Death is Mankind's Friend

To some people God's statement that “the soul who sins will die,” as recorded by the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel, and the apostle Paul's statement that “the wages of sin is death,” as recorded in the New Testament, are just further examples of God's nasty side.

What a spoil sport! What a harsh tyrant God is!

If we look at these through the lens of love rather than the lens of punishment and vengeance we again see God's good side, God's love.

After Adam and Eve sinned, God banished them from the garden so they could not eat from the tree of life in their sinful condition. God did not want them to live forever in such a fractured relationship with Him. Instead they were to die, be removed from the garden, and eventually from the earth, until Jesus had come to earth and paid for their sin, and they could be restored to their original relationship with God.

Strange as it might seem, death is mankind's friend. 

Those who lived BC left the earth at the end of their lifetimes and waited in hades for Jesus to deal with their sin at Calvary. 

Those of us who live AD are headed in one of two directions on our death.

Those who belong to Christ immediately move to the New Jerusalem, “my Father's house”, as Jesus called it.

Those who do not belong to Christ go to hades as their AD predecessors did, until their resurrection to face judgement and rehabilitation at the end of the ages.

Either way God's love for His children will prevail and His children will be reconciled to Him in the end.

Death is the doorway into hades and ultimately to life or directly to life, depending on whether or not people belong to Christ in their time on this planet.

What do you think of this?

Blessings, Barry

The Parable of the Wise and Loving Parent

The big day has arrived. Your son has just turned 6 and you arrange to give him an exciting birthday party in the back yard. 

During the games and activities your child makes a real pest of himself. He is a poor loser when someone else wins a competition. He has to have the first piece of cake going around, and the biggest piece at that. He shows extreme displeasure with some of the presents he has been given. He is a pain and is beginning to arouse anger and frustration in his guests. The party is ready to explode.

Do you leave him continue this way, and risk ruining the party, and worse still, risk losing all his friends?

Of course not.

You quietly take him from the yard and give him some time out in his room where others can't see him and where he can not make things any worse, for himself or for his friends.

Were you angry with your son? Most definitely.

Did you still love your son? Most definitely.

So, what will you do next?

After a certain length of time, you visit your son, help him understand what has been happening and its present and possible future consequences, and help him change his attitude and future behaviour and to see the potential benefits that would come from these changes. 

Those changes would also have the benefit of removing your anger and being reconciled to your son, moving on in harmony with him.

God watched on as his children behaved badly in the days of Noah. He loved them, yet was angry with their behaviour. He decided to remove them from the earth and give them some time out in hades, where others couldn't see them.

Was God angry with them? Did He make a judgement about their behaviour? Did He destroy them, remove them from the earth? Did He place them in hades? Did He love them? Did He visit them later in their room, in hades? Did He talk to them about how things could be better for them in the future?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

If we can do these things well as sinful, earthly parents, how much better is God as the most loving parent of all at restoring his wayward and badly behaving children and having them lead a life that is pleasing and reconciled to Him?

Blessings, Barry

A difficult verse

Hi everyone,
As you will have noticed I have been silent for a while.  No-one said they wanted to follow my sidetrack on end-times, so I have been doing that study without any posting here.
But I have now veered back to our original focus so have some thoughts to share with you again.

How many times have I tried to discover the meaning of this verse?

But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

Matthew 19 : 30 ;  Matthew 20 : 16 ;  Mark 10 : 31 ;  Luke 13 : 30.

Several explanations have occured to me over the years, but recently I have been considering two others, which are related to some extent.

In Matthew's gospel this statement surrounds the story of the labourers and the generous landowner.  Although all labourers were paid the same amount at the end of the day, those employed last were paid first and those employed first were paid last.
This is a parable, so has a spiritual or prophetic meaning or application.

Possibility 1.
The Jews were God's chosen nation to inherit the kingdom and then to bring in  the Gentile nations.  However because of their failure to obey God and to accept their Messiah, Jesus told the Jews that the kingdom would be taken from them and given to the church.  (Matthew 21 :  33 - 46, which is another story of a landowner;  also Matthew 8 : 12)

Paul confirmed this by saying that AFTER the full number of Gentiles came in all Israel would be saved.  (Romans 11 :  25 - 26)
So the first chosen would now be last to enter, and the last first.

Possibilty 2.
This possibility is almost a variation of possibility 1.  After telling a story about two sons, Jesus told Israel's chief priests and elders that tax collectors and prostitutes (outcasts in Israeli society) would enter the kingdom of God before they would.  (Matthew 21 :  28 - 32)

Clearly the religious leaders would be expecting to be first in .... but they were to come in AFTER those like Matthew and Mary Magdalene who were not depending on their religious position or performance for acceptance, but on their belief in the gospel and their willingness to follow Jesus.

With a similar theme, Jesus' other story about two sons (recorded in Luke 15 :  11 - 32) has the younger, rebellious, but returning son coming into the father's house and enjoying the celebrations before the older "obedient" son.  The older would have been expecting first entry because of his fiathfulness but, if the story continues in the way we would now expect it to, he would have been the last to enter.

Both possible explanations hint at the same idea - the strictly religious are surpassed by those who throw themselves at Christ's feet for mercy.

Do you have any other ideas on this?
Blessings, Barry

Old Testament Clues to God's Ultimate Purpose

Paul suggested that God's aim to bring unity to all things under Christ was a mystery that had been revealed to him.  It is therefore understandable that most of the biblical support for the view that God will eventually restore everyone to himself comes from Paul's writings in the New Testament. 

Even so, occasionally God let his plan "slip out" before Paul's time.
David let the cat out of the bag with these gems .......

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations. Psalm 22 : 27 - 28 TNIV

All the nations that you have created will come and bow down to you; they will praise your greatness.  You are mighty and do wonderful things; you alone are God.  Psalm 86 : 9 - 10 GNB

The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.
Psalm 145 : 8-9 ESV

And Isaiah added his share with these ......

On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.  And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.  He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.  Isaiah 25:6 - 8 ESV

"Turn to me now and be saved, people all over the world! I am the only God there is.  My promise is true, and it will not be changed. I solemnly promise by all that I am: Everyone will come and kneel before me and vow to be loyal to me.  Isaiah 45: 22 - 23 GNB

All mankind will come to worship Me, from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another," says the LORD.   Isaiah 66: 23 HCSB

Maybe this is what God has been up to all the time.  It is not a new idea coming from some heretic Christ-followers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries after all.

Blessings, Barry

Book Progress Report

Hi everyone.

I am miles (kms?) behind the book schedule I announced last year.  Even though I have rough drafts of each chapter written, I still have more study to do before I will be happy to release them to you .... for your expert review.

As you would know, I have been a student of eschatology for decades, yet have still to develop a view that is scripturally sound.  It is indeed a difficult task - wish God had inspired a book called "Eschatology 101" to be added after Revelation rather than have us gather clues from all over the Bible and try to fit them together.  :-)

However I have resumed the task because I want to have an eschatology that I know is biblically sound to explain HOW God will restore everyone to Himself.  I may not include the results of this investigation in the book (the first book anyway), but I want to be sure that I can answer the HOW questions that people may ask after they read it.

So ...... I have slowed down the book writing while researching the eschatology ... again.
Cartoons for the book have also slowed down, so everything may well be ready at the same time eventually.

Now a question for you .......
Do you want me to post here (and therefore send to you by email) my deliberations, findings, musings, questions, etc. from the eschatology study?  

Before you answer, let me warn you that it will be challenging stuff.  But if you would like to be challenged, maybe even to the core of your eschatological being, then it would be helpful for me to receive your feedback on what I post.

Any starters?
Blessings, Barry

The Jubilee

Have you ever read about the jubilee that was celebrated every 50 years in the ancient nation of Israel?
It is a powerful, almost unbelievable, practice in the life of those people, prescribed by God as an essential part of their national life.
 
You'll find it described in Leviticus 25 and mentioned in Leviticus 27 and Numbers 36.  Take a moment to read Leviticus 25.
Every fifty years everything was to be restored to the way it originally was - slaves were set free, debts were cancelled, property returned to its original owners.

Our way of living, especially in the western world, is so far removed from what happened there that it is almost impossible for us to understand how such an arrangement would work.
Nevertheless, with the huge amount of debt we all carry, whether as individuals, businesses, governments or nations, and the percentage of our incomes we use to service these debts, surely it is a better way to live, as God's way always is.

If the Jubilee is God's way, and worked so well in the ancient past, don't you think this is still God's way and can say something to us about how things will pan out for the entire creation in the end?
The physical jubilee that happened in national Israel says something exciting to us about the spiritual way it will work at the end of the ages.

All of mankind is in debt to God and slaves to sin and Satan.  But Jesus paid for all our debts to guarantee a jubilee for all of mankind.  And Jesus will also bind and reform Satan and so free all mankind from its slavery to him.  And we will be returned to our original condition - the image of God - when we see Jesus.

The jubilee for Israel becomes the pattern for the jubilee for all of us.
Paul describes this jubilee in Romans 8 : 18 - 21 in these words........

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

Israel may no longer obey God's commands today, and we certainly don't either.  But when all the kingdoms of this world have become Christ's, God's ways will be followed and Jesus will oversee creation's jubilee.

Isn't the Bible so full of the promise of the victorious gospel of grace?

Barry

The Lake of Fire (again)

Hi everyone.

I have posted on this topic twice before but I have made this new post (composed mostly of what I had written before) to answer a question on another forum, so I thought I would put a copy of it here.

The Lake of Fire (LOF) is mentioned five times in the book of Revelation .....  Rev. 14 : 10 - 11;  19 : 20;  20 : 10;  20 : 13 - 15; and 21 : 8.

Many people have very firm views on what the LOF could be.  But since Revelation is so full of symbols, what the LOF stands for will always be open to conjecture, depending on your view of God, as much as anything else.

Those who view God as a vengeful judge see the LOF as a place of horrible physical torment in flames of fire that last for ever and ever.  Properly translated, "for ever and ever" really should be "for the ages of the ages", but that doesn't alter the ugliness of this view very much.  I personally can't see how people are comfortable worshipping a God who has such horrible intentions for the majority of His creation.

Those who view God with a bit more mercy than that see the LOF as a place where people are annihilated and removed from existence rather than tormented.

Those who view God as a loving Father and the Saviour of the world see the LOF as the place where those whose names are not in the Book of Life are purified and made ready to move into eternity in fellowship with God.

Using this last view, I see the LOF as a reformatory for the rebellious children of God. 
Looking at the last reference from above, we see that John gives a definition of the LOF.  Revelation 21 :  8 says that the LOF is "the lake that burns with fire and sulphur."

The 'fire' is a symbol representing purification or cleansing or changing of form.  Chemically, fire never destroys, it only changes the nature or form of things.  Wood burning in a lounge fire is never destroyed but is changed or converted to other substances like smoke, char, ash, heat, light, etc.  So fire in the LOF is a symbol for change or conversion of one form or nature into another - the reforming process of the reformatory.

The 'lake' indicates the size of the operation - not a small fireplace, or a forge or even a commercial furnace, but a huge expanse of conversion.

The 'sulphur' adds information about the character of the fire.  The Greek word that we translate as sulphur or brimstone is "theion", which is probably the neuter form of "theios" that means divinity.   The verb derived from "theion" is "theioo" which means "to make divine."

Putting all these together paints a picture of the LOF being a large scale purifying or reforming process that produces character of a divine nature.

A story which has appeared on the internet over the years in various forms gives me some insight into how this might work.

I love this story as it helps me appreciate one of God's methods of making us Christ-like in our process of sanctification and also helps me understand the references to  fire and brimstone and God's purpose in using these cleansing agents.

While reading Malachi 3, a group of women in a Bible Study were struck by the reference to God sitting as a refiner and purifier of silver.  To gain a better understanding of this verse, one of the women offered to visit a silversmith, watch him at work, and report back to the group on her observations the following week.

She called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him work, but didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up.  He explained that in refining silver, he needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest in order to burn away all the impurities.

She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.  The man answered that yes, not only must he sit there holding the silver, but he also had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire.  If the silver was left in the fire a moment too long, it would be injured in some way.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot sometimes, and began to see the purifying purpose in these experiences under the watchful eye of the Master Silversmith.

The woman remained silent while she let these thoughts run their course, then asked the silversmith, “How do you know when the silver is fully refined?”  He smiled at her and answered, ‘Oh, that’s easy — it is fully refined when I can see my image in it.

We were made in God's image originally, and we need to be reformed into that image for fellowship with Him in eternity.  He does this in His saints now through the sanctifying work of His Holy Spirit, and in the rebellious through His judgements at the Great White Throne and through the purifying process in the LOF.

I think this story perfectly describes the purpose of the LOF.  It is for purifying those whose names are not in the Book of Life and have not had their lives changed by the purifying work of the Holy Spirit during their earthly faith walk.

Different pieces of silver will obviously take different amounts of time in the flame to be purified, depending on how 'unpurified' they were when they were placed there, but eventually the LOF will no longer be needed.

Interestingly, the last part of Revelation 21 : 8 says that the LOF is the second death.  It is the death of all that offends God and that needs to be removed from those who have not had the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit involved in their lives as we've had.  But when the LOF has finally finished its work it will no longer be needed and will be destroyed as Paul promised in 1 Cor 15 : 26.

Blessings, Barry