Illusion of Virtue

What makes you angry about hell? For me, it's that so many "decent" people end up there. Almost nobody grieves for a tyrant or mass murderer when they die. We feel they got what they earned for their wickedness. But when it's an unsaved friend who perishes, people feel offended when they hear the truth about hell.

The Bible is crystal clear about God's holiness. His dwelling cannot tolerate any impurity. Speaking of God's holy city, Revelation 22:15 (BBE) reminds us that, "Outside are the dogs, and those who make use of evil powers, those who make themselves unclean, and the takers of life, and those who give worship to images, and everyone whose delight is in what is false."

People who claim to be believers also will be excluded because they never knew who the Lord truly is. Matthew 7:22 and 23 (BBE) reminds me of charismatics who are obsessed with signs and miracles. "A great number will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, were we not prophets in your name, and did we not by your name send out evil spirits, and by your name do works of power?' And then will I say to them, 'I never had knowledge of you: go from me, you workers of evil'".

What those who claim to be believers need to do is examine themselves. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 13:5 (BBE), "Make a test of yourselves, if you are in the faith; make certain of yourselves. Or are you not conscious in yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, if you are truly Christ's"?

In truth, nobody is even close to being pure. As Isaiah 64:6 (BBE) explains, "For we have all become like an unclean person, and all our good acts are like a dirty robe: and we have all become old like a dead leaf, and our sins, like the wind, take us away."

Even more shocking is that we mortals dare to quarrel with our creator. Romans 9:20 (BBE) says, "But, O man, who are you, to make answer against God? May the thing which is made say to him who made it, 'Why did you make me so?'"

Some mainstream denominations even deny that Jesus was the anointed son of God. As we read in 1 John 2:22 (BBE), this is the test whereby we know who's genuinely saved. "Who is false but he who says that Jesus is not the Christ? He is the Antichrist who has no belief in the Father or the Son."

And if Christ doesn't return by Saturday, I hope to post about a song where a man witnesses a murder and fears for his life.

Saturday Song: Johnny Cash, "Guess Things Happen That Way"

Life sure can seem unfair. People who we feel ought to drop dead live on for decades while loved ones die young. Worse yet, these departed family members and friends had so much potential which they never had the time to realize.

Hear Johnny Cash's song here.

Unfairness is hard to understand. If God is so loving and kind, goes the argument, why does he allow such horrors as war, famine, disease, and Microsoft Windows? Why can't we live happy and trouble-free lives? And if he lets bad things happen to good people, can we trust him at all?

I wrestled with similar doubts in the 1980s. Elders at a house church drilled into me that I should build up my faith so I could receive full sight. But each failure of my faith, or so they told me, proved that I lacked faith to be healed.

I now know that God is sovereign. He made us and he knows what's best for us. And like our pets fuss whenever we take them to the vet's, we don't realize what God does is for our own eventual good and his glory.

Romans 9:20 (KJV) shows how foolish we are to accuse God of wrongdoing. "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest  against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why 
hast thou made me thus?"

This answer sounds unsatisfying to ears accustomed to egalitarianism. We think we know better but God is God and not us. I don't like it eather but I guess things happen that way.

Did you enjoy the song and what I wrote? Please comment in the box below. But if you'd rather not, have a beautiful weekend anyway.
I'll be blogging on Monday about how some Christians think the Holy Spirit makes them do weird things like falling backward.

Who Do Some Christians Think They Are?

 I've shown in the previous two posts that both predestination and choice are true in the Bible. God chooses to save some and we also have the ability granted by him  to surrender to him. It's a conundrum which our puny minds can't comprehend.

This paradox reminds me of a fly buzzing against a window pane. It can't figure out what's blocking its way, yet it sees the outside world through the glass. We're like that fly when we strive to grasp the unfathomable and infinite mind of God Almighty.

Isaiah 64:8 (KJV) aptly shows our relationship to the Lord. "But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand." Therefore, who do people think they are to question his omniscient will?

Jeremiah 18:6 (KJV) is another example of God likening himself to a master potter and we as being mere clay. "O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel."

Lest anybody think this is just an Old Testament mandate, look at what Paul wrote in Romans 9:21 (KJV). "Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?" This, by the way,  is the reason that he favoured Jacob over Esau.

Job sure learned his lesson regarding questioning God's intelligence and wisdom. The final three chapters of the book of Job show how the Lord showed through questions that we mere humans are as nothing compared to the Almighty. Like Paul wrote in Romans 9:20 (KJV), "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?"

I likewise learned my lesson regarding judging God's motives, though not in such a dramatic way as Job did. In How I Was Razed, I showed how misinformed I was about the Lord and how he graciously led me to know him as he truly is. Please check out my wondrous testimony memoir at Amazon.