Below are comments from the book "Hope Beyond Hell" written by Gerry Beauchemin with D Scott Reichard along with my rebuttal of their false teaching.

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Think about it. An “Eternal” Hell

maligns God‘s character before the world.

It rather affirms God's nature as a Just Judge who will punish the unrepentant sinner!  Further, Hell is not eternal.  The lake of fire is.

contradicts His unending and unfailing love for all people.

Emphasizes his love, because an unrepentant sinner would feel totally out of place in a world where everyone loves one another. God's love will not allow a perverse and vile person to be eternally in the presence of the righteous either because those persons would cause great sin where sinless living is the norm. The Bible is very clear that no evil thing will enter into God's Kingdom on earth after the day of judgment. These are two different types of people and neither would be able to live with the other. As it is in the world, where the wicked afflict the righteous daily so it would be if the wicked were permitted to enter God's Kingdom making exclusion a necessity of great importance.

makes our worship stem more from fear than of true affection.

True worship is an admixture of godly fear and love, not one or the other! True worship comes from a thankful heart that has been forgiven for a multitude of sins and also a realization that there is a God who can cast both body and soul into Hell. Even Jesus told people; “Fear not them who can harm your body but after that can do nothing, but rather fear him who can cast both body and soul into Hell.”   We are further told, that the “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”  which would indicate that until we fear God we are void of any genuine wisdom. Further we are instructed that “The wicked shall be cast into Hell, AND ALL NATIONS THAT FORGET GOD.”  Over and over again in the scripture the duration of punishment is followed by the words eternal or everlasting.  What will it take for the teachers of Universalism to get the message? They have hardened their hearts against the truth and the devil has been more than willing to augment their false belief with his overt lies concerning this and many other issues.

denies His unlimited power to accomplish all His will.

Actually shows his power as sovereign in determining what will become of the unrepentant.   No person can change this irrespective of their 

belief. When God speaks something, no man can counter it no matter how much he would like to.

makes man‘s will greater than God‘s will.

This is a foolish assertion to believe that anything could supersede God's will; especially the puny will of mankind. Even Jesus who was God come in human flesh, as a man, submitted to the Father in the garden before the crucifixion. God's will reigns supreme and always will.

infinitely minimizes Christ‘s triumph over death and the evil one.

Christ died for the ungodly, but his salvation is not forced on anyone.   It is a gift, and the person who is offered the gift has the freedom to 

reject it. This doesn't minimize Christ's triumph because those who repent of their sins will receive what Christ died to give to them. The Universalist arguments as well as the Calvinist arguments against free will are unfounded and cannot be proven by right exegesis of the word 

of God.

denies that Christ fully accomplished His mission on earth.

The previous comment addresses this lie. Can Christ as God do anything less than a perfect work in securing the salvation of mankind? This is a misguided accusation of fools posing as wise men. What he came to do will be accomplished, but only in those who repent of their sins and put their faith and trust in Jesus!

violates God‘s divine witness revealed in every conscience.

Rather than violating anyone's conscience, it validates that the conscience of man has indeed been created and given to cause them to make the right decision.  Those who rebel against their own conscience are foolish and those who die in such a state will receive the reward they deserve. To reject the free offer of salvation is the most foolish decision that will ever be made by anyone while they are living on earth.

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For most of my life the fear of hell stalked me, ever waiting for an opportune moment to raise its ugly head.  Just the idea was like a sword slicing through me.  It has been the greatest stumbling block to my faith.  In fact, I almost gave up on Christianity because of it.

As a Christian I do not walk around every day in the fear of Hell as this man did because I rely fully on the grace and mercy of God so that even when I fail I can instantly go to my Father and receive forgiveness for that failure even if it seems to be a very serious failure on my part. The 

fact that this person was so immersed in the fear of God shows that whatever he was taught is seriously in error, because it stole hope from him and made him needlessly fearful. It is by his own choosing that he believed solely in a God of wrath rather than a God of love and judgment. As I stated above, God is wrath and love, not one or the other.  The love and fear of God will keep us safe, and the love of God is great enough to calm all our fears.

IN THE BOOK OF JUDE IT SPEAKS OF SAVING SOME BY FEAR AND HATING EVEN THE GARMENT SPOTTED BY THE FLESH.  If there were no Hell or Lake of Fire, then what would there be to fear.  If there were no punishment for sin, then what would restrain us from becoming 

as wicked as we wish.  After all, according to the teaching of Universalism we will all be saved no matter how debauched or pure our lives are.  What does the teacher of this corrupt, anti-biblical teaching offer to those who want to understand Revelation 20:15 that makes it clear that those whose names were not found in the book of life will be cast into the Lake of Fire? The tenth verse of that chapter declares that the Devil and the False Prophet will both be cast into the Lake of Fire, there to be tormented day and night forever and ever.  Are there two variants of the Lake of Fire? If so, would the Universalist point me to book, chapter and verse?  What does the Universalist do with Revelation 14:9-11 where it speaks 

of those who take the mark of the anti-Christ and says that "the smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever.”

God is indeed a God of love and compassion, offering mercy to generation after generation, but his mercy is tempered with righteous judgment, and he will not allow the guilty to go unpunished.  It takes only a subjective reading of the scripture under the leading and guidance of the Holy  

Spirit to quickly understand that God will deal heavily with the wicked and unrepentant  sinner but  is always willing to forgive those who will humble themselves and repent of their wickedness and turn to Jesus Christ for salvation and the gift of eternal life.

There is abundant evidence of God's wrath and judgment throughout the entire Bible in both the Old and New Testaments. Foolish and unlearned men twist and distort the scriptures in their efforts to find favor with men when they should be seeking the favor that comes from God. Even honest scholars have made the mistake of denying God's power, sovereignty and judgment, and God has graciously allowed that and then sent them messengers with the truth. Those scholars who were honestly seeking the truth were humble enough to admit their errors and changed the message to fit the Word of God. The others continued on believing a lie to their own damnation.

If you had two sons, and the one was obedient and loving toward all he met, and you also had another son who was perverse and wicked and antagonistic toward everyone to the point of refusing to ever relent of his wicked attitude and lifestyle; how would you handle them?  Would 

you reward them equally and give the wicked son all you gave the obedient and loving son or would you have some reservations about giving 

the wicked son anything at all? If you gave the wicked son anything would you entrust the most important things into his hand thinking he'd do 

the right thing, or would you be more likely to reward the righteous son with trust because you knew he would do what is right and you wouldn't 

feel you were taking a risk that disaster would come from your decision? The answer is obvious to those who are realists!  The greater chance of success would be with the righteous son and the greater chance of failure would lie with the other. Any sensible Father or Mother would entrust the results to the son who they could trust to be faithful and do what is right. To believe otherwise is to live in denial of reality and truth.

Do any of us think that God is less fair than man? Consider the courts where offenders are tried day after day and century after century. In the courts that are fair (which are becoming fewer and fewer), the wicked son would be condemned to some kind of punishment eventually because 

he has no respect for others and no respect for the law.  Will the court deal the same with the innocent as it does with the guilty? The answer is an overwhelming and obvious no where judgment is fair and equal!

God's very nature as a just and holy God cannot let sin go unpunished. Our understanding of the depth and depravity of sin is shallow.   God has 

a full comprehension of how wicked sin really is. I believe with all my heart that God will not give punishment that is not equal to the depth of sinfulness involved in our words, thoughts, and actions.   He will be just, and on the day when all men of all time stand before him in judgment, there will be nobody who will think their sentence is unjust.  They will know beyond all doubt that whatever their punishment may be, will be deserved.

The righteous, on the other hand, will know that they deserve eternal damnation, and they will bow down in worship and praise and thanksgiving because God's mercy has delivered them and given them what they could never attain in themselves!  All through eternity they will sing endless songs of praise and gratitude as they live to love and serve God who loved them even while they were yet living in sin!  They will live in the presence of God on the new earth prepared for them by God himself – a place of absolutely sinless living that is filled with love, joy and peace forever, and where nothing evil shall ever enter!

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A FINAL NOTE: Those who persist in following this and any other false teaching and die in their sins without the salvation Christ died to provide 

for them will find that God will do precisely what he says he will do, and it will be perfect and just!

Considering the great extent of God's mercy and what he allowed to happen to his only son, those who reject Christ's sacrifice on their behalf and die without hope make the most tragic and foolish mistake anyone could ever make in their entire life. It is my earnest hope that anyone reading this will not be among them!

C R Lord © 5/17/2014