a false evangel

Originally posted on February 19, 2009 – by Andre Piet

The broadcaster that carries the Good Message high in its banner rarely manages to make me glad anymore. Two weeks ago it was Andries Knevel who sounded a mournful note about Genesis; this week it is Dirk van Genderen who in the program magazine ‘Vision’ (can they not change that name?) manages to turn the Good Message into its opposite. Under the title ‘not everyone goes to heaven,’ he takes up arms against the doctrine of universal reconciliation.

I wish to state emphatically that the doctrine of universal reconciliation stands in sharp contrast to what the Bible says…

Van Genderen cites many Bible texts but consistently distorts what is actually written.

A key text in the doctrine of universal reconciliation is 1 Timothy 4:10: “For for this are we toiling and being reproached, that we rely on the living God, Who is the Saviour for all mankind, especially for believers.” This verse proves for them that all people will be saved.

Now Van Genderen happens to quote 1 Tim. 4:10 in a rendering that is demonstrably incorrect. Had he quoted the Statenvertaling or the NBV, he would have read crystal clear (in accordance with the original text) that the living God is the Saviour of all mankind (not merely “for all mankind”). And also that precisely this message was the reason for Paul’s efforts and for the much opposition he encountered. With his article Van Genderen proves that, after nearly 20 centuries, nothing has changed in this respect.

Hell is just as real as heaven.
Hell is called the place where the fire is not quenched, and where the worm does not die (Mark 9:43–46), which implies that the judgment has no end.

Nonsense. In the passage in question it is not about ‘hell’ but about Gehenna, that is the valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem. That is a real place and Isaiah prophesies in connection with the Kingdom of Peace that there the corpses of rebels will lie. “And they (pelgrims) shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me; for their worm shall not die, nor shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.” (Isaiah 66:24). A gruesome spectacle, that is true, but it has nothing to do with a ‘hell’ or with torment or with an endless judgment.

Think also of the words from John 3:36: “He who is believing in the Son has life eternal; yet he who is stubborn as to the Son shall not see life, but the indignation of God is remaining on him.” The message seems clear to me: life eternal stands here opposite the indignation of God which remains on the one who is disobedient to the Son, to the Lord Jesus.

It concerns inheriting the life of the coming eon. If someone is disobedient to the Son, the indignation of God will rest upon him and he will perish. “And it shall be that every soul which should not hear that Prophet shall be utterly exterminated out of the people” (Acts 3:23). Very concrete language in connection with Israel and the nations at the dawn of the coming Kingdom of Peace. But it has nothing to do with an endless hellish punishment.

In Revelation 22:5 we read that the slaves of God shall reign as kings for all eternities. That is without end, endless, forever, eternal.

They shall reign as kings “into the eons of the eons” (literally translated). In Rev.11:15 the same is written of Jesus Christ: He shall reign for the eons of the eons. Will that never end? According to Dirk van Genderen it will not. According to Paul it will! “For He must be reigning UNTIL He should be placing all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy is death…” (1 Corinthians 15:25,26). Because van Genderen sees no end to Christ’s reign, he also does not see that death will ultimately be abolished. And therefore neither does he see that God will finally be All in all.

It is remarkable that the Lord Jesus very often speaks about hell, and about eternal judgment, the eternal chastening, as in Matthew 25:46: “And these shall be coming away into chastening eternal, yet the just into life eternal.” Do we wish to know better than He?

Translators who thought they knew better than Jesus made of Gehenna (= the valley of Hinnom) a hell. And of eons, which according to Scripture have a beginning and an end (“the consummation of the eons,” etc.), they made an endless eternity. Who is being willful here?
Incidentally, Jesus, according to His own words, was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt.15:24).

Someone may think: is it necessary to devote so much attention to this? I think so, because here the very core of the Evangel is at stake. Whoever denies the eternity of hell, and whoever asserts that everyone will ultimately go to heaven, brings a false evangel.

I agree with van Genderen: the core of the Evangel is at issue here. In the Evangel that Paul proclaimed among the nations, God is the Saviour of all mankind. Purely for free! A doctrine of endless hellish punishment stands in direct contradiction to that. This doctrine does not bring people to heartfelt faith (=trust), but to fear and fundamental mistrust of God. It is sold (yes indeed, there is a price tag attached) as ‘evangel’, but it is the very opposite of a good message.

Delen: