Letter Never Sent

 "If you could save your own father from hell...wouldn't you?" 

Bishop Carlton Pearson ~ Come Sunday 

July, 2016 

Dad,

I'm just writing to let you know that mom passed away a few months ago.  I was with her during her last days and I know in my heart that she loved the Lord and was waiting eagerly for her eternity with Him.  I know that I mentioned in a few of my past letters to you that I am a believer in God, and I still follow that path.  I also realize that you were never too taken with what you called "church stuff."  Knowing your family history as I do, I understand.  But that in no way takes away my love for you, or the fact that I have prayed over and over that you would come to know Him as I have.  My desire is that assurance in my heart that I will one day be with my parents once again.  Know that I am praying for you each day...and that God loves you as do I.

Scott 

It  was a letter that I never found time to send.  A few months after the death of my mother, I wrote a quick note to my dad in Minnesota to tell him she had passed.  He never received it because it was never sent.  That's on me.  I thought about that short note once again this week as I watched the 2018 film Come Sunday.  It's the story about Bishop Carlton Pearson, who ran afoul of church leadership in the 1990's by turning thousands of years of church teachings on their ear.  His crime of heresy?  Speaking to the possibility that a loving God would not and could not condemn His children to torment in hell.  The belief that those who are somehow "separated" from God will one day face the torment and fires of hell has been a staple of Christian theology for thousands of years.  Let me put it another way which may cause you to look a this differently.  The belief that those who are somehow separated from the God who created them has been a staple of man made religious teachings for thousands of years.  The movie Come Sunday caused me to look at my own life situations differently.  My own father, who to my knowledge was never a believer, passed away in 2018 without ever knowing the Lord.  Is he now in hell?  What if I could somehow save him from that torment?  Were that the case I would do it in a heartbeat.  But first I would need to recognize that hell is indeed a true and real place of torment, and that a loving God would have no qualms about sending His children to a eternity there.  That is something I cannot do.  I will never believe that the God who loved me enough to create me in His own image and to provide for my redemption through Christ Jesus would do all of these things only to ultimately banish me to torment in hell.  Yet millions of Christians continue to believe the spoon fed doctrine of Gods hellfire and punishment.  

"But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented.  'And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.'  "Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my fathers house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.'  "Abraham said to him, 'they have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.'  "And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'  "But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.' "

Luke 16: 25 - 31 NKJV 

The phrase "separated" from God has been playing in my thoughts a lot this week.  It was something that was discussed as we watched the movie this week.  Perhaps God does have a special place designated for those who have become separated from Him?  Was my own dad separated from God?  Well, as I so often say, it's a good story if you can sell it.  And the mainstream church has been selling this story hook line and sinker for thousands of years.  I don't know about you, but I have a hard time believing that a God who created all which we see could ever be separated from anything He has created.  We are created in His image {Genesis 1:27}.  It is God who breathed into us the breath of life {Genesis 2:7}.  Are we to believe that at some point God decided to remove Himself from something He lovingly created?  I don't see it.  However, millions of believers have drank the kool aid over the years to the point where it has become accepted theology.  As someone once said, tell a lie often enough and eventually it becomes truth.  Is it a lie that the mainstream church has been teaching?  Each person needs to decide that on their own based upon what we know and understand about God.  Bishop Pearson did, and he lost everything in the process.  I know in my heart that God is a loving God {1 John 4:8}.  I know that I am created in His image, and that He lives in me {Galatians 2:20}.  I also know that Jesus became sin that my own sins would be wiped clean {Corinthians 5:21}.  All of this leads me to believe that God loves His children He has created and that His greatest desire is that we be one with He and Christ {John 17:21}.  God is not seeking to punish...but to redeem.  I only wish I would have shared that good news with my dad.  

He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

~Scott~