Friday, February 5, 2016
VIDEO
Exalt the Lord our God!
Bow low before his feet, for he is holy! Moses and Aaron were
among his priests; Samuel also called on his name. They cried to the Lord for help, and
he answered them. He spoke to Israel from the
pillar of cloud, and they followed the laws and decrees he gave them. O Lord our
God, you answered them. You were a
forgiving God to them, but you punished them when they went wrong. Exalt
the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain in Jerusalem, for
the Lord our God is holy! Psalm
99:5-9(NLT)
There is a common statement I have heard over the years by
people who are largely ignorant of what God’s Word declares:
I just
find it hard to believe that a loving God would reject people and send them to
Hell.
The premise in that statement is that “love” never includes “punishment”
but is always a soft place to land. And
if God is one who does send people to a devil’s hell who are simply victims
of some unfortunate lifestyle choices – well, we don’t need that kind of God. We want a God who has a soft pillow for us to
land on.
The Psalmist points-out rather clearly that God is not
anything like that kind of God. In rehearsing
Israel’s cycle of being oppressed, crying out to God, being forgiven, and then
ignoring the God who saved them, the writer shows the cycle of sinful impunity with
which we humans treat holy God. We want
his love, forgiveness and deliverance, but we scoff at the idea that we will be
punished for disobedience.
Universalism (which is belief that there is no hell or
punishment, and everyone will experience God’s forgiveness, and ultimately live
for eternity in heaven) is categorically-rejected by orthodox
Christianity.
The main problem with universalism being a natural result of the
unconditional love of God is that the two are mutually exclusive. Unconditional love, expressed by the grace of
God in Christ being crucified for our sins clearly destroys the notion that everybody
goes to heaven; rather it sets-up a conditional response or rejection of God’s
grace-gift.
Ephesians 2:8 declares this:
God
saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift
from God.
When you believed
is the phrase which is the conditional part of unconditional love. Universalism skips over the requirement of receiving
the gift of grace; rather it just credits the grace of God as something that
our Creator will bestow upon us no matter how we act.
That is like a child imagining his behavior is entirely his
choice – he can be self-absorbed and dismiss any responsibility for his actions. And, with free will it is like that; you really
do have
the right to be a nitwit – but you end up a nitwit. In that sense, universalism denies the end
result of choices.
In the Church these days, there are those who make sinful
lifestyle choices, and those who are steeped in sinful practices, who are
looking for legitimization; they want to be accepted. They want their sin baptized, sanctified,
ordained and even lauded as holy.
They want a soft pillow for their unbelief.
It may happen for a while on earth; it will never be accepted
in heaven.
For You Today
When you
try to bend the Scripture to say what you wish it would, you do not so much “break”
the commandments; but you will break yourself on them.
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