This seems to be an odd career limiting assertion for a priest: if there is no hell, we don’t need saving; if we don’t need saving, we don’t need a Saviour; if we don’t need a Saviour, we certainly don’t need church or priests. Perhaps that explains why the Anglican Church in Canada is losing thousands of people every year.
From here:
The idea of hell as a place of punishment for the wicked was widespread in the world long before the Christian era. However it became assimilated into the official teaching of the Church very early on, in spite of the fact it conflicts with both Bible teaching and the inherited liturgies; and this contradiction has continued over the centuries……
The time has come for all denominations to think again about anomalies and inconsistencies in the inherited faith, which have led many people to come to disregard the Christian religion altogether, without realizing that what they are rejecting is not the faith itself but distortions of it that should indeed rightly be challenged.
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity has been misunderstood as being belief in three gods, but it is belief in One God, who has been described as being made up of three entities, between whom love flows, The Lover, the Beloved, and Love itself [and I always thought there were three Persons in the Trinity – silly me].
Thinking about the true nature of God, accepting that God is Love, and putting the demands of that Love first and our ideas about “religion” second, would surely have huge ramifications for the future peace of the world.
A God of Love does not send people to hell!
Of course, anyone who has had to sit through an average Anglican sermon has irrefutable evidence that Hell exists.
I hope that people like Diana Spencer (familiar name) keep writing these things. People in the pews need to see the direction the ACoC and TEC are leading their people in and what better way than from their own words.
“Rev. Diana Spencer, a retired Anglican priest living in Victoria, B.C.,’
Of course she is!
But but ….this is all so uplifting and modern! Its sure to bring in new people to the church who want to hear they don’t need to go to church anymore……….wait have I got this right?
From the Creed of Saint Athanasius
Who suffered for our salvation, / descended into hell, rose again from the dead;
From the Apostles Creed
He descended into hell
The Holy Bible makes over 50 direct references to Hell (King James Version)
http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/index.php?search=Hell&version1=9&searchtype=all&limit=none&wholewordsonly=no&startnumber=51&startnumber=1
So will someone please explain to me how rev Diana thinks that Hell does not exist.
To: AMPisAnglican, and others: people like “rev Diana” make it up for themselves, their only authority is themselves, and – as pointed out in this article – very soon no one will be there to listen to them, only themselves. That’s what it’s about, self, self, self …