In this radio story Russel Cobb tells the story of Carlton Pearson’s rise, fall, and then again rise in ministry. Carlton Pearson followed in his father and grandfather’s footsteps and became a minister. He became a renowned Pentecostal Bishop with thousands of members. One evening, while watching a disturbing news story, Pearson began to speak to God. Out of that conversation Carlton Pearson decided he no longer believed there was a Hell. He began to believe that all people were saved and would go to Heaven. This was soon enough what he preached at his sermons. “He started formalizing his thinking into an actual doctrine, what he calls the Gospel of Inclusion. Everyone's going to heaven. Atheists, Muslims, gays, Jesus died for them all” (Cobb, 28:03). Pearson’s church quickly fell apart. He lost most of his members and the church’s building. Since then Pearson has been rebuilding his ministry, New Dimensions, and preaching the Gospel of Inclusion. …show more content…
He had been watching the evening news which showed people in Rwanda suffering from starvation and malnutrition and they were dying. Questioning how his loving God could cause so many to suffer, Pearson had a revelation that night. “I saw how we create Hell on this planet for each other. And for the first time in my life, I did not see God as the inventor of Hell” (Pearson, 21:49). His God was not the “monster” the Bible portrays him as who is going to burn “6 billion people” in Hell “forever” (Pearson, 23:25). The more he thought about this the more he came to realize that if there was no Hell then people also did not need to accept Jesus in order to be saved from Hell. All people were saved by Jesus and would go to Heaven even if they were not aware of it. This revelation is what started his all inclusion