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In C.S. Lewis’s masterful book The Problem of Pain, he describes the doctrine of Hell as “not tolerable” and “no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power.”  While I agree on so many levels it also forces us to ask hard questions about God’s purposes we don’t always understand.  Lewis recognizes that not all will be saved and to which he assigns a free-will nature to the creature.

I veer away from Lewis on this point in the way he means it.  I believe he fully assigns the creature the full liberty to “choose” or “not choose” God.  However look at the internal struggle Lewis has as to the creature’s ability.

If the happiness of a creature lies in self-surrender, no one can make that surrender but himself (though many can help him to make it) and he may refuse.  I would pay any price to be able to say truthfully ‘All will be saved.’  But my reason retorts ‘Without their will, or with it?’  If I say ‘Without their will’ I at once perceive a contradiction; how can the supreme voluntary act of self-surrender be involuntary?  If I say ‘With their will,’ my reason replies ‘How if they will not give in?’

Ah, so here-in lies the issue.  How does the creature surrender?  What do we know?  We know that man has no ability in himself to save himself and he has no ability to choose God (Romans 3:10-18).  He is dead spiritually without the ability to revive himself (Ephesians 2:1).  Man is a slave to sin and while he does have the ability to make choices his will is ensnared and captivated by what he is enslaved, which is his love of sin (John 8:34).

Therefore, left to himself, man will never decide to follow Jesus even though this is a catchy little tune I sang at a church I was visiting once.  There must be a force that acts upon the creature.  This is where the electing purposes of God enter the scene and while I’m not writing about God’s election today, it is an important doctrine to work through at some point in the Christian journey.

What do you do with a rebellious creature that desires self.

to think of this bad man’s perdition not as a sentence imposed on him but as the mere fact of being what he is.  The characteristic of lost souls is ‘their rejection of everything that is not simply themselves’.

Death removes this last contact.  He has his wish–to lie wholly in the self and to make the best of what he finds there.  And what he finds there is Hell.

While I truly hate that anyone would ever perish eternally in Hell I cannot shy away from this truth and neither can you if you are to speak the truth in love to your neighbor.  The objections are common and mostly predictable.  “Why would a loving God send anyone to Hell?”  Well, that is a good question, but have you ever considered what is a just God to do with guilty criminals?

Look at how Lewis deals with this objection.

In the long run, the answer to all those who object to the doctrine of Hell, is itself a question:  ‘What are you asking God to do?’  To wipe out their past sins and, at all costs, to give them a fresh start, smoothing every difficulty and offering every miraculous help?  But He has done so, on Calvary.  To forgive them?  They will not be forgiven.  To leave them alone?  Alas, I am afraid that is what He does.

This is really what lies at the heart of the issue.  You can be a Calvinist an Arminian or anything in between and at the bottom of the discussion is that every man will make a decision about Christ.  Hell is simply the reality of what they truly desire, outside of God’s regenerating work on the heart of man it is what we all desire.

But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ– by grace you have been saved– Ephesians 2:4-5

 

Kevin

The Old Testament can be perplexing to most people and even to Christians that have studied the Bible.  It’s a complex work of narrative, poetry, and symbolism that sometimes makes us scratch our heads and wonder what this means.  I recently listened to a podcast by Wrath & Grace called “Redemption is R Rated”.  I highly recommend this if you’ve never listened or thought through some of the implications of a “sanitary” Bible and the raw and gritty truths of what Scripture teaches us.

This post wants to focus on the narrative of a particular story about a king named Jehu.  It was going well for Jehu, he was taking care of business, so to speak, and tearing down the idols of Baal and apparently, he had honorable intentions.

He was a clever guy and he gathered all the worshipers and servants of the false god and gathered them up to destroy them.  This was God’s design to purify His people.  These accounts can be sensitive to our modern ears but that’s for another day.

He was zealous for the work of God.  Or so it seemed…

And the Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in carrying out what is right in my eyes, and have done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.” But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin. 2 Kings 10:30-31

Commentor A.L. Gordon remarks:

For what is here recorded of Jehu, we may draw another valuable lesson.  We see a man zealous in the cause of religion, pursuing the enemies of God, and made the instrument of fulfilling upon them his righteous purposes.  But how manifest in all his doings is the influence of a self-seeking, an ostentatious, and a worldly spirit, and how great reason is there for believing that, while accomplishing the designs of God, he himself would yet be a castaway!

What a tragedy.  Jehu had a great opportunity to fulfill God’s plan and to set himself up as a great king but yet the trappings of the world pulled him away.  We can also see that God was faithful to Jehu’s progeny.  Isn’t that interesting?  Because of Jehu’s obedience in destroying the worshipers of Baal, the Lord blessed his family but yet the true affections of Jehu’s heart were not drawn to the Lord.

Perhaps we can apply this to our own lives and also to those around us in our religious circles and communities.  We should examine the lives of those that are in leadership to see that they are holding to a pattern of sound leadership and not straying from the path of true devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ.  Oh, what a fearful thing for those that don’t.

Kevin

Revenge is a dish best served cold so goes the old saying…

We want justice… we deserve justice says the one who has been violated. And indeed we all agree he should have it.

But why this sense of justice if we are just primordial scum that has evolved from a single cell? Where does it come from?

Why does humanity desire what is right? Especially when we are the offended party, but what about when it’s not us? What about when it’s the other guy and we are the offender? Well that’s a bit of a different story, isn’t it?

The Christian answer is easy, God has created man in His own image, we all have worth and value, we all have the law of God implanted in our being.

For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.  They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel,  God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. Romans 2:14-16

God’s law, written on the hearts of men, provide us with a sense of justice.  We all, inherently know right from wrong.  But it says here they [Gentiles or unbelievers] are a law unto themselves, meaning they do what is right by their own standard.   They don’t judge by God’s law, but by their own law.  They replace the truth for the fallacy of what’s right in their own minds.  Sadly, this will come back down upon their own heads unless they come to a knowledge of the truth.

Remember the context of Romans 2 how Paul instructs us the judgments we use on others will be used right back on top of us by God.

Yes, let us judge others, but with righteous judgment based on the word of God.  May we continue to cry out against injustice, but let us never forget we are the greatest offenders of them all, we have all sinned and denied God’s righteous decree.  We are in need of mercy and the grace of a loving God who will always bring the secret things to account.

Kevin

Philippians 1:29
For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,

Here is an invitation to join the Christian faith. “Welcome, we have a packet for you in the back and it will outline the ways in which the Christian faith is different than other faiths. It welcomes you to a life of suffering. Are you ready to sign on the dotted line? Please take your free loaf of bread along with you as a special gift.”

Jesus has invited us to suffer are you ready? Are you excited?

Said nobody ever…

The natural proclivity of human beings is self-protection and self-preservation. Why would someone decide suffering is the way to peace, contentment, and joy?

This is why Christianity is supernatural. The God of the universe invades the wicked human heart, sets it aright and changes it for eternity. When a convicted criminal is given a pardon for his crimes he is naturally grateful. When the convert is saved his new affections give him the heart to serve the Lord; he is grateful and willingly pays the cost whatever that might be. Even to death.

Ouch… this is a tough pill to swallow for many, dare I say most, evangelical/cultural Christians. But even more, the word granted carries a deeper meaning than what we might think. It means to grant as a favor, in kindness, as an act of grace.

John Calvin said this about the suffering: “Oh, if this persuasion were effectually wrought in our minds — that persecutions are to be reckoned among God’s benefits, what progress would be made in the doctrine of piety!”

There you go… welcome to Christianity. Have a great ride. Hope to see you back real soon. But don’t delay. The consequences are eternal.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Romans 8:18

Kevin

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. –  Genesis 1:1

“There is more in this first verse of the Bible than in 10,000 volumes of men’s invention.” – John Newton

Mankind does not reject God’s truth because of intellect.  A child can read the word of God and comprehend it’s meaning and as Newton goes on to say, “A child that has read the Bible knows more than all the philosophers of old put together.”

That is quite a statement and yet when we consider the foolishness of God is wiser then the wisdom of men, we see that a child reading the Bible has the wisdom of God.  The Bible is a book like none other.

Why do so many reject its claims?

It’s not a difficult concept.  They don’t like what it says, and they reject any sort of demand placed upon them.  They reject an objective truth that holds them accountable and calls them to change.

They or we become the ultimate standard of truth.

In the end, where do you get “truth” without the God of the Bible?  Does it come from your own mind?  Does it come from society?  Does it come from nothing?  Did it evolve?

Do you see the inconsistencies here?  Outside of a Sovereign Absolute, you can only be left with chaos and you cannot claim any sort of a moral standard outside of your own mind.  We’ve seen this down through history, haven’t we?  When the God of the Bible is rejected life is without purpose, there is no ultimate accountability and you can’t, with honesty, say anything is right or wrong.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.  – Romans 1:21