Gordon,

I hope the videos come soon. Anyway, I hope you had fun.

Blessing,

Bill
bill.finley@gmail.com

The Gospel lesson assigned for this Sunday is one of those that I have real trouble with:

Matthew - 22:8 Then he said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy.

22:9 Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.'

22:10 Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

22:11 "But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe,

22:12 and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?' And he was speechless.

22:13 Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

Seems pretty harsh...

Wow. I can't wait to hear what you've found.

Alas, it refuses to load, even on our broadband connection.

Is there any chance you could write a post about your conclusions? I've been looking forward to them for a while, and would personally FAR rather read something than listen to something (not being remotely auditory in my learning style). Just as I'd rather read a Christian book - or several of them - than listen to a sermon!

I would have listened to the video if it had loaded, but I've tried two or three times and it just goes blank after 'buffering' for a minute or two :-( Perhaps there are too many people trying to access it at the same time.

Ah, OK. Ignore the last post. I finally got it to load, thanks. It wasn't discussing the conclusions anyway, but an intro, summarising the project you set yourself. And I guess you won't be writing about it - ah well. Never mind.

-
I really enjoyed the How to Read the Bible video series, and I know I'll love watching the two subsequent videos in this series as well. I have my own opinions about Heaven and Hell (formed outside of any real scriptural influence), and I've very keen to hear about those who took the time to write in to you, as well as your own.

Thanks for doing this, RLP.

I don't see a way to embed it on other sites. Is that feature available?

OK, that just put it up here again--but I got it from the source code. Thanks.

(sorry, this was supposed to be a comment on the main post)

RLP, as an agnostic, I go with a more egocentric view of "hell" and "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs will be the Kingdom of Heaven."

So, the poor in spirit will be in the Kingdom of Heaven? Kind of goes against that whole "be a Christian or go to Hell" idea.

But, if the "poor in spirit" really means renunciation of the ego, of the self, of material possessions, and all the mental trappings of self-identification, then the lack of ego leads to a lightness in Being.

Lightness of being (lack of ego) is the Nirvana, Moksha, Enlightenment, Zen, etc of Eastern Religions. Could it also be, then, that Christian heaven or hell is the lack of -- or manifestation of -- the ego?

At least, that's my opinion on it.

I'm looking forward to the next videos. Also, out of curiosity, any idea on when you'll put up Part Three of the Elusive Nature of Evil series?

You know, someone has fairly recently clearly shown us at least how evil and hell came into existence. Sorry. ;)

Evil-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzf8q9QHfhI

Lucifer-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKM_JlCIMak&feature=user

Hell-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8i4le0BIFc

Friend:
Your video did not load well. Started and stopped. Could not follow. Please put this on your blog in printed form.
Thanks, Hugh

Just a suggestion -

if Gordon has said what he wants to say, but people want a written version, couldn't somebody else type up what is said on the video?

Maybe one (or more) of the people who offered help with the co-operative publishing project might be able to get their teeth into this...

I know lots of people are busy, but seems a bit sad for Gordon to have to write something up when he has explicitly said he is trying not to spend writing time on this.

So excited to read/view the next installments. Hell -- or what happens to people after they die -- is one of the questions we're discussing in my discipleship group now. I don't want to lead the members by just mouthing what church tradition has been saying. We've agreed to really look in the bible and see what we'll find there. I must admit there are so many inconclusive verses, that's why I'm really looking forward to what you have :)

Nice blog, I like your writing style and your short and to the point video.
If you have not yet read the Urantia book - please have a look at it. I was a fundamental Christian who found this book a little over a year ago. It had the power to change some of my long held fundamental beliefs about hell and the atonement doctrine.
In addition to being a fantastic read, there's lot of good sermon material in the Urantia Book.

www.urantiabook.org
www.truthbook.com

Enjoy!

Just got a chance to see this, I'm waiting eagerly for the next one--I did the same basic search on "hell", afterlife, etc., but I end up either a) depressed or b) feeling like there's a lot of protesting ("The Bible didn't really say that!! We've had 2000 years of bad tradition based on a mistranslation!") which is also rather depressing. So I hope you can shed some light on the subject....

If hell is merely fictitious, then the cross of Jesus Christ is wholly superfluous. Surely you know what the word “perish” in John 3:16 means. Can you imagine God allowing His Son to be hated, maligned, afflicted, and crucified just for the sake of it? In my opinion, the denial of hell is the worst corollary of a denial of the meaning of Christ’s crucifixion.