Thanks for your response. I will email you personally about connecting and talking more in depth about your question and whatever the Lord has for us.

But a brief response to your question: I have no doubt that there are believers who are walking in Christ but still attend a denominated “church” meeting/group. God is gracious. I was one of them; despite the crook system I still managed to pursue Christ and live for Him.

However, there are many and varied reasons that these man-made structures are not only extra-biblical but also counterproductive, too many to go into here. (As I said in the endnotes, it was not the scope of this article to go into all that).

If you have a dig around the site you will find many answers to your question. I will send you a PDF version of my book ‘Heaven’s Underground Blueprint’ which will also answer it thoroughly.

Blessings to you,
Bretto

I’ve heard lots of good things about you from my mate Jason. I’d love to meet you. I love meeting fellow belivers in Christ who are pasisonate about knowing Him, sharing Him and living radically for Him (which is the only way). I especially enjoyed your article on the Gospel of the Kingdom - I believe John 3:16 is only the second half of the Gospel, without the rest it is taken way out of context and only breeds counterfeit salvations and lukewarm living.
There is much to share, but just one question in response to your questions above. What if a man was able to say yes to all of your biblically aligned questions BECAUSE they attended a local biblically sound church?

ybiC

Samuel

Paul Young lives in my town, and I’ve gotten to know him a little bit, though our paths don’t cross often because we are both very busy in our respective callings. I have found Paul to be a genuinely hungry heart for the truth as it is in Jesus and not the heretic that some consider him to be.

I’m well aware of the concerns that folks have with some aspects of his book, and while I am no Universalist myself, neither is Paul. I find it very interesting that folks believe him to be. He and I have discussed this at length. He refuses to land in the Universalist’s camp.

However, unless we think God to be a very poor communicator, it seems He didn’t have much intention of giving us solid details on the nature and length of time for judgment in the afterlife. There is so much He left out in His explanation of Hell, that I’m drawn to conclude it was not His intention to provide us with enough material to become very dogmatic about much that relates to this theme.

It seems clear that He meant for us to know there would be a season of judgment, that it would be extremely painful, and no one should take it lightly. But if we do a very careful analysis of the concept of “eternal judgment” we’ll soon have to face the many questions as to whether He meant “endless” judgment or “very long term judgment.” Because I have no question that God could have made this clearer than He did I’m drawn to conclude He had something else in mind than dwelling on the nature and longevity of Hell.

I believe that “something else” to be the theme of the exaltation and glory of His Son, Jesus! Jesus is the theme of salvation, not the avoidance of Hell. In my opinion far too much of historical Christianity has not understood the transcendant theme of the glory of Christ, and have rather hedonistically focused the Church and the World on the avoidance of Hell theme. It is antithetical to the New Testament’s message to focus folks on Hell when the true theme is Jesus. He is the reason for being saved, not primarily to avoid going to Hell. To make people scream as we preachers dangle them over the fires of Hell is a false New Testament theme, and is not one that either Jesus or the Apostles entertained. Their message was singular…Jesus is the reason we get saved. We want to know Him. We want to enter into His life and love. We look forward to being with Him for eternity, not just avoid going to Hell.

I’m not saying Jesus didn’t mention the theme of Hell, but He never used it as a motivation for the crowds to get saved. Most of His mentionings of it related to the Pharisees who were so deadset on leading the common people astray. His warnings of judgment to them were well founded, but when it comes to the common folks He spent the vast majority of His time focusing them on the truths of Kingdom life and the powers of the age to come.

I believe this is what Paul Young was trying to magnify, and not to champion Universalism. I know that many of his statements appear to support Universalism, but I don’t believe it was his intention that they be taken that way. He is rather simply concerned that Jesus become more the theme of our eternal pursuit rather than the avoidance of Hell.

So, I agree with you, Universalism is indeed a serious heresy, and I certainly don’t support it, but I think much of the hubbub around whether Paul Young is a Universalist is a bit misplaced. Nevertheless…I appreciate your concern for truth and I always want to reflect the highest regard for the truth as it is in Jesus.

I had forgotten that I still had Paul’s book up on my front web page. It is probably time to remove it and replace it with something new. Actually…I don’t spend much time these days at my site…maybe only once a month at the most, so I had forgotten his book was still being promoted there. I will remove it now, not because I don’t think it has many valuable insights to share, but because I don’t want the controversy of it to distract from other more important things. I’ll probably replace it with one of Frank Viola’s new books. I appreciate just about everything that brother has to say and write…

Jesus bless you as you pursue the truth as it is in Jesus!

I am Brett Jacobsen from http://www.christisall.org and http://www.livingthekingdom.com. I haven’t read ‘The Shack’ so I can’t really comment on it in particular. It seems to me that many people love it and as many people hate it…

I wouldn’t discount someone’s whole person and ministry just because they liked a certain book that I thought was crook… at least not before discussing it with them. I’m sure Tom would be very open to hear what your thoughts are on ‘The Shack’ and respond to them.

Also, we shouldn’t think that the answer to the church’s woe’s is to wait for Jesus to physically come back and fix things. If there is an issue we should address it and sharpen each other. Jesus said to pray “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven ” (Matt 6:10). That means we should live the Kingdom now and see the authority of Christ fix things now.

Grace and peace

2Ti 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
2Ti 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
2Ti 4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

That’s the case with the book The Shack, it is all fables and teaches heresy. It should be strongly condemned and not promoted. Shame on Tom!

However, this is the plight within the church today and the only remedy is the return of Jesus Christ. Even so Lord Jesus Christ come!