Constancy or Pliability ...

As Christians we tend to admire the stalwart upright faithful man who refuses compromise in a world filled with it.  We like the idea of being rooted and grounded in our faith and in our actions.  We often refer to the example of Christ our Rock, from which if we build upon is like having a solid foundation, or anchor in a time of storm.  Conversely we consider timidity, pliability, or being wishy-washy as lacking faith, or somehow compromising with evil.  People who seem afraid to call evil by its true name, or are subject to easily changing their minds on the topic are considered weak, and serve as no role models in our world.  This is often the state of things within the Christian community.

But I fear a group of stalwart people who are truly dedicated to a purpose they will not turn away from.  Christ spoke of these people in terms of the final judgment.  They too knew who Christ was, in fact, they preached in His name, Healed in His name, did miracles in His name – and truly loved no one.  They were Christians.  Their actions were all good from our point of view.  They had the right doctrines from what we can tell.  They knew of truth.  They even went farther than most of the nominal Christians of our day and performed miracles in the name of Christ that worked.  So where did they screw up?  Why were they left out of the Kingdom for so rudimentary a concept as love?

How does one gain the power of Christ and know so little of the heart of Christ?  These people were confident in their pending reward of heaven.  They expected to go.  They believed perhaps they had earned it, given their defensive responses to the dictates of their leader.  But they had no defense when Christ sited the examples of love they had never been involved with, never performed, never knew.  Stalwart, faithful, upright Christians, doing deeds of greatness in the name of Christ – on their way to hell for a complete lack of love.

Although perhaps it was not a complete lack of love they were afflicted by; there was one they clearly loved, themselves.  You see even within Christianity can lie the greatest danger the world has ever known, the service of self.  While performing miracles in the name of Christ these folks took the honor that comes with that.  Instead of humbly accepting the gift of Salvation, they came to believe they were partners in some way.  That in some way based on their excellent deeds, they had come to earn a place in His kingdom.  Their sense of comparative righteousness was off the scale as they looked at the pathetic folks around them.  And spiritually they considered themselves a bulwark, a masterpiece, an example to aspire to.  When nothing could have been farther from the truth.

Flash a bit further forward in time to the final moments of these souls resurrected lives.  They sit outside the descended city of heaven which now rests on the ruins of old Jerusalem in the Middle East.  The earth has been dormant for over a thousand years, completely desolate until now.  The risen wicked dead number in the billions and have laid siege to the city planning a massive final attack designed to kill the creator and his followers and replace them for eternity.  Among these are the ones Christ identified, the ones who had performed miracles in His name, the ones who thought they deserved heaven while loving no one but themselves.  Here they are.

The sky opens and reveals the biggest iMax the world has ever known, all can clearly see the story revealed from the war in heaven to the cross of Christ, to their own individual lives.  Everyone’s motives are clearly revealed, every deed laid bare for all to see.  At this ALL HUMANITY bows their faces to the ground and declares the worthiness and justness of our God.  The righteous within the city throw down their crowns, and weep at the magnitude of love displayed for their redemption.  The wicked outside are overcome by this display of love and are forced to utter the truth that God is just, and God is love.  But upon uttering the truth, they immediately resume their evil purposes.  Their constancy resumes once more and they rise to their feet shouting “kill the creator”.

The rebuke of Christ did not inspire change in these people.  It inspired hatred.  It revealed that self remained the central focus of their lives, even though they cloaked it in Christianity.  They did not fall to their knees and beg forgiveness and ask for change.  They walked away mystified that this chain of events could occur at all.  The constancy of sin.  The consistency of evil.  And the pride and self interest that covers it all.

But this does not have to be the case.  Saul of Tarsus was also a devoutly religious man, stalwart, upright, and a member of the established church of his day in good standing.  He too persecuted truth he did not understand.  He too murdered innocents in the very name of God.  And he too was struck with the blinding revelation that his life and his faith, and his actions were all a huge mistake.  Instead of persecuting truth he was to be a carrier of it.  Instead of condemning Christ, he was to humbly accept the gift of Christ.  A stalwart constant man would have been broken by this, but it turns out Paul was pliable, and thus he was changed.

Peter too was a great man of faith; constantly taking action to demonstrate his faith, walking on the lake, etc..  But Peter too carried the disease of pride and it had to be broken within him before he was made fit to serve.  His 3 timed denial of even an association with Christ on the night of His death, broke what was left of pride inside of Peter.  From then on only Christ would get the glory.  Peter had to learn to bend his will to the will of His Lord.

The problem with our perceptions of constancy is that we are most likely to be constant about our mistakes, our misconceptions, and our service to self.  What we see as an asset in our Christianity is probably much more of a detriment that we realize.  We tend to be constant in performing evil, and what is worse, in desiring evil.  I fear this constancy leads one to find themselves joining with others to shout “Kill the Creator”.  If something must be killed by me, then let it be me.  If there must be a death in my world, let it be the death of self.  To do this, I must realize that I must be pliable.  I must unlearn what I have learned, and start anew learning the truth.

To find love I must learn to be pliable like Paul and Peter, who after their conversions were bathed in love that no one could have words to describe.  Their lives were a testament to the love of Christ.  They showed us what it meant to be free from fear, liberated by Christ, and honored to work in His service.  Miracles were not the point of their ministries, they were but tools along the road to conversions of souls.  They used every tool in their power to bring people to Christ, not to themselves.  They called out the proud, and praised the humble.

If we are to be clay in the hands of our Master; if we are to be molded to the shape of His will; then pliability is our only asset.  We must be willing to be led.  We must be willing to be taught.  We must be willing to change our minds on a topic.  We must be willing to give up what we desire, and allow what He desires to become our will, and our nature.  Clay that has hardened cannot be remade.  It must be broken.  While on the wheel, we may look a lot like mud, but with His hands upon us, our destiny will serve the function He intended for each of us, no 2 alike.  This is the beauty of pliability in His hands.  Let us remember that even our Christianity is not the ultimate defense against evil and self, Christ alone can perform this function.  It is not our arrogance that defeats evil; But our humble recognition that Christ alone can defeat the evil of self within us.  Above all let us remain pliable to His will.

Jail the Righteous ...

No, this is not the slogan of angry atheists trying to reduce the numbers of voting republicans in the coming fall election.  Nor am I advocating we jail anyone who believes themselves to be righteous, which ironically would probably reduce the number of voting republicans in the upcoming fall election.  But I do ask, is everyone in jail guilty of the crimes they were convicted of?  And beyond this why would Christ place such a high value on visiting the sick and imprisoned?

There was a recent story in the news about a man wrongly convicted of rape and murder who spent 12 plus years in prison before DNA evidence proved his innocence.  I wonder, is he the guy I was supposed to be visiting when I went to prison as part of my ‘Christian’ duties?  Should I assume that somewhere out there is another innocent man, and God would like me to drop in on him to ease his burden?  After all when discussing the end-times judgment (or criterion) God thought important on separating the sheep from the goats – His question was did you feed me, did you clothe me, visit me in prison?  I note often He did not ask what I believed in from a doctrinal point of view, but He did ask about what we actually did for those ‘less-fortunate’.

Seems to me the greatest preponderance of those in prison are probably guilty of their crimes.  God would surely know this, so is He really asking me to visit the guilty?  Maybe this about redemption.  Maybe He wants me to bring guilty people the good news of the gospel.  Or perhaps He has a deeper intention in mind for me, after all, what is the difference between me and guy behind bars?  Yes maybe the guy in jail committed the crime he was charged with, how is that different from me.  In the eyes of God, are not I as guilty as the man behind bars?  Has not my sin caused pain and suffering as well?  To God, the guy behind bars is no better or worse than me, we look like brothers to Him.  So is that it?  This is about visiting family, and learning we are all the same in God’s eyes – maybe.  But there might be more.

What is the point of our penal system anyway?  We incarcerate those who commit crimes against us so that they will be unable to repeat their heinous action again.  This forced imprisonment also acts as a punishment to them for doing their evil deed.  We hope it serves as a deterrent to those would-be criminals on the outside to think twice before doing something that might land them in here (but statistics say this deterrent is hardly effective).  We talk about prisons as a place to engender reform.  That is the key isn’t it?  A place to go to unlearn evil behavior and relearn good behavior.  So why is the reform piece of our penal system in such miserable failure?  Recidivism is on the rise, and the argument could be made that prison only trains criminals how to be better criminals, not better citizens.  It seems all our punitive efforts have not resulted in many positive changes from this experience.

And it does not end there.  The idea behind serving your time in prison is that you are in-effect ‘paying’ for your misdeeds.  And though you may serve your entire sentence, your payment is apparently never quite over.  Your criminal record follows you on every job application, or credit application.  Your prospects for meaningful work go down dramatically because of your ‘record.’  If you were convicted of a sex-crime (and let’s remember the story of our innocent friend here, not everyone convicted of a crime did it), you must register as an offender which stigma GREATLY reduces the welcome you get in any living arrangement.  So let’s see, you can’t vote to change anything, can’t run for political office, can’t find work, or a place to live – if you are to survive what option is the one left open to you?  Note that military service might have provided a way out in the past, but in times of war, it is just another virtual death sentence.  Options for survival seem bleak at best, and statistically, we find our punished ones doing more evil and finding themselves back behind bars or worse.

What else could we do to deal with crime?  Take theft for instance, Christ said, if someone steals your coat, offer them your shirt as well.  How radical an approach is that!  Reward errant behavior?!  Give a thief more than even he thought to take, who does that?  What kind of weirdo approach is this?  What message would this send to the thief?  Glad I asked actually … perhaps it would demonstrate way more than any words ever could that someone in this world actually cared about the thief.  It might be the first time in the life of the thief that he gets to experience love and concern for him.  No threats of punishment.  No condemnations of his obviously wrong act.  No question about his guilt.  But in spite of his ugliness we show him unbounded love.  We attempt to meet his need based on what he took.  This kind of singular gesture of love inspires the thief to consider WHY anyone would do such a thing.  Returning love to acts of hate and malice has the most profound effect of getting under the perpetrator’s skin.  It is too hard to understand how love could be returned for hate.  They poke at it.  They prod it.  They test it again, and maybe again.  What’s the deal?  Perhaps this is the only approach that is capable of changing evil behavior.

Have you considered for a minute that this is exactly the approach God is taking with YOU personally?  You were and are guilty of crimes against yourself, those you love, and your creator – but instead of punishment for what you have earned, you get love instead.  Blessed rather than cursed.  Loved in spite of what you do, what you say, all of it.  You deserve to be behind bars, not because you have broken a law the US government setup, not because you might errantly be convicted of breaking a law, simply because your premeditated acts of evil cause pain to everyone you care about.  To protect you and those you love, you should sit in isolation of a jail cell; but that is not how God chooses to teach change in your character.  God reaches out to you in love no matter what your misdeed.  He gets you asking WHY would He do this?  And you test it, you poke it, you prod it, and you marvel at it.  But over time you accept His love, and in that acceptance are the roots of change in your life.  Reformation happens when love enters your life, not when love is removed.

I know we have hardcore evil-doers in our world.  Some seem almost demon possessed in their passion for causing pain to anyone.  Some do enough drugs to be completely out of their minds most of the time while they commit heinous acts.  I don’t advocate we open up the jail doors and let them loose on society.  But maybe we might take a minute and realize even the hardcore criminal needs love as much as we do.  We were ‘commissioned’ to go to prisons, to bring love with us.  Love inspires hope.  Hope can liberate someone bound to sin and give them freedom inside their cell.  Freedom the cancer of evil.  Freedom to reconcile with a loving God right where they are.  Freedom from the guilt of their misdeed, as they come to know the price for their freedom was already paid on a lonely cross 2 thousand years ago.  And when they realize this, and embrace this, we have effectively jailed the righteous.  The state may require its due, but the soul is made free in Christ.  At that point, the guy behind the bars is exactly like the guy who gets to go home after the visit – forgiven.

Justice ...

The devil demands justice, the righteous just beg for mercy that they know they do not deserve.  It is a strange part of the character of God that allows mercy to be greater than justice.  The standards for justice are outlined in the Old Testament of the Bible as … “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and a life for a life.”  These 3 examples are meant to show the requirements of justice on those who inflict damage.  This is a rudimentary definition of fairness, equality, and justice.  The simple premise is that which you harm in the process of doing evil should carry a punitive consequence equaling that of the crime.  Most of our current legal system attempts to emulate this philosophy.

So where does mercy enter in?  In terms of crime and the results of crime (i.e. prosecution) it doesn’t.  There is absolutely no question as to our collective or individual guilt in committing offenses against ourselves, our neighbors, our loved ones, and yes even our God.  We all stand accused.  And what is more, we all stand guilty.  To determine the punishment we deserve we need only look at the standard of justice outlined in the Bible.  Note, this is the sentence for our crimes, which we deserve, not necessarily that which we receive.

But God does not change over time.  He was no less concerned about mercy in the days of the Israelite than He is in today’s age.  Even back then, at the same time, these other statements outlining justice were written into law, was a system of mercy written into the law as well.  If you had a fight with a neighbor and let’s say you did damage to his eye, justice would require your own eye be damaged as well.  Your neighbor had the right to bring you before a local judge, plead his case, you could plead yours, and then sentence was passed.  However, there was also a loophole provided.  If you fled to a predefined “sanctuary” city, your punishment could NOT be imposed.  You were granted mercy for your crimes, though you must remain in the city for the rest of your life.  In cases of accidental homicide, I’m sure this system was employed regularly.

But the point is not that you were somehow found not-guilty.  It took the eye-witness testimony of at least 2 people to convict you in the first place.  Taking advantage of “sanctuary” did not absolve you of your crimes, it only prevented the punishment.  But why give killers a way out in the first place.  People who believe God is obsessed with revenge do not know how to reconcile a complete system of “sanctuary” He created in His laws for us.  Those who believe strongly in the death penalty often quote the scripture segment “a life for a life” but do not ever mention “sanctuary”.  Those who demand justice, are those who believe they have been wronged.  They wish to punish others for the misdeeds committed against them.  But are they willing to accept their own punishments?

“How you judge others is how you will be judged.”  This scriptural fragment was used by Christ to remind people of their own role in the justice system.  So often, “the wronged”, forget their own guilt and other crimes.  The statement of Christ to “first remove the log that is within your own eye, before trying to take the splinter out of your neighbor’s eye”, was intended again as a reminder to us all, for we are all, both the victims and the perpetrator.  We are all the accuser and the accused.  Finally Christ told a story about a man who was forgiven much, but then unmerciful to those who owed him much smaller debts.  Again yet another reminder of what role we play in the justice system.  We are not supposed to be the prosecutors.

We are not supposed to try to inflict justice or even fairness on those who do us harm.  Instead we are supposed to show love to them.  Christ said to give the thief who steals your coat, your shirt as well.  There is no justice in that scenario, only love, only mercy.  There is no fairness.  There is no coat for a coat.  So who will demand justice for this thief’s misdeeds – the only being who really ever demands justice – Satan.  Satan is the one who wants to see us punished for what we do.  He instigates some of it, influences some of it, and just sits back and watches some of it; but he is relentless in wanting us all punished for it.  He calls on God’s sense of justice and demands fair play, fair action.  He speaks very often through the mouths of those who accuse.  He demands.  The righteous know better, they beg for mercy.

For we are not righteous because we do good deeds.  We do not suffer our deserved punishments because we have earned some sort of get-out-of-jail-free card from God.  We do not suffer what we deserve because we are not guilty, for we are ALL surely guilty.  First degree, premeditated sin.  But as we humble ourselves, see our guilt, and beg for mercy from a just God, we are granted it.  Our sentence is pronounced guilty as the law requires, but our punishment is put on the shoulders of the innocent Christ.  And He willingly takes on our burden of guilt and shame.  He carries our burdens through torture and ultimately to the cross to pay our debt of death.  And through His perfect sacrifice our punishment is marked as paid.  We are forgiven through this and made righteous not because we are inherently righteous, we are made this way and given this term, by He who gave up His life to make us so.

Justice demands our extinction.  Even what we do to our planet would someday bring this result were it not for the interference of a loving God.  Escaping a well deserved fate can ONLY happen because our God loved us that much.  This is why we are told not to seek equality in the justice systems on earth.  This is why we offer the thief more than he takes on his own.  This is why we forgive others as we wish to be forgiven.   This is why “sanctuary” cities were created even in the Old Testament times.  This is why Christ told the stories and parables He did.  Our goals are not justice but love.  We are not to seek fairness, but much more than what is fair, that is love.  Love is our ambition, love is our goal, love is greater than justice.

When it gets hard to love, when the wrongs done to you seem to cry out for justice, when you are hurt, in pain, every natural inclination is to get even – at these times more than any other – expel the thoughts of punishing the guilty, and fill your mind with the love that forgave you, and allows you to forgive those who have wronged you.  Nothing that is taken from you, or damaged, or even killed, can be kept from you forever.  For this life is not the last one those who have been saved by Grace will ever see.  The things you lose here are meaningless anyway, and the people you lose will one day be returned in perfect health, in perfection, for all eternity.  What is lost is but for a short time.  But Love, love is forever.

Who knows maybe the person you wind up forgiving, the person you wind up loving, might even one day be you …

Judgment Is Not A Threat ...

One of the reasons people have a hard time accepting the existence of God, is based on what they have been told about him.  One popular image of God is that He is a stern judge, waiting for people to screw up, so that He can hold them accountable for their misdeeds and punish them accordingly.  The popular Christian phrase, ‘I wouldn’t want to be that guy in the final judgment’ is applied to those they believe are not quite as ‘holy’ as themselves.  This entire concept is backwards again, and completely misrepresents God’s justice, and our role in it.

To understand this properly in the context of the war between good and evil, we need to focus on the terms.  Judgment is the decision making process regarding the ‘fate’ or ultimate disposition of the person in question.  It is different than Sentencing where the appropriate punishment for the crime is declared.  Execution of the punishment occurs at a defined time and date.  If God the Father is our judge, then who are the other players in this courtroom drama?  First of all, that would leave us, as the accused.  Satan has accused us with all the ‘evil’ choices we have made throughout our lives.  He, as our prosecutor, rightly points out all the bad things we have done.  No need to lie here, we all have guilt on our hands.  In any case, the Judge is fully capable of seeing right through a lie, so there will only be truth in this cosmic courtroom.   Our attorney, or our advocate, is God in the form of the Son, Jesus Christ.  While He can plead our case for us, He also knows we are guilty.  We cannot lie to Him, nor will He lie to His Father.  So what hope is there for us to get off the hook, none.  We are judged guilty.  Our sentence is death.  But then something miraculous occurs before its execution.  Our Lawyer, volunteers to take our place in the sentencing.  Instead of us dying for our crimes, pure and innocent blood will be shed instead.  In order for this to take place, we must accept the sacrifice.  We must allow it.  This is the picture of our judgment.

Being held accountable for our sins has already taken place.  There is no chance of beating-the-rap.  We are in fact guilty of evil choices, evil actions, and evil intentions.  And justice must be satisfied.  This is why our God, became our savior, and died the death we were sentenced to.  Judgment therefore for those who embrace this wonderful gift of God is completed.  The sentence for us has already been carried out.  Our penalty has been commuted, as Christ paid the cost for us.  We do NOT have to fear a coming judgment of our evil deeds.  We do NOT have to fear there is a chance we will be lost based solely on whether we were a ‘good’ person or a ‘bad’ person.  We are all ‘bad’ people.  Our salvation was given to us, as we would never deserve it.

The concept of standing in the judgment and facing a litany of misdeeds would leave us all without hope, if not for the plan God enacted for our salvation.  So what about those who choose not to embrace the gift of hope?  What about those dedicated folks who consistently reject the concept of a God, and deny their own need of salvation?  Their deeds are judged the same as our own.  We are ALL guilty.  But when it comes to sentencing, they do not accept the payment of our savior.  And so they will die the death they have earned.  Not tortured forever, as we talked about before in our discussion regarding Hell.  Rather, they will be burned up, and will exist no more, forever sleep without dreams.  This is not a case of fair versus unfair.  It is a question of stupidity.  To embrace evil so firmly as to insure your own misery and ultimate death is a mystery even God has a hard time understanding.  This is especially true, given how easy it is to embrace His alternative.

But despite the fact that we who accept the gift are ALL saved from evil, no matter what our circumstances; Christians have notoriously engaged in judging the conduct of others.  This is in fact, a form of blasphemy (taking on a role for which God alone is qualified).  Christians judge that the sins of someone else require their immediate intervention.  Well meaning people, who claim the name of God in their title (Christians), believe they have a responsibility to confront the evil in others (while plainly ignoring the evil in themselves).  They give God such a horrible name in this process.  And as always, evil markets this idea very well, with wonderful names and concepts like – ‘calling sin by its right name’, or ‘not allowing pearls to be thrown before swine’, or ‘helping someone else see their evil so they can abandon it’.  Were these well meaning Christians to look into a mirror they would find a lifetime’s worth of work for them to do to themselves.  But instead, they choose to focus on the evil of others, rather than address their own very acute needs. 

The obvious implication of this premise of us judging each other, is that we are somehow better than someone else.  This is wholly untrue.  There is no standard of better or worse until you measure yourself against the perfect life of Christ.  Just because your ‘sins’ (or choices to embrace evil), seem to be less catastrophic than someone else, does not make them any less severe.  Keep in mind, the first sin, was pride.  It was not rape, murder, or assault.  It was simply changing the focus of your life from serving others to serving self.  That little alteration led to ALL of the evil you witness in the world today.  And pride is so hard to see, either in the mirror, or in someone else.  There is no comparative level of evil that we are free to judge.  And often what we believe to be a ‘sin’ is a pure matter of our opinion, not necessarily that of God. 

Judging therefore becomes dangerous, and completely counterproductive when humans are involved.  Who do you know that has ever responded positively to a negative confrontation regarding their character?  How does telling someone they are ‘sinning’ inspire them to make a positive change in their lives?  They are more likely to tell you where to go, than to address your ‘concern’.  But if you were to leave judging someone else, or condemning someone else, completely out of your words, and attitudes: if you were to embrace and accept someone else no matter where they are:  if you bought in to the idea that you are peers with others, not their superior: and if you just illuminated the alternative choice of good – might that be enough to spark a change.  People respond to love, they avoid condemnation.  People move forward when they are embraced, they shy away from ridicule.  A true Christian will love everyone they encounter, not because they are perfect, not because they deserve it, but because of the effect Christ has on the Christian.  Being connected with the source of all love, makes it easy to love.  Knowing how much we have been forgiven, makes it easier for us to forgive.  And knowing how much we struggle to get rid of the evil that infects us, we don’t have time to condemn anyone else for their struggle.  Instead, we pray for each other.  Instead we call out to our Creator God, to save us from ourselves, and our horrible choices.  This is our state of affairs.

There will come a time, when all of us who accepted God’s gift of salvation sit in Heaven.  The books of record of everyone who has ever lived will be opened to us.  We will see each one’s life, their entire thoughts, and their entire list of deeds.  The records of those who have been saved will simply read – forgiven by Christ, washed in His blood.  Those who did not choose to accept this gift, will have every detail available to us.  This step must be taken in order that all of our questions will be answered.  Why isn’t so-and-so who we cared about here with us?  We will be able to open the book of records of their lives, and see the repeated attempts of God to reach out to them.  We will see a record of God trying His best to save so-and-so, but constantly being rejected and told ‘no.’  Then it will hit us.  Like a ton of bricks, the weight of our own guilt will come crashing down on us.  We will realize, that perhaps our own evil deeds, contributed to so-and-so not being with us in Paradise restored.  If we had just behaved better.  If we had just loved a little more.  If we had just been a little less condemning a little more concerned.  We might have made the difference, but we chose not to.  We chose complacency, and self-interest over the needs of another, and thereby denied God the chance to use us to reach our friend or loved one.  At this our hearts will break.  We will weep for the loss of the one we miss.  We will weep that it is also our fault.  And it will take God Himself, to wipe away our tears, to teach us to forgive ourselves.  Here is the only future judgment we have to fear, it is our own judgment of ourselves. 

Let us take from this the lesson, to love more now.  Not to choose to be complacent in the lives of others, but to make a meaningful difference by choosing to love them.  Let us allow God to reach others through the love we show to them.  God is absent in our condemnations of others, but He lives in our efforts to love them right where they are.  Let us avoid the heartbreak of knowing we did too little, and rather embrace the joy of knowing we will share all eternity with those we love – through the power of love.  For you see this is the power of God, His love.  This is the basis for the entire system of government in the undefiled universe, a system based on love for others.  It existed before we did, and will exist with us as a part of it, long after the ultimate destruction of evil.  Let us learn to embrace it right now.  This is what we have been saved for.  To begin to know the power of love in our lives, and the power of love reaching out to others through us right away.  Nothing can resist it.  This is true power, to love…

Hell is NOT What You May Believe ...

One of the biggest obstacles to reconciling the idea of a benevolent God with religion or Christianity specifically is with respect to current teachings on Hell.  There are so many myths taught regarding the nature of Hell it is hard to know where to begin to start debunking them, so we will begin with simple logic.  If you accept the idea that God embodies everything good, noble, and perfect - and evil is left with everything else - then evil includes such things as pain, suffering, hatred, self destruction for example.  Whereas 'good' includes joy, happiness, fulfillment, service, wonder, awe, etc..  In short what we teach about the concept of 'Heaven' is a place where all these 'good' notions are embraced forever.  However we know from simple logic that 'evil' CANNOT be tolerated forever, the manifestation of evil we currently witness MUST come to a complete and utter end.  Therefore to begin, 'Hell' is NOT a place.

Sometimes a relationship metaphor is easier to understand in context of what 'Hell' may truly be (no, I'm not talking generically about mother-in-laws).  Try to think of time when you first fell in love with someone.  Back when just to hold this person's hand gave you a rush.  Early when all the chemical receptors in your brain were firing actively, and you felt the sensation of extreme happiness and contentment just from 'being' with this person.  The place really didn't matter, the circumstances really did not matter, money was not the object - time was.  In this condition of 'young love' just to be with this person was considered joy.  To be away from this person was hard.  You miss them when they are not around.  You look forward to getting back with them, whether it is work that separates you, distance, other obligations, no matter - getting back together is again considered 'joy' - begin apart considered 'miserable'.  This is the basis for beginning to understand 'Hell'.  True 'Hell' is separation from the source of all things 'good'.  It is a conscience recognition that you are forced to be apart from the things you crave the most - joy, peace, contentment, fulfillment, etc..  'Hell' becomes the condition you find yourself in, as a result of this separation.  In short, Hell being the separation from all 'good' things is torture, not death.  It is cruel in the sense that you realize your state, and would be crueler still if you were unable to do anything about it.  Hell is NOT the same as non-existence. 

Death has been compared to something we understand much better, namely sleep.  When you go to sleep at night, time passes by almost immediately to your conscience mind, and you wake up in the morning hours from when you first laid down, without a sense of loss of the time that has passed while you slept.  Death, or non-existence, is similar in that to the conscience that is now dead, time is irrelevant - it passes at lightning speed - though the living who are left behind by the dead person experience time second-by-second, minute-by-minute, etc..  To the dead conscience mind it is impossible to determine if a minute has gone by, or an hour, or a decade, or a century, or a trillion centuries - time becomes irrelevant.  In death, you experience nothing, much like in sleep, you are not eating, tasting, working, conversing, etc..  Think of death, or non-existence, as deep restful sleep without dreams.

'Hell' therefore is NOT death.  Death would bring an end to 'Hell'.  Death would grant the sufferer an end to his suffering.  There is no pain in death, as there is no joy.  Death is not a competition between 'good' and 'evil' it is neither.  This is according to the Bible, what God has in mind for those who choose not to embrace His choices, but continue to choose another way.  At some point those who choose pain, become aware they have done so, they recognize the 'Hell' they are in.  To forever hold them in this condition is NOT God's plan.  The 'justice' side of God allows for the 'punishment' of the wrong-doer for a period of time, and then it ends, permanently.  'Hell' is NOT something that lasts forever, like all things associated with evil, 'Hell' is scheduled to end.  And what’s more, Death is scheduled to end.

People most often associate the Biblical imagery of fire raining down from heaven and bubbling up from the earth, at the end of time, outside the Holy City, as 'Hell'.  This is way too limited a viewpoint.  You are fully capable of experiencing 'Hell' right here on earth - no need to wait - step right up to the front of the line - all you need to do is realize where you are.  Have you bought in to the idea that gratifying self is the only way to happiness - if so, - welcome to 'Hell'.  The cruel truth is you will always be chasing happiness and never quite getting there, then you will die, too bad for you.  Or are you a Christian who has decided you don't really need a God, you can do it yourself, you can by sheer power of your good works, good worship and good intentions earn your way to 'Heaven' - sorry, - welcome to 'Hell'.  You will NEVER be good enough, regardless of who you condemn as worse than yourself, or the number of unselfish acts you perform, it will never be enough.  Or are you a person who does not even accept the idea of a God, content to be 'good' on your own and find fulfillment yourself in the years you will exist - again, welcome to 'Hell'.  Your quest will go without completion, your best efforts will never be enough, you will find yourself at the end of your days, alone, miserable, and all too ready for death much like all those who went before you who held similar ideas.  And lest anyone think just because I am the author here I have somehow avoided a similar fate - wrong, I have been here in 'Hell' to welcome you all.  You see I realize my own separation from my Bible God quite keenly.  And although there has been a way made for us to reconcile, it has not reached its fulfillment yet, so until it does, I live here in 'Hell' with the rest of us.

That fiery imagery we associate with an eternal 'Hell', paints a picture of a vindictive God, not a benevolent one.  It also makes Him a liar according to His own words.  He told Adam and Eve in the garden if they ate of the fruit they would surely die.  How can you 'surely die' if you are permitted to exist forever in a fire laden tortured state (by the way just outside the city gates of heaven, where I am sure the smell is quite pungent). 

How can the magnitude of the evil deeds you do here on earth ever warrant a punishment of torture that lasts eternally?  Satan, Hitler, Saddam, whoever you ascribe as an evil person (be careful, the mirror is not far away) may have committed some horrible atrocities that do deserve some punishment for sure, but for how long.  How long should they be tortured?  When will it be enough, a year, ten years, longer?  At some point, enough becomes enough, even the victims of these tyrants would eventually begin to have pity on them.  At some point, they have paid in full.  To continue to torture them infinitely beyond that point is NOT benevolence and therefore is NOT what God has in mind.

At some point, the gracious condition of death, puts an end to the punishment, both of the internal awareness of the Hell we exist in, and perhaps the very real outside flames we picture at the end of time.  And death puts its victims into a state of eternal non-existence.  And then 'Hell' exists no more.  And then 'Death' will also pass away, as it will never be required again.  What will exist at that point will be the same thing that has always existed - perfection - a Universe united in choosing only 'good' - having the knowledge of 'evil' without ever wanting to experience it again.  Universal Unity of all sentient beings around this singular premise, as anything else would be destined to implode.

So then 'Hell' represents the separation we feel as we realize how far we live from the one we wish to be close to - namely God.  And the good news, is that we do not have to live in this condition forever.  A path towards reconciliation has been made.  Seeking perfection is not the same thing as escaping Hell.  It may have that tangible result, but understanding what has meaning is an entirely different thing than just trying to avoid the unpleasant. 

So often, Christians have preached Hell to 'scare' non-believers into Heaven - as if that could even work.  Instead of understanding the true nature of Hell, they paint it as a place where people go 'for doing bad things' and get tortured there by a benevolent God forever and ever and ever.  This is ridiculous and wrong and attributes the nature of evil to God, no wonder thinking people begin to question His existence.  You do not 'go to hell' because of your misdeeds any more than you 'go to heaven' because you’re a 'good' person.  To 'go to hell' you would have to consistently avoid reconciliation with God, despite His best efforts to love you.  It requires a GREAT deal of effort to avoid that love He wants to show you.  It requires determination, stubbornness, and commitment to avoid God at all costs.  Logically, it requires the consistent choice of self, to the exclusion of everything else, until finally, your time expires and your life ends.  And what a life of sadness and pain you will have achieved.  You will have had a remarkable success at avoiding anything of joy, throughout your life.  Oh you may experience a few momentary pleasures, a few feel-goods, but nothing that lasts, is real, or is worth holding on to.  'Hell' is NOT a fun condition; it is recognition of the state of torture you may find yourself in.  And it is something you don't have to experience.

In our next post we will begin to finally start moving towards meaning, and begin to examine what this means on an individual basis.  Stay tuned ...