Tilling and Planting

Tag: Sin

  • Hell: Eternal Separation

    Hell: Eternal Separation

    Intro

    Man – Woman, Hot – Cold, Up – Down, Heaven – Hell. Opposites. When two things are opposites, there’s little to no similarities between them. In my last post, I talked about Heaven and how we as believers should look forward to it with hope. Today, I’m going to talk about Heaven’s opposite: Hell. Yes, Hell is a real place – and I’ll show that from Scripture – and people really go there. Buckle up. Talking about Hell isn’t for the faint at heart.

    Does Hell Exist?

    The first question I need to address is does Hell even exist? Not all Christians even believe that it does. And if I don’t offer Scriptural evidence, I might as well not bother talking about the rest, because some people might tune it out.

    The short version is that, yes, the Bible does refer to Hell as an actual place. Several verses describe Hell as the place of torment for the unbeliever when he dies. Some examples follow.

    If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut if off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and thrown into the fire of hell. Matthew 18:8-9 (NIV)

    Then the king told the attendants, “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 22:13 (NIV)

    Notice in these passages how Hell is associated with grief, fire, darkness? Clearly Hell is not a place where you would want to go. As the place of eternal punishment and suffering, you would do well to avoid it at all costs. Jesus used strong illustrations in Matthew 18 to describe the seriousness of it.

    Notice that the examples I gave are both spoken by Jesus. And if you ever need good Scriptural evidence of a particular doctrine, find out what Jesus says about it. While these are only a couple of examples, there are several more I could pull out. But for brevity, I’ll just list the references of a few more: Mark 9:44-48, Matthew 8:12, Matthew 13:40-42. And this is still a partial list. Now I will admit avoiding some very common or popular ones because those reference the Lake of Fire more specifically. And you may be wondering, what’s the difference? I’m glad you asked.

    Hell Vs Lake of Fire

    Many people get a bit confused. What’s the difference between Hell and the Lake of Fire? Are they the same place or different? From what I can tell in Scripture, they are two distinct places. And to quickly set up this next verse, another word for Hell is Hades.

    Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. Revelation 20:14 (NIV)

    This passage is perhaps the clearest in showing that the two are different. After all, you can’t throw something into itself. The passage goes on to say that anyone whose name isn’t found in the book of life will be thrown into the Lake of Fire. Since unbelievers are dying every day, they have to go somewhere, and Revelation shows that the Lake of Fire is the final judgment and currently no one is in it. However, Revelation tells us that not only will unbelievers end up here, but Satan and all his angels will too.

    Why Hell?

    People don’t like the idea of Hell, and I don’t blame them. Frankly, I don’t like the idea of Hell. I don’t like the idea of an eternal Lake of Fire where billions will spend all of eternity in torment. But that doesn’t negate its existence. However, I should address the questions of why God would create such a place and how could He send people there, because a lot of people ask them.

    Why Did He Create It?

    First of all, Hell (and the Lake of Fire, but from now on I’m going to lump them into the one word) was not originally created for man, but for Satan and his hordes of demons.

    Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Matthew 25:41 (NIV)

    Unfortunately, Hell shows us another example of things that (many) humans experience or will experience that we were not meant to. Other examples of that are we were not meant to life live apart from God, we’re not meant to live a fast-paced stressed-out life, and we’re not meant to live in bodies that suffer various physical ailments. Yet humans experience all these things.

    How Could He Send People to Hell?

    The second question that a lot of people have is how could a loving God send people to Hell? Well, the fact of the matter is that we humans have free will. God created us to make choices. And because of the fall, not all of those choices are good ones. God will not force us to love Him or follow Him. Therefore, there needs to be a place for those who reject God. And when they reject God, they choose to go to Hell. And while that sounds ridiculous, think about it. They spend their entire lives saying, “I don’t want your presence in my life.” So, when they die, why would God force them to be in His presence for the rest of eternity? Hell is the one place where they can spend eternity apart from the presence of God, just like they wanted in life.

    And once you die, it is too late.

    Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, Hebrews 9:27 (NIV)

    Understanding Your Fate

    Something else that is interesting is that in Luke 16, Jesus tells the story of a rich man and a beggar named Lazurus. In this story, Jesus describes the rich man dying and going to Hell and being in torment but notice that he does not ask Abraham (whom he sees in a place of comfort) to get him out, but rather asks for water to cool his tongue – to make it more bearable. This suggests that – at least in the intermediate place of Hell – people will be at least passively okay with being there. At least to a certain degree. Whether that’s more of a resigned “I deserve to be here” or if it goes back to what I said earlier about not wanting to be in God’s presence, I don’t know.

    I see this as a demonstration of his accepting his own fate but understanding that it is a terrible fate, and he has a sense of regret. Consequently, he doesn’t want others to end up with him.

    Abraham’s Bosom

    Now something else I’m going to address (really quick) about this story is the existence of a place of comfort that can be seen from Hell. Referred to as Abraham’s Bosom, the Jews believed that the righteous would go here when they died. And it is true that without going through Jesus, there is no way into Heaven. So, the righteous of the Old Testament would need a place to go that is a place of comfort until Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

    And while the Bible isn’t clear about it, it is likely that sometime after Jesus’ death (and possibly after His resurrection as well), God took those in Abraham’s Bosom up to Heaven to be in His presence permanently (some see Ephesians 4:8 as a reference to this event).

    Wrapping Up

    I hope you see the horror of eternal separation and I hope it stirs you to reach out to loved ones and others with the gospel. I know I need to do better in this area. I’ve got many people in my life that needs to know about Christ. I have not been a very good verbal witness. I say verbal witness because I do believe I live a lifestyle that points to God – or at least is different enough from the world to be noticeable. Let us all pray for strength, boldness, and the words to speak so we can save people from this unspeakable horror and to a life of freedom.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • Sinners and Saints

    Sinners and Saints

    Intro

    Christians often use the phrase “We’re just sinners saved by grace” to counteract the claims that we’re all a bunch of “holier-than-thou” people who think we’re “perfect”. Consequently, many Christians tell the non-Christians that “We’re just sinners who have been saved by God’s grace.” And while there’s truth to that, there is also a greater truth: We are saints. But many Christians will shy away from that word because of the images that word stirs up. Images of people who are somehow greater than the average Christian or can be prayed to for different things. Unfortunately, the Catholic church perpetuated these images by making Sainthood something difficult to be achieved rather than an identity you automatically receive in Christ. But at the same time, should we as Christians be saying that we are sinners and saints, as so many do?

    Definitions

    First of all, I’m going to define the two words “sinner” and “saint”. Just plain, simple, English dictionary definitions. After that, I’ll dive into how the Bible uses these two words and how they apply to people. I’ll also explain the key difference between sinning and being a sinner.

    Sinner

    According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a sinner is “a person who sins” (link). By that definition, you can classify everyone on Earth a sinner. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23 (NIV). Pretty cut and dry. No real wiggle room here. Let’s see how Merriam-Webster defines saint.

    Saint

    Merriam-Webster lists more definitions for saint than it does for sinner (link). The very first one reads “one officially recognized especially through canonization as preeminent for holiness” – the very definition that I believe leads a lot of Christians (myself included) to shy away from claiming this word as a part of their Christian identity. Some of the other definitions include “one of the spirits of the departed in heaven” (number 2), “one of God’s chosen and usually Christian people” (number 3), and “one eminent for piety or virtue” (number 4). I list all these out for the benefit of seeing how society is most likely to mentally respond to hearing the word “saint”. Now let’s take a look at how the Bible uses these words, especially towards Christians.

    Are Christians Sinners or Saints?

    To this heading, I could add “or both” at the end. I think a lot of people think of themselves as both a sinner and a saint – at the same time. And frankly that’s how a lot of people live. They believe that they have two natures “the flesh” – or sin nature – vs the “the spirit”. However, the Bible teaches that once you are saved, that sin nature dies! It ceases to exist. Paul explains this in Romans 6, but I’ll just put verse 6 here “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin”. Our old self – the sin nature – died on the cross with Christ. We are now new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17).

    But Christians Still Sin, so….

    Okay, but Christians still sin, and the dictionary says that a sinner is someone who sins. Therefore, Christians are sinners, right? Some people will claim semantics with what I’m going to tell you. But there is a difference between a person who sins and a sinner. For the person who sins, the sinning is something they do, but for the sinner, sinning is a lifestyle. Another word that the Bible uses in place of sinner is evildoer. I don’t think there are any Christians who claim evildoer as a part of their identity! That word conjures up images of people who commit truly vile acts on a regular basis.

    Do you see the difference? Christians still sin, yes, that is true. However, as Paul says in Romans, we are no longer slaves to sin. We no longer bear the title of “Sinner”. Christians no longer pursue the sins of their past or the sins of the world because it’s no longer in our nature to do so. The sinful nature we left behind couldn’t help but sin. Now as God’s saints, we can’t help but avoid sin. Not right away, not in a year or two, but gradually over time – as long as we allow Holy Spirit to work in us – we will find ourselves sinning less and less. And instead, the lifestyle we pursue, and embrace looks more like the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

    Does the Bible Really Call Us Saints?

    To answer the question in a word, yes! The Old Testament uses it a handful of times when referring to those who love the Lord and follow after Him. Sounds like Christians, right? Furthermore, the New Testament continues this trend in several places. I think one of the most blatant declarations that all Christians are saints is found in 1 Corinthians 6:2, “Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?” (ESV). In this passage Paul chastises believers who aren’t living up to some of the dictionary definitions of saint and yet he still calls them saints. This demonstrates powerfully that to be a saint has nothing to do with how you act or what you do.

    Truthfully, when I read the Bible, I find that it talks less about how we can obtain on our own and more about how God gives us these things. We can’t obtain sainthood on our own. But God gives us the identity to be one of His saints. God covers our sin and our attempts at righteousness with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Holy Spirit empowers us to overcome the sin in our life and become more Christlike. As humans we want to feel accomplished, we want to say, “Look what I did” or “See what I’ve overcome in my life”. Hence why we use the word saint to say trivial things like “that person was a saint when he helped me”. Or why we make saint a special title for a special few who did extraordinary things for God. Newsflash: if you’re doing what God tells you, it’s extraordinary!

    Wrapping Up

    The Bible teaches that sinners and saints are two different categories of people. Sin enslaves the sinner, while righteousness enslaves the saint. Though the enslavement for saints is really freedom, but that’s another topic for another time.

    With what I’ve written here, I hope that you become more confident in your identity in Christ and will gladly claim saint as a part of who you are and reject the notion that you are a sinner anymore. I don’t expect you to get it immediately after reading this (I’m still working on it!), but I do hope that in time you become more comfortable with the word saint. Christ died to make us saints, so let’s believe that and wear that proudly (just be careful not to have a holier-than-thou attitude).

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!