|
I recently received my regular copy of a letter from a national church organization. This "church organ" keeps track of all the dreadful blasphemy and godless events that are allegedly impeding the fulfillment of God's purpose, and the letter is useful, I suppose, if one believes that something or someone other than our Father Himself is in control of creation. It must stir up considerable fear in many who read it, and of course the request for money that comes with the letter often produces an offering, one of the results of that fear. All offerings are reportedly used for "projects" or programs that may or may not curb the dire down-hill plunge of God's universe, hell-bent for a "lake of fire" and never-ending sorrow.
This well-intentioned missive, mailed to many such as me, is one of the thousands of the sort that bombard the citizens of this hemisphere, and I believe they do some good, even though a thorough search is often necessary to find that "good".
One of the reports in this most recent letter avers that children in elementary school are being taught that they, being of the "animal kingdom", are of no more worth to the world's well-being than any other animal -- whether snail-darter, or field-mouse, or brown bear. The article asserts that unless we "do something" about this abominable trend in teaching we will soon be burdened with a world full of adults who won't be aware of man's importance to God, nor God's importance to man.
The world is already full of such, and I'd believe the article's prediction of ultimate failure to be true IF man were in control of the universe -- BUT man ISN'T -- GOD IS . God Almighty works things to HIS purpose; man, animal, vegetable, and mineral "kingdoms" are following HIS plan perfectly.
Of course, it's disturbing to know that children are being taught such nonsense, but what can we expect from a generation of teachers matured believing the theory of evolution to be "fact-without-proof", who advocate "if it feels good, do it", and imagine Jesus Christ to be, at best, a quasi-historical figure on the same level as Moses, Buddha, Mohammed, and Confucius. It's not unusual to hear some semi-literate seer announce as fact that all ways lead to salvation, to truth, and the "prime-mover". They are believed by many: those whom God has blinded.
The apostate church presents even more ridiculous teaching to our children.
If we desire to teach our children that which will enable them to triumph over the passions, the lust, and the weakness of mere animal nature, we must teach them that they are the offspring of God. the Father of Spirits. They must understand that their spiritual nature is the first in importance and their greatest nature, NOT the physical and psychical natures. And having taught them that, we must counter-teach and overcome the foolishness they receive at the feet of their Sunday School teachers, church leaders, Vacation Bible School catechists and other misled and misleading mystagogues.
There especially comes to mind a conversation I had some years ago with one of the junior members of my family upon "graduation" from a local Vacation Bible School. The child was lamenting the fact that many of his friends were going to be cast into a lake of fire and brimstone -- because those friends didn't belong to the church sponsoring the school, and hadn't been baptized using the correct formula.
When I asked him what he thought the lake of fire and brimstone might be he repeated what is taught in most churches. It was the usual rubbish.
To counteract such indoctrination we must turn to God and His written Word.
Genesis 1:26-27 says, "And God said, `Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness'...so God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him." Acts 17:24-29; "God that made the whole world and all things therein, that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath and all things; and hath made of one blood ALL nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth , and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord , if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from everyone of us: for in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain of your own poets have said, for we are HIS OFFSPRING. Forasmuch, then as we are the OFFSPRING OF GOD..." (emphasis mine).
Sex, race, color, or national origin is nothing in the Kingdom of God..."there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all ONE IN CHRIST JESUS" (Galatians 3:28).
"...the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God" (Luke 3:38,NIV). Adam -- the SON (offspring) OF GOD! Adam, a wayward, disobedient man is the offspring of God, created out of the glory of God, -- now dead in sin, -- is still God's offspring, although an errant son. Some fathers may disown their sons, but the Father of this prodigal never said the wayward boy wasn't His own son. Though the sins of such be dyed as deep as a purple popish-protestant "Hell", the Father still has a double claim on them: they are His by creation; and they are His by right of redemption.
Certainly, such people are dead in trespasses and sins and need to be saved, to be converted, to seek God -- and when they do (in His purposed time) the Father receives them: "For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and now is found."
Whatever depths of depravity, sorrow, pain, emptiness, destitution and disaster the son may come to, those depths are part of the Father's plan of processing. Such suffering eventually destroys the arrogance and pride, the selfhood, and boastful independence of the rebellious heart. Consider, prayerfully, the words of the prophet Jeremiah: "Thine own wickedness shall CORRECT thee, and thy backsliding shall REPROVE thee..." (Jeremiah 2:19); emphasis mine). Those who believe and teach that hell and the lake of fire represent the eternal state of the sinners of Adam's race are ignorant of God's love and understand little or nothing whatever of God's great laws, His purposes, and His dealings in judgment.
Paul wrote to Timothy concerning the apostates in the church: "...holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered to Satan, that they may LEARN not to blaspheme " (1 Timothy 1:19-20; emphasis mine). Rotherham's translation of verse 20 says: "...whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may be taught by discipline not to be defaming". I was taught in Sunday School that those two reprobates were turned over to Satan so that they could be tormented forever in a lake of fire. Were they not rather delivered to "satan" so that they might LEARN? Learn what? "Learn not to blaspheme". It should be obvious to every renewed mind that as soon as those two learned not to blaspheme, the "teacher" was called off, and they were fully restored to God's household. What kind of father disciplines his children by torturing them forever and ever? Not OUR Father!
Anyone who believes or preaches such claptrap as unending torment must have buried in his soul a horrid hatred of mankind. Such people suffer most in the disciplining of our Father -- but they will learn.
And what is this being "delivered to Satan"? I don't know what thoughts were passing through Paul's mind when the Holy Spirit directed him to write those lines, but I do know that to be "without God in this world" as the result of sin (or anything else) is life's uttermost desolation and despair. THAT is the reality of judgment, God's judgment: separation from God's fellowship and blessing, and the recognition of the process of wrath and judgment: LIVING DEATH -- HELL!
Man often forgets that "Satan" is God's servant, and God uses him as well as He uses evil and sin.
More often than not when the adversities and burdens of life affect a man, that man will turn back to the God he has treated with despite. The loss of spouse or child, natural disasters, war, pestilence and the other myriad blights flesh is heir to, force man to seek after the Father whom he has neglected. "There are no atheists in foxholes" has been said by and of veterans of our several wars, and many have reported that having been forced to rely only on Him, in foxhole, lifeboat or desert place, their attitudes change marvelously.
God brings upon man those and other afflictions, mild or severe, to change his priorities, not in vengeful hatred, but in love. Do we think for even an instant that God, the all-wise Father, can err? Do we not witness that His nature is love, and that His love is too great (words fail here) to be unkind?
I know that there are some who say that because I state positively that the judgments of God are NOT eternal, I teach "hell redemption". I've been accused of believing and teaching that hell does in man what the merciful, cleansing, life-giving blood of Jesus could not do. (The words "eternal" and "hell" as used in our beloved King James Version of the Bible confuse many. We have neither time nor space here to expound. This will be for a later study.)
Ridicule is often used to oppose the teaching of ultimate salvation and restoration of all. Charles Finney, a master of disparaging invective, once said that those who will be saved after this present age of grace would sing, "Thanks be to the hell that saved us by our own suffering!" Pure buffoonery!
It is a splendidly wondrous truth that CHRIST ONLY can save! THERE IS NO OTHER WAY, and we all should rejoice that this is so. But before and after Christ saves man He deals with the rebellion in him, and man's self-hood; his stubbornness and his propensity to trust in the things of the flesh lead him to a place where he must be broken ! And that's where judgment enters the plan of God -- because God's judgments destroy the power of the accursed, brutish, carnal mind which blinds, which is God's enemy. Our Father's judgment DOESN'T GRANT REDEMPTION! Judgment overcomes the rebellion and breaks man's stubborn will -- BUT redemption was bought, paid-for, and delivered on the cross by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Without God men behave like beasts; eating, sleeping, and seeking pleasure and entertainment when not at the labor that provides satisfaction and means for such existence -- but they are not in touch with God. He has no place in their lives so filled with pursuit of sensual satisfaction.
To paraphrase one of the world's savants, "the entire existence of man consists of birth, copulation, and death; all else is vanity." I'd go further and state unequivocally that without God, ALL is vanity. The bestial mind is a terrible judgment to bear -- but it's only a small matter for God to "break the beast" and pull him in.
I won't repeat the parable of the prodigal son (or the "wonderful Father", as it is named by the Scots) but let me ask you, did the pig-sty, the filth, and the "far country" save the prodigal? Was it a "hog-pen redemption"? Did the father err in granting the son the wherewithal to waste himself? Of course not! The destitution, the hunger, and the muck of the hogs didn't save the son, but they DID pound some sense into his lawless head. He wasn't "saved" until he went to the father. I've been present when the danger and horror of war forced men to their knees before God (figuratively and actually) -- and I know men who have been saved before, during, and after undergoing some of the terrors of battle. Did war and its terror save them? Certainly not! At best, it simply awakened them to their need of Christ -- and they were saved because they responded to the discipline and the will of the Father, and in all sincerity called upon their Saviour, the Christ.
The Father is always ready to receive those whom He has called and some of those called need more teaching than others before they willingly rush to obey Him. Whether the called respond now or later -- they are saved by Christ's shed blood, NOT the rod of correction that must be laid on the backs of ALL the sons of the Living God.
Here's the reason: ALL CREATION GROANS FOR THE FIRSTFRUITS OF THE FATHER'S REDEMPTION TO BE REVEALED IN THE POWER AND MAJESTY OF THEIR REGAINED INHERITANCE.
"For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" (Isaiah 14:27). God chooses to use events which are His instruments of judgment to get our attention, and sometimes these events are catastrophic. Remember, God told Moses that the reason for His judgment upon the Egyptians was to make them know that HE is God. (See Exodus 7:5,17 and others). Everything God does reveals to us something about who He is, but in the Egyptian's processing His intent was to show Himself to the people of Egypt, especially Pharaoh. He was successful, wasn't He? Verse 19, Exodus 8 says, concerning the judgments, "Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, THIS IS THE FINGER OF GOD..."
Our Father has foretold the blessed era when He shall be ALL IN ALL. How can He be ALL IN ALL? Are there some men too lost. too wicked, so calloused, and so hostile that He, in His omnipotence, can't bend them to His will? Is He a failure? His will is more than a match for the paltry will of man. Can we not see that if it were His will that all perish, nothing could stop Him? Rather, it's His will to become man's ALL, a far nobler and God-like goal, and man's ALL He shall become. His righteous wrath may break and destroy rebellion for the ages, but His love endures endlessly and He will pursue man until, finally, all surrender to His love.
Yes, God knows how to get our attention and if He doesn't get it in His gentle drawing and loving kindness, He'll get it in hell. If He doesn't get it in hell, He'll get it in the lake of fire. Whether by tender mercies or awful wrath, gracious words or severe judgments -- blessed be His name! He WILL get our attention. Whether we respond to the positive gospel or whether strong corrective measures are necessary -- when God calls, man WILL come.
It should be clear to every thinking child of God that our Father doesn't use the same measures and means to process everyone in bringing them to Christ. It would be easy to fill page after page with instances from Sacred Scripture which clearly proclaim the nature and purpose of God's judgments. From the banishment of Adam and Eve in Genesis to the blazing lake in Revelation, the Book is crammed with examples of the Almighty's dealings with His loved ones -- but I'm just going to cite one plain and positive illustration, straight from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ, speaking of wise and unwise stewards or servants. "And the servant, which knew His lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For unto whomever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask more." (Luke 12:47-49) This parable is one that has been abused by clergy and laity alike ever since Jesus uttered it, but it is very plain in its teaching: Those who commit things worthy of many stripes will receive many; those who are ignorant, with lesser light, yet do things "worthy of stripes", will receive but few -- plainly different degrees of judgment, punishment, processing, teaching or disciplining. Whatever the judgment of "stripes" typifies, it takes more for some than others.
Scripture tells me that God judges the world, and "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 8:25) "...verily He is a God that judgeth in the earth" (Psalm 75:7) and "...He shall judge the world with RIGHTEOUSNESS, and the people with His truth" (Psalm 96:13). You can't get a better deal than that.
While our children are under our care do we have just one stock disciplinary judgment for every instance of disobedience? We, if we are in the least "righteous". suit punishment to the misdeed -- yet we seldom (if ever) grant the same privilege to our Father God! Most of our unenlightened churches teach that everyone "deserving" it is going to receive a common punishment, hell fire, and that that judgment of torture is going to endure for the same length of time -- time without end.
How, then, can some be beaten with "many stripes" and others with "few stripes" if all are going to be "punished" by the same endless, blazing hell -- WHERE THEY LEARN NOTHING WHATSOEVER? How foolish to hold a doctrine clearly contradicting the written word of God!
But many time-serving clerics and not a few of the lickspittle laity will say to me, triumphantly, "..But Jesus isn't speaking in this parable about the condition of the lost; He is speaking about the punishment of disobedient SERVANTS (Greek douloi = slaves) OF GOD! HE CERTAINLY IS -- AND LET'S NEVER FORGER IT!! Could it be plainer? Read Luke 12:42-44. Jesus says these very significant words: "Who then is that faithful and wise steward, (Greek oikonomous = manager of the household, usually a man free-born or a freed slave!), whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that SERVANT whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that He will make him ruler over all that He hath"
One might be forced to admit that the parable applies only to the correction and discipline of all God's servants, and has no bearing on the judgment of unbelievers, or hell, or the lake of fire, of which the priests and preachers are so fond, except for the statement of Jesus at verse 46, where He is speaking about the miscreant servant: "The lord of that SERVANT will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will APPOINT HIM HIS PORTION WITH THE UNBELIEVERS". Do you see? The punishment of this SERVANT is the same punishment the UNBELIEVER receives! He is "appointed his portion WITH THE UNBELIEVERS." And what's the "punishment" or means of correction? STRIPES -- not unnumbered lashes; not everlasting whipping; not eternal torment; but stripes , many or few.
Now then, -- what precisely, is the "portion of the unbelievers"? Look it up: Revelation 21:8: "But the fearful, and UNBELIEVING, ...shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death." So, the "portion of the unbelievers" is the lake of fire. Not only are unbelievers judged there, but unfaithful servants of God are dealt with there, too. -- NO MATTER WHAT THEIR RANK! By Jesus' own words this punishment, or judgment, is called "many stripes" or "few"; and is unmistakably limited in duration, as well as being corrective and remedial in nature. Lest the reader misunderstand: I BELIEVE EVERY WORD SCRIPTURE SAYS ABOUT THE LAKE OF FIRE; I DON'T believe what the Roman "church" says about it, and I give no credence to fantasies of her harlot, protestant daughters, nor do I accept traditions -- (so dear to the heart of priestcraft) -- but I certainly believe what God says about that ominous pool.
Only the book of Revelation speaks of the lake of fire as such: Chapters 14:10-11; 19:20; 20:10; 20:13-15 and 21:8 -- the passage cited, above. Read 21:8 carefully. It is a definite statement. "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and the murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."
There surely is no question remaining as to the certainty of the "lake of fire", nor any doubt as to the consequence of being cast into it. The warning should be enough for unthinking, foolish people who, because of their love of the world and slavery to the flesh, dare to ask why we should serve God NOW if ALL are going to be saved EVENTUALLY. I don't believe such people truly love God nor stand in awe of His omnipotence. They make plain by what they say that their professed obedience to God is a masquerade, a humbug arising--NOT from any actual love and respect for Him--but from fear of punishment.
If there were no prospect of disciplinary and corrective "hell"--such people would promptly tell God to "get lost"; and then they themselves would continue in rebellion. Those who truly love the Lord serve Him NOT from fear But from love and devotion; remove the prospect of "stripes" and they still serve Him with all their being.
There is a truly great misunderstanding among most people concerning the lake of fire, so I want to touch, briefly, on three words in the scripture I cited, above. "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and murderers, and whore mongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which BURNETH with FIRE and BRIMSTONE: which is the second death."
First, the word "burn". The word is, in the Greek, a present, passive participle from the word "kaio", and means the same thing that our English word means: "combustion", or "to consume". But "to consume" doesn't mean "to annihilate"; there is no such thing as absolute annihilation.
For instance, when fire consumes a piece of wood in the fireplace it doesn't destroy any of the elements in that wood -- it simply changes their form . Combustion is a "process" --a process by which chemicals combine to form other chemicals. Cut down a tree, saw it into pieces suitable for stove or fireplace, and set it afire. While the wood burns the heat causes the chemicals of which the wood is composed to vaporize and mix with the oxygen in the air to form other chemicals, including water and carbon dioxide. What was once a tree cannot then be identified as the form of a tree: its substance is now changed into a DIFFERENT FORM within the atmosphere. Thus to burn means to change.
(I must here remind myself and others that may have forgotten: the Revelation of John (so called) is actually the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, and He SIGNIFIED to His slaves. The first verse of Revelation tells us that the book is a book of SIGNS . To interpret or to try to understand the book literally, without the Holy Spirit's guidance, leads at best, to confusion and fear.)
FIRE is the heat felt and the light seen when something burns. Matthew 3:11 says Christ will baptize us with the Holy Ghost and fire. Mark 9:22 says everyone shall be salted with fire. Acts 2:3 tells us of cloven tongues like as fire resting upon or over the heads of the worshippers. Hebrews 1:7 speaks of "ministers a flame of fire". It's easy to be misled by reading something meant to be figurative, symbolic or typical as literal. It's also interesting to note that the original meaning of the word "fire" was most likely "that which purifies". But, once the fire is lit - whether actual or spiritual - it produces HEAT AND LIGHT.
In past years I have been helped greatly by a book titled "Is Hell Eternal?" written by Charles Pridgeon. On page 116 of that book the author writes,
The Lake of Fire and Brimstone signifies a fire burning with brimstone: the word "brimstone" or sulfur defines the character of the fire.
The word theion translated "brimstone" is exactly the same word theion which means "divine". Sulfur was sacred to deity among the ancient Greeks; and was used to fumigate, to purify, and to cleanse and to consecrate to the deity; for this purpose they burned it in their incense. In Homer's Iliad (16.228K), one is spoken of as purifying a goblet with fire and brimstone. The verb derived from theion is theioo , which means to hallow, to make divine, or to dedicate to a god. (See Liddell and Scott Greek-English Lexicon , 1897 Edition.)
To any Greek, or to any trained in the Greek language, a "lake of fire and brimstone" would mean a lake of divine purification! The idea of judgment need not be excluded. Divine purification and divine consecration are the plain meaning in ancient Greek. In the ordinary explanation, this fundamental meaning of the word is entirely left out, and nothing but eternal torment is associated with it.
Though the above cited thoughts are brief in their definition of the subject, we might summarize like this: to "BURN" means "combustion": to change the form of. "Fire" is heat and light produced by combustion. "BRIMSTONE" (theion = fire from heaven) is the divine additive, so to speak. If we put these together we can see that the dreaded lake of fire and brimstone is actually DIVINE HEAT AND LIGHT PRODUCING A CHANGE. Is such a process eternal, unending, never ceasing?
About 2600 years ago the Holy Spirit warned wicked Jerusalem: "But if you do not obey me..., then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses" (Jeremiah 17:27 NIV). The KJV says, "...it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched" (Italics mine). In fulfillment of this prophecy the fire occurred a few years later and it destroyed "...the Temple of the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem" (Jeremiah 52:13, NIV).
God said the fire so kindled "shall not be quenched" -- but did He mean that it would burn forever ? Is that fire still burning? Obviously, it burned itself our after doing what God intended it to do. Unquenchable fire isn't eternal fire, -- its just fire that can't be extinguished until it has consumed or changed everything for which the fire starter lit it; then it goes out.
But the air is still befouled and befogged, by means of radio, television and viva-voce -- bearing the bombastic bunkum of preachers ranting about poor souls being cast into hell-fire, or the lake of fire, where "their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched". This, we are told, means unending, everlasting, eternal torment. How foolish! How illogical ! How deceptive ! How very man-like ! Such an undiscerning interpretation contradicts the manifest meaning of the term "unquenchable", and the way God uses it in His written Word.
Are God's judgments permanent? Isaiah says, "When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness" (Isaiah 26:9). (Isn't that a wonderful promise?) And in Matthew 12:20 we read, concerning Christ, "a bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, till He send forth judgment unto victory." (Other translations read "until He leads justice to victory"). Judgment, then, isn't an everlasting condition but is given to produce an effect -- and it doesn't save anyone. Judgments are used by God to bring man to his senses, to effect a change of attitude and will, "repentance". Judgment is the means by which God burns away our stubbornness and rebellion, and such fire He uses is altruistic. "Our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:24).
The primary purpose of God's divine fire is to cleanse, to purify and purge, to temper, and to change, ridding man of impurities and filthiness of the unregenerate nature. (In our natural world what better way to rid ourselves of undesirable off-scourings than by fire?)
Penal fire leads us back to the beginning of things. The Bible tells us that God's finished work in this world is the destruction of the world (order) by fire (see 2 Peter 3:10-12) and that will certainly change things, -- all things. God's fire will melt all the elements and so change them that things may be seen as they really are. Governments, institutions, systems, fruit of the carnal mind -- all will be burned and changed. Customs, cultures, traditions, and social practices will be tried by fire and changed so that this earth will be a new earth where God's absolute righteousness IS absolute, and there'll be no doubt about it. Yes -- every work of man will be sorted-out as to its spiritual worth -- because, you recall, the spirit is reality and all temporal things are even now passing away. When God turns on the HEAT, that BLAZING LIGHT OF HIS SPIRIT AND WORD -- things begin to change!
Now, that fire of God is never sent to destroy the person , but to consume and change all that separates that person from God. It consumes the arrogance, defiance, rebellion, pride, hostility, and stubbornness of the flesh, the carnal mind, so that man may be drawn by the Holy Spirit to the Father and LIVE.
In the seventeenth century a plague swept through London and killed about 70,000 men, women and children. The entire nation was thought to be in danger of annihilation when a fire started in one of the poorer districts of the city. According to the diaries of witnesses the fire was even worse than the plague -- BUT -- before the fire was quenched it destroyed the rats which carried the fleas which had infected mankind with the agonizing sickness. It took the fire to do the job. Fire is a great cleanser and changer.
We know a wild horse must be broken -- that is, its will must be brought under man's control before it is of any practical use. God put the will in the horse just as surely as He put the will in man -- and both wills must be "broken". Man may do a lot of weeping, snorting and bucking -- but when he is finally broken to God's loving will what a wonderful change takes place!! Yes, our Father may spur us around the breaking corral roughly, even through the lake of fire and brimstone, but His love will break EVERYONE to HIS will. What a wonderful promise!
You're mistaken if you think the table set in the Kingdom of God is rife with tea and jam-rolls. The morbid, devilish nature of man isn't overcome with the namby-pamby social sermons that are preached in most quasi-christian assemblies today. Our warfare is NOT with poverty, drugs, child abuse or the other abominations that surface in society -- BUT with the unregenerate spirit of man, THE CARNALITY -- that makes such ungodly, loathesome putrescence possible.
The war we make against this carnality must be made with fire -- divine fire , fire that will burn up every inherent altar of Baal and lick up even the very sweat of rebellion. Don't let yourself be mistaken! OUR GOD is a consuming fire -- and He is purging, cleansing and purifying His creation. The fire may have to get very hot but it will accomplish its purpose and drive every man to the lifted-up Jesus Christ. Even if it takes long ages of fiery judgment and darkness, those ages will last no longer than it takes for God's fire to melt the elements of arrogance and hate into love and humility. All that is self in man must die in the bloody sweat of Christ's all-saving cross -- and that cross will NEVER give up its redeeming power until all sin is removed from God's creation.
| Home | Reading Room | About | Links | Legal |
|
 |
|
|
Copyright© 2006-2008 Keystone Christian |
Powered by Webnet 77 |