Set your DVR’s now. “To Hell and Back”will re-air on MSNBC this Saturday, Sept. 29, @ 6:00pm and Sunday, Sept. 30, @ 2:00am. This is “Must See TV.” Originally aired as a Dateline segment this summer, a one hour expanded special dubbed “To Hell and Back” tells the story of Bishop Carlton Pearson’s rise as a pentecostal mega-star and protege of Oral Roberts and fall from grace when his epiphany led him to embrace a “gospel of inclusion.” Here are just a few quotes that resonated with me:
“It made me question the term that the Bible is ‘innerrant and infallible.’ To say that the Bible is not the Word of God but is the word of man about God, as best as man had perceived God, is troubling, even for me to say it.”
“If you fear God the way we’re taught to fear Him, you’ll serve Him, you’ll believe in Him, you’ll worship Him, but you will probably never really love Him.”
“‘God, I don’t know how you’re going to call yourself a loving God and allow these people to suffer so much and then just suck them into hell… God, I can’t save this whole world.’ 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.’”
“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, the world is saved, unless He is a failure.”
“The Bible is like an idol. It’s certainly like an icon, but that’s the Greek word for idol. We swear on it. We keep it in our cars, and we lay it under our pillow when we’re afraid… I respect the Bible. I take it very seriously. I just don’t take it literally.”
“I think Christianity has distorted itself into a very impure cult-following of Jesus. I think Jesus would be appalled at what we’ve become.”
Personally I admire his courage and boldness to be honest about his own struggles with the faith we’ve been asked to embrace, especially while still in the pulpit, because the largest shift in my personal theology came after I left full-time pastoral ministry. So much of what he talks about sounds so familiar to thoughts I’ve had and shared in past posts. I wrote about my disillusion with the concept of hell back in March in this post The Church is Pro-Hell. If you’re unable to catch the encore presentation this weekend, the two shorter Dateline segments are available online: Segment One and Segment Two.
For further info: New Dimensions Worship Center
September 24, 2007
Lyndon
3 responses to “Must See TV: “To Hell and Back””
Kate Mahan
September 30th, 2007 at 07:09
I missed it and I would love to see it. Do you know how I can get a copy of the show ??? I’m willing to buy a copy from anyone who recorded it. I attended Higher Dimensions in Tulsa in 1992 while I was there with Carman and for many years after I ordered his services by mail. He was awesome and I miss him. I have heard so many different stories about what happened that I don’t really know what to think. Please help if you can. Thanks. Kate.
preechaman7
September 30th, 2007 at 11:07
Wow. I just watched the two segments you had listed and also some more things on the MSNBC site and I gotta tell you, this has been a great moment for me. I think the same question that started Pearson down this path is what started me, “What about all the other people who don’t know about Jesus? Or they just hell bound?” Really amazing stuff. I will definitely be looking and reading more about Carlton Pearson’s life and beliefs. Man, I am sure glad you found this. What a great story.
F W White
December 14th, 2008 at 14:11
I’d prefer it to be called what it is, “Universalism.”
Nothing new under the sun.
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