The Final Solution ...

Destiny.  It is a powerful word.  It conveys a sense of inevitability and hope.  Our universe was not designed to incorporate evil forever. It was designed for perfection, and it is to this state it will be returned.  A choice to break trust with God resulted in the introduction of evil into what had previously been only a perfect environment.  But once introduced the only salient question is how to bring about the end of evil, once and for all.  A cycle that keeps evil dormant or sleeping for millennia only to awaken at some random moment in the distant eons of time, is not a threat that can be faced again.  Therefore the solution to evil must be full, final, and eternal.  This cannot mean the end to choice, for with it would end the ability to love.  Freedom of the will, freedom of thought, freedom of choice will exist forever – but evil will die.  How can this be?  It must be as it was before the choice to break trust was made.  All sentient life must decide forever to choose to trust God or not.  Evil has been on display as the contrasting alternative to turning away from God.  The knowledge of good and evil is now common place such that all the universe now knows what only God knew before.  And unfortunately for our world, the knowledge is experimental, not merely theoretical.  So the question remains, what is the final solution?

The alternative to perfection has been clearly revealed.  Created life throughout the remainder of the universe who initially chose to remain faithful to God, has born witness to where Lucifer’s seemingly innocuous ideology would lead.  They watched in horror at the pain, suffering and death that came upon our world.  They heard the lies of Satan as he cast the blame on God for all the actions he himself was responsible for.  Even the existence of pain itself was something blamed on God by he who founded its existence.  His arguments were never persuasive enough to convert any other worlds to his cause, and at Calvary the universe again bore witness to the depths of hate in killing the Creator.  But it also bore witness to the lengths to which love would go to redeem its own.  The contrast was marked and severe.  The “alternative” to God would result in His murder.  “Love” would be willing to sacrifice itself in the extreme to heal and redeem.  Once revealed the choice became so abundantly clear to the universe still untouched by evil, that the possibility of ever deviating away from God again was eternally buried.  The remainder of sentient life now stands fully cognizant of the contrast of the God of love, and his counterfeits.

But keeping a still perfect universe perfect was not the only goal God had.  His other pressing concern was the redemption of His beloved creation – humanity – back to Himself.  He must now devise a way to redeem a fallen race, with experimental knowledge of evil, back to a state of perfection.  He must find a way to show us the same contrast the universe so clearly sees.  But we are afflicted with the sickness of evil, we are blind to its effects.  We stand naked before it; self-deluded, self-important, and self-serving.  We have a history of failure.  We have inclinations to fail.  We have desire to do that which we would not do.  To simply cure us of our disease would be a miracle in itself.  But even a cure is still not enough, the larger goal of the termination of evil still remains.  We must not only transition from the excrement of sin to a state of perfection; we must also see the wisdom of making an eternal choice to trust God forever, thus insuring that evil does not ever rise a second time.

Our society has offered the concepts of deterrence to prevent evil, and too often Christianity has fallen in line with these ideas.  Fear of punishment is meant to dissuade the casual evil-doer from carrying out his nefarious plans.  But fear has never resulted in the creation of utopia.  Perhaps because there have simply been too many who lack the fear or common sense to avoid the risk of consequence.  Perhaps too, there are those so devoted to carrying out plans of evil that no punishment could ever deter them.  Christians have put forth the idea of hell as the end-all and be-all of punishments for evil deeds.  But the results of preaching hellfire and brimstone are notoriously short lived.  People may “reform” or constrain their behavior for a time while the words of the intense sermons linger in their ears.  But after a time, the fear dissipates and the natural selfish inclinations re-emerge and hold sway.  Therefore if fear is not the answer to an end to evil, what is?  And if punishment itself does nothing to change the core decision to commit evil, then what is its use?

Who would know better than God that “fear” is not a successful motivator?  Therefore to attempt to use scripture to inspire fear for the purposing of achieving an end to evil is clearly a mistake.  Fear does not bring about love or trust.  If we do not trust God, then no matter how long we remain “perfect”, we still face a daily risk that at some point our own choice to deviate away from God might emerge and the universe would see a second Satan.  In order for us to become perfect we submit to God and He re-creates us.  In order to remain perfect, we continue to trust God and continue to surrender to Him.  Should we elect to hold back a part of ourselves, attempt to keep God away from some part of ourselves that we do not trust Him with, we provide the entry vehicle for evil into our lives.  It is only with complete surrender, inspired by trust, that a complete state of perfection can be achieved and then maintained.  Fear will do nothing to keep us on this road.  In fact “fear is the path to the dark side” (as a fictional character once said).  Fear can only inspire fear, so for purposes of eternally removing evil, it is useless.  It would be wonderful then for Christianity to finally leave off attempting to use fear in the quest for the removal of evil.  One can only hope.

But then what is the purpose for punishment?  To examine this idea, we must attempt to look at the concept of punishment from a different perspective.  Is not the end of pain a greater mercy than an eternal existence of ever increasing pain?  At some point, torture is worse than death.  Our problem with the concept of punishment is that ours is self-inflicted and disguised with its effects delayed and disconnected from its cause for as long as possible.  Evil is pain.  But we sometimes fail to see it as the effect may be delayed from the cause.  Consider the consequences of smoking, they are not immediate, instead they build over time, but ultimately they bring massive unavoidable pain.  Evil is something we embrace and therefore cause pain to ourselves, and then others.  The ripples extend out like dropping a rock in still waters, reverberating across others than returning to us yet again.  It is torture to exist in this state.  To end the condition of pain is the mercy God extends.  He does not ask us to wait for death to find relief; instead He offers it to us immediately in the here and now.  Evil does not need to be punished by God.  Evil is the punishment.  We do not suffer from the hand of God because of our sins; we suffer because we push the hand of God away and embrace our sins.  God struggles only to reach us, love us, and get us to allow Him to take away the pain we cause ourselves.  This is not an act of vengeance for our disobedience; it is an act of mercy that results in obedience.  The distinction is critical.

The work of salvation cannot be forced.  God cannot forcibly remove the evil from our hearts, minds, and hands without our consent.  But this work of redemption has nothing to do with vengeance.  Further it has nothing to do with justice.  For if we were to receive the justice we have earned we would be in-line at Calvary for our own set of nails and a whip and cross.  Instead our God took on our sentence of guilt for Himself, and bore the punishment we deserved.  It is with His stripes that we are healed.  But therein lies the point, salvation is a work of healing.  It is a work of love that removes the pain of evil.  It is love that draws us to Him.  It is because of love that He made so great a sacrifice for us.  And it is the work of love within us that removes the evil from us, and replaces it with love reflective of the Author of all Love.  This is an act of mercy and grace.  We are receiving unwarranted favor.  We are receiving a relief from pain, a reward which we did not earn, and do not deserve.  But it is this work of salvation done within us by Christ as we surrender that defines love itself.  Salvation is not found in control, but in surrender and submission.  It is this surrender on our part that teaches us to build trust.  And trust is built over time.

Nowhere in the work of salvation is punishment a part of the equation.  The act of salvation is the very act of removing the punishment of evil from us.  Even our mortal death then should not be considered a punishment for our evil.  Rather death is only a momentary inevitability of evil that will one day cease to exist as death itself is thrown into the lake of fire.  Those who sleep in the Lord will be raised to perfection, never to see death again.  To exist forever in a state consumed by evil, that would be a punishment that is unimaginable.  To have evil exist forever in any state would be a punishment to the universe that it could simply not bear.  Evil must be ended.  The only question is how.  But then to discuss the end of evil, is to discuss the end of the punishment.  For it is evil that is the “punishment” and the result of a choice to turn away from Christ.

God had and has a knowledge of good and evil.  God knows what evil is, though He has chosen to never embrace it.  There is no evil in God in any way; in fact evil is destroyed in His very presence.  God also knows the only thing that could ever have the power to defeat evil.  The simple truth is that only love could overcome evil.  Only love could have more power than justice.  Only love could find a way to forgive that which seems unforgiveable.  Only love could find a way to redeem that which is truly unworthy to be redeemed.  Only love could find the value in souls so bound to evil and so enslaved by it.  Only love could see past the pain and disease of evil, to what love intended for us to truly be.  Therefore God knew from the start that evil while powerful was already destined for extinction, because quite simply love is more powerful.  Evil never had a chance of succeeding.  It was always and only destined to die.  All evil can do now, is infect and cause pain to as many as possible, and drag them from the love of God into the abyss of extinction.

This is what God is working to prevent.  This is why our world yet lingers a little longer in the state of evil.  God is not looking to see us exist in the punishment one minute longer than we have to, but at the same time, He is working feverously to see as many redeemed from evil as He can before the finality of our choices must be brought to bear.  Evil cannot be allowed to exist forever any more than we can afford to face it again in some distant state of perfection.  The remainder of the perfect universe is now resolute in its rejection of the “alternative” to the ideas of God.  It is now for mankind to see evil and make our own choices for or against the redemption of God.  In this effort, time is always too short.  For if you were to find yourself fortunate enough to be counted with the redeemed, would you quickly or casually discard those of your family or affection seeing them lost forever?  Or rather, would you delay a bit longer in a valiant effort to reach them still and hope they turn and embrace God, leaving behind them the legacy of pain to move to the freedom of love?  These are hard choices for us to ponder, how much harder for a loving God that wishes to see no-one lost, while His enemy works to ruin them all.

It is in this war that we have a part to play.  To have surrendered to Christ, to have experienced an end to the evil that we could never end in ourselves, is to have a testimony that carries meaning to the world.  Christian sermons are in no short supply, but genuine Christian perfection is.  Words will not be enough to cause others to take interest in what Christ offers, but the witness of a reformed life certainly is.  When it is evident in the relationships of parent and child, of husband and wife, of friend to friend, of co-worker to co-worker – when love is clearly seen in all – the world will take notice.  It will be different from the norm.  This is what we are called to be.  This is why we will be seen as different.  Not because of what we wear, what we eat, or when we worship; those things may all seem odd, but the real difference in us will be “HOW” we love.  When our lives are a living example of love in the extreme, we will be decidedly different from the world around us.  And the reflection of that love, of His love through us, will draw men unto Him, not us.  Our role is not always to be preacher, or evangelist – but it is always to live a life reformed and re-created by Christ.  That example cannot be hid, or ignored, and will always bear fruit, for it is not I, but Christ.

At some point in the not too distant future, the world will take notice of the explosion of love reflected in those who have learned truly what it means to be called by the name of Christ.  The intensity of the Holy Spirit will be poured out and the love of Christ will be so magnified that it simply cannot be ignored or discarded.  This living fire poured out on Christianity, poured out on those who have learned to surrender, will mark the final last push, the final last opportunity for the world to embrace love or not.  Non-believers will not be asked to make their decision based on the empty words of pulpit sermons, but rather based on the living fire in the lives of people they cannot ignore.  The power of love will be fully and finally revealed, and miracles will pour out in such great measure that CNN will hardly have the reporters to cover them.  It will be in this time of intensity, that love is at last revealed in the followers of Christ, in the true remnant that carry His name.  Lives of love that could only come from the re-creation of Christ Himself, will mark the final time of the end. 

Those who for whatever reason, decide to reject the clear love of Christ, in favor of love for self, no matter what religious affiliation they may call themselves by, will have made a final choice that cannot be undone.  For them, the words of the prophet John will call an ominous forewarning when he says … “let he who is unholy be unholy still.” (Rev 22:11)  Every effort will have been made to see them saved, every demonstration of love made clear, every possible method of reaching them with the tender mercies of God.  But for those who reject it all, who turn from love of others to love only themselves, their devotion to his satanic mastery will increase as well with wild abandon.  Restraint will all but disappear from a world of those who have given themselves freely and fully to self-love rather than the love of God.  It is this clear juxtaposition that marks the end of time for evil. 

The second coming of Christ, and following thousand years, are but one last day in the existence of evil.  Choices will have been made and cemented as to the future of evil.  Those who have surrendered to Christ and have been remade into the perfection which love intended, will forever know the value of trust in God.  Those who have rejected this choice will meet a full and final end in the lake of fire that will at last consume the world over.  Even in this final act, God reveals His last act of mercy on those who have rejected His name.  Rather than allow them to exist forever in a state of torture in the free embrace of evil, His fires purify and put an end to their existence.  Satan will perish in these flames and after him, death itself will be cast into the lake.  At that point, there will be no more pain, and no more evil, and no more death – for they will all cease to exist – never to rise again.  Trust will have been restored throughout the universe including within humanity, and life will return to the intentions of a loving God.  Destiny will be restored to all who will embrace it; our destiny, as wrought by our God of love.