ELCA PRESIDING “BISHOP” CLAIMS: “THERE MAY BE A HELL, BUT I THINK IT’S EMPTY”
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
CHICAGO, Ill. — The presiding “bishop” of the apostate Evangelical Lutheran
Church of America (ELCA) opined in an interview this week with the Chicago
Sun-Times that Hell is empty because God doesn’t give up on those who reject
Him.
Elizabeth Eaton was interviewed on Wednesday by reporter Robert Herguth during his podcast “Face to Faith.”
Herguth asked Eaton a variety of questions during the
42-minute discussion, from whether she has ever had doubts since
becoming a minister, to how she has been received as the ELCA’s first
female presiding bishop, to what Jesus will look like when He returns,
to what she thinks Heaven is like.
“Do you think there’s a Hell?” Herguth also asked.
“There may be,” Eaton answered after pausing for a moment, adding, “but I think it’s empty.”
When asked why, she explained it was because Jesus said He
would draw all men to Himself and that she doesn’t believe God will give
up on people.
“Jesus was clear in John 3 that when He is raised up, He
will draw all people to Himself,” Eaton stated. “And if we take a look
at salvation history, ever since we got booted out of the garden, it has
been God’s relentless pursuit to bring His people to God.”
“Now, people wonder, ‘Well, can you say no?’ I imagine you
can say no to God, [but] I don’t think God’s going to give up on us. And
if God has eternity, then God can certainly keep working on those
folks,” she said. “That might be a little bit of heresy along the lines
of origin, but I don’t think God gives up.”
Eaton also outlined during the interview that while she
believes that the Bible is inerrant, the ELCA does not view all
Scripture as literal.
“How much of the New Testament do you think is literally
true, in terms of Christ—how He operated [and] how He lived?” Herguth
asked.
“Lutherans—at least our understanding—we’re not biblical
literalists, and I would say that no one is a biblical literalist,”
Eaton replied, “because Jesus said if your eye causes you to sin, pluck
it out and if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. Well, I’m seeing a
lot of people with both eyes and both hands, and you can’t tell me
there’s not been some sin going on there.”
“And also, when our Lord said that the mustard seed is the
smallest seed, it isn’t,” she continued. “Does that mean He didn’t know
what he was talking about? No.”
She said that rather Scripture needs to interpret Scripture
and should not be cherry-picked, but that it should be accepted as a
whole because it got the gospel right.
“I remember being with congregations after our decision in
2009 [to allow homosexuals to serve as clergy], where they thought,
‘Well, I heard the Bible describing human sexuality this way, and now
you’re saying it’s another way.’ And you can see the arc going on
(correlating), ‘So, if that’s not true, maybe [we’d think] the
resurrection isn’t true.’ However, the entire New Testament was written
after the resurrection of Jesus, so it has authority for us because it
got that right.”
Listen to the interview in full below.
Jesus warned about Hell numerous times in the Scriptures,
outlining in Matthew 25 that the wicked “shall go away into everlasting
punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.”
He also explained in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not every one that
saith unto Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven, but
he that doeth the will of My Father which is in Heaven. Many will say
to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? And
in Thy name have cast out devils? And in Thy name done many wonderful
works?’ And then will I profess unto them, ‘I never knew you. Depart
from Me, ye that work iniquity.’”
Revelation 20:12-15 likewise warns, “And I saw the dead,
small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened: and
another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were
judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to
their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death
and Hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged
every man according to their works. And death and Hell were cast into
the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found
written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”