Where Is The Promise Of His Coming? Part 4: God Will Not Send Anyone To Hell.

“They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’”  2 Peter 3:4

“God won’t send anyone to hell, He’s too loving and nice to do that.”  This is an opinion uttered by many who believe God is all-loving and compassionate.  And with good reason: He IS.  However, those who express this view do not seem to understand the depth of His mercy: He will not violate anyone’s free will.  THAT is how loving and compassionate He is.

Many people will articulate this viewpoint in one breath and then in the next condemn someone who has done something they consider wrong, especially if it was done to them.  They do not like the idea of living next door to a witch, a rapist or child-molester, a murderer, or a greedy thief or liar.  How would they enjoy sharing Heaven with one such as these?

There are evil people in the world, those who get pleasure out of watching others suffer.  There are those whose only joy is to feel powerful over another or to use people as their toys.  Many a shoplifter or liar has stolen or told a fib without any need, but just for the delight of it.  These are the ones Revelation 22:15 calls dogs, sorcerers, sexually immoral, murderers, idolaters and practitioners of falsehood.

“But,” they will say, “when they have learned their lesson by suffering for a while in hell, God will let them out.”  True enough.  In fact, God’s mercy is SO immense that if Lucifer, the devil himself, ever apologized and admitted that he was wrong to try to take God’s place, God would even forgive him!  How soon will that happen?  Try never.  The devil is so self-deceived that he continually thinks that somehow, someday, in some way, he will be able to overthrow The Uncreated One.  Even into the eons of eternity he will continue to plot, plan and program what he believes will be his ultimate win: “I will make myself like the Most High.” (Isaiah 14:14)

In the same way, those who have believed his lie, “and you will be like God, knowing good and evil,” (Genesis 3:5) will follow him to their doom.  It is true that if they would learn their lesson, if they would turn from their selfishness, enjoyment of others’ pain, their immorality or greed, Father would forgive them and allow them into Heaven.  But habits are hard to break, and the older habits get, the more set in the avenues of our minds they become until they are unbreakable, even for God.  Thus Revelation 22:11 says, “Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”

We see this in the judgements of Revelation 16:9, 11, and 17.  Even when they are facing unquestionable judgements of God, instead of repenting and asking for mercy, people curse God and blame Him as though all the problems being visited on them are HIS fault.  Even then, if they would just ask, God would be merciful, but they simply refuse to see what should be plain in front of their eyes. “They did not repent and give him glory.”

The bottom line is that God will not send anyone to hell.  In fact, He did not even make hell for humans.  “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no hell.” (C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce)  But God is so merciful, He will not allow anything evil to enter into Heaven.  In His Final Mercy, He will isolate the recalcitrant sinner so they cannot go on sinning, injuring others and themselves.  And that final separation from all others who live in God will be hell.

In this series on The Promise of His Coming, I have presented The Lie, The Truth, The End and Your Choice, details of what The End might look like, and how the enemy of our souls has deceived the whole world with pseudo-science to deter people from believing that Jesus will come again.  It is my sincere hope that someone reading this will begin to investigate: Did Jesus arise from the dead?  What are the implications if He did?  Will He come again?  What will the End Times look like, if not like our present troubles?

There is always hope for anyone, no matter what you have done, how you have lived your life, how ignorant of The God Who Is you have been, how far from God and any goodness you have moved.  All you need is Jesus.  He will forgive; He will restore what was broken; He will give you eternal life . . . if you will receive Him. (John 1:12)

Maranatha, even so, come Lord Jesus.

 

What in the World is God? Part 2 – The Trinity

“Humans explaining the nature of God is like an ant trying to explain who dropped the sugar.” Trish O’Connor

In spite of Trish O’Connor’s quote, we all at one time or another try to understand God and most of us try to explain our discoveries to others.  These blogs are no different.  I certainly do not have all the answers, and like Rick Warren once said, “When someone thinks he has all the answers, you have to wonder if he knows all the questions.”

Yet God has revealed Himself to us and has been trying to get our attention since the beginning of time, to get us to trust and love Him.  And this is not a secret (1 John 1:1-3).  The things God has revealed about Himself were not done in a corner or revealed to special people in caves with special lenses required for reading.  God has continuously revealed Himself to any and all who wanted to know Him.  But as we noted before, He is very different from us.  Even the designation “He” tends to obscure just how different, as we tend to think of “Him” as a grandfather in the sky.

Why this matters is that “we tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.” (A.W.Tozer)  Thus we will become generous or legalistic, or cruel or kind, or pure or immoral, depending on the image of God in our minds.  This process was described by Paul: “Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” (Romans 1:21-23)

However, idolatry should not be construed as just worshiping a statue or physical image.  “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” (Colossians 3:5: Ezekiel 14:3)  Anything that takes first place in our hearts over The God Who Is There is an idol; this is what we live for, what we worship, what we want most in life.

So what is God, The God Who Is There?  The dictionary’s first definition is “the one Supreme Being, the creator and ruler of the universe.”  This gives us a starting point for discovering what He is, but we need more information, available only in the historical record of the Bible, to understand more fully what and who God is.

Books, and voluminous ones, have been written discussing the Trinity and the nature of God, so do not expect any great revelation here today.  This discussion is only intended as a starting point for us to consider our “mental images” of God and to draw us to consider how difficult it is for us to even begin to comprehend the incomprehensible.  How does an ant explain who or what dropped the sugar??

The Bible presents the One True God as revealing Himself to Moses and the fledgling nation of Israel as The I Am That I Am, or Yahweh.  He declares Himself to be ONE (Deuteronomy 6:4).  Yet in Genesis 1:26-27 He said, “Let US make man in OUR image . . . in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”  Both psalmist and prophet refer to God’s Holy Spirit as someone somehow distinct from God (Psalm 51:11; Isaiah 63:11).  When Jesus arrived on earth, He was “conceived . . . from the Holy Spirit” (sometimes called the Holy Ghost). (Matthew 1:20)  When He was baptized by John in the Jordan River, we see Jesus in the water, the Holy Spirit descending like a dove, and the Father speaking from above (Mark 1:9-11).

Now the question comes, Are we tri-theists?  Do we believe in three Gods?  Absolutely not!  As God spoke to Moses, He is One.  Then how do we justify Jesus’ claim to be God (John 10:30) and the recognition of the Holy Spirit as God (Acts 10:38)?

Some defer to “modalism.”  A man may be a dad, a brother and a son all at the same time . . . but that man is only one man, not three individuals.  Some claim there is “Jesus only,” and that He shows up at times as Father or Son or Holy Spirit.  However, these ideas fly in the face of various scriptures that show three individuals.  Some claim the Three-in-One is not One at all.  Some of these absurdly claim God the Father had sex with Mary in order for Jesus to be born, but that would make Jesus less than the Father, and Jesus a created being.

The whole temperament of the Bible claims the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all the One True God, existing somehow in three persons.  Hard to grasp?  Of course, it is.  He IS God!  To be able to comprehend and explain what He is we would have to be greater than Him.  As the Uncreated One, The First Cause of all that exists, he lives apart from His creation, over and above anything we will ever be able to grasp fully, even in the ages of eternity.  He will still be the Uncreated One and we will still be, however elevated in ages to come, mere creatures created for His joy.

Paul Little penned it this way: “Faith in Christianity is based on evidence. Faith in the Christian sense goes beyond reason but not against it.”  Though we do not fully understand the triune nature of God, this does not make it unreasonable in the face of the evidence presented in the Bible.

There is a small risk here: sometimes we begin to think and behave as tri-theists, as though there was a conflict between the Father and the Son, or between the Son and the Holy Spirit.  They, He, It is One, and we would do well to preface our prayers, “Holy One, whom You know Yourself to be . . .”  Now there are times when I need the proximity of a Brother.  Other times I need the counsel of a Father.  At yet other times, I need the mystery of a Holy Spirit who speaks in languages I have not learned.

God’s mercy is great enough, that if we call on His name, be it Father, Jesus, or Holy Spirit, He will understand our limitations and give grace to help us and guide us into all truth (John 16:12-15).  Next week, June 10, 2018, we look at more of The God Who Is There.

“For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  Isaiah 9:6

Next week, June 10, 2018, we will look at come of God’s characteristics that make sense.