“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”

I was listening to a podcast recently about a preacher who was labelled a heretic because he declared a disbelief in hell. The podcast presented his reasons for his new belief and described how he was ostracized by his fellow believers. They also described how some of his former church members would try to counsel him that hell is real with the argument that ‘it is not for us to question God’s reasons for hell’. I beg to disagree. A subject so extensively described in the word of God, and so pertinent to the summation of our lives as hell, needs to be fully understood by everyone, especially those claiming to be Bible believers.

To understand hell we need to go back to the beginning and first understand where we come from. As Bible believers we know that Genesis teaches that God formed human beings from the dust of the earth, He then breathed the breath of life into the form “and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). From this we learn that there is no separate entity called a soul or spirit. The life giving breath of God makes us a conscious, living being. His breath brings us to life and sustains us, without it we would be well-formed particles of dust (Acts 17:28; Psalms 103:14). In science we see that the same elements found in the soil can be found in the human body. We breathe oxygen from the air but the source of actual life has never been identified in a laboratory – that is the prerogative of God alone.

How did man live originally following his creation? As we continue reading in Genesis we learn that God planted a garden for man to live in and for which he should care (we thrive better living closer to nature). God gave man dominion over every thing He created (Genesis 1:26-28). He was to care for and make positive use of everything God had made. While in the garden man had direct interactions with God (Genesis 2:19). God planted many trees in the garden for man’s food and sustenance (we thrive better on a plant based diet) and among those trees God planted two trees the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:8-9). The Tree of Life as the name suggests conveys life to those who eat from it. From this we learn that our lives are not self-sustaining we need to eat the fruit this life giving plant to gain sustained life. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good an Evil was placed in the garden as a test of loyalty.

Now we know where we come from – dust – we know how life was expected to be – peaceful and active – so how is it that we are in our current state? God gave man instructions to care for the garden and to eat freely of all the fruits in the garden except the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, because in the day that they ate they would die (Genesis 2:15-17). Unfortunately, our first parents did eat of this tree. The test was simple – don’t eat – but the enemy is cunning. The adversary of our souls questioned God’s instructions – “Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” and modified the explicit word of God saying: “ye shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4); subsequently, the man and woman God placed in the garden disobeyed and ate. Following their disobedience God came looking for them, and hearing their explanations passed out sentences for their sin but also gave them hope of redemption (Genesis 3:8-19). Because of their disobedience they were barred from the garden, because if they in their sinful state ate of the Tree of Life sin would become immortalized (Genesis 3:22, 23). By sinning man forfeited his God-given dominion over the earth. Now the enemy is in control of the earth (Romans 6:16). The once pleasant work, man had to do became tedious, and the peace of the past was gone because they were now subject to a tyrant. They were also unable to engage in direct contact with God in His full glory (Exodus 33:18-23). On this earth we are in quarantine because we are infected with sin (1 Corinthians 4:9). Only Heavenly beings have interacted directly with us, and those that do interact with us regularly are specially ‘clothed’ for our protection (Exodus 3:2-6; 33:20; Joshua 5:13-15; Daniel 3:19-25; Luke 2:8-14; Philippians 2:7).

Very early in life we come to understand what it means ‘to die’, whether through the loss of a grandparent, a pet or even the death of a plant. The dictionary defines it simply as “to stop living”. We learned earlier that man became living when God breathe the breath of life into him. Therefore, we can logically reason that death would be the removal of this life giving breath and a return to dust (Ecclesiastes 12:7). This was the declaration of God to the man after they sinned (Genesis 3:19). Again scientifically we see this, when a person dies they stop breathing, their body decomposes and they become one with the soil.

So what does this have to do with hell? There are many people in this life that believe this is the end of us. We’re born, we live, and we go back to the soil. This is a sad outlook on life, given the state of life as we know it. But in scripture we learn that there is hope for redemption from sin and its ultimate consequence. Meaning, we will have a second chance to choose whether to live forever with our Creator or to die forever in hell. God promised to defeat the enemy, who lied and tricked the woman into sin (Genesis 3:15), giving us an opportunity to choose lives of obedience to God and live (Deuteronomy 30:19; Joshua 24:15; Ezekiel 18:32). The promise of a Saviour was reiterated for 4,000 years to every generation of the man’s descendants, until the Saviour was born in the form of the man Christ Jesus (Genesis 22:18; Psalms 77:13; Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; Daniel 9:26; Luke 2:11). He lived a life of perfect obedience to the will of God and therefore was able to offer His life as payment for the ultimate penalty of sin in behalf of all the descendants of the original man (John 15:10; Romans 5:12-19).

Does this mean the job is done and there is nothing left to do since Jesus already paid the price? NO! One of the most popular verses of the bible is John 3:16 which states “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” This is a loaded passage of scripture. Because God is Love (1 John 4:8) He manifests love to all His creation. Love as we learned in previous posts is an equal mix of Justice and Mercy. God’s principle of justice must be satisfied; the debt of sin must be paid. His principle of mercy must also be satisfied he had to give us hope. Therefore, He sent His Son, Jesus to live the life that man is expected to live and then pay the debt man owed. Does this mean there is nothing for us to do? The text says: “whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” So what does it mean to believe?

The dictionary defines ‘to believe’ simply as “to accept or regard (something) as true”. Therefore, if we accept God’s love and His sacrifice as true this should have some effect on the way we live – after all we believe the law of gravity to be true so we avoid walking off roofs. Consequently, if we genuinely believe in Jesus’ sacrifice, what in our lives should change? There reasonably should be a sense of gratitude for the gift given (1 John 4:19). This gratitude is expressed in reciprocating the love God has for us and, as we previously learnt, we love when we keep God’s law (John 14: 23; 2 John 1:6). This means if man wants to be saved we need to keep the commandments of God as a demonstration of our belief and acceptance of Jesus’ sacrifice. But how do we keep these commandments when our very form is pervaded with sin inherited from our first parents (Psalms 51:5)? This is the purpose of God’s grace. The grace of God grants us the strength to resist temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13); therefore, our sole task is to yield our will to His.

When the man and the woman sinned they hid from God, because that’s what sin does; it causes us to separate ourselves from God because of our sense of unworthiness (Genesis 3:8). Hiding from God can be manifested by choosing to not have anything to do with Him and His word, because of our sense of guilt, or trying to work in our own strength to obey God’s laws, to make ourselves good enough to come to Him. Neither of these will work for us; in the first scenario, the guilt will only go away when we have completely seared our consciences (Matthew 12:31) in the second, in our own strength we can do nothing good (Isaiah 64:6; John 15:5). However, there is hope to cure the guilt, when we read John 3:17 we see that Jesus did not come into this world to condemn us but to give us an opportunity to be saved (Romans 8:1). Thus, we can come boldly to God’s throne to find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16). Many of us miss this and get bogged down in the mire of our actions. We need to fall to our knees and fight this natural instinct to flee from God’s presence because He is our only source of help and hope to fight sin in this life (Matthew 19:26).

Knowing all this, how does hell fit into the picture? The bible tells us that hell is prepared for the Devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). However if we reject God’s grace and mercy by living in wilful disobedience to Him we will join that fire as well. The death experienced in hell is called in scripture “the second death” (Revelation 20:14). Many people read the previous verse in Matthew 25 and hold on to the idea that hell is a place that will be burning forever. This is a vicious falsehood! Why would a loving God who offered mercy at such a price burn someone for all eternity who sinned for ~70 years? When we study scripture we are admonished to place line upon line, precept upon precept (Isaiah 28:10-13). This verse refers to hell as an “everlasting fire”; in Jude the scripture refers to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as an “eternal fire” (Jude 7). We have an idea where, in the Middle East, those sister cities were. There is active sulphur there but the burning has ended, because the fuel is burnt up. In Malachi 4:3 we learn that the wicked will be ashes. We know that “to die” means “to stop living”, so why is it that the vast majority of mankind holds the belief that sinners will live forever in a burning flame? The answer – the original lie, “ye shall not surely die”. The devil is nothing if not consistent. He has the vast majority of the world convinced that when we die we don’t really die.

When we die the first death we go back to the soil (Genesis 3:19). But God has promised to return and those that are in the grave will live again, to gain the reward of the lives they lived (1 Thessalonians 4:16, Daniel 12:2, Revelation 20:6). Some will be raised to everlasting life, and some to everlasting death – never more to live again. This too is a mercy, because those of us who choose the sinful, selfish life will always be subject to the consequences of our sinful actions and could never be happy in God’s kingdom of peace and benevolence. Hell is real, but as I heard a pastor say it recently, “it is an event not a place”. It will come down from heaven consume the devil, his angels, sin, sinners, death and itself forever (Matthew 25:41; 1 Corinthians 15:54, 55; Revelation 20:7-15).

Let us take the Scripture as it reads, it is consistent and God is Love, all His actions are governed by pure love. He is not arbitrary and takes no “pleasure in the death of the wicked” but sin and its perpetuators cannot continue to exist; they cause too much hurt and pain (Ezekiel 33:11; Nahum 1:9).

Take Heart

A Reason to Believe: What happens at death

A Reason to Believe: Hell

Hand In Hand

Come Search With Me: Theism & Atheism, Reason & Faith

“Woke”

Being “woke” is an interesting new expression used in current popular culture to denote a state of “sudden understanding of what’s really going on and finding out you were wrong about much of what you understood to be truth” (urbandictionary.com). I’ve heard the term used in a few different contexts and decided that I needed to explore it a bit. The first time I heard it was in reference to the idea of “gender fluidity”. The second time my cousin was quite irate about a relative of hers adopting the mantra of a racial group who’s experience she didn’t fully share. The next tangible experience I had with this term was in a church’s youth program poster. I believe this is the one that sent me over the edge I had to address this. As always let’s go to Scripture.

Firstly there are two forces in this world: good and evil (Genesis 2:17; 3:5). Good encompasses all that is righteousness, truth, light, holiness and Godly. In contrast evil is composed of all that is unrighteousness, lies, darkness, impure, and Godless (Matthew 6:22, 23). Because there are only two forces in this world we must be following one or the other (Matthew 6:24). The definition of the term ‘woke’ “is a sudden understanding of what is really going on and finding out you were wrong about much of what you understood to be truth”; to me this is suspicious and insulting. As someone who has spent a bit of time in school and done some teaching I know that knowledge tends not to be gained suddenly. Insulting, because how is it possible that a person could achieve 30 plus years of life and experiences, and be wrong about most of it. The best teacher is experience, cause and effect – that’s scientific inquiry at its most basic. That said, what is this new outlook that is being gained? How much of the foundation of lives is being dismantled? What is the foundation being replaced with? And in light of the controlling forces being good or evil which direction is this state of being “woke” taking us?

Most of societal rules, as we know it, are based on Judeo-Christian scripture: Honour your parents, don’t commit murder, don’t cheat on your spouse, don’t steal, and don’t lie (Exodus 20:12-16). These are solid tenets on which society is formed and functions, however, as time marches on certain members of society become enamoured with the idea that within ourselves we are able to perpetuate a smooth society without the use of these guidelines, therefore, we see these principles slowly being eroded. Now, the state and children have more rights than parents, murderers have more rights than their victims, there is now an utter disregard for the sanctity of marriage, laws exist that promote theft, and politicians and lawyers have made lying an art-form. We did not just appear on this earth. There is One being responsible for our existence and He set out basic principles by which to live and prosper when we disregard them it is to our own demise. Our actions have real consequences. It behoves us to investigate the final outcome of this utter disregard for the obvious, logical facts on which we once based our lives.

This movement of being “woke” did not just happen suddenly. It has been building for decades in modern history. This generation is now the fruit of plans laid decades ago in the education, legal, media and entertainment systems of this world. However, any student of history will know what the outcome of this erosion of principle will be, as it has occurred many times before. Every society that has disregarded these basic principles of life has fallen, beginning with the antediluvians (Genesis 6:1-7; 7:7-24), then the community at the tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9), again with the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:1-26), and various other subsequent civilizations (Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome). When the principles on which we build our existence are made to be fluid (spectral, uncertain) there ceases to be any reliable support and that will inevitably lead to destruction.

Now, as it regards the church, we have an added layer of responsibility because we claim to believe the whole of scripture. When the youth of our church are turning up the volume to their music and seeking for new ways of distracting themselves from reality and calling themselves “woke” I become extremely concerned. As proclaimed believers we are responsible to a known God for the remaining five commands (have no other gods, don’t worship the work of your hands, respect His name, keep His Sabbath day holy, don’t harbour envious thoughts). He has clear instructions in His word for how to keep these, but the youth of our church are now of the opinion that God doesn’t care about those “little things”, and that they can treat their minds and bodies as they wish, as long as they claim to be Christ’s (please consider these texts: Matthew 7:21-23; 1Corinthians 10:31; 6:19-20; 3:16, 17). There is no more vicious lie than this that has infested Christendom. As a result we seek to do the bare minimum to be considered a Christian by societal standards, with limited consideration to God’s actual standards.

Some claim that God doesn’t care much about our obedience, that He wants a relationship with us. A true relationship requires give and take but all we do is take. We want God’s blessings, not His guidance, we want His mercy, not His justice, we want His name and for Him to ignore our wilful disregard of His precepts, we want a Saviour not a Lord (Isaiah 4:1). He should give all and we give nothing. This concept of a relationship explains fully the divorce rate within the church. Scripture informs us that God does not change and what He required in Old Testament times, He required in New Testament times and still requires today; obedience (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). This is a most comforting thought, we serve a God who is firm, and does not change; we can rely on Him to stand by His word, always. His word is powerful and active and will fulfil what it set out to do (Isaiah 55:11). He is the sure foundation on which we may build a life (Matthew 7:24).

I was listening to a sermon recently that referenced this state of intoxication in the church. The preacher spoke about Noah’s experience and Lot’s experience when they were drunk (Genesis 9:20-24; 19:30-36). During their drunken state they were abused and taken advantage of. However, when they woke up they became aware of what was done to them and could react. The preacher then compared these events with the description in Revelation of the “whore” who made all nations drink of the “wine of her fornication” (Revelation 17:1-6). These are symbols of a system that has infested Christendom, and caused us to believe lies with no foundation is God’s sure word. The apostle Peter admonishes us to be sober and vigilant because we have an enemy that wants to destroy us (1Peter 5:8). Until we truly wake up and realize how far we have drifted from scripture we will never truly know the extent of the abuse we have suffered.

Young people of the church, I implore you, Wake Up! Stop following fads and popular culture, pick up a Bible, sincerely pray to God for help, and read. Read as if your life depended on it, because it does.

--> God’s Mercy
Time to Wake Up
The Missing Piece
Lord, I Want to Be a Chirstian