Theology
Hell Rationally Considered
by Brother Jed Smock
"All hope abandon, ye who enter here." Dante read these dreadful words when he entered the gates of Hell with his guide Virgil. Dante may well have been inspired by God when he envisioned the terrible inscription on Hell’s gate as described in his great poem from the Middle Ages, The Divine Comedy. The hopelessness of Hell may be the place’s most tormenting aspect.
When men lose hope in this life they fall into despair and depression. Psychiatrists often prescribe drugs which often result in a dependency and addiction, thus preventing the person from seeking the solution to his problem, which would be a right relationship with God. Hopelessness may even drive men to take their own lives, expecting that only death can end their misery. The Bible warns that after death comes the judgment. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31); . . for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). Those without hope will be cast into the outer darkness of Hell.
Hell is a witness to the justice, wisdom, and love of God, who originally created Hell not for men but for the devil and the fallen angels (Matt 25:41). If there is no Hell, there is no loving God. If God doesn’t ultimately separate the righteous from the wicked, He is not just and therefore not loving. Hell became a necessity when Lucifer led a third of the Heavenly host against God (Rev 12:4). There was warfare in Heaven and God cast Lucifer out of Heaven (Isa 14, Ezek 28). God made Hell for the Devil and the fallen angels in order to contain evil. Later man followed Lucifer in rebellion and consequently God has, at intervals, had to enlarge Hell to accommodate the multitudes of unbelievers that fall into "the bottomless pit" daily (Isa 5:14). God cannot allow Heaven to become Hell by allowing the wicked to enter. The peace and harmony of Heaven must not be disturbed. What makes Heaven Heaven, but the absence of evil?
What is Hell essentially, but eternal and absolute separation from a holy, loving, and good God? Heaven on the other hand is essentially eternal union with God. At death God gives the sinner what he always thought he wanted--complete separation from what is good and holy. In his earthly life the sinner is not looking for a relationship with God any more than a thief is looking for a policeman. God cannot establish a loving relationship with a sinner because in the nature of things love is a choice. Love is voluntary. God cannot make men love Him. He can influence and persuade, but He cannot cause men to enter into a loving relationship with Him. God has done all that He can do to demonstrate His love by giving His Son. What more can God do than He has done to demonstrate His love for man? The death of His beloved Son is the ultimate expression of sacrificial love. Yet man continues in his rebellion.
As miserable as sinners will be in Hell, they would be even more miserable in Heaven. They have hated the church militant; so would they despise the church triumphant. They have preferred the fellowship of fools over that of the wise on earth; so they will in eternity. There is nothing in Heaven to which the selfish can relate or enjoy. Nor is their any joy in Hell.
Hell is the only solution available to God. God has a responsibility to counteract the evils of sin and repair the damage evil has done in the world. Any plan such as universalism or annihilation that could diminish or question the certainty of God's displeasure toward sin would only encourage men in their iniquity. Is annihilation of the damned soul at some point even a possible solution? Evidently not, for once having created an immortal soul, even God cannot make mortal what is immortal, nor destruct the indestructible. Hell is the most loving thing he can do for the unrepentant sinner.
The Church is supposed to picture Heaven on Earth. Often it may be a dim reflection of the Heavenly City; nevertheless, it a reflection. The Church is the light of the world. Sinners despise the Church. They love darkness and hate light. They work in the day to party in the darkness. The righteous work during the day, because they know the night comes when no man can work.
Sinners prefer the upholstered sewers called cocktail lounges over the church pews. They love the bar, but they hate the altar. If they can’t stand the dimmer light of the Church, they would never be able to stand the light of Heaven, which shines above the brightness of the Sun. They would run from the light of Heaven like rats run from light. The light of Heaven would be more tormenting for the sinner than the flames of Hell. As a man can only look at the noonday Sun for seconds, the sinner could not stand the brightness of Heaven, even for a moment.
What makes Hell Hell, but the absence of God and all that is good? As originally created for Satan and his hosts, it may not have been such a bad place. It may even have had a stark beauty, since it was created by God.
Prisons built in the Victorian era had an outward attractiveness. Modern prisons, though stark, have all the modern conveniences of flush toilets, central heating, running water, health care and healthy food. The notorious Alcatraz was surrounded by the waters of San Francisco Bay and sported a view of the city skyline. What makes prisons bad but the men who live there and the absence of freedom? Men in America’s prisons live with more comforts and conveniences than much of the world.
Prisons are inhabited by thieves, extortioners, drug addicts, sodomites, murderers, rapists, child molesters and the like. Not only does Hell contain all the criminal elements, but Hell is also the dwelling of all who on earth outwardly kept the law, but inwardly were ravening wolves and hypocrites who refused to submit in their hearts to the Supreme and Loving Lawgiver. Jesus described hypocrites as tares sown by the Enemy among the wheat. He said, “The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His Kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity (the tares); And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:41-42).
God is not the tormentor in Hell. God is no sadist taking delight in tormenting the wicked. The Devil and his demons will be tormenting the lost. And the damned torment one another. Yet, the torments of Hell are primarily self-inflicted, just as the torments of sinners on Earth are primarily self-inflicted. While on Earth, drugs and alcohol ruined the physical and mental health of the dope fiend and drunkard; and promiscuity resulted in debilitating diseases for the whore and whoremonger. Sin is unhealthy physically and mentally.
Consider the selfish and bitter man in this life. His selfishness and bitterness like a fire consumes anything that was once pleasant in his personality. Bitterness can contort a man’s facial features. He once had a pleasant and soft countenance, but bitterness has contorted his face. And all non-Christians are ultimately selfish, for selfishness is the root of all sin and the reason men reject God.
For men to accept God they must turn from their self-centeredness and live the life of self-denial exemplified in the life of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. In Hell all masks of self-righteousness are ripped off the sinner’s face. Men will be seen as they actually are, not for what they appeared to be in this life. Their selfishness and bitterness will wax worse and worse as eternity progresses. They will never reach a plateau of wickedness. They will not bottom out. Hence Hell is called the bottomless pit and the Lake of Fire.
Heed the last words of Isaiah, the prophet who described Hell: “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the LORD. And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against Me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh” (Isa. 66:22-24).
In eternity, the faithful seed of the Lord, the Triumphant Church, shall weekly gather in a great Heavenly congregation and worship in the Divine Presence. Evidently, on our way to the Heavenly Church service there will be a window to view Hell. We shall gaze at the bodies and hear the weeping and wailing of the damned, tormented with fire and brimstone. Their worm (consciousness) shall be ever aware of their torment. Like Cain of old, “They shall cry, “My punishment is greater than I can bear” (Gen 4:13)! But bear it they must, as their torment waxes worse and worse with the passing of the ages.
The window will serve as an everlasting reminder to the redeemed of the awful consequences of sin lest we ever forget that sin separates men from all that is good and holy.
It is often asked, “How can a Christian be happy in Heaven knowing that a lost son or daughter, father or mother, brother or sister is experiencing everlasting torment?” Isaiah explained that the damned “will be loathsome to all mankind” (Isa. 66:24, NIV). In Heaven the resurrected saints shall finally understand the exceeding sinfulness of sin. They will see sin not as presented by Hollywood and Madison Avenue as something attractive; but they will view sin as God perceives sin. They will look upon even their unrepentant family member with utter contempt as one completely and continually deserving of their miserable state.
It has been asked, “Why should sinners be tormented for eternity for sins committed in a relatively short life span?” The answer is that men will not stop sinning in Hell. Men will still hate God and hate one another in Hell. The damned will continue to curse God and curse one another. As they justified their rebellion on Earth, they will justify themselves in Hell and hate God for sending them to the terrible place. On Earth they had no fear of the One who had power to cast them into Hell; neither shall they have reverence for Him in Hell. Actually, there will no reverence for anyone or anything in Hell.
Men are often deluded into thinking that they will have a big party with their friends in Hell. But they will soon discover that there is no friendship in Hell. Sinners rejected all true friends, who on Earth called them to repentance and faith. Those they thought were friends on Earth urged them unto a life of booze, drugs, sexual promiscuity, or perhaps more respectable pursuits of pleasure and self-indulgence, such as fame and fortune. These were not friends; they were enemies of their souls. Drugs have medicinal benefits when used wisely and can be a blessing, but the abuse of drugs sends the sinner to Hell. There will not be drugs in Hell with which the tormented will be able to drown or stupefy their consciousness. There will not be the comforts of wealth or the prestige of success in Hell.
It has even been asked, “Will there be sex in Hell?” If there is sex in Hell, it will provide no pleasure. All the women in Hell will be ugly old hags with warts. Fire and brimstone is a description for Hell. Brimstone is burning sulphur which smells like rotten eggs. All the women will stink in Hell and no one will want to get near them. Once more, the men will smell as badly, if not worse, and no women will want to get close to them.
Alas, there is no beauty in Hell which the sinner will perceive. On the other hand, the righteous will perceive the beauty of the satisfaction of Divine Justice as they peer with contempt into the depths of Hell from Heaven’s window. "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2).
There are problems that Jesus and the Biblical writers had in describing Hell. There is nothing on Earth which is exactly parallel to Hell. There is nothing above which is as bad as what is below. It has been said that the worst way to die is to be burned alive. Whether or not that is true, I know not. But, for sure, being burned alive would be a terrifying experience with death providing the only relief.
Jesus may have chosen the metaphor of a “Lake of Fire,” in order to give men but a glimpse of this terrible state of the ultimately lost: Men desperately treading in a lake of flames vainly trying to rise above the flames.
The Bible is literally true, but not everything in the Book is true literally. Nevertheless, figurative language has a literal meaning. Writers convey ideas through word pictures which can be more effective than literal language. Sinners better hope that these fires are literal, because if figurative, eternal damnation is something worse than a "Lake of Fire," since a symbol is less, not greater, than the thing symbolized. Either way, whether figurative or literal, the Lake of Fire represents something so terrible that Jesus taught that men would be better off plucking out their lustful eye or cutting off their seductive and offending hand, than for their whole body to be cast into the Fiery Furnace (Matt. 5:27-30).
“Why should sinners suffer forever for sins committed in a relatively short span of life?” The effects of sin are perpetual, and in like manner the manifestations of the disapproval of God must be endless. How many multitudes have an atheist like Bertrand Russell, author of Why I Am Not a Christian, continued to influence through his writings long after his death? Evil is contagious, a deadly plague; it must be quarantined. The effects of his sin are infinite. Therefore, Russell, like all unbelievers, deserves endless punishment. Sin committed against an eternal God has endless possibilities of evil and deserves punishment without end. The murderer does not only take the life of one man; he cuts off the man’s seed, thus multitudes of potential souls do not even have the opportunity of life.
Some are under the delusion that sinners will make peace with God before their deaths. They will sow their wild oats in their youth and get right with God later. But later usually never comes. The longer the sinner puts off the salvation of his soul, the less likely it becomes that he will ever change. The older men become, the more they are set in their ways. The tendency of habit is toward a permanent state. Continuance in sin tends to a perpetual fixity in moral nature. Sin sears the conscience to the point that one may become insensible to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. The sinner may lose his recuperative power; his will is fixed long before he draws his final breath and is cast into the Furnace of Fire from where there will be no recovery. Hell is the inevitable result of persistent wickedness. The sinner is engaged in a mad dash toward Hell. He is determined that neither God nor man is going to stop him.
Men can’t get right with God anytime they please. God warned 120 years before the Flood, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.” He raised up Noah to build an Ark and to call men to repentance. The rain finally came and Noah and his family and the animals entered the Ark. “Then the Lord shut him in” (Gen 7:16). Multitudes must have beaten on the door of the Ark as the flood waters rose, but God had locked the door. It was too late. Men may reach a point where their minds are locked against God. "Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone” (Hosea 4:17). The incorrigible sinner, who would not respond to the loving appeals of the Holy Spirit in his lifetime, will not change in Hell. There are no motives for repentance in Hell comparable to the ones presented now. The Holy Spirit is not there to draw the sinner to repentance. There will be no loving mother in Hell to exhort her wayward son to turn to God. There are no Bibles in Hell.
Men universally have a sense of justice. Men demand justice. Since there is unfinished justice (the wicked often seem to prosper and the righteous suffer in this world), final justice must come in the next, if indeed a just God reigns over all. In the end all men must get their just desserts or Justice does not prevail. Hitler’s death at his own hand was not enough to pay for his crimes against humanity. The execution of a murderer does not pay for his crimes against the dead and the living. Justice demands more. Death is the beginning of the unrepentant murderer’s torment. A holy God cannot extend mercy to the unrepentant. Mercy is a principle of God, not merely an emotion or passion in God that trumps His Justice.
Reader, are you ready to meet God? Are you sure that you are in the Book of Life? John, the beloved disciple wrote in Revelation, “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and Hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and Hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and Hell were cast into the Lake of Fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire” (Rev. 20:12-15).
The Resurrected Lord Jesus from His Great White Throne clarified for John who would be saved and who would be damned: “He that overcometh [sin] shall inherit all things; and I will be His God, and he shall be My son. But the fearful [hopeless], and unbelieving [Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews without Christ, atheists, agnostics, et al.], and the abominable [sodomites and cross dressers], and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers [drug abusers], and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Rev. 21:7-8).
Hell should be a motivation to evangelize the world. Paul wrote, "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men” (2 Corinthians 5:11). Paul saw multitudes in the valley of decision about to fall into the abyss. He was motivated to warn the wicked like John the Baptist warned men to “Flee from the wrath to come” (Matt. 3:7). Fear of the punishment of Hell is not the highest motive for drawing men to the ever loving arms of Jesus, yet it usually is a necessary motive for gaining men’s attention concerning their perilous state.
Even Jesus used the fear of God as a motivator. “And I say unto you My friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear Him, which after He hath killed hath power to cast into Hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him” (Luke 12:4-5).
Jesus’ final admonition to His disciples was, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:15-16).
Do Christians really believe in Hell? If so, then why are they not warning about the horrible end that awaits men without God? Hell is such a tormenting place that no warning is too strong. Yet most Christians are either too embarrassed about the doctrine or ignorant concerning Hell’s rationale to so much as mention the word, except in vain. However, if there is a Hell to shun, then they should not rest day or night warning men.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Hell ascended into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and a picture of the fiery inferno flashed for all the world to see. Rather than facing the flames, many jumped from over 70 stories to a certain painful death on the concrete below. Multitudes desperately ran down the steps to escape the towering inferno while the brave and the few rushed up the stairs in the hopes of rescuing the perishing. The towers were hot enough to melt steel. And suddenly, the towers collapsed and all were lost in smoke and rubble. Oh, and how the rescuers worked and prayed that some could be saved from underneath the ruins, but all were gone forever.
It was hot in the Twin Towers, but it was not as hot as Hell. Should not Christians be as dedicated and courageous as the firemen to save those who are daily falling into the abyss and dig for those who are mired in the ruins of sin before it is too late?
After 9/11, family survivors of the dead firemen invariably affirmed that their sons, fathers, brothers, and friends were merely “doing their duty” in their vain attempt to rescue men from the Towers. The firemen understood the hazards of their profession. Many had years of experience in fighting fires and understood the possibility of not returning as they ascended the stairs of the Towers. Nevertheless, they climbed. They did their duty. They did not return. They were heroes. But in the end, they were just doing their duty.
When Jesus’ disciples said unto Him, “Increase our faith,” Jesus exhorted them to fulfill His commandments. “When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (Lk. 17:10).
Christians have a duty to risk all in order to seek and to save those that are lost in their trespasses and sins and save them from the fires of Hell. It is the mission of the Church to save men from damnation. When are we going to do our duty?
When there were great multitudes following Jesus, He turned to them and said, “If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple... Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple” (Lk. 14:26-27,33).
The firemen of 9/11 put their duty to rescue strangers ahead of their families; they put their duty before their own lives; they forsook all to do what firemen are supposed to do. We Christians have our duty. Reader, do you call yourself a disciple of Christ? Then do your duty and warn the wicked to “flee from the wrath to come.”
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Theology, A Need for Study
To concerned Christians and searching sinners:
There are so many who know the Bible fairly well, but are not well-acquainted with the nature and character of its Author. This deplorable situation is in part because of a general disregard for theology in our generation. Theology is the study of God in all of His relations. Our religion today is man-centered rather than God-centered. The experiential has been emphasized to the neglect of the rational to the extent that few are able to intelligently vindicate the ways of God to man.
Our Lord taught that we are to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, that is our whole being. Too many are content with a superficial knowledge of Him based in their emotions. So few love him with their mind because that requires much study which means hard work. And even fewer love him with their heart (the affections plus the will) because that demands entire obedience to his revealed will.
Christian theology needs to be studied diligently. It requires at least as much application as law or medicine. If millions of dollars are lost due to the ignorance of an attorney, it is a mere trifle. If health or even life is sacrificed through lack of a physician's knowledge, this is not essential. But if a minister misleads a soul to his eternal ruin, who can tell the awful consequences?
Charles Finney, president of Oberlin College throughout much of the 19th century, said, "My brother, sister, friend--read, study, think, and read again. You were made to think. It will do you good to think; to develop your powers by study. God designed that religion should require thought intense thought, and should thoroughly develop our powers of thought. The Bible itself is written in a style so condensed as to require much intense study. Many know nothing of the Bible or of religion, because they will not think and study."
Prayerful thought and study will enable you to better see the ignorance and folly of sin, and the reasonableness and justice of God our Father and the Gospel of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
In God's service and yours,
Jed Smock
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The Leap of Faith?
A student at Long Beach State University where I was lecturing asked me, "Preacher, how do you take that leap of faith."
"Faith, sir, is not a leap, but an intelligent choice based upon knowledge," I answered. Jesus said, 'Know the truth, and the truth shall make you free John 8:32.' You do not know enough to be a Christian.
"You admit that you have not even read the four Gospels. How can you expect to believe in Christ when you know virtually nothing about his character, teachings, nature, and mission?
"Would you marry a woman with whom you were only slightly acquainted? The believers relationship with Christ is compared in the Bible to marriage. The church is the bride, He is the Bridegroom. A successful marriage is based on trust or faith in another person. Just as a reasonable person would not marry someone without considering their character, family background, goals and basic beliefs so should you thoroughly examine the life of Christ as revealed in the Bible and I am convinced that you will see that He is worthy of a total commitment of your life."
This student had faith confused with credulity which is believing something without evidence or knowledge. Most people have blindly rejected Christianity without even knowing its fundamental teachings, let alone seriously thinking about rather or not its claims are true.
Jesus taught that we are to love God with our minds, which requires studying God. No wonder so few today really know God. They have not studied theology. Could we expect someone to know geometry, physics, chemistry, or history without studying these disciplines? Why should we expect men to know God without studying God, especially as he is revealed in the Bible?
The attitude of modern parents is that they are going to let their children make their own decisions on matters of faith. These same parents would never think of keeping their children away from school where they are introduced to various fields of knowledge, because they understand that if their children are not exposed to certain information they will never learn. Parents and teachers give children guidance about what they need to learn except when it comes to God. Then they are allowed to make their own decisions.
In colonial America school was optional, church was compulsory. Today we have the opposite situation, church is by choice and school is required. If parents do not compel their children to go to sunday school and church, or give their children religious instruction, what will the children conclude, but that religion is unimportant, and that faith is something unreasonable and divorced from knowledge?
Christianity does not demand blind faith, but commands all to think deeply and make an enlightened decision to believe and obey the Truth based upon historical facts.
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The Toronto Curse: It isn't Funny
The latest madness that is infecting the churches has been dubbed the "Laughing Revival" or the "Toronto Blessing". This alleged blessing which is sweeping across America and Europe includes manifestations of laughing, crying, shaking, falling, screaming, shrieking, snorting, braying, roaring, clucking, barking, oinking, ad nauseam.
The predominate experience is called getting "drunk in the Spirit" with its scriptural justification supposedly being Ephesians 5:18: "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit." But Paul is not comparing the infilling of the Holy Spirit with intoxication in this verse; he is contrasting the purposeful life in the Spirit with the unfulfilling life of sin.
When the Holy Spirit fell on the day of Pentecost, the devout and God-fearing Jews from foreign lands that gathered to observe the phenomena were amazed because they heard the Spirit-baptized believers speaking in the multitude's native tongues "the wonderful works of God," (not slurring their words, speaking foolishly or making animal noises). Others mocked and accused the 120 of being intoxicated. But Peter declared, "That these are not drunken as you suppose," and proceeded to give a convincing sermon that moved three thousand to repentance and faith in the Lord.
Supporters of the Toronto phenomena claim to be experiencing joy in the Holy Ghost; but Proverbs 15:21 says, "Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom; but a man of understanding walketh uprightly." Jesus related the joy of the Lord to obedience: "If you keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my father's commandments, and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." - John 15:10-11.
Joy is an inner delight which is the result of a clear conscience from the forgiveness of past sins and present obedience to God. The fruit of the Spirit not only includes joy, but self-control. Biblical admonitions to rejoice are balanced with calls to sober-mindedness. Early Christians were called disciples because they had come under the disciplined life that Christian character demands.
Joy in suffering for the cause of Christ is the theme of the New Testament. Jesus taught, "Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake." James 1:2 says, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations." The trials which Christians suffer for standing for righteousness and against sin should be our cause for rejoicing, because although these difficulties bring pain for the present they develop character.
God miraculously fed Israel in the wilderness with manna from Heaven. But the people soon became tired of the manna and demanded flesh to eat. An angry God gave them what they wanted, quails two cubits high which made them sick and many died. People associated with the Toronto experience have rejected the manna of holiness and suffering. So God is giving them flesh, which will result in death to their souls if they don't repent of this, their folly.
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Reflections on Character
Character is the force of a man's moral constitution, his pattern of behavior which is a result of his virtuous choices. Conduct is character in action. Our character is the way we are morally; our reputation is the way we are perceived.
Christianity demands the whole heart; for out of the heart are the issues of life, and the ruling disposition of a man's heart (either love or hate) forms the essence of his character.
Our moral status is of much greater importance than our social status, economic condition, intellectual endowments or physical beauty. While few of us will ever attain great wealth or fame, a spotless character is the privilege of us all.
Out of our thoughts are born deeds. Out of our deeds we develop habits. Out of our habits grow our character. On our character we build our destiny. Practical experience and good examples are indispensable helps in forming a noble character.
Be thankful for life's struggles and trials. These are what can make a man. Ease and idleness will ruin those with the strongest natural endowments and social advantages. Faith uses the difficulties of life to generate fiber, resolution, resources and provide opportunities for winning success and developing good character.
For man to develop an acceptable character he must first have a true conception of the character of God. All character development starts here. Instead of a cold passionless deity watching unmoved the actions he has decreed from all eternity, we have in the heavens a Father who looks with intense interest on his struggling children, helping them by benign influences, yearning for their final triumph, and rejoicing in that perfection of character which is the outcome of every victory over temptation.
A good or bad character is acquired, not innate. Man is born with all the necessary endowments to be Christlike in character. Man who refuses to be like Him sins against his Creator and his own soul. Even though he might outwardly manifest all the social graces, if he is inwardly living for the wrong end, self rather than God, then he deserves Hell.
Too often the development of intellect has been made the end of education, instead of the development of character. More recently politically correct attitudes and self-esteem have become the goal. The emphasis of the churches is usually not much better than the schools. Many ministries have been built around the supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit (some real, some contrived). Others concentrate on meeting the needs and healing the hurts of humanity without dealing with the problem of sin. Few concentrate on character building.
Money, power, cleverness, fame, liberty, even health is not the one essential, but character is the one true thing that can save us. If we do not have a righteous character our labor in this life is fruitless and our soul is lost.
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God's Love is Conditional
The popular belief is that God's love is unconditional, and that He accepts man just as he is. But is this idea really taught in the Bible and is it in conformity with common sense?
St. John clearly states a conditional aspect to God's love: "He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him...If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him." -- John 14:21-23
John is addressing the abiding love of God, which is the love that brings us into a relationship with our Creator. This love is conditional on our love for our heavenly Father. True love for God requires man's obedience. Many are convinced they love God even though they practice sin, but this is nothing but emotional attachment to the Lord, which will never result in salvation.
This conditional principle of love should be obvious without scriptural support. A boy wills to marry a girl, but she is not the least bit interested. He attempts to pursue her, but she rebuffs him at every turn. The gentleman would finally be required to reconcile himself to the impossibility of establishing a relationship with the lady of his love. As much as he longed for her, there could not be an abiding love, because this kind of love is dependent upon a mutual response.
God's relationship to His church is likened in the Bible to that of a bridegroom to his bride. To have a successful Christian marriage the husband must love, honor, and cherish his wife and the wife must love, honor and obey her husband. God will not receive man into His Kingdom unless he unselfishly and lovingly submits to His authority. How could a loving being have a meaningful relationship with a selfish person? This is impossible for anyone, divine or human, for love is by nature unselfish. How could a man have a worthwhile marriage with a woman who refused to submit to his leadership as head of the house? Man must turn from his selfishness and rebellion for God to embrace him with His love.
How do we reconcile this principle of conditional love with John 3:16: "For God so loved the world...?" This verse represents God's benevolence, which is unconditional. God wills the good of all and does not want any to perish, but until man repents God may extend his love, but it is of no redeeming value until received by the sinner.
Instead of informing the lost that, "God loves you," it would be more accurate to say that, "God wants to love you." The real issue is not the fact that God loves humanity, for this is commonly accepted except among infidels. The more basic question that must be raised is, "does humanity love God?"
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"All hope abandon, ye who enter here."
These dreadful words Dante read as he entered the gates of Hell with his guide Virgil. Hopelessness is so anguishing that it drives men to take their own life, expecting that only death can end their misery. But the Bible warns that after death comes the judgment. Truly, "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."--Hebrews 10:31
The Bible describes Hell as "the fire that shall never be quenched." Sinners better hope that these fires are literal, because, if figurative, eternal damnation is something worse than a "furnace of fire", since a symbol is less, not greater, than the thing symbolized.
Hell is a testimony to the power, wisdom, and love of God, who created Hell not for man but for the devil and the fallen angels. Later man followed Lucifer in rebellion and consequently God has at intervals enlarged Hell to accommodate the multitudes of unbelievers that fall into "the bottomless pit" daily.
What else in the end is God to do with the wicked? Since men are created with an immortal soul, even the Creator can't simply destroy that which is immortal. When men persistently reject God's mercy, judgment must finally be executed, or God is not loving.
Should God allow Heaven to become Hell by allowing the wicked to enter? The peace of heaven must not be disturbed. What makes heaven heaven, but the absence of evil?
The effects of sin are perpetual. In like matter the manifestations of the Righteous Judge's disapproval of sin must be endless. How many multitudes has an atheist like Bertrand Russell continued to influence long after his death through his writings? The torment of unbelievers in Hell will be an everlasting testimony of God's holy hatred of sin, and an eternal reminder to the glorified church that sin will condemned.
As miserable as sinners will be in Hell, they would be even more miserable in Heaven. They have hated the church militant so would they despise the church triumphant. They have preferred the companionship of fools over that of the righteous on earth, so they will in eternity.
It is a law of nature that the organism and environment must be in harmony. The surroundings of the incorrigible soul in Hell will reflect and express the sinners corrupt inward state.
Many are under the delusion that they will make peace with God before death. But the longer the sinner puts off the salvation of his soul, the less likely it becomes that he will ever change. Persistency in sin tends to a perpetual fixity in moral nature. Sin stupefies the ethical sense and one becomes insensible to the appeals of the Holy Spirit. The sinner may lose his recuperative power before he draws his final breath and is cast into "the lake of fire" from where there will be no recovery. Reader, this may be your final day of visitation.
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Misconceptions Concerning Jesus Christ
Jesus came to reveal the Father: John 14:6-11
1. He never turned anyone off: John 6:50-59, 15:22-25
A. He never offended anyone: John 6:60-71, Matt. 15:1-14
B. He never intentionally offended: Luke 6:1-11.
2. He never rejected anyone:
Luke 9:57-62; those eager to follow
Luke 14:25,26,27,33-35; forsake all
Luke 18:9-14 Pharisee and publican
Luke 18:15-17 must receive as little child or not enter
Luke 18:18-27 rich young ruler
3. He never condemned anyone:
John 3:18
Matt. 23
Matt. 11:20-24
Matt. 18:7-9
John 8:1-11
4. Never called people names:
Matt. 15:22-28 dogs
Matt. 17:17 faithless and perverse
Luke 13:32 fox
Matt. 23:13-33
John 8:44 Jews devils
John 6:70 Judas a devil, Matt. 16:23 Peter-Satan
5. Never harsh:
Matt. 10:33-39 send a sword
Luke 12:49 send fire
6. Never angry:
Mark 3:5
John 2:15-17 money changers
Eph. 4:26
7. Never raised his voice:
John 7:37-39
8. No hatred in Him:
Hebrews 1:9
9. Mainly preached on love:
about 160 verses on Hell, condemnation, judgment
9 verses speaking of God's love
conditional love: John 14:21,23; John 15:10,14
10. Universally loved: .
John 7:7, John 15:23-25, Luke 11:15,
mocked on the Cross
11. Always explained himself and spoke clearly and simply:
John 6:43-58
John 2:18-21 destroy this temple
Matt. 13:10-17
12. Answered questions directly:
John 12:20-33
13. Dressed as a peasant:
John 19:23-24
14. Man of peace:
John 14:27 but not as the world gives
John 16:33 tribulation in the world
Matt. 34-35
I Thes. 5:3 beware when they say peace and safety
15. He was a communist or socialist:
Luke 19:11-27 parable of pounds advocates and slaying his enemies
16. Appearance now:
Revelation 1-12-17,
Revelation 19:11-16
Meet the Jesus of the Bible:
John 5:36-47
Lamb of God--Lion of the Tribe of Judah
Prince of Peace--Man of War and Capt. of the Lord's Host
priest--prophet the Lord our Righteousness
The Way--Stumbling-block I Corinthians 1:23 and
Rock of Offence Romans 9:23
Savior--Judge
--o0o--
Faith and Reason
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." -- Isaiah 1:18
The ability to reason is a natural attribute of God. He exercised reason in planning the creation of the heaven and earth. He observed His creation and declared it to be good. He created man in His own image with a mind capable of thinking and observed that everything He created was very good. He challenges man to sit down and think together with Him concerning the folly of sin and the way of deliverance from its power.
God has always behaved rationally and he expects man to function in the same manner. If we are to love God with our mind as Jesus commanded (Matthew 22:37), then faith can never be contrary to reason. Sometimes reason may not comprehend the way of faith, but there is also so much that science accepts that it cannot understand or explain. We have good reason to believe that the few apparent contradictions in the Bible are not actual contradictions, but merely appear to be because of lack of understanding on man's part or possibly scribal errors.
What about miracles? Having observed the obvious existence of the Creator in his wondrous and intricate universe, it would be absurd for a man to think, that God could not at times set aside the laws of nature and perform the supernatural. Or perhaps, sometimes the Omnipotent God operates according to a higher law that man has not discovered. Air travel was considered impossible until man understood the laws of aerodynamics.
"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:" -- 1 Peter 3:15
We are challenged to logically defend our hope so faith cannot conflict with reason or God would require the impossible which would be irrational. Only when we reason from false premises, or make faulty inferences from true premises, does reason conflict with faith. Many have faith confused with credulity and fanaticism which is believing something without evidence or reason.
Much of what has passed for Christian doctrine is contrary to reason and Biblical revelation such as the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination. Such a God would not be rational, but arbitrary. False notions about God and His ways are a result of failing to sanctify Him in our hearts. To sanctify God in our hearts is to separate Him from any evil purpose and think just notions of His nature and character.
Faith is the will's reception of the Truth. Unbelief is the will's rejection of obvious Truth. Unbelief is a mortal sin because all men intuitively know God (Roman 2:14-15), and Nature reveals both His existence and goodness so that "they are without excuse." (Roman 1:18-20). Intellectual skepticism is the will's choice to be governed by wild imaginations instead of reason. When a man is dominated by his imaginations instead of reason, he will not think clearly. Sin darkens the mind to the Light.
Noah Porter, president of Yale College, said in 1878, "The position which we occupy is that the Christian faith is the perfection of human reason; that supernatural and historical Christianity is the only Christianity which is worth defending or which is capable of being defended on the grounds of reason or history; and that such Christianity, when interpreted by enlightened judgment, as to its truth and precepts, is not only friendly to the highest forms of culture, but is an essential condition of the same."
In three words: God is reasonable.
--o0o--
Are We Taking Sin Too Seriously?
Introduction: I had a discussion (a small disagreement) with a friend while I was in Texas. I got to talking about sin in Christians, and in the church. At first I thought he disagreed with my strong stand that we who are Christians should not sin. But he does think that we should not sin. However, he said something like this, "No matter what you say, we are going to sin at times," and he felt that to give a testimony that we were perfect (in heart, and in motive) was proud, and would only lead to embarrassment when we did sin, and it became known. (Even if it didn’t become known outside our own consciences, we should be embarrassed before God.)
He pointed me to 1 John 1:8 "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." So I have been thinking about this for over a week.
We have a problem here, and we need to honestly look at what the Scriptures say, what they are trying to get us to do, and what should happen in our lives as a result of the truth.
I. FIRST OF ALL, ALL HAVE SINNED, AND ALL NEED TO BE FORGIVEN. Those of us who are Christians have realized that we were sinners before God, and worthy of hell. We have repented of our sins (which means that we have decided to turn away from them), and we have exercised faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which means that we have begun to live in accordance with His commandments. AND WE HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN. THAT IS THE BEGINNING POINT OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
A. (Matt. 1:21 NASB) "And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins."
1. Too many people probably think that this means that He saves them from the eternal consequences of their sins, I. E. HELL, instead of saving them from committing the sins.
B. (Acts 3:26 NASB) "For you first, God raised up His Servant, and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways."
II. SECONDLY, WE ALL BROUGHT A LOT OF BAD HABITS, A LOT OF WRONG WAYS OF THINKING, A LOT OF BAD CIRCUMSTANCES (THE CONSEQUENCES OF OUR SINS), AND OFTEN A LOT OF BAD FRIENDS, AND MAYBE A BAD REPUTATION INTO THIS CHRISTIAN LIFE.
A. I am constantly amazed at how long it takes some people, who come to this church, and hear all this truth, to change their habits and conform to what they know to be true.
B. I really believe that in lots of cases it is because they have heard so much that they are sinners, and they really can’t help it. The church, which is supposed to expose sin and its consequences, has become the main entity to give an excuse for sin, and so encourage people to remain in their sinful life, while at the same time giving them assurance that they are going to heaven. Listen to this excerpt from the Statement of Faith of the Rockford Christian School as an illustration of what I am talking about:
"We believe that Man was created in the image of God, that he sinned, and thereby incurred both physical death and spiritual death, which is separation from God; and that all human beings are born with a sinful nature, and indeed sin in thought, word, and deed."
III. THIRDLY, THE WILL OF GOD (HIS PURPOSE IN SAVING US), IS TO MAKE US LIKE HIS SON JESUS IN OUR CHARACTER (Rom 8:29 NASB) "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;" Jesus never sinned, and it is God’s purpose for all of us to follow Him in His lifestyle, that of "not sinning."
A. (John 5:14 NASB) "Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, 'Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse may befall you.'"
B. (John 8:11 NASB) And she said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go your way. From now on sin no more."
C. (Rom 6:12-16 NASB) Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
(2 Cor 12:21 NASB) I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality and sensuality which they have practiced.
(2 Cor 13:2 NASB) I have previously said when present the second time, and though now absent I say in advance to those who have sinned in the past and to all the rest as well, that if I come again, I will not spare anyone,
(Eph 4:26 NASB) BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
(1 John 2:1 NASB) My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
(1 John 3:4-10 NASB) Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins (continually, or habitually); no one who sins (continually, or habitually) has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot (practice, or habitually) sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.
(1 John 5:18 NASB) We know that no one who is born of God sins (Greek present tense, [has the idea of continuously, repeatedly, or habitually] sins); but He who was born of God keeps him and the evil one does not touch him.
(Heb 12:10 NASB) For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness (Holiness is the condition of a person who is not now guilty of any sin. His old sins have been forgiven, and he is not now sinning, therefore he is holy.)
(Heb 12:14 NASB) Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification (Sanctification equals holiness.) without which no one will see the Lord. (Heb 12:14 KJV) Follow peace with all men, and holiness , without which no man shall see the Lord:
IV. The other point which came up in our discussion was that Paul addresses the churches as "saints"
(Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1; Gal. 1:4 (slightly different wording); Eph. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; Col. 1:2;
1 Thess. 1:3, 6 (slightly different wording); Timothy and Titus as "sons," and Philemon as "beloved brother."), and then he writes to all of them about sin in the church, so this is supposed to mean that Paul acknowledges sin in the Christian, and expects it.
A. It is a common habit to find the position which reinforces my life, and focus on that. But what are we to do with the long list of verses I gave you at the beginning of this sermon? How can we honestly know what the Bible says, and then do it?
V. 1 John 1:5-10 NASB
And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light (holiness, righteousness), and in Him there is no darkness (sin) at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness (practice, or habitually live in sin), we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the light (practice, or habitually live in righteousness or obedience, up to our present understanding) as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. Suppose that we are living righteously, obeying Jesus as we understand Him, and we sin, in a moment of impatience, or temptation, we revert back to our old habits of thinking and acting.
A. If we don’t know it, or not aware of it, then this verse seems to apply to me. We would be automatically forgiven, and God would later bring light. This seems to me to be equivalent of the "sin of ignorance," or the "unintentional sin" of the Old Testament.
B. If we are aware of it, two things should happen:
1. We should instantly feel guilt in our hearts, and
2. We should therefore ask forgiveness from God (and if we have sinned against another person, from that person) for that particular sin.
3. The result should be that we redouble our commitment to "walk in the light."
(v. 8 NASB) If we say that we have no sin (Greek present tense), we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Oftentimes we seek the lowest common denominator to protect ourselves from failure or disappointment. All of us can sin at any time, because sin is a wrong moral choice. We can never get to the place where we can say that we will never sin.
(v. 9 NASB) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (Are we cleansed from unrighteousness while we are still living unrighteously?)
(v. 10 NASB) If we say that we have not sinned (Greek past tense), we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
As we continue in 1 John 2 and 3, it is more and more obvious that the Christian is to live each day with the intent not to sin (2:1), to keep His commandments (2:3), to "walk in the same manner as He walked" (2:6) John is saying that sin and obedience to God are irreconcilable.
Conclusion: Sin is the enemy. It removes the believer from the light. It prevents fellowship with God, and breaks fellowship with others. If we sin, we are to confess and He will forgive and cleanse us from our sin (1 John 1:9), and if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous (1 John 2:1). But always the intent of the Christian remains the same--not to commit sin.
submitted by Pastor Dean H. Harvey
--o0o--
Orthodoxy
Pastor Dean H. Harvey
I had an interesting phone call recently. Jay Grimstead, the Director of the Coalition on Revival (COR), called and asked me to get involved in a COR debate or discussion of three of the points of "Moral Government" theology. The three points were (1) the "limited foreknowledge of God", (2) the atonement of Christ, in whether or not it was a payment, and (3) the idea of an inherited sin nature. As our conversation continued, I asked him why he wanted this kind of debate. His reply was to the effect that over the years men who had differing views of the Bible had met together in councils to discuss and define "orthodoxy." He said that orthodoxy was normally defined by majority vote of those meeting together.
Orthodox is defined as "1 a: conforming to established doctrine especially in religion b: CONVENTIONAL..." and orthodoxy as "1: the quality or state of being orthodox 2: An orthodox belief or practice..."
I know the Bible, and I am basically familiar with church history. As I began to ponder the idea of orthodoxy, several things came to mind.
Firstly, every step forward which Israel or the church has ever taken has been with the opposition of the established orthodoxy of that time. In the northern kingdom of Israel in the time of Amos, the false religion of Israel, the "sin of Jereboam," had become entrenched as orthodoxy in spite of all God's efforts through His prophets. Later Jeremiah was God's voice as He brought judgment and dispersion to Judah because of its sin. In all of his ministry Jeremiah had to confront the orthodoxy of his time, which undergirded the status quo in Judah, for which God was bringing judgment. In the time of Jesus and the establishment of the New Testament church, their main opposition came not from the devil or sinners per se, but from those who were orthodox, who were entrenched in the seats of religious power.
Three illustrations will suffice.
(1) The power of the Jews in John 9:22 when even the parents of the blind man who was healed were afraid to speak for their son because "the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue."
(2) The desperate effort of the orthodox Jews to discredit Jesus in the story of the woman taken in adultery which is recorded in John 8:2-11.
(3) The vicious opposition of Saul, the representative of orthodoxy, to the spread of Christianity in the time preceding his conversion.
In church history, perhaps the greatest battle between entrenched orthodoxy and a giant step forward was the reformation under Martin Luther. It seems to be true that the group which actually wins the battle and overcomes the old orthodoxy, in just a few decades, becomes the new orthodoxy, and as such, becomes an enemy of change. Calvinism, a stream of the Reformation, became the new orthodoxy, and was confronted by Arminianism, which was condemned by the "orthodox" majority in the Synod of Dort in 1619. Later, in England, Anglicanism was the orthodox religious power, and in order to be free to follow their conscience in religious matters, the Pilgrims and Puritans left England and came to America to leave their imprint upon the very foundation of the United States. We all owe them a great debt.
Secondly, we could say that most, if not all, religious revivals have been in opposition to the entrenched religious orthodoxy of their particular time.
Thirdly, we who are Christians have a primary obligation to the Lord of the church to follow Him in obedience. He has given us the inspired Word of God as an absolute guideline, and He has given every Christian the Holy Spirit to indwell, guide and teach him. William Adams has said "In time, the Bible corrects most of the false, incomplete, and unbalanced interpretations of its content."
Fourthly, this does not mean that we are all independent of what God has done through others in the church in the past. Perhaps the greatest statement of the way in which we all are indebted to those who have come before is the "hall of faith" in Hebrews 11. I believe that there is a hall of faith made up of those who have lived during the last 2000 years of church history. Praise the Lord for the contributions which the men and councils of the past have made to the church, and therefore to each one of us. But ultimately, the responsibility of the individual Christian is to seek the Lord, study the Bible for himself, obey what he knows to be true, maintain a clear conscience before the Lord, and if these bring him into opposition to what is orthodoxy from his own heritage and denomination, he is to let his light shine, and if need be, to come out of that particular orthodoxy. We in the United States are fortunate at this point in history in that we will not normally be burned at the stake, drowned, or even exiled because of our differences with orthodoxy. The judgments will be much more subtle.
Fifthly, much of that which passes as orthodoxy today is a hindrance to the ordinary Christian as he tries to live for Christ in this world. Much of it gives excuses for sin, when I can find no such excuses in the Bible. If I cannot help sinning, why should I feel guilty, or even try to obey God? If orthodoxy gives excuses for sin, then it will have to redefine the purpose for which Jesus came, away from that stated in Acts 3:26, "...He sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways." Much of it claims that we cannot obey God, when the clarion call of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is to obey. Much of it tries to give God and "grace" all the credit for whatever happens, when Paul tells us in I Cor. 3:9 that "we are God's fellow workers..." I certainly believe in God and grace but I believe that much of what God wants accomplished in this world is not done because we are not fulfilling our responsibilities. God is fulfilling His responsibilities, and He is "not willing that any should perish." I hear over and over again in many different circles that "Salvation is all of God." It seems obvious to me that if salvation were all of God, everyone would be saved.
Of course, there are some good things about orthodoxy. We should not have to reinvent the wheel in every generation. The things which concern us all have been discussed ever since Christ established His church. And to me, the primary things revolve around the person of God, the person of Christ, the work of Christ, and the purposes of God in salvation. For those of us who include ourselves under the banner of "Moral Government," let us not allow anyone to intimidate us with the accusation that we are not orthodox. True orthodoxy has been defined in the gospel, and the Lord Jesus will judge our orthodoxy at the judgment seat of Christ. In the meantime, let us go into all the world, and make disciples of all nations.
--o0o--
The Crucifixion of Jesus, From a Medical Point of View
THE PASSION OF CHRIST FROM A MEDICAL POINT OF VIEW
by C. Truman Davis, M.D., M.S.
In this paper, I shall discuss some of the physical aspects of the passion, or suffering, of Jesus Christ. We shall follow Him from Gethsemane, through His trial, His scourging, His path along the Via Dolorosa, to His last dying hours on the cross.
I became interested in this about a year ago when I read an account of the crucifixion in Jim Bishop's book, The Day Christ Died. I suddenly realized that I had taken the Crucifixion more or less for granted all these years--that I had grown callous to its horror by a too easy familiarity with the grim details--and a too distant friendship with Him. It finally occurred to me that as a physician I didn't even know the actual immediate cause of death. The Gospel writers don't help us very much on this point, because crucifixion and scourging were so common during their lifetime that they undoubtedly considered a detailed description totally superfluous--so we have the concise words of the Evangelists: "Pilate, having scourged Jesus, delivered Him to them to be crucified--and they crucified Him."
I am indebted to many who have studied this subject in the past, and especially to a contemporary colleague, Dr. Pierre Barbet, a French surgeon who has done exhaustive historical and experimental research and has written extensively on the subject.
The infinite psychic and spiritual suffering of the Incarnate God in atonement for the sins of fallen man I have no competence to discuss; however, the physiological and anatomical aspects of our Lord's passion we can examine in some detail...what did the body of Jesus of Nazareth actually endure during those hours of torture?
This led me first to a study of the practice of crucifixion itself; that is, the torture and execution of a person by fixation to a cross. Apparently, the first known practice of crucifixion was by the Persians. Alexander and his generals brought it back to the Mediterranean world-to Egypt and to Carthage. The Romans apparently learned the practice from the Carthaginians and (as with almost everything the Romans did) rapidly developed a very high degree of efficiency and skill in carrying it out. A number of Roman authors (Livy, Cicero, Tacitus) comment on it. Several innovations and modifications are described in the ancient literature; I'll mention only a few which may have some bearing here. The upright portion of the cross (or stipes) could have the cross-arm (or patibulum) attached two or three feet below its top--this is what we commonly think of today as the classical form of the cross (the one which we have later named the Latin cross); however, the common form used in our Lord's day was the Tau cross (shaped like the Greek letter Tau or like our T). In this cross the patibulum was placed in a notch at the top of the stipes. There is fairly overwhelming archeological evidence that it was on this type of cross that Jesus was crucified.
The upright post, or stipes, was generally permanently fixed in the ground at the site of execution and the condemned man was forced to carry the patibulum, apparently weighing about ll0 pounds, from the prison to the place of execution. Without any historical or biblical proof, medieval and Rennaisance painters have given us our picture of Christ carrying the entire cross. Many of these painters and most of the sculptors of crucifixes today show the nails through the palms. Roman historical accounts and experimental work have shown the nails were driven between the small bones of the wrists and not through the palms. Nails driven through the palms will strip out between the fingers when they support the weight of a human body. The misconception may have come about through a misunderstanding of Jesus' words to Thomas, "Observe my hands." Anatomists, both modern and ancient, have always considered the wrists as part of the hand.
A titulus, or small sign, stating the victim's crime was usually carried at the front of the procession and later nailed to the cross above the head. This sign with its staff nailed to the top of the cross would have given it somewhat the characteristic form of the Latin cross.
The physical passion of the Christ begins in Gethsemane. Of the many aspects of this initial suffering, I shall only discuss the one of physiological interest; the bloody sweat. It is interesting that the physician of the group, St. Luke, is the only one to mention this. He says, "And being in agony, He prayed the longer. And his sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground."
Every attempt imaginable has been used by modern scholars to explain away this phase, apparently under the mistaken impression that this just doesn't happen.
A great deal of effort could be saved by consulting the medical literature. Though very rare, the phenomenon of Hematidrosis, or bloody sweat, is well documented. Under great emotional stress, tiny capillaries in the sweat glands can break, thus mixing blood with sweat. This process alone could have produced marked weakness and possible shock.
We shall move rapidly through the betrayal and arrest; I must stress again that important portions of the Passion story are missing from this account. This may be frustrating to you, but in order to adhere to our purpose of discussing only the purely physical aspects of the Passion, this is necessary. After the arrest in the middle of the night, Jesus was brought before the Sanhedrin and Caiaphas, the High Priest; it is here that the first physical trauma was inflicted. A soldier struck Jesus across the face for remaining silent when questioned by Caiaphas. The palace guards then blindfolded Him and mockingly taunted Him to identify them as they each passed by, spat on Him, and struck Him in the face.
In the early morning, Jesus, battered and bruised, dehydrated, and exhausted from a sleepless night, is taken across Jerusalem to the Praetorium of the Fortress Antonia, the seat of government of the Procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. You are, of course, familiar with Pilate's action in attempting to pass responsibility to Herod Antipas, the Tetrach of Judea. Jesus apparently suffered no physical mistreatment at the hands of Herod and was returned to Pilate. It was then, in response to the cries of the mob, that Pilate ordered Bar-Abbas released and condemned Jesus to scourging and crucifixion.
Preparations for the scourging are carried out. The prisoner is stripped of His clothing and His hands tied to a post above His head. It is doubtful whether the Romans made any attempt to follow the Jewish law in this matter of scourging. The Jews had an ancient law prohibiting more than forty lashes. The Pharisees, always making sure that the law was strictly kept, insisted that only thirty-nine lashes be given. (In case of a miscount, they were sure of remaining within the law.) The Roman legionnaire steps forward with the flagrum (or flagellum) in his hand. This is a short whip consisting of several heavy, leather thongs with two small balls of lead attached near the ends of each. The heavy whip is brought down with full force again and again across Jesus' shoulders, back and legs. At first the heavy thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as the blows continue, they cut deeper into the subcutaneous tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles. The small balls of lead first produce large, deep bruises which are broken open by subsequent blows. Finally the skin of the back is hanging in long ribbons and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. When it is determined by the centurion in charge that the prisoner is near death, the beating is finally stopped.
The half-fainting Jesus is then untied and allowed to slump to the stone pavement, wet with His own blood. The Roman soldiers see a great joke in this provincial Jew claiming to be a king. They throw a robe across His shoulders and place a stick in His hand for a scepter. They still need a crown to make their travesty complete. A small bundle of flexible branches covered with long thorns (commonly used for firewood) are plaited into the shape of a crown and this is pressed into His scalp. Again there is copious bleeding (the scalp being one of the most vascular areas of the body.) After mocking Him and striking Him across the face, the soldiers take the stick from His hand and strike Him across the head, driving the thorns deeper into His scalp. Finally, they tire of their sadistic sport and the robe is torn from His back. This had already become adherent to the clots of blood and serum in the wounds, and its removal, just as in the careless removal of a surgical bandage, causes excruciating pain...almost as though He were again being whipped--and the wounds again begin to bleed.
In deference to Jewish custom, the Romans return His garments. The heavy patibulum of the cross is tied across His shoulders, and the procession of the condemned Christ, two thieves and the execution detail of Roman soldiers, headed by a centurion, begins its slow journey along the Via Dolorosa. In spite of His efforts to walk erect, the weight of the heavy wooden beam, together with the shock produced by copious blood loss, is too much. He stumbles and falls. The rough wood of the beam gouges into the lacerated skin and muscles of the shoulders. He tries to rise, but human muscles have been pushed beyond their endurance. The centurion, anxious to get on with the crucifixion, selects a stalwart North African onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross. Jesus follows, still bleeding and sweating the cold, clammy sweat of shock. The 650 yard journey from the fortress Antonia to Golgotha is finally completed. The prisoner is again stripped of His clothes--except for a loin cloth which is allowed the Jews.
The crucifixion begins. Jesus is offered wine mixed with Myrrh, a mild analgesic mixture. He refuses to drink. Simon is ordered to place the patibulum on the ground and Jesus is quickly thrown backward with His shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square, wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly, he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flexion and movement. The patibulum is then lifted in place at the top of the stipes and the titulus reading "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" is nailed in place.
The left foot is pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each leaving the knees moderately flexed. The Victim is now crucified. As He slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain--the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves. As He pushes Himself upward to avoid this stretching torment He places His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again there is the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet.
At this point, another phenomenon occurs. As the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by His arms, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed and the intercostal muscles are unable to act. Air can be drawn into the lungs, but cannot be exhaled. Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood steam and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically, He is able to push Himself upward to exhale and bring in the life-giving oxygen. It was undoubtedly during these periods that He uttered the seven short sentences which are recorded:
The first, looking down at the Roman soldiers throwing dice for His seamless garment, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."
The second, to the penitent thief, "Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise."
The third, looking down at the terrified, grief stricken, adolescent John, (the beloved Apostle), he said, "Behold thy mother," and looking to Mary, his mother, "Woman, behold thy son."
The fourth cry is from the beginning of the 22nd Psalm, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
Hours of this limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He moves up and down against the rough timber: Then another agony begins. A crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart.
Let us remember again the 22nd Psalm (the l4th verse), "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels."
It is now almost over--the loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level--the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues--the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the brain.
Jesus gasps His fifth cry, "I thirst."
Let us remember another verse from the prophetic 22nd Psalm: "My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death."
A sponge soaked in Posca, the cheap, sour wine which is the staple drink of the Roman legionnaires, is lifted to His lips. He apparently doesn't take any of the liquid. The body of Jesus is now in extremis, and He can feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues. This realization brings out His sixth words--possibly little more than a tortured whisper.
"It is finished."
His mission of atonement has been completed. Finally He can allow his body to die.
With one last surge of strength, He once again presses His torn feet against the nail, straightens His legs, takes a deeper breath, and utters His seventh and last cry, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit."
The rest you know. In order that the Sabbath not be profaned, the Jews asked that the condemned men be dispatched and removed from the crosses. The common method of ending a crucifixion was crurifracture, the breaking of the bones of the legs. This prevented the victim from pushing himself upward; the tension could not be relieved from the muscles of the chest, and rapid suffocation occurred. The legs of the two thieves were broken, but when they came to Jesus they saw that this was unnecessary.
Apparently to make doubly sure of death, the legionnaire drove his lance through the fifth interspace between the ribs, upward through the pericardium and into the heart. The 34th verse of the l9th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John: "And immediately there came out blood and water." Thus there was an escape of watery fluid from the sac surrounding the heart and blood from the interior of the heart. We therefore, have rather conclusive post mortem evidence that Our Lord died, not the usual crucifixion death by suffocation, but of heart failure due to shock and constriction of the heart by fluid in the pericardium.
Thus we have seen a glimpse of the epitome of evil which man can exhibit toward man--and toward God. This is not a pretty sight and is apt to leave us despondent and depressed. How grateful we can be that we have a sequel: A glimpse of the infinite mercy of God toward man--the miracle of the atonement and the expectation of Easter morning!
--o0o--
SUBSTITUTIONARY ATONEMENT
(NOTE FROM D. HARVEY-A copy of the following letter was sent to me on 12-2-96)
Dear Pastor Greg,
I want to finish our discussion begun tonight on substitution to share with you my view in brief and encourage you to think through this whole subject before more publishing and preaching on the atonement. I think that you could reap a great harvest through its preaching. You have opportunities that few of us have. But few men speak on the atonement beyond a peripheral allusion to it, and when they do, they speak of the payment view, which makes God a Scrooge and a tyrant. So maybe it’s best that speak on other topics.
I do believe in a vicarious atonement in the following ways. I am not sure why you questioned my view. And you seem to down play the substitution element in your view. I hope in this short letter to outline the moral government view, as you find elements that you admire in Finney.
Christ’s death was a 3-fold substitution:
- Person--Christ suffered, not the sinner
- Kind--Grief and agony over man’s sins, not the torment of remorse, shame, and a guilty conscience
- Amount--3 to 6 hours (endured in His humanity), not eternally
I do NOT believe in substitution in the following ways: that Christ was punished instead of me, that He endured the wrath of the Father for me, that He paid the penalty for my sin, that He obeyed instead of my obeying, or that His righteousness (personal character) is regarded as mine by the Father.
It seems that many who believe in a literal payment by Christ consider those who don’t as rejecting the substitutionary atonement. This is unfair. I do believe that Christ died for (on behalf of) sinners, that He became a sin offering, that I may become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 8:3), that it would have been wrong of God to forgive us without the atonement (Rom. 3:21-25).
Albert Barnes was good on the three-fold substitution. He defined the atonement as “an arrangement by which the literal infliction of the penalty due to sin may be avoided; it is something which may be substituted in the place of punishment; it is that which will answer the same end which would be secured by the literal infliction of the penalty of the law.” It must show the Lawgiver’s regard for the value of the law and the evil of disobedience of the law.
I believe that:
- No one was saved at the historical cross (except the thief).
- Christ died for all people in the same sense.
- The Atonement is not causal in anyone’s salvation, but it is one condition of my salvation, repentance and faith are the others.
- The atonement satifies public justice, not retributive justice.
- The atonement was not for God alone (payment), or for man alone (moral influence), but for both in relationship.
Gordon Olson was so good on this and has helped me and others so much in YWAM and Agape Force, etc., in the 1960's and 1970's. On page 51 of The Kindness of God Our Saviour, he sums up the first part of his book by saying: “After man’s rebellion and persistence therein, such is the love and long-suffering of the Godhead that They are free from vindictiveness and are kindly disposed toward man.” The problems that God has with forgiveness are governmental, not personal. I summarize below:
The objective to be achieved in man’s reconciliation is:
The happy God-man relationship of love and kindness must be restored, and the happy man-to-man relationship of love and kindness must also be restored.
What must be accomplished by the means of reconciliation?
- The guilt of past sin must be forgiven.
- The selfish purpose of life must be terminated.
- The inner defilement of sin must be remedied.
- The transformed life must be sustained.
- Preparation for heaven can only be made in this present life.
What are the problems to be overcome by means of reconciliation?
- God must be just to His moral government--in providing such an effective deterrent to sin, that the enforcement of moral government shall not in any way be weakened when free pardon is extended to the guilty under certain conditions.
- God must be just to Himself as Moral Governor--in revealing the unspeakable grief and extreme displeasure that the Godhead have experienced because of man’s rebellions against a loving rulership and his energetic persistence in sin.
- God must be just to man’s hypocrisy--in destroying all pride and bringing man to recognize the truth of his moral relations and his profound guilt of his sin as deserving of eternal punishment.
- God must be just to man’s moral freedom--in providing a means to be used by the Holy Spirit in purifying the innermost being of the repentant sinner and in inducing him to live a new spiritual life through faith.
On page 88, he begins to show how these problems were overcome by the advent and atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I have writings by President Edwards, Barnes, Beman, Burge, Olson and Finney on this--all express the moral government or public justice view. Also, Herald Press publishes John Driver’s Understanding the Atonement for the Mission of the Church. He avoids an analysis of the atonement (but rejects payment and punishment), rather admonishing ministers to have a full-orbed presentation of the 10 motifs or images of its meaning as used in the New Testament.
Thanks for all that you have given to me. I hope I have made my view clear, whether or not it is useful to you. The whole subject of the death of Christ and the atonement is the greatest subject in all the world and what I understand as the heart of apostolic preaching.
Your friend
Jeff Paul
--o0o--
THE JUSTICE OF ETERNAL PUNISHMENT
by Dave Coke
- What is the nature of man?
- Man is eternal or never ending (Eccl. 3:11).
- God breathed into man the breath of life (Gen. 2:7).
- We have been given creative powers to procreate after the likeness of God (Gen. 1:28).
- We create life when we have children. They are as eternal as Adam and Eve or as you and me.
- Man is moral or able to choose between right and wrong (Eze. 18).
- God endowed man with His moral likeness (Gen. 1:27).
- We are finite moral replicas of the infinite God (ability) (Gen. 1:26).
- We create moral beings when we have children.
- God commanded man to be like Him or to use his moral capacity intelligently (Lev. 11:44; 19:2; 20:7).
- We call this responsibility, or to use our ability (free will) to respond to God and His truth (Matt. 25:14-17).
- God promised consequences for good or evil choices Deut. 30:15-20).
- We call this accountability, or to have an account kept of the responses of our ability to God and truth (Rom. 14:12).
- Man is a judicial being, or comprehends law and justice (Rom. 2:1-13).
- Man has the (moral) law internalized so that he understands certain actions ought to be punished and other actions rewarded (Rom. 2:14-16).
- We call this natural law, or the rule of action which each individual applies to all activities affecting them (Rom. 2:17-29).
- Man understands that consequences should be proportional to the action. (Justice demands that the punishment fits the vice and that praise fits the virtue) (Rom. 1:28-32; 1 Pet. 2:13-14).
- We call this concept `just desserts,' and understand that as one lessens or alleviates the punishment, one also lessens or alleviates the estimate of the value of right. The effect is that wrong isn't that bad and right isn't that good (Isa. 5:18-23).
- Man is self-caused, or self-determined, or is the creator of his own motives apart from every influence, good or evil (Isa. 65:2).
- This incipient quality leaves man without excuse and thus man is to blame for failure to obey the law written on the heart (Rom. 1:18-20).
- There can be no moral causation, other than self-causation. (We cannot be caused to do something wrong and still be justly condemned.) (Eze. 18:1-3).
Therefore man is naturally capable of obedience, and every action is voluntary or culpable (accountable) (Deut. 30:11-19).
- What is the nature of the command?
- The command not to sin, or not to live selfishly is based upon love or what is best for us. (Deut. 6:24-25)
- God is love, and is always interested in what is best for us and all His moral universe. (Deut. 7:12-14)
- God's moral image in man means that sin is always bad, or wrong in the most violent, extreme sense of the idea of evil. (Prov. 6:16)
- This must be true because love is always giving, or selfless (it thinks of itself in terms of the comparative value of choice objects) in motive. (1 Cor. 13)
- We know intuitively that the law is good and ought to be chosen as an end because our intelligence demands that other people treat us righteously, or lawfully. (Luke 10:25-37)
- The commandments are not difficult. (1 John 5:4)
- Our expectations, or demands that justice be publicly upheld and all violations of the law be promptly and equitably punished, proves that God's command to love as a fulfillment of the law is not difficult. (We simply ask, would we be willing to suffer happily the personal and governmental consequences of lying, stealing, cheating, adultery, murder, or gambling, and dismiss the misery which these sins caused, as acceptable or all right, because the law is too difficult, and therefore compliance with the law unreasonable. (Psalm 9:1-20)
- The commandment is, in fact, perfectly suited to our moral nature and endowments. (Psalm 19)
- The proof of this suitability is the effect of compliance, or obedience upon the individual. Man is sublimely happy and at perfect peace when living under the righteous demands of the law. There is no experience in the moral universe to compare with a clear conscience. (Psalm 119:165)
Therefore, to sin requires real, intelligent, calculated choice (intelligent wickedness). (James 4:17)
- How does sin affect man's character?
- We are so designed that we function in the following fashion: Our thoughts (Phil. 4:8)
determine our actions (Prov. 23:7)
determine our habits (Rom. 6:15-23)
determine our nature (Eph. 2:1-3)
determine our character (2 Pet. 1:1-7)
determine our destiny. (2 Pet. 1:8-11)
- Because of the sedimentary quality of personality (layer upon layer), and the tremendous weight of years of selfish choices, sin has the effect of greater and greater bondage (which began as voluntary bondage), or service to self and the purposes that defy God's rule (government) in one's life. Thus the continued commitment to serve the ends of selfishness (the less valuable) brings about a hardness of heart that makes any change appear to be impossible in the moral sense (Jer. 13:23).
- This voluntary bondage of the character to oppose God and His reign in the life is so heinous and horrible to the individual that the finality is such slavery as to be reprobate, or to be given over to serve the lusts of the flesh (Rom. 1:21-24, 26, 28).
- God realizes that if selfishness is unchecked or uncontested, that one selfish person would destroy the moral universe if possible. The purpose or goal of the selfish heart is to kill God, and subject every thing to its demands and purposes (Gen. 11:6).
Therefore a man becomes what he chooses and would destroy all good to satisfy himself (Rom. 3:10-18).
- What is God's obligation as governor of the moral universe?
- Because God is love and love demands that the most valuable choice object be chosen in every situation, we conclude that as Governor, God is always obligated to render the best decisions in every situation, all things considered (Gen. 18:25).
- God has made decisions in response to wickedness that are considered to be "evil," or not what would have been done if man had not sinned, i. e., Nineveh would not have been threatened with destruction (an "evil" in God's sight in a comparative sense [comparing destruction to blessing, which is what God longs to do]) if the wicked deeds of her inhabitants had not been done (Jonah 3:10).
- As Governor God is obligated to rule in a public way, or in a manner that will support the perception and understanding of the value of righteousness, and of the worthlessness of sin or wickedness. Anything that God might do that would give the public perception that He would accept a scintilla of behavior less than what He considers the highest good or in the best interest of the beings He loves, would be to present Himself as "soft" on sin or to be casual about wickedness. This perception would further undermine His government, which is intended to bring peace and tranquility to all the subjects by expeditiously and equitably dispensing justice. If God does not mete out punishment that fits the crime, then the idea that God loves us and is eternally committed to our good and the good of all moral beings becomes an absurdity (Num. 25:1-9).
Therefore God's rule must never undermine the highest good or the best interest of His subjects, which is not to sin (2 Pet. 2:4-22).
- Why does God deem sin worthy of eternal death?
- We know that the severity of the punishment for breaking a law is a reflection of the lawgiver's estimate of the value of the law. God estimates the value of relationship with Him, and the good that that relationship will bring in our lives, the lives of our fellowmen, and in God's life to be such that to live selfishly (to violate the basic rules of relationship) can only be rewarded by a just punishment, or a punishment which is reflective of the vileness of the violation. If the requirements were difficult, or if the agent in any way was naturally incapable of compliance, or if the end or goal was less valuable than some other, then the public perception of severity in inflicting eternal damnation would cry out "Unjust!", and God would appear to be guilty of inequity (Heb. 12:26-31).
- God understands the problem of character and realizes that not only is the sinner unfit morally for heaven, but he will choose to leave heaven because of the discomfort of incompatible ends (which is the real hell). If God were to welcome the wicked into heaven and make some allowances so that they would choose to stay, he would jeopardize the stability of the inhabitants of the heavenly abode. The goal and purpose of those self-citizens would be at continual odds with those of God's and the loyal citizens, throwing heaven into turmoil and ultimately attempting insurrection and destruction. Thus, God is obligated by His commitment to a perfect, law-abiding government to confine those who have chosen self as their sole end to a place appropriate to their character. Since sinful men love darkness rather than light, God gives them over to fulfill their lusts in darkness. Since they love themselves supremely, God gives them an eternity to attempt to satisfy themselves. Since they love evil company, He gives them evil companions. Since they hate righteousness, God gives them a place devoid of righteousness. Since they love to abuse and misuse the blessings of God and His love, God gives them a place devoid of Him and His love. Thus God gives sinful men what they deserve, or what they are worthy of (Rev. 6:15-17,; 16:11).
- Natural law also demands that a sinner be confined to hell for all eternity. A rebel against God is one who is committed to impenitence or the refusal to repent or change his mind. This state of impenitence may be defined as the renewing of allegiance to past sin and loyalty to present sin so as to become guilty for those sins all over again. We understand that sin is additive, or that sin always begets more sin. When a person commits a sin, often many more sins are committed to cover up that one sin. Even when only one sin is committed and the offender refuses to admit his wrong action, and renounce his sin, he is renewing his choice of that wrong by not not repenting of it, and commits the sin all over again. If you keep a car running for a bank robber, you are as guilty as the bank robber. If you give approval to someone to commit a crime you are as guilty as the criminal. If you withhold evidence, or refuse to expose a criminal, you are guilty of a crime.
Now the rebel against God has a lifetime to repent and forsake his sin. And yet most will not turn away from evil , but continue to renew their blameworthiness with each unrepentant moment. Upon judgment and the entrance into hell, the sinner continues to approve his life of sin by impenitence, and thus renews his blameworthiness, and thus dessert of hell. Due to this commitment of the will to self, the guilt and its resultant condemnation is renewed, yea, strengthened against the sinner, so that if God were to evaluate that sinner in 10 trillion millenniums, He would conclude that the justice of eternal punishment is more valid that day than the day the inhabitants of hell first came there.
Therefore God is loving in confining those rebels to hell because their character creates the conditions there (Rev. 19:1-6).
- Could God destroy man after a time in hell appropriate to his crimes?
- We know the consequences of sin are incalculable (sin is a crime, not a debt to be paid). Not even God could determine how much punishment would be just before final elimination of the spirit.
- If God finally decided to destroy all the inhabitants of hell just to be "merciful," and because He was so emotionally compassionate, the moral universe would rise up and cry "Unjust!" How could the crimes of a Hitler, Stalin, Attila the Hun, or Satan, be compared to an individual who lived a few short years with a limited impact upon the world.
Therefore God cannot be just to the demand of moral beings and annihilate the residence in hell.
- God can only be just by eternal damnation of every sinner.
- Justice is the realization that the law is righteous and the penalty is good, and that the execution of the penalty must be commensurate with the crime. Since sin cannot be paid for, only forgiven, and since every sinner renews his blameworthiness with each impenitent moment, God could only be just to the sinner, to the saint, and to Himself, by confining the wicked in a place which is fitting for their condition.
