo the Great

Gospel Matthew 5:20-26 Jesus said to his disciples: "I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven. "You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.” Reflection The Pharisees were all about righteousness. And the mistake they made is that it didn't matter how you felt or what your intention was, as long as you did the action as perfectly as possible that was somehow pleasing to God. So the Ten Commandments could be followed very rigorously, but at the same time, Jesus is opening up a whole new way of seeing ourselves in our relationships. It's not simply about whether we do negative things to each other or must do good things to each other. It's where are you? What's your intention? The mind in the will can follow those kinds of commands that demand action. Only the heart which is promised to be filled with divinity can love. Can never want to do anything that limits a person's dignity, their value, their worth So the beauty of this passage is in keeping us in touch with our intentions. Caring for one another is the most righteous act that we can perform. Closing Prayer Father, open our hearts to the mystery of you within us so that we can turn to that beautiful presence and know that we can put on your disposition toward the world, toward each other. You are not a judging figure, but you are a forgiving figure. You are a teacher that gives us a sense of the importance of empathy and understanding of one another. Bless us with your way and not the way of a system that ignores the heart's intention. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Read OnlineJesus said to his disciples: “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:20Imagine a wife asked her husband to go to the supermarket and pick up a pound of potatoes. Being literal, he went to the store, found a pound of potatoes, picked them up, set them back down, and returned home. When his wife asks where the potatoes are, he explains that they're still at the store. Confused, she asks why he didn't bring them home, and he responds, “You only asked me to ‘pick them up.'”While this example might be humorous, it illustrates an essential truth about following instructions. The husband might have technically fulfilled the request but missed the deeper meaning. In much the same way, the scribes and Pharisees in Jesus' time scrupulously followed the letter of God's Law but often failed to grasp the spirit behind it.Jesus addresses this issue directly in today's Gospel. The Law, as given by God through Moses, was summed up in the Ten Commandments. But Jesus came to reveal the deeper meaning behind those commands. For example, He explains the true meaning of the commandment, “You shall not kill.”On the surface, one might think that as long as you don't physically murder someone, you are free from guilt. But Jesus shows that this commandment goes far beyond the act of murder. He reveals that the commandment also forbids less serious internal and external sins.Jesus identifies three levels of sin related to this commandment. First is anger. Anger is an interior disposition; of the three sins, it is the least severe. It begins with a judgmental thought or condemnation and often results in feelings of anger. Though feelings are not sinful, allowing anger to take root due to rash judgment or contempt is a sin, even if no further action is taken. Jesus warns that harboring anger makes a person “liable to judgment.”The second level of sin is verbal, specifically calling someone Raqa. This Aramaic term is a derogatory insult, meaning someone is empty-headed or worthless. Such an insult externalizes anger and reveals a more profound disdain for the person and a failure to recognize the person's worth in God's eyes. Speaking this way to someone shows a lack of respect for his or her dignity as a child of God. Jesus warns that those who commit this sin will be “answerable to the Sanhedrin.” In other words, not only will God hold them accountable, but they may also need fraternal correction from family, friends, or the Church if they fail to repent.The most serious offense Jesus mentions is calling someone, “You fool!” In biblical terms, calling someone a fool is more than just an insult; it is a condemnation of the person's character. In Scripture, a fool is someone who rejects God and lives in moral corruption, as in Psalm 14:1, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.'” To call someone a fool, therefore, is to cast judgment on the person's soul, associating that individual with someone who is cut off from God's grace. Jesus is stern in His warning: those who condemn others this way will be “liable to fiery Gehenna.”Reflect today on Jesus' teaching about the deeper meaning of this and other commandments. Lent is a time of turning away from sin and returning to God. If you struggle with anger, examine its roots. If rash judgment is at the heart of it, seek God's mercy and repent to find peace. If you've hurt others with critical or condemning words, especially if you've judged their moral character, confess this grave sin and remember that God alone is the Judge. Strive to fulfill not only the letter of God's Law but also its spirit, and your life will bear abundant fruit.My meek and humble Lord, though You are merciful, You are also just. I turn to Your mercy today, seeking forgiveness and grace to overcome the sin of anger and all that comes with it. Free me from judgmental thoughts, and help me love others with Your merciful Heart. Jesus, I trust in You.Image via Adobe StockSource: Free RSS feed from catholic-daily-reflections.com — Copyright © 2026 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. This content is provided solely for personal, non-commercial use. Redistribution, republication, or commercial use — including use within apps with advertising — is strictly prohibited without written permission.

Reading 1Sirach 15:15-20If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you;if you trust in God, you too shall live;he has set before you fire and waterto whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand.Before man are life and death, good and evil,whichever he chooses shall be given him.Immense is the wisdom of the Lord;he is mighty in power, and all-seeing.The eyes of God are on those who fear him;he understands man's every deed.No one does he command to act unjustly,to none does he give license to sin.Reading 21 Corinthians 2:6-10Brothers and sisters:We speak a wisdom to those who are mature,not a wisdom of this age,nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away.Rather, we speak God's wisdom, mysterious, hidden,which God predetermined before the ages for our glory,and which none of the rulers of this age knew;for, if they had known it,they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.But as it is written:What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard,and what has not entered the human heart,what God has prepared for those who love him, this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.GospelMatthew 5:17-37Jesus said to his disciples:"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letterwill pass from the law,until all things have taken place.Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandmentsand teaches others to do sowill be called least in the kingdom of heaven.But whoever obeys and teaches these commandmentswill be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.I tell you, unless your righteousness surpassesthat of the scribes and Pharisees,you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.But I say to you,whoever is angry with his brotherwill be liable to judgment;and whoever says to his brother, 'Raqa,'will be answerable to the Sanhedrin;and whoever says, 'You fool,'will be liable to fiery Gehenna.Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,and there recall that your brotherhas anything against you,leave your gift there at the altar,go first and be reconciled with your brother,and then come and offer your gift.Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court.Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge,and the judge will hand you over to the guard,and you will be thrown into prison.Amen, I say to you,you will not be released until you have paid the last penny."You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery.But I say to you,everyone who looks at a woman with lusthas already committed adultery with her in his heart.If your right eye causes you to sin,tear it out and throw it away.It is better for you to lose one of your membersthan to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.And if your right hand causes you to sin,cut it off and throw it away.It is better for you to lose one of your membersthan to have your whole body go into Gehenna."It was also said,Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.But I say to you,whoever divorces his wife - unless the marriage is unlawful - causes her to commit adultery,and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery."Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors,Do not take a false oath,but make good to the Lord all that you vow.But I say to you, do not swear at all;not by heaven, for it is God's throne;nor by the earth, for it is his footstool;nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.Do not swear by your head,for you cannot make a single hair white or black.Let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes,' and your 'No' mean 'No.'Anything more is from the evil one."

February 15, 2026. Fr. Tyler's homily for the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Enjoy! Gospel Matthew 5:17-37 Jesus said to his disciples: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. "You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; and whoever says to his brother, 'Raqa,' will be answerable to the Sanhedrin; and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny. "You have heard that it was said,  You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna. "It was also said, Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce. But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife -  unless the marriage is unlawful -  causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. "Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors, Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes,' and your 'No' mean 'No.' Anything more is from the evil one."

We're back and talking hardcore. This time around we're talking the best hardcore / punk songs about war.Check the website: https://www.185milessouth.com/We are on Substack writing about punk and hardcore: https://185milessouth.substack.com/Support the pod: https://www.patreon.com/185milessouthGet at me: 185milessouth@gmail.comCheck out Zack's band, SUBVERSIVE INTENT: https://rebirthrecordsphl.bandcamp.com/album/subversive-intent-demoCheck Out Kev's band, FALSE SALVATION:https://rebirthrecordsphl.bandcamp.com/album/false-salvation-through-shards-of-glassCheck out Mike's band, GEHENNA:https://ironlungrecords.bandcamp.com/album/negative-hardcore-lungs-188Intro: Toxic ReasonsOutro: DiscloseSupport the show

Universal Salvation, part 4 Welcome back to Gnostic Insights. I'm going to do my best to wrap up this review of David Bentley Hart's book, That All Shall Be Saved, Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation. And I hope you understand, particularly those of you who are Christians that are listening to this, that I do all of this in the name of the Father. It's not to tear down Christianity. It's to uphold the mission of the Messiah, which has been lost over the past several hundred years of Christianity. And so this talk of universal salvation is a necessary component of believing in the glory of God. Because universal salvation of all souls, not only all humans, but the dogs, the cats, the birds, the grasses, all living things, have to return to the Father, or else the Anointed loses power. The Father loses parts of himself. Okay, let's get back to David Bentley Hart. So we're going to run through these four meditations that are the body of his book. The first meditation is, Who is God? He says, The New Testament, to a great degree, consists in the eschatological interpretation of Hebrew Scripture's story of creation, finding in Christ as eternal Logos and risen Lord, the unifying term of beginning and end. There's no more magnificent meditation on this vision than Gregory of Nyssa's description of the progress of all persons towards union with God in the one pleroma, the one fullness of the whole Christ. All spiritual wills moving, to use this loving image, from outside the temple walls to the temple precincts, and finally beyond the ages into the very sanctuary of the glory as one. Okay, let me jump in here to say, do you notice that the New Testament words, when you use the correct translations, are the same as the translations in our Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi? Logos is the eternal spirit of humanity and the risen Lord. The Fullness is the one pleroma, the whole Christ. And in this statement, it's saying that all that is spiritual, which includes the spirits that reside within each of us, will all move as one into the pleroma of the Christ. That's who Christ is to us. He's the head of our pleroma. And when I speak of pleromas, I always picture that pyramidal shape, that hierarchical shape, and the capstone is the head. We 2nd order powers are children of the 1st order powers. The 3rd order powers are the Army of Christ that have come to redeem us. When Paul spoke of this, he was applying it literally to the temple in Jerusalem, where there were the walls of the temple, and most of the people were outside of the walls, and some of the people were in the temple precincts. And finally, the very sanctuary of the glory, where only the priests were allowed. These are the three parts that were mentioned, and these are archetypal of the movement of humanity, Hart is saying, from the outside of the pleroma of the Christ, into the pleroma of the Christ, and then into the very glory of God through the Christ. On page 90, Hart says, If one truly believes that traditional Christian language about God's goodness and the theological grammar to which it belongs are not empty, then the God of eternal retribution and pure sovereignty proclaimed by so much of Christian tradition is not and cannot possibly be the God of self-outpouring love revealed in Christ. If God is the good creator of all, he must also be the savior of all without fail, who brings to himself all he has made, including all rational wills, and only thus returns to himself in all that goes forth from him. And that's the end of the chapter, Who is God? And that pretty much states my basic belief on why everyone is going to heaven, because we all come from the Father, and therefore we all must return to the Father because the Father cannot be diminished in any way. And if he lost us, he'd be diminished. Do you see? The second meditation is, What is Judgment? And the subtitle is A Reflection on Biblical Eschatology. And eschatology, that's one of those big theological words that just means the end times, the end of time. On page 93, Hart says, There's a general sense among most Christians that the notion of an eternal hell is explicitly and unremittingly advanced in the New Testament. And yet, when we go looking for it in the actual pages of the text, it proves remarkably elusive. The whole idea is, for instance, entirely absent from the Pauline corpus as even the thinnest shadow of a hint, nor is it anywhere patently present in any of the other epistolary texts. There is one verse in the Gospels, Matthew 25-46 that, traditionally understood, offers what seems the strongest evidence for the idea, but then now Hart's going to explain how that can't be true. And then he says there are also perhaps a couple of verses from Revelation, and he says nothing's clear in Revelation, so he's not going to go there. But, What in fact the New Testament provides us with are a number of fragmentary and fantastic images that can be taken in any number of ways, arranged according to our prejudices and expectations, and declared literal or figural or hyperbolic as our desires dictate. It's why people can make the case for eternal damnation, but you can also make the case for not eternal damnation, because it's so metaphorical. On page 94, Hart says, Nowhere is there any description of a kingdom of perpetual cruelty presided over by Satan, as though he were some kind of Chthonian god. On the other hand, however, there are a remarkable number of passages in the New Testament, several of them from Paul's writings, that appear instead to promise a final salvation of all persons and all things, and in the most unqualified terms. How did some images become mere images in the general Christian imagination, while others became exact documentary portraits of some final reality? If one can be swayed simply by the brute force of arithmetic, it seems worth noting that, among the apparently most explicit statements on the last things, the universalist statements are by far the more numerous. And then he lists a number of verses from the New Testament that speak of universal salvation, over 20 of them at least, and I'll give you just a couple. Romans 5.18 says, So then, just as through one transgression came condemnation for all human beings, so also through one act of righteousness came a rectification of life for all human beings. And jumping in from the Gnostic sense, he doesn't say the fall of one human, he doesn't say through Adam, he says one transgression—and we would call that one transgression the Fall of Logos, the fall of the Aeon, which is a higher order being than we are. Or Corinthians 15.22 says, For just as in Adam all die, so also in the anointed Christ all will be given life. I would say where it says for just as in Adam all die, it's not because Adam ate the apple, it's that we humans who are outside of the Christ, we're outside of the walls of the temple, we are in the pleroma of Adam—we are in the pleroma of human beings. When you accept the anointed, then you move into the pleroma, or you nest up higher into the pleroma of the Christ. That would be the Gnostic way of saying that. Second Corinthians 5.14 says, For the love of the anointed constrains us, having reached this judgment, that one died on behalf of all, all then have died. And of course that one is the Anointed, and He died on behalf of everyone. Or even Romans 11:32, For God shut up everyone in obstinacy, so that he might show mercy to everyone. And there's a long discussion in the chapter about how God's chosen—the original elect, that being the Hebrew nation—has been obstinate about accepting Jesus of Nazareth as the Anointed. And so he's saying that everyone is shut up in obstinacy, that's the Hebrews, so that he might show mercy to everyone. And that is, they're temporarily set up in obstinacy so that the message of the Anointed can be preached far and wide, before death and after death, we Gnostics would say, and not be just constrained to only the Hebrews. That's why the Hebrews are set aside for the moment, so that those outside the temple walls can also come to Christ. And then there are 19 more verses after this, and he lists them all between pages 96 and page 102. And if you are a theological scholar or a concerned Christian that wants to know if this is heresy or not, I really suggest you buy the book, That All Shall Be Saved, by David Bentley Hart, and read it carefully from cover to cover. Jumping to page 116, Hart says, There are those metaphors used by Jesus that seem to imply that the punishment of the world to come will be of only limited duration. For example, “if remanded to prison, you shall most certainly not emerge until you pay the very last pittance.” Or, “the unmerciful slave is delivered to the torturers until he should repay everything he owes.” And Hart says it seems as if this until should be taken with some seriousness. Some wicked slaves, moreover, “will be beaten with many blows, while others will be beaten with few blows.” Hart says, of course, everyone will be “salted with fire.” This fire is explicitly that of the Gehenna. But salting here is an image of purification and preservation, for salt is good. Gehenna is the Valley of Hinnom from the Old Testament, and that is where, outside of the city of Jerusalem, the refuse was burned, and even carrion and bodies were burned. And that is why it is considered to be a hellish place. And it has become a metaphor in the time of Jesus for the purging fire, the Aeonian chastening for the good. Hart says we might even find some support for the purgatorial view of the Gehenna from the Greek of Matthew 25:46, which is the supposedly conclusive verse on the side of the Infernalist Orthodoxy, where the word used for the punishment of the last day is kolasis, which most properly refers to remedial chastisement, rather than timoria, which more properly refers to retributive justice. So, the fire of the judgment. What is judgment? The fire is the chastening fire, the fire of personal guilt and remorse over the sins one has done, that causes one to repent and turn to redemption. Hart says, It is not clear in any event that the fourth gospel, [and the fourth gospel, that's the gospel of John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John], it is not clear in any event that the fourth gospel foretells any “last judgment,” in the sense of a real additional judgment that accomplishes more than has already happened in Christ. To see His words as pointing toward and fulfilled within his own crucifixion and resurrection, wherein all things were judged and all things redeemed. The kingdom has indeed drawn very near, and even now is being revealed. The hour indeed has come. The judge who is judged in our place is also the resurrection and the life that has always already succeeded and exceeded the time of condemnation. All of heaven and of hell meet in those three days. . . Hell appears in the shadow of the cross as what has always already been conquered, as what Easter leaves in ruins, to which we may flee from the transfiguring light of God if we so wish, but where we can never finally come to rest, for being only a shadow, it provides nothing to cling to. And he attributes that concept of hell being only a shadow to Gregory of Nyssa, although we would attribute it to the Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi which came before Gregory of Nyssa. Hell exists so long as it exists only as the last terrible residue of a fallen creation's enmity to God, the lingering effects of a condition of slavery that God has conquered universally in Christ and will ultimately conquer individually in every soul. This age has passed away already, however long it lingers on its own aftermath, and thus in the Age to Come, [and that's capital A, Age, which we would interpret as the Aeons to Come, the Aeonian Pleroma to Come], and beyond all ages, all shall come to the kingdom prepared for them from before the foundation of the world. And that's the chapter, What is Judgment? The third meditation or chapter of Hart is called What is a Person? A Reflection on the Divine Image. It says over and over in the Bible that we are made in the image of God. Man is made in the image of God. That is the divine image. On page 131, Hart says, Christians down the centuries have excelled at converting the good tidings of God's love in Christ into something dreadful, irrational, and morally horrid. [And we covered that in depth in the previous three episodes, if you want to go back there.] On page 132, Hart says, I suspect that no figure in Christian history has suffered a greater injustice as a result of the desperate inventiveness of the Christian moral imagination than the Apostle Paul, since it was the violent misprision of his theology of grace, starting with the great Augustine, it grieves me to say, that gave rise to almost all of these grim distortions of the Gospel. Aboriginal guilt, predestination, (ante praevisa merita), the eternal damnation of unbaptized infants, the real existence of vessels of wrath, and so on. All of these odious and incoherent dogmatic motifs, so to speak, and others equally nasty, have been ascribed to Paul. And yet, each and every one of them, not only is incompatible with the guiding themes of Paul's proclamation of Christ's triumph and of God's purpose in election, but is something like their perfect inversion. Well, isn't that interesting? Because we already know that the archons represent the inversions of the Aeons of the Pleroma. And so, although Hart doesn't realize he's implying this, to say that what has come down to us in Christian tradition through Augustine is the perfect inversion of what Paul was actually saying about universal salvation, which means, by definition, that it's the demiurgic or the archonic version of salvation. Isn't that interesting? I mean, that is what I have been implying, that what has been taken to be Christian tradition for the last couple of thousand years is actually a diminishment of the power of Christ and the power and love of the Father. By saying that people can be lost and condemned to eternal torture, that is sacrilegious to me. That is the heresy. And that is what Hart is saying here. He goes on to say on page 133, This is all fairly odd, really. Paul's argument in those chapters is not difficult to follow. What preoccupies him from beginning to end is the agonizing mystery that the Messiah of Israel has come, and yet so few of the children of the house of Israel have accepted the fact, even while so many from outside the covenant have. And Paul wonders, how is the promised Messiah rejected by so many, yet so many outside the temple walls have accepted the Messiah? There are far more Christians than there are Jews at the moment. Why is that? Paul was wondering. Hart says, Paul's is not an abstract question regarding which individual human beings are the saved and which are the damned. In fact, by the end of the argument, the former category, [that is the saved], proves to be vastly larger than that of the elect or the called, while the latter category, [that is the damned], makes no appearance at all. Jumping down the page, he says, “so then what if,” so now he's going to go ahead and quote Paul here, Romans 9:19, Paul says, So then what if God should show his power by preserving vessels suitable only for wrath, keeping them solely for destruction, in order to provide an instructive counterpoint to the riches of the glory he lavishes on vessels prepared for mercy, whom he has called from among the Jews and the Gentiles alike. For as it happens, rather than offering a solution to the quandary in which he finds himself, Paul is simply restating that quandary in its bleakest possible form, at the very brink of despair. He does not stop there, however, because he knows that this cannot be the correct answer. It is so obviously preposterous, in fact, that a wholly different solution must be sought, one that makes sense and that will not require the surrender either of Paul's reason or of his confidence in God's righteousness. Hence, contrary to his own warnings, Paul does indeed continue to question God's justice, and he spends the next two chapters unambiguously rejecting the provisional answer, the vessels of wrath hypothesis, altogether, so as to reach a completely different and far more glorious conclusion—God blesses everyone. Romans 10: 11, 12. And by the way, in Gnostic gospel, we would say the law is actually the Demiurge's rules for human behavior, because our self-will makes us otherwise uncontrollable. Because to the Father above, the only law is love. When we act out of love, all else follows. Going on, Hart says, As for the believing remnant of Israel, [Romans 11:5], it turns out that they have been elected not as the limited number of the saved within Israel, but as the earnest through which all of Israel will be saved. They are waiting for the Anointed to come and take the place of the King of Israel, King of the Jews. King of the Jews is one of the titles of the Messiah. That means the capstone of their pleroma. You see? It's all of these pyramidal shapes that are first designed up there in the Fullness of God, the pleroma. What Paul is saying is that the Jews that are in the pleroma of Israel, it's their remnant that makes them holy. It's their remnant that is the spiritual part, the higher part, the called part, the elect part of the pleroma of the nation of the Hebrews. And it is through those elect that all of the Jews will be saved, ultimately. Hart says, For the time being, true, a part of Israel is hardened, but this will remain the case only until the ”full entirety” [that is the pleroma] of the Gentiles enter in. The unbelievers among the children of Israel may have been allowed to stumble, but God will never allow them to fall. Hart's just saying that Israel's reluctance or slowness to believing that Jesus is the Messiah is just slowing down the progress of history to give everyone else a chance to catch up to it. Quoting Hart again, We're in Romans now, 11:11. This then is the radiant answer dispelling the shadows of Paul's grim what if in the ninth chapter of Romans. It's clarion negative. It turns out that there is no final illustrative division between the vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy. That was a grotesque, all too human thought that can now be chased away for good. God's wisdom far surpasses ours, and his love can accomplish all that it intends. “He has bound everyone in disobedience so as to show mercy to everyone.” [That's Romans 11:32.] All are vessels of wrath precisely so that all may be made vessels of mercy. . . That Paul's great attempt to demonstrate that God's election is not some arbitrary act of predilective exclusion, but instead a providential means for bringing about the unrestricted inclusion of all persons, has been employed for centuries to advance what is quite literally the very teaching that he went to such great lengths explicitly to reject. . . Yet this is still not my principal point. I want to say something far more radical. I want to say that there is no way in which persons can be saved as persons except in and with all other persons. This may seem an exorbitant claim, but I regard it as no more than an acknowledgment of certain obvious truths about the fragility, dependency, and exigency of all that make us who and what we are. Oh, this is a very interesting portion. Okay, listen to this. Jumping to page 149. No soul is who or what it is in isolation, and no soul's sufferings can be ignored without the sufferings of a potentially limitless number of other souls being ignored as well. And so it seems if we allow the possibility that even so much as a single soul might slip away unmourned into everlasting misery, the ethos of heaven turns out to be “every soul for itself”—which is also, curiously enough, precisely the ethos of hell. But Christians are obliged, it seems clear, to take seriously the eschatological imagery of scripture. And there all talk of salvation involves the promise of a corporate beatitude, a kingdom of love and knowledge, a wedding feast, a city of the redeemed, the body of Christ, which means that the hope Christians cherish must in some way involve the preservation of whatever is deepest in and most essential to personality rather than a perfect escape from personality. But finite persons are not self-enclosed individual substances. They are dynamic events of relation to what is other than themselves. And then Hart summons up the idea of a single recurrent image, he says, That of a parent whose beloved child has grown into quite an evil person, but who remains a parent nevertheless, and therefore keeps and cherishes countless tender memories of the innocent and delightful being that has now become lost in the labyrinth of that damaged soul. Is all of that, those memories, those anxieties and delights, those feelings of desperate love, really to be consigned to the fire as just so much combustible chaff? Must it all be forgotten or willfully ignored for heaven to enter into that parent's soul? And if so, is this not the darkest tragedy ever composed? And is God not then a tragedian utterly merciless in his poetic omnipotence? Who or what is that being whose identity is no longer determined by its relation to that child? [Skipping to page 153] Personhood as such is not a condition possible for an isolated substance. It is an act, not a thing. And it is achieved only in and through a history of relations with others. We are finite beings in a state of becoming, and in us there is nothing that is not an action, dynamism, an emergence into a fuller or a retreat into a more impoverished existence. And so, as I said in my first meditation, we are those others who make us. Spiritual personality is not mere individuality, nor is personal love one of its merely accidental conditions or extrinsic circumstances. A person is first and foremost a limitless capacity, a place where the all shows itself with a special inflection. We exist as the place of the other, to borrow a phrase from Michel de Certeau. Certainly, this is the profoundest truth in the doctrine of resurrection. That we must rise from the dead to be saved is a claim not simply about resumed corporeality, whatever that might turn out to be, but more crucially, about the fully restored existence of the person as socially, communally, corporately constituted. Each person is a body within the body of humanity, which exists in its proper nature only as the body of Christ. Well, that's pretty neat. See, we are nested fractal hierarchies of the pleroma of the Fullness of God. And if you've been with me a while, you know what that long and complicated sentence means. Picture a pyramidal shape, picture every living part of your body as building up the pyramid, and your conscious self is the capstone of that pleroma that makes up your body. Now, you are then nested along with all other humans into the pleroma of humanity, the body of humanity, also called the body of Adam. Just the way our cells nest up into building us, we nest up into building the great body of humanity. And then, Hart is saying this body of humanity exists in its proper nature only as the body of Christ, because when we then nest up and make Christ the king of our pleroma, we are nested into the Fullness of Christ. And that is what the final salvation resting point is. When we all finally pass through the final judgment and nest up into Christ, then we're all nested up into the pleroma, we're all nested up into the Son. And there we are. And we will still have our lives the way the Fullness has their lives. They dream together as one of paradise. And that's where we're headed. Hart says, Our personhood must truly consist not only in the immediate love of those close at hand, but also in our disposition toward those whom we, by analogy, care for from afar. Or even in the abstract, for the most essential law of charity, of love, when it is truly active, is that it must inexorably grow beyond all immediately discernible boundaries in order to be fulfilled and to continue to be active. And all of those in whom each of us is implicated, and who are implicated in each of us, are themselves in turn implicated and intertwined in countless others, and on and on without limit. We belong of necessity to an indissoluble co-inherence of souls. And I think that down here on the physical level, on the material plane, the demiurgic version of that shared coherence of all souls together is quantum entanglement. That's the Demiurge's material version of how we are implicated and intertwined with every other soul. And now he goes on to say something that's very Gnostic. On the next page, Hart says, There may be within each of us—indeed there surely is—that divine spark, that divine light or spark of nous or spirit or atman that is the abiding presence of God in us, the place of radical sustaining divine imminence, nearer to me than my inmost parts. But that light is the one undifferentiated ground of our existence, not the particularity of our personal existence, in and with one another. Oh, hey, there it is. That's what I'm always saying. This one spark, that's what we call the big S Self. And the particularity of our personal existence is what we here at Gnostic Insights label as our Ego. So we are made up of the Self that we share with all others and that we share with the Son, but we are also our own individual existence. That's why we can't just blink out into nothingness and not be missed, because we have our particularity, and it has its own place in the hierarchy. Then Hart says, But then this is to say that either all persons must be saved or that none can be. [He says,] God could, of course, erase each of the elect as whoever they once were by shattering their memories and attachments like the gates of hell and then raise up some other being in each of their places, thus converting the will of each into an idiot bliss stripped of the loves that made him or her this person, associations and attachments and pity and tenderness and all the rest. If that were the case, only in hell could any of us possess something like a personal destiny, tormented perhaps by the memories of the loves we squandered or betrayed, but not deprived of them altogether. [Jumping to 157, he says], I am not I in myself alone, but only in all others. If then anyone is in hell, I too am partly in hell. . . For the whole substance of Christian faith is the conviction that another has already and decisively gone down into that abyss for us to set all the prisoners free, even from the chains of their own hatred and despair, and hence the love that has made all of us who we are and that will continue throughout eternity to do so, cannot ultimately be rejected by anyone. Amen. And that's the end of the third meditation. Now the fourth meditation, we just don't even have time to get to. It's called, What is Freedom? And if you want to hear the fourth meditation in depth, please text me in the comments and ask for more David Bentley Hart That All Shall Be Saved. But as for now, this treatise on what is freedom? I'll actually just jump to the last page and skip all of the explanations. The fourth meditation, What is Freedom? is all about free will. I guess I'll include it in some future episode about free will and just quote Hart extensively in that episode. But to close it out, Hart says, It would make no sense to suggest that God, who is by nature not only the source of being, but also the good and the true and the beautiful and everything else that makes spirits exist as rational beings, would truly be all in all if the consummation of all things were to eventuate merely in a kind of extrinsic divine supremacy over creation. But God is not a god, [or as we would say, the God Above All Gods is not the Demiurge, is how we would put it in Gnostic terms]. And his final victory, as described in scripture, will consist not merely in his assumption of perfect supremacy over all, but also in his ultimately being all in all. Could there then be a final state of things in which God is all in all, while yet there existed rational creatures whose inward worlds consisted in an eternal rejection of and rebellion against God as the sole and consuming and fulfilling end of the rational will's most essential nature? If this fictive and perverse interiority were to persist into eternity, would God's victory over every sphere of being really be complete? Or would that small miserable residual flicker of Promethean defiance remain forever as the one space in creation from which God has been successfully expelled? Surely it would, so it too must pass away. All right, that ends this long episode, because I was trying to wrap up the entire book, which I almost did. Write to me, tell me what you think of this sort of thing. I'd especially like to hear from people who used to be Christians, or who were raised in the church, and who fell away from the church because of some of these very problems and conundrums that we've been talking about for the last four episodes. God bless us all, and onward and upward! If you find these gnostic insights meaningful, please donate to the cause. Cyd pays for these podcasts out of her retirement money, and the well is running dry. If I am to keep this up, I need your financial assistance as well as your good company. I thank my (very few) paid subscibers from the bottom of my heart to the top of my pleroma. Please help. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *Stripe Credit Card *Choose your item *Item A - $10.00Item B - $25.00Item C - $50.00Total$0.00Submit

Featured playlist: The Church (That Meets in My Home) — https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5Yobt1jZDd9Zzn8Ufa-BNciyYv04Cl6mMy books:Exalted: Putting Jesus in His Place — https://www.amazon.com/Exalted-Putting-Jesus-His-Place/dp/0985118709/ref=tmm_pap_title_0God's Design for Marriage (Married Edition) — https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Design-Marriage-Married-Amazing/dp/0998786306/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493422125&sr=1-4&keywords=god%27s+design+for+marriageGod's Design for Marriage (Pre-married Edition) — https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Design-Marriage-What-Before/dp/0985118725/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_topSupport us - become a CTC Partner: https://crosstocrown.org/partners/crosstocrown.org@DougGoodin

In this episode of the Seekers of Meaning TV Show and Podcast, Rabbi Address discusses Jewish afterlife beliefs with Rabbi Dr. Simcha Raphael, focusing on Yiddish folklore. They explore spirits, rituals in mourning, and the significance of Gehenna. Raphael's book, Spirits, Ghosts, & Dybbuks, examines Yiddish literature and Jewish eschatology. [Read more...] The post Exploring Jewish Afterlife Beliefs Through Yiddish Folklore – Reb Simcha Raphael on Seekers of Meaning, 1/30/2026 appeared first on Jewish Sacred Aging.

St. Isaac the Syrian does not allow us the comfortable fiction that we can want less than everything and still be safe. His words strip away a thousand modern compromises. To say I only wish to escape Gehenna but not to enter the Kingdom is for him a form of madness. There are not three places. There are two. To fall short of the Kingdom is already to enter the place of loss. Hell is not merely fire but exclusion. It is the outer darkness of having turned away from the Face that was offered. The tragedy is not that we were punished but that we did not desire enough. This is why the spiritual life cannot be treated as damage control. We are not here merely to avoid catastrophe. We are here to be transfigured. Christ did not come so that we might barely survive eternity but so that we might shine as the sun in the Kingdom of the Father. Every half hearted approach to faith is therefore a refusal of glory. It is not humility. It is fear disguised as prudence. Isaac calls us to a hunger that dares to want everything God wants to give. From this flows his severe counsel about silence and withdrawal. He is not condemning love of neighbor. He is defending the integrity of the heart. If a man seeks to heal others while losing his own clarity then his charity has become a form of self betrayal. A clouded mind cannot give light. A weakened conscience cannot give strength. To remain in constant exposure when one is not yet stable is not heroism. It is negligence. Isaac insists that the first obedience is to guard the sanctuary of the heart. When the heart is healthy it teaches without words. When it is sick even holy words become hollow. Here he shows something deeply uncomfortable for our age. Being seen is not the same as being holy. Being useful is not the same as being whole. One can be busy for God while drifting away from Him. To be far from men in order to be with God is not selfishness when it preserves the soul. In time such a life benefits others more than any speech because it radiates truth rather than merely talking about it. This leads to Isaac's terrifying diagnosis of how corruption begins. The devil does not start with fornication. He starts with vainglory. He offers the sweetness of being admired for virtue. It seems harmless. It even feels spiritual. Yet the moment the mind steps out of its refuge to taste this praise the door is opened. What begins as spiritual self regard becomes sensual fantasy. What was once clear becomes confused. The fall is not sudden. It is incremental and therefore more deadly. One indulgence prepares the next. The first passion creates the conditions for the second. The remedy is not endless argument with thoughts. Isaac is blunt. To wrestle with passions once they have filled the imagination is already to be weakened. Images and idols are stamped upon the mind. The heart loses its simplicity. The truer strategy is to outrun them by remembrance of virtue and God. When the soul turns immediately toward what is pure and beautiful the invading thoughts find no place to lodge. They depart without leaving a trace. Everything in these pages converges on one demand. We must want God more than our safety more than our reputation more than our consolations and more than our sins. The Kingdom is not won by those who merely avoid falling but by those who run. To hold anything back is already to drift toward the outer darkness. To give everything is to begin even now to shine. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:02:12 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Humility Real? - how heart react when another wounds us Is our understanding of the Kingdom and its light childish or rooted in mature faith Do we desire the kingdom or look for an in-between state Do we teach others before we are healed? Enemy is subtle - vainglorious to focus on sin or temptation. Should focus on virtue. Resolve and labor tied together Virtue must be practiced otherwise we are like a fledgling without feathers Humility, fervor, tears can be lost through negligence Affliction should ultimately give way to hope. Should not seek ways to avoid the cross  •  11. Begin with courage.  Don't divide the soul but trust God absolutely 00:02:42 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 173 00:04:04 Una's iPhone: It's the feast of St Agnes today, my name day 00:04:24 Una's iPhone: Una is Agnes in Irish 00:05:06 Una's iPhone: Those early virgins would have lived at home 00:05:24 Una's iPhone: Like hermits of a sort 00:08:16 Anna: We're going to get hit hard. Prayers for my children and I not to lose power. 00:08:26 Anna: GA 00:08:28 Anna: Ice 00:14:38 read.ai meeting notes: noah added read.ai meeting notes to the meeting. Read provides AI generated meeting summaries to make meetings more effective and efficient. View our Privacy Policy at https://www.read.ai/pp Type "read stop" to disable, or "opt out" to delete meeting data. 00:17:49 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 173, # 14, final paragraph 00:26:57 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 174, # 15, first paragraph 00:33:18 Ryan Ngeve: Father if we ought to hide our virtues from others for the sake of humility, how then are we to teach others through our example 00:50:13 Jonathan Grobler: Once heard someone say, in the lines off, a true reflection of the health of a parish, is how long the confession line is. 00:51:04 Ben: Anna says; As a mother, I feel this exhortation to my bones.  I have these little people to teach, who have much greater purity of heart than I. 00:54:57 Jesssica Imanaka: I love the suggestion that families in a parish should meet to discuss the asceticism of parenthood and to help and support each other in that. 00:56:43 Eleana Urrego: Mother Teresa said is not doing a lot of things, but to do the small things with love. 00:57:08 Bob Čihák, AZ: Here's most of what I know about St. Charbel: https://www.ncregister.com/features/devotion-to-st-sharbel-grows-in-us 00:58:20 Eleana Urrego: Reacted to "Here's most of what ..." with

Today, we deep-dive into the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Ruler (Luke 16:19-31) in order to answer the following question: Did Jesus believe that hell was temporary or forever? What the Bible Actually Says About Hell, Part 4. That You May Know Him, Episode 284.

Renue Healthcare https://Renue.Healthcare/ToddYour journey to a better life starts at Renue Healthcare. Visit https://Renue.Healthcare/Todd Bulwark Capital https://KnowYourRiskPodcast.comBe confident in your portfolio with Bulwark! Schedule your free Know Your Risk Portfolio review. Go to KnowYourRiskPodcast.com today. Alan's Soaps https://www.AlansArtisanSoaps.comUse coupon code TODD to save an additional 10% off the bundle price.Bonefrog https://BonefrogCoffee.com/ToddThe new GOLDEN AGE is here!  Use code TODD at checkout to receive 10% off your first purchase and 15% on subscriptions.LISTEN and SUBSCRIBE at:The Todd Herman Show - Podcast - Apple PodcastsThe Todd Herman Show | Podcast on SpotifyWATCH and SUBSCRIBE at: Todd Herman - The Todd Herman Show - YouTubeNick Fuentes's Followers Have 330 Trillion Reasons to be Angry // When Your Morality Is Shaped Like Snot // Hell is PermanentEpisode links:‘Sioux Falls Man' Is Arrested, and There's Something Weird About the News CoverageMy biggest regret in life is that Trump will not be alive to witness our full takeover of AmericaOMG. Somali daycare manager speaks to the media after his “business” was allegedly broken into, claims student enrollment and employee documentation was stolen. You cannot make this up.Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison admits the Somalians were imported to vote Democrat: He says they even go out to ballot harvest for Democrats and the Somalians are used in multiple states to swing elections for DemocratsDemocrat Chris Murphy - who opposed the successful raid to capture Maduro - gets confronted by CNN for previously calling for him to be outed. CNN: "In 2019, you wrote an oped and you called for Maduro to be gone..."2020. Chuck Schumer criticizes Trump for not bringing an end to the Maduro regime. Schumer: "The President brags about his Venezuela policy? Give us a break. He hasn't brought an end to the Maduro regime."What Does God's Word Say?Matthew 25:41, 46 (Jesus' words in the sheep-and-goats judgment):"Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels... And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."2 Thessalonians 1:9 (Paul on the fate of those who do not obey the gospel):"They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might."Mark 9:43-48 (Jesus on Gehenna):"It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell [Gehenna], to the unquenchable fire... where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched."Revelation 14:9-11 (spoken by a third angel as part of a series of angelic proclamations):"If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name."

Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we are in week two of our Christmas series!--The PursueGOD Truth podcast is the “easy button” for making disciples – whether you're looking for resources to lead a family devotional, a small group at church, or a one-on-one mentoring relationship. Join us for new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Find resources to talk about these episodes at pursueGOD.org.Help others go "full circle" as a follower of Jesus through our 12-week Pursuit series.Click here to learn more about how to use these resources at home, with a small group, or in a one-on-one discipleship relationship.Got questions or want to leave a note? Email us at podcast@pursueGOD.org.Donate Now--WE THREE KINGS: A ROYAL MESS AND A FAITHFUL GODMost of us skim past the first seventeen verses of the New Testament. The long list of names in Matthew's genealogy feels distant and hard to pronounce, so we move on quickly. But Matthew didn't include those names by accident. He placed them there to ground the Christmas story in real history. Jesus didn't drop out of the sky. He entered the world through a real family—full of faith, failure, courage, compromise, and grace.Matthew organizes Jesus' family tree into three groups of fourteen generations. First come the patriarchs, from Abraham to David—the rise of a family. Then come the kings, from David to the exile—the ruin of a kingdom. Finally comes the remnant, from the exile to Jesus—the long road toward restoration. Last week we looked at the outsiders in Jesus' lineage: Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth. This week we turn to the kings.You might expect the kings to be the highlight reel—strong leaders, noble faith, spiritual consistency. Instead, what we find is a royal mess. To understand it, we'll look at three kings from the southern kingdom of Judah: a father, a son, and a grandson. Their stories show how faith can be passed down, rejected, reclaimed, and lost again.King Ahaz: The Shadow of a Bad LegacyBy the time Ahaz became king, Israel was divided. The northern kingdom had fully embraced wickedness. Judah, the southern kingdom—where Jesus' line continued—was struggling to stay faithful. Ahaz did not help.2 Kings 16:2–3 (NLT) tells us that Ahaz “did not do what was pleasing in the sight of the Lord… Instead, he followed the example of the kings of Israel, even sacrificing his own son in the fire.”In the ancient world, people believed that if you wanted the gods to act, you had to give them something valuable. Ahaz was losing a war and terrified of losing his throne. In desperation, he went to the Valley of Ben Hinnom and sacrificed his own son to Molech. That valley later became known as Gehenna—the word Jesus used for hell.Ahaz's legacy is devastating. He sacrificed his son on the altar of selfishness. Before we judge him too quickly, we should ask an uncomfortable question: What do we sacrifice our children to today? Career success, personal freedom, reputation, comfort, or misplaced ambition can quietly become modern altars.King Hezekiah: The Cycle BreakerAfter Ahaz died, his son Hezekiah took the throne. He grew up surrounded by idolatry. He had watched his father's choices destroy lives. Everything about his upbringing suggested he would repeat the cycle.But 2 Kings 18:5–7 (NLT) says something remarkable: “Hezekiah trusted in the Lord… There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah.”Hezekiah broke the cycle. He tore down idols—even destroying the bronze serpent Moses had made because people were worshiping it...

Josh Harris sits down with author Brian Recker to talk honestly about hell, deconstruction, and what remains when fear-based religion falls apart. Together, they explore the grief of losing religious community, the courage it takes to rethink deeply held beliefs, and why so many people feel spiritually homeless after walking away from traditional evangelical structures.Brian and Josh unpack how the doctrine of hell has shaped Christian mission, identity, and urgency, often at the expense of love, justice, and inclusion. They revisit Jesus' teachings on Gehenna, the “narrow gate,” and the cross, placing them back in their historical context and asking what they actually reveal about God, power, and resistance.About Brian ReckerBrian Recker is a former Marine officer, the son of a Baptist preacher, and a graduate of Bob Jones University. He spent eight years as an evangelical pastor before undergoing a profound deconstruction of his faith and moving toward a more inclusive, love-centered spirituality.Today, Brian speaks openly about following Jesus without fear of hell through his writing and social platforms, including his Substack, Beloved. His book, Hell Bent, challenges one of Christianity's most deeply embedded doctrines and argues that fear has distorted the heart of the gospel. Released on September 30, Hell Bent quickly became a USA Today best-seller.Brian lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, and is a father of four.Connect with BrianSubstack – Beloved: https://brianrecker.substack.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/berecker/?hl=enTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@berecker87His book "Hell Bent": ⁠https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/771172/hell-bent-by-brian-recker/

Featured playlist: The Church (That Meets in My Home) — https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5Yobt1jZDd9Zzn8Ufa-BNciyYv04Cl6mMy books:Exalted: Putting Jesus in His Place — https://www.amazon.com/Exalted-Putting-Jesus-His-Place/dp/0985118709/ref=tmm_pap_title_0God's Design for Marriage (Married Edition) — https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Design-Marriage-Married-Amazing/dp/0998786306/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493422125&sr=1-4&keywords=god%27s+design+for+marriageGod's Design for Marriage (Pre-married Edition) — https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Design-Marriage-What-Before/dp/0985118725/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_topSupport us - become a CTC Partner: https://crosstocrown.org/partners/crosstocrown.org@DougGoodin

Gospel  Matthew 10:28-33 Jesus said to his Apostles: "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 Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.” Reflection The last line can be disturbing if not understood clearly. Jesus makes clear he has deep love and deep concern for all of us. He knows everything about us and he also has one unique quality. He honors our freedom. He refuses to make us believe in him. And what he's saying, ultimately is, if you choose not to accept me, I cannot force you to do that. And if you don't do that, I can't reach you. I can't heal you. I can't help you. Closing Prayer The love that God has for us is hard for us to grasp. It's a love that is freely offered and must be freely received. There's great sadness in Jesus when he says the last line of this passage, because he knows he cannot make you do anything that you don't choose. So bless us God with a constant, consistent choice for all the gifts that you give us. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I talk with Brian Recker about his new book Hell Bent and the ways fear-based theology has shaped so many of our spiritual imaginations. Brian grew up learning about hell and God in the same breath, and he unpacks how that fusion created a system built on binary thinking, punishment, and spiritual insecurity. We explore his journey from fundamentalism to evangelical ministry to a reimagined faith centered on love, liberation, and a vision Jesus preached. We get into Gehenna, apocalyptic language, why evangelicals cling to certainty, how fear distorts our understanding of God, and what it means to live as people who bring heaven to earth rather than create hell on it. This is a conversation about reclaiming our belovedness, deconstructing fear, and rediscovering a spirituality that looks like compassion, justice, and the radical welcome of Jesus.Brian Recker, M.Div, is a public theologian, speaker, and writer on Christian spirituality without exclusionary dogma. The son of a Baptist preacher and an alum of the fundamentalist Bob Jones University, he spent eight years as an evangelical pastor before deconstructing his faith to find a more inclusive spirituality. He now speaks about following Jesus without fear of hell on his popular Instagram account and his Substack, Beloved. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, and has four children and a rescue pup named Maev.Brian's Book:Hell BentBrian's Recommendations:Reason, Faith, and RevolutionActsConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.comGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTubeConsider Giving to the podcast and to the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Contact me to advertise: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com Support the show

Mark 9:36-50 (NKJV)Andrew, Isack, and Edwin discuss the horror of temptations, stumbling blocks, and causing others to sin.Read the written devo that goes along with this episode by clicking here.    Let us know what you are learning or any questions you have. Email us at TextTalk@ChristiansMeetHere.org.    Join the Facebook community and join the conversation by clicking here. We'd love to meet you. Be a guest among the Christians who meet on Livingston Avenue. Click here to find out more. Michael Eldridge sang all four parts of our theme song. Find more from him by clicking here.   Thanks for talking about the text with us today.________________________________________________If the hyperlinks do not work, copy the following addresses and paste them into the URL bar of your web browser: Daily Written Devo: https://readthebiblemakedisciples.wordpress.com/?p=23351The Christians Who Meet on Livingston Avenue: http://www.christiansmeethere.org/Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TalkAboutTheTextFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/texttalkMichael Eldridge: https://acapeldridge.com/ 

There are ten different words, or phrases used to represent hell, and each has their separate meaning and place. Sheol, Hades, and the Pit all represent the place where people exist currently. Gehenna, the Lake of Fire, and outer darkness represent the future hell where people will go after the Great White Throne Judgment Day. Satan and most likely his demons with him are cast into the lake of fire as it says in Revelation. The words Abyss, Abyssos, Bottomless Pit, and Tartarus each represent where demons are currently assigned, each area perhaps having certain fallen angels and demons. Understand more about these words and places which refer to hell, as Bill and Annette biblically explain each. For more information about Bill Wiese and Soul Choice Ministries please visit us at: https://soulchoiceministries.org/  You can find more of Bill's teachings at: BillWieseTV-YouTube

Today's Topics: 1, 2, 3, 4) Gospel - Luke 12:1-7 - At that time: So many people were crowding together that they were trampling one another underfoot. Jesus began to speak, first to His disciples, "Beware of the leaven–that is, the hypocrisy–of the Pharisees. "There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops. I tell you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but after that can do no more. I shall show you Whom to fear. Be afraid of the One Who after killing has the power to cast into Gehenna; yes, I tell you, be afraid of that One. Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows." Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr Saint Ignatius, pray for us! Bishop Sheen quote of the day

Gospel Luke 12:1-7 At that time: So many people were crowding together that they were trampling one another underfoot. Jesus began to speak, first to his disciples, "Beware of the leaven–that is, the hypocrisy–of the Pharisees. "There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops. I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but after that can do no more. I shall show you whom to fear. Be afraid of the one who after killing has the power to cast into Gehenna; yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one. Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.” Reflection It's interesting that Jesus is speaking here to the disciples, and you wonder what went through their mind. He's saying that you have to be careful about those who are going to resist you and your work. But don't be afraid if they kill you, because even though they might do that, they can never harm you. You are in the care of the God who created you. He knows you. He will not let anything happen to you, that is not for you. This may have been the beginning of the disciples finally realizing how dangerous their ministry would become. Closing Prayer Father, we worry about so many things. We often we even worry about whether or not we are going to be accepted when we die. But over and over again, you have said to so many, to all of us, nothing can separate you from the love of God. When you intend, when you struggle, when you work, longing for connection with him, you have nothing to fear. You will always be with him forever. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Friends of the Rosary,Today, we honor Ignatius of Antioch, the third bishop of Antioch in Syria, who suffered martyrdom in the Roman Amphitheater around 107, for unambiguously proclaiming the apostolic faith.About the Eucharist, he said, The Eucharist is 'the flesh of Christ' and the 'medicine of immortality.'Related to the immortality of the soul, in today's reading (Luke 12:1-7), Christ Our Lord is revealing to us:"I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but after that can do no more. I shall show you whom to fear. Be afraid of the one who, after killing, has the power to cast into Gehenna; yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one.Aren't five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows."Ave Maria!Come, Holy Spirit, come!To Jesus through Mary!Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.Please give us the grace to respond with joy!+ Mikel Amigot w/ María Blanca | RosaryNetwork.com, New YorkEnhance your faith with the new Holy Rosary University app:Apple iOS | New! Android Google Play• ⁠October 17, 2025, Today's Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET

At that time:So many people were crowding togetherthat they were trampling one another underfoot.Jesus began to speak, first to his disciples,"Beware of the leaven–that is, the hypocrisy–of the Pharisees."There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed,nor secret that will not be known.Therefore whatever you have said in the darknesswill be heard in the light,and what you have whispered behind closed doorswill be proclaimed on the housetops.I tell you, my friends,do not be afraid of those who kill the bodybut after that can do no more.I shall show you whom to fear.Be afraid of the one who after killinghas the power to cast into Gehenna;yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one.Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins?Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God.Even the hairs of your head have all been counted.Do not be afraid.You are worth more than many sparrows."

Why do purgatory and hell exist? The Catechism teaches us today about the existence and the meaning of purgatory and hell. We learn that purgatory is a transitional state of purification while hell is the state of permanent separation from God. Fr. Mike reminds us that nobody drifts into heaven because “we cannot be united to God unless we freely choose to love him.” Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 1030-1037. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.