Trail Lessons - There is Life Under the Ice

These are some of the Scriptures which inspired the thoughts I recorded at the reservoir: 

Trail Lessons – Christ Saves Us from Sin and Death

As I hiked the foothills of the Rocky Mountains on Good Friday, I passed by a rushing stream and paused by it to record some thoughts:

~~~~~~~

Unveiling the Myth of Hell and Eternal Torment, Part 1

Part 1 – A Brief Backdrop of My Journey

I have appropriately used the word “unveiling” in the title to this series about hell because God is the One who must lift the veil or pull back the curtain for us to see any truth.  And that’s precisely what He has done for me and continues to do on a daily basis.  

“A man cannot get anything if it should not 
be given him out of heaven.”

(John 3:17, CLNT)

The Backdrop

Please bear with me for a moment while I set a very brief backdrop of my spiritual journey.

God Will Have His Perfect Way, Part 2

Back in March of 2010, I read a blog post by David Flowers titled Hell: Eternal Torture?  I was prompted to comment on David’s post and also posted my reply here on this site and titled it God Will Have His Perfect Way.  At that time, I checked a little option box at David’s blog saying that I wanted to get emails of any future comments pertaining to that post.  Over the past three years, comments have come and gone, and I’ve not been compelled to comment again, until last night.  

Yesterday, a man named Andrew posted his comments and asked particular questions beginning with “Is anyone up for this subject?”  His comments caused me to want to immediately reply. 

Andrew’s comments were as follows:

Election Day, November 6, 2012

Regardless of who wins the United States’ election today, my faith and trust will rest in the sovereign God of all, Who is over all, and Who accomplishes His purposes and does His perfect will.  May His chosen candidate win--for better or for worse.  Whether you voted or did not vote, or whether you voted for that candidate or the other candidate, your actions were an important thread in the tapestry of God. He is sovereign over all.  

"For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God." (Romans 13:1)

Every Day, It's All About Christ

The evangel…

Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was entombed, and that He has been roused the third day according to the scriptures…

One died for the sake of all…

He died for the sake of all that those who are living should by no means still be living to themselves, but to the One dying and being roused for their sakes…

God was in Christ conciliating the world to Himself, not reckoning their offenses to them…

The Simplicity of Salvation

“For in grace, through faith, are you saved,

and this is not out of you;

it is God’s approach present,

not of works lest anyone should be boasting.”

(Ephesians 2:8-9)

I’ll have to begin this post with a little technical info on the Greek language.  Please bear with me; it’s so important to the point I’m going to make.

The majority of the New Testament is written in the Greek language.  Greek can be quite a complicated language and sometimes it is difficult to translate the full meaning of its text into the English language.  This is partly due to the fact that Greek verbs have different “tenses”, “voices”, and “moods” which give the verbs slightly different connotations.  If you’d like to be a serious student of the New Testament writings, gaining knowledge of these aspects of the Greek language is important.  

God Will Have His Perfect Way

I write this post as a comment reply to a post from a fellow blogger and brother in Christ. I feel my reply is too long to respectfully take that much space on David’s page, so I am posting it here.

This week, David Flowers posted an article titled “Hell: Eternal Torture?” The title immediately sparked my interest because a few years ago God graciously granted me new spiritual sight regarding hell and the eternal torment doctrine. I thoroughly read David’s article and some of the following comments from his readers.

Here is my reply:

God Conciliates the World to Himself

A couple of months ago, I was studying and pondering 2 Corinthians 5:18-20:

“Yet all is of God, Who conciliates us to Himself through Christ, and is giving us the dispensation of the conciliation, how that God was in Christ, conciliating the world to Himself, not reckoning their offenses to them, and placing in us the word of conciliation. For Christ, then, are we ambassadors, as of God entreating through us. We are beseeching for Christ’s sake, ‘Be conciliated to God!’”

I was pursuing serious study in the word “conciliates” using the my Concordant Literal New Testament Concordance and the online Blue Letter Bible. In study, I learned that in verse 18, where it states “God, Who conciliates us to Himself through Christ”, the word “conciliates” is in the active Greek voice.

(Right now, I will quickly and humbly confess that I am no Greek scholar. My understanding of the Greek language is minuscule. However, using the CLNT Concordance and the Blue Letter Bible, any person can learn a few little things to help them with their understanding of the Scriptures.)

So, in looking up the Greek tense of the word “conciliates” in verse 18, I learned the following about the usage of the word in that particular instance:

In verse 18, “conciliates” functions as a Greek verb in the Aorist tense and the Active voice.

The Aorist tense just means that the verb is having an action without regard for it being in the past, present, or future. There is no perfect English equivalent tense for this Greek Aorist tense, but it is usually rendered in English translating as past tense.

The Active voice says that the verb is actively performed by the subject doing this verb. In other words, God actively “conciliates us to Himself through Christ”. He is the doer of conciliating us to Himself. Blue Letter Bible uses the example of “The boy hit the ball” which shows the boy performing the action of hitting the ball.

So far, we have the understanding that God conciliates us to Himself through Christ Jesus without the action being bound to past, present, or future and that He actively has done it and does it.

Here is where it became really interesting to me. When I looked up “conciliated” in verse 20 where it says, “Be conciliated to God!”, I discovered something fantastic. The “conciliated” word in that verse is in the Passive Greek voice. This means that the subject does not perform the action, the action is done to the subject. We are the recipients of God’s conciliation; we are not the doers of it. The actions of God have had an impact on the world, and the world had nothing to do with it. Blue Letter Bible uses the following example: “The boy was hit by the ball.” The boy had no participation in the ball being hit by another force and consequently it hitting him. The boy was a bystander and the ball hit him. So it is with God’s conciliation of the world.

I see the words “Be conciliated to God!” saying something like, “Hey! Realize God is at peace with you. It’s already done. Be aware of it, live at peace with Him, and be freed by it.”

Related Post:
God Has Conciliated the World To Himself

The Eons Explained

In a previous post of a year and a half ago called God, The Savior of All Mankind, I mentioned the following words:

aiōn – Greek noun

aiōnios – Greek adjective

owlam – Hebrew noun

Those words have been translated “eternal”, “everlasting”, “forever” and various other ridiculous words in the majority of today’s English Bible translations. However, they truly mean no such thing. It has taken me a long time to get back to the subject of God being the Savior of all mankind and addressing the meaning of those words, but the day has finally arrived. Those two Greek words and one Hebrew word mistranslated into our English language have become the cause of great confusion and a foundation to the false belief that THE God of ALL things, YHWH, will doom a great majority of mankind to an eternal and terribly painful torment as a price to pay for not believing in His Son, Jesus Christ, during their earthly life.

One Day "GLORY!"

One day eyes that are blind will see you clearly

And one day all who deny will finally believe

One day hearts made of stone will break in pieces

And one day chains once unbroken will fall down at your feet

So we wait for that one day come quickly

We want to see your Glory

Every knee falls down before thee

Every tongue offers you praise

With every hand raised

Singing Glory

To You and unto You only

We'll sing Glory to Your name

One day voices that lie will all be silent

One day all that's divided will be whole again

One day death will retreat and wave it's white flag

One day love will defeat the strongest enemy

So we wait for that one day come quickly

We want to see your Glory

Every knee falls down before thee

Every tongue offers you praise

With every hand raised

Singing Glory

To You and unto You only

We'll sing Glory to Your name

We know not the day or the hour

Or the moments in between

But we know the end of the story

When we'll see

God Has Conciliated the World to Himself

“Yet all is of God, who conciliates us to Himself through Christ, and is giving us the dispensation of the conciliation, how that God was in Christ, conciliating the world to Himself, not reckoning their offenses to them, and placing in us the word of conciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5 :18-19)

In these two brief verses we are given precious gold nuggets of truth. We are assured that all is of God. And I believe all means all.

We are also told that God has conciliated the world to Himself through Christ. God was in Christ and He was conciliating the world to Himself! God was calling and drawing the world to Himself in peace and friendship. Through Christ, He has put aside the enmity between Himself and the world, not counting the world’s offenses against Him. And He has put that word of conciliation in the hearts of believers that we may beseech others to “Be conciliated to God!”

“For Christ, then, are we ambassadors, as of God entreating through us. We are beseeching for Christ’s sake, “Be conciliated to God!” For the One not knowing sin, He makes to be a sin offering for our sakes that we may be becoming God’s righteousness in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)

Conciliation is a one sided action. There are those now who have already conciliated to God; and therefore, there now exists reconciliation between themselves and God. They have a mutual conciliation which translates into reconciliation. God has conciliated the world to Himself through Christ. And ultimately, all in the heavens and on the earth will be reconciled to Him through Christ, “the Son of His love…the Head of the body…Who is Sovereign, Firstborn from among the dead, that in all He may be becoming first, for in Him the entire complement delights to dwell, and through Him to reconcile all to Him (making peace through the blood of His cross), through Him, whether those on the earth or those in the heavens.” (Colossians 1:13, 18-20)

Glory be to YHWH!

RELATED POST: God Conciliates the World to Himself

His Beautiful Redemption

Life seems to be running away with me. I long for peace and acceptance of where God has me, but at the same time, I do not want to be content in areas where I should not be. I can't decide if I'm looking for a contentment that is unhealthy or if God is trying to teach me a lesson in contentment.

I am not looking for contentment in being spiritually stagnant or character growth. I am looking for a peace and acceptance of things in my life that I am not be able to control whatsoever. There are things I long to do and accomplish, and yet, there are other responsibilities in my life which daily take precedence over those desires. Daily life runs off with me and I can't seem to be able to spend time in other things I long for. There are circumstances that I wish I could change for the better. But what do I know about what’s better and what’s best? God is the (only) one that knows. I don’t know (and doubt) that if I changed things according as to how I think they should be, it would actually be an improvement. My thinking is finite, and I am certain that in the midst of difficult circumstances God is doing a mighty work in our lives. A work that cannot come about if I were able or allowed to change things according to the way I think they should be.

What is the Lord teaching me? What am I supposed to be learning? I feel like I am getting a lesson in FUTILITY. The futility of man planning this or that when only if the LORD wills can we do this or that. The futility lesson reminds me how I am not in control of things. It is God alone who is in control of ALL things, and He is surely showing me that each day.

“The steps of a man are established by the LORD…” (Psalm 37:23)

“The mind of a man plans his ways, but the LORD directs his steps” (Proverbs 16:9)

“Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."” (James 4:13-15)

In the midst of all the struggle He reassures me that I am His beautiful redemption.

We are all HIS beautiful redemption....

I've had my forty days and forty nights at sea
I've had forty years in the wilderness, or so to speak
I've walked with sand from the ocean floor on my feet
To turn and say you left me

I'm a doubting Thomas needing to believe
I'm a perfumed sinner just like Magdalene
I'm Judas kissing on your cheek eager to deceive
I am all of these

Chorus:

I cry, Father, Father, forgive me
You say, Child, I already have
You are beautiful
Beautiful Redemption
You are Beautiful
Beautiful Redemption

I'm the guilty thief that's hanging by your side
And my shame is dying with your sacrifice
And all my fears come crashing down

As I look in your eyes I see paradise

Chorus

Hallelujah (we all, we all, we all fall down)
Hallelujah (we all, we all, we all fall down)
Hallelujah (we all, we all, we all fall down)
Hallelujah (we all, we all, we all fall down)

You are beautiful
Beautiful Redemption
You are Beautiful
Beautiful Redemption

Merry CHRISTmas!

We have a CHRISTmas season and celebration because over 2000 years ago there was a baby born in a little town called Bethlehem in the country of Israel.  This baby was the very son of God, born to a young virgin mother named Mary.  This little baby, born in most humble surroundings, was Jesus, the CHRIST, THE Savior of the world, the Savior of all mankind.  CHRISTmas is not about how many presents are under a tree or the frenzied madness of holiday shopping.  It is about remembering and celebrating THE Savior’s birth and THE greatest gift that has ever been given to mankind.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCsud5X3A54

 

Well, He cried when He was hungry,
Did all the things that babies do;
He rocked and He napped on His mother’s lap,
And He wiggled and giggled and cooed.
There were the cheers when He took His first step,
And the tears when He got His first teeth;
Almost everything about this little baby
Seemed as natural as it could be.

But this baby made the angels sing,
And this baby made a new star shine in the sky.
This baby had come to change the world.
This baby was God’s own son, this baby was like no other one.
This baby was God with us, this baby was Jesus.

And this baby grew into a young boy,
Who learned to read and write and wrestle with dad;
There was the climbin’ of trees and the scrapin’ of knees,
And all the fun that a boy’s born to have.
He grew taller and some things started changing,
Like His complexion and the sound of His voice;
There was work to be done as a carpenter’s son
And all the neighbors said He’s such a fine boy.

But this boy made the angels sing,
And this boy made a new star shine in the sky.
This boy had come to change the world.
This boy was God’s own son, this boy was like no other one.
This boy was God with us. This boy became a man,

And love made Him laugh and death made Him cry.
With the life that He lived and the death that He died,
He showed us heaven with His hands and His heart,
‘Cause this man was God’s own son.
This man was like no other one,
Holy and human right from the start.

This baby was God with us, this baby, this baby was Jesus;

this baby was Jesus, this baby was Jesus.

(“This Baby”, sung by Steven Curtis Chapman)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmacF-VZrqk

  

For just a moment

I wish I could have been there
To see Your first step, hear Your very first word
Tell me, did You ever fall and scrape Your knee?
Did You know Your wounds would one day heal the world?

For just one moment
I wish I could have seen You growing
Learning the ways of a carpenter's son
Just a little boy gazing at the stars
Did You remember creating every one?
If you passed by, would I have seen a child or a King?

Would I have known?
I wish I could have been there
My only wish is to see You, face to face
Wish I could have been there
Just to see You, Jesus, face to face

For just a moment
I wish I could have been there
When You left Your footprints upon the waves
To walk along beside You and never look away
Just Your whisper and the wind and sea obey
To see You feed the people
To feel Your healing in Your touch

I wish I could have been there
My only wish is to see You, face to face
Wish I could have been there
Just to see You, Jesus, face to face

To hear you pray in the garden alone
Laying down Your will with each tear
To see You walk that lonely road
Willing to die for me

And in that moment
I know I should have been there
You took my cross and gave Your life

And you live again, oh
And You live again!
Wish I could have been there
My only wish is to see You rise again
Wish I could have been there
My only wish is to see You, Jesus, face to face
Someday I'll be there, I'm gonna be there
I'll see Your face, Your mercy, Your grace
Someday, someday
I'm going to see You, Jesus
Face to face

(“Wish”, sung by Brian Littrell)

Celebrating CHRIST…

Provoking Thoughts and Questions about Hell

The book Martin Zender Goes to Hell was recently given to me, and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I knew nothing of Martin Zender and his writings until just a few weeks ago when a new friend introduced him to us. Zender’s writings are quite thought provoking; although, unfortunately for some, also quite full of sarcasm. Most of the time, I really wish he didn’t write with such a sarcastic tone (though at times, it brings on a good laugh) because many of the things he writes about are important truths. But some people may take immediate offense at his writings just because of the sarcastic tone.

Three years ago, God did an incredible work with me and my faith. Through a lot of agonizing and deep searching into His character and His ways and into the Scriptures, God opened my eyes to see things very differently from how I had previously been taught and believed about an eternal hell. I have written about some of that in a previous blog post—"GOD, The Savior of All Mankind"—and have much more that I still would like to write for further explanation. Some of what Zender writes in the …Goes to Hell book speaks of some of my own thoughts as I went through the process that God took me through regarding the subject of eternal torment in hell:

Some Statements and Quotes…

Recently I’ve been led to read another worthwhile book, The End of Religion, by Bruxy Cavey. I haven’t gotten very far into the book, but already there are various things he says which I really like and wholeheartedly agree with.

On page 40, Cavey makes the following statement:

“Sometimes people who know I am a Christ-follower ask me if I think all religions lead to God. I suppose they are waiting to see if I argue that only the Christian religion is the way to God or if I will give the open-minded answer that all religions lead to God. Instead I choose a third alternative. I tell them that I do not believe all religions lead to God because no religion leads to God. Religion does not lead people to God any more than cups quench your thirst.”

Amen, Cavey!! CHRIST, not the religion of Christianity, IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE of and to God.

He has some other quotes at the beginning of his chapters that I also thought worth mentioning which are great food for thought:

“Act just once in such a manner that your action expresses that you fear God alone and man not at all--you will immediately in some measure cause a scandal." (Soren Kierkegaard)

"I often wonder if religion is the enemy of God. It's almost like religion is what happens when the Spirit has left the building." (Bono)

"The revelation of God is the abolition of religion." (Karl Barth)

(I can thoroughly relate with Kierkegaard’s statement from first-hand experience! Yikes!)

Check the book out for yourself and see what you think…

One Day…ALL will GLORY! in His name

One day eyes that are blind will see you clearly
And one day all who deny will finally believe
One day hearts made of stone will break in pieces
And one day chains once unbroken will fall down at Your feet
So we wait for that one day; come quickly

We want to see your Glory
Every knee falls down before Thee
Every tongue offers you praise
With every hand raised
Singing Glory, to you and unto you only
We'll sing Glory to Your name

One day voices that lie will all be silent
One day all that's divided will be whole again
One day death will retreat and wave it's white flag
One day love will defeat the strongest enemy
So we wait for that one day; come quickly

We want to see your Glory
Every knee falls down before Thee
Every tongue offers you praise
With every hand raised
Singing Glory, to you and unto you only
We'll sing Glory to Your name

We know not the day or the hour
Or the moments in between
But we know the end of the story when we'll see

Your glory

Every knee falls down before Thee
Every tongue offers you praise
With every hand raised
Singing Glory, to you and unto you only

We'll sing Glory to Your name

(“Glory” by Selah and Nichole Nordeman)

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Efw-7cFGSA)

“Living am I, the Lord is saying, for to Me shall bow every knee,

and every tongue shall be acclaiming God!”

(Romans 14:11)

All for HIS awesome and beautiful GLORY! AMEN! AMEN!! AMEN!!!

Love Without Limits

See the faces in the crowd
Everyone is reaching out
Searching for something that's real

See the souls behind the eyes
Left with no way to disguise
The yearning inside

He loves without limits
Sees us every minute
Wherever we are walking
He is near
His spirit is relentless
His hope for us is endless
I know, I know
He loves without limits

There's no mountain that's too steep
There's no ocean that's too deep
Nothing can keep Him from us

He's the lover of our souls
He's the one that makes us whole
Oh, don't you know
If we could only see how far
God will reach to touch our hearts

He loves without limits
Sees us every minute
Wherever we are walking
He is near
His spirit is relentless
His hope for us is endless
I know, I know
He loves without limits

God’s love is limitless…

(“Love Without Limits” sung by Natalie Grant)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgHvBHkz0h4)

“What shall be separating us from the love of God in Christ Jesus?...neither death nor life, nor messengers, nor sovereignties, nor the present, nor what is impending, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39)

God’s power and love are boundless. They are not bound nor held back by any thing. He created every thing. Therefore, He IS the power over all things.

For His glory…

Christ's Sacrificial Love

“For Christ, while we are still infirm, still in accord with the era, for the sake of the irreverent, died. For hardly for the sake of a just man will anyone be dying: for, for the sake of a good man, perhaps someone may even be daring to die, yet God is commending this love of His to us, seeing that, while we are still sinners, Christ died for our sakes.” (Romans 5:6-8)

While we were immersed in our sins, God loved us so much that He had His Son—His very image—die for us and give Himself up for our sakes. He gave of Himself sacrificially while we were entrenched deep in our wrongdoings.

Christ held nothing back.

He didn’t tell us to get our act together first.

Christ didn’t call us to righteousness before He gave Himself up for us.

He didn’t yell, point His fingers at us and tell us that if we straightened up then He might decide to die for our sake because then we might be worth His effort.

Christ did it beforehand.

We were considered worthy of His full effort before we straightened up.

We were worthy of His effort while we were still dirty, soiled, and unable to help ourselves out of our own muck.

He considered us worthy of His sacrificial love while we were still content to live and breathe and lie in our own mess.

Christ’s cost: priceless…beyond our capacity to fully understand.

Our cost: zero.

“While we are still sinners, Christ died for our sakes”

For those who follow after Christ, for those who’s Lord in this life is Christ…that is the kind of love we are called to embrace others with…

“…because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Humbled

This morning I was completely humbled by contemplating God’s immensity with my smallness. I was humbled by knowing that I am so small in comparison to God’s grandeur—my knowledge and my understanding are as one little ant compares to the size of this world. I am humbled before His incredible and indescribable greatness. He is THE significant One.

Who measures the waters in the hollow of His hand, gauges the heavens with a span, contains the soil of the earth in a peck measure, and weighs with a balance the mountains and the hills with scales? Who gauges the spirit of YHWH and is informing Him as a man of His counsel? With whom does He take counsel? And who is giving Him understanding, is teaching Him in judgment’s path, is teaching Him knowledge and is informing Him the way of understanding? Or who has given to Him first, and it shall be repaid to him?

Behold all nations are as a drop from a bucket, and as dust on the scales are they accounted. Behold, like thinnest gauze He lifts up the coastlands. And Lebanon is not sufficient for consuming, and all its animals are not sufficient for an ascent offering. And all the nations are as nothing in front of Him; less than nil and a chaos are they accounted by Him.

To whom then shall you liken El, and what likeness shall you arrange for Him? A carving? A craftsman makes a molten image, and a goldsmith stamps it with gold, refining chains of silver. The careful one, as a heave offering, chooses wood that shall not rot; He seeks for himself a wise craftsman to prepare a carving that shall be immovable.

Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? Have you not gained understanding from the foundations of the earth? It is He Who sits over the circle of the earth, so that its dwellers are like grasshoppers, Who is stretching out the heavens like thinnest gauze and is billowing them out like a tent to dwell in. It is He Who is bringing chancellors to nothing; Judges of the earth He makes to be like chaos. Hardly are they planted, hardly are they sown, hardly is their set slip rooted in the earth, when also He sends a breeze against them, and they dry up, and a tempest, it bears them away like stubble.

“To whom then shall you liken Me, and to whom shall I be equal?” the Holy One is saying. Lift your eyes to the height and see; Who created all these? He Who is bringing forth their host by number, He is calling to them all by name; because of the greatness of His virility and His resolute vigor not one is missing.

Why…are you saying and…are you speaking: My way is concealed from YHWH, and my judgment is passed over by my Elohim? Do you not know? Or do you not hear?

The Elohim eonian is YHWH, Creator of the ends of the earth; He does not faint nor is He wearied. There is no fathoming of His understanding. He is giving vigor to the faint, and to one who is without virility He is increasing staunchness. Youths may faint and be wearied, and choice young men may stumble, yea stumble. Yet those who are expectant in YHWH shall rejuvenate with vigor; They shall ascend on pinions like vultures; they shall run and not be wearied; they shall walk and not faint.

(Isaiah 40:12-31)

Humbled before His presence…