NAZNET NIXES THE SAVED = PRONTO HEAVEN

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Apostle Paul writes: “We are confident. . .to be absent from the body (is) to be present with the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 5:8


NazNet moderator Hans Deventer states that when one dies the soul goes into an “intermediate state,” whatever that means. The saved soul, per Deventer, does not go “to be present with the Lord.”


Deventer does not mind discounting the Bible. When in his whim, he does so frequently on NazNet.


Yet NazNet is represented as “friend” to the Church of the Nazarene, per web site founder Dave McClung. That church does not teach an “intermediate state” upon death.


The Church of the Nazarene has always held to the biblical data of the saved going immediately to heaven and the unsaved going immediately to hell.


Deventer makes up his anti-Bible “theology” as he goes along his moderator trail. He posts that he does not believe the Bible, for instance. What he does believe in that Book deals only with Jesus’ mercy for obviously Hans wants to go where Jesus is when Deventer dies.


However, because Deventer contradicts himself throughout NazNet, upon death he cannot go where Jesus is until Deventer first passes through his “intermediate state.”


By the way, Deventer posts on NazNet that the unsaved souls are annihilated. However, once again confusion reigns. Does the unsaved soul first go to an “intermediate state” before being annihilated?


Deventer discounts such biblical warnings concerning hell: Matthew 5:22, 29, 30; 7:13; 10:28; 13:38-42, 49-50; 23:15, 33; 25:28-41, 46; Mark 9:43-47; Luke 12:5; 16:23-26; II Thessalonians 1:9; James 3:6; II Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6; Revelation 1:18; 6:8; 9:1-2, 14:10-11; 19:20; 20:10, 13-15; 21:8.


Does McClung do anything about Deventer’s heresies? No. McClung permits them to remain on NazNet.


Yet McClung is esteemed by the Church of the Nazarene as an outstanding wealthy layman, even appointing him to prestigious denominational boards as well as one-time President of Eastern Nazarene College, Quincy, MA.


The sad picture then comes into focus: McClung has ingratiated himself politically into the ecclesiastical machine so as to be permitted trashing the Bible as well as destroying the denominational foundations.


In short, politics counts more than biblical truth. Just another travesty of these confusing religious times.


FOOTNOTE: HEAVEN


To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. II Corinthians 5:8


Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Matthew 25:34


Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. I Corinthians 2:9


Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. Matthew 6:20


For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:l6


Jesus said: I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. John 11:25


For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. II Corinthians 5:1


If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His spirit who dwells in you. Romans 8:11


This is the promise that He has promised us — eternal life. I John 2:25


He who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. Galatians 6:8


Jesus said: My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. . . John 10:27-28