Her Gates Will Never Be Shut with Brad Jersak Part 2
Oct.25, 2011 in
Guest Appearances, Podcast Episodes
This is part 2 of a two-part conversation with Brad Jersak about his book Her Gates Will Never Be Shut. We encourage you to listen to part 1 before listening to this second half of the conversation.
After talking about the etymology of hell and the two traditions surrounding the word “gehenna”, Brad and Ray continue by talking about the location of the wicked in Revelation 21-22, what to make of near-death experiences and visions of hell, listener questions, and much more. Thanks again to Brad for taking the time to join us for this conversation. Make sure to visit Brad’s website and check out his book Her Gates Will Never Be Shut.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:15:23 — 69.0MB) | Embed
October 25th, 2011 at 7:36 pm
Wow, thanks for doing this, I am sharing this with my facebook friends! I love how you harmonize God’s final judgement with His love, by having the invitation open to come to the living water, even after the lake of fire! I was kind of suspecting something like that was true, but didn’t know how to see it in scripture. I am going to have to get this book!
October 27th, 2011 at 2:58 pm
This was an amazing podcast series! Just when I thought “Stricken By God?” couldn’t be topped!! I’ll be chewing on this podcast for a long time. Thanks so much guys for having Brad on the podcast.
October 29th, 2011 at 8:31 pm
Michael,
Thanks for listening! I am glad you enjoyed the conversation.
I was kind of suspecting something like that was true, but didn’t know how to see it in scripture.
Isn’t it fascinating how we have these inklings already, even before we hear someone articulate them? I am convinced that many of the greatest truths that we learn don’t come from a teaching or imparted information, but rather come from someone putting into words what we have already known in our hearts. The teacher is already inside of us. It’s just so awesome when we know how to say what’s happening on the inside. I wonder how many other things I have yet to get from the inside of me to the outside.
Yisraela,
I’m so glad you enjoyed it. I too am very thankful for Brad’s willingness to be on the podcast. He is not only a great communicator, but he’s also a great guy.
October 31st, 2011 at 8:16 am
Hi Raborn, thanks for your reply!
Unfortunately, I finally got around to checking the bible andthe context looks to me like it is part of the response of the reader, as Jesus is done speaking and the invitation comes right before the warning not to add or subtract from the prophecy. So it is not the knock out proof text for after judgement repentance he made it sound like. I can see why some would be mad at him doing this, I am not, I still see hope that it is true, with the wicked being outside the city, and the gates being open! I hope so, since I know people that will be there, I could be too. It is not that I reject God and Christ’s invitation, it is just that I don’t believe everything in the bible ia true, and it is hard to sort out the facts from the BS!
November 1st, 2011 at 10:57 pm
Michael,
I think the invitation is coming from the Spirit and the Bride (which would be us). So it seems you have open gates, with a perpetual invitation to come into the city and drink from the waters of life. It wouldn’t seem that this invitation is going out to those already in the city as they would have the right to drink from the waters, wouldn’t they? I don’t think there is any such thing as a “knock out proof text” for much about this stuff. For every ultimate reconciliation verse you can find a hell as punishment verse, etc. A lot of how we arrive at our conclusions has to do with our starting point. Kind of what Sharon Baker called “our canon within the Canon”. I start with the premise that God looks like Jesus during his life, death, and resurrection and that the main characteristic of God is love. This is why I ultimately end up at ultimate redemption. Faith seems to rule out certainty. Thanks for your honesty Michael! I really appreciate your insights. 🙂
November 1st, 2011 at 11:28 pm
I do like it! Gehenna, hell, or the lake of fire, is a metaphor for just being outside the gates, but they can come in any time they like through Christ. I think I get it 😉
It would kind of explain why God allows unbelief to flourish. I was always troubled by that, if our chances were over after we die, wouldn’t God be doing a lot more to get everyone to believe?
But he has all of forever to draw everyone in, maybe we should expect him to have plenty of patience! 😀
keep up the good work! looking forward to future podcasts!
November 3rd, 2011 at 10:40 am
This is a great time to unleash a series of unintelligible comments. First, great dialogue with Brad, I read “Her Gates Will Never Be Shut …” back in 09. Brad is very methodical. One thing that I struggle with however is the Book of Revelation as source material. This book was not a Grammy nominee during canonization and about 1K years later Martin Luther had still some issues with it. I sometimes wonder why John would write an apocalyptic book (inter-testament style) to new covenant Christ followers with his good grasp of the NC as evidenced in his other books. Not saying this is impossible, but does seem out of character to me. (I’d appreciate hearing views on this book). The good side is that the ecclesia is coming to the conclusion (with and without Bible verses) that the Church’s concept of hell for the past few hundred years is disgusting.
I’m now slowly turning into a full time universalist. For example, let’s say you’re an atheist all of your life and then you die, who is probably one of the first people you meet after you die – a good guess might be Jesus – and you find out He’s an awesome dude. I don’t think you’ll have the balls to tell Him to His face that He doesn’t exist. You tell me didn’t atheism therefore him/her to Christ, agreeably via the death mechanism? (Now if you follow my reasoning on post mortem judgment, you may want to worry about your mental health.)
Does this mean that I think everybody will ultimately accept Christ’s lordship – that’s unrealistic – we all know that there are always a couple of a$$holes in every crowd (I know because I am one). How will God handle it – hell if I know. But theoretically isn’t it actually more Christian to put hope in the idea that God’s intent is for everyone to be reconciled rather than the idea that a majority are going to hell except for a few predestined law keeping butt kissers? Comes down to how you view God I guess.
So to quote a 20th century Shakespeare “Hey momma look at me, I’m on my way to the Promised Land – I’m on the highway to hell!”
November 3rd, 2011 at 7:10 pm
Hey, great quote Jim! I used to hate that song! now I kinda like it haha
November 4th, 2011 at 3:03 pm
Concerning current day visions of hell, in my journey to coming to have faith in Jesus truly being the savior of all humanity, I too wrestled through this issue. I researched, read, listened to many such testimonies. And to put is bluntly, I’ve come to believe that these are experiences of what Paul calls this “present evil age”, Gal.1.4. In this “present evil age” people are separated from God, under bondage to sin and even demons, hurt and hurting others, opressed by evil from within and without, dead in our sins, slaves of unrighteousness.
The present evil age is a spiritual reality in which people exist dying Until they are saved. We are born into this present evil age through no choice of our own and need someone to save us. This is what Jesus delivers, saves us from.
In those testimonies, I was amazed at how many experienced unbelievers salvation while dead, only to be resurrected changed by God. And others who did not get saved while dead, were saved shortly after coming back to life. In each testimony I’ve studied of unbelievers experiencing the full reality of this present evil age, the result was salvation. It’s as if the blinders were removed and they were freed from deception, coming to realize their need of God, only to cry out to God and be saved.
Of course, for believers who either had a vision or dream of “hell”, the result was them being inspired to give their lives in sharing the love of God with people who do not know the Lord, resulting in many people being saved and many other believers being inspired to share their faith in Christ, resulting in even more being saved!
So in both cases the results of these experiences is salvation, not damnation, liberation not ECT! Frankly, I’ve come to believe that our physical bodies, our flesh is like space suits that keep us from experiencing the full reality of either the present reality of the kingdom of God or the present reality of the kingdom of darkness. When a person dies without Christ he comes into the full reality of the kingdom of darkness and is there until he is saved. I just trust that ultimately Jesus is the savior of all humanity (1 Tim. 4.10) in Deed, in Reality, and not in Title alone!
I enjoyed the interview. Thanks for doing it!
August 18th, 2014 at 6:01 am
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