Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Monday, December 28, 2015
Sunday, December 27, 2015
He Shall See What Their End Shall Be
December
27
He will
See what their End Shall Be
They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom
they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. Of
the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed
thee. And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of
his sons, and of his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be:
for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith (Deut.
32:17-20)
As we learned in yesterday’s
devotion, God did not exert divine power to destroy sinners in the Old
Testament as is commonly taught. On the contrary, there are always enemy forces
waiting to destroy mankind. Were it not for God exerting His divine power to
keep these enemy forces at bay, most of us would have experienced certain
destruction by now.
However, when we persist in
sin and push God out of lives sooner or later He is left with no choice but to
withdraw His protective presence. This is known as the hiding of His face. This is the exact opposite of God shining His face on us, which is
symbolic of His protective presence:
Tell Aaron and his sons: You will bless the Israelites
as follows. Say to them: The Lord bless
you and protect you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up his face to you and grant you peace. They will place my name
on the Israelites, and I will bless them (Numbers 6:23-27; Common
English Bible)
God prefers to “shine”
rather than “hide” His face. Sadly, men have a strange propensity for
ingratitude. Rather than seeing God’s graciousness in protecting His people
from the evil forces that surround them, men use it as a false security to sin,
not realizing that persistent sin can cause the face of God to stop shining and
start hiding.
When God hides His face He
takes a step back to observe what will happen to the unrepentant sinner. This
proves that God is not actively bringing about the results of their sin but
simply removing His protection and allowing the forces surrounding the sinner
to have their way. This truth should be the interpretive model for all of the
statements in Deuteronomy 28 in which God is said to inflict the results of the
curses that come from disobedience. God is only said to do that which He
permits to happen when He removes His protection.
http://www.vindicatinggod.org
Friday, December 25, 2015
God's Benevolent Will Towards Men
December
25
God’s
Benevolent Will Towards Men
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I
bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city
of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto
you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising
God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke
2:10-14)
If we are to remember one
thing this Christmas day, it is that God’s will towards men is not evil but for
good. Jeremiah said it best when he recorded God as saying, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward
you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace,
and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (Jer. 29:11).
One
should never believe that the evil in this world
is a representation of God’s will. The angels that announced the
birth of Jesus told us exactly what the will of God is towards men when they sang the song
above. They had just announced the birth of the Savior into the world and
expressed God’s heartfelt intentions for sending Him, which was peace on earth
and a good will towards men.
Some
who adhere to a determinist theology and make God the cause of all that happens
have a tendency to redefine what is meant by “good.” However, there is no
confusion about this when we see that the angels equate “peace on earth” with
the good will and intentions that God has
towards men.
We
see then that because there is much happening in our world today that could by
no means be classified as “good”. There are wars and rumors of wars. Immorality has
become rampant and is even being legislated as law. Morality is looked upon as
evil and the government is taking sides against businesses that attempt to hold
on to Christ-like principles. Anarchy continues to reign in our inner cities
and the murder of the unborn is seen as a legal right in the courts.
Politicians and preachers are being exposed constantly for lies and hypocrisy
and the Bible, if adhered to at all, is being twisted by both to justify
immoral stances.
These do not represent God’s
good intentions. It is for this reason that we needed a Savior. This Christmas,
reflect on the fact that God demonstrates His loving character by having sent
Jesus Christ to save us from all of the destruction that the world is doing to
itself. Embrace the One who was born to die for you.
http://www.vindicatinggod.org
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Your Christmas Gift
December
24
Your
Christmas Gift
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for
us, who can be against us? He that spared
not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him
also freely give us all things? (Rom. 8:31-32)
This Christmas Eve while
many are doing their last minute shopping, preparing large meals for multiple
relatives (or preparing to eat them), as well as putting up last minute
decorations and Christmas trees, remember the main reason for this wonderful
holiday is to reflect on why the Savior came into the world. Jesus is God’s
special and precious “Christmas gift” to all of mankind.
Concerning His life Jesus
said, “No man taketh it from me, but I
lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it
again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (John 10:18). This is
important to remember. Jesus did not have to die if He did not want to. The
Father did not have to allow His Son to be killed. Both the Father and Son made
choices and in their choices you and I took precedence over all of the pain,
suffering, heartbreak, and separation that the Father and Jesus would have to
endure.
Look at the language used in
these passages: God, “spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all,”
That means He could have used omnipotent power to prevent the killing of His
Son. He could have easily blown away the men and demons that orchestrated the
worse murder in all of history. Rather than stop it, Peter also says, “Him, when
he was given up, by the decision and knowledge of God….” (Acts 2:23).
God gave up His Son. He gave Him up for us. God did not kill Him. Our sins put
Him on that cross.
Jesus, who could have called
upon a legion of angels to help Him (Matt. 26:53) instead decided to lay down
His life. This same Jesus who created the universe and who created mankind,
allowed His own creatures to kill Him in order that He may save them. This is
the epitome of love. The Creator God who had power to stop the torment and
torture that He underwent for us gave Himself over to it because we were on His
mind during the whole torturous event.
So this day before
Christmas, when some parents will lie to children and tell them about an
overweight, white bearded man in a red suit who climbs down chimneys to bring
them toys as gifts as a reward for being good, let us tell the world about a
Savior who gave us the gift of Savior. This gift wasn’t given because we were
good. He was given to make us good.
http://www.vindicatinggod.org
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Monday, December 21, 2015
Correcting Distorted Views of God
December
21
Correcting
Distorted Views of God
Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break
forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and
will have mercy upon his afflicted. But
Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me,
and my Lord hath forgotten me. (Isa. 49:13-14)
Notice the distorted picture
of God that was being held in the minds of the Israelites. They had a picture
of a God who was uncaring and angry because they were steeped in sin. When they
began to suffer the consequences of their rebellion they give up hope because
they felt that God had forsaken them and will not answer their prayers.
Sin always gives us a
distorted view of God’s love (Gen. 3:7-12). It is always Satan who gives us
these perverted pictures of our loving Heavenly Father (Gen. 3:1-6).
Thankfully, in the case of Israel, God immediately corrects their distorted
view of Himself, showing that He is more loving than the best of parents:
Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should
not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I
not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy
walls are continually before me. (Isa. 49:15-16)
When we sin and suffer the
consequences of our rebellion, we can sense that we are forsaken and forgotten
by God. Yet God compares Himself to the best of mothers and says that like a
really good mother I could never forget you. However, realizing the selfish
nature of many humans, this comparison can only go so far. Someone could easily
cite numerous examples of mothers who have selfishly destroyed their own
children and forgotten them. Therefore, God goes even further to say that even
if a mother acts in such a selfish unnatural way, I won’t.
God is the prime example of
what a parent should be like. Parents often fall short of the true ideal (God)
and God should not be compared to our human parental failures which are often
born out of selfish motives. Distorted views of God are the major contributors
to a lack of trust in Him.
Jesus echoes this same thought
concerning God some centuries later (Matt. 7:7-11). God is the model parent.
Let us stop looking at human parents to get our understanding of God. Let us
look at God to see how parents should begin to act. Being a good parent will
begin with the right understanding of God’s character and nature.
http://www.vindicatinggod.org
Sunday, December 20, 2015
God's Ways and Thoughts
December
20
God’s
Ways and Thoughts
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are
your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your
thoughts. (Isa. 55:8-9)
Quite often those who teach
that God is behind the evils, tragedies and miseries in this world refer to
this passage to justify their stance. When Christians who disagree with this
false idea protest against their teachings this passage is quoted in order to
silence them. After all, God can do these things because He does not think the
way we mere mortals think neither are His ways ours.
Actually, the passage is
being quoted out of context to
support erroneous ideas about God that contradict His character of
self-sacrificing love. When it is read in context it actually supports the
truth about God’s love:
Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon
him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man
his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy
upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the
LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than
your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa.
55:6-9)
Far from teaching that God
is hiding behind some mysterious sovereignty that brings about destructive
events in the lives of people, this
passage proclaims a loving God who is calling His people back into relationship
with Him. His ways and thoughts are only higher than ours in that we are
selfish and sinful and He is not.
Unlike us, God is loving and
forgiving and gives us the opportunity to repent. However, He will not force us
but tells us to seek Him. If we do then He promises that we will find Him. It
is amazing that Satan has been able to twist this wonderful revelation of God’s
love and twist it it to make Him appear as an evil, all-controlling tyrant.
God’s thoughts and ways are only different from unredeemed man in that His is
pure love and man’s is not.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Praying God’s Will to be Done on Earth
December
16
Praying
God’s Will to be Done on Earth
After this manner therefore
pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:9, 10; see also Luke 11:2)
There are a number of views
concerning this passage. One view teaches that whatever happens on earth is
God’s sovereign will (be it sickness, tragedy, etc.). Those who advocate this
view tell us that Jesus was teaching us to pray in submission to His will.
Another view is the eschatological
view in which we are to praying for the millennial reign of Christ to come on
the earth. I believe that both views are a distorted understanding of the
Lord’s teaching here.
While we long for Christ’s
millennial reign, this could not be the primary purpose of this prayer. Nor
could Jesus have been teaching the “whatever will be
will be” attitude when He taught us to pray “thy will be done” because such
resignation actually defeats the purpose of prayer. The purpose of prayer is to
request God's aid and intervention in bringing a change to negative
circumstances. Prayer is inviting God to do that which He otherwise
would not have done had we not prayed. In a sermon titled, “A Plain Account of
Christian Perfection,” Wesley said:
God does nothing but in answer to prayer; and
even they who have been converted to God without praying for it themselves,
(which is exceeding rare,) were not without the prayers of others. Every new
victory which a soul gains is the effect of a new prayer. (emphasis are mine)[1]
Therefore
the “passive submission” view promotes doubt and confusion concerning God's
will. Quite often it is the foundation for many putting a doubtful “if” in
their prayers and praying with a lack of assurance. There is no indication that Jesus was teaching a lack
of assurance concerning the will of God when he taught us this manner of
praying. On the contrary, this statement is a statement of faith.
Negative
circumstances are usually not the will of
God for the obedient child of God. Therefore we pray in order to invite God to
prevail upon the situation and cause it to line up with His perfect will as
revealed in His Word and by His Spirit.
[1]
Wesley, John A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, from The Works
of the Rev. John Wesley Vol. XI (London: Thomas Cordeux, 1812), p. 241
http://www.vindicatinggod.org
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Why do the Wicked Prosper?
December
15
Why do
the Wicked Prosper?
Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee:
yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all
they happy that deal very treacherously? (Jer. 12:1)
In our devotions we have
emphasized the truth of God’s moral order and the fact that God often punishes
by removing His protective presence and allowing the wicked to reap that which
they have sown. We have also emphasized the fact that God keeps His hand of
protection over the righteous. Yet, we cannot deny the fact that we see so much
injustice in this life and the wicked seem to be very successful at their evil.
They seem to get away with it.
As Jeremiah’s complaint
shows us, this is not something new and was even an issue in Biblical times.
However, why is this so? Sadly, Satan has the current governorship of this
world so the moral order does not always work the way that God intended in this
present life. Some righteous people do not always get the rewards of
righteousness in this life nor do the wicked always suffer the consequences of
their sin in this life. However, all will receive the rewards of the righteousness
or wickedness whether it is here on earth or in eternity. God will make sure of
it:
For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the
prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death: but their
strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they
plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain;
violence covereth them as a garment….
Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase
in riches…. When I thought to know this,
it was too painful for me; Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. Surely thou
didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.
How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed
with terrors (Psalm 73:3-6, 12, 16-19)
The wicked often do appear
to get away with evil in this life, but a day of reckoning is coming. Therefore
do not fear or envy them (Psalm 37:1-2; Prov. 23:17-18). God’s moral principles
will take effect sooner or later.
http://www.vindicatinggod.org
Monday, December 14, 2015
Cause and Effect: Key to Understanding God’s Ways in the Old Testament
December
14
Cause and
Effect: Key to Understanding God’s Ways in the Old Testament
The shew of their countenance doth witness against
them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their
soul! for they have rewarded evil unto
themselves. Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for
they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill
with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him (Isa.
3:9-11)
People are often perplexed
by some of the things that God says that He will personally do to rebellious
people. Many would rather not read the Old Testament believing that it portrays
a totally different God than the One in the New Testament. However, these same
people would also have to give up many portions of the New Testament.
Remember that Jesus is the
God of both testaments. Yet, how do we deal with the type of punitive vengeful
language that we read in which God is said to make people sin, bring natural
disasters, inflict with pestilence, kill using wild animals, attack using enemy
armies and other methods by which God is said to smite, destroy, slay, take
vengeance, etc.?
God created the universe
with a moral orderliness. The universe has been established upon the principles
of cause and effect, action and reaction, sowing and reaping. This is why
Isaiah could say that the wicked have rewarded evil unto themselves and that
things would go well for the righteous because they would eat the fruit of
their own doings.
God often takes credit for
the self-inflicted punishment of the wicked and the reward given to the
righteous because of the fact that He established the laws by which each
receives these things based on their actions. God’s presence and protections
remains over the righteous and as we pray, He ensures that we are rewarded.
Since the wicked have forsaken the Lord, He allows
them to receive the results of their wickedness and takes credit for inflicting
it upon them.
This is the common principle
by which the Old Testament can be interpreted. This does not mean that God is
passive since He is often using His omnipotent power to protect the repent from
the results of previous sins, protecting the righteous from the sins of others,
and pleading with the wicked to turn from his or her evil ways. He is certainly
involved. However, He also allows His established laws to take their course
when wickedness prevails. In that sense, God is said to be the doer of what He
permitted. This is the true understanding of God’s ways in the Old Testament.
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Do all Religions Lead to God?
December
13
Do all
Religions Lead to God?
Neither
is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we
must be saved (Acts 4:12)
Liberal theologians have
deceived millions of people into believing that Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and
other religions are all roads leading to the one true God. This strange desire
for an ecumenical unity among the various religions is said to promote
“compassion”. However, there is nothing compassionate about giving false information
that could lead to eternal damnation.
First thing we must
understand is that God does not save anyone based on sincerity or a system of
works. This may sound harsh but we must see this from God’s perspective. Man,
apart from Christ, is under the reign of Satan’s government. Within his wicked
government, Satan has set up multiple ways to receive worship from man. All of
these religions have their origins in demonism because they reject Christ as
Savior.
Furthermore, not one of the
human founders of any of these religions were willing to give their lives for
the salvation of their followers. Even if they did die for their followers it
would have done no good since these founders were sinners themselves. Jesus not
only died for His followers but for the whole world. He was our substitute who
suffered the penalty for the sin we committed. Since Jesus was sinless, His
death paid for our sin.
Since other religions don’t
have a sinless Savior, they have a system of things one must do to reach
“nirvana” or “paradise” or to ensure that one’s “reincarnation” gets them to a
better life. None of this can lead to the true God because this is not what He
is asking from anyone. The true God, the One taught in the Bible, bases
salvation strictly on a loving relationship with Him. That relationship cn only
come through recognizing all that Christ has done on our behalf to make
relationship with God possible.
Therefore, do not be
deceived by Satan’s tactics. All religions do not lead to the true God. All of
them are based on lies (though they might have a little bit of truth in them to
draw people in). God cannot partner with a lie in order to bring people to Him:
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me”
(John 14:6). Jesus is the only way to God. To look for any other way will get a
person lost eternally.
http://www.vindicatinggod.html
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Does God Engage in DESTRUCTIVE Behavior?
http://www.amazon.com/Does-God-Engage-DESTRUCTIVE-Behavior/dp/1519545819/ref=sr_1_22?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449929848&sr=1-22&keywords=troy+edwards
Did God know that Billions would go to Hell?
December
12
Did God
know that Billions would go to Hell?
And they built the high places of Baal, which are in
the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to
pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they
should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin (Jer.
32:35)
Did God know before He
created man that the majority of them would end up in hell? Most of the church
believes that God knew this. Some even go as far as to believe that God
predestined this to happen. While the latter thought makes God into a wicked
tormentor, the first one unintentionally makes Him negligent (Gen. 6:5-7; Jer.
7:31; 19:5; 32:35). After all, if God saw the future eternal torment of
billions of His creatures before He created them but created them anyway, does
that make Him too much better than if He had intentionally predestined them to
this fate?
God Himself holds people
responsible for knowing what would happen but not doing something about it.
Concerning the parable of the wicked servant Jesus said, “And that servant, which knew his
lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will,
shall be beaten with many stripes” (Luke 12:47). In this parable and other
passages of Scripture we see that God holds people accountable for doing
something or failing to do something based on the knowledge that they had
(Matt. 25:24-30; 1 Sam. 3:11-13; 2:30). Does God hold a double standard?
If God created with full
foreknowledge of the evil that would infiltrate man and eternally damn the
majority of them then this makes Him reckless, negligent, and fully culpable
for the evil. To have perfect knowledge that an action taken, regardless of how
noble it may be, would lead to the death and eternal damnation of millions of
people, as well as provide the opportunity for horrendous evil to take place,
makes the actor just as responsible for the evil as if he or she is the one
that committed the actual evil.
If a father leaves his
loaded gun sitting on a table where his five and six year old children has
access to it, and he knows the very harm that of doing so, and then one of the
children grabs the gun and kills his sibling, is the father not fully
responsible? Scriptures tell us that God was not fully aware of man’s fall into
sin. It never entered His mind. Therefore He is not culpable. The fact that
billions are suffering eternal torment is due to the choices they made and not
a predestined plan or a negligent use of divine exhaustive foreknowledge.
http://www.vindicatinggod.org
Friday, December 11, 2015
God is Said to Do That Which He Only Permits
http://www.amazon.com/Said-that-which-Only-Permits/dp/1519680791/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449458501&sr=1-2&keywords=troy+edwards
Man's Covenant with Hell
December
11
Man’s
Covenant with Hell
Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at
agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come
unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid
ourselves (Isa. 28:15)
God cannot arbitrarily
deliver people from hell apart from their acceptance of Christ as Lord and
Savior because they have made a covenant with it. God has to honor those
covenants that are made of our own free will. Some have become “children of
hell” before they ever get there (Matt. 23:15).
Due to this covenant, Hell
pulls the unrepentant sinner down like a gravitational force upon death (Psalm 116:3;
Isa. 5:14; Luke 16:22-23). As S. D. Gordon wrote, “They who prefer to leave God
out will gather together at some time by a natural moral affinity, or gravitation.
The name used for such meeting-place in this old Book is that hurting word
hell.” (S. D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on
Personal Problems, pp. 28-29. Emphasis is mine).
Therefore, God is not
throwing people into hell upon their death as some traditions assert. Hell
itself knows who belongs to it and pulls them in when they die. Hell knows who
has kept a covenant with it.
The only way to keep from
going to that horrible place upon death is to break one’s covenant with hell.
God told the Israelites, “And your
covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall
not stand” (Isa. 28:15). Through the redemptive work of Christ on our
behalf we can break the covenant that we once made with death and hell and
enter into the new covenant with Christ.
God has made every provision
available to keep us from having to go to hell (John 3:16-21). God does not
condemn anyone to hell. We were destined to go there because we chose to follow
Satan. However, Jesus came to give us another choice. We choose Him and our
destiny changes. We choose against Him and we will continue on the course that we
have chosen (Matt. 7:13-14).
Dear reader, if you have not
yet chose Christ as your Lord and Savior, why don’t you choose to enter into a
new covenant today by accepting His provision on your behalf. You will be
eternally grateful that you did.
Visit http://www.vindicatinggod.org
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Death and Hell are God's Enemies
December
10
Death and
Hell are God’s Enemies
Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of
death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it…. He seeing
this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in
hell, neither his flesh did see corruption (Acts 2:24, 31)
One should not embrace or
take comfort in the false teaching that a literal hell does not exist. We can
see that part of the redemption price that Jesus paid was to enter into hell.
This proves that the doctrines of soul sleep and annihilation are utterly false
and have no bearing in Scripture. Otherwise Jesus would have had to suffer
both.
However, another false
doctrine taught in the majority of Christianity is the false idea that God personally
imprisons sinners in hell upon their death. On the contrary it is the sinner
himself who chooses hell because he or she refuses to repent. If men and women
will choose to serve God’s enemies while alive on the earth then He will give
them over to these same enemies upon their death.
The fact that hell is an
enemy of God is seen in how it attempted to hold Jesus in its grip upon His
sacrificial death on our behalf. The word “death” in verse 24 is
"Hades" which is translated "hell" in other parts of the
Bible. Furthermore, in the original languages, hell takes on a living
personality. One scholar says, “....it should be rendered snares of death; the
figure being that of escape from the snare
of a huntsman” (Marvin Vincent's Word Studies; emphasis mine). Another
scholar notes:
“....but the Hebrew original means ‘snares’ or ‘traps’ or ‘cords’ of death
where sheol and death are personified as hunters laying snares for prey
....’Loosing’ (lusas) suits better the notion of ‘snares’ held a prisoner by
death” (A.T. Robertson's Word Pictures In the New Testament)
Hell attempted to hold on to
Jesus. Hell was not the friend of Jesus. Jesus went to war and defeated hell on
our behalf. We are told, “God raised him
up! God freed him from death’s dreadful grip, since it was impossible for death
to hang on to him” (Common English Bible) and Then God released him from the horrors of death and brought him back to
life again, for death could not keep this man within its grip (The Living
Bible). Jesus defeated hell on our behalf so that those who appropriate this
truth won’t go there.
http://www.vindicatinggod.org
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Who was Eternal Damnation Prepared For?
December
9
Who was
Eternal Damnation Prepared For?
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand,
Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an
hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was
a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in
prison, and ye visited me not (Matt. 25:41-43)
God did not prepare hell and
the lake of fire for mankind. This was prepared for Satan and his angels. So
why do men and women go there? Because they have taken on Satan’s nature and
have decided to follow him (Eph. 2:1-5). Those who take on Satan’s nature and
follow his ways must share his eternal destiny.
Notice that Jesus says to
those who are condemned to the everlasting fire that they did not feed the
hungry, give drink to the thirsty, give shelter to strangers, clothe the naked,
or visit those in prison. This is a lack of compassion for those in need and
this is satanic in nature. While criminals and sexually immoral people will go
to the lake of fire, so will those who neglect to exhibit God’s love for others
who are deprived. God’s nature is one of selfless, others-focused love. Anyone
lacking this essential characteristic is not serving Christ.
However, keep in mind that
God never prepared this place for man because it was never His intentions for
man to take on Satan’s attributes. It was never God’s desire that any human
being go to that place (Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9) and He derives no pleasure from
the fact that people die and separate themselves from Him (Ezekiel 18:23-32;
33:11). God basically cries over those who make choices to live in such ways
that leaves Him no choice but to allow them the eternal consequences of their
choice (Matt. 23:37; Luke 7:30; John 5:40; Hosea 11:5-7).
So why is there a hell in
the first place? Hell and, later, the lake of fire is for Satan because he and
his followers hated God intensely and chose to separate themselves from Him.
Therefore, God prepared a place by which they can have the separation that they
wanted so badly (Isa. 14:12-15). Any place where God’s presence is lacking is a
place of misery.
Jesus, in His deep and
intense love for us was willing to pay the full price to redeem us from this
place. God does not want any man to go there and there is no reason for anyone
to. Make Christ your Savior and obey His Lordship and you will never have to go
to a place that was not prepared for you in the first place.
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