Hell Is Your Choice!

The Apostle Paul quickly learned that the questions about Christ's return would not go away in Thessalonica despite what he wrote and what I quoted in my previous blog. This busy metropolitan city with its intersecting roads to the rest of the Roman world had many intersecting ideas and thoughts rushing back and forth. And among those were some troubling thoughts about the return of Christ. Besides all that the church there was being persecuted. So Paul begins his response to all this troubling news like this:

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering-- since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. 

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. - 2Th 1:1-12 ESV

As you can see, Paul did indeed have the return of Christ and the terrible Day of the Lord in mind. Destruction in the form of flaming fire is on the way. God will visit His vengeance on those who do not know Him nor obey—in the sense of pay attention to—the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be dealt with. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction! That's a strange phrase, because we usually think of destruction as something that happens and the person is gone, dead, destroyed.
But Paul says they will suffer and keep on suffering God's δίκη (dē'-kā), God's justice. The sentence will be carried out. That sentence, he writes, will be destruction, but not extinction. Everything that Christ's enemies trust in, everything they dream about, all peace and security, all their riches and power—everything will be wiped out and they themselves will be separated forever from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. They will eternally know nothing but despair, guilt, fear, anxiety and loneliness. As Paul wrote in his first letter,

. . . sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. - 1Th 5:3 ESV

But forever? Why? How can it be? That is a most difficult concept to take hold of. Men usually couch it in terms of the Lord Jesus being too vindictive. Won't his anger ever be satisfied? Will he forever demand punishment, justice—destruction!? But that's the exact opposite of what the Scriptures reveal. How dare you or I make such a mockery of our Lord's mercy and love? How dare we forget that Jesus became our High Priest and made Himself the one final sacrifice for the sins of all men (Hebrews 7:27; 9:11-14, 27-28)? How dare we not hear His loud cry for all humanity upon the cross, 

"Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" - Mat 27:46 ESV

He stands before the world of men of all ages with his scarred hands held out. He longs to give forgiveness, but so many are like Jerusalem. He looks down upon them with tears in His eyes.

 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! - Luk 13:34 ESV

But like ancient Pharaoh and Jerusalem's Sanhedrin their hearts are hard, their eyes are darkened and they are not willing! Hell is their choice. The Lord cannot and will not deprive them of the freedom to choose their own destruction.

So it stands for each one of us. Make your choice! If you want hell, then that is what you will receive.

What Is Faith?

What exactly is faith? This is the next question poised by the Hebrews letter after urging enlightened readers not to throw away their confidence in the promises of God. The author quotes the prophet Habakkuk, about whom little or nothing is known. His short book is nevertheless in the Hebrew canon and quoted by the apostles. The Hebrews author seems to be combining quotes from a couple prophets or quoting from memory. At any rate, while what he quotes is not precisely what we have in Habakkuk, it is what the prophet essentially says, namely that the righteous person shall live by his faith (Habakkuk 2:4). But what do the two authors mean by faith?

Turning to the internet I find these definitions:

faith

fāTH/

noun

1. 1.

   complete trust or confidence in someone or something.

   "this restores one's faith in politicians"

   synonyms:

   trust, belief, confidence, conviction;  optimism, hopefulness, hope "he justified his boss's faith in him"
2. 2.

   strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.

   synonyms:

   religion, church, sect, denomination, (religious) persuasion,(religious) belief, ideology, creed, teaching, doctrine "she gave her life for her faith"

Is that what these authors mean? Which shall we choose? Complete trust in someone or a strong belief in certain religious doctrines? Or is faith something that is apprehended by one's spirit, an understanding that defies proof, that simply is? Let's listen to Hebrews. 

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. - Hebrews 11:1-2 ESV 

And how do those two definitions help?

The Greek translated as assurance refers to a substructure or foundation, something firm on which to build. So Ezekiel is told by God about the forms or design of the temple (Ezek. 43:11). The building had specific dimensions that must be followed exactly. So faith has specifics. It is not something vague or mystical, without clarity, a mere whistling in the dark. When you hope for things to come you turn to faith, but that hope is based upon some specifics, some events and acts from the past. You can build your life upon it.

Hebrews modifies that definition with a second. Faith is the conviction of things not seen. A conviction is a proof. You can test it. Paul, writing to Timothy, uses another version of the Greek word here to speak about the use of Scripture. It is useful for correction or reproof, he says (2 Tim. 3:16).  One does not correct or reprove without proof. So the man of faith speaks and acts with proof, even though what he hopes for in the future is not yet seen. His hope is based upon proof from the past. That proof is the foundation upon which he builds his life. The Scripture, in Paul's usage, is a record of that past. It is a record of what God has said and done for His people. As such, it is proof. So the Hebrews writer picks up that thought to write about people of faith who looked back upon the deeds of God and heard His words. Based upon God's earlier acts and words, they trusted themselves and their futures to Him.

In the rest of the chapter he then gives example after example of men and women who walked by and lived in such faith. We'll take a look at those examples in future posts.

Righteous By Faith Alone

I have often pointed to two basic principles in the teaching about spiritual matters and faith in God.

1. The Formal Principle— the only source of my knowledge about all things spiritual is the Bible, God's revealed Word.
2. The Material Principle—the central teaching of the Bible is that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God who became man and offered His precious life as the complete sacrifice for the sins of all mankind.

Both principles were at risk as Luther began his attempts to reform the medieval European church early in the sixteenth century. Church councils and traditions guarded and taught by the church's bishops and the Roman Pope had distorted God's Word. As a result, the central teaching of the Bible, that a man is declared just and righteous only by God declaring him so for the sake of Jesus Christ, was also distorted. To assist my readers to understand what this means I return again to the Apostle Paul in Romans 10.

But the righteousness based on faith says, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) or "'Who will descend into the abyss?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame." - Rom 10:6-11 ESV

Consider righteousness itself. What is it and why does the Apostle use such a complex word? Paul's Greek word dikaiosynay is rooted in the widely used O.T. Hebrew word zedek. So we read in the psalms:

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. - Psa 1:5-6 ESV

For you bless the righteous, O LORD; you cover him with favor as with a shield. - Psa 5:12 ESV

The righteous man loves the LORD and walks in His ways. He seeks to know God's will and way for his life and obeys Him. He is righteous. But is he? Is there any man on earth who may correctly claim to be righteous or just (zedek) in God's eyes by virtue of the pious life he lives? No, not one, says King David in his psalms:

The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. - Psa 14:1-3 ESV and Psa 53:1-3 ESV

Yet in Jesus' day many Jewish teachers believed they had attained to diakaiosynay, the state of perfection. They even believed they lived above and beyond God's demands. In this they took great pride. Yet of them our Lord Jesus says in his Sermon on the Mount,

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. - Mat 5:20 ESV

For this reason the Apostle Paul insists that the state of being declared righteous in God's eyes is only possible when you put your faith and trust in Jesus, the same LORD who came down once on Mt. Sinai (Rom. 10:9; Phil. 2:11; 1 John 4:2) to speak to Moses and lead Israel to the promised land. He is the Son of God, very God of very God, who offered his life as the single all-atoning sacrifice for all men's sins. To confirm this the heavenly Father raised him up on the third day. If then you believe in your heart and confess the same with your lips you are saved. In the words of the ancient prophet Joel,

And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls. - Joel 2:32 ESV. (cf. also Hab. 2:4)

This was the challenge of the Reformation. The false teaching of the Jewish scribes and pharisees had crept back into the church. Men were being taught that they could obtain righteousness by purchasing indulgences. Luther was an ordained and certified doctor of the church. He was called to teach God's Word. He was under the command of God and compelled by his conscience. He had no choice but to insist that men are righteous and just before God only by faith!

Sadly, the Roman Catholic church still clings to indulgences and the so-called treasury of merit she believes she controls despite everything that has been taught from God's Word over the course of the past five centuries.