Tag Archives: creation

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)

FINISHED!

Bible Study, ,

Finished! What a satisfying word! What a satisfying feeling, when a difficult or unpleasant task is completed. One can breathe a sigh of relief, sit back and relax because that task will not need to be faced again…unless it is one of those routine jobs one faces every day.

In God’s realm, He has finished or promised to finish everything He started that relates to His purpose for His creation. “Purpose” and “finish” are inseparable in God’s work. He does nothing without a purpose, and He finishes everything He purposed to do.

Let’s examine some of His completed or to-be-completed acts in creation and redemption.

Genesis 2:1-3 NLT
[1] “So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. [2] On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. [3] And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.”

Now, evolutionists insist that the universe came into being over millions of years and that tings are still evolving! The Bible declares that God finished His work of creation in six days. Someone is lying! It cannot be God because He is truth. He cannot lie!

Numbers 23:19 NLT
[19]”God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?”

Has God finished creating? Yes! Has He finished with creation? No!
Together with His redeemed people, God has promised to restore His natural creation to its pristine perfection.

Revelation 21:1, 5-6 NLT
[1]” Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone…
[5] And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” [6] And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life.”

Wow! Did you get that! Finished! Everything new! Not new as in brand new but new as in restored to its original state. Peter tells us that Jesus, the Alpha and Omega, will burn everything that was corrupted by sin – calledvthe basic elements or elementary principles that govern the world i.e., sin – with the fire of His word.

2 Peter 3:7 NLT
[7] “And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.”

Will God finish what He started? Yes, He will because it’s His purpose and He promised!

Jesus spoke another resounding “It is finished!” with His final breath, from the cross.

John 19:30 NLT
[30] “When Jesus had tasted it, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

Essentially, He used an accounting term to declare the end of sin’s debt to the Father by His death. “Paid in full.” However, in the broadest sense, He spoke the completion of salvation from beginning to end.

A third significant “finished” is God’s commitment to finish the work of salvation in everyone who believes in Jesus.

Philippians 1:6 NLT
[6] “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”

You see, although we are to respond to Him by faith and obedience, it is God who begins and finishes the work of salvation in us. We can do nothing to save ourselves. Jesus finished the work on the cross. We can do nothing to believe in Jesus.

The Father draws us to Jesus.

John 6:44 NLT
[44″For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up.”

We can do nothing to change us from the inside. We can only work with God.

Philippians 2:12-13 NIV
[12]”Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, [13] for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”

Even our faith in Him is a work of God.

Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV
[8] “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— [9] not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Grace, faith, salvation, all freely given to us without any effort on our part.

The fourth “finished” was Paul’s response to all that God had finished for and in him.

2 Timothy 4:7-8 NIV
[7] “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. [8] Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

Fought the good fight, finished the race, kept the faith…the response of a faithful servant of the Lord to all that God had finished for him.

This was God and Paul, working in partnership to accomplish His purpose, both for Paul and for His greater purpose for the gospel in His kingdom.

And what of us? God does nothing without a purpose, remember? He purposed you, your birth, your circumstances, your life on earth, your salvation, your place and work in His kingdom. Only in obedience to His leading and faithfulness to do His work will He enable you to say with Jesus, and Paul…

John 17:4 NIV
[4] “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.”

Be a good finisher!

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Christian Life, ,

We often hear or read that history is “His story”. When we think about it, how true that is from God’s perspective.

However, God isn’t only writing, He has already written a massive story, the first page before time and the last page after the end of time. His story covers everything relating to this earth from its re-formation in Genesis 1 to its restoration in Revelation 21.

He tells us what was happening in the heavenly realm before He breathed out the first word of creation at the beginning of time. However, we must research carefully and picture the story from the snippets of information scattered throughout the Bible. This makes the story more interesting, like putting together a jigsaw puzzle to see what the big picture is about.

Let me say that I don’t have all the details of the story. Perhaps I have what I need to help us uncover the plot.

We can attach many themes to the Bible, but the one theme that stands out above others is the story of salvation – God’s plan to rescue creation from the threat of total destruction. “Creation” means, first, His human creation because we are the focus of His attention. Second, natural creation has a big part to play in His rescue plan.

‭Romans 8:20-22 NLT‬
[20] “Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, [21] the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. [22] For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”

Why does God want to rescue and restore everything He has made? Despite the horror of what has happened since sin came into the world, God still desires a human family of sons and daughters to live with Him forever and to share in the administration of His world.

He did what was necessary to deal with the sin problem… punished His own Son in our place… forgave and removed our guilt and restored in us His own presence, the Holy Spirit. He also set about restoring His image in us, distorted by a rebellious nature that demands attention and does everything to satisfy its own selfish desires, so that we become like His Son.

He supervises all our circumstances to teach us how to trust His love and to submit to His authority. He tests us, with hardships and difficulties, to examine our progress towards His goal.

Sometimes we feel like clothing in a tumble dryer, tossed around by inexplicable hardships that leave us frustrated and bewildered. Is this really God? How can I be sure that He is still in control?

The way we interpret these happenings will determine our progress towards God’s goal. Lose our trust in God and we continue to flounder in uncertainty and insecurity. Keep our eyes on the bigger picture, and our struggles fall into place, start making sense, and keep us on track with God’s plan.

Paul gives us a good rule-of-thumb to help us see things from God’s perspective…

‭Philippians 3:12-14 NLT‬
[12]”I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. [13] No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, [14] I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”

Forget what has happened in the past and what’s happening now and press on in faith and patience towards the goal of God’s perfection. He is with us in this purpose. He promised to finish what He started.

‭Philippians 1:6 NLT‬
[6]”And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”

‭2 Corinthians 4:18 NLT‬
[18] “So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”

So, the things that happen to us only make sense when we take the long look. Today may be dark and dismal but the bad times won’t last forever. Our future is bright with God’s promise of glory in His presence in resurrected bodies and the nature of Jesus perfected in us.

THE BOOK OF ACTS – WITHOUT EXCUSE

Bible Study, ,

WITHOUT EXCUSE 

“‘The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn’t live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for Him, as if He couldn’t take care of Himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don’t make Him. Starting from scratch, He made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find Him. He doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote; He’s near. We live and move in Him, can’t get away from Him! One of your poets said it well: ‘We’re the God-created.’ Well, if we’re the God-created, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to think we can hire a sculptor to chisel a god out of stone for us, does it?”‘ Acts 17:24-29 (The Message).

Spot on again, Paul!

Paul was speaking to people who thought they were “intellectuals”, intelligent people who majored on thinking logically. Unfortunately, their logic did not take them any higher than human wisdom. They were unable, through their own reason, to figure out the existence of an unseen God who is Creator of everything. Yet Paul said, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that this is possible.

“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 men are without excuse.” Romans 1:20 (NIV).

How is it possible, for instance, that intelligent, logical-thinking, modern scientists, using all the sophisticated equipment they have to examine created things in minute detail, can come up with the “conviction” that it all just “happened”? Could it be that the issue is not one of the mind but of the will? Is it basic dishonesty that refuses to “see” the work of the Creator, even though it can be clearly seen by the untrained eye?

Even David, a young shepherd, with neither microscope nor telescope, could say:

“The heavens declare the glory of God;

The skies proclaim the work of His hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

Night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language

Where their voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out into all the earth,

Their words to the ends of the world.” Psalm 19:1-4 (NIV).

These Athenians at least began with the possibility that a God existed of whom they were vaguely aware, although they knew nothing about Him. They acknowledged Him with a shrine that was placed among all the other shrines, putting Him on a par with their man-made gods. It was up to Paul to set the record straight, which he did in a masterful way without attacking their error or putting them down for their foolishness.

Paul’s modus operandi was to fill in the gaps in their understanding. He exploited their honest mistake by taking them from where they were to where they could be if they moved from logic to faith, from reason to revelation. The God they ignorantly acknowledged was unseen but real, not confined to a shrine but as near to them as their breath. They did not create Him; He created them. That meant that they were subject to Him, not Him at their beck and call. Even their own poets had somehow hit on the truth: ‘We are His offspring.’

Unfortunately, right there is the parting of the ways. Those who refuse to give up their right to be right, deny the truth that God is Creator and that, therefore, the creature is accountable to Him. But that doesn’t change the truth. That makes the stubborn creature doubly accountable — for lying about God and for refusing to submit to Him.

So where do we stand? It all depends on how honest we are. We can side with the scientists who refuse to say, ‘God is Creator,’ or we can side with David who looked up at the night sky and marvelled at the intricate design of the God he had come to know and worship as his Shepherd.

The Song Of Creation

Bible Study, , , ,

THE SONG OF CREATION

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities: all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. (Col. 1: 15-17)

Paul was up against a group of people who were already corrupting the gospel and down-playing Jesus by false ideas they were propagating across the empire. Their teaching was what was the beginning of Gnosticism, a philosophy which was a mixture of existing religions and which taught that to be “saved” one needed to have secret “knowledge” – (gnosis is the Greek word for knowledge) into which only a few select people were initiated.

They taught that matter is evil and spirit good implying, on the one hand, that Jesus could not have been fully man, and on the other hand, that Creation was the work of a lesser god, called a demiurge, not the Supreme Being who could have nothing to do with matter; that between God and the created world there existed a series of lesser beings, the last being the creator of the universe.

Paul jumped right in by stating two facts clearly: that Jesus is the ‘firstborn’ over all creation – not, as some have interpreted, the first of God’s creatures, which would contradict Paul’s statement that Jesus is the image (copy or likeness) of God, but the prototokos or prototype of creation. ‘Firstborn’ refers not so much to the first one born to parents, but the one who had the authority and responsibility in the family.

Jesus is both firstborn over and agent in creation. Everything was through Him and for Him and He holds it all together by His powerful word.

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. (Heb. 1: 3)

Gnosticism as a philosophy is not as rife today as the teachings of evolutionists. Who is right? The evolutionist who states categorically that everything in the universe came into being by chance, or the Bible and those who believe it, that Creation is God’s handiwork and that Jesus Christ is the Word through whom everything was created?

Paul had no problem in believing that God created the universe and neither did David. There were no scientists in their day trying to make them believe otherwise.

David spent time watching sheep in his youth. In the summer time he must have often sat out under the stars. There were no city lights to dim his view of the heavens. He was captivated by the splendour of the dome above him and, because of his knowledge of the writings of Moses, he had no need to ask, “Who made all this?” There could only be one answer; not chance but God – the God of his forefathers whom he worshipped.

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words, no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world. (Psa. 19: 1-4a)

Nowadays we know that the stars are not silent. With the invention of the radio telescope, astronomers are able to listen in to their music. The Velar Pulsar drums out a perpetual rhythm to God who made it. David got it right, after all. The stars are proclaiming the glory of their Creator.

The creatures on earth are not silent either. They have ways of communicating that fascinates scientists. Who knows what whales and dolphins are singing about, or the songbirds which lift their voices to the heavens? They may be saying something to their own kind, but sometimes they warble just for the joy of being alive. Have you ever heard the song of crickets played at ultra-slow speed? It sounds like the song of angels!

Unlike us humans, who make every excuse not to acknowledge and worship our Creator, the inanimate and animal world have never questioned their origin, or thought up a lame reason why they are here. They do what they were created to do, to honour their Creator, and to do what they were created to do – to show God off by being themselves.

When we acknowledge Jesus and put Him in His rightful place, the entire universe is right-side-up, a glorious creation of God and awaiting its restoration to perfection just as we, God’s children are doing.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.