DAVID AND SAUL

Saul was a “choice and handsome man… taller than any of the people” appointed by God to be the second king of Israel (after they rejected God, of course). The Lord moved “valiant men… whose hearts [He] had touched” to follow Saul’s orders and help him establish a righteous kingdom. But Saul feared man more than God. “I feared the people and obeyed their voice,” he said in defense of his actions with the Amalekites when he spared what he was commanded to destroy. David, on the other hand, was a man after God’s own heart who heeded the Word of God over the cackling of men. When they wanted to stone him while he lived with the Philistines, he turned to the Lord and told the men to follow. When they advised him to kill Saul on two occasions, he heeded his conscience rather than the voice of mere mortals. The Spirit of God left Saul because he “rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord [rejected him].” But the Spirit of God lived in David and through him wrote much of God’s word. Do I follow the way of Saul by heeding the voice of men over the word of God? Or do I follow the way of David by allowing His word to have dominion over my life? How can you know if you fear man more than God? Will you follow Him when everyone else says you’re wrong?

 

Why Does God Send His Children to Hell? (part 2)

The Children of God

Hell is “the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might,” and is not for His children but for those “who do not know God and […] who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2Thes 1:8,9). Paul writes concerning these people, “They refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2Thes 2:10-12). Hell is not for those who do not believe, for even “the demons believe—and shudder” (Jas 2:19) and are “cast into hell” (2Pt 2:4), but for those who are “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom He has called” (Rom 9:22-24). Simply put, Hell is for those who do not know God and do not obey His gospel and are thereby vessels of wrath. Hell is not for His children who know Him (Gal 4:6) and obey Him (1John 5:1-5).

Someone might say: "So why does God use hell to motivate His children?" He doesn’t. “Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell,” (Mt 10:28) does not say, “Fear Hell” but rather, “Fear God.” What’s the difference? “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (1John 4:18). God shows His love for His children by separating them from the world through His indwelling Spirit. They will not endure eternal punishment because, unlike their hell-bound fellow earthdwellers, the “Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives” (Heb 12:6). Paul feared the Lord, not because he was afraid of going to hell, but because he knew he’d give an account of his life to God (2Cor 5:10,11, 1Cor 3:12-15). In the same way, children should fear only the discipline of their parents while fearing the wrath of those who do not love them as their own (kidnappers, murderers, clowns (they scare me).

Children of God obey Him because He is their Father and not because they fear the punishment reserved for those who are not His children.

The Wrath of God

Some people ask the wrong question: "So how do you become God's child?" Christians have long assumed that they have the authority to command their heavenly Father to adopt them based upon such verses as John 1:12, “To all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” But they fail to complete the sentence, “who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” The second misconception about hell is that believing in God’s historical demonstration of love will save you from eternal punishment. Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven” (Mt 7:21). It's not those who believe He has a will for their lives that are saved, but rather those who practice His will in their lives!

God says this about our adoption as His children, “In love He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will” (Eph 1:5). We can anticipate the next question: “Why does He still find fault [send people to hell]? For who can resist His will?” (Rom 9:19). You read part of Paul’s answer yesterday. The real question we must ask ourselves is not “Why hell?” because if we are His child we need not fear it and if we aren’t, then we’ll never believe it anyway; but rather we should ask, “Am I a child of God?” Christians too often affirm this question by their beliefs, “I just believe and that’s it.” The Bible says, “And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments” and “We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers” and “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments” (1Jhn 2:3; 3:14; 5:2). Hell is not for the very, very bad who commit genocide, patricide, or just homicide. It is for those who do not know God and show it by disobeying (or ignoring) the gospel of our Lord Jesus (2Thes 1:8).

The central message of Christianity is not that we’ll go to Hell if we don’t accept the Gospel. It’s not that God so loved the world that He gave His Son so that those who believe it can escape Hell and an obligation to obey to His commands. It’s the same message it has been from the beginning, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart… and love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22:37-40). His children can and will do that. All others will eternally weep and gnash their teeth because they will not.

“God ‘will give to each person according to what he has done.’ To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger” (Rom 2:6-8). People go to Hell because they deserve it: God's children go to Heaven even though they don't.

 

Why Does God Send His Children to Hell? (part 1)

The Doubter's Question:

"Simply take a moment to think about the following statement: "Hello, my name is Jesus. I love you deeply. I have loved you since you were conceived in the womb and I will love you for all eternity. I died for you on the cross because I love you so much. I long to have a loving personal relationship with you. I will answer all of your prayers through my love. But if you do not get down on your knees and worship me, and if you do not EAT MY BODY and DRINK MY BLOOD, then I WILL INCINERATE YOU WITH UNIMAGINABLY TORTUOUS PAIN IN THE FIRES OF HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY BWAH HA HA HA HA HA!"

Yes, this is the central message of Christianity. See John 6:53-54 and Mark 16:16. Think about this message. We have a being who, according to the Standard Model of God, embodies love. Yet, if you do not get down on your knees and worship him, you will be physically tortured for all eternity. What sort of love is that?"

This question comes from a website which claims that our God (or any) is imaginary. Let’s break this question down into three major misconceptions that both biblically illiterate Christians and nonchristians share in common:

1. We are all God’s children (God loves everyone equally).
   
2. Believing in God saves you from hell.
3. Hell is only for really bad people like Hitler and Bin Laden.

Also, we’ll need to accept these assumptions or else this discussion will be like vegetarians arguing about how great steaks taste:

1. The Scriptural God is real.
2. His Word was inspired by Him.
3. Hell is as real as Heaven.

The Love of God

Doubters often test us with this verse, “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1John 4:16), saying that if God is love, then how could He send His loved ones to Hell. However, if taken in context, we understand that this passage is not saying that God loves everyone or even that those who love others are God’s children. Rather, the passage is defining not who God loves but what His love is: "In this is love, NOT THAT WE LOVED GOD but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (4:8). Love here is defined as sacrifice, the giving up of something for the benefit of someone else. We cannot call our love for God “love” because there is nothing we can give up that will ever benefit Him. Rather, God's love is the paradigm for defining all other loves.

And how does He define it? “As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated’” (Rom 9:13). Here we find that God does not “love” everyone equally. Yet we might argue that He does, for John says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son” (3:16). To grapple with this truth, let’s turn to common sense.

If I told you I loved all women the way I loved my wife, you’d likely both agree and disagree with me. In one sense, I love all women by being kind to them, opening doors for them, not deriding them, and not hurting them on purpose. In another sense, if I loved all women with the same affection I showed my wife, you'd probably say that I really didn't love my wife! It’s like saying, “Though I love all food, I specifically love ribs but hate frog legs.” God loves His creation by sacrificing His son for the sins of all mankind. God loves His children specifically by separating them from those who are not His offspring.

Some Christians, to include the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM), assume that all people are God’s children. They believe that God created Adam with the freedom to love Him or rebel against Him and that this same freedom is inherent in all born of his flesh. If this is true, then what parent would punish his/her own child with eternal torment whether they chose to love them in return or not? But if love truly is defined by selection (treating your own wife/children differently than you do other people’s wives/children) then the answer is far easier to fathom. No parent, not even the eternal Father, would send his children to Hell.