All Hell Breaks Loose And A Heretic Stands His Ground

A few years back, an evangelical minister from Tulsa, Oklahoma named Carlton Pearson had an awakening. As he studied Greek and Hebrew scripture, he began to have a crisis of faith. Suddenly his fervent message of, "Accept Jesus or burn in Hell" felt unsettling. He said, "I couldn't reconcile a God whose mercy endures forever and this torture chamber that's customized for unbelievers. You can't be happy. And how can you really love a god who's torturing your grandmother?"

As a graduate of Oral Roberts University as well as working with Oral Roberts, it would have been so easy for Carlton to find fellow preachers to guide him back into place. Anyone of his colleagues would have been happy to inform him that Greek and Hebrew scripture was quasi-occult hocus pocus. Yet in the heart of the bible belt of America, Carlton went against the grain and began to say No.

After seeing an ABC news report on Rwanda, his outlook took a radical and life altering change. Quoting from a blog about Pearson's reaction, "-on the parade of suffering in Rwanda, he had a revelation. He questioned how a God who calls himself loving could let people suffer so badly and then suck them into Hell." And that was all it took. An open mind with a simple question from the pool of common sense.

As it turned out, his views of Universal Reconciliation (that all will find salvation with God) was described by the Joint College of African-American Pentecostal Bishops as heresy. Here is a man who is trying to tell us some seriously good news regarding our souls, and he's officially labeled a heretic. He lost influence, the evangelical community shunned him, but he did not buckle.