You are a slanderer.

You and anyone else who has read my postings to sermonaudio.com knows that my assertions in no way correspond to the teaching of non-Christian groups which you cite.

Essentially, New Covenant scripture is authenticated by Old Covenant scripture. When there is a genuine conflict -- as is the case with Revelation, Jude, II Peter, and James -- you are dealing with a forgery.

The determination of canonicity is not a matter to be left to the "Church Councils", which met one, two, and even three centuries after the death of the last apostle and which were composed of men mired to the neck in the heresy of Papistry.

A number of months ago all of my carefully-composed postings (numbering several hundred) were purged from all the forums and it was apparent that further postings were unwelcome.

However, a large number of patently slanderous postings in which several malicious individuals -- one being in the legal profession and giving every evidence of being evil to the core -- defamed me were allowed to remain.

Previously I posted under my full name with my full ministry URL. That option no longer being open, I now post as "expositor" without a URL.

Were my right to post without purging to be restored, I immediately would revert to the former manner of posting, by preference.

I have given you answer in accordance with the counsel of the Scripture, to wit:

Proverbs 26:4-5 - 4 Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou become like him. 5 Yet answer a fool according to his folly, lest he seem wise in his own conceit.

I am a Christian. Period. I am not affiliated with any denomination or group, other than (1) the body of Christ, into which every believer is baptized by the Spirit of God, and (2) a local assembly of believers.

I have studied the Scripture for many years, and I write concerning that which I have discovered. Not being bound by a particular system of theology, I have seen truths to which others, by tradition, are blinded.

A difficult question -- to which we must accept the assertions of Paul regarding the "vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction", Romans 9.

However, it is instructive to note that the Old Covenant was exclusive to Israel.

And, according to Jeremiah 31:31, the New Covenant also is exclusive to Israel -- which is but one of the facts which leads to the conclusion that those (for the most part, "Gentiles") in this era who have embraced the Gospel are none other than Israelites.

(Another fact is the oft-repeated prophecy of the reunification of the divided kingdom of Israel.)

I am not speaking of "mercy" in the sense of allowing the guilty to escape punishment. I am speaking of mercy in the sense of a righteous God who executes the penalty -- death -- which his Law demands for sin, as opposed to the fiendish, diabolical god of the Talmudic Jew, who tortures his creatures.

This prophecy has been fulfilled. The so-called "Gentiles" are none other than descendants of the Israelites carried off captive by Assyria circa 721 B.C.

Everlasting torture (which you incorrectly term "eternal torment") is the conception of the Talmudic mind. Consider, for example:

Jeremiah 32:35 - And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

So, according to you, Genesis 2:17 really means, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt NOT surely die".

And, according to you, Romans 6:23 really means "For the wages of sin is eternal life in a state of torture; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord".

When you see the word "hell" in the King James Version, it sometimes translates the Greek word HADES, which means the grave.

Other times, "hell" translates the Greek word GEHENNA, which is the name of the municipal dump, which Jesus uses to portray the fate of the wicked.

Gehenna, the city dump, is used to illustrate the fate of the wicked. In Gehenna, garbage is destroyed -- not tortured forever.

Unlike the fiendish false god of the Talmudic Jew, the God of the Scripture is characterized by great mercy; passage after passage of the Scripture proclaims the fact. Consequently, in the back of the mind of the wicked (who has heard of the merciful nature of the God of the Scripture) is the hope that eventually God shall say "Enough!" and bring to an end the torture.

The god of the Papist is a false god. The god of the Talmudic Jew is a false god.

Both religions are false.

By no stretch of the imagination is Papistry the Christian Faith of the Scripture. The problem with Papistry is not "error"; the problem is deliberate intent to deceive.

You obviously know nothing about the Jew.

Have you never taken the trouble to read the English editions of Jewish newspapers, or articles by authors who are respected within the Jewish community?

Jews often discuss the fact that the unregenerate Jew is characterized by secularism, and typically has no interest whatsoever in the Scripture.

In the ancient world, everyone drank wine, including the Christian. This fact is abundantly apparent in the pages of the Scripture.

Or are you ignorant of the fact that the first miracle of Christ Jesus was to turn water into wine? And the Scripture records that the wine made by Jesus was of the greatest perfection.

Consumption of alcohol is no sin; the sin lies in drunkenness. Of course, if you have no self-control, then you should not drink.

Stupid, foolish, self-righteous people erroneously thinking themselves to be Christian brought about the era of prohibition in America, and thereby fostered the rise of organized crime in this land.

The great evil in every age is self-righteousness.

Find a SCHOLARLY commentary, such as The Pulpit Commentary or the commentary of Adam Clarke, and you can read the arguments for yourself. Another good source is an older edition (the 11th is best) of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

A simple example should make the matter clear: I dare say that it is evident that none of you could write in the style of Shakespeare if your life depended upon it.

In inspiring the writers of the Scripture, the Spirit of God did not transform personality or writing style.

But linguistic style is not necessarily evident in a translation. That is why Greek Orthodoxy never accepted the book of Revelation as canonical.