Timing is a very critical thing with the Lord, He knows the order of all things, but to me it is given as I study and show myself to be faithful, I can't possibly process everything going on in the physical world, much less the Spiritual, but if I am sensitive to the Holy Spirit within me, I will know what His will is for me as I walk in obedience to the scriptures and His direction for my life. The scripture lights the way, and I am enlightened to reflect His light in the world around me to the degree that I am faithful to Him.
Many times this generation wants to try and bend His will to meet our desires, this is due in large part to the manner in which we have been taught to be narcissistic in the way we view the world. There is no great value placed on humility in this generation, even though this is what it takes to please our Lord.
Consider Matthew 25:31-46:
The Son of Man Will Judge the Nations
31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
44 “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
And in the previous parable the Lord ends with this warning- Matthew 25:29
‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
2 comments:
Just so you know, the parable of the Sheep and the Goats, like the 3 other parables preceding it, had nothing to do with Heaven or Hell, but who would get to have a prestigious place of honor (a respectable job, in other words) in the administration of the coming Messiah.
But something happened when, years later, the Church filled up with Greek converts unfamiliar with all the stuff about a coming Jewish messiah--they began to reinterpret the parables of Jesus to fit what they had always been taught, such as the pagan idea that the gods like to torture people for ever in Hades!
Sadly, believers today are still not getting it that Jesus told us about a totally different type of deity, one who loves and cares and never gives up on us, and who, by the way, wants to relieve human suffering, not be the cause of it!
Re-read Matthew 25, and THINK objectively while you do. How in the world could Jesus say, after giving a very long story in which he tried so hard to explain how much he empathizes with human suffering, so much so that he says we ought to think of even the "least" as if s/he were him...only to turn right around and all in the same breath say, "Oh, but one day I'm going to be the direct cause of the worst suffering ever!"
Now, that makes no sense, does it?
Well, the explanation for this contradictory statement is simple--Jesus never said it!!! It's an interpolation that was, in all likelihood, inserted by a Greek Christian scribe while making a copy of the text, totally distorting the message of the originally inspired autograph!
In other words, Jesus did NOT believe in Hell. He couldn't have.
I've actually written an entire book on this topic--"Hell? No! Why You Can Be Certain There's No Such Place As Hell," (for anyone interested, you can get a free ecopy of my book at my website: www.thereisnohell.com), but if I may, let me share one of the many points I make in it to explain why.
If one is willing to look, there's substantial evidence contained in the gospels to show that Jesus opposed the idea of Hell. For example, in Luke 9:51-56, is a story about his great disappointment with his disciples when they actually suggested imploring God to rain FIRE on a village just because they had rejected him. His response: "You don't know what spirit is inspiring this kind of talk!" Presumably, it was NOT the Holy Spirit. He went on, trying to explain how he had come to save, heal and relieve suffering, not be the CAUSE of it.
So it only stands to reason that this same Jesus, who was appalled at the very idea of burning a few people, for a few horrific minutes until they were dead, could never, ever burn BILLIONS of people for an ETERNITY!
True, there are a few statements that made their way into the copies of copies of copies of the gospel texts which place “Hell” on Jesus’ lips, but these adulterations came along many decades after his death, most likely due to the Church filling up with Greeks who imported their belief in Hades with them when they converted.
Bear in mind that the historical Protestant doctrine of the inspiration of the Scriptures applies only to the original autographs, not the copies. But sadly, the interpolations that made their way into those copies have provided a convenient excuse for a lot of people to get around following Jesus’ real message.
Thank you for your comments on the blog, I would however,respectfully like to give my response to your hypothesis. First, I would like to say that from the very beginning of written history that we are given to know by Yahweh God in Genesis, there has been a principle of opposites(light/dark),(day/night)(you may eat/you may not eat), we are created with muscles that work in opposition to each other(your tricep muscle opposes your bicep muscle allowing full use of your arm). There are the laws of blessings/cursings given the Nation of Israel. We have many great promises in the Bible, and we have the consequences of not obeying those promises. While it is true, many have never truly understood grace, and misused the concept of Hell as a tool to keep the sinner in a controlling situation of a sort of spiritual enslavement, never encouraging growth in the freedom we have in Christ, this in no way does away with the place of spiritual bondage designed not for humans, but the rebellious horde of Angels, along with the once glamorous leader of Angels. All creatures of God have a free-will, one that allows a choice to be made to serve Him willingly and not in enslavement. The heart of Jesus was to die so that none would perish, but that all would have everlasting life. We are given freedom to worship in truth, but we also may choose to follow a rebellious path, just as the Angel over God's throne did and was cast to this plain of existence after an attempted coupe of God. Of course,I am not referring to an occasional fall into sinful behavior, but a behavioral change in the very core nature of the soul to follow what I want while knowing the truth, but exchanging the same for a lie(perhaps for money, power, lust,or maybe fame)in any case a constant denial in deed of what has set me free to begin with. There can be no Heaven without a Hell, for a deliberate life of destruction to the little ones of innocence, there is a consequence other than a ceasing to exist, the soul within us can never cease to exist, being made in God's image. The Spirit died when Adam and Eve rebelled, but the soul remained, and thus the battle for control began. It is imperative that we struggle against evil deceptions when we have been re-born by our belief and faith in Christ Jesus.
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