Hell?

I’m reading Leviticus with its complicated rules regarding worship, sacrifices, and the tabernacle, and I’m thinking, “Just give me the Gentile version.” But somewhere in the middle of the “priestly linen undergarments,” it hits me: No unholy thing can abide in the presence of God; without all of that ritual, any human being approaching God would die. Yet I, a once unholy being, am invited into God’s Holy presence and filled with His Holy Spirit. How? The blood of Christ—the eternal sacrifice—cleans me and makes me fit to be with God!

I am His. I am holy. I will live with God for eternity, and worship with my Christian brothers and sisters for all time. I will see the new heavens and the new earth and live forever where there is no sin or pain or fear or sorrow or death. Praise God!

If I do not allow Christ to wash me in His blood continually, I remain unholy, and the unholy cannot be with God. Which leads me to the question, is there a place of eternal punishment, and if so, what is its nature and who ends up there?

I witnessed a debate in the ‘70s between a Christian minister and the British Scholar and then-atheist, Antony Flew. Dr. Flew cited the Holocaust in his argument against the popular concept of Hell, saying something like this: According to some Christians, anyone who does not accept Christ as savior is damned. Jews, by definition, do not accept Christ and will, according to those Christians, spend eternity being burned alive. So God used the ovens of Hitler to usher millions of Jews into the ovens of Hell. Is this a loving God?

I am in no position to judge a good and perfect God, but God made me in His image and able to know good from evil. I do not believe that simple existence and sin, though abhorrent, justifies eternal, excruciating torture for anyone. (Punishment, yes. Death, yes. Eternal torture, no.)

If not eternal torture, what? What ultimately happens to persons who do not follow Jesus?  The Bible tells us that all sinners are doomed to “destruction."

 

Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

Galatians 6:8

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Meaning God)

Matthew 10:28

 

These two scriptures imply that the bodies and souls of sinners are not eternal, that they can and will be destroyed "eternally."

So, what about “The fire that never goes out?”  or the “unquenchable fire”? I don’t know. I know Hell was prepared for the Devil and his angels, eternal beings who currently war against God, persecute His saints, and attempt to rob us of our holiness. Perhaps for eternal beings, Hell is eternal torture?

 

MESSY

 

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.” I John: 4:1-3.

This scripture was not typically preached in the denomination in which I was raised. Many Christians under that label do not acknowledge the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and most believe that the need to “test the spirits” ended in the first century.
That view of a Christian’s walk on this earth leaves us with a couple of options: One, we read the Bible and try to arrive at the truth all by ourselves, or two, we ask the preacher or the elders or the brotherhood bigwigs what to believe and how to behave.

The former method, without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is hopeless; the latter results in comfortable, codified, legalism.

But, “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  Ephesians 6:12, 13.

Who or what are these evil powers/spirits? Do we see them? Hear them? Feel them? How do we resist them?
And if the Holy Spirit dwells in us and gives us gifts, how do we recognize Him and practice our gifts individually, in the body, and in worship?

Though the Bible offers guidance, the answers to these questions are not and cannot be codified. They are experiential and cumulative. They must be practiced over a lifetime.
And life is MESSY.

"Going Off"

After a combined 109 years as baptized believers in the Churches of Christ, my husband Bruce and I have, as the old-timers put it, “gone off.” In other words, we are now worshiping with a body of believers who do not have a sign anywhere on the property that says “Church of Christ."

Some of the brothers and sisters with whom we no longer worship are dismayed. Some saw our defection coming. But no one has asked us why.

The why is important. The why includes years of persecution and hardship inflicted during our ministry. The why includes unbiblical beliefs and practices enforced as “law” while other biblical beliefs and practices were ignored and deprecated.

Not that we have arrived at our new spiritual location after a long search for perfection. (As the old adage says, “A perfect church is a church that would not want us as members.”)

So the question remains, “Why?”

Our shared response is that we have been led and added to this branch of the Vine by God, just as we were led to serve His body within the confines of Churches of Christ for 42 years.

My personal response is a description of my new found spiritual freedom in worship. For the first time in my life, I am FREE:

·         To follow the examples of New Testament worship.

·         To respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

·         To add a song, a prayer or a word of knowledge.

·         To cry out, raise my hands or fall to my knees.

·         To shed tears of joy, or relief, or sorrow.  

·         To experience and acknowledge publically the presence of God.

·         To use my spiritual gifts to edify my brothers and sisters.

   Praise God!

We have not arrived at our new spiritual home empty handed. We come bearing treasure, a profound respect for Scripture gained from our years in the Churches of Christ. But it is this treasure that enables us to follow wherever He leads without fear or regret.

 

 

 

Invisible

“There was once a little Princess who—”

“But, Mr. Author, why do you always write about princesses?”
“Because every little girl is a princess.”
George MacDonald, “The Princess and the Goblin”


As a child I was enchanted by this book, especially the edition with the illustrations by Jessie Wilcox Smith. I immediately recognized the invisible thread that leads Irene to rescue Curdie as the Holy Spirit who guides Christians. As soon as I finish writing my second murder mystery and return from Zambia, I hope to begin on the music to accompany the libretto I have written based on this children’s story.


John 16:7-13 New International Version (NIV)

But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. 12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.