Resonance

Tag: hell

  • Making It Into Purgatory

    Usually, when a choice is presented to someone, it can be reduced to two simple options; it’s either yes or no, good or bad, right or wrong. There are no two ways about that. You can’t be an in-betweener. You cannot sit on the fence. However, liberals believe in a third option. Not everything should be rigid. Why the need for dualistic thinking when we can barely decide on what is right or wrong. In fact, must everything be about right and wrong? We can have an option that is a hybrid of the two, or neither of the two. It is therefore of no wonder that there is such a thing as purgatory.

    A Humanly-Devised Happy Ending

    In the Apocalypse of Peter, a book not canonised into the Bible, there is an elaborate detail about the punishment in hell for each type of crime and the pleasures given in heaven for each virtue. In the 14th chapter, a chapter that looks like it was added later because it lacks coherence with the overall outlook of the book, there is a very weird story that seems to have a happy ending for everyone. This doctrine is going to be popular once more in the coming generations, thus the need to know. This separate story explains that in the end, God will save all sinners from their plight in Hell:

    “My Father will give unto them all the life, the glory, and the kingdom that passeth not away, … It is because of them that have believed in me that I am come. It is also because of them that have believed in me, that, at their word, I shall have pity on men… “

    Thus, in this additional story, sinners will finally be saved by the prayers of those in heaven. Peter then orders his son Clement not to speak of this revelation since God had told Peter to keep it secret: [and God said]”… thou must not tell that which thou hearest unto the sinners lest they transgress the more, and sin“. It sounds like what a Loving God will do, right? Must He eternally punish His very own images because of temporary wrongdoing? Punish them for a moment and later release everyone to Heaven.

    God of Justice

    God is a Judge! Just like a King, He sits in His Throne Room and judges issues. He is the King of Kings, and His domain extends over all things, even in the kingdom of darkness. Daniel 2:22 says it better, He sees what lies hidden in darkness, though He is surrounded by Light. The kingdom of darkness is ALWAYS in the court of law, accusing each and every one of us day and night based on our actions and God’s commandments. This is a typical scene in the Throne Room;

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    Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord , and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord , who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?” Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.”

    Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.” Then I said, “Put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord stood by. The angel of the Lord gave this charge to Joshua: “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘If you will walk in obedience to me and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.

    Zechariah 3:1‭-‬7 NIV

    As aforementioned last week, God is justified in whatever action He decides to choose. With God being a just God, He can declare us guilty and hand us over to our accusers whenever we fall short. Yet, He offers grace, kindness and mercy. However, when we reject His convictions and refuse to admit our wrongdoings, our accusers have a right standing and foothold. It’s like giving someone the opportunity to insult you. As long as you don’t acknowledge that you sinned, that sin has the right to have you in its grip.

    Why the Options Are Only Two

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    By confessing Jesus as your Saviour, there is now no condemnation for you as long as you walk in the Spirit. When God convicts you, He is only saying admit that you are wrong. Even in our court system, once you plead guilty, your sentence reduces drastically as compared to pleading not guilty and losing. You are not pleading guilty to your accusers. You are pleading guilty to the merciful Judge.

    The penalty of sin is death. Do you realise that? The side punishments – the torments, beatings and whatever visualisation you have of hell – are the devil’s own creative ideas. The actual penalty is death; being eternally cut off from God, where the forces of darkness can do whatever they want with you. If you lose your grip on Jesus being your lawyer, death will eternally hold you in its grip. So it’s not that God has condemned people to hell eternally. He hasn’t chosen to condemn people, neither did He choose to make it an eternal thing.

    It is already an eternal thing. Remember Newton’s 1st law of motion? He rather provided an eternal solution. By conquering death, Jesus rid death of the power to keep holding us in its grip. We have that decision to make in this age, not in the age to come. For in the age to come, God has already judged Death as guilty and condemned Death and Hell into the lake of fire. Must you still submit to death at the time, you are condemned together with it.

    purgatory

    In conclusion, there is no purgatory. Simple and short. Heaven is forever. Hell is forever. If you miss one, you can’t miss the other. Blaming God is the easy way out for fools. Don’t be one of them. I love you ❤️

  • Making it to Hell

    THE ONLY WAY TO HELL


    Would you believe it if I told you that there’s only one way to hell? Absolutely not! In Jesus’ own words, broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many walk that path. However, the only reason someone would be thrown in hell is that they didn’t accept Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary. “Whoever does not believe is already condemned“. By default, we are all headed towards destruction because the power of sin is greater than the will of man. If you don’t accept Jesus, no matter what you do, you are heading towards destruction.

    This is why Jesus is the only way to the Father. He brings us back to the path of righteousness once we acknowledge His sacrifice and accept God’s gift of salvation. Just as there are several ways the Spirit leads people to Jesus, the only way to the Father, all other sins gradually push us to the ultimate sin that sends us to hell; not accepting Jesus as your personal Saviour. Does that make sense to you now? So essentially, no one is going to hell because of fornication. However, the fornicator is going to hell because the sin of fornication blocked his/her heart from continuing to believe in Jesus.

    It is very important that we know this. The more you live in sin, the more your heart grows cold till you don’t believe anymore. Why is this important to know this perspective? Because it’s not over for such a person to be reconciled to God once more no matter how far one has walked away. As long as you are alive and have the chance to believe, you are still welcome at home, in the Father’s arms.

    GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE

    God is justified in whatever decision He makes. He does not need to do the right thing. HE IS the right thing. Only He holds the power to right a wrong. Thus, whether He chooses justice on us as the penalty for our sins or chooses freedom for us as a result of Jesus’ death and resurrection, He is justified. Do you understand this? With justice as the foundation of His throne, He has the power to sanction all creation – for falling short – into eternal damnation and still be right for doing so.

    “How can a loving God send people to hell?”. Truth is, even if He did send people to hell, He will still be justified for doing so. By rejecting Jesus, we crucify Him a second time and become guilty of an even greater sin. The God who has the power to condemn us is the same God who made the provision to ransom us. Is this stone going to be our cornerstone or our stumbling block? Is the consuming fire going to ignite our hearts for more or burn our souls forever? It is our utmost decision to make, and God respects that.

    GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT


    When I was young, God showed me a simple vision. Perhaps, a very common story you may have heard from somewhere else. Jesus and I were standing in front of a gigantic tree with a huge bottom but an endless apex. There were several people climbing the tree at different heights of the tree, all the way into the clouds. Very typical of trees, the stem of the tree got thinner as one climbed upwards.

    At the bottom, there were a lot of people who kept climbing and falling almost immediately. They didn’t feel hurt because they didn’t fall from a great height. Eventually, some of them simply stopped climbing, stuck around for a while and then left. Suddenly, one of the people at the very top lost grip and slipped. He fell heavily from the great height, and couldn’t even stand again.

    That is the thing with growth and development. If you are at the early stages of your Christian journey, you are tempted to abuse God’s Grace. Yet, don’t be deceived. God cannot be mocked. You won’t grow to your fullest potential. You will have yourself deceived so much that before you realize it, your heart is far far away from your First Love. When you grow to a certain place, however, you don’t have the luxury of giving the devil a foothold. You can’t afford to backslide when you’ve grown to some extent.

    As you walk with God, His Spirit will teach you to stop things you thought were not necessarily wrong. People do not realise that growth didn’t come into the story because of sin. Even before sin, Adam needed to grow. Even in Heaven, we will continue to grow. Growing means increasing our capacity to receive more, experience more and understand more. God stays the same, yet everyday the angels discover something new about Him and sing an even louder hallelujah. So will we!

    Are you growing? Or you’re foolishly abusing Grace till your heart grows cold for the things of God? It’s your choice. This choice is either leading you on the Broadway to hell or on the leeway to Heaven. It’s your choice, my dear

  • Why Would A Loving God Send People to Hell?

    Why Would A Loving God Send People to Hell?

    “Who created hell in the first place?”

    “God”.

    “But why would a Loving God throw you in hell for not believing a set of beliefs? That’s insane.”

    “That’s a possible way to look at it, but that way would never make you understand. Let me give you an analogy;

    Accusing God for sending people to hell is like accusing a high court judge for sentencing someone to prison. What landed the person in prison; the judge’s verdict or the crime? The crime. The judge didn’t throw the person into prison, the crime did.

    God’s system is not flawed. Man’s system rather is. With man’s system, if you commit one criminal offense, you can end up in jail. However, if another with 1000 crimes cannot be proven guilty, the person goes scot-free. With God’s system, no sin can outrun God’s overlook. However, God doesn’t just dump you in hell after giving you just one shot.

    Our sins, which are rampant and continuous, have made all of us deserve imprisonment. The Judge, instead of pouring out the full sentence of our evil on us, decided to pardon us and offer us a better life. This offer was available for everyone, for everyone was at fault.

    But some still refused the offer because they were angry with the Judge for having a justice system. Others were offended by the Judge’s available pardon for everyone. Therefore, anyone who’ll serve the full sentence of their punishment are not those who committed many sins, but those who rejected the Judge’s grace. Did you get it?”

    I love you ❤️