A pastor has commented on Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves’ statement that some preachers “want me to go to heaven by frightening me not to go to hell”.
The Reverend Paul Duncan, in a sermon on Sunday, said some people would only make it to heaven if they are scared out of hell.
Duncan, preaching at the opening night of three nights of deeper life services at Rillan Hill Church of the Nazarene, said people should want to go to heaven, not merely out of fear of hell.
“He (the prime minister) may have a point in that we can’t just preach about hell,” said Duncan, who is senior pastor at Hope for Life Restoration Ministries.
“I don’t want to go to heaven just because I want to escape hell,” Duncan said while preaching on the theme “Embracing the Mandate for Discipleship”.
“I mean, I want to go to heaven because God loves me, he sent His Son to die for me and it was always God’s original plan to have fellowship with man,” he further stated.
“However, this is where I disagree with him. I want you to get this very clear: Some people will only make it into heaven if you scare them out of hell,” Duncan said.
“Let me say it again. Speaking about discipleship, one method may not work for everybody. Not no one-size-fit-all. Some will make it into heaven by preaching John 3:16. Good. But some wouldn’t make it in that way. Some will only make it into heaven only if you preach hell; no other words. You have to scare them out of hell,” he said, noting that growing up, he often heard older people say, “Who nah wah hear go feel.
“In other words, in order for some people to make it over into paradise, they first have to get into trouble…”
He said the scripture shows that even great men and women got into serious trouble before God intervened.
“Some of us who are here today, the reason why we are in church today is because of the trouble we found ourselves in years ago,” Duncan said.
Last week, Gonsalves, speaking at a regional symposium on crime in Trinidadtook issue with the way in which some preachers present their sermons.
He said the church has a role to play in addressing crime, adding that the church might be better able to do so “if they stop trying to frighten us to go to heaven because of hell.
“Because every time I go to church, they want me to go to heaven by frightening me not to go to hell,” Gonsalves said.
“They have to begin to preach better in order to get my attention. And if they can’t get my attention in that way …, how are they going to get young people’s attention?” he said told of the gathering of CARICOM leaders, academics and member of the judiciary
Gonsalves returned to the topic on Tuesday, the closing day of the symposium, saying that some preachers were criticising his comments.
“And for those preachers — I hear one or two of them already criticising me for what they said yesterday as how they preach, I don’t take instruction from what men say in this regard,” Gonsalves said.
“In the book of Micah, the question is asked, … ‘What does the Lord require of me?’ And the answer: ‘to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God’.”
Gonsalves, a Roman Catholic, said he disagreed with his church’s position against the death penalty, and called on the region to execute murderers, despite the position of the European Union, one of CARICOM’s major developmental partners.
“To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.” Ralph tell us which one of those three requirements have you ever fulfilled.
Christianity origin is foreign to us here in St Vincent and the Grenadines. Over the last 75 years, Christianity has not had any solution based in reality for problems we are having in this country. Christianity and its followers have been promising to heal the sick, raise the dead and mend the broken hearted, none of which they have accomplished. The book they called the Bible is filled with nonsense. I called them Biblical nonsense. Can you guess how many time Jesus Christ was crucified in the Bible? According the Bible, he was crucified at least four times. Read Revelation 11: 8 – 9 and you would see he was crucified Sodom and Egypt. And don’t forget he was crucified at Calvary Mountain and Golgotha Hill, utter nonsense. Before I end this conversation I have more piece of biblical nonsense to reveal to you. In the book of Joshua 10 -13 , the Bible said that Joshua commanded the Sun and the Moon to stand still, what nonsense. Anyone with a brain in their head would know according to science, that the Earth and the Moon revolve around the Sun. The Sun has never moved a day in its existence. The Moon orbits the Sun every 29 Earth days. I remember when I was a little boy that the old people of that time used to warn Christians of that time not to read the Bible too much, because it could make them go mad. Now, that I am enlightened I truly understand what they were saying. The Bible is a book of Biblical nonsense.
Errol Duncan I pray God open your eyes and help your unbelief, I pray you have an encounter with Jesus as Paul did on the road to Damascus in Jesus name.
Well said Nicki.
NICKI, may The Lord Almighty bless you abundantly for taking time out to help lead this spiritually blind Errol on the correct path to eternal life.
Urge people to serve de Most High out ah love, rather than fear. While Christ referred to Gehenna, translated hellfire some Bibles, as de punishment for de wicked, Christ mainly spoke of the love of his Father. John 3:16. He didn’t frighten people to serve the Most High.
“Love mercy… ” Ralph says but he is for hanging people. That is scary.
Yet, Errol, the sun sets everyday. It’s just an expression. The Bible writer didn’t need to be scientifically accurate at that moment.
In fact, if you ever read the Bible you would know it’s quite scientifically accurate.
1. It’s says the earth is round Isa 40:22
2. That it stays in space Job 26:7
3. It comments on the water system and a host of other things. Ecc 1:7
The Bible more accurate than half of all religious lit
“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”
Mr Duncan I respect your judgment, but know for sure there is a greater judgment coming, whether u believe it or not. Are you prepare for that day of reckoning?
It is appointed unto man once to die after that the judgment. Analyse that.