The Teachings of L. Ray Smith

Just curious if anyone has ever heard of this guy and his teachings? It seems to me he is a heretic. He does not believe in a literal Hell(place of torment). He does not believe in the Trinity, says it is unscriptural because the word Trinity does not appear in the Bible. He also says tithing is unscriptural. And for all these claims, he tries to give scripture to back up these claims. Just would like to hear everyones thoughts? Nate, Mark, Chris F, VCU, Boomer, Preach, and a few others in particular!

He has a website http://bible-truths.com/ where he states all these claims.
This is the first time I have ever heard of this guy, but it seems that he has quite a few supporters.

[VCURamFan]

I don't have time to check the website right now (though I really want to...), so I'm just gonna give my quick & sloppy answers now:

If there's no Hell, then there's no Heaven. Hell is where God proves that He's the consummate gentleman. If for your whole life, you repeatedly reject Him and insist on living a life on your own, He's not going to be rude & force you to be with Him for all eternity. If there is no Hell, then how does God differentiate between the saved and the lost? Do all go to heaven?

Well, he's absolutely right that the word "trinity" never appears in the Bible. I don't think anyone would try to argue that it is. However, the Bible clearly does teach that there are 3 persons of the God-head, most notably at Christ's baptism.

As for tithing, I have no clue how he thinks it's unbiblical. It's clearly commanded in the OT, and the apostles/disciples use it multiple times in Acts.

When I get time to read his scriptural excuses, I'll say more later (unless someone beats me to it).

Originally Posted by CAVEMAN

Just curious if anyone has ever heard of this guy and his teachings? It seems to me he is a heretic. He does not believe in a literal Hell(place of torment). He does not believe in the Trinity, says it is unscriptural because the word Trinity does not appear in the Bible. He also says tithing is unscriptural. And for all these claims, he tries to give scripture to back up these claims. Just would like to hear everyones thoughts? Nate, Mark, Chris F, VCU, Boomer, Preach, and a few others in particular!

He has a website http://bible-truths.com/ where he states all these claims.
This is the first time I have ever heard of this guy, but it seems that he has quite a few supporters.

Originally Posted by Chuck

Sorry Chuck, I meant to include you there......what do you think?

[Llamafighter]

Originally Posted by CAVEMAN

Sorry Chuck, I meant to include you there......what do you think?

Originally Posted by Llamafighter

OK you too!

Originally Posted by Llamafighter

Originally Posted by CAVEMAN

OK you too!

I looked over a few things that were actually ok. Perhaps if I took time to dig deeper, I'd see the problems.

I glanced over the objection to tithing. The few things I read were right about tithing not being enforceable, but I didn't see him say anything about giving or generosity. Giving and generosity are modeled in the new testament community and Paul's letters. We can tell that these are expected of us and reflect God's character. Note that those are heart issues and not legal (tithing) issues.

Again, perhaps I need to dig a little more (and properly read) in other areas to find the problems.

(VCURamFan - yes tithing was commanded in the OT, under the mosaic covenant, which was a contract specific to the Jews ending when the "seed" came.)

WOW, I just went through some of the Hell=Hoax stuff. Forget this guy. He was picking and choosing certain items in the Hell part.

I stopped reading and started skimming. There are better resources out there. If you have a good interested in the word backgrounds like he does, get a biblical dictionary like Vine's or others.

Originally Posted by Conrad

WOW, I just went through some of the Hell=Hoax stuff. Forget this guy. He was picking and choosing certain items in the Hell part.

I stopped reading and started skimming. There are better resources out there. If you have a good interested in the word backgrounds like he does, get a biblical dictionary like Vine's or others.

I thought the same thing. I do own a Vine's and Strong's. Not sure where this guy was getting some of his definitions. He also seems to have twisted Luke 16: 19-31 about the rich man and Lazarus. He made a claim that the place of torment that the rich man found himself in was not Hell????????? He also said that the story was symbolic of the Jews(being the rich man) and the Gentiles(being Lazarus). Not sure how he came up with his correlation???????