[2ndDivisionVet]

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
By Martin Luther

A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing;
our helper he amid the flood
of mortal ills prevaling.
For still our ancient foe
doth seek to work us woe;
his craft and power are great,
and armed with cruel hate,
on earth is not his equal.

2. Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing,
were not the right man on our side,
the man of God’s own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he;
Lord Sabaoth, his name,
from age to age the same,
and he must win the battle.

3. And though this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God hath willed
his truth to triumph through us.
The Prince of Darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure,
for lo, his doom is sure;
one little word shall fell him.

4. That word above all earthly powers,
no thanks to them, abideth;
the Spirit and the gifts are ours,
thru him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go,
this mortal life also;
the body they may kill;
God’s truth abideth still;
his kingdom is forever.

[Hammerhead]

Word to yo’ mutha Joel Olsteen.

Heed up yo!

[Inyo-Mono]

God bless you for this very real reminder of our fate without Salvation.

[count-your-change]

Maybe “Pastor Bill” should spend more time with his studies since he confuses and treats different terms as one and the same.

[Saundra Duffy]

“Jesus, is the one who will actually decide the eternal fate of every human being”

Thank God for that! Remember when the Disciples wanted Jesus to call down fire on some group? Jesus rebuked them. The judging is Jesus’ business; He is worthy; He has the authority. I don’t like being condemned to hell by puny humans; I’m funny that way.

[brent13a]

Jesus actually referenced Gehenna, the Valley of Gehimnon, in that passage.

And do not have fear of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the Spiritl. Rather, have fear more so of Him who is able to destroy the Spirit and the body in Gehenna.

What's interesting is from time to time I'm reminded that christianity and conservatives like to spout off the phrase "judaeo-christian" like it's going to seal up all liberal arguments. The weird part being that 'judaeo' comes first and is the most disregarded aspect, what with Jesus and his 12 disciples having been zealous Jews and all.
For 5,000 years before Jesus and 350 years after his execution "Hell" never existed. Actually reading the Tanakh (or OT as christians call it) reveals no mention of it or a 'hellfire'. Any translation of the NT worth it's salt also translates what was said correctly without any hellenistic mythology interpolations.
"Hell" didn't exist until the Latin Vulgate and the King James Version was produced by hellenist christians.
Besides the Hebrew Tanakh there are many christian bibles that don't use the mythological iconography as well:
Hanson’s New Covenant, Young’s Literal Translation, Twentieth Century New Testament, Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible, Weymouth’s New Testament, Jewish Publication Society Bible OT, Emphatic Diaglott Greek /English Int., Tanakh/The Complete Jewish Bible
to name a few.
She'ol, The Pit, The Abyss, Gehenna, these are not "hebrew terms" for hell, they are names and titles that have specific meaning and have nothing to do with a mythological "hades-realm full of fire".
Reading Tanakh & Revelation reveals that upon the final resurrection at the End-of-the Age His(YHWH's) Wrath will be like a Refiner's Fire sweeping away Death, The Adversary, and all the Wicked forever. They don't go to a mythological hades-realm full of fire, they get burnt out of existence altogether....by YHWH's wrath.
Jesus didn't preach a new religion separate from his Jewish roots, Paul and the Hellenists did that.

[patlin]

One must define the word ‘evil’ as our Almighty Father above defines it, not by Greco-Roman-English standards. Doctrine of Christendom is so hell bent on physical immorality, but is that the ‘evil’ that he is most concerned about? (Ex 32-the golden calf incident and Aaron's attempt to appease the people by letting them break a commandment that YHVH had just spoken to them Himself) It's not how we perceive how we worship YHVH, it is how HE perceives it and HE & His Son, Yah'shua our Messiah only gave us one way, the way of Torah through the testimony of Yah'shua our Messiah. Yah'shua kept all his Father's ways are we are to do our best to do so also. Add not & take away not!

Worshiping our Elohyim in a manner that he specifically commanded us not to do is the root of all evil because it shows our contempt for His ways & instructions. It shows our disrespect for Him that bring dishonor to His Name. Since man fell, YHVH has been trying to get His children to turn back to His ways in order to restore His good Name.

The 1st commandment that YHVH gave was in Gen 2:1 - on the seventh day YHVH Alef-Tav rested...and YHVH Alef-Tav sanctified it and made it holy. It is a set apart day for His children to rest from their work and focus their attention on teaching & learning His Word so that they may then be filled with the ‘fuel’ to sustain them while they are out in the world the other days of the week.

Prov 13:24 says to ‘spare the rod’. Greco-Roman-English mindsets tell us this has to do with corporal punishment. In YHVH’s pure Hebrew the word ‘rod’ is literally ‘Sabbath’ which means divine teaching. For nearly 2 thousand years, Christendom has removed the core instruction of YHVH and kept it from His children. The core instruction that teaches one the path to ‘life’.

Want to get the world to ‘turn back’ then teach ‘turn back’ NOT ‘turn away’ from because just ‘turning away’ can lead anywhere but ‘turning back to’ leads one to the true path to life which was proclaimed in the beginning, not 4000 yrs later.

With the aid of the testimony of Messiah and following him by ‘turning back’ to his Father's ways, the light in our hearts truly shines in order to light the true path so we can run that race in pursuit of eternal life & peace & WIN!

[American Constitutionalist]

There are many paths to hell, i.e. Religion, self righteousness, but, only ONE way to God, Heaven, Eternal Life, that is Jesus Christ, Yeshua !

Jesus Christ's own words:
Matthew 7:13:

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

John 14:6 :
Jesus answered him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one goes to the Father except through me.

[Cvengr]

Good post.

I suspect too many ‘liberal’ Christians fail to discern the Judgment on the Cross with Forgiveness of sin.

His Judgment of all sin on the Cross, now allows God the freedom to forgive us immediately when we face Him and confess our sin to Him, placing us now in a perspective of Him in righteousness rather than expecting judgment.

So how do we escape judgment? Simple. By faith in Him, facing Him, confessing our sin to Him, and letting Him handle the situation. He provides, we accept and by that faithful obedience live the spiritual walk He has planned for us.

[Augustinian monk]

“The popularity of recent heretical books such as Love Wins, by Rob Bell, as well as the rarity of actual teaching on the fate of the wicked even among many evangelical churches have convinced me that this defection is real.”

Ever wonder why other religions don’t seem to have the same problem maintaining doctrinal purity? Satan is not concerned with the false religions of the world, ie Islam, Mormonism, Jehova Witnesses. They are just different lanes on the wide road to perdition. He targets those churches that teach that salvation comes not by a righteousness of our own, but the righteousness that comes by believing in Jesus Christ crucified for our sins and Him raised bodily from the grave. Churches that have historically taught that message are always under assault.