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Gods Grace
by William Vaught
August 1993
While out walking on a recent Sunday morning my ears were assaulted by the strident voice of someone happily declaring the defeat of God and the almost immediate destruction of the entire universe. I paused in my ramblings to listen, and on determining that the cacophony came from a building labeled "Church of the something or other", I entered and found a seat where I could listen and observe without being an obvious "visitor". ("Visitors" to places like the one I was in often have to fill out all kinds of blank forms and answer questions like "Whose name were you baptized in?" "Do you believe in divorce?" "Do you think women should be allowed to wear slacks and jeans?", ad nauseam!)
I need not have been concerned. The persons present were so rapt in their undivided attention to the prophet that I could have announced my coming loudly and been hardly noticed.
I determined from listening and observing that the young foreteller of our Father's frustration was trying to get the world and all in it destroyed, all sinners into the "lake of fire", and a little band of believers delivered from deviltry to a place somewhere over the rainbow. Apparently the select slice of humanity who might adhere to his message, would then spend "forever and ever", (whatever that is), flitting from cloud to cloud, whooping, hollering and generally having a really religious flare-up. ( FOREVER?!! )
The gist of the harangue seemed to be God's grief and utter helplessness in the face of the sad and totally pitiful condition of His creation. According to the messenger of misery, God lost control of everything about 50 years ago, and the whole creation, lock, stock and barrel, is headed for an eternity in some maniacal place of the most disgusting torture imaginable--and all this because God loves mankind and sacrificed Himself in order to reconcile the whole creation to Himself, but failed!!!
According to this minister I was listening to, the devil is trampling all over multitudes of God's people, the "Christian" community is in a sorrowfully helpless state; lives are in utter chaos; suicides among "Christians" are increasing; divorce is becoming commonplace in the "church". Christians are turning their backs on God; "backsliding" is getting worse; God's people are feeling helpless, defeated, wearied, cast-down and depressed.
I didn't hear of any of the less obvious sins listed--such as self-righteousness, religious ambition, pharisaical pride, spiritual timidity, or tongue-wagging murder of fellow beings. I didn't hear anyone say that all sins are equally repugnant to the Father, NOR did I hear anyone urge the people to pray for mercy on the poor sinners being condemned. I didn't hear anyone ask for release from the conditions lamented, either.
God is having mercy on the poor wight who preached this doom, especially since his mourning and lamenting are done in obvious ignorance of God's great love for us, as well as His omnipotence.
But it is rather disconcerting to know that the segment of the "church" from which these fears emanated is one that has experienced miracles, spiritual healing, and many gifts of the Holy Spirit. They generally believe in the agonies of an unending hell of tormenting fire for the "unsaved", and they believe that they, too, through sin, can lose their salvation and be "allotted a place among the eternally damned"--(their words, not mine).
Could it be that their doctrine which encourages people to "get right" and "stay right" with God has not only failed but in fact has the reverse effect of arousing sin so that believers, children of God, suffer all the pains of the wicked?
Despite a true Christian's best efforts to "live right" there is an underlying cause for this propensity to sin, and this cause is directly related to a terribly distorted image of God...and any of man's images of God are false.
"Keep yourselves from idols", said God through His apostle (1 John 5.21).
According to Psalms 115.4-8 those who make idols and those who trust in them will be like them. Like the idol (image) makers of the Psalm, most of today's nominal Christians have accepted, from their "church", a man-made image of God rather than the out-shining, true expression of God's character, Jesus Christ, the living Son of the Living God. An image can never be anything but a shadowy representation of the reality, and the distorted image of God nurtured in the midst of some of God's beloved people often incites sin, thus seemingly hindering the complete fellowship God has ordained.
(Fear not! He'll have His heart's desire! Nothing can hinder except that which He has allowed to do so. Our God does nothing without purpose.)
The "image" of God in the mind of man is so wretchedly deformed that He is seen to act in a manner completely irreconcilable with His nature. This perverted perception is the outgrowth of embracing the demonic doctrine of eternal punishment, a doctrine inconceivable to the minds of even those who claim to believe it, because "eternity", or what people call "eternity", is an idea that is entirely alien to human thought, a "place", or dimension in which only God can live. (Actually, "eternity" is lack of time, timelessness, NOT unending time.)
We "Christians" have grown up with a counterfeit conception of God, a God who created mankind knowing full well, when He did so, that the vast majority would be condemned to never-ending, horrible torment. We have been told that this same God, who knows the end from the beginning is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-wise; an ever-present God of unconditional love. We have been told that His patience and love have no limits and that He never "gives up" on anybody-- BUT He will "write off" almost everybody as failures of His plan. These are flagrant contradictions and because they are so obvious people either consciously or unconsciously question God's integrity.
Would God be just in condemning to everlasting punishment all who haven't believed the gospel, whether or not they have ever even heard the name of Jesus? The psalmist prophesied that Judas Iscariot would betray the Christ (Psalms 41.9) and Jesus chose him as one of His twelve closest friends, knowing him for what he was. Now, will God punish Judas eternally with no hope for forgiveness in any age to come? Is this the God in the hearts of believers?
Is God fair to separate to Himself even from his mother's womb a murderer, a self-confessed "chiefest of sinners" like our beloved apostle Saul of Tarsus, while hating Esau before he was born?
Romans 11.7-8, speaking of Israel, says:
"What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, as it is written: 'God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day'". Jesus says, about Israel, in Matthew 13.14-15, "In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.'" (See also Isaiah 29.10 and 6.9-10).
Will the just and righteous God condemn forever the people to whom He gave the spirit of slumber?
Unexplained contradictions such as these, insisted upon by the prevalent teaching of eternal, tormenting punishment, create distrust and cynicism, not only among Christians, but among many unsaved who might otherwise be glad of the good news of Jesus Christ.
As a result, many Christians feel justified in their own hypocritical and contradictory behavior, since they feel God is Himself contradictory and hypocritical. God says we must forgive, but He condemns; He tells us to not let the sun go down on our wrath, but He pours out His wrath for all eternity; He says we must overcome evil with good, yet His solution to evil is eternal misery. He tells us to limit our punishment to 39 stripes lest the guilty party "think you vile"; (see Deuteronomy 25.2-3 and 2 Corinthians 11.24)--but He punishes for all eternity; He tells us to love our enemies, yet he maintains unending hatred. God comes in the flesh and bears man's punishment as a substitute for three days, yet man's punishment without a substitute is forever.
The image of God created by this teaching is one of chaotic confusion, aggravating contradiction, and unreliability. Since God condemns almost all His creation, "Christians" feel they are justified in doing the same to those who fail to measure up to their standards.
This, then, is what justifies the curse of denominationalism, and it only perpetrates disunity and fear. The nature of this misshapen god becomes the nature of those who hold such a perverted and mangled image of Him in their hearts. The "church" is reaping the harvest of the foul seed it has sown.
Is it any wonder that so many professing Christians are in such a sorrowful, wretched condition?
Many well-intending objectors to my hatred for the doctrine of eternal injustice taught by the church will say, "We need this teaching to get people saved." Ridiculous!!
"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to me"--Jesus gets people saved--man's doctrine and fear tactics frighten and bewilder--but they don't "get" anyone saved! If preaching the love of God manifested in Jesus Christ doesn't bring people to the salvation He has promised, then it's all vanity, and just produces a people embracing a play-church religion in hope of saving themselves from punishment, little caring for the God who loves them.
Then there's the people ("preachers", "priests", or "prophets" usually) who will say that we need this horrifying promise of unending and loathsome punishment to keep "Christians" from sinning. I question that such are truly born of the Spirit.
1 John 3.9 says, "No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning because he has been born of God." Is the indwelling presence of Jesus of so little significance? Is sin more appealing than the ever present person of God within one's being?
Many will say that this odious doctrine of devils is necessary to motivate people to evangelize. There's only one evangelist in the world--Jesus Christ the Living Son of God, and if He doesn't inspire you to want to tell the whole world, then maybe you don't know Him. "But it's in the Bible," you say. Yes it's in some bibles, but not in all bibles.
Why do so many people believe in eternal punishment? I suppose it's because they accept certain scriptural presentations by teachers for whom they have the greatest respect, and never inquire about the contradictions. And some don't question because they don't want to incur the displeasure of teacher, father, priest, or prophet. I think fear of man is one factor to be considered.
Recently I've realized that many of us are very like the prodigal son's elder brother because we, as he did, secretly resent the Father's boundless mercy. There are even those who name themselves Christians and are embittered by God's absolute grace in choosing when each of us shall enter into salvation. 1 Corinthians 15.22-23, says, "For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn..."
The alternative to the demonic dogma of eternal punishment is the revelation of God's true nature and sovereign purpose in creation, His infinite wisdom, His inexhaustible grace, and power, His judgments whereby He imparts His righteousness to man, and His constant, unlimited love. Paul called the alternative "my gospel" in Romans 2.16, "...in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel." That gospel is the means God uses to judge the secrets of men. When this gospel is declared many choose to misunderstand, and say (as Paul implies), "shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound" (Romans 6.1)? THESE know not the salvation of the Lord.
Although this grace-full gospel is revealed throughout the scriptures, it will not be seen in a heart intent upon unending punishment. The Holy Spirit sums up the alternative in Colossians 1.16.20: "For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the first-born from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself ALL THINGS, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross."
The Greek word God used for "to reconcile" in the cited scripture is "apokatallaxai", meaning to transfer from a certain state to another which is quite different; hence, to restore to favor, so that those so drawn should be devoted to Himself. Shall anyone think in his heart that God cannot do what He has purposed? Will God fail and have to try plan B or C?
This reconciliation simply means that, as Paul was changed, God will change all humanity,--past, present, and future, so that they become pleasing and acceptable to Himself. If you limit the "all things" which God is reconciling, then you limit the "all things" which He pre-exists and has created, and the blood shed on the cross was poured out to futility.
It is essential that we, if we call ourselves by the name of the blessed Christ, accept the nature of the Father and rest in the absolute will of His purpose. God can't fail! You can count on Him to do what He said He'd do.
If our God is the God of eternal punishment, then the legalistic, condemning nature attributed to Him not only affects our relationship with Him, but it works in us to arouse the sin He so detests. If He is the God who reconciles all things to Himself, then we can confidently entrust ourselves to Him, and at the same time experience His reconciling nature and purpose being worked in us.
Psalm 44.20-21 says, "If we have forgotten the name (nature) of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign (false image of) God, would not God have discovered it, since He knows the secrets of the heart?" And Psalm 65.2: "O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come."
Shall we exalt the "devil", building a monument to evil, to sin and death, by declaring the ugly, abhorrent, and abominable dictum of eternal punishment? Did Jesus fail to destroy the works of "the devil"? 1 John 3.8 says, "...the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work". Hebrews 2.14-15, "Since the children have flesh and blood, He too should share in their humanity so that by his death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil--and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death."
Romans 5.15 tells us that Jesus' gift is grace unto justification for all, and Jesus stated plainly, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me" (John 12.32).
I praise God that He is searching our hearts so that He might teach us about Himself, so that we might truly know Him who "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3.20).
Humbly, confidently trusting in His love, let us pray for forgiveness for those who bow down to false images, who forget the perfect forthshining of His nature in Jesus Christ. Let us pray that every hindrance of pride, all tradition, all spiritual snobbery and fear be purged from God's called-out, and let us live happily in the knowledge of God, whose ways and purposes are revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord.
KEEP YOURSELF FROM IDOLS!!!
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