Category Archives: Apologetics

HELL – GOD’S FINAL GIFT OF LOVE

Apologetics, ,

This sounds like a very contradictory and confusing statement. How can hell be a gift of love? Let’s unpack this statement. 

Jesus and Paul explain the way unbelievers think and act. 

Jesus said that unbelievers love darkness because of their sin. 

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

‭‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭19‬-‭20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Paul explains that the wicked behaviour of unbelievers expresses a deep-seated disrespect for God. 

“As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” …“There is no fear of God before their eyes.””

‭‭Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭10‬-‭12‬, ‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

These verdicts add up to one thing…people hate and run from God because of their sin. Eventually, sin…and the judgment of God on sinners…is traced back to unbelief. People hate God… they are terrified of Him because they know that their sin will be punished…

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

‭‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Some people even lean hard on the lie that there is no God because, if they can make God go away, they need not worry about punishment. They can sin as much as they like because death ends it all and there is no accountability.

Now, let’s examine a few descriptions of hell in the Bible. We know that hell is a place of darkness. This means that God’s presence cannot be in hell because there is no darkness in God. 

“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭1‬:‭5‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus told stories of people who rejected God’s way and were thrown out, away from God’s presence, into darkness, for example, the man who was not wearing a ”wedding garment”. 

“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭22‬:‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Hell is also a place of torment. Imagine having enjoyed sin so much in this life that you have become enslaved to your lusts. You just cannot get enough of your evil desires. Now, take away the opportunity to satisfy your lusts but the lusts are still in you, tormenting you, forever unfulfilled. 

Imagine then, how uncomfortable people who love darkness and sin, would feel in God’s eternal presence where His light would reveal everything about them and what they had done. Without faith in God’s forgiveness and the blood of Jesus to wash them clean, their filthy hearts would be known to everyone. 

Therefore, in God’s kindness, He will send them to the place of darkness, away from His presence forever, where they would be in the environment they loved and forever in the company of people like themselves. 

The Bible also tells us that God has given us the freedom to choose. He honours that right, even if people make wrong choices with terrible consequences. He will never force anyone to do what they don’t want to do. 

Without the new life in Jesus, people’s choices are limited to only that which is in their nature to do. This means that they cannot be truly righteous because even their good choices are tainted with selfishness. 

God gives people what they want even if they land up in hell as a consequence. 

In Romans 1, Paul explained how this works. 

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness …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. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another…Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭18‬, ‭21‬-‭24‬, ‭26‬-‭27‬ ‭NIV‬‬

People are not born homosexuals. They become homosexuals by choice, and God confirms their choices by letting them become what they want. Note that their actions lead to a mindset that enslaves them. They are inflamed with lust. 

The end result is even more terrible, beginning with a choice and ending with a mind that has lost the ability to know the difference between good and evil. 

“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. 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, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 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.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭28‬-‭32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Their minds become so corrupted that they approve of everything evil and condemn everything good. 

Now, how can anyone with a depraved mind be comfortable and at home in the presence of God? Imagine living forever in a place that is completely opposite to the way you think and behave, a place where there is no sin, evil, or wickedness in anyone and where your wickedness is glaringly visible to everyone. 

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” …But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

‭‭Revelation‬ ‭21‬:‭3‬-‭4‬, ‭8‬-9 NIV

Can you now understand that, though hell is a terrible place, it is a kindness to separate unbelievers from God’s children and to consign them to a place they themselves have chosen while they lived in this earth. 

Paul makes it clear the no one can hide behind the excuse that he/she did not know that God exists and that He holds all people accountable for their choices. This is true for three reasons… creation, conscience, and the Holy Spirit. 

First, 

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭18‬-‭20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Second,

“(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.)”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭2‬:‭14‬-‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Third, 

The Holy Spirit convicts people of sin. 

“When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin …”

‭‭John‬ ‭16‬:‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Not only has God signed His name on every detail of creation, which people can acknowledge if they are honest and can choose to see, but He has also written His law on their conscience from conception. There is not a soul on earth that does not know the difference between right and wrong from birth. Even a very young child knows when he/she has done wrong. Then, on top of that, the Holy Spirit actives the conscience about sin until, if the sinner continues to ignore His voice the conscience becomes inactive, no longer functioning as a warning system. 

“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.”

‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭4‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

God has a specific plan for those who trust in Him. 

“Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

‭‭Malachi‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬-‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So, it is because of God’s loving kindness that He separates believers from unbelievers, preventing His pure and perfect kingdom from being polluted by sinners and sending unbelievers to a place where they will remain in the environment of their choice forever. 

We, who know and love God, can be grateful to Him that He will separate His own people from a corrupt society into a place of purity and perfection in His presence when Jesus returns to set up His eternal kingdom on earth. Those who refuse to come under His rule now will enjoy the fruits of their choices then. 

  1. Eternal Light! Eternal Light!

How pure the soul must be,

when, placed within Thy searching sight,

it shrinks not, but with calm delight

can live and look on Thee. 

  1. The spirits that surround Thy throne

may bear the burning bliss;

but that is surely theirs alone,

since they have never, never known

a fallen world like this.

  1. O how shall I, whose native bow’s 

is dark, whose mind is dim,

before the Ineffable appear

and on my human spirit bear

the uncreated beam?

  1. There is a way for man to rise

to that sublime abode:

an offering and a sacrifice,

a Holy Spirit’s energies,

an Advocate with God.

  1. These, these prepares us for the sight

of holiness above:

the sons of ignorance and night

May dwell in the eternal Light,

through the eternal Love. 

(Author: Thomas Binney

Source: hymnary.org)

WORSHIP THE LORD

Apologetics, ,

I sometimes wake in the morning with nothing on my mind, like turning the page of my life, waiting to record the day’s thoughts and activities. At other times, my clean page already has a heading…

“Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”

My earliest memories of church are of people gathering in an old church building, probably built in the 1800’s, with long, uncomfortable wooden pews, and a choir stall in the front, opposite to the raised pulpit…all the trappings of a conventional “church”.

Across the front wall, above the platform, were emblazoned these words on an ornate cement scroll… “Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness”. Although I did not understand their meaning then, I woould gaze at the words throughout the long sermon, tracing each letter over and over with an invisible finger to occupy my mind until the church service was over.

This verse, taken from Psalm 96:9, was a silent reminder to the congregation of our solemn duty to worship the Lord whenever we gathered in that building on a Sunday…or was it?

Had we then, and do we still now, relegate worship to a once-a-week ceremony on a Sunday? We have, in the latest dispensation of doing church, come to view our gathering on a Sunday as a “worship service”.

These ideas are so deeply engraved into our thinking that we hardly ever stop to evaluate what we are doing? We are “holy” during that brief time in church but for the rest, we get on with living our ordinary lives. We relegate worship and the spiritual feelings we enjoy, to a Sunday, satisfied that we have been faithful to God’s requirements.

Am I being harsh in my thinking?

Jesus had a conversation with a woman outside a village in Samaria, an unlikely situation for a Jewish man. He was on His way to Galilee. She was fetching water in the middle of the day. They met at the well.

Jesus kicked off the conversation by asking the woman for a drink of water. She was startled by His words because Jewish men don’t talk to Samaritan women, but Jesus didn’t care. He broke protocol because He was thirsty and she was lost.

Carefully, Jesus unpacked her need in their conversation, guiding her to the point where He revealed God’s dream for all humanity. Worshippers! The Father wanted worshippers!

John 4:23-24 NIV
[23] “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. [24] God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

True worshippers…in spirit and in truth? What does this mean? Did my verse, painted on the front wall of the church, somehow hold the secret to God’s dream?

Worship…what is worship? In its simplest meaning, to worship is to prostrate oneself before a superior person, not necessarily God. So, for example, Joseph’s brothers fell down before him after their father had been buried, when they thought that he would have his revenge.

Genesis 50:18 NLT
[18] “Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. “Look, we are your slaves!” they said.”

However, to worship the Lord means far more that prostrating ourselves before Him. In that action is enshrined an attitude, as Google explains…

“In the Bible, worship encompasses more than just religious rituals; it signifies a deep, reverent devotion and heartfelt response to God, encompassing both outward expressions and inward attitudes. It involves acknowledging God’s worth, submitting to His authority, and expressing love and adoration through various means.”

Can you see, then, how far short our modern concept of worship falls before this definition?

Our verse continues…

” …In the beauty of holiness.”

What constitutes beauty in this requirement?

Again, Google helps us…

“The phrase “beauty of holiness” refers to the intrinsic attractiveness and desirable quality of being set apart for God and living a life that reflects His holiness. It encompasses both an inward purity and an outward expression of that purity in actions, attitudes, and worship.”

We ascribe beauty to the Lord, not in any physical way because God is spirit, but in the comeliness of His attributes and actions. Just as a beautiful sunset calls forth feelings of pleasure and delight, so God’s beauty lies in His being and doing that delight us and draw from us expressions of satisfaction and pleasure.

So, God desires that we express, in our worship, that beauty, “attractiveness”, in our ways that brings Him pleasure and delight.

What is the holiness that must accompany our worship? What is the holiness God requires that allows us access to Him and qualifies us to “see” Him?

Again, we turn to Google for help.

“Holiness, in essence, is being set apart, consecrated, and morally pure, primarily associated with God and His divine nature. It signifies a state of being entirely devoted to God and separated from sin and the things of the world. For humans, holiness involves striving to reflect God’s character through obedience, righteous living, and a growing relationship with Him.”

2 Corinthians 7:1 NIV
[1] “Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”

The holiness of God’s people is not only beautiful to us…
It’s beautiful to Him, the lives of His people

So, the verse I stared at every Sunday sets out clearly the desire of God’s heart that we, His people, should approach Him with clean hands and a pure heart and worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Psalms 24:3-4 NIV
[3] “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? [4] The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.”

Before I end this short meditation, why is it so important that we worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness? What difference does it make to us if we do or do not worship the Lord in this way?

God had a plan for people from the beginning. Like the intimacy between two people in a marriage relationship, their union produces new life. God uses the picture of marriage to illustrate the union within the Godhead that produces life…God’s life that continually perpetuates and sustains all life.

God has called us into partnership with Himself to fulfill His purpose to restore the life on earth that sin has destroyed. Through the intimacy of prayer and worship, He impregnates our spirits with His “seed”, His Word through which He carries out His will.

God has entrusted to us His promises, His declaration of intent, to which we agree and add our “AMEN!” which is far more than simple assent. Our “AMEN” implies our willing participation with the Father in the execution of His will on earth.

2 Corinthians 1:18-20, 22 NIV
[18] “But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.” [19] For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.” [20] For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. 0
[21] Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, [22] set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”

Can you see, then, how God has graciously involved us, in participation with Him, in fulfilling His will in earth? He impregnates us with His Word and gives birth to His purposes through us…and all this through the intimacy of true worship. His purpose is not possible outside of true worship, our hearts and lives at one with Him.

Hence the profound simplicity of Jesus’ prayer…

Matthew 6:9-13 NIV
[9] “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, [10] your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. [11] Give us today our daily bread. [12] And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. [13] And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’”

“Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” in not a call to worship for a few moments on Sunday morning in a building we call “the church”. It is a rallying call to all God’s people to exalt and honour Him in every part of our everyday lives, giving glory to Him in the mundane as a witness to His Lordship over us as the supreme authority in our lives in everything.

THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD

Apologetics, ,

Why did God bother to write a book, preserve and protect it through centuries of human attempts to destroy it, have it published in almost as many languages as are spoken on earth, and make it freely available at no cost, on the World Wide Web, to the whole world? Is this book so important and so valuable to the world that He took the trouble to do all this for us?

The answer is “Yes,” and “Yes”! The Bible is the only source of information about God, us, and His world that makes sense, is true, and can change our lives and destiny forever.

The marvel of the Bible in our digital age is that it is freely available in a variety of translations and versions online and free of charge to anyone who owns a smart phone. This gives nearly the whole world access to the Word of God and its message.

Why is this so important?

The Bible is the story of John 3:16…

“[16] For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The story of this book is the one and only thing that stands between heaven and hell, the eternal destiny of those who read it and believe it and those who don’t read it and don’t believe its message.

That’s one great reason the Bible is the greatest story ever told!

The Bible answers, in a simple story, the problem of evil. Evil is a reality in the world. Despite the insistence of those who punt evolution as the origin and process of the universe and our world, evolution cannot answer the issues of psyche, morality, and ethics. Their origins are a mystery apart from a Creator outside of time and space, who created humans in His likeness. How did evil happen on earth? God gave humans the power of choice. With free will came the responsibility to remain connected to the Creator and live functionally or to disconnect and enter the realm of chaos and dysfunctionality. What we have now is the result of the choice the first pair made.

The Bible tells the story of the nations…how they came from one pair, why we have nations who speak different languages, how the nations were divided and scattered across the globe, where the nation of Israel originated and why Israel is the cradle and environment of the story.

The Bible is the story of one man, told by many over several millennia, who came from heaven, entered earth as a human baby, and lived, died, and rise again, here. He came to rescue humankind from the plight humans created for themselves through their rebellion and disobedience. Despite the Creator’s patience and longsuffering, the story of God’s own nation continued into disaster, punishment, exile, and return. This was, all a preparation…of God’s nation and the nations on earth, to receive His man for the hour.

After the interlude of His life on earth, this man’s intervention resulted in the radical transformation of thousands of His followers. In fact, this global movement, as it came to be, was initially called “The Way”. Spearheaded by the few men who were His close associates and were witnesses to His resurrection, despite fierce opposition from the Gentile government ruling vassal nations and the fanatical religious Jews, the movement spread around the known world.

Over a period time, manuscripts recording the story across centuries, were collected and evaluated by godly and wise men as divinely inspired. They were gathered into two volumes, first the Tanach, the Jewish Scriptures, then the stories of Jesus, and interpretations of His life, death, and resurrection, in the form of letters, called the New Testament.

Finally, these two volumes were joined together to become one story and entitled “The Bible”. The entire process, involving the minds of many godly men applied to their sacred task, was God-inspired and God-directed. It was a partnership of God and man to prepare and preserve God’s story which presents the only way for humans doomed to eternal destruction to be reconciled to a holy God.

The marvels of this story are many…

Although written in human language using a variety of letters and words, this book has power to transform the lives of those who believe its message. Its power lies both in and beyond its words.

2 Timothy 3:16 NIV
[16] “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…”

1 Peter 1:22-23 NIV
[22] “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. [23] For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”

Hebrews 4:12 NIV
[12] “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

No other book on earth has the power to transform, not reform, people from rebels to sons, and to guide and teach those who believe its message into peaceful and godly living.

No other book has garnered so many enemies and survived so many efforts to exterminate it from the earth. Why do people fear this book so much that they want to rid the earth of its presence? It had been burned and banned, and yet it lives on. It is both loved and hated by miliions.

Those who believe this book have deeper understanding of what is written than those who don’t. Its message makes no sense to unbelievers for one reason…

1 Corinthians 2:13-14 NIV
[13] “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. [14] The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”

This is the only book that, through its story, brings God into human lives and human history. Without the Bible, we have nothing to tell us about Him and lead us to Him. Without the story of the Bible, we would be lost forever, and we would never know the reason.

There are many other marvels about this book but here is its conclusion.

God has entrusted this book to us, His people. Jesus’ blood brother, Jude, called it…

Jude 1:3 NIV
[3] “.. the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.”

This book is a body of truth entrusted to God’s people. We have a sacred trust to…

  1. Guard it from contamination.

We are to guard “the faith” by keeping it intact.

This book has been contaminated by additions and subtractions that do not come from God. There are dire consequences for those who dare to tamper with its truth.

Deuteronomy 4:2 NIV
[2] “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.”

Revelation 22:18-19 NIV
[18] “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. [19] And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.”

Peter warned of some unscrupulous people who twisted God’s Word out of shape.

2 Peter 3:15-16 NIV
[15] “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. [16] He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

  1. We are to live by its truth.

3 John 1:3-4 NIV
[3]” It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. [4] I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”

David’s prayer is our prayer.

Psalms 86:11 NLT
[11] “Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you.”

Jesus prayed for His disciples…

John 17:17 NLT
[17] “Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth.”

  1. We are to pass on this deposit, intact, to the next generation.

2 Timothy 2:2 NLT
[2] “You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others.”

Psalms 102:18-22 NLT
[18] “Let this be recorded for future generations, so that a people not yet born will praise the Lord. [19] Tell them the Lord looked down from his heavenly sanctuary. He looked down to earth from heaven [20] to hear the groans of the prisoners, to release those condemned to die. [21] And so the Lord’s fame will be celebrated in Zion, his praises in Jerusalem, [22] when multitudes gather together and kingdoms come to worship the Lord.”

Truly, this book can never be anything else but the greatest story ever told because of its author, its content, its power, and its outcome. This book is God speaking through men to tell the world of His love so that we need never perish but enjoy eternal life with Him. Its worth believing!

IS HELL REAL? – 3

Apologetics, ,

Yes, hell is real! Yes, hell is a place of eternal torment for those who reject God! Yes, unholy people will spend eternity in hell!

How, then, can unholy people be made holy, to live with God eternally and escape punishment in hell?

There is much confusion in the Christian world about holiness, what it is and how we, unholy sinners, can become holy. Unfortunately, even respected Christian preachers and writers have muddied the waters by presenting their own ideas rather than Biblical truth about the holiness God requires for us to spend eternity with Him.

For many, to be holy requires hard work… for example, we must scour and scrub our past clean by repenting of every sin we have ever committed. We must cut off all “soul ties” and renounce all “generational curses”. We must “plead the blood” over our family and friends. We must renounce our connection with our father’s involvement with Free Masonry, or any other form of witchcraft or Satanism…and so on.

Worst of all, in all their lengthy requirements, there is no Biblical evidence of any of these practices.

First, let’s look at this notion logically. In the Old Covenant between God and Israel, God required perfect obedience to His instructions for His people to be acceptable to Him. He gave them a sacrificial system to deal with their failures. It didn’t work! Israel as a nation failed miserably to live within the boundaries of His covenant.

To all humanity, God have the law of conscience. Everyone is born with God’s moral law written on their conscience. So, when Gentiles sin, they are equally guilty before God because they know the difference between right and wrong.

Romans 2:14-15 NIV
[14] “(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. [15] They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them”).

Despite Gentiles having the law of conscience or Jews the Mosaic law, all are guilty before God.

Romans 3:9-10, 18 NIV
[9] What shall we conclude then? Do we (Jews) have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. [10] As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one;…
[18] “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

So, what did God do? He condemned them all to eternal punishment. Was this the end for Israel and all humanity? No!

Romans 11:32 NIV
[32] “For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.”

God stepped in and paid the price for all human rebellion.

Romans 5:6-8 NIV
[6] “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. [7] Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. [8] But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Christ’s death for us means that God had wiped our slate clean because of His mercy. He has absolved us of all guilt and made us holy. Yes, He has made us holy! Jesus did away with the law as a way to be holy because it is impossible for sinful humans to obey the law perfectly. Instead, He presented His own blood as a sacrifice for sin so that all who believe in Him are made holy.

Hebrews 10:8-10 NIV
[8] “First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. [9] Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. [10] And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

We can never make ourselves holy. We can never live up to God’s standards by our own efforts. No amount of cleaning up our past or disconnecting from the present can produce holiness. Jesus has made us holy through His own blood.

How can we, then, confirm God’s holiness in us?

To conclude our logical argument, would God who made us holy, leave it up to us to achieve holiness by our own efforts? That makes no sense.

Does He require us to go through the rigmarole some Christian writers propose for us to be holy? No!

Holiness is both a done deal and an ongoing process.

Hebrews 10:14 NIV
[14] “For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”

God has provided three ways to help us to live holy lives, not to make us holy but to live out the holiness He has provided through the death of Jesus.

First, He has given us His Word.

Psalms 119:11 NIV
[11] “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

David knew the value of God’s law in his life as a protection against sin.

Jesus confirmed the truth that we are being made holy by God’s Word. He prayed that His disciples would be sanctified through God’s Word.

John 17:17 NIV
[17] “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”

Second, the Holy Spirit works in us through the Word to sanctify us.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 NIV
“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”.

“These verses highlight the dual role of God’s Word (the truth) and the Holy Spirit in the process of sanctification.” (Google)

Third, God uses discipline, i.e., hardships and suffering, to work in us for our good.

Hebrews 12:9-11 NIV
[9] “Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! [10] They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. [11] No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

God’s discipline, in the form of suffering, gets to the heart of our sinfulness…our flesh, our old sin nature.

1 Peter 4:1-2 NIV
[1] “Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, (a more accurate translation is “in the flesh”), arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body (in the flesh) is done with sin. [2] As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires (“the flesh”), but rather for the will of God.”

God’s purpose is to restore the image of Jesus in us. He, therefore, works, in the” all things” for our good…

Romans 8:28-29 NIV
[28] “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

[29] For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

So, Paul urges us, not to try harder to make ourselves holy, but to stay away from the filthy things that spoil the holiness we already have in Jesus.

2 Corinthians 7:1 NIV
[1] “Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”

Our role is not to make ourselves clean but to keep ourselves clean by “walking in the light”.

1 John 1:6-7 NIV
[6] “If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. [7] But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”

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…