Articles by Drew Costen

What is heaven like? And where is it, anyway? Nearly everyone who believes in God has asked these questions at some point in their lives. The answers they’re normally given, unfortunately, are generally vague guesses or assumptions, or simply statements saying “we can’t know for sure.” The truth, however, is that Scripture actually answers these… Continue reading Heaven isn’t what you think it is

I’ve written about some of the street preachers of downtown Toronto before (see here and here), but I came across some of them again yesterday while on a walk, and once again the duplicity of the words they preached jumped out at me (although I believe they almost certainly had no idea how deceptive what they… Continue reading Salvation by superiority

While most members of the body of Christ agree that the CLV is one of the most accurate English versions of the Bible translated so far, it’s not always the easiest to read, being a literal version and all, so I decided to write my own paraphrase of what might be the most informative explanation… Continue reading The end result of Paul’s Gospel

There’s an important principle of Bible study that has been ignored by nearly all Christians, and because of this, Christianity is full of unscriptural doctrines. You see, God defined what was considered to be sinful for Israelites in the Mosaic law, and basically told them everything they needed to know about life and death in… Continue reading Reading the Bible out of order

We all know the Gospel that Paul preached by now: That Christ died for our sins, that He was entombed, and that He was roused the third day. Most Christians believe they believe this, of course, but the truth is that very few actually do. I’ve gotten into other reasons why in other posts, so… Continue reading He was entombed

In my last post I hinted at the idea that the lake of fire will be relatively empty. This, of course, goes against the traditional ideas that most Christians believe, but then, so does nearly everything I write on this website, so that’s nothing new. So who actually does end up in the lake of… Continue reading Who ends up in the lake of fire?

The following is an amalgam of actual discussions I’ve had with real people, both in person and online: I didn’t intend to stop, but the street preacher’s words caught my ear and I couldn’t help myself. “As Jesus died on the cross, He cried out, ‘It is finished.’ He died for all of our sins,… Continue reading Dialogue with an evangelical

Pretty much no Universalist starts off as a Universalist. Nearly all of us first believed in either everlasting torment in hell or in Annihilationism. It’s normally only after someone challenges us to dig deeper to see if our soteriology is actually scriptural that we come to see just how clearly Scripture teaches Universal Reconciliation, and… Continue reading Why do most Christians believe in never-ending torment in hell?

As I’ve explained elsewhere on this site, it’s mortality (and death, for those who die prior to Christ’s return), as well as sinfulness because of that mortality, that Christ saves us from, not never-ending torment in “hell” or the lake of fire. As I’ve also covered, salvation under Paul’s Gospel is 100% based upon the… Continue reading The only part you play in your own salvation