Chad Holtz, Methodist Church pastor in North Carolina, fired for questioning whether hell exists

Hell hath no fury like a ministry scorned.

A pastor at a Methodist Church in North Carolina lost his job after questioning traditional views on the nature of hell.

Chad Holtz got his walking papers after posting a note on Facebook supporting a controversial book by an evangelical preacher that rethinks hell as a place for billions of damned souls.

“I think justice comes and judgment will happen, but I don’t think that means an eternity of torment,” Holtz said. “I can understand why people in my church aren’t ready to leave that behind. It’s something I’m still grappling with myself.”

The book, written by Rob Bell and titled “Love Wins,” has caused quite a stir for questioning the belief that only a select number of Christians are allowed in heaven while everyone else burns in eternal hell fire.

Traditional Christians say the book’s point is very similar to the theological position of universalism, which is considered heresy for many churches.

Bell denies he is a universalist and says he is just arguing that Christian teaching focuses too much attention on hell.

Officials with Holtz’s church declined to discuss his firing in detail, but suggested there was more to it than his position on hell. [Emphasis added]

Holtz said he continues to work on reconciling his beliefs but feels liberated by making his struggle public.

“So long as we believe there’s a dividing point in eternity, we’re going to think in terms of us and them,” Holtz said. “When you believe God has saved everyone, the point is, you’re saved. Live like it.”

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Chad Holtz was part of the Discernamentalist Mafia crowd.
I wish Chad Holtz would liberate himself further and apologise publicly for making the following website: http://www.discerningtheworld3.wordpress.com!

DTW 3. What you did in stealing DTW’s identity is wrong. Repent and knock it off.

I have nothing to do with the DTW3

Nothing?

you brought that on yourself

You provoked them into sinning against you?

I made a few comments on it that is all.

Oh.

In fact I am a bit opposed to them

A bit.

to them “stealing” your identity.

“Stealing”?

Please get your facts straight and stop lying about me.

Iggy is rebuking you in no uncertain terms. Notice the lack of quotation marks around ‘lying’. How come emergents are quick to take a firm stand against Christians while those of other religions and no religion get a free pass? What is going on here?

Well…fake Discerning The World 3

You see…that’s where you are wrong on all counts 🙂

Ah I might as well tell you; one of your gang snitched, wonder who turned their backs on you all, but their face is still turned in your direction. Ouch, who can you trust eh! Tough world we live in especially when it’s filled with tricksters and jesters and jokers and thieves.

I get so confused about my identity at times that I find I even delete my own comments! Hey! Don’t disagree with me! [DELETED FOR ASKING ME TOO MANY QUESTIONS THAT I CANNOT ANSWER]

See? I did it again.

We will discern this world together, Deborah. Keep up the vicious stand for TRUTH! To hell with all the “love” talk!

[Edited: This is the person who impersonated my blog and name]

I made a few comments on it that is all. In fact I am a bit opposed to them “stealing” your identity.

Please get your facts straight and stop lying about me.

I said: “Iggy was loving enough to help contributed in a very graceful manner to a fake ‘DTW3’ wordpress blog that was set up by one of his ‘friends’. ” You commented there so you helped to contribute? right… Did your friend not email you to tell you it was up and you needed to come over and comment and you all laughed thinking it was soooo funny to steal my identity??

I never said you were the one that created this fake DTW3 blog Iggy. All I said was that you assisted the person (you knew what the was doing, you knew what he was upto).

I know who did this. You can carry on with your OD mafia website, I can’t be bothered with that one or you for that matter. It’s identity theft I have problem with and you know very well who started it all.

And no Iggy, I didn’t bring anything upon myself. I did not hold a gun to said persons head and force him to do what he did and make a replica of my blog and steal my identity. He is quite capable of vicious deeds all by himself, no DIY manual requied.

Greetings my sister in Christ,

I have no problems with discernment per se. We need to divide truth and error. But while you accuse others of ‘hate’ it seems that you carry little respect for those you see fit to chastise (case in point ‘Bruce Droppings’. I wonder….is Bruce Droppings a metaphor for……. no can’t be…” Is that necessary and will you ‘win’ an argument by such insinuation?

St. Peter calls us to have reverence and respect for others (especially non-believers) and we are called by Jesus to love one another (fellow believers) as a mark of Christian brotherhood. In addition Pauline apologetics sets us an example of building bridges to those whose world view is an anti-thesis to the one Jesus expose. I hope that this will help set the pace for further conversations for others who come here to discover/ engage in discernment and apologetics is all about.

Therefore, let us dismantle bad arguments rather than attempting to undermine people.

peace

TheGroundworks

PS I would highly recommend reading Victor Reppert, William Lane Craig, Ravi Zacharias, Habermas as examples of very good apologetics / discernment (hope that helps!)

Yesssssss, it’s all one sided is it not. Pity I deleted Bruce’s first comment that was not worded very nicely to me. I chose to use the artistic metaphor for his blog name because quite recently I was metaphorically compared to a suicide bomber on Nic Paton’s blog by some guy called Andrew. Since Online Discernamentalist Mafia is all poetic and satirical and metaphoric and artistic and whatever else I thought I would just keep up with the latest trend on how to show love.

So as you said, “parody/satire is what it is….typically a way to show some reality using a device that is funny.” Oh I laughed so much when I was compared to a suicide bomber.. it was really funny…no really. Best joke ever.

parody/satire is what it is….typically a way to show some reality using a device that is funny. If you read the ‘transparent’ (IE MAFIA) blog you would see that Jesus is NOT being mocked rather the trumped up discernment that passes itself off as ministry and as representatives of Jesus that is being dismantled and satirized.

Of course seeing the difference is a matter of proper discernment.