Mike Todd: “People don't go to hell for sin.”

The Holy Nope

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Mike Todd says that people don't go to hell for their sin, people go to hell for their unbelief. But this is nonsense because unbelief is sin.

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Let's break it down. Here's the clip that made the Holy Nope episode 171. I am disciplining myself to not be distracted by the high -pitched screams.

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Because this is a significant issue even if it seems like semantics to some. The claim is that Jesus paid for all of the sins of all of the people in all of the world.

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They are paid for with the blood of Jesus. So the only thing that can send anyone to hell is their personal unbelief in the gospel message.

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Meaning they've heard the gospel and they choose not to believe it. And though their sins are paid for entirely, their unbelief sends them to hell.

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This line of thinking necessitates that unbelief is not a sin. But follow me. If unbelief is not a sin and all your sins have been paid for, that is atoned for, that is

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Jesus suffered the wrath of God for, then for what are you suffering in hell? You're not suffering for your sin because your sin has been paid for, so there's no wrath against you to be suffered.

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And you're not suffering for your unbelief because unbelief isn't sin. It doesn't work.

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Let's examine another clip in which Todd is teaching this same false doctrine. This is the part where it gets itchy for religious people.

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Now immediately, I want you to notice something that I've pointed out before, that there is a trend among false teachers that whenever they are about to say something false, they gaslight their hearers by saying that if you agree with this, it's because you're a religious person, which is someone who

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Jesus is opposed to, of course. The blood of Jesus didn't just erase the sins of Transformation Church or Christians or believers.

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When Jesus died on the cross, he erased the sins of the whole world.

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But pastor, everybody's not going to heaven, correct? Because God gave everybody choice.

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So here we have a fairly typical explanation of universal atonement. While I hold to particular atonement, that's not why this clip made it to the holy note.

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Todd takes it a step further. I'm about to drop some knowledge on you that everybody has to be able to receive.

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This may be a shocking statement for some people, but people don't go to hell for sin. Jesus already paid for that.

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They go to hell for unbelief. People don't go to hell for sin. Jesus already paid for that, right?

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So from this perspective of universal atonement, you have a couple of options. Either the atonement being universal is merely hypothetical.

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It is a potential atonement for everyone that only goes into effect when a person freely chooses to accept the gift of salvation through belief in the gospel.

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The other option, which I think is worse, is where Mike has apparently landed. That Jesus actually did pay for the sins of all people.

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That he actually suffered the penalty under God's wrath for their sin. But those who don't believe will go to hell anyway to suffer the penalty for unbelief.

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Now, we've already pointed out that if their sins are paid for, and if unbelief isn't a sin, then there is no hell left to suffer.

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And along with this error is that unbelief is now placed in a category separate from sin.

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Is this a biblical category distinction? Nope. Jesus says in John 8 24 that unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sin.

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Refusing to believe in Christ is sinful. So sinful that Jesus says in John 3 36 that the wrath of God abides on the unbeliever.

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And so the idea that God would crush his son and spill his blood, that Jesus would drink the cup of God's wrath to pay the penalty for the sins of people he's going to throw in hell anyway, does make a complete mockery of the cross.

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It renders the work of Christ ineffective for many people. The Bible's pretty clear that the wages of sin is death because that's what it says.

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And in Revelation 21 8, we are given a list of those who will experience the lake of fire. And it doesn't just say unbelievers or those who choose unbelief, even though all their sins were paid for.

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Instead, it says the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and liars.

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Now, if the sins of murder, idolatry, lying have been paid for, why is it being held against them here?

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Well, the answer is because people go to hell for their sin. I think that the issue of unreached people groups really dismantles not only the idea of universal atonement, but particularly this idea that people go to hell only for unbelief, which is insane.

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Because the idea is predicated upon a choice made in response to the gospel message.

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The problem is that there are entire groups of people in the world today, and certainly throughout history, who have never heard the gospel message by which they may believe and be saved.

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Do unreached people groups go to hell for unbelief in a gospel that they never had an opportunity to believe in?

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No, they go to hell for their sin. Now, I am a perpetrator of the sins listed in Revelation 21 8, and I deserve to go to hell for my sin.

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But Jesus died for me. And for all his church, he accomplished not hypothetical, not potential, but actual atonement for a particular people whom he calls his sheep, who have been given to him from the

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Father, and for whom he prays, saying in John 17, I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

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Mike Todd's doctrine is thoroughly inconsistent. It's got category errors. It makes a mockery of Jesus's sacrifice, and it destroys the integrity of God, who would punish people for whom

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Jesus has already died, for whom Jesus has already been punished. A guy who's been dead for a while puts it in a way that I think is very helpful.

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He says this, The Father imposed his wrath due unto, and the Son underwent punishment for either all the sins of all men, or all the sins of some men, or some of the sins of all men.

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In which case it may be said, that if the last be true, all men have some sins to answer for, and so none are saved.

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That if the second be true, then Christ in their stead suffered for all the sins of all the elect in the whole world.

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And this is the truth. But if the first be the case, why are not all men free from the punishment due unto their sins?

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You answer, Because of unbelief. I ask, Is this unbelief a sin, or is it not?

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If it be, then Christ suffered the punishment due unto it, or he did not. If he did, why must that, the sin of unbelief, hinder them more than their other sins for which he died?

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If he did not die for the sin of unbelief, he did not die for all their sins. And again, if he did not die for all their sins, then they cannot be saved.

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The only escape from John Owen's reasoning here, is to believe a potential atonement that is made actual by the believer's faith.

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Now for the record, I do not believe that Mike Todd's intention with this teaching, is to imply that Christians can go on living willfully in sin, because nobody goes to hell for that, as long as they believe.

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While that may be a valid implication of his teaching, I doubt that he meant that. Nevertheless, I hope you're helped by this video, because this teaching is a big