If you are anywhere near the charismatic movement or Pentecostalism, you are familiar with Bishop Carlton Pearson.  The Bishop was a sought-after charismatic pentecostal pastor, mega church founder and prolific musician.  He could set your soul afire with his preaching, having an extraordinary oratory gift and an ability to hit the high octaves with ease with his smooth voice.  He held an annual conference called Azuza, where he brought together an ecumenical crowd like none other.  Some of the best sermons and music I have heard came out of Azuza conferences.  The Bishop has, within the past few years, been castigated by most of the conservative and evangelical church as anathema.  He has what seems to be a new-found belief in Universal Salvation, i.e., the Gospel of Inclusion, where everyone is saved.  This soteriology runs counter to the beliefs of most of the Church.  The Bishop also believes that there is no devil and that the demonic is a creation of an infirmed imagination.  This is one of the biggest tricks of the devil to make people believe he doesn't exist.

At some time or another, those of us who attend divinity schools and top seminaries have to contend with this philosophy.  I remember struggling with it during a class in the philosophy of religion.  There is just no way to hold the inclusion gospel as truth and believe Jesus as well.  One has to love one and hate the other.

The problem lies in how theologians define God as good.  By saying good, they mean all good.  By saying all good, they mean to say that there is nothing in him that is not good, which would preclude God from creating evil or hell or suffering.  Karl Barth, the great systematician, who was a church man, even had a problem trying to define evil.  He said that when God decided within himself to create that which was not God, so that he could reveal himself to it, that which was not God nor creation, that which opposes creation, began to exist.  He called it Das Nichtige, which translates from the German as nothingness (see Church Dogmatics translated from the German Die Kirchliche Dogmatik).  There is even a branch of theology dedicated to making an apology for suffering and evil called Theodicy.

Whether we want to admit it or not, Jesus was very dogmatic about himself.  He said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).  Take notice of the definite articles.  I sometimes find myself in a conversation about whether there is a hell or a devil.  I always remind the hearer that Jesus spoke of both a devil and a hell.  So what if he referred to hell as Gehenna or outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Luke 12:5; Matt 8:12; 13:42). If Jesus were psychotic, then more than a billion people around the world are as well for following him and believing in his words, myself included.

Jesus strongly implies in the text that if you are a follower of his that there are a few things that should be characteristic.  He says that you should visit the sick, feed the hungry, visit the incarcerated and show hospitality.  A modern interpretation is that we should be supporting those who do if we ourselves cannot do these things.  We can all show hospitality though.