By the Numbers

Friday, March 11, 2011

God's A Cruel Tyrant and Killjoy!

God‘s A Cruel Tyrant And Killjoy!

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People have their own idea of God and I don’t know who’s right. But I don’t like the Bible’s God. I don’t mind a Creator who made the world to run on its own steam or natural laws and then abandoned us. He doesn’t bother me one bit since I can do my own thing and its okay. And the God who is all love and forgiveness lets me do anything I like so he’s okay too. But I don’t need Him unless I get into trouble or things don’t go right. I’ll pray for help when caught and maybe even go to church and say I’m sorry. But the Bible’s God of judgment I don’t like--He’s a killjoy, a tyrant. He wants to restrict my freedom, impose rules for me to obey, and spoil my fun. Well, I don’t trust that God and I want to live my own life. I’m just being honest.
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So I take a few drinks, gamble and use drugs sometimes. And yes I like sex partners but I’m just normal as others do the same things. I haven’t robbed a bank, rapped or killed anybody. I’m polite and respectful to people except when I’m drunk, and then I can’t help it. I’m a good person and it’s impossible to be perfect. If others go to Heaven, I ought to go too. So why does God have to make me feel guilty and spoil all my fun? He’s just a cruel tyrant and killjoy.
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Many people feel this way and don’t think they’re terrible sinners. I’m not condemning them; they condemn themselves. I just want them to think honestly about the God of the Bible they feel is a condemning judge and killjoy. If you should be such a person, will you let me ask you some important questions?
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Does forbidding us to destroy ourselves make God a cruel tyrant?
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Many people call tobacco, alcohol, and drug use fun and party and it makes them feel accepted with the crowd. Such things destroy our health; wreck our minds and bodies with diseases and misery, and cause highway accidents that would otherwise not occur. We pay a high price that enslaves us in a slow painful regretful death.
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Parents out of concern for their children’s well-being warn against their use knowing the harm and yet may teach its okay by their example. Advertisements present their use as sophisticated and fashionable and never picture the consequences of broken homes, lost jobs, ruined lives and their children following their footsteps. Of course, we can excuse this saying everybody does it, or a little indulgence won’t hurt, or it’s no worse than overeating, not exercising, or stressful work. Yes, but these things call for responsible living as well.
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The point here is that God designed our bodies, knows their proper function and warns us that they are His temple and we are responsible for their care. God is not a cruel killjoy or tyrant to warn us to be responsible for our own good--we know it. God is for us to have fun but enjoy wholesome activities that protect us and honor the bodies and minds He gave us. Our loving God has a higher standard for His people. 
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“Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual   immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy  Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a  price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1Cor. 6:18-20
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“Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 10:31
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Does allowing us free choice make God a cruel tyrant?
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It’s strange, but true. We tend to blame God for all the evils in the world—the abuses, robberies, rapes, muggings, murders, wars. Why does He allow it? But the fact is we commit these evils or sins ourselves, not God. In fact, God warns and pleads with us not to do such things. It’s the old story of Adam and Eve all over again. Both disobeyed God when they ate the forbidden fruit. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent. We’ve been at it ever since. We’re prone to ask, why doesn’t God put a stop to all these terrible evils? Think about it; is that what we really want? Where would we draw the line of how much evil can be allowed? We’re all guilty of different sins and to various degrees. To get rid of evil God would have to wipe us all off the map.
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Further, we’re in God’s spiritual image immortal, free and with responsibility. It’s what distinguishes us from mere animal with instinct. To take away our freedom would make us puppets on a string. That would destroy our humanity and dignity. It would deny God His glory in His creatures. That’s not a good solution since force makes God a tyrant while freedom makes Him a friend to love and trust. 
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Does offering us Heaven make God a cruel tyrant?
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How could it? God makes the rules but allows us sinners our own way. Persons who suppress the witness of creation and the witness of conscience won’t accept the witness of Christ. We can ignore, deny, rebel against and reject God to the very end, and God lets us have our own way—eternal existence without Him is Hell. What most persons never stop to realize is that with God go all His blessings that they enjoyed and took for granted during life. Our own choice makes us forever alone in darkness to know God’s wrath toward all our life’s unholy attitudes and acts.  

 “And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than  light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the   light lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” John 319-21
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Does paying for our crimes in a cruel death make God a cruel tyrant?
Jesus came to seek and save the lost from God. He took tremendous sacrifice to leave Heaven’s glories, enter a cruel sinful world, be beaten and hung naked on a torturous cross as a condemned criminal. Prophets predicted it centuries before (Isa. 53; Ps. 22; Acts 2:23). Because Jesus was both God and sinless man, He could both feel our pain and pay the price of our sin. He showed humanity unspeakable love and is our only hope of redemption. Before Jesus, people couldn’t imagine a God who loved them. Jesus’ death was the very opposite of a tyrant.
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“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, (unique God-man) that whoever believes in his has everlasting life (John 3:16).
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Does putting away all evil and persons who could harm us make God a cruel tyrant?
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Civilized governments don’t allow known robbers, rapists, killers to run loose on their streets terrorizing their people. They jail the guilty according to their degree of crime to secure society’s safety and sanity. The all-knowing Lord will achieve the justice seldom achieved in human courts. Heaven will be an eternally safe haven for all who trust in the Savior who is humanities salvation and hope. In no way is God a cruel tyrant and killjoy.
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 “There shall by no means enter it (Heaven) anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie,  but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” Revelation 21:27
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Today is your opportunity. Today can be a new start. Today you can be a repentant sinner trusting Christ to receive eternal life and to follow Him the rest of the way. He has promised to never leave or forsake us. Say, Lord, you’re love, not a tyrant. Forgive me a rebellious, uncaring, self-willed person, a sinner. Thank you, Lord.

Honest Doubts About Atheism!

Honest Doubts About Atheism!


Atheists deny the existence of any kind of God. Atheism is an impossible position for the following reasons.
1. Atheists must know everything in space and time to say no God exists. Draw a large circle and black out what represents your knowledge. It would be only a small dot for any of us. Some kind of god may exist behind a star or beyond reach of our telescopes. Or, maybe over the next hill, around a corner, in the next room and we wouldn’t know it. Therefore, atheism is an empty dogmatic claim.
2. The Christian biblical God is an unseen Spirit. If God isn’t a giant somewhere in space or on earth, but rather is a spiritual or immaterial being or Mind as the Bible claims (Exodus 3:14; John 1:1-3; 4:22-24), then God could be everywhere and our human senses unable to detect His presence. Again, atheism is impossible to prove.
3. Atheism requires that the universe be eternal and self-sustaining, but it isn’t. The physical law called entropy is in operation that means the universe like a wound up clock is running down. Therefore, the universe had a beginning and will have an end. Something can’t come from nothing--like an empty box, nothing is in it to produce anything. The physical law of cause and effect demands everything begun must have a beginner or first cause. It must be outside the matter, space, and time it brought into being. Thus, it is self-existent, eternal, immaterial, unchangeable, and infinite to account for everything including life, mind, thought, will, logic, truth.
4. The world began with time, not in time. If we could backtrack eternally, then we would not be here today, but here we are.  Everything we know is not eternal but dependent on something else which must be eternal and can't change or go out of existence. That is what was told Moses in seeing the bush burning but not consumed--the Great Eternal "I Am." 
 5. Most scientists believe the universe began in an explosion they call the Big Bang. But everything we know works on a cause and effect principle. Nonexistence can’t bring existence into being—nothing can’t create something. Some persons believe in a singularity, or that the entire universe was compressed matter smaller than a pin head that just exploded.  Now that's incredible faith.  But isn't this singularity just imagination to avoid admitting the Creator?
6. Close-minded atheist faith based upon chance plus time makes everything irrational. If the universe occurred by chance, then anything can happen anytime. Thus, we can’t know the universe is rational, our minds rational, science factual, and life may suddenly become extinct, or whatever? Moreover, while atheism can’t explain origins, it relies on chance process assuming evolution by an unconscious, mindless nature.  Computer calculations shows chance impossible even if infinite time.

But opposed to unconscious mindless nature everything we see suggests intelligence, design and planning by an infinite Mind. Things left alone become disorderly never orderly. Every physical law works together in harmony, every cell in every living thing has an astronomically complex DNA program that it follows far exceeding the human mind. And all living things must be alive and functional at the start. For example, animals can’t exist with a partly developed digestive system, reproductive system, respiratory system or organs such as heart, eyes, ears, limbs. It all had to be present from the start.
7. Astronomer Hugh Ross pointed out 122 constant factors that any slight change would have made human life on earth impossible (anthropic principle). He mentions such things as just right atmosphere, water, gravity, magnetism, size and distances of earth, moon, sun, etc. The chance of all these factors coming together accidentally is astronomical. Human life on earth then is a God thing. 

Christians believe in human dignity, freedom, rights, ethics, love, justice, logic, truth, and feelings. An infinite, eternal, personal, ethical Source or Creator is required for things to make sense. Dead matter can’t create life it doesn’t have. Mind must precede mater, and mind is required to explain matter, since matter can’t explain itself. Atheism has no basis for any of this.
9. Communist and socialist nations—humanist philosophies that deny God--are ruled by tyrants who seek to destroy their citizen’s freedom. They enslave, imprison, restrict and kill their people. They deceive their people by false promises, overtax then, enact oppressive laws, and confiscate their possessions making them bankrupt economically, morally and spiritually. They become a fearful police state such as in Hitler’s Germany, Mao’s China, and Castro's Cuba. That’s why people risk their lives to leave such godless states for havens of freedom and opportunity.
10. Atheists have no basis to say God doesn’t exist, cannot be a personal, loving, ethical being, and cannot come into our world in the form of a man. Certainly if God created the universe, then taking on a human body and nature is a minor thing. And unlike other religions Christ claimed to be God. His claim to fulfill ancient prophecies of a coming Messiah—over 200 hundred—His living a perfect sinless life, His performing perhaps hundreds of miracles before astonished disciples and hostile critics, His dying on the cross to save sinners, and His resurrection from the dead are all visible demonstrated evidence in our world. Until atheists can disprove all these things, they have no basis for their atheism.
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Philosophers and religion founders give only their speculations about God, life, and afterlife. Jesus Christ demonstrated in our world he was the God-man walking among us and said all who trust in him as their Savior from sin would know God, and the purity, peace and love He gives to be with Him forever. You can come to know His purity, peace, and love, by honest commitment to Him as your Savior, Lord and Guide. Pray Lord, forgive me the sinner and come into my life now and forever.
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Which God Is Really God?

Which God Is Really God?

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Everybody has some idea of some kind of god or something ultimate that takes the place of a god. But we may not be conscious or able to communicate just how we think and feel. And we naturally subscribe to what we’ve been taught or exposed to. We may feel critical, suspicious, or insecure of any new concept.
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At any rate, understanding how different people see things is an important part of education and helps us understand and relate to others. We don’t have to hate people just like us because they disagree with us--they might be right about things we’ve never considered. And since the opposite of true is false, it’s impossible opposing views can all be right or correct. The eight worldviews below is generally what people believe but may differ in details.
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No God, Only Man Himself
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Persons who say there’s no kind of God, divine revelation, or miracles can be known as atheists, humanists, socialists, naturalists, materialists, nihilists and antitheists. They believe only the material universal is eternal, that everything evolved by chance over time and that they alone are truly reasonable and scientific. They say religious belief in a personal ethical God is only a figment of human imagination.  

I have four serious problems with atheism. First, it destroys human dignity making us only evolving animals made from soulless dirt that return to dirt without dignity, rights, or accountability. If survival of the fittest is the only ultimate law, human conscience, absolute laws and guilt feelings don’t make sense. Fulfilling self-desires alone makes sense.
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Next, atheism destroys any absolute standard of morality and incentive to live what persons generally call a moral life. Theft, rape and murder can be fulfilling, can make us prosperous, and can eliminate persons we dislike or disagree with. There can be no higher ethical standard than our individual finite, fickle, conflicting desires and preferences. This leads to chaos and anarchy. The consequence is might makes right, state control and some strongman with deceptive promises and plans usurping power and deciding who lives and dies according to his arbitrary will. It results in a terrorist world.
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Third, atheists are unwarranted to deny the existence of God. Unless we have exhaustive knowledge of all space and time we simply can’t say, there’s no God. And if God were an immaterial Spirit, He cannot be seen under a microscope or viewed through a telescope. Nor can atheists logically show that existence of both God and evils are contradictory, so that if evils exist, God doesn’t. God may have reasons for allowing evils such as human freedom and dignity.
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Finally, science and reason doesn’t support atheism and in fact strongly affirms God’s existence. The law of cause and effect is that every effect must have and adequate cause and that something can’t come from nothing. So the universe must be the effect of a self-existing infinite powerful unchanging intelligence we may rightly call God. The universe’s expansion, its running down, its fine tuning, and the fact that we can’t backtrack eternally are  facts that point to a beginning and a Beginner who is a self-existent, immaterial, unchanging, infinite intelligence we may rightfully call God. 
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Pantheist God
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 Pantheists believe that the whole universe of energy is god. And this energy takes recurring cycles and every form such as galaxies, stars, gods, planets, plants, animals and man. It’s like the waves of the sea that forever rise and return and any separate thing is really illusion--all is one mass of energy. Man’s ignorance is that he doesn’t realize he is god or a part of universal energy. Thus, ultimately, sense experience, logic, life, death, pain, good, evil are all illusion. History has no meaning, and life and the world no great purpose. The pantheist’s hope is to be set free from the recurring cycles and be finally absorbed into the impersonal energy of the universe where all such illusion ceases. This is the general worldview of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, New Age, Transcendental Medication, Christian Science, Unity and some philosophers in the West.
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Many difficulties confront pantheists. They claim reason cannot give us information about god but use reason to deny characteristics of god. They claim the world is illusion, but can’t explain how the illusion originated. And if it’s illusion, they don’t even exist to make the claim. Their claim they are god doesn’t make them any different, better, or more powerful than anyone else. They can’t avoid acting as though the world is real—they take baths, wear clothes, and look in the mirror and before crossing streets. They experience pain, sickness and death like everyone else. Ultimately, human life is absorbed into the energy of the universe making human dignity, compassion, ethics, and achievements mean nothing.
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Polytheist Gods
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Ancient kingdoms such as the Babylonians, Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, Norse, Hindus and modern Mormons believe in many finite gods. These gods usually have their own domain and fight among themselves to gain power and territory. They are not ultimate but derived from nature somehow. Polytheists are persons of divided loyalties and urges who may project their desires upon things of nature. They reject control of an all-embracing Creator to devise their own truth and morality. Gods and goddesses are popular in pantheistic religions among persons who want a more personal god and not just an abstract principle.
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I have several problems with polytheism. There is good evidence for one Creator and Sustainer. Logically there can be only one absolute. Nothing in nature is absolute and worthy of our worshipful devotion since nature had a beginning and will end. It’s not wise to focus on present desires and ignore future realities and death’s possibility. The Ebla Tablets found in Syria show people originally believed in one personal Creator.  
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Finite God
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A finite God is limited in some way such as in power, knowledge, wisdom, goodness or love. Persons feel that if the infinite God of biblical faith existed, he would have never allowed the evils in the world. They overlook the possibility that God may have good reasons unknown to us for allowing evils. If God is infinite, it seems he would eliminate them in his way in his time. Besides, wouldn’t eliminating human evils destroy our freedom or destroy imperfect us?
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Panentheism is a new religious philosophy that follows the philosophy of Plato and Alfred North Whitehead. They’re enamored with evolution and want a more tolerant God to accommodate contemporary opinions. They assume a position between pantheism and Christianity. They imagine God has two poles with one being real and the other potential. God is the cosmic spirit that indwells the universe like a soul exists in the body. So both the world changes God and God changes the world. It’s contradictory and a changing God leaves us with no sure knowledge of God, ethics, or hope for life after death. Unfortunately, so-called open theism theologians are influenced by it.
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Deist God
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Deists believe God created the world with its natural laws and left it to work on its own. Some believe in an afterlife, others don’t. They deny miracles and divine intervention, which seems strange when creation is the greatest miracle of all. Further, if God made man a rational, moral being in his image, it seems he would want human relationship.
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Muslim God
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Islam means submission and a Muslim is one who submits to Allah (God). Like Christians, Muslims believe in an infinite, ethical, sovereign, Creator God and in angels, demons, Heaven and Hell. Islam is based upon the Quran that Muhammad said the angel Gabriel revealed to him while alone in a cave and the Hadith that is traditions about the life of the prophet. Muslims divide the world into Muslim and non-Muslim with the goal to convert the world to Islam even if by force. Muslims claim that Muhammad is the final seal or authority having come after Jesus. They believe the Christian Trinity is blasphemy and that Jews and Christians corrupted God’s Word that Muhammad corrected. Amazingly, Muhammad said that Jesus was a prophet, virgin born as Adam, the Word of God, the Jewish Messiah, without sin, performed miracles and will come again. But Jesus did not die for sinners on a cross and was not God.
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While Christians respect Muslim’s right to their beliefs, it’s difficult to see any sure basis for their beliefs. Muhammad first thought the angel a demon until his wife convinced him he was God’s final authoritative prophet. Without witnesses, can’t anyone say an angle revealed God’s Word to them? Joseph Smith Jr. in fact did later than Muhammad did. Admitting Jesus was without sin and performed miracles, Muhammad confessed he needed forgiveness and when challenged to prove himself a prophet by performing a miracle he could not. Both Jews and Christians rejected Muhammad as a prophet because he wasn’t accurate in his Bible teachings. Numerous discrepancies exist between the Bible and the Quran though Jews and Christians were extremely carefully copping their scriptures hundreds of years before Muhammad’s birth. Present translations agree with ancient copies over 90% of the time. And the Trinity of one God in three personal distinctions is mentioned in the writings of the church fathers and in three famous Christian creeds before Muhammad’s birth. Numerous evidences prove Jesus died on the cross and arose from the dead. Islam simply is without foundation.   
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The Judeo-Christian God
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There’s no good reason why a universe’s Creator cannot take on a human nature and body if he has reason to do so. Jesus is a real person of history who fulfilled a multitude of ancient Jewish prophecies with odds astronomically against it, unless he was God as he claimed. Furthermore, he showed he was Lord over sin, nature, disease, demons and death. Jesus promised to save anyone who will humbly acknowledge his or her sin and trust him for everlasting life. No other world religion or philosophy can offer forgiveness, cleansing, purity and his forever-abiding presence. Won’t you say, “Jesus I trust you as my Savior and Lord today” and mean every word?
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How God Shows Love

How God Shows Love

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A Bible believing seminary student attended a postmodern church service one Sunday. The pastor announced his sermon theme that all religious beliefs are true. He assured the congregation it was quite true. The Bible believing student squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. After service, he tried to slip out of church unnoticed. But the heavy-set robed pastor waited at the door bear hugging everybody. He shook the student’s hand and asked where he was from.
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“I’m a seminary student visiting here from Bowling Green,” the student replied. “Wonderful” the pastor responded. “And what do you believe young man?” “I’d rather not say sir,” said the student. “Oh it’s alright son” assured the pastor. “I believe all the doctrines are true. Tell me what you believe son.” Leaning over toward the pastor, the student whispered, “I believe sir that you’re going to Hell.” Surprised with face red as a tomato the pastor said, “Well, I guess I don’t believe every doctrine is true after all.”
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Many people claim Hell is a torture chamber and the very opposite of a loving God. Even schools, churches and Christians who claim to believe and teach the Bible are afraid or ashamed to mention Hell. They fear non-Christians might think the doctrine incredible, irrational or cruel. It would scare persons away from church. Let me give you six reasons that show how Hell actually proves God’s love.
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God Shows Love by Punishing Human Abuse and Injustice

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Unjudged sin would show a God indifferent to human abuses and injustices. Does God not notice our misery, feel our pain, hear our cries, or see our tears? Then He’s not even as compassionate as persons are. Does He care about us—are we not worth His time? An indifferent uncaring God is not the God of the Bible. At Lazarus’s tomb, Jesus wept. And God weeps at all our agony and adversity. Civilized nations protect their citizens--they justly put criminals in jail. Why then wouldn’t a caring God do the same? Lofty mountains of human abuse go unpunished and no punishment of injustice condones and encourages further injustice.
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Unjudged sin would mean our defiance defeats God. Who’s in charge God or man? If it’s man, then God’s defeated and evil terrorizes us. But if God’s in charge, then He’ll judge and punish evil doers confining evil to Hell. The Almighty can never be defeated. Unjust kings and heartless conquers bring untold devastation and misery to human lives and lands. But God will right all wrongs when sinners come before the King of kings, the Lord Jesus Christ. Mighty Satan and his followers have no power to stand before the Lord Jesus. Paul told the Philippians
“At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow . . . and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”. Phil. 2:10.          
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Unjudged sin would mean God is not even as just as man is just. Unlike prejudiced fallible man, God knows the whole truth making Him alone the only perfectly just judge. And God judges each sinner according to their own knowledge and works—that means different degrees of punishment in each case. Serial killers will be more severely punished than liars will be. Thus, in these three ways God punishing sin demonstrates his love.
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God Shows Love through His Word Warning Us of Hell

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A loving parent will warn their child to look both ways for oncoming traffic to avoid disaster or not to play with fire. So God’s Word gives us metaphors or pictures to describe Hell’s nature and warn us of it. Hell is like outer darkness (Matt. 8:12), a wandering star (Jude 13), a waterless cloud (Jude 12), burning in a city dump (Mark 9:44-48), a bottomless pit (Rev. 20:1-3), an everlasting prison (1 Peter 3:19) a place of torment (Luke 16:28), a lake of fire (Rev. 21:8), and God’s abiding wrath (John 3:36). It’s our responsibility to heed the warning.  
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“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God”.
1 Cor. 6:9-10.
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God’s Shows Love by Giving us a Conscience to Discern Good and Evil.

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Everyone has a conscience, a sense of right and wrong, a feeling of what behavior is fair and unfair, good and bad. But we can choose to make our conscience insensitive, oversensitive or irrational. We can suppress our natural feelings of compassion for others like ourselves. We can learn to hate and to twist things believing evil is good and good evil. See Jer. 17:9-10; Isa. 5:20.
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We may overlook evils when others are mistreated. We may excuse ourselves saying it is not my business, or I don’t know the circumstances, or maybe even that they deserve it. But how quick we are to protest and scream unfair when someone abuses us. We have no difficulty of discernment then. We don’t suppress our conscience or make excuses then. The reality of good and evil is deeply impressed upon us then.
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Our conscience is not imaginary—it’s real. But it makes no ultimate sense unless there be a standard to which we are accountable. We can’t be accountable to the energy of the universe as pantheist religions suppose. Universal energy can neither know nor care anything about us or can be a standard of good and evil. We can’t be accountable to an uncaring God who abandoned us as deists suppose. And the ignorant dependent God evolving with the world that process theologians imagine can’t hold us accountable either.
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Jesus, however, confirmed our accountability as he fulfilled ancient prophecies, performed many miracles and plainly told us he is our God. And his death for our sins and bodily resurrection demonstrated both God’s justice and love. No world religion or dead religious philosopher has anything to match that.
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Our conscience and ethics makes no ultimate sense unless there’s an Absolute Moral Lawgiver who holds us accountable. That infinite, personal ethical God revealed Himself in biblical history. God’s Word is true and dependable and there’s no law that God must excuse religions contrary to his Word no matter how sincere their devoted followers. The Bible’s God is our Creator, Owner, Life-giver, Judge, and his will not ours is the law.
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God Shows Love by Bearing our Punishment on the Cross

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Jesus did only good and delivered oppressed persons from the devil. But, he was ridiculed, spit on, falsely accused, condemned as a common criminal, merciless beaten, nailed to a cross, exposed naked to gazing eyes, and forsaken by the Father. He took our sins upon himself—it was the just willingly bearing the punishment of the unjust. This is the greatest expression of love known to man. A God of love was unthinkable before Christ’s cross and remains so today among peoples who have never heard of the Savior.  
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 As selfish, self-centered persons, we don’t see ourselves as immoral or filthy sinners that need cleansing and saving. What God calls sin we think is fun and a good time. God seems like a tyrant trying to impose impossible rules upon us and spoil our fun. We generally feel this way until God opens our spiritually blind eyes, softens our hard heart and floods our soul with his love, peace and purity.
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God Shows Love by Letting Us Choose Our Own Destiny

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God can’t force us to accept Him—forced love is rape. Forced love would dishonor God saying his abundant blessings and Christ’s death in our place is of no avail. Anyone—the worst sinner—may come and millions have. Heaven or Hell then is our choice. The Bible’s unmistakable that without Christ unbelievers will dwell in outer darkness in tears and torments forever.   
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There is no second chance, neither annihilation nor reincarnation. “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment (Heb. 9:27).” God must keep his promise to provide a perfect home for believers (John 14:1-3). So we read, “There shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Rev. 22:11)”.
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God Shows Love by His Patience with Our Excuses

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 Procrastination and good intentions have sent many persons to Hell. Don’t let them send you. Now is the time to be saved. Evolution is no excuse to deny God’s providence and judgment—it’s only a lie. Problems with the Bible have solutions if you’re willing to take the time to look for them. Hypocrites inside or outside the church are a poor excuse to go to Hell. Don’t take the most serious risk of your life. The grim reaper may be knocking on your door. God gave his Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life with him in paradise. Delay may prove fatal! Humbly trust the Savior of sinners. Then get with God’s Bible believing people and serve the Lord. Let the goodness and love of God lead you to faith and repentance. Then link this blog with yours & tell others about it so they can trust the Savior & go to heaven. God bless your ministry.
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Why Forbidden Fruit in Paradise?

Why Forbidden Fruit in Paradise?

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This account of our first parents in the Garden of Eden has always intrigued and fascinated us (Genesis 2-3). Some have claimed the whole problem was the apple on the tree while others said no it was the PARE on the ground. Ignorance misrepresents the text that never mentions any apple. Since Adam and Eve made aprons of fig leaves to cover their nakedness, more likely the forbidden fruit was figs. And the sin of the PARE on the ground was not sex as some imagine, but disobedience to God. But all this is only a sidelight.
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Now some persons think the account a fictitious story or myth since it seems utterly fantastic for trees to have properties to give eternal life or knowledge of good and evil and a talking snake is impossible. But we don’t have to understand the account that way.
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The trees didn’t have to have such properties but only to represent such properties and to provide mankind the choice of a beautiful and completely good world in fellowship with God or a world mixed with good and evil. And the serpent the Bible explains is a fallen angel or spirit called Satan. Spirit beings can inhabit persons and animals and speak through them as we see when Jesus caste the demons out of Legion and they went into the pigs causing them to wildly jump into water and drown. Persons today who have witnessed demon possession know it’s real. I’m one such witness.
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It’s crucial that we take the account as historical fact in a prescientific setting that peoples everywhere and all times can understand. The rest of the Bible takes the temptation account as historical fact (Gen. 5:1; 1 Chron. 1:1; Luke 3:38; Rom. 5:12-21). Jesus Christ, the God-man who lived in our world took it as fact (Mark 10:6; John 8:44). Paul, his inspired apostle, took it as fact (1 Cor. 15:39, 45; 1 Tim. 2:13).
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If the account’s fiction, then there’s no sin, no need of a Savior, no Heaven or Hell, no need even for God. In fact, the whole world and life becomes nonsensical—absolute truth, human dignity and rights, ethics, justice, purpose in life, life after death--all become baseless hopeless futility. Everything is accident and chance. Think about it.
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The real problem is why Adam and Eve who lived in a perfect world, decided to ignore God’s warning and disobey God. Had they not sinned we would not have inherited our sinful nature or tendency to be self-centered caring little for God and our fellowman. Had they not sinned the world would not be such a mess of good and evil, joy and sorrow. Had they not sinned they could have lived eternally with God and maybe our exploding population could inhabit other planets. Could that be why other planets exist, or is there another reason? And wouldn't we have not sinned in our parent’s place?
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Why then did God allow evil in to corrupt his paradise? God cursed Adam, Eve, the serpent, even the ground. Why did he do that? He even expelled our first parents from paradise. Was he just being mean? The Bible says God is holy and can’t sin but he sure can allow us to do it.
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But don’t we have several ways to justify our sins? We say it’s not my fault since God made me. Or, the devil makes me to it. Or, I was raised--actually lowered--by a bad environment and deserve to compensate my loss. Or, my genes have programmed me this way and I can’t help it. They are all lies of course, but we try not to feel guilty. Could our guilt feelings be telling us something? Does real guilt make any sense without a perfect standard of righteousness and a moral Lawgiver who can know and judge our actions?
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God certainly could have prevented Adam’s sin; he prevented sin many times as Pharaoh’s sin of taking Abraham’s wife Sarah into his harem (Gen. 12:17-20). A sovereign God upholds the existence of every atom in the universe. But in God’s mind, Jesus was the Lamb slain before He created the world—it was part of His perfect plan (Rev. 13:8). Everything falls out according to God’s plan, “Known to God from eternity are all His works” and God’s works and ours are interrelated (Acts 15:18; Luck 19:10). Jesus described the details of his death before hand even telling Judas to do his part (John13:26-27). Every fulfilled Bible prophecy demonstrates God knows all and is in control.
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Here is the answer to the great mystery so few people can understand, accept and value. The Fall of man and the most heinous things men can conceive and do throughout history is worth it for two momentous reasons. And I feel so inadequate at this point.
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God’s promises of the new paradise right here on our renewed earth will be far more glorious than the Garden of Eden. This isn’t the best world but the necessary way to the best world. And Jesus is its Door.
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“Eye has not seen, no ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which  God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1 Cor. 2:9

“The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which  hall    be revealed in us. Romans 8:18
 “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” 2 Cor. 6:17

 “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. 1  Cor. 10:31.
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What Value Is the Blood of Jesus Christ?

What Value Is the Blood of Jesus Christ?

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On a farm, I once saw a hog killed for food. The farmer jumped into the hog pin, hit the hog in the head with an axe, and slit its throat. To see the hog helplessly lying there with blood spurting from its neck was repulsive and made me feel weak and faint. Until Christ died and God tore the thick temple veil in two from top to bottom, Jewish priests slit the throats of thousands of innocent unblemished lambs upon sacrificial alters. Critics decry Judaism calling it a slaughterhouse religion. One Protestant denomination thought the blood songs in their hymnal so repulsive they omitted them.
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In town, I sometimes went to the bus station to give out gospel tracks and tell of my Christian faith. But on one occasion when I was merely passing by I heard a man shouting profanities walking back and forth in front of the bus station. He turned and looked directly at me watching him. If ever a human face could express evil, it was that man’s face. And most unusual and surprising, he screamed out the words “And the blood of Jesus Christ doesn’t mean a thing.” Knowing what the Bible said about demons, I wondered if this man was possessed.
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According to the Bible, all the slain lambs pictured the one final sacrifice to come in the death of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:29). The Jews rejected Jesus as the suffering servant and Messiah because they were looking for a political king.What does the blood of Jesus Christ mean according to the Bible?
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The Lord Jesus’ Blood Was His Suffering the Punishment Our Sins Deserved

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He (God) made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Cor. 5:21
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Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree. . .For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit. 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18
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Not Jesus’ deity, but his humanity died as our substitute bearing our sin and punishment. All sin is ultimately against God. Jesus’ death exhibited both God’s justice and love—it was the world’s worst evil to bring about humanity’s greatest good. Jesus’ death satisfied God’s justice, demonstrated his love, and sealed our pardon. See also Isaiah 53:11; 1 John 2:2.
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The Lord Jesus’ Blood Frees Us from Slavery to Sin and Condemnation

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In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. Ephesians. 1:7.
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Redemption is Christ’s death paying the penalty to free us from slavery to sin (1 Pet. 1:18; Rev. 1:5-6). Not just sins committed before salvation, nor only sins confessed since salvation, but all sins past, present, and future. Unless that’s true, Christ could not be our true and sufficient Savior. Believers are no longer judged for sins condemned and paid for at the cross (Rom. 8:1; John 5:24), but judged as God’s fellow workers on the foundation of Christ to receive their rewards for service at the Judgment Seat of Christ (1 Cor. 3:9-15; Rev. 22:12).  
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The Lord Jesus’ Blood Empowers Us to Overcome Sin Daily

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If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and His word is not in us. 1 John 1:8-9.
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While we are free from slavery to sin and its penalty of Hell, we never become perfect in this world. We still struggle with sin in our daily lives. First John 3:9 is in the present continuous tense and can better translated habitual sin. The new birth in God’s Spirit makes us new persons with a new sensitivity to wrongdoing. Paul explains the way to victory in the struggle with sin is to yield ourselves to God as his instruments of righteousness and not to sin which leads to death (Rom. 6). A pig and a lamb may fall into mud. The pig enjoys it but the lamb struggles to get free.
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The Lord’s Resurrection Visibly Established the Value of His Shed Blood

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If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 1 Corinthians 15:17.
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If Jesus’ body had not risen from the dead, Christian faith would never have come into being. Jesus would be seen as a false prophet. His death would mean nothing. We would have no proof of life beyond the grave. And human beings have no reason to believe we’re anything more than perishing animals--atheism, or recycled energy--pantheist religions, meaning utter extinction and futility of life.
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Jesus gave his life voluntary and had power to take it up again (John 10:18; Acts 2:23). Arrogant persons brag about their greatness and despise, offend, and degrade others as unworthy of their time and attention. In contrast, Jesus’ greatness is that he left Heaven’s glories, came into our sin cursed world, took the form of a servant, suffered all the indignities men could heap upon him, and died a criminal’s death for us despicable sinners. That’s love! There’s no greater love--and when it touches us, it can melt our hard sinful hearts and fill us with love, gratitude and joy.
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“I will sing of my Redeemer and His wondrous love to me;
On the cruel cross He suffered from the curse to set me free.
I will praise my dear Redeemer, His triumphant power I’ll tell,
Of the victory He gives over sin and death and hell.”
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The Lord Jesus’ Blood Enables Us to Live for Him and Not Just Ourselves

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He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again. 2 Corinthians 5:15.
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Jesus said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10 There certainly are many such thieves in the world today—but not Jesus, nor his true followers.
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“Living for Jesus a life that is true, Striving to please Him in all that I do,
Yielding allegiance, glad hearted and free, This is the pathway of blessing for me.
Living for Jesus who died in my place, Bearing on Calvary my sin and disgrace,
Such love constrains me to answer His call, Follow His leading and give Him my all.
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O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to You;
For You in Your atonement, did gave Yourself for me;
I own no other Master, My heart shall be Your throne;
My life I give, henceforth to live, O Christ for You alone.”
                                       ---Hymn by Thomas O. Chisholm
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The Lord Jesus’ Blood Has Broken Down the Hate Walls Between Peoples

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He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth. Acts 17:26.
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There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28.
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In Jesus time, Jews hated Gentiles and Gentiles hated Jews; women and slaves were less valued. People hate and devalued each other the world over. And whoever gets the upper hand dominates and enslaves the others. But Christ came to break down these hate walls of separation between races and peoples. Paul rebuked Peter’s separating from the Gentiles saying it was not according to the gospel (Gal. 2:14). Peter by example was building walls between people instead of tearing them down.
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All persons are in God’s image, descended from Adam and Eve and of one blood. Different genes give us different characteristics but we’re a common humanity deserving the same respect. God’s church is one body and he loves us all. We’ll all be together in either Heaven or Hell. So everybody is entitled to the same respect and concern. Christian tear down those hate walls--only the practice of true biblical Christianity can do it.
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 Hymns about the blood are most precious to the true believer.
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“There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains;
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood Shall never lose its power
Till all the ransomed church of God Be saved, to sin no more.”
                                                       ---Hymn by William Cowper
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Many fine scholarly books are written about Jesus’ cross or atonement. I think the little 127-page book, The Passion of Jesus Christ by John Piper is best for the average person. It briefly and clearly discusses 50 reasons why Christ died. Jesus' death & resurrection is humanity's only hope & salvation. Do U have a love-trust relationship with the Savior issuing in obedience?
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Thursday, March 10, 2011

The Death of Beloved Mr. Happy Goodman

            The Death of Beloved Mr. Happy Goodman

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The people of Littletown were shocked at what they saw in the alleyway’s filthy slime, between the general store and the post office was the bruised, bloody body of poor old Mr. Happy Goodman, our town’s most loved citizen. Mr. Happy was always smiling, always helping anyone in need. Horrified crowds gathered and stared in unbelief. Some shook their heads and turned away in utter disgust. How could anyone brutally murder our Mr. Happy of all persons? That’s pure evil defeating good.
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Tight-lipped, clinched fist, and shaking, I screamed, “that evil murdering monster deserves Hell!”My angry response shocked me. I’m a liberal minded Christian. I don’t believe in Hell. It seems heartlessly cruel and contradictory if there’s a loving God. Yes, we make mistakes, nobody’s perfect? But even the worst sinner shouldn’t be tortured forever. Besides, Hell’s scary! People don’t like to hear about it. I can’t justify Mr. Happy’s murder, but the idea of Hell seems unjust, unbearable, unreasonable even unchristian, but it is in the Bible. Maybe I need to think through the consequences. Maybe my theology destroys my Christianity.
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Denying Hell Results in a Self-destructive Theology

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We should base theology upon what our Creator and all-knowing Lord has made known to us, never upon our finite, fickle feelings, opinions, preferences and guesses. If human limitations and ignorance decide Christian doctrine, we can never have any doctrinal consensus or authority. If what the Bible says, God says, then that’s authority and a standard for Christian faith. Pick this and not that, or cafeteria-style theology self-destructs. It undermines authority even of the teachings we like.
The Bible’s Teachings Are a Logical Unity
To deny one Bible teaching leads to the denial and dismissal of all. Notice how this works when we want a God of permissive love and Heaven without a Hell of unending torments. A God who never punishes sin sanctions evil and cares nothing about our sufferings, screams, tears, bloodshed. That’s not love. The Bible’s God warns sinners of judgment, promises blessings for obedience, pleads with us to trust his way, and is heartbroken to have to punish us. That’s love. Justice and love are two sides of the same coin. It’s like the compassionate doctor who warns persons of disease, offers the remedy, but the patient ignores it.

So, logically, no Hell means God approves of evil and cares nothing about hurting humanity. Sin doesn’t matter. Christ was no Savior of sinners but a deceived fool who died for nothing. His disciples were duped followers of a senseless lie. His church is not a special called out body but just another good-will social club. Evangelism is a pointless waste of time. And missions are an expensive waste of money. Each doctrine implies the one following and they all stand or fall together.

God Didn’t Program Us to be Mechanical Robots


God made us persons able to respond to Him with hearts of gratitude, trust, and love who accept His way as best. And God is patient—He doesn’t beat us in the ground for every sin and mistake. In addition to a conscience to discern right from wrong, God’s Holy Spirit indwells believers to comfort, guide, and empower us. Free will honors God and dignifies us made in His likeness (Genesis 1:27; Joshua 24:15).
Some Persons Are Incorrigible and Unredeemable
Some persons reject God and his ways to the death. Unfit for God’s service, dangerous and corrupting of society, they must be contained in their own kind of place. This earthly life is our testing ground and our only opportunity for life with God (Hebrews 9:27). Our conscience is the light of moral law and of its Lawgiver. But our daily choices can suppress that light. Inexcusable self-centered rebellion earns us the loneliness, outer darkness, torments, and God’s fiery wrath of Hell forever (Gal. 6:7; 1 Cor. 6:9-10).

Heaven Can’t Exist Without Hell

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God does not annihilate persons made in His image. Persons who prefer self to God get their choice. They are forever in Hell separated from God and His blessings while saints enjoy the Heavenly home Jesus promised and prepared for them (John 14:1-4). Sin and sinners won’t corrupt God’s perfect Heaven (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Rev. 21:27; 22:15).

The wicked will be like despicable worms experiencing God’s fiery wrath in outer darkness, torment, weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 8:12; John 3:36; Luck 16:25-26). Sinners will be punished exactly in accord with each one’s sin, some more, some less (Matt. 11:20-24; Luke 12:47: Rom. 2:5; Heb. 10:29). 

Hell Makes Moral Sense and Gives Life Purpose


Without Hell, moral choices have no ultimate consequences. If the grave ends all, then we’re ultimately responsible to nobody and nothing. Accumulated wealth, fame, thrills lose their luster. But if a holy God watches and knows our every thought, word and deed, and rewards or punishes us eternally, then we will fear or reverence the Lord. We will use His name only in thanksgiving and praise.

We reverence or fear a holy God who watches our behavior whether good or bad and gives us our just due--that makes life meaningful. Things we do really matter. Without this fear of the Lord, society becomes sick, tired, bored, destructive, and suicidal. Increasingly, it’s happening today.

How it Applies to Life


Christians cannot reject Hell since it undermines other Bible teachings and destroys biblical authority. Non-Christians should seriously consider this crucial teaching. For without Hell, we have no hope of Heaven, no ultimate purpose for life, and no final judgment of evil. It really condones and encourages a wicked, insane, insecure world. Further, mere claims about life after death carry no authority.
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Christians, however, have certain hope of Heaven since our Savior is the resurrected God-man from Heaven sent to save the lost. In His death on the cross, Jesus who knew no sin became sin for us, demonstrated His love, and arose from the grave to prove His teachings true and our hope of eternal life certain. Jesus will never leave those who put their trust in him. And believing in him includes believing all he taught is God’s truth including Hell.