All posts by Luella Campbell

IS HELL REAL? – 2

Apologetics, ,

Having concluded that hell is real and the  destiny people choose when they reject God’s rule, I turn to https://www.gotquestions.org, article “What was Jesus’ teaching on hell?” for some help to answer this question, “Is hell real?”

Jesus gives us the clearest picture of hell in the Bible with many descriptions and warnings. He used a valley outside Jerusalem called “Gehenna” as a metaphor for hell.

Gehenna, the Valley of Hinnom, was the city’s waste disposal site  outside Jerusalem which, in the Old Testament, had been desecrated by human sacrifice. It was called “Topheth” or “the valley of Ben Hinnom”. Gehenna was the place where garbage was burned, and where the fire never went out.

“Jesus consistently contrasted hell with the kingdom of God. Hell is the only alternative to an eternity spent in God’s kingdom. It is the opposite of perfect fellowship with God forever…” (gotquestions.org)

Hell is not a figuritive or symbolic way of describing the afterlife for the devil and unbelievers who follow him. Jesus taught that hell is a real place with real experiences of eternal darkness and fire. He warned of the terrible consequences of sin.

Mark 9:43 NIV
[43] “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.”

“According to Jesus, hell is a place for those who reject God, who rebel against His kingship and refuse His grace. Jesus’ parables consistently portray people rejecting God’s invitation to fellowship, and the only alternative to fellowship with God is an eternity in hell…”

Hell is the place of just punishment for rebels, those who side with devil and his demons in his rebellion against God…

Matthew 25:41 NIV
[41] “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

…for those who refuse to come under His authority and live within the boundaries of His kingdom and rule.

2 Thessalonians 1:8-10 NIV
[8]” He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. [9] They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might [10] on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.”

“Jesus does not portray hell as a pleasant place or even a neutral state. On the contrary, it is a place of torment (Mark 9:48). As the dark place outside of God’s kingdom of light, hell is full of pain and regret “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. gotquestions.org

Mark 9:47-48 NIV
[47] “And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, [48] where “ ‘the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.’”

“Based on Jesus’ teaching, hell is not temporary, but eternal. Those who suffer in hell will suffer forever. “The fire never goes out,” Jesus said. There is no exit from hell, and no respite from it or comfort in it (see Luke 16:19–31).” gotquestions.org

Those who claim to have had a “near death experience” and have witnessed hell, describe it as a place of eternal regret, remembering lost opportunities to repent with the gnawing regret of   “if only…”

There is one more aspect of divine punishment which  Paul refers to in his description of the perversity of human behaviour.

Romans 1:21, 24, 28-29, 31-32 NIV
[21] “For, although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened…
[24] Therefore GOD GAVE THEM OVER in the sinful desires of their hearts TO SEXUAL IMPURITY for the degrading of their bodies with one another…
[28] Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so GOD GAVE THEM OVER TO A DEPRAVED MIND, so that they do what ought not to be done. [29] They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,
[31] they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. [32] Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them…”

If God has given these people over, not only to practise their evil desires but also to a depraved mind, which is…

“… A state of moral corruption and spiritual blindness where a person has rejected God’s truth and fallen into a state of wickedness. It is characterised by a departure from righteousness, an inability to discern right from wrong, and a propensity towards sin and evil.” (Google definition)

…then would it not be logical to believe that the burning but unfulfilled lusts that drove their behaviour in this life would follow them into afterlife? Imagine forever burning with unfulfilled sexual passion for perverse behaviour!

The greatest tragedy and the greatest justice is that God confirms human choice no only to live without Him but also to die without Him. God’s judgment is not arbitrary. His judgment is perfectly just, simply confirming the choices humans make in this life.

Romans 2:2 NIV
[2] “Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.”

You see, God is perfectly just in demanding punishment for defying His holy standards because He is holy, utterly separate from and against sin, and for punishing those who defy Him since He requires His sons and daughters to be like Him.

However, not only does He require holiness because He is holy, but He went a step further. He reveals His grace by paying the debt for our sin Himself, so that we can be holy.

Romans 3:25-26 NIV
[25] God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— [26] he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be JUST and the one who JUSTIFIES those who have faith in Jesus.”

Therefore, He is being perfectly just by punishing those who refuse His solution to sin. Their choice is their punishment.

God has graciously warned us repeatedly in His Word, of the eternal outcome of rebellion. He has built the awareness of eternity into us. We know instinctively that there is an afterlife.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV
[11] “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

He calls us to repent, to come back to the way that leads to eternal life.

Acts 17:30-31 NIV
[30] “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. [31] For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

Therefore, those who spend eternity in hell have only themselves to blame.

To be concluded…

IS HELL REAL?

Apologetics, ,

Jesus spoke of hell as a real place, a place of burning and torment which will never end. Why would God be so cruel? Why would He think up such a horrible way to punish people just because they don’t believe in Him? Does the punishment really fit the crime?

First, we must understand that God created humans for Himself. He owns every soul born on planet earth. He made them for a purpose, to be a mirror of His glory to the whole world, reflecting Him by the way they lived.

Psalms 24:1 NIV
[1] “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it… “

He created them for a purpose, and He paid for them when they chose to disconnect from Him and connect with His arch enemy. He had every right to pull the plug…but He didn’t.

1 Corinthians 6:20 NIV
[20] “… you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

He blew His own breath into the first man, giving him a part of Himself, His divine life. He created humans in His image, a shadow of Himself so that He could communicate with them. He opened the circle of His Godhead to allow humans access and fellowship with Him…Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Privilege on steroids!

He prepared an entire universe, and a planet for humankind, the universe functioning in perfect harmony and unity, and the earth equipped with everything humans needed for a perfect life. He gave humans the power to multiply through the pleasure of physical union, and the mandate to manage the earth and its creatures in partnership with Himself. Honour, privilege!

On top of all this, His plan was to prepare His human family for an eternal existence with Him by serving their apprenticeship on earth. Righteous living on earth would qualify them for eternal life in glory. Why would God do all this? He wanted to love and be loved!

One of the gifts God gave to all humanity was the gift of choice, free will, self-deternination, which echoed a part of His own nature. This gift was the core of the human being, a risky attribute that God intended to guide humans towards obedience and love freely given to their Creator. Freedom to choose meant that the ball was in their court. They could decide whether to stay connected to God or not.

Together with the gift came the possibility and the warning. Choice means that there are at least two alternatives from which to choose…good or evil. Good and evil are not tangible things, they are the motives and outcomes of choices based on the disposition of the chooser.

God created the first pair with His own disposion towards good, simply meaning living by the choices that work… functional living. He wanted them to have good lives, full of His favour and blessing with no obstacles.

They had the option to follow that disposition or to be enticed to choose the opposite way, the way of disconnection from God which would result in dysfunctional lives.

We know the outcome!

By lies and deception, the devil hoodwinked the first pair into believing that they didn’t need God. They could be free to make their own rules, come and go as they liked, do as they pleased, without the restrictions of righteousness and truth to guide them. He told them what they could be… their own authority… without revealing the small print. He told them how to walk away from God…just disobey His one instruction.

It’s the small print that revealed the consequences. God had been honest with them. “You will die!” He told them, “if you trespass outside the boundaries of everything my love has provided.” The devil not only contradicted God’s warning, but also sowed doubt in their minds about God’s love by insinuating that God was lying to them.

The choice was… “Who do we believe?” This choice was more than a simple decision to eat some “forbidden fruit”. The implication was far deeper.

Satan had always desired to be the supreme authority, Lord, in God’s place. He tried to replace God in heaven and was summarlity evicted from God’s realm. His only option was to win over to his side God’s highest creation, the human race, so that he could be Lord over them.

So, by deceiving Eve and, through her, Adam, into believing that God was shortchanging them, the whole human race was implicated. Their disobedience spelt rebellion, and rebellion brought on them the death penalty God had warned them would happen if they disobeyed Him.

This seemingly small act of defiance had huge implications. Through Adam, the human race inherited his nature. They are dead to God. Now humans can no longer choose righteousness. They can only choose between the various options of sin, rebellion, and disobedience. It would take a mighty intervention from God to restore our ability to do the right thing.

Now, hell was not designed to punish humans. It was the fitting place reserved for God’s arch enemy and his followers. The trouble is that those who side with him must share his guilt and his punishment. This means that the human race has chosen its destiny by default. It also means that man, not God, chooses hell for his eternal destiny…and God says, “Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you!”

So, what is hell really like? Does the Bible tell us anything about hell, enough to warn us of its terrors?, Let’s look at some Scriptures.

To be continued…

TURN AROUND AND COME HOME

Bible Study, ,

There’s a word in the Bible that I think many of its non-Hebrew readers sadly misunderstand. The Hebrew word is “shuv” or spelt, alternatively, “shoob”, often translated “repent”.

TURN BACK/RETURN/RESTORE/REPENT: Shuv. Verb. (Strong’s 7725).

“The Hebrew word שׁוּב (shuv) primarily means “to turn back,” “to return,” or “to go back.” It can also signify repentance or turning away from sin. The noun form of “shuv” is teshuva (תְּשׁוּבָה), which is commonly translated as repentance.
Here’s a breakdown of the different aspects of “shuv”:

Return/Turn Back:
This is the most basic meaning, referring to a physical or metaphorical return to a place, state, or condition.

Repentance/Turning Away from Sin:
In a spiritual context, “shuv” signifies turning away from a sinful path and returning to God. This is a key concept in Jewish tradition, especially during the High Holy Days (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur).

Movement:
The word can encompass various forms of movement, including turning, returning, going back, or even changing direction.

Source/Origin:
“Shuv” can also imply a return to one’s source or origin, as seen in Genesis 3:19 where God tells Adam he will return to the dust from which he was taken.”…

“No one and no thing in this universe can turn back what God has done. YHWH moves forward and creation moves forward. There is no turning back. YHWH is the Creator, the Rescuer, and the Saviour, and no one can take that from Him.

Nevertheless, YHWH gave humans the gift of choice. We can choose to follow after Him and we can choose to turn away from Him. No one can reverse what God has done, but we can certainly ignore it.”…

“Turn Back to God: Repent and Return
Shuv was a well used word for the prophets. It was the core of the repeated  message: Stop the way you are going and turn back to YHWH! If you continue on the bad path, no good will come of it:”

“Let the wicked abandon his way, and the unrighteous person his thoughts; and let him return [w-ya-shov] to YHWH, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55:6-7

“All through history humans have done things to upset YHWH, but He has always been merciful to those who make an effort to follow Him. The message was quite simple. For those who turned back to Him, YHWH would turn His anger away from them:”

Hosea 14:1-4 (see also Isaiah 9:12-21)
“Return [shuva], Israel, to YHWH  your God, for you have stumbled because of your wrongdoing.”
“Take words with you and return [w-shuvu] to YHWH. Say to Him, “Take away all guilt and receive us graciously, so that we may present the fruit of our lips. Assyria will not save us, we will not ride on horses; nor will we say again, ‘Our god’ to the work of our hands; for in You the orphan finds mercy.”
“[YHWH:] I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, because My anger has turned away [shav] from them.”

(Sourced from https://hebrewwordlessons.com article “Shuv, restore, TURN BACK,” dated 30 May 2021)

The word “shuv” and its derivatives are used throughout the Old Testament in many contexts to convey the idea of returning to the Lord. Like sheep, His people continually wandered from the path, forsaking the Lord and His covenant and turning to the idols of their neighbours…and so He called “Come back to the path. Come back home.”

The concept of “shuv” in Scripture is bound up in the history of Israel’s journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. For forty years, God’s people journeyed through a vast, hostile, and uncharted wilderness, dependant only on the presence of God in the pillar of fire at night and cloud by day. There were landmarks along the way which also aided their passage through the unknown territory.

These Hebrew people understood language according to their experience, not abstract but from what was experiential, visible and tangible. So, they understood life as a journey through an uncharted wilderness, full of dangers and the unknown. To navigate their way, they would need to follow the landmarks and stay on the path, guided by the One whose presence was with them.

God had given them His covenant, His “Torah”, His instructions which were the “landmarks” they were to follow if they were to stay on the path. If they strayed from the path by disobeying His instructions, they were in danger of dying in the wilderness, lost and without provisions or directions for the journey.

A common misunderstanding of repentance in the western mind has an emotional content not found in the Hebrew word, the idea of feeling sorrow for sin, almost apologising to God for what we have done, as if that were enough to set the record straight.

To “shuv” then, was not to say sorry to God for being lost but to return to the path of obedience from which his people have strayed. This is the background to God’s plea through Isaiah’s words…

Isaiah 30:15 NIV
[15] “This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.”

To complete our Biblical understanding of repentance, we must also examine the Greek word, “metanoia”, translated “repentance”, used in the New Testament writings.

“In Greek, metanoia (μετάνοια) primarily means “a change of mind” or “repentance”. It signifies a fundamental transformation of one’s perspective, a turning away from old ways of thinking and acting, and a reorientation towards a new way of life. In a theological context, it often refers to a spiritual conversion or a turning towards God.” (Google definition)

Before we can return from the wilderness of rebellion and disobedience, we must be convinced that God is right and we are wrong. This demands a choice, a deliberate change of mind about our state before God…then follows our return to the path of obedience to God’s instructions, a return from darkness to light.

So, on the day of Pentecost, Peter called the Jews assembled from every part of the Roman Empire to celebrate the ingathering of the harvest, to “shuv” by giving attention to the truth about Jesus, their Messiah, changing their minds about Him, and returning to the full revelation of God’s mercy through Him.

Acts 2:37-38 NIV
[37] “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” [38] Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Since, in the course of life from early childhood, we have gathered ideas and beliefs about ourselves and God that are wrong and misleading, repentance isn’t just a once-off decision but a lifestyle of change. Every time we encounter a conflict between error and truth, we return to the path by exchanging our false beliefs for the truth we learn in Jesus. It’s an ongoing process as we grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes, the revelation of truth and the joyful transformation it produces may be the reason for a flood of tears but tears are not repentance. They are the fruit of repentance, a grateful response to God’s mercy that has not condemned but redeemed the reoentant heart.

WHAT WILL GOD SAY ON JUDGMENT DAY?

Gospel, ,

On the day of judgment, will God question every person about every thought, word, and deed they have ever done throughout their entire life? This sounds like an earthly court scene…bring the witnesses, bring the evidence, then argue the case between prosecution and defence. What a long, tedious process that would be, considering the fact that God will judge all the people of every generation throughout all time!

Fortunately, God is not contained within the boundaries of time. What is a process on earth taking time is instantaneous in the spirit realm outside of time. Since God is all-knowing and omnipresent, all judgment can happen in an instant.

Although we have no detailed description of what will happen on judgment day, there are hints of the event and the process in Scripture and, perhaps, in the experience of those who have had glimpses of the other side.

Revelation 20:11-13 NIV
[11] “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. [12] And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. [13] The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.”

Heavenly events are impossible to describe in earthly language. What is a process on earth is instantaneous in heaven, something that is outside the scope of human experience here in time.

“The books were opened…” Is this meant to be taken literally, especially in a story full of imagery? For example, David refers to the book of his life written in God’s “book”.

Psalms 139:16 NIV
[16] “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

What is divine knowledge in the mind of an omniscient God appears as information contained in a heavenly library of books.

Somehow I think that God the Father will not say anything! Now, I know that’s contrary to the thoughts and ideas we have of judgment day, but let’s look at the Scripture for answers.

First, the Father has assigned all judgment to the Son.

John 5:22 NLT
[22] “In addition, the Father judges no one. Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge…”

2 Timothy 4:1 NLT
[1] “I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead when he comes to set up his Kingdom…”

Second, the Son will call all people to account for one thing…unbelief, lives lived in complete disconnection from Him by choice.

John 3:18 NLT
[18] “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.”

Third, He will judge by the standard of His Word.

John 12:47-48 NIV
[47] “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. [48] There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.”

Fourth, all human sin is the fruit of unbelief. When He judges unbelief, He judges the fruit of all the actions that humans engaged in that are evidence of their unbelief.

Humans express their rebellion by defying God’s instructions. Both the Old and New Covenant records confirm this truth.

Psalms 50:16-17 NIV
[16] “But to the wicked person, God says: “What right have you to recite my laws or take my covenant on your lips? [17] You hate my instruction and cast my words behind you.”

John 3:19-20 NIV
[19] “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”
[20] Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.”

Therefore, the verdict on all humanity is “guilty”…the crime, unbelief in the Son of God…the evidence, rebellion and disobedience… the sentence, eternal death, separation from God.

Works are the record of everyone’s life, contained within the omniscience of the Judge. The marvel of His perfect justice is that He has no need to call the witnesses or to pass sentence. The record speaks for itself. Every person will have every thought, word, and deed instantaneously exposed to the light.

Ephesians 5:12-14a NLT
[12] “It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. [13] But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, [14] for the light makes everything visible…”

Not the Judge, but the words spoken by the Judge, to the guilty, in this life, that they refused to obey, will be the standard by which He will judge each person. Everyone will know that their sentence is just because it is based on their choice.

” There is a judge for those who reject me and do not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.”

1 Corinthians 3:13 NLT
[13] “But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value.”

There is one exception to the guilty verdict passed on every sinner… yes, guilty as charged but absolved from guilt through faith in Christ Jesus.

Romans 5:9-10 NIV
[9] “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! [10] For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”

Justified…by His blood! Reconciled…by His death!

The glorious message of God’s mercy is that…

Romans 8:1-4 NIV
[1] “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, [2] because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. [3] For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, [4] in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

There, now you’ve got it! There is no escape from judgment, no escape route from hell except through faith in Jesus and His sacrifice for sin.

…and Jesus will have no need to say anything! Our own deeds will condemn us and our choices cement our eternal destiny. Let’s do what Joshua counselled…

Joshua 24:14-15 NIV
[14] “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness… [15] But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

THE BIGGEST RUSE

Apologetics, ,

So, what English word can one use to describe the most ruthless, cruel, and destructive trick the devil has ever pulled on the people of the world?

A farce…? A farce is a ludicrously improbable situation. No, this word doesn’t fit.

A ruse…? An action intended to deceive? Perhaps.

A hoax…? A malicious deception? I think this is the most apt word to describe what I am about to disclose.

From where did he, this arch-deceiver, pull this hoax that the world is divided by race? Are humans grouped according to a variety of different kinds of bodies, basic shapes, or ways of functioning? What do we see when we peel the skin off an African, an Asian, an Australian, a European, an American, or anyone from a remote island somewhere in the middle of the ocean? Are we so different inside that we do not all belong to one race, the human race? Does the inside differ so much from one group to another, one continent to another, that we are unrecognisable as one race on the inside? Do we have differing hearts, kidneys or any other organs inside our skin?

Imagine trying to organise an international sports event between “races” that look and function differently, like tigers versus giraffes!

Can you see how ridiculous racism is! Racism isn’t about fact. It’s a way of artificially driving us apart, creating divisions between us that we cannot heal, that foster hatred, bitterness and even war.

We must turn to the one reliable source of information to find the truth.

Acts of the Apostles 17:26 NLT
[26] “From ONE MAN he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.”

Did you get that? “From one man..”! Nations, yes, but not races. God’s plan was to create a unified race from one man, divided into nations, not skin colours, to populate the earth. So, where are the races that are supposed to make us all different?

Until humans decided to rebel against and defy God, there were no nations. They were all one race with one language.

Genesis 11:1-2, 4-9 NIV
[1] “Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. [2] As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there…
[4]… Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” [5] But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. [6] The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. [7] Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” [8] So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. [9] That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”

It’s a lie, a hoax, and those who pull the race card use it to justify the lie and to hide the hatred, prejudice, and hypocrisy, not colour, that are in their hearts and that separate people from one another. They are liars because they base their arguments, even their policies, values, and beviour on a lie, creating artificial boundaries that don’t exist.

Why is the racist lie so devilish? People believe it because it’s the narrative used to get what they want. In my country, as in many, those who rule hide behind “the injustices of the past” of the white “race” to excuse and justify their evil desires…the power to control and even to possess what is not rightfully theirs. Why not just evil and misguided people?

So, what is the answer to the artificial boundaries human dishonesty has spawned? In Jesus’ day, the great divide was Jew and everyone else bundled together under the omnibus title of “Gentile”. Greeks, Romans, Samaritans, and anyone else who was regarded as their enemy, fell under the category. Even the use of the word “Gentile” was like a red rag to a bull.

After his arrest for supposedly taking a Gentile into the temple, Paul told his story to the hostile Jewish mob who had apprehended him.

Acts 22:1-2, 21-22 NIV
[1] “Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.” [2] When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet. Then Paul said… “

… and Paul told his story until he mentioned the word” Gentiles”…

[21] “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ” [22] The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!”

Such was their hatred for Gentiles that the Jews disregarded their own Scriptures which predicted their Messiah’s role to bring the
Gentiles into God’s salvation covenant.

Isaiah 49:6 NIV
[6] “…He says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

Jesus came to redeem and restore the whole world to fellowship with the Father. How would He accomplish so great a task in the face of such bitter hatred and division? How would He overcome the artificial boundaries caused by so-called racism?

In a nutshell, Paul gives us the answer. “Race” was not the problem. Hatred, enmity, hostility in the heart was!

Ephesians 2:11-18 NIV
[11] Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision”…
[12] remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

[13] But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. [14] For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, [15] by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, [16] and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. [17] He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. [18] For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”

The cross of Jesus dealt the death blow, not to racism but to the sin in the heart that uses racism as its expression. No laws or policies, no education, not efforts to eradicate the so-called “culture of racism”, can cure the evil in the heart.

Jeremiah 17:9 NIV
[9] “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

Jesus did it by living to fulfil the law and dying to take our penalty for not fulfilling the law.

Colossians 2:13-15 NIV
[13] “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, [14] having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. [15] And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

Racism is a phantom, a ghost that does not exist except in the minds of evil people. There is no cure and never will be for racism, which is an invention of evil hearts, outside of the cross. No law or education can change that!

When Jesus changes the heart, racism fades like the morning mist, from thought and action.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV
[17] “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! “

Faith in Christ changes hearts, destiny, and citizenship.

Ephesians 2:12-13 NIV
[12]”…Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. [13] But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

Galatians 3:26-28 NIV
[26] “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, [27] for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. [28] There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Black and white, Jew and Arab, East and West, are reunited as one in Christ. We have a new identity regardless of clan, tribe, or nation. We are all children of God. We have a new culture as citizens of heaven…

Galatians 5:6 NIV
[6] “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”

Beloved children of God, God’s Word is truth. Let us who are His children cancel the lie by living by the truth.