Dr. Bernard, on today's episode, I want to ask you a question about something that appears

in the official manual of the United Pentecostal Church International. We have a line in there,

and I'll just read it to you directly. It says that we will not issue, this is not a verbatim, but it says our organization

won't issue ministerial credentials to ministers who believe in the annihilation of the wicked dead.

Now, for folks who aren't familiar with that particular teaching, the idea of the annihilation of

the wicked is that the wicked would cease to exist in hell versus suffering eternally in torment.

Where did this idea of the annihilation of the wicked originate and why do you feel like

it's not compatible with scripture? It's an interesting question. So first of all, let me

qualify or clarify a nuance in the UPCI manual.

The actual wording is we will not give credentials to someone who teaches this doctrine,

and there are several doctrines list in that section.

And that's an important distinction because there are some people who believe that

as a personal conviction. But if they agree not to teach it

publicly not to promote it then we will grant them credentials so we actually do have some ministers

who believe that or come to that belief but they have agreed this is not something we teach so

and also what's interesting to me is over the years what I've had to process applications

as a district superintendent, the most common mistake people will make is, do you teach the

annihilate?

There's a question on the application, or we may have reworded it recently, but it says, do you believe in the analysis of wicked? And a lot of, especially people applying for the first time, they don't really know what that means, and they think it would have something really bad, it means punishment. So yes, of course. And actually, then they're called in to say, no, wait a minute, do you believe this or not?

Because if you believe it and you're going to teach this, then we're not going to give you credentials.

So I think every time that's ever happened, they've always changed their answers.

And I didn't, I don't believe that.

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