The most politically incorrect doctrine ever

For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.
Malachi 4:1

You may have seen the classic film “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” with Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Terminator (Arnold) is sent back in time to protect a young boy who will grow up to lead the resistance and protect the world against Judgment Day – a complete nuclear holocaust.

The Terminator was sent to prevent Judgment Day.

The Bible also speaks about a Judgment Day.

Not a nuclear holocaust, but a day when every single human being that has ever lived will stand before God to give an account of themselves.

However, the real Judgment Day, unlike the movie, is unpreventable.

The doctrine of the judgment of God or the notion of a Judgment Day sounds like complete lunacy to the post-modern, post-Christian world of our day. Our world despises any kind of authority or accountability that might limit my self-expression or self-government.

We can’t even handle someone telling us that we parked badly, let alone the truth of a Judgment Day.

But, just because we don’t like something, doesn’t make it untrue.

We believe in the Life Everlasting

Death is not a spectator sport.

The mortality rate of humankind is the same all over the world: one death per one person.

The question, “What does the Bible teach about life after death?”, becomes vitally important.

Not everyone thinks there is life after death, though.

Regarding the afterlife, Stephen Hawking, the brilliant cosmologist and theoretical mathematician, declared in 2011:

“I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”

When Christian people say the last two phrases of the Apostles’ Creed we affirm our belief in life after death:

“I believe in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”

Continue reading We believe in the Life Everlasting

The horror of hell and planting churches

We are familiar with the idea of separation. We’ve all experienced it at one time or another.

Jesus taught that at the end of this age there is going to be a separation. According to Jesus, this world is not going to continue forever. There will be a supernatural end, a cataclysmic event, a universal conclusion to this present age. Jesus called this “the Son of Man coming in his glory”. Jesus, who first came into our world as a baby born in humble circumstances, will return again as the all-powerful King, who sits in judgment over the nations of the world. Then there will be a separation between what Jesus refers to as goats and the sheep. Those that belong to Christ, the sheep, the King welcomes them into his kingdom. To the goats, those who have rejected Christ, the King says the exact opposite: to depart from him “into the eternal fire” of “eternal punishment”. (cf. Matthew 25:31-32, 41, 46)

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Jesus said don’t fear ISIS terrorists

On 16 July 2016 a faction of the army in Turkey tried to take control of the government in a coup. Soldiers, tanks and F16 Jet Fighters invaded Istanbul. 280 people were killed, but ultimately the coup failed. TIME magazine called it: Turkey’s long night of the soul.

The good news was that the night came to an end, warring stopped, day dawned, hostilities ceased, and the fierce anger stopped.

In contrast, the Bible teaches of future time of God’s judgment, wrath and anger on sin that will not cease. Continue reading Jesus said don’t fear ISIS terrorists

Hell of a subject

This past Sunday at our church we started a new sermon series on the book of Lamentations. The title of this series is “Hell of a subject” because Lamentations teaches us about the wrath or “fierce anger” (1:12) of God, of which an eternal hell is the ultimate expression.

We don’t often hear about the wrath or fierce anger of God, let alone about an eternal hell. Most people would say something like, “My God would never do that!” Rather than worshipping and serving the God of the Bible, most people worship and serve the God of their own making, who, not-surprisingly, has all the same opinions as themselves. Lamentations will help us. Lamentations gives us a small foretaste of the wrath of God.

Lamentations tells us that the work of evangelism and missions is urgent and crucial, because the fierce anger of God is a reality. There is an eternal hell and the gospel is God’s good news about Jesus and how we can be saved from God’s wrath.

Continue reading Hell of a subject

Will there be rewards in heaven?

For Christians, our faithfulness in this world influences our rewards in the world to come. This is not the final judgement. At the final judgement, if we are Christians we are saved and guaranteed a place in heaven. Our sin have been forgiven in Christ and we are righteous in God’s sight. On the other hand, if we have ignored or rejected Christ, we will be judged by God and spend an eternity apart from God in what Jesus described as the cosmic rubbish dump (“gehenna”).

The Bible teaches that as Christians we face an assessment where our work for the Lord will be tested and we will be rewarded (or not) according to our faithfulness. This is not the final judgment as our entrance into the New Creation is secure, but an accounting to God of what he has entrusted to us.

Continue reading Will there be rewards in heaven?

Hell of a problem

People tend to have a problem with the doctrine of hell because of three main reasons.

1. I’m not Adolf Hitler

We think that sin is not serious or offensive enough to warrant an eternal, conscious, state of suffering. However, the Bible teaches that sin is horrendous and hugely offensive to God. God cannot look upon sin. God hates sin. Sin is treason against our Creator and Sustainer.

We think that, if any, only Adolf Hitler’s sin is worthy of hell. But who are we to decide what sin is serious and what sin is not?

Revelation 21:8, speaking of the return of Christ and the great day of reckoning, says “the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practise magic arts, the idolaters and all liars–their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death.” Hell is described in terms of fire and burning. Whatever this might mean, hell will not be pleasant or good. Yet, the Bible does not shy away for the truth about hell for is the fair, right, and deserved consequence of treasonous behaviour against God. Sin is very serious.

2. He’s your Father, not your Old Man.

The second reason we tend to have a problem with hell is because we forget the holiness of God. God is not your buddy or your boyfriend. God is not to be trifled with or scorned. God is our Creator and Judge. The angels shout around the throne, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, heaven and earth are full of his glory.”

Yes, God is love and has revealed himself in Jesus; yes, we can now approach God with boldness and confidence because of Jesus’ sin-bearing death; but let us not forget the words in Hebrews 9, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire’.”

3. Make tea, not love

Again you ask, How can a loving God send people to hell? God is indeed loving. God the Father sent God the Son into the world to secure the eternal salvation of all God’s people. No-one forced or compelled God to do that. Out of love God chose to do it. But don’t make the mistake in thinking that God is only love; he is also just. God must punish sin appropriately or it would be an affront to his own justice. Hell is the fitting and right consequence for those who reject Jesus.

May that God grant us all a renewed appreciation for his holiness and a renewed insight into the ugliness of sin.

What did Jesus teach about hell?

Jesus believed in and warned people about a place called hell. The word he used was “gehenna”, which is normally translated in our English Bibles as “hell”.

Gehenna

In Old Testament times the valley south-west of Jerusalem was called Ge Hinnom and it was the city’s rubbish dump. It was a notorious valley that was previously used as a place of child-sacrifice to Molech* the detestable God of the Ammonites. Molech’s image was believed to have been a hollow brazen figure, with the head of an ox, and outstretched human arms. The figure was heated red hot by a fire from within and the babies placed in its arms to be slowly burned, while to prevent the parents from hearing the dying cries, the sacrificing priests beat drums.

Continue reading What did Jesus teach about hell?