To Hell and Back
I just watched a program on MSNBC that profiled Carlton Pearson and his journey to the gospel of inclusion. Carlton said that the turning point for him on his beliefs regarding hell came while watching a program on starving people who were dying. He said he asked God how could He let so many people suffer and then send them to Hell. It was at this point that he claims the Spirit spoke to him and said, "Is that what you think we're doing?" From there things snowballed into him preaching that there is no such thing hell; not the way we've been taught it anyway. Subsequently he lost everything he had worked for, including the 30 acres site where his church was located and his standing among his contemporaries. Oral Roberts and others disowned him and labeled him a heretic in the process of his "fall".
Anyway, he says that eventually a lesbian "pastor" from California invited him to come speak at her church and according to him, "They healed me." They accepted him and washed his feet.
This experience set him on his current course for a comeback, of sorts. He's been holding services on Sunday afternoons in the sanctuary of a Presbyterian church, and has managed to pack those services with his new message of inclusion. He says that either Jesus succeeded in his quest to die for all the sins of the world and there is no Hell, or He failed at what He set out to do.
I know a lot has been said about this man and this doctrine on these forums, but this is the first time I've had the chance to hear him says things for himself. I don't see how anyone could throw out so much of the Bible to give this doctrine even the most minimal amount of recognition. It's heresy, plain and simple, and a gross perversion of the Gospel. God help me to never get so far off the beaten paths of Christianity that I fall into this sort of trap.
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