To Hell with Hell

By Mark Driscoll

On a recent Dateline show, one of those guys with a strong jaw and good hair did a very interesting story on hell.

Curiously, most Americans believe in hell according to the report, which said, “A Harris poll of our attitudes conducted a few years ago found that 94 percent of American adults believe in God, 89 percent in heaven and 73 percent in hell.”

But here’s the hook, nobody thinks they are going to hell because hell is for the other evil people like terrorists and relief pitchers who give up a lot of walks. The report said, “Fully three-quarters of survey participants felt pretty sure they will be going to heaven when they die, while just 2 percent expected they would wind up in hell.”

The story then transitions to talk about Pentecostal pastor, Carlton Pearson. You may have seen him on the Trinity Broadcast Network wearing purple like Grimace of Happy Meal fame.

He began preaching at fifteen, was ordained at eighteen, and attended Oral Roberts University. He grew a church to 6,000 and even got to hang out with President Bush, whom he helped support in the 2000 election.

Everything seemed to be going well, until I guess you could say all hell broke loose. The following is a portion of the interview where he explains what he saw on television and how who he thinks was God (and possibly a demon) spoke to him:

Pearson: And you saw these African people—mostly women and children walking slowly back trying to come home. There was no light or life in their eyes. It was a horrible thing for me to see. Swollen bellies and skeletal bodies, emaciated... and then the babies looking at the mom and the mama looking out in space. It was sad. And I’m sitting there with my little fat-cheeked baby and my plateful of food, watching my big screen TV. A man of God, a preacher of the Gospel, an Evangelist, and I’m looking at those people assuming that they’re probably Muslim and going to Hell. “’Cause God wouldn’t do that to Christians,” I’m thinking...

Morrison: They deserve hell.

Pearson: They deserved hell.

And then, right at that moment, Carlton had his revelation.

Pearson: And I said, “God I don’t know how you’re gonna call yourself a loving God and allow those people to suffer so much and then just suck them into hell.” And I believe it was the Spirit of God in me saying, “Is that what you think we’re doing?”

Morrison: You heard this voice.

Pearson: Yes, sir. And I said, “That’s what I’ve been taught.”

He talked back, he says, at that voice in his head.

Pearson: “God, I can’t I can’t save the whole world.” And that’s when I heard that voice say, “Precisely. That’s what we did. And if you’d tell them that they are redeemed, you wouldn’t create those kinds of problems. Can’t you see they’re already in Hell?”

Clear as a bell, says Carlton, he heard god telling him to preach this new message that hell is a place in life, and that after death, everybody is redeemed. Everybody.

Pearson: I immediately started thinking about my grandparents. “Well, maybe they’re not in Hell. Maybe if they’re already saved, if the cross and Christ and all that stuff really happened and is really spiritual—which I believe it is—then—if He came to save the world, then the world is saved unless he’s a failure.”

This was powerful stuff. Though dangerous too.

Morrison: You mean Hitler’s in heaven?

Pearson: You think Hitler’s more powerful than the blood of Jesus? I mean, I got a hell to put a lot of people in. I’d sent Hitler and every slave trader straight to hell and a few deacons in my church if you wanna know the truth—I’d send people to hell, but I’m not God. He’s the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not ours only, but the sins of the whole world.

Then Carlton started preaching what he’d come to call “The Gospel of Inclusion.” He told his big congregation that Hell doesn’t exist in the way the church has taught and that all people will eventually be reunited with god.

So how did his universalistic theology go over? Not well. Pearson was essentially denounced as a heretic and his church shrunk from 6,000 to maybe a few hundred. The money dried up and their building had to be sold. He ended up preaching to a small remnant on Sunday afternoons in a room borrowed from an Episcopalian church.

In reading the various interviews with Pearson, he seems to be a decent enough guy who means well. The obvious problem is that he is disagreeing with Jesus, who spoke of hell more than anyone in the entire Bible.

Sadly, he ended up with false doctrine because he was apparently led astray by a demon who spoke to him. He failed to obey the command in 1 John 4:1 that says, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (emphasis added). By failing to test the voices speaking to him, a man who had given his life to doing ministry and building a church was ruined in a day because of a lack of discernment. It’s a sobering lesson for every Christian leader, who James says will be judged more strictly than the average Christian, that we must let God be God and beware of the Serpent who loves to whisper, “Did God really say?”