“The world is saved–they just don't know it yet” is the message that caused Bishop Carlton Pearson to fall out of grace with Christendom. Many look at the once popular televangelist, who pastored the mega church Higher Dimensions Ministry, as a heretic. During a recent conversation with Pearson, he talked about his message and his book, entitled The Gospel of Inclusion.
ER: What is the Gospel of Inclusion?
CP: The Gospel of Inclusion is that God was in Christ reconciling the world...not counting men's sins against them. The whole comos, the whole cosmetic makeup of the human race, has been redeemed through Christ. They don't know. It's our jobs as Christian evangelists to give them that wonderful news that their sins are forgiven.
ER: Did it all happen at the cross?
CP: It all happened at the cross, and our job has been as Christians to tell the people that your sins have been forgiven, and you've been redeemed by the blood of Christ, and you are on your way to heaven. So stop acting out hell and creating it for others. You are on your way to an eternal place with Christ because Christ paid for your sins, atoned for your sins, bought and brought you back to God!
ER: Where and how did you get this revelation?
CP: It actually came to me when I was putting some of my loved ones in hell for years. My grandparents had been there for years. I am from a four-generation classical Pentecostal background where we sent just about everybody, including Baptists, to hell or anybody who is not Pentecostal. And I didn't figure that my love for them would be any greater than God's. And so I couldn't reconcile putting them in a customized torture chamber...called hell.
ER: Do we need to repent?
CP: No. The word, “repent” means to rethink. It doesn't mean to say I'm sorry. I am preaching repentance, but I am asking Christians and everybody to rethink what we believe and why we believe it. Let's reconsider, change the thinking about everything. When we do that...we do feel certain remorse for our arrogance, our ignorance and our sins. But we don't dismiss ourselves and everybody else to this horrible inferno, which is basically historical superstition. Jesus never even used the word “hell.” He used the word “Gehinnom,” which means Valley of Henna. We have been preaching hell, and we're so devoted to hell and the devil until we could be worshipping him. That whole concept has crippled the planet and justified hatred, violence, unforgiveness and intolerance. The fundamentalists are war-mongers. They may not be whoremongers, but they are war-mongers, based on an image of a God who's hateful. God judges with love, not with punitive hatred.
ER: Are you the only one preaching this message?
CP: Oh no-oh my goodness. The first 500 years of Christian history was the general consensus of the people. All of the church followers embraced it, and many of the apostles did. But when the church went from the East to the West, it began to change. I respect the Holy Roman Empire, but they began to shift the emphasis away from universalism to doctrinal exclusionism. When you say Roman Catholic, you mean Vatican. When you say Catholic, that means universal expression.
Now there are all kinds of people embracing it. There are about 40 million New Thought Christians in America who embrace what I teach…I didn't know of them of course. I wouldn't listen to them. I would send them straight to hell. I tried to cast demons out of these Unitarians and Universalists for years, and now I'm one of them. But I believe in the finished work of the cross. Jesus said, “It is finished.” Redemption is complete. People don't know it, and many Christians don't believe it. So, I had to say ‘Wait folks, you quote Him as saying 'It is finished.' He didn't just say, ‘I'm finished dying.’ He said, ‘I'm finished redeeming.’ So go tell them that they are redeemed. Go tell them that God loves them and redeemed them. It's almost too good to be true. Pearson's book is available wherever books are sold. Also, Pearson will be speaking once a month at Christ Universal Temple through October.
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Continue to pray for Rev. Timothy Wright whose wife and grandson were buried on Monday. He is slowly recovering. “Remember you are Blessed by the Best!”
Effie Rolfe is the religion entertainment columnist. Contact her at effie@theinspirationcafe.com.
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Pastor DJ
James
