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Christians as Judges
- April 17, 2009 17:34:12
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I blogged about this once before, but I think I will have another go at it. Christians, I am primarily addressing this to us, but others are welcome to hear what I have to say.
How many people have we driven far from the Kingdom of God with our "hell casting"? I see it a lot. "So and so - you are going to hell." First of all, I would like to say, you don't know that! I have read wonderful insights of Atheists who have finally realized they do believe in God after all. None of them ever mention being manipulated into it by threats of eternal damnation. I have personally witnessed those who consider themselves Christians, who have turned their backs on God and the Bible and no longer walk among us. You can say they never were one of us, but my point still stands. We are not in a position - at this point in time - to set someone's eternal destiny. Which is good, because it's not our job.
Sure Jesus was unafraid to "tell it like it is". He even called someone a "son of hell". But please note that the recipient of that title was a man who would have been considered by any outside observer - and especially himself - a religious man. These same religious people got their shorts in a bunch because Jesus was hanging out with sinful people. Sinners were actually drawn to Him. Something about the way He walked and talked, told them that He had the keys to setting them free. He was a beacon of light in the darkness.
So why are these very same people repelled by us? Are we not commissioned to be "lights shining in the darkness?" Some of us are too busy hell-casting.
1 Peter 4:16,17, "...if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear His Name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God..." In the Hebrew traditions and in their yearly ceremonies, "judgment" did not always have the same connotation as it does for us. We think of it as passing sentence. "Handing down a judgment." They would look at it more as Jesus did in his parable of the sheep and the goats. A weeding out process. A separating.
I think of Gideon and his test to see which of his men would follow him into battle. First a verbal release was given. "If you are not up to the challenge, you may go home". Then a simple test after which Gideon was left with what the Marines would call, "a few good men." And that was all God needed for victory.
So please consider, my dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord. The struggles you are going through right now. They are not a punishment. You have not been abandoned. You are being weeded out. God is looking for a few good men and women, young and old through whom He is about to win the ultimate victory. Now is the "judgment time" for us. Revelation puts it this way in chapter 22, verses 10-12, "...'Don't seal up the words of the prophecy in this book, because the time of their fulfillment is near." Whosoever keeps acting wickedly, let him go on acting wickedly; whoever is filthy, let him go on being filthy. Also, whoever is righteous, let him go on doing what is righteous; and whoever is holy, let him go on being made holy. Pay attention! I am coming soon, and my rewards are with me..."
How many people have we driven far from the Kingdom of God with our "hell casting"? I see it a lot. "So and so - you are going to hell." First of all, I would like to say, you don't know that! I have read wonderful insights of Atheists who have finally realized they do believe in God after all. None of them ever mention being manipulated into it by threats of eternal damnation. I have personally witnessed those who consider themselves Christians, who have turned their backs on God and the Bible and no longer walk among us. You can say they never were one of us, but my point still stands. We are not in a position - at this point in time - to set someone's eternal destiny. Which is good, because it's not our job.
Sure Jesus was unafraid to "tell it like it is". He even called someone a "son of hell". But please note that the recipient of that title was a man who would have been considered by any outside observer - and especially himself - a religious man. These same religious people got their shorts in a bunch because Jesus was hanging out with sinful people. Sinners were actually drawn to Him. Something about the way He walked and talked, told them that He had the keys to setting them free. He was a beacon of light in the darkness.
So why are these very same people repelled by us? Are we not commissioned to be "lights shining in the darkness?" Some of us are too busy hell-casting.
1 Peter 4:16,17, "...if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear His Name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God..." In the Hebrew traditions and in their yearly ceremonies, "judgment" did not always have the same connotation as it does for us. We think of it as passing sentence. "Handing down a judgment." They would look at it more as Jesus did in his parable of the sheep and the goats. A weeding out process. A separating.
I think of Gideon and his test to see which of his men would follow him into battle. First a verbal release was given. "If you are not up to the challenge, you may go home". Then a simple test after which Gideon was left with what the Marines would call, "a few good men." And that was all God needed for victory.
So please consider, my dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord. The struggles you are going through right now. They are not a punishment. You have not been abandoned. You are being weeded out. God is looking for a few good men and women, young and old through whom He is about to win the ultimate victory. Now is the "judgment time" for us. Revelation puts it this way in chapter 22, verses 10-12, "...'Don't seal up the words of the prophecy in this book, because the time of their fulfillment is near." Whosoever keeps acting wickedly, let him go on acting wickedly; whoever is filthy, let him go on being filthy. Also, whoever is righteous, let him go on doing what is righteous; and whoever is holy, let him go on being made holy. Pay attention! I am coming soon, and my rewards are with me..."
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October 22, 2008 00:56:00
All my spring kids are on the ground! I am truly blessed.
What I was referring to was a sort of manipulation attempted by some Christians here on SodaHead. I would call it "scaring people into heaven." Besides the fact that I doubt it would work, It is not what we are called to do. If our faith is simply a reward/ punishment thing, we have missed the point of what Jesus came to do. He came to reconcile us to the Father and to teach us how to live lives that are pleasing to Him here and now. He died and rose again so that I don't have to be chained to sin anymore. That frees me to become the person He had in mind when He designed me. Avoiding Hell is the icing on the cake, but a Victorious Life is the cake.
Finally, the parable of the Great Wedding Feast spoken of in Matthew 22 teaches us that some will be lost who thougth they were "in" and many will be in that we would have said were lost. So much can happen between now and then. My job right now is to be salt and light to a sin-sick world. To do the best I can, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to demonstrate the "Messiah Life" every day.
I always question how some people claims to know their God so well that they feel they know exactly what he thinks, feels, wants, condemns and everything else about him... and they claim to speak for him "hell-casting" as you put it. Telling someone "you are going to hell" - well that's just not a nice thing to say, especially if it is said out of spite.
Not only do I not "know exactly what he thinks, feels and wants" but I don't have any way to know how he may effect change in someone's thinking in the future. I can only tell how he changed me.
There is amazing purpose for our lives here. As we show ourselves faithful to Him in the little things, He knows he can trust us with the big things in His Kingdom. Jesus is coming soon. You don't have to take my word for it and you won't have to wait long to witness it. After people see a living demonstration of what paradise this world can be when God's will is done "on earth as it is in heaven" don't you think most people will choose the right side? (Hard for me to imagine someone saying, "No, I'm going to stick with Satan. I liked it better when we had war and disease")
But I get the main argument that you make, you have no idea what god is going to do in the end and how he may or may not judge us. That is, if he does in fact exist.
Here's the rub. He could have made us stepford people, I suppose. Then we would follow His order of things and all would remain paradise forever. Or would it. Would automatons really be that interesting to hang out with? No, whether we think it is the best choice or not, He needed to create us with the ability to choose to rebel against Him. Only then could we love Him by choice, not by compulsion. He knew it was a risky thing to do. He knew it would cost Him more dearly than any of us could imagine. But loving us was worth it to Him. Please don't ask me to explain why.
I do understand, even as I type, that you highly doubt the truth in what I'm saying. And the "extreme punishment" part is a good point. Only I don't agree with most christians that people will burn forever and ever. I believe the Hebrew idiom used in those verses means: destroyed beyond recovery. No return. It seems extreme. I don't pretend I can make anyone comfortable with the idea of hell. Only to say that if someone makes that final choice to rebel a...''
Here's the rub. He could have made us stepford people, I suppose. Then we would follow His order of things and all would remain paradise forever. Or would it. Would automatons really be that interesting to hang out with? No, whether we think it is the best choice or not, He needed to create us with the ability to choose to rebel against Him. Only then could we love Him by choice, not by compulsion. He knew it was a risky thing to do. He knew it would cost Him more dearly than any of us could imagine. But loving us was worth it to Him. Please don't ask me to explain why.
I do understand, even as I type, that you highly doubt the truth in what I'm saying. And the "extreme punishment" part is a good point. Only I don't agree with most christians that people will burn forever and ever. I believe the Hebrew idiom used in those verses means: destroyed beyond recovery. No return. It seems extreme. I don't pretend I can make anyone comfortable with the idea of hell. Only to say that if someone makes that final choice to rebel against God, Paradise would be hell for them too. Ceasing to exist seems merciful.
And one more thing. I'm one of the few Christian Sodaheads who doesn't believe I am going to heaven when I die. I believe I will exist in one of the dimensions where I will be unaware of the passing of time, then the next thing I will know - Heaven will be coming here.
I do like your answers though. Much better than some others!
Here's where my extreme love for science comes in. I think a lot of our logic equations fall apart right here. We have lived out our existence in 4 dimensions. The obvious 3 + time. Physicists find that the equations all work out if there are actually 11 dimensions. So, looking at this theory from my standpoint, if God exists in one or more of these other 7 dimensions, and they exist outside of time; the predestination thing falls apart. We can't even get to the "if" let alone the "than".
Science has proven that whatever (or for my sake, Whomever) caused the Big Bang, that Cause had to exist outside of time because time is relative to speed of matter, and matter didn't exist until the Big Bang.
This sure is a long answer to your question, huh? Just suffice it to say, I believe that God can know all and still allow us to make choices. If we were standing at the vantage point of His dimension, we would say, OOOHHH, that's how it works.