In this case, the pope is wrong on his above proclamation in three ways. The first is that he ignores what Christ tells us about hell, secondly, he ignores the doctrine of election, and third, he ignores God’s glory in dealing with those who are sent to hell.

The pope of the Roman Catholic Church, recently made an admission that is rather startling: he said that no one is actually condemned forever, since it was contrary to the gospel. Here is his quote:

“No one can be condemned forever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel!” the exhortation says. He adds that he is speaking not only of the divorced and remarried, “but of everyone, in whatever situation they find themselves.”

This was found in his paper on The Joy of Love, a treatise that many have shown to be quite ambiguous, in which the pope is saying that it is OK for those who are divorced to come back to the church and receive holy communion. Remember that Roman Catholics believe that marriage is a sacrament, so to break that union, is to commit a heavy-duty sin which results in those who are divorced being barred from communion. It is basically excommunication. (I don’t have a problem with the pope changing his church’s teaching on the way it views those who have gone through a divorce. So often, especially in a day in which there is no-fault divorce, people go through divorces that they don’t want. Why excommunicate them if that happens?)

Perhaps the pope should change a lot of the church’s teaching to be a bit more biblical instead of basing it on history, councils, and previous popes.

But if the Bible were the driving belief-system of the RCC, then he would not have made the statement above, which is a wink-and-a-nod toward universalism. Universalism is the idea that all mankind are eventually saved. Is the pope channeling Rob Bell? Are men like the pope and Bell working together to end up with worthless Christianity, one that does not speak of sin, the need of a real Savior, and one that champions consequence-free lifestyles?

We should not be surprised. Anytime someone starts developing their theology based on their own reasoning power, neglecting God’s word on the matter, they will come up with a god that is nothing more than an ancient Santa Claus, looking for us to be good and nice, and ignoring the reality that we are not.

This is always the case when you see those drifting from true Christianity. They place human reason above biblical teaching and the door to hypocrisy and heresy flings wide open, bringing destruction for all who pass through it.

In this case, the pope is wrong on his above proclamation in three ways. The first is that he ignores what Christ tells us about hell, secondly, he ignores the doctrine of election, and third, he ignores God’s glory in dealing with those who are sent to hell.

Christ Declares The Eternal Nature of Hell

I don’t think we should be surprised about the pope saying that there will be those who are let out of hell after a time. This is very close to the old teaching on purgatory, so it’s not a logical leap. Where the problem lies is that it is not abiblical stance. There is nothing in Scripture that supports the pope’s view. Just reading Scripture at all, during personal devotions and Bible reading, you will find plenty of instances where the idea of eternal punishment is mentioned. This makes me wonder if the pope actually reads the Bible before he makes such statements. But then again, if Rob Bell is his mentor, probably not.

Scripture has plenty to say about the eternality of hell. We learn the most about hell from Christ Himself.

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The source for this document was originally published on timothyjhammons.com—however, the original URL is no longer available. Also, one or more URLs (links) are no longer valid and have been removed.]