NAZNET MODERATOR HANS DEVENTER NIXES ETERNAL HELL. HE’S NAZARENE?

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


In his own words: “I believe that hell is annihilation.” Check it out here: http://www.naznet.com/community/showthread.php?t=28935


Clear words. Simple words. Definitions understood without commentary.


Hans Deventer is moderator of a supposed Church of the Nazarene supportive site per the site’s own “advertisement.”


The Church of the Nazarene has never preached that hell is annihilation. I was born into that denomination and have graduated from that church’s seminary, having graduated from that church’s liberal arts college.


I have never heard any professor, preacher or evangelist claim that “hell is annihilation.”


Jesus never stated that hell is annihilation. Instead, he stated just the opposite. Hell is everlasting torment for the damned.


That is why the traditional Church of the Nazarene proclaimed that hell is eternal torment for that denomination sought to underline exactly what the Bible states. That denomination was not known for diverting from the Word, that is, until Hans came along with his theologically liberal colleagues on NazNet.


NazNet, to use Hans as an example, seeks to stir up confusion though the site claims just the opposite as its reason for being. It needs readers. It needs responders. Therefore, it moves into that which is contentious in order to get readers.


It’s the same with Hans’ opinion that infant baptism is his okay-baptism. He states in another venue that he once believed in believers’ adult baptism; however, he’s now an advocate for infant baptism.


Spin the theologically liberal bottle once again, Hans.


Yet you still state that you are supportive of the Church of the Nazarene? Not so. You are supportive of your place on the NazNet site that you hope will supplant the historic Church of the Nazarene teaching by claiming it worn out. The past is “old hat.”


Whether it is annihilation or infant baptism, these two examples are just two of others that seek to plant, particularly in the young readers, questions regarding the denomination’s heretofore biblical proclamations.


NazNet is not then a friend to the traditional history of the Church of the Nazarene. It is a rebel.


Hans and NazNet overseers are out to be popular, not to be theologically biblical or friends of the Church of the Nazarene. Therefore, the Church of the Nazarene leadership should come out in defense of biblical doctrine, exposing NazNet as not a genuine companion.


So, Hans, you join liberals in prostituting Scripture to your own opinions, such as your definition of hell as annihilation. You knew from the start that you were handling a basic biblical teaching that you were subverting. But for your own personal popularity and your site’s increased readership, you took the gamble of toying with the Word.


Of course, you will answer for this from God for He will not tolerate those who twist and turn His revelation in order to suit their own egocentric aims. Opportunistic you, as well as your other site overseers, may think you are the new gurus for the Church of the Nazarene. But you are not.


Using the Bible as evidence, you are not friends to the Church of the Nazarene.


As a troubling postscript, Hans also states this set of confusing words: “The Bible isn't clear about the intermediate state.”


The biblical Protestant does not believe in an “intermediate state.” Biblical believers know that the Word teaches that at death the soul goes to heaven or hell. There is no middle state—the “intermediate state.”


Roman Catholicism and some other liturgical conclaves teach an intermediate state. Catholic teaching has traditionally taught a limbo space for unbaptized infants who die. Catholic teaching also has taught a purgatory, an “intermediate state.”


However, the Church of the Nazarene specifically has never believed in limbo or purgatory or any other “place” called “intermediate state.”


I personally believe that Hans does not know what he is talking about on various points in his post here: http://www.naznet.com/community/showthread.php?t=28935


He truly is not theologically knowledgeable so as to monitor an evangelical holiness site.


Yet he continues on NazNet’s claimed-to-be supportive site for the Church of the Nazarene.


Not sound. Not true.


For further digressions from the Church of the Nazarene’s biblical past, read: NAZNET’S CHAPLAIN MODERATOR BARBARA MOULTON DRAWS SPIKED REACTIONS at http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/4578553


FOOTNOTE: GOD WARNS OF ETERNAL HELL


The Bible teaches that there is a fiery everlasting hell, a place that Jesus warned people about. Note this sampling of Scripture:


“And if your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the eternal fire,” (Matt. 18:8)


“. . .these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matt. 25:46)


Jesus says: “Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire. . .” (Matthew 25:41)


“22 . . . the rich man also died, and was buried;
23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that you in your lifetime received good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and you art tormented.
26 And beside all this, between us there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
27 Then he said, I pray you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house:
28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. (Luke 16:22-28)”