Here’s another way of looking at what I was trying to convey yesterday: Are the Bible verses cited in support of a literal eternal Hell of torment representative of what we find throughout the Bible? Or are they simply proof-texts?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Citing particular Scripture verses\u00a0 to illustrate a particular teaching is useful if they are a sampling of verses that represent a thread of teaching running through an entire book, section, or the Bible as a whole.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
But proof-texting is the practice of cherry-picking a handful of verses to teach a “truth” which runs counter to the general tenor of the rest of the Bible.\u00a0 We need to beware of Bible teachings completely dependent on a handful of verses. Especially if the chosen passages could be legitimately interpreted in other ways.*\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
In the next couple of days I want to look at particular passages that support the existence of Hell and some that support annihilationism. And since “proof-texting” can be “in the eye of the beholder”, I will make a case that Hell is built on proof-texts but then let you decide for yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n
And then I will move on to other topics besides Hell. This has just been me thinking out loud about a topic that I have always assumed was perfectly clear in the Bible. Now I am questioning that assumption. And the process of writing about it in some depth has been very helpful to me.<\/p>\n\n\n
———————————<\/p>\n\n\n
* In my opinion, this is the trap Calvinists fall into: a handful of (misinterpreted) verses used as proof-texts for a concept (Determinism) which is contradicted repeatedly throughout the rest of the Bible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here’s another way of looking at what I was trying to convey yesterday: Are the Bible verses cited in support of a literal eternal Hell of torment representative of what we find throughout the Bible? Or are they simply proof-texts?\u00a0 Citing particular Scripture verses\u00a0 to illustrate a particular teaching is useful if they are a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7693,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7692\/revisions\/7693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}