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| If There Were No Hell |
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If There Were No Hell
I was browsing another site earlier today, a site which I will leave nameless for the time being. Well, this nameless site has a discussion board and one of the categories is "General Religion Chat". Talk about some far-fetched viewpoints of God! Wow! Of course, this "general religion" category, while it does seem to occasionally draw some born again believers, I would say that the vast amount of posters there claim to be agnostic, atheist, or some other far-fetched religion. It's kind of scary actually.
Occasionally I will export one one my blogs to that site in hopes of planting some seeds from the word of God. And man do I ever get blasted. Of course I never get involved in the argument, I just plant the seed in hopes that it may find some fertile soil eventually.
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. But the one thing that saddens me as I browse through some of those threads, and which will eventually lead to my point of topic here today, is that not surprisingly, many of these people grew up in church, or claim to have done so. Many of them have been tainted by an overwhelming viewpoint that God is an angry God and who would want to serve a God who's viewpoint of love is nailing his own son to a tree?
They see God from the perspective that He is just watching and waiting for opportunity to punish us. They seem to think the only reason why we even choose to serve the Lord is for the mere purpose of avoiding hell and being eternally damned. That's sad.
Many of you know that I am a grace teacher, or at least I desire to be. We serve a graceful and merciful God. Not an angry, mean God who wants to punish us. I honesty, truly, and experientialy believe that it is the goodness of God that leads a man to repentance.
Of course, I am not fooled. I do most definitely believe there is a wrath to come. I don't however believe that 9/11 was a sign of God's wrath. Neither do I believe that the flooding in New Orleans was, nor the tsunamis, or the tornadoes, or hurricanes, or any other irregular weather related or terrorist event. I believe that when the wrath of God is released, we wont be having to guess whether it is from God or not, that will be obvious.
And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. But I also believe that we that have been born again, will not be experiencing any of that wrath. We have been already saved from the wrath that is to come. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. But here's my point. I have come to this place in my walk that I would continue to seek and serve God, and study the word, and follow the Spirit, and just love on the Lord even if there were no such thing as hell, or even heaven for that matter. I wouldn't trade this relationship I have with Jesus for anything that this world has to offer. This love, and peace, and joy, and hope, and contentment, this entire new life is so much better, much, much better that the life I had before He found me. There are so many rewards right here, right now, in this life. that make this Christian walk far greater living without Him.
Of course, it's not merely the rewards I seek, but the truth is that rewards are available. In fact, we are even commanded to believe that rewards are available. Commanded to. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Many of you also know that I wasn't raised in church. Granted, the 40 years that I lived before Christ found me was quite the roller coaster ride. One that quite frankly, I am glad is over. It is truly by the love and grace of God that I am alive today. But I am kind of glad that I was never subjected to the hell, fire, and brimstone messages. I am thankful that wasn't drilled into my head throughout my childhood. I consider myself very fortunate to have been introduced to, and taught by by some people who really understood this whole "relationship" principle.
I am beginning to see more and more preachers and teachers teach this today though, and I think that's important. It's important that we teach others that there is great benefit to knowing God and His Son here, now, in this lifetime. Life eternal is just that really. Life eternal is a personal and intimate relationship with God. It's that relationship that causes a person to want to live for God. A clean and holy lifestyle is a result of knowing God, not fearing His wrath.
Take John 3:16 for example. Almost every believer, and a majority of the non-believers can quote this verse. But too many times the meaning, or the intent, at least the way I, and some of my teachers see it, has been misrepresented.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Too often this verse has been taught that the reason God gave His Son is so that whomever believes on Him will have their sin forgiven and not perish. Period. It has been taught that the reason we accept Jesus is so that our sin will be forgiven and that we won't go to hell, and we will live forever. While I agree that our sin has been forgiven and we will not go to hell, and that's a tremendous benefit, being saved doesn't only mean that we are going to live forever.
Everybody is going to live forever. Even the unbelievers. Even the most evil people who ever lived or are living, are going to live forever. The axe murderers, the rapists, abortionists, even Hitler is going to live forever. Our spirits don't just die when our bodies do, no matter who you are or what you believe. Granted, they will not ever be living in heaven, or on the new earth, but they are going to be lving forever.
God's ultimate desire and the reason He gave His only begotten Son, is so that we could have a deep, personal, and intimate relationship with Him! It just so happens that our sin was the obstacle that was standing in the way of that happening.
Everlasting life is not something that is to come. Everlasting life is right now for the believer.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. So what then is this everlasting life? Well, the bible gives us a very clear definition of this. Jesus said:
As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. Life eternal is knowing God and His Son. And this isn't talking about just knowing of Him. This is speaking of knowing on an intimate level. As in Abraham knew his wife Sarah, and she conceived. Eternal life is having a deep and passionate relationship, and knowing God on a very intimate level. Escaping hell is just one of the many benefits we gain as a result of that.
So let's go plug Jesus' own definition of eternal life back into John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have a deep, passionate and everlasting intimate relationship with God the Father, and Jesus His Son! I love me some Jesus!
Friends, I realize that to many of you reading this, this is not any great revelation, it's just foundational. And in my eyes, this is what we should be teaching to lost. Teaching them how very much God loves them and how much He longs in His heart of hearts to just have time with them. The bible tells us to Bless the Lord. We bless the Lord not by merely saying those words, but we bless the Lord by desiring to be with Him and fellowship with Him. We can actually minister to God in this way. Anyone who loves the way He loves, desires for Himself to be loved in return. God is a good God! So I say these things not for those of you who may already know them. But I say these things to those of you who don't. For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. I am going to bring this to a close, but I just have to say that lately God continues to bring me to so many verses that speak simply about Him just desiring our love. The bible says over and over again that grace and peace is multiplied not through fighting off carnality, or by paying tithes, or even by living holy. And it certainly doesn't come from a fear of being eternally tormented. Grace and peace is multiplied unto us through the knowledge of God.
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
Through the relationship. Not being carnal, paying tithes, and living holy are the by product, or the fruit of that relationship, not the root. This is what unbelievers need to hear. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me;
for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. I said it earlier, and I'll say it again, I have come to this place in my walk that I would continue to seek and serve God, and study the word, and follow the Spirit, and just love on the Lord even if there were no such thing as hell, or even heaven for that matter. I wouldn't trade this relationship I have with Jesus for anything that this world has to offer. This love, and peace, and joy, and hope, and contentment, this entire new life is so much better, much, much better that the life I had before He found me. There are so many rewards right here, right now, in this life. that make this Christian walk far greater living without Him. Amen.
What sayeth ye my friend?
In love,
Michael |
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| To add a comment to "If There Were No Hell" |
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| March 31, 2009 |
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| I say most of the world has had their share of mean, wrathful, wicked, distant, judgmental, or absentee fathers. When I was shown a God of love; not the God you described at the first of the blog (which is how I too saw God most of my life, being raised in the church with an imperfect earthly father), I wanted to serve THAT kind of God. Where I'm a mom now, I can better understand the whole principle of it. If I love my son, I gotta discipline him when he does wrong, right? And do I enjoy it? NO! I'd much rather him just do right so I don't have to discipline him. But I gotta do it or I'll destroy him! God's the same. He'd rather He not have to chastise us, but because He loves us and knows it's for our good, He does it. But He'd much rather just enjoy us and bless us and love on us; yes. As I do my kid and you, yours. We are believers. We aren't appointed for God's wrath as believers. He wil allow things to come at us, but always carries us through, and we come out all the better if we allow those things to do that. That's what He allows them for. |
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