New Movie is about Evangelical Pastor who Adopted Adventist Doctrine on Hell

by AT News Team

Hell and Mr. Fudge is a feature drama about a young pastor in a small town in Alabama, the son of an Evangelical publisher, who wrote a book advocating the Seventh-day Adventist position on hell. It kicked up a storm among Evangelicals and got the pastor fired.

It is based on a true story. Edward Fudge is today an attorney in Houston and well-known as a speaker on Bible topics. Robert Brinsmead got him started on research to support the traditional Christian view that hell is a place where the lost burn forever, miraculously kept alive by God so He can torture them endlessly, according to Religion New Service (RNS).

In 1982 Fudge published his 500-page volume The Fire that Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment which presents the results of his in-depth study. He told RNS that when he started the study he expected to find strong support in Scripture and historic Christian documents but was convinced otherwise. The book is now in its third edition.

In many ways Fudge’s story is parallel to that of Rob Bell, the pastor of an Evangelical mega church in Michigan who was on the cover of Time magazine last year because of the reaction to his book Love Wins in which he too adopts the Adventist view on hell. Conservative Evangelical leaders spoke out against Bell and his book.

Fudge and Bell point out that the Bible clearly teaches that the “lake of fire” is an act of annihilation, not a place of endless torment. They both make the point that the traditional view misconstrues God’s character and is a stumbling block to nonbelievers. All of these are points that Adventists have advocated and RNS says “is now fairly widely accepted by leading evangelical preachers and Christian scholars.”

The movie won a Platinum Award at the Houston Film Festival and the production company is looking for a distributor. It was created by LLT Productions of Angwin, California, head by Pat Arrabito, a member of the Adventist Church. The company previously produced a documentary series on the history of the Sabbath with Hal Holbrook as the narrator.

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Comments: 9

Beverly Kirby
08 June 2012 at 6:26 pm

I keep this story and documentary "Hell and Mr. Fudge" posted on my facebook once or twice a every month to keep the topic alive. It has believable acting and keeps the interest much better than I could in a personal conversation. I am anxious to see it available on DVD. You can watch the trailer of the movie on Youtube.
Ella M
08 June 2012 at 8:12 pm

How does one find this documentary? I have the videos on the Sabbath series that was supposed to be shown on PBS but never was to my knowledge. It was well done, but what happens to these films? LLT spends time and money on them, but the public doesn't see them.
Who or what is keeping them from circulation?
Elaine Nelson
08 June 2012 at 9:19 pm

I read Rob Bell's book: Love Wins and found it was the answer to many questions. But to say that these pastors now believe in the Adventist view, is to arrogate this belief as original with Adventism. Where did this idea originate?

Brian D. McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christianity and Naked Spirituality )

“It isn’t easy to develop a biblical imagination that takes in the comprehensive and eternal work of Christ . . . Rob Bell goes a long way in helping us acquire just such an imagination–without a trace of soft sentimentality and without compromising an inch of evangelical conviction.” (Eugene H. Peterson, Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology, Regent College, and author of The Message and The Pastor )
Pat A
10 June 2012 at 6:16 am

Thanks for talking about "Hell and Mr. Fudge." We don't see annihilationism as the "Adventist view" so much as the biblical view, a truth that belongs to everyone. Because we understand it, we as Adventists have a responsibility to share it.

To say that Rob Bell "adopts the Adventist view on hell" is a bit of a stretch. Rob Bell denies eternal torment. Beyond that he is not clear on the fate of the lost although he seems to lean toward universalism.

Ella, the film has not yet been released, but you can follow it on the "Hell and Mr. Fudge" FB page to find out when a release date has been set. It was screened in Houston and Athens, AL this past week, with a very enthustiastic resposne. About the "Seventh Day" series: It has not been aired on PBS but somewhere around a half million sets in thirteen languages are in circulation and it is broadcast and distributed around the world.
JWW
03 July 2012 at 7:27 am

Kudos for the report on "Hell and Mr. Fudge." Perhaps I can correct some factual errors.

First, Robert Brinsmead's motivation is misrepresented. According to Edward Fudge, Brinsmead had already rejected other distinctly SDA doctrines but was not clear on the eternal fate of the lost. He hired Fudge to do a complete, fair, and objective study.

Fudge's conditionalist/annihilationist views did not get him fired. Truth is, he had been out of step with the leading brethren within his own denomination ever since college days.

Suggesting that the stories of Fudge and Bell are "parallel" is excusable; to a casual observer the two narratives bear a superficial resemblance to each other. But to compare Bell's work to Fudge's is an apples-to-oranges exercise. Bell's small book contains some truth, to be sure, but it certainly is not a definitive work. "The Fire that Consumes," on the other hand, is a thorough, precise, in-depth study that is arguably the most widely read and most influential, persuasive book ever published in favor of the conditionalist view.
Elaine Nelson
03 July 2012 at 3:17 pm

Fudge is directed more to the scholar who wants a deeper study. Bell is for the average person who needs assurance that previously the belief in hell had not
given him. It is much more accessible and easy reading. Persuasive? Depends on how some are persuaded. Some want an exegesis of the texts, others wants reasons to dispense with hell. "Proving" a position from the Bible is what many Adventists want because that is the foundation for the doctrines and are convinced by textual evidence. Bell, IMHO, pulls it all together with the belief in a God of love that does not wish any to perish and He will eventually fulfill those wishes.
Maglor
30 September 2013 at 8:56 am

Rob Bell does not have a view of hell such as Adventists do… confirm it:

Rob Bell on Hell part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn5hG-S9cXo

Rob Bell on Hell part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3bO7SdWpxU
Elaine Nelson
30 September 2013 at 4:47 pm

The Ellen White view on hell was described in her writings as a place where some suffered longer than others, but Satan took much longer before he was consumed.

To call it the "Adventist view" is not only misleading it is disengenuous. Adventists never admit to changing their views, but subtly let it be assumed that it has always been its doctrine. (See 1844 and its quite disappearancer.
Maglor
30 September 2013 at 6:46 pm

Actually, Elaine, EGW was right when she said that some will burn longer than others when this world is purified by fire. She was just stating something that is taught without a doubt from God's Word. So, it's not "Ellen White's view" on hell, but God's.

Read Luke 12:47-48, «THAT SERVANT WHO KNEW his master's will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with MANY stripes. But HE WHO DID NOT KNOW, yet commited things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with FEW.»

Other Holy texts: Matthew 11:20-24; 16:27; Psalm 62:12; Romans 2:5-6; 2Corinthians 5:10; Revelation 2:23; 20:12; Jeremiah 17:10; Proverbs 24:12; Galatians 6:7; Proverbs 11:31.

God will REWARD each ACCORDING to his works, and according to light given and its use… No secret there. Just read your Bible. When you light a match does it burn forever? Keep then, in mind, that there are matches longer than others..

Also, keep this site: http://www.helltruth.com/

God bless you with this truth.

Comments are closed.

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