I don’t know the answer with certainty, but what I do know i with certainty is that God is good, loving, merciful, and just. But if I had to say what I think will happen based of scriptures and logic, I will have to unpack that below.

If you are familiar with the blue letter Bible, I recommend googling it and using it, it is a great resource for digging deep into the Bible and understanding original meanings and seeing context of the same word used in other parts of the Bible.

It starts with the word hell. Hell has 4 different words used, and 3 different meanings. Hades (Greek) and Sheol (Hebrew) mean the same thing, it is a place of the dead, all dead go there with the exception of those who have been redeemed by Jesus. Then there is Geenna (Greek) which is a place south of Jerusalem, where the filth and dead animals of the city were cast out and burned. Tartaroō (Greek) which is the deepest abyss of Hades, a place some angels in heaven were held until the judgement day.

Some may argue why God didn’t just end the angels or Satan so they can’t harm us or screw us up. First, He is God and can do what He wants, second, He is God and is powerful. How much more glory does He get if there is a great foe who tries to mess us up and through His power we resist? God isn’t scared of Satan, He doesn’t need to end His life in order to succeed.

Hades is used in the NT and is linked to Sheol used in the OT. In Act 2 and 13, the Greek word Hades is quoting a Psalm 16 that used Sheol, so we know they are the same meaning. And we learn in the OT that there are two sides to Hades. A bad side where the wicked go, and a good side (Abraham’s side or Bosom) where the righteous in God’s eye’s go, like Abraham himself, probably Noah, Jacob, Job ect. So those who were redeemed by Jesus (including the thief on the cross, was probably the first one in heaven/paradise/with God after death), will go to heaven when they die and be with God immediately. Eventually that heaven will be brought down to the new earth when the new heavens are created. But anyone before Jesus, or those after but not redeemed by Jesus, go to Hades. Some the ‘good’ side, some the ‘bad’ side. There is also a verse that speaks of Hades being a spiritual realm in this very earth. I can see it being quite possible for those in Hades to possibly being able to see us on earth here?

What happened before Abraham? Did the good side start after Abraham’s death? I don’t think so. I just think Abraham, being the father of the Israelite’s, was well known, and his name was just used to help association. I don’t think Abraham owned that side.

Jesus spoke of these sides in Luke 16. The rich man went to the tormenting side of Hades, and Lazarus went to the Abraham’s side and there was a horizontal chasm fixed between them that no man could cross.

Would it make sense or be fair if the rich man lived 80 years of a grand life on earth and was tormented for an eternity? Or the poor man who lived a hard 80 years but then was rewarded with comfort for an eternity?

I don’t think God has anyone suffer for the sake of suffering. He is loving, and doesn’t want to watch anyone suffer, but He will and does watch them suffer knowing it can bring about change/good. I think the ‘bad’ side of Hades is the mercy of God, bringing about great suffering to help change the folks there. Like a fire that purifies, they suffer and some might even admit they deserve the suffering, and learn that God is the only way, and God deserves all glory, and turn to God and repent. Verse 26 says there is a great chasm fixed so those who wish to cannot cross. But Jesus also says that it is easier for a rich man to go through the eye of a needle than to enter the kingdom of heaven. And follows that with ” With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. ” So, though man cannot of their own strength pass from one side to the other, God could help them achieve this. Maybe through this suffering, they are brought humbled before God and turn to Jesus to save them. Is the cross not powerful enough? God forgives sins, He is the one sinned against. Why do we make up rules and limit His power here? Instead we think His hands are tied and there is a person suffering for the sake of suffering?

So eventually in Rev 20, Hades will spit out the dead and there will be no more Hades, and the books will be opened, and those in the bad side of Hades will go to the eternal lake of fire (Geenna), and those on the good side will be judged, and God could chose to take them to heaven or send them to Geenna, He is the judge. but I really don’t think there will be too many in Abraham’s side of Hades. After seeing Jesus’ love displayed on earth here, they will ask for forgiveness and wish for God to be their king, and I think that will be granted them. I think there will be people who lived decent lives here, who go to Abraham’s side of Hades, but for whatever reason, chose to reject God and will end up in Geenna. And I think there are those who lived wicked lives here who will be broken and humbled and wish to have God as their king, and through the atoning blood of Christ, will be in Heaven.

It is clear that Jesus is the only way to heaven, and no one can get to heaven based off of their deeds. But it does seem that Hades has sides if not levels to reward or punish based off of their deeds, for those who haven’t been redeemed by Christ and born again with the forgiveness of Jesus and the will to have God rule their lives. I think the children who are too young to understand or those with mental disabilities or those who haven’t heard of Jesus to all go to Hades (some the good side, some the bad side based on their deeds here) and from there, most will end up in Heaven through Jesus.

Then you look in Rev 20:14, where Death and Hades where thrown into Geenna. How can Death (an event of the flesh no longer living) and Hades (a place for all dead outside of Christ’s redemption) be thrown into a lake of fire? Geenna was a place to get rid of things, to burn up the animals so they didn’t exist anymore. Death and Hades will not exist anymore. Why would this be different for those who are judged to Geenna? A place of eternal torment? Life is an AMAZING blessing of God, having the ability to use our lives to glorify Him is an incredible gift! To not be doing that, or to have that gift sounds like torment to me. Being annihilated (ceasing to exist or to have life) sounds like torment to me, and not being brought back to life makes it eternal. Do people really consciously get tormented for an eternity? People reject God and curse Him for eternity? I thought every tongue will confess that He is Lord? I thought sin was conquered, why is there a group of people in a place eternally sinning? It would make more sense to me if they all just ceased to exist. If they can’t or won’t change, there is no need to actively punish or torment anyone. Those not found if the book of life. Those who no longer live or exist. Geenna sounds to me like an place where those who rejected God cease to exist.

This isn’t some watered down version to make anyone feel less guilty about those going to hell. I don’t think hell should be a motivation for anyone to live for God. If you are using God as a fire blanket, you won’t like Heaven. And if you need the guilt of not allowing others to go to a fiery torment to share the gospel to others, that isn’t right either. One, we can’t control the destination of ones soul and in attempt to try to control that, you are acting like God and sinning. We live the love of God for others to see, so they can see Him in us, and He can change their heart so they can come to know Him too. I am not saying don’t share the gospel, quite the opposite. I am saying live the gospel, share it, let the spring of God inside you overflow and fills others. Don’t worry about other’s eternal destination which you have no control over anyway. I think Satan uses our altruism and the Bible again to cause us to stumble. We try so hard to ‘do good’ (prevent people from going to hell) that we end up sinning and hating and yelling and lying and whatever we can so ‘good’ can be done. As opposed to doing God’s will in the process, and trusting in Him to take care of the outcome. Sharing the gospel is ok/good, but sharing with the gospel where the only good outcome is if they get saved is where sin steps in and our pride takes over.

I know I keep repeating myself but is is hard to explain the difference between doing Godly things and how that is good, but how that can turn bad if we try to take control. Having goals is good, but having the outcome in our control is when darkness takes advantage of the blessings of God and perverts them to sinning against God.

Maybe I am wrong on all of that. Maybe there will be a place of active torment for an eternity. Whatever God chooses to do will be just and loving. He is the potter, and we are the clay. We cannot tell Him what is good or not because it does or doesn’t make sense to us. I am simply saying what makes sense to me based of God’s character revealed in the scriptures and the scriptures themselves say about the topic. Deu 29:29 ” The secret things belong to the LORD our God… ” If He wants this topic to remain unknown, it will. Though it should never change the way you live, as we live to glorify Him in all we do, we don’t live to prevent people from going to hell.

I do not think we did, but I am still searching for answers on this and I am more than happy to read feedback from others, but until then I do have a reason why I do not believe this.

Job was a man who was righteous in his own eyes. He followed the law to a “T” and the first verse of that book in the Bible says this (though it unpacks later he was not without sin). Job followed all the laws of God and never failed them once.

Though I wonder if maybe he failed them when he was a child? I think the Jews believed you were accountable at age 13? Deu 1:39 “your children, who do not yet know good from bad”. Which I thought an adult was age 20, and adult was able to fight in a war and counted as such, and if you aren’t an adult, you are a child, making it appear to me that you are a child till 20? So I am not sure where 13 comes from or if that is even Biblical. Even Isaiah 7:15 (the famous prophesy of Jesus) says “when he knows enough to reject the wrong and chose the right”. I would think logically this is age 10 or 13 or something? But if you don’t have the ability or “know enough” to chose right or reject wrong, how could you be held accountable for it? You certainly can’t miss a mark you aren’t aiming for?

Sin is missing the mark, an archer term. Can you miss the mark if you never fired an arrow? Perhaps there is none who are held accountable for sin before this age? I don’t know the answer to that. But to get off of this tangent and back to the topic at hand.

Job was righteous, never broke the law. God is the giver of everything to everybody, and if you have anything, it is because He gave it to you. If one was able to follow the law 100%, it is only by the blessings of God that allowed that to occur. But I don’t think Job knew this (in the beginning of the book, though I think he learned it in the end), as it seems he even tries to measure his righteousness against God. Saying to God, “you want man to follow the law 100%, and I did, how awesome am I!” God them asks Job a few questions, tells him he is only who he is because of God, man is nothing compared to God. Job finally humbly realizes this, and gives thanks to God, and he is the blessed with more than he had before. Job probably continued to live a righteous life, following the law 100%, but now he was properly putting God where He belongs, and giving all the glory to God where it belongs. Prior to that, Job was rejecting God, which is the original sin, a sin we all commit.

God never wanted man to follow the law 100% to prove how awesome man is, or as a “you must be this tall to get into heaven”. However, God does want us to glorify Him (where all glory belongs) and in that process the law WILL be followed 100%. (transforming us from the inside, a well that overflows and begins to fill others) The law was not given as a measuring stick for man to potentially achieve so that man can show how great man is. The law IS a measuring stick to show how great God is and how any who follow God (John 15), remain in Him, the law will be followed. For the fruits of the law, the ability to follow the law AND glorify God come from remaining in God, and humbly acknowledging we are nothing without Him and exist to glorify Him.

Like the law was a sword in the stone, and God told us to simply remove the sword and we will display our worth. Man tried with all their might to remove that sword even hurting others to attempt to attain this. But God just wanted us to trust in Him, and He would then empower us to be able to simply remove the sword. The following of the law is a result of the Spirit inside us, God always wanted us to rely on Him, and knew that would result in the laws being followed. He NEVER wanted us to simply achieve the fact of being able to follow laws.

This is what Jesus showed us on earth. This is why Jesus never sinned and why all man sins. Just as Adam did, we think we don’t need God, or that we deserve what we have, or earned anything we have, or any time we try to take the glory that belongs to God, that is sin. And the knowledge/wisdom I have knowing this, I don’t think I ever could have come to know if it wasn’t for Jesus giving me this wisdom/knowledge.

I believe Adam was given the original blessing in the garden, NOT the original sin. The blessing of an autonomous life that can be used to give God glory. The desire to do good things, to maintain goodness in His temple (a place where God dwells with man). The image of God in us, the desire to tend to the earth, maintaining a utopia. The problem only comes when we think we have any control over sustaining this utopia. That blessing gets perverted into pride and rejection of God. This ‘sin nature’ is ingrained in us all, the propensity to sin. But I don’t believe we are born sinners. I think this is what Psalm 51 is getting at with “sinful at birth”. We have the propensity to sin at birth, but the only thing Adam ‘passed’ onto us, is the original blessing of God. I don’t believe Adam passed anything onto us other than genetic information. I believe Adam was just the first Homo sapien to have been given this original blessing from God and to bear God’s image. See (https://seekingod.home.blog/2019/03/06/evolution-is-ok/) for more on this. This sinning we do and we have is all on us. Like Job, the ‘righteous’ ones out there who claim to be perfect (attempt to measure themselves to God), then become sinners. The only one without sin, was Jesus, who knew the only way to not sin, was with the dependence of God. Jesus prayed daily, read and meditated on the scriptures of God. He was rewarded with blessings of God and wisdom beyond any other human and assistance from the Spirit of God to help Him not sin. Even though Jesus was God Himself, STILL humbly depended on God to help Him not sin.

If Adam didn’t have a sin nature till “the fall”, they why did he sin? Did this surprise God? Was Jesus His plan B? Jesus was know that He would save mankind and reconcile mankind back to God before the universe we know of was. God created everything to give Him glory, and when He created humans, we had the choice to give Him glory, but only could properly with His help. How much more glory would He receive from ones who could chose not to give Him the glory? Also it set up a beautify orchestrated story of His love. If Romeo and Juliet was a story of two people that died, it wouldn’t be very good. It builds, it develops characters, and it has a climax, which displays how great their love was for one another. God could not have displayed to the universe His glory and love in any other way than He did, and that is why Jesus was known form before man and man was destined to sin. It was all part of God’s plan. And Satan, why didn’t God wipe Him from the universe? Eventually He will, but for now, God isn’t worried about Satan, He does not have fear. He knows with His power and love, He can help us over come Satan which amplifies His glory even more! For to worship God with no foe, we would never know the awesome love and power of God. God wants Satan here, to be a easily defeat-able foe (with His help) that can not be even slightly defeated by ourselves, to also help us learn that we must lean on Him. If we could almost do it ourselves, then we might not ever turn to God. Satan is a great example of God’s mercy. God points us to God in pretty much every way, He is telling us that we exist to glorify Him and need His help to glorify Him and can do nothing on our own.

I think we all have human nature, which is nature that we wish to be our own gods, we want to control our own lives. If Adam hadn’t sinned then, it is only a matter of time till he sinned later. Man can’t not sin, without the help of God, and without God revealing to us that we need His help (as I believe He did with Jesus), we can only learn after we have rejected Him and the truth is then revealed to us and Jesus saves us with that truth and atonement.

A recent high profile aircraft incident has people worried about whether or not they should fly (especially on a 373max). The airline industry still has a staggeringly MUCH higher safety record than cars, but people still drive every day. Driver-less cars have also successfully driven over 1 million miles. But there were a few deaths that occurred, (still monumentally less deaths than driver-ed cars), and people say they refuse to get into an automated car. Why? We want to have control (or more importantly, think we have control, as only God is in control) of our lives, we want to be God. We would rather have the illusion of control in our lives than not have control but be safer. Just like with God. We would rather give ourselves the illusion of control, than to trust the MUCH safer choice of trusting God.

To elaborate on any of the below, refer to this post (https://seekingod.home.blog/2019/03/05/is-the-cross-really-that-important/). I believe Jesus was fully human, that He gave up His ‘God powers’. What good would that do for humans if God came down as God and lived a sinless life? Well duh, He was God, it is easy for God to not sin, to reject Himself, God wouldn’t need to humble Himself to say that He only has what He has because God gave it to Him (But Jesus did humble Himself and demonstrated that humans He needed to fully rely on God in order to not sin). If God came as God, I would not have any empowerment over sin, I would think not sinning is impossible, only a thing God can do. But IT IS NOT! We too, can not sin! Jesus conquering of sin was His life’s process that was brought out to completed on the cross, and during His life showed us how to not sin, and it is only through the submission and full dependence on God!

So we can now not sin like Jesus did? Yes! So are we perfect/blameless now? Not exactly… The caveat is that, though we can now not sin, we still have past sin that needs atoned for. We can and will never be perfect, and I think the only way to live a sinless life is a journey that begins at the revaluation from God of our sins. For if we think we have no sin or need for atonement, we again are rejecting God and robbing Him of glory that belongs to Him, and are therefore sinning (1 John 1:8).

Jesus came to earth as a man, 100% human, with the same propensity to sin as we have. He was temped as we are, and He over came as we can, through the help of God! I think the one difference between Jesus and the rest of mankind is that He was born with the knowledge and wisdom (or maybe not, maybe He became an ‘adult, who could chose right and reject wrong’) that all blessings and glory come from God and belong to God. I think the rest of mankind requires this to be revealed to them from God (which He did through His Son). Col 1:15-20. Jesus knew He would come to earth to show us the way. The only reason I know what I know is because God was gracious enough to reveal it to me.

I think it is wrong to see heaven as a reward, or a paradise, a place that we look forward to not having illnesses or injuries, to have ultimate comforts of the flesh. It may have all those things, but that is not what heaven is. Why do we have all of this suffering on earth? Was it because of the fall? Did God punish mankind for sinning? I do not think so, rather the opposite. All of the bad things that happen in this life are to point us back to God. So the joy of being in heaven, is not needing to be pointed back to God, because we will be focusing/looking at Him for all eternity. Since we are focused on God, we will not hurt. But it isn’t the lack of hurting that makes heaven great or a desirable place to be, it is the being in the will and presence of God.

What would happen if you got to heaven and you still tripped and fell and got a bloody knee that hurt? Would you want to leave? Would you be mad at God? Would you feel ripped off? Like you wasted your life on earth serving God (or what you thought was) and didn’t get the reward you hoped for, that you thought God promised you? I sincerely hope not! If I get to heaven and scrape my knee, I will praise the Lord! The Lord gives and takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord! I want God’s will, I want to focus on Him and glorify Him. If it would bring Him glory to see me with a bloody knee, so be it. Sure this is also how I would want to react while on earth, and sometimes I might, or might not. I don’t think we will be able to look away as Peter did and began to sink, I think our eyes will be fixed on Jesus, and therefore will never chose against God’s will or sin. THAT is the ultimate ‘reward’ of heaven. Not having to deal with this weak flesh, but having the strong spirit (the Spirit of God) take over.

Heaven is a place were the spirit will never suffer, as it suffers greatly on earth. One because it is separated from the Creator, and two, because the flesh is battling is constantly. The Bible speaks of suffering of the flesh as a good thing. Not to suffer for suffering sake or to be a masocist, rather because physical suffering reminds us of our Creator, and looking towards our Creator brings about spiritual life and spirtual healing. The spirit will have eternal life, eternal purpose, and that is to glorify it’s creator. That is the wages of sin, spiritual death, spiritual suffering, not living our spiritual purpose.

That is not to say that we should desecrate our flesh or say it is worthless and punish it in the name of God as some denominations claim. God gave us this flesh for a reason, it just came with the constraints or requiring the spirit to steer it, and if the spirit does not, it can make quite a mess. Use the provisions of God and perverts them to be used as an enemy of God. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

THIS is what I think Paul was speaking of when he spoke of suffering being good. How this temporary pain has a reward. That reward being life and healing to our spirits while on earth, and in heaven. Not that we should suffer now and ‘pay our dues’ in sufferings so we can have our flesh be pampered for eternity. That is actually quite the opposite of what Paul spoke of and the gospel itself. For the mercy of God has nothing to do with anything we do, and thanks to the saving grace of Jesus, we don’t have to do anything. Rather thanks to the spirit of truth Jesus gave us, we now want to do good works, but so that God is glorified, not so that we may receive any benefit.

The problem with a reward is that it requires effort. I don’t want a reward, I strive to glorify God because I love Him (because He first loved me), that’s it.

I don’t like (not can I make sense of) the narrative of a sacrificial Jesus in that He took our place, nor do I think it is biblically accurate. Like there was a bullet was coming our way, and Jesus jumped in front of it. It doesn’t really do us any good, we continue to live our lives of despair.

Jesus didn’t walk the coals to get burned feet, because we deserved burned feet, but He got burnt feet so we don’t have to. Jesus did walk the hot coals though, and His feet got burnt, but that was because there was a treasure at the end of the coal and walls surrounding it and the only way to get the treasure was to walk the coals.

Genesis speaks of One getting bit by the snake and crushing the snake, and I like to take that analogy further. Substitutionary atonement would explain (as much as I can make sense of it) that like we got bit and died and went to hell, and Jesus got bit and died (and went to hell in our place?), but He rose from the dead. Or is it that we were about to get bit, but Jesus took the bite instead, and the bite is hell? and if we believe He did this, we now live? It sounds too mystical to me, like a magic thing occurred at His death, and that doesn’t really help our current lives (other than the false hope of getting a comfortable, luxurious eternity ticket of admission?) nor does it make any logical sense to me.

When does Jesus experience the wrath of God? What is His wrath? Are the wages/consequences of sin death, hell (separation from God? Or are the wages of sin, wrath from God?) I can’t find the latter verse anywhere in the Bible. And Jesus saves us from this wrath wage of sin, by experiencing it? The more I think about sacrificial atonement, the more absurd it sounds to me.

I like to think of it as we got bit (tempted) by sin, and that sin is venom (rebellion from God’s will) go injected into us which killed us (our souls). Satan took advantage of the gift God gave us, to want the best for our neighbors, and perverted it into thinking we can help our neighbors of our own strength, we don’t need Him. So we died (our souls), we were separated from God by our own choice. But Jesus was also bit (tempted) as He was a human. But, the venom never got to Him BECAUSE He knew the truth of God and knew His entire purpose in life is to glorify God and He asked God to help Him glorify Him in all He did so His soul never died, he never experienced the wage of sin, He never rejected God nor was ever separated from Him. So not only did Jesus’ soul never die, but He conquered the serpent in the process. We now have power over that venom, through asking Jesus for help, not only are our souls brought back to life, but the venom can no longer harm our souls.

One of those ways God wanted Jesus to glorify God, was to become a sin sacrifice for us. Well, when Jews sacrificed lambs, it was a personal loss for them, they were losing a lamb of theirs, it was an inconvenience/loss type sacrifice (not sacrifice as in an animal on the altar, which is also was). Jesus is not ours, we never sacrificed Jesus. Jesus was/is God’s sacrifice. Even though we were the ones that screwed up, God sacrificed one of HIS Lambs in the form or Jesus on an alter/cross, and at the loss of Jesus from His side. Jesus took the full yoke of our sin on Himself. I think this was why He sweat blood while praying in the garden, He knew what He would have to do. I don’t think it was being physically crucified so much (as Jesus already left the side of God to come to earth) He experienced pain. Many humans in that time period experienced the pain of crucifixion and didn’t sweat blood in anticipation of it. He knew He would be pounced on and smothered by the powers of darkness at it’s full strength. Sure, so far Jesus has not sinned and has resisted temptation (through the help of God. And unsurprisingly, He was asking God to help Him for this next temptation too). But He now has to know what mankind did and is doing and will do. He has to chose to die for all mankind. To be knowledgeable of all the horrendous and sickening things we do and think, how we perverted the blessings of God and reject the good plans God has for us. I am sure the human/flesh side of Him (along with Satan in His ear) was saying, “you know what, this isn’t worth it, I created these people once, I could try again differently, maybe get it better, this is just terrible what they are doing, I can’t save these people”. I think this is what is meant by “bore the weight of our sins”. Knew what we did, and loved us in spite of it. To love without knowing someone is like chick flick fuzzy feeling love, it isn’t real. And to not love someone because you know them, is rejection. But to know someone and love them in spite of what you know, that is unconditional love of God.

“Eli Eli lama sabachthani?”

This is a loaded statement, one I think is horribly misunderstood. Back then, the Jews would quote the beginning of a Psalms to speak/express the whole Psalms, like a summary or abbreviation. Do you know the point of Psalms 22 is? Vs 24
“For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard. ” Jesus is saying, this is really difficult, the hardest thing I have ever done, I feel as if you have abandoned me God, BUT, I know you have NOT nor will you ever! What he is NOT saying, is “God is forsaking me”, or “God is pouring out His wrath on me”.

God turns His face away?!

There are a few hymns and modern day praise songs with these lyrics, and I cringe every time I see them. Vs 24, clearly say he will NOT turn His face away. So why do we sing that or how has that turned up in doctrine?

God cannot handle our sin or be in the presence of our sin!?

Where does this come from? Is sin kryptonite to God? Surely a sinful man in the presence of God will be destroyed, but that is a sinful us can’t be near Him, NOT, He cannot be near us. His is, and always will be very near us, Vs 24 shows this and so does Jesus on this earth, or on the cross. Emmanuel literally means God with us! He is so loving and merciful and wants to help us and will help us through the hardest times.

Back from those tangents, to Jesus conquering sin. So Satan thought he won, because He killed Jesus. Satan thought Jesus’ mission was to save mankind while He was on earth, and once Satan could either make Him sin, or get rid of Him, he would win. Little did he know that it was the death of Jesus that conquered him and sin. Jesus showed us that the way to live a sinless life and to live our lives to the fullest, is to obey and glorify the Father through all circumstances, even to the point of death! Once Jesus died and showed us this truth, we now can have that truth. But also, since Jesus is God, and God is life, of course death couldn’t hold Him, and He rose from the grave! We now know how to live a sinless life (from now on, we have sinned in the past, and need to also have a repentant/regretful heart about that sin) and live life to its fullest, as God intended when He made us as His image bearers.

I certainly haven’t achieved a life without sin it yet, though I hope to one day (while still on earth, as in heaven we all will, only through the merciful forgiveness of God through His Son, and with help from God). I don’t like the narrative (nor am I sure that it is true or biblical) that we are guaranteed to sin today, because we are human. How was sin conquered if that was true? It doesn’t say sin will be conquered in the future when we are in heaven, it says conquered, it is finished, right? Sure it is easier said than done, but didn’t Jesus show us the way? And that we can only do it through having God help us to do it?

I believe that is called “Christus Victor,” theory of atonement which sounds a whole lot more logical, beneficial, and Biblical to me than the “sacrificial Jesus” theory of atonement narrative that is traditionally preached.

Sure there is a place for it, and but I think it is overly misused to be a disguise for our pride. We think we are right, and want to be right and want them to know, is usually how it is presented or how it appears. The Bible isn’t a book full of airtight arguments to convince the world it is right and they are all wrong. It is full of apparent contradictions. But it is also FULL of ways to show God to the world, that is what we are supposed to do.

All the way back to the blessing of mankind through Abraham, the Israelite’s were supposed to be a priesthood, bringing the blessings of God to the rest of the world, and giving God all the glory from the world, like a mirror at 45*, bouncing God the them and those good deeds God does through us bring praises right back to Him.

The Israelite’s clearly failed at this, and that is why Jesus came, to be a our High Priest. He did this by flowing God to man, loving others, meeting their tangible needs, relating with them, showing compassion, showing them the way.

I have always been a little perplexed by the saying of “let God take over”, or “let God flow through you” like it was some magical or mystical possession that occurs. I am learning that is not that case, it is a way of saying do all things for God’s glory. Do you have 2 strong legs? An intelligent brain? Anything you have is a blessing of God and you wouldn’t have it without Him. Even a paraplegic, they are created to allow the gifts that they do have to glorify God with them. When you do a kind act for another, with the intent of God receiving the glory, THAT is “God taking over you”. One, we do these kind acts one to help they other, two, so God can see your kind act and get glory for Him doing that act through you, and three, so that person sees the kindness to see that it is coming from God, so they can see God through you. God is powerful! Nothing can stop that power of God! Sure He can physically move mountain ect, but I don’t mean that physical power. Love is the most powerful force in existence, and it springs from God.

If you are to do this kind act, but don’t give God credit, it is worthless. Maybe you feel better, maybe you helped that person’s tangible needs. But we weren’t put here to be comfortable humans existing till we die or to help others be comfortable. There is a reason the 2 greatest commandment are in the order they are in. We can love God (#1) by loving others. But if we are just loving others without glory to God, we are worthless. We are put here to allow God to help us to glorify God. This is what it means that all deeds are like filthy rags. A clean rag is used to clean, if the rag is filthy, it cannot clean anything, it is worth nothing, worthless. Anything that doesn’t bring us or others closer to God and or give god glory is pointless.

That being said, I do stuff all the time that doesn’t bring God glory, it is easier said than done. This is why Jesus taught us to read the scriptures and put them in our hearts, to pray to God unceasingly, so God can help us glorify Him, and we can thank Him for helping us glorify Him. If you have the best argument for why one should be a Christian, but you don’t have love, it is worthless.

This is what will bring people to God, showing them the love of God, a love that they will want. NOT having a superior intellect and “airtight” arguments. When Paul says have a reason for why you believe and be prepared to answer, it is OK to tell them reasons. But if you aren’t showing them, they will never listen or come to know God. They might come to know God through others showing them God’s love, but not through logic.

God is also not confined to the Bible, which too many apologetics seem to believe. God is our creator, our provider, He is everywhere. Even in those who do evil (as you might have read my other blog https://seekingod.home.blog/2019/03/05/humans-are-inherently-altruistic/ ) could be showing the bit of love from God they have “built” in them.

The one thing that isn’t contradictory and is a repeated theme in the Bible and is backed by Jesus (or you could argue Jesus revealed these truths to us and the rest of the Bible back Him up) is that God is good, merciful, loving, holy, and just. All of creation is there to glorify Him, but Humans have a special ability to chose to or not, I guess giving even more glory when we do chose as we do have a choice. Focus on the 2 greatest commandments, love God and others, and you will be amazed as how many will turn to God.

I heard of a math problem once. If an evangelist (not to knock them, as God has called them to do what they do) spoke to a 100,000 pope in a stadium and they all came to know God that day, most would say “Praise God” right? What if he did it every day, 365 days a year and the same result, good? Not really, it would take 205 years to reach the world! And they wouldn’t exactly have a strong root or church to learn from, and might fall away. OR, you teach just 3 people. And you have those 3 tell 3 and so on, it would only take 30 years for the world to know God, AND they would have strong relationship with each other, be able to mentor and learn and grow. Jesus had 12 disciples, but main 3 people He mentored…

Love/God is much more powerful than words/intellect.

If you don’t believe in evolution (if asked) it doesn’t bother me, nor is this post really for you. This is more directed at those who try to convince the world (at great detriment to the gospel) that evolution is wrong and their single interpretation of some Bible passages is correct. Those like those at Answers in Genesis and Ken Ham, who wasted 102 MILLION dollars! to shove it down the throats of those who oppose. Anyone who is already a evolutionist will just laugh and be turned away further from the gospel. I would be very confident that very few if not zero people turned to God through this exhibit. It pains me greatly to know how much that money could have helped all the various missionaries throughout the world, who are actually sharing the love of God and the gospel to the world, fulfilling the great commission. I hate to bash on the guy, as I assume he means well, like Paul meant well when he approved of the persecution of those proclaiming Jesus’ name, in defense of God. Until he learned it was God, and that passion turned from persecuting those to joining them. I can only pray the same will happen of Mr. Ham and his staff. I don’t know what he is doing with the proceeds he receives, though I hope he is at least using it at a way to fund missionaries, though at the cost of (hopefully unintentionally) swindling 99% Christian guests, I am not sure if that is even good.

Recently, in a Sunday school class a teacher was going over the book Daniel. The book speaks of end times and other things, and some try to use passages in it to claim they know “the end is near!” “They are missing the entire point” says the teacher. Daniel is a book written to exiles to give them hope and faith, that God is, and always will be in control, despite your current conditions. Daniel is not about end of time events predicting. It has some of the examples of that are how He can humble the mightiest king and have them repent and praise God, or how the mightiest king who is prideful will be defeated. And many other stories to show this, but it isn’t about teaching us a secret end of times knowledge. Only God the Father knows the end of times, that is right in the Bible, spoken by Jesus.

I feel the same needs to be said about Genesis. The point of the book is to tell a nation surrounded by pagan’s, who created the world and why. It is NOT a geological or astrological map or a scientific book! I like another way of looking at the creation story than traditionally taught. That it is a home story and not a house story. This is something I borrowed from John Walton, a fellow brother in Christ, who also happens to be a linguist and this is how he would read the story from a non-religious stand point. I recommend you watch some of his videos on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8xzLFfju_4 if you are interested.

In the ANE (ancient near east) when something was said to exist or not, it was when it had purpose.

The tabernacle and/or temple had a “holy of holies”, a sacred place, where if you entered and were the wrong person at the wrong time, or if you didn’t do the right customs or were impure, you would die. Or the examples of the Levite’s who touched the ark (with arguably the right intentions of preventing it from falling) and died. There are plenty of examples of this. What about the guy putting the temple floors in or the curtain up? What about the guy hammering out the cherub wings? Or the one placing the cover/lid on the ark for the first time? These are just materials, nothing holy about them…. until they are given purpose and meaning. Same with the universe. It could have existed for billions of years (13.8 as science measures it), but it didn’t matter, it was just stuff, until God gave it a purpose. Yes God did create this stuff, but we don’t know when, nor does it matter when, what mattered is the purpose He gave it.

The “creation story” isn’t about God saying, there was foundation built, then a roof, then plumbing and electricity, it was a beautiful house. Rather, there is a room for you to eat, I want to have a place for you to live, and I can dwell with you in this loving home.

I see two possibilities. The earth is 13.8 billion years old, as we measure it, OR, the universe was made matured to appear to be 13.8 billion years old. Like when Jesus turned water into wine. The people drinking it tasted the wine and thought it to have been aged years, not seconds. So was the wine seconds old or years? By the tastes measurement, years, by actuality seconds. Or the fish that Jesus fed the 5000 with, seconds old (caviar) or years (a nice sized salmon to fill the stomach)? God can do either.

Some theistic evolutionist argue it must be 13.8 billion, because that would be deceitful of God to make false history, to make this bone be buried under millions of years of sediment. I don’t think God was trying to deceive anymore than He was when He made wine or fish. But I don’t know if evolution is real or not. I tend to lean that way, because not leaning that way alienates a massive amount of people from us reaching. As Paul said he became a Jew for the Jewish and became all things for all, I think the same. We shouldn’t get wrapped around 1 interpretation of the Bible, that is very inconsequential to how we should actually live (especially because it might not even be right). Especially because in the process we alienate so many from knowing God. God isn’t going to say in heaven “you believed in evolution, so you go to hell, or you didn’t believe so you get to heaven”. It is going to be “well done good and faithful servant, you loved me with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and others, live under my rule for eternity”.

Just because we have a scientific understanding of something, that doesn’t take God out of it. The Bible speaks all over of how God makes it rain. I do believe He makes it rain, I also believe (through science) that water gets heated, evaporates, condenses, and falls from the sky. I know God does it, and He happens to use a process that we can measure and understand scientifically. Evolution could be the same way. Yes, God did create man. Maybe the process of which He used to create man was evolution?

What is even worse is when we create a “God of the gaps”. We say God makes it rain, and (incorrectly) put our faith in that. Then we learn how rain actually happens, and that removes God from that gap, and puts science there. Then when someone explains how rain happens, we either ignore their truth, making us look ignorant and foolish so they will not listen to anything we say. Or worse, we lose our faith and turn to Atheism.

There doesn’t have to be this false dichotomy here, it isn’t God or science. Quite the contrary. The more I learn about science and the world, it amazes me even more about God.

To be clear, I do not believe in evolution-ism, but a I am a creative evolutionist. I believe evolution is a very credible way to explain that it is a ‘tool’ God used it to have how we think the universe got to the state it is at now. I do not have faith in evolution-ism, a religion that takes faith to assume we all came from nothing. There is no science behind that, it is a complete guess. The big bang to me sounds an awful lot like God speaking the universe into existence to me. There are so many close minded Christians that don’t even know how evolution actually works. But they believe in this false dichotomy that forces them quit the faith or plug their ears and they don’t even try to learn about it.

One false analogy is that evolution is like a very intricate watch, and all the parts are in a box and that if you shake it enough times, a watch will come out. That is absurd, maybe why they like to use it, but it isn’t how evolution works.

One analogy I like is to think of God like a computer engineer/programmer. He thought about how the world should work, wrote code down, which means nothing at face value, just 1’s and 0’s on paper. But as soon as you hit the power button, BAM, the big bang, all those 1’s and 0’s go to work, turning 2 simple numbers into ‘phrases’ and protocol, and programs, and billions of bits (1’s and 0’s) move per second and then the operating system starts up. If the programmer was chronicling the events, they might say, on day 1, I wrote 1’s and day 2 I wrote 0’s, day 3 I made a code, day 4, protocols, day 5 operating system, day 6 programs and applications (the whole purpose for a computer is to have programs and applications) and day 7 that is when the “programmer” ‘rests’. There is no more code to write, it is up and running, now you can use it, it has purpose. It isn’t a random chance that caused it to occur over billions of years, it was an insanely precise and complex engineered process. Would the program be insulted if you said it came from 1’s and 0’s? I don’t think it is insulting the programmer either if you claim the program came from 1’s and 0’s.

If you pour water over a mound of sand at the tip, where does the water go? Do you really think God forces every molecule to go where it goes? Or do you think he put in place protocol and laws for it to follow and though the end outcome is might be known, it wasn’t forced. Evolution is as ‘random’ as that. There are laws and protocols on a genomic and molecular level put in place, and it falls as it falls (evolution-ism says it is all random). Perhaps, there is a small valley dug into one side so that more water collects there as you intended for a pond/lake to form there? God might have done that for humans.

Or there are arguments of macro evolution being fake and micro evolution real. Micro evolution was a God of the gaps, until we learned that for example, people in hotter climates get adapt and have darker skin. So then the position changed to call it micro, and still say macro is wrong. What happens when macro is proven? Molecules don’t have can’t-change-species-block programmed into them (maybe that is why from Adam to the end of the world might be less than 50,000 years, so there is no more speciation). The skin doesn’t communicate to the bone or the organs. Atrophy is real, if something isn’t used, it goes away. When you lose muscles, you don’t need bones, when you don’t need bones, skin and nerves go away, eventually (if given enough time), you will have a new species or a reverse process of gaining muscles or other organs to help survive in a new environment. We have a plenty of measurements showing a continuum of animals that make evolutionary sense, but no direct link in that continuum to prove it. Just like a human baby to child to adult, there is no way to directly see it happen or to say when one state stops being another state, it is too gradual. You find me an exact day of when an infant becomes a toddler, and I will provide you an exact day a monkey became a Homo sapien.

Another great man of God and scientist is Francis Collins, one of the founding fathers of mapping the human genome. The guy says there is no way that all of these humans could have come from 2 pairs. The more research I do, the more the scientific world sounds like they are right, and the John Walton story of Genesis and Noah’s ark are correct and not the young earth thoughts. I don’t even think young earth became a common doctrine until the 1900’s.

I don’t have all the answers, though I have some guesses on how Homo sapiens and Adam and Eve came about that I believe is biblically sound. Feel free to contact me if you are interested, but it really isn’t THAT important and despite going off on that tangent, it isn’t what I want to focus this blog on. What I want to make the most clear, is that we don’t have the 1 and only correct interpretation of the Bible, nor should we pretend that we do. God warns fairly often about being prideful. Especially on something so insignificant in the scheme of things. Jesus didn’t speak on evolution or cosmological geography, because it ISN’T A BIG DEAL! What IS a big deal, is teaching how to live to glorify the Father, to love the Father with all our being, and love others, as the Samaritan man loved the hurt stranger, not as the Jews that walked by him. Don’t use that argument that loving them is telling them the truth (or what you pridefully believe is) and thinking that insulting and berating someone who believes evolution is a way to love them. Loving them is putting their current tangible needs before yours, not some long term goal through some convoluted “scripture” based tactic.

First I would like to say yes, it was clearly that important, as that is the path that God chose to go. But you have to follow me to the end here, but I want to weed out anyone who is close minded and will assume blasphemy and not continue to read on. When God speaks of not killing back in Genesis, He referes to spilling the life blood. I don’t think it is the blood that is the problem as much as it is the life. You are ending a life when you kill, ending what could have been. God created us as image bearers, so that through Him, we could glorify Him, as He deserves all the glory.

I know there is much prophesy/foreshadowing and law regarding sacrifices and lambs and there are reasons for it, but I think we focus WAY too much on this. If Jesus was JUST a sacrificial lamb, without blemish, He could have died a newborn, or a 18year old (so He had more knowledge or consent what was about to happen) it could have been a horrific and painful death too, and we could still sing many of the hymns we sing unchanged. There would still be a Son of God, who did not sin, a spotless lamb, who died for us, who “experienced the wrath of God for us” (whatever that means, I will get into that in this post https://seekingod.home.blog/2019/03/06/did-jesus-take-our-place/). But it didn’t happen like that. He lived! He lived a fairly full life to about age 33 is the most commonly believed age. But it was during those last 3 years of His life that I like to focus on more.

During those 3 years, there was SO much truth revealed to us! THIS is why Jesus came, to show us the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE! Due to the setup and Jewish tradition and law I believe His death had to occur, but that was mostly to end His life, and to conquer death, and a little bit to forgive our sins.

Jesus shows us God(and Jesus who is God, proves He is God by this act) has the authority to forgive sins. A lamb is not required, God is not bound by some law outside Him that sacrifices must be made. He does use sacrifices to reveal so many deep truths and the entire OT comes to a crescendo at the cross with His sacrificial death. But God was the only one wronged when we sin, it is against Him, and the one wrong has the authority to forgive.

So God could forgive all sins with the snap of His finger. But what would that do? Nothing! We would all continue to live a prideful life as we do and continue to sin. He would have to forgive us every second of every day and nothing would change or be accomplished and He would never receive His due glory.

Heaven is not a reward for those who don’t have sin, and believing in the sacrifice of Jesus to forgive all of our sins past and present is a ticket into heaven. If it was, we would be miserable in heaven with this God, “bossing” us around for eternity. “I want it my way, not God’s way”. If you think like that, heaven will be hell.

So lack of sin isn’t a ticket into heaven, and Jesus’ death isn’t a way to have sin absolved so we can be ‘rewarded’ with heaven.

It is a pet peeve of mine to hear “that those who put their faith in God will go to heaven or we will be saved (like saved from hell)”. As true as that may be, I just think it paints a terrible picture, or a wrong motivation. According to that I would think, when we die, we get comforts. And suffering here is even only tolerable, because it is just temporary, and we will get eternal comforts. Nothing about how Jesus saves us from our current spiritual death. He gives purpose to this meaningless life we lived (before knowing Him). We now know why we were put here, and how to live the lives we were given to the fullest, and the bonus is that after this life, where the worst part of this life is how we constantly screw up and forget to rely on God, that will be no more. We will no longer need to rely on the mercies of God that allows Satan to be here or suffering to happen, we won’t need pointers back to God, and we won’t ever forget to rely on Him.

Instead, God sent His one and only Son to earth, from heaven. First, this is probably a greater suffering than anything imaginable. Many times over surpassing the suffering of a crucifixion (a tortuous death that many humans endured before they died). If there ever was a “wrath of God” or “suffering” that Jesus endured for us, it was in leaving heaven, not being crucified, in my opinion.

I also don’t believe the bible tells us Jesus was perfect in all ways. He was a spotless lamb, who was perfect in that He was sinless, but I have no reason to believe He never hit His thumb with a hammer while learning carpentry or stumbled when learning to walk. To err is to be human, and from these errors we grow and learn. I don’t think it was by the ‘powers of Jesus’ that He was able to not sin either. Some will say Jesus couldn’t sin, because He was God. I don’t think that is accurate either (or beneficial to us). I believe Jesus was fully human, (made physical mistakes, tripped when learning to walk ect., was tempted), but fully God, in that He was with God in the beginning, but willingly (for us) gave up His ‘God” powers when He became a man. Much like a King is royal, and has “royal blood” and so does a prince. Jesus can forgive the sins, because of His “Goddly blood” (that runs through His, His “ancestry” if you will), but He was a limited a human while on earth.

The only God-like authority Jesus had on earth was the forgiveness of sins. As only the one sinned against can forgive the sin. And all other miracles were not the ‘powers of God/Jesus’ coming out of Jesus, rather He was performing miracles like other men of God did in the Bible, through the powers of God through them, not the powers not coming directly the humans. Jesus was incredibly intimate with God, always following His will and the Spirit of God aided Him greatly while He was on earth. That is exactly what Jesus prayed for in the Lords prayer. The Lord’s prayer was “God, help me honor you”. It wasn’t I am God I got this. The ‘only’ thing Jesus did to prove He was God, was forgiving sins (and being born of a virgin, and fulfilling the prophesies, and being a prophet of god revealing the words of God which said He was God, raising from the dead ect.). OK, so there were many things Jesus did to prove He was God, but I don’t think miracles and displays of God’s power was one of them. Jesus provided multiplied fish and bread for thousands, so did Elisha when he multiplied oil for the widow (2 Kings 4). Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Elijah raised a woman’s son (1 Kings 17). Jesus made the lame to walk, so did Paul (Acts 3). So was it Paul, Elisha, or Elijah that performed these miracles? Or God through them? Could it not have been the same or Jesus?

On earth, Jesus lived a a human, one who could have sinned. Jesus was temped, and the only way to avoid sinning was to do what He came for, and was showing us how to do. He was able to not sin because He prayed daily, He read and memorized the scriptures, He followed the commands of God, and the Spirit helped Him fight temptation just as all things things will help us fight temptation. His goal was to live in the means and not the ends, knowing God controls the ends, and to have God help Him glorify the Father. He asked God to help Him(Jesus) glorify Him(God). “Take this cup from me” help me “Not my will, but yours”may you be glorified. This is the purpose of man, to have God help us glorify God!

This is why Jesus came, to show us the way, to show us the purpose in life, so that we may live life the most abundant way possible.

Forgiving and ignoring is not the same thing.

All that being said, the cross IS important, God chose that to happen, so you can’t throw that out. I just think it is very important not to focus on it too much.

If you walk by a house and throw a rock through the window, can the neighbor forgive you? No, you didn’t wrong them. The only one who can forgive, is the one wronged, the homeowner. God created us to be image bearers, to be a reflection of Him. He said that we are a reflection/representation of Him. So if we sin once, and if we were to call it OK, we are now saying God is imperfect, God sins and God rejects Himself. This is egregious and couldn’t be farther from the truth. So when we sin, we missed that mark of perfection, we reject God and chose our own way, we throw a stone through the perfect window of this house, and the homeowner is wronged.

The homeowner could react in different ways,. They could demand”justice” (as we call it, which is far from that) or he could forgive. But regardless of how they act, the window is still broken. If “justice” was sought, they would have you pay for the window or attempt to, though if you make 1 penny a year, the trillion dollar price tag would take about an eternity to pay off, especially if you got robbed of all your savings every few years, you could never pay it off. Or, the home owner could pay it off, despite how high the price is and whether or not you ever could pay it off. The homeowner only has 1 trillion dollars, but is willing to pay that for you and forgive you, regardless of how repentant or uncaring or the offense you are. Lest you claim it was something you did that deserved that forgiveness or debt payment.

Just as Jesus showed us what power is. The Jews thought powerful meant strong in physical stature, authority and influence. They thought a powerful Savior would come and conquer the physical word for them. Jesus redefined (really just showed us the true definition of) power. If I were to make an analogy on our thoughts of power. Imagine a rock climbing wall, and who ever gets higher has greater influence over those below them and greater comforts. The goal to become the most powerful would be to climb as high as you can (because life gets easier at the top and more comforts are there), you could even step on another to boost yourself up to get higher, your only goal is to get higher to attain more control and/or comfort. You even tell those below you to step on others or throw others down who appear to be climbing fast (potential threat to your power) and bribe them with saying you will help them get higher if they help you. Some may even lie to themselves and say to themselves, it is ok to hurt others to get more power, for once I have great power, I will be able to help so many. Which goes back to my post on altruism here (https://seekingod.home.blog/2019/03/05/humans-are-inherently-altruistic/) and the pride of wanting to out-God God, or thinking we can do better than Him, we just need to be given more power. We focus on the end goal (of helping everyone as good of a goal as that sounds) and forget that God is in control, and we just need to trust Him, and love others, helping those ‘below’ us) The Jews were waiting for Jesus to show up at the top and pull all of Israel above everyone else. But what Jesus did was the opposite. He stayed at the bottom, even boosting some up below him, or laying down so some could step on Him to get higher. Not because the bottom is any fun (it is miserable, the level of comfort is terrible, no one wants to be there, but He sacrificed Himself to be there until He can help us all!), but because He loves everyone, and wants everyone to climb together, and He will wait till all are on the same level, so they can all help each other stay at the same level and climb together, glorifying God in the loving and serving that occurs as they all climb. Jesus also knew that we weren’t created to have (perceived) ultimate power and control (only God has the real ultimate power and control) nor to live the most comfortable life that flesh can experience, rather to glorify the Father. Meekness, is power, love is power, sacrifice is power.

Jesus also showed us what justice is. We think justice is a person getting punished for an act, suffering. Jesus showed us justice is mercy. Romans 2:4 ” not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? ” It is the mercy of God that leads us to repentance, not suffering. Jesus shows us this in the Bible, how the Jews were punished time and time again, and never or rarely repented. But when God sent His Son to die for us, that kindness lead to a world of repentance! Mercy is good, mercy is justice!

Forgiveness is not just ignoring the broken glass, it is paying for it’s repairs, and not holding it towards those who broke it.

The price set for to repair the glass we broke, was the have Jesus leave heaven, show us how to live, and then have that life end, conquering death in the process. God happened to chose from before time, that lambs would be a sacrifice to the early Israelite’s and would foreshadow Jesus’ coming and how Jesus would be this spotless lamb to forgive us. No one can know the mind of God and why He chose that, but as we read the Bible we can see the majesty beauty in it happening this way. But it is a crescendo where all things come together, a second ‘big bang’ or sorts resulting in a new creation and is so deep and beautiful.

“Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. “

There are 2 steps to being saved. Salvation meaning, knowing the truth and believing it. If it is raining outside, and a man offers you an umbrella, who saved you from the rain? The man who gave the umbrella or the umbrella? Who is your savior? Surely it is the man. The umbrella is the tool we use to stay dry, but the man that provided it was the savior. The truth Jesus tells us is the umbrella, but it was Jesus who revealed these truths to us. I feel salvation gets spoken of in to much of a mystical or magical way. Then some argue whether it can be taken from you or not if you do or don’t follow certain rules. Salvation is a knowledge, provided by our savior, Jesus, who also happened to forgive us.

The 1st step to being saved or being born of water. Water was used back then to purify. Wine is also compared to blood. Jesus turns water into wine. Some may see that as saying how the blood of Jesus can purify us. Maybe that is a stretch with symbolism, I think it is a neat way to look at it, but maybe not the intent of that passage? But to be saved, one must be purified. We are purified through the cleansing blood of Christ. I don’t think any Christian would argue the Bible doesn’t say that.

The 2nd step is that we also must be born of the Spirit. What does that mean? I have a hard time explaining things, and just as Jesus turned to parables I like to use analogies. In movies, we see a man save a man’s life through helping him, or through forgiveness of a grand debt. And the man says, “I am forever in your debt, my life will be or service to you”. Something to that affect. That is how God wants us to be. When you wrong someone and are willing to give everything and anything to make it right. Whether you have the actual means to go about making it right is inconsequential, it is your heart, wanting to make it right with all your might. THIS is repentance. You saw that what you did was horrible, and though you can’t undo it, it is you life’s goal to please the person whom you wronged. If you murder someones child, you can’t bring them back, you can’t fix it, but if you give your entire life’s service of trying to make that person’s life even the smallest amount better, that is your goal. This is being born of the Spirit. Having the truth of God revealed to us, knowing what horrendous wrong we did to God when we turned from Him, and how we now realize that His way is, and always will be good, and want to do His will forever. Even if you were still destined for hell or eternal torment after this life, you still want to do His will. It isn’t about avoiding pain or eternal torment, nor is it about being rewarded in heaven, it is about knowledge/truth of the wrong we committed, and that we know know the truth and want to live it.

These 2 things must be met. If you have cleansing, but no repentance, heaven will be hell, you didn’t want want to live under God’s rule here let alone eternity. If you have repentance, and truly regret what you did, but are never forgiven, then an unholy person such as us cannot be in the presence of a holy God. You must be cleansed and repent, born of water, and the spirit.

The reason I don’t say “Humans are inherently ‘good'”, is because good is a subjective term.

Altruistic-
showing a disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others; unselfish

I have heard many Christians say that humans are inherently evil, due to our “fallen state”, but I disagree. I believe God created all humans in His image. Any good you see in us, is from God. If you have read my other posts, you will know that I believe our entire purpose in life is to glorify God, but, this can only be done through God, or with God’s help. We are dependent on God to glorify God, which glorifies God. Like a tripod, with two legs of us, and the third leg is God. If you leave out the third leg, you no longer have a stable platform, it falls over is is worthless, no longer a tripod. I believe the Bible speaks of this throughout. Jesus is the vine, we are the branches… We can only bear fruit in Him… We must remain in Him, to bear fruit, fruit being, glorifying Him, and living “good”.

A tree doesn’t try to get fruit, it just gets watered, and with good soil/nutrients, it grows. It needs strong roots to hold its weight as it grows, but really just water and nutrients and sun and it grows. It takes time, it is a process. A sapling can’t just want fruit, and it come, it must remain in the nutrients and sun and the fruit comes without it trying.

Jesus never tried to do good, He just tried to do God, and good came. Paul speaks of how sin took advantage of the law to try and ‘trap’ us. We should, instead, following the commands of God, have faith in God, and this will result in God softening our hearts and good coming out of us, because God will be coming out of us. We try to follow these laws, and try to do good. This is the whole faith without works is dead, but the works don’t save us. It is the “trying heart” the repentant heart that saves us(1 of the steps anyway).

I think there are two kinds of “sin traps”, the root of all sin comes from these. The first being pride, and the second being selfishness. Selfishness is even a short term goal mostly motivated by pride.

Since we are all altruistic, we all want the best for the world and everyone else, this is good, this is part of us being image bearers of God. The HUGE problem with that is, that we are sinners and are not a holy God.

“Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

There are many disturbing passages/times in the Bible, but the one that sticks out to me is Judges 16:7, 21:25. Where their was murder, adultery, incest, and all kinds of horrendous things. But these were altruistic people right? Doing what was “right”, or “good”? The problem being we get focused on the ends, and lose focus of the means. God is all about the means, never the ends.

If I pitched an idea to you, I knew how I could make for the future of mankind disease free, great genes, world peace ect. I assume most of you would be all for it right? But at what cost. At the risk of invoking Godwin’s law, I will bring up Hitler, so bear with me to the end of this one and hear me out. One might even argue that Hitler was altruistic. He wanted world peace, no more diseases, smart optimal humans. The first problem being, what he considered optimal isn’t what everyone agrees on, but even if we all agree with his definition here, no one could ever agree with the means with which he went about trying to achieve it. Hitler did what was right in his own eyes, and he was altruistic, completely unselfish is wanting a better human future, and completely depraved in trying to achieve it. Hitler was a tripod with 2 legs, there was no God at all in his life, no proper nutrients or sun, just trying to achieve fruit. A perversion of the incredible gift God gave us as image bearers.

Would you be OK with killing 1 million people, if it could save 1 billion people? What about only killing 10 to save 1 billion, what about 1? Where do you draw the line? We pretty much did that when we bombed Japan. “We killed tens of thousands to save millions”. How many have to die or be hurt to achieve human controlled utopia and at what lengths would one have to go through keep it?

Sin knows we are all altruistic, it is able to take advantage of that to have us turn from God, to refuse Him and His will, to have our own strength and pride be able to get fruit, but it never will, fruit only comes through God. We must remain in Him, to bear fruit.

Everyone is so angry and filled with hate now a days, it is all over social media, and we all think the other side is evil and selfish, when it is really quite the opposite. Those ‘evil’ pro-choice folk, just want to love on and help the mom having a hard time. The ‘evil’ pro-lifers, just want fetus’ to have a chance. Those ‘evil’ democrats that want free healthcare for all, they just want the world healed. The ‘evil’ republicans that don’t want free healthcare, believe it is just not possible, and will wreck the economy and nation. None of these people want bad things, it isn’t selfishness driving them, it is pride taking advantage of their altruistic nature God blessed us with when He made us image bearers.

I am not saying don’t stand up for anything, God is clear that we must have a heart for the poor, the helpless, the widows and the oppressed. But don’t let Satan use the holy words of God and turn them into a sin and have us express hate, and completely screw up the means, because of the “biblical” ends. God can move mountains, He took a weak, unskilled in battle nation, and had them conquer many ‘great’ strongholds, He can do all things, do not lack faith. Focus on the means, the way we act now, live a life that honors God, your heart will soften, and God will bear fruit through you, and if it is His will, the ends which you desire, may come to pass in your time because of your faithful means, or not in your time. But it isn’t up to us to decide what happens when, but is our job to live a life that honors God now.

I guess you could say I am an inclusivist.  Though I didn’t study theology too deeply nor do I put much weight into titles.  I believe Heaven is a place that those who want to life a life glorifying God through God, will be there.  And those who don’t want to glorify God, will be in Hell. 

It has nothing to do with morals.  It doesn’t  matter if you see yourself as good or not, God is our Heavenly king, and we love to do His will.  If you don’t like His will, then Heaven would be miserable for you.

Why do people get punished?  In our governments, the purpose of punishment is generally as a deterrent.  They hope you don’t want the potential consequences if caught, and that will hopefully deter you from doing wrong.  Satan can use us to want them to suffer, lying to us and telling us that it will make us feel better to watch suffering or know of their suffering.  I can’t think of any time God wants us to suffer for sufferings sake.  There are times where God allows our flesh to suffer, to come out stronger in the end, to learn, and to grow.  I think there are times in the OT (Old Testament) where God uses punishment or suffering as a deterrent.  Deuteronomy is full of “Do this I bless you, don’t do this I curse you”.  I believe this was God showing us how punishment and suffering and deterrents will never work.  Or one could say it was never a deterrent but a truth He was speaking to them.  Like if you say, if you jump off that building you will fall and die.  It isn’t really a deterrent, but a truth, that could have a deterrent effect, but it isn’t an action God is involved in, rather void of.

The blessings of God…

Number 6:24-26   ‘“The Lord bless you
    and keep you;
²⁵ the Lord make his face shine on you
    and be gracious to you;
²⁶ the Lord turn his face toward you
    and give you peace.”

So if that is a blessing, what is a curse?  The opposite, May the Lord not watch over you, and may you have turmoil.  So when God speaks of a curse on them, He is basically allowing the cruel world to do what it does, and He is not stopping it, but I don’t think He is causing it.  Like gravity, if you walk off a building or cliff, you will fall, that is the life we live in.  God could prevent you from falling or catch you or prevent you from getting hurt, but outside of His blessing and intervention, you will fall.  One could say you are cursed to fall, much as we are all cursed to hell.  It just happens to be what happens for those who don’t want God’s will, rather than an decisive action God is making.

The OT can be basically summarized in this.  If you want change, it comes from within, the desire to do right, and acknowledgment that we need God to help us do right.

There are 2 kinds of suffering, earthly/fleshly suffering and spiritual suffering.  From your first sin, you die, you are suffering spiritually, ultimate suffering, hell.  God never brings on spiritual suffering, nor does He want us to ever experience it, there is nothing that can be gained from this.  The Bible doesn’t speak directly of this, though verses that speak of the wages of sin is death is basically saying, the consequence of not living your purpose causes your spirit to suffer and die.  Life comes through God, and living our purpose brings life.  But that first time you screw up, you cannot fix it, in fact, you trying, is what caused you to screw up in the first place.  I can get into more tangents about how it worked before Jesus, but after Jesus, God created a way to fix our screw up, and to boast in Him in fixing it, and being able to live our purpose.

The second kind of suffering of the flesh is spoken of directly.  How suffering is good, it brings about growth.  If our entire existence and purpose is to glorify God, and we can glorify Him better when we grow closer and more mature, that the suffering of the flesh is outstanding, it is helping us move towards our actual purpose.  I believe Jesus knew this truth, and never looked away from it.  All the suffering that He endured was looked at through this lens, and that service/knowledge of God was what allowed Him to endure any suffering, because He saw it as suffering of the flesh in order to allow the spirit to thrive.

What is the purpose of a toilet seat? What if you made a toilet seat and it said to you, it wants to be a paper weight or a door jam. Sure it could function as either, but it wouldn’t be doing what it was created for, it is useless. Until something lives its purpose it was created for, it is dead. The sin that brings death, is basically us not living our purpose, that is death, that is hell. The very second you sin, you die, you cease to exist or be able to live your purpose, why you were created.

I do not believe there will be anyone heaven who doesn’t want to be there. And if you want to be there, I believe you will. Though wanting to be there, is honoring the Father, who wants us to be forgiven by Him (through extension of His Son) and to live for Him, through Him. Not just wanting a comfortable, luxurious place to dwell for eternity.

I am not certain if hell is what the traditional doctrine paints it to be. I think I lean a bit more towards an Annihilationistic view. I am not sure I believe in an unforgivable sin, other than the sin being done right now. It is only unforgivable, until you ask for forgiveness. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, is rejecting God, those who reject God surely can’t live to glorify Him, cannot live their purpose and what they were created for, so they basically cease to exist, they will be eternally dead, or course it is unforgivable if it isn’t asking for forgiveness from the one who can forgive. Life is existing, living your purpose, that is Heaven, eternal life, living under the will of our Heavenly King. Jesus conquered human sin remember? So how can sin live on in a place (called hell) forever? Why would God want anyone to suffer in the flesh? Could it bring about repentance? Does not God want us to repent? If one wanted to repent, would He not allow it? I thought every knee will bow? That sounds to me like every living human has finally seen the truth, repented and bows to the King of Kings.

There is a verse that speaks of Satan and minions being tortured forever, but he was not a human, so maybe has different rules? I see Lucifer and angels like an extension of God’s ‘body’. When you want to pick something up, you ‘command’ your hand to pick it up and it does. But if you wanted to pick something up and your hand refused, or even turned on you and tried to harm other parts of you, would you not cut it off an never allow it to return? But your son, it also kind of an extension of you, or you hope him to be an image of you. Not quite a photo copy or something under your command, but an independent being, that you hope aspires to be just like you. If your son screws up, you can punish him, you want him to learn and grow. If your son decides to disown himself, there is nothing you can do about it, they are gone, ‘”dead to you”. But if they screw up (even very often), but want to try and not screw up, will you not always give them a chance, like on a diet. People screw up all the time on a diet, but they genuinely want to be more healthy. God knows our hearts, He know who wants to honor Him, no matter how many times we screw up, it’s about us trying. Though not to make it as it is of our own strength, by any means. It is only through a merciful God that He allows us to be redeemed, but we have to want it.

But a son that disowns himself, would you like to see him suffer? You gain nothing from that. I don’t believe Hell is a place where people will suffer for an eternity. I think one possibility is that they might suffer greatly and turn to God and be redeemed (see George MacDonald), or they will stay pridefully firm against God and cease to exist and suffer eternal spiritual death.

If someone wrongs us, kills our child, we do not wish them to suffer or be punished. Lets say we extend them mercy, and forgive them. This does happen. Surely humans are not more merciful than the Creator of mercy are they?!

What did Jesus say to the adulteress woman? “go, and sin no more”. “I desire mercy not sacrifice”. God wants us to turn to Him.

Could God snap His fingers and forgive all sins? Sure, then why doesn’t He? It is for our good. Jesus came for 2 reasons. To forgive our sins (which is preached very often, though true, I think is missing a HUGE truth), and to show us the way, the truth, and how to live life most abundantly, to have spiritual life, to life our purpose and glorify the Father through the Father. If God snapped His finger and forgave all sins so we could go to Heaven, most wouldn’t want to be there. Heaven isn’t a place where we have ultimate comforts, fly, walk on gold ect., it is a place that God rule is wanted by all inhabitants. Just forgiving sins does nothing for anyone. But the truth Jesus taught us, to love God with all our being, and put others needs before our own. One this is something we couldn’t do on our own, but two, we still have that problem of our sins that prevents us from being in God’s presence. So God did basically ‘snap His fingers’, in that He allowed anyone who wanted to be forgiven, forgiveness, through the death of His Son on the cross, but ALSO living life on earth and showing us the way! If we just needed Jesus to die for us, He could have as an infant or a child. But that would be God just ‘snapping His fingers’ to forgive us, we would have learned nothing from it.

Going to heaven is not about pleasantries and a utopia (though there will be plenty of them there), it is about a place where all inhabitants have been purified, and know the way and the truth of our purpose. There is a song from Natalie Grant “Help me want the healer”. Do you just want to be healed? Or do you want the healer? Heaven is a place for those who want the healer, hell is a place for those who just want to be healed.

Imagine God is a 100w light bulb shining on a flat plane with nothing. the entire plane is covered with His light unobstructed. Now place another (human) light bulb that is connected to God (in parallel so the same voltage drop/brightness is achieved). There is still no shadow, as where the smaller light bulb on the plane that would begin to block God’s light, shines His light/voltage from it’s own lightbulb, so there is no darkness.

But a crafty serpent knows we want to glorify God, and tells us how bright we are and how bright we can be by ourselves. So we unplug ourselves from God. We now have this spec on us, casting a pinhole shadow. But even more, we also learn we can never produce 100w, some can produce 90w and some 10w, but even if there was a bulb that could produce 99w, there will still be a slight shadow. Any reduction in light relative to something brighter, will appear as darkness, and will also block the brighter light creating a shadow.

And there is another light bulb close to you, and it is also casting a pinhole shadow on you, and another which is casting a huge shadow on you. Being that you don’t like the shadows, you attempt to illuminate it your self. But you focus so much energy trying to illuminate their darkness, you end up focusing your light to try and make it brighter, and when you focus it, though it may be bright, the back half of your light now has no light and you are creating massive shadows. It is a downhill spiral of ‘trying to do the right thing’ but trying to do it your way, with your mighty strength and power, the devil convinced you that you have, pride. Sure there are some that don’t want to create any light (selfish), and others who try to illuminate with their own power and fail.

Satan won, He ruined the plane, it is full of shadows and darkness, we have no way to illuminate the darkness. God tried to have a consecrated people, a people who could illuminate the world, He have them guidelines to follow, how to live His character and allow Him to shine for them, but it failed. It seemed like the only way to eliminate the shadows casts was to wipe them from the earth. The only way to get rid of a shadow was to take the object blocking the light off of the plane like in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Until one day…

Jesus came. He never disconnected from God. He revealed the truth of God to us, that we can never produce 100w on our own, we were not meant to. We are like a tripod created with God as our third leg. Which means the only way to actually be a tripod, was to lean on God. As soon as you take God out, you fall over. We were created to glorify Him, through Him, and Jesus knew this truth. So Jesus displayed 100w, created no shadows, showed us how if we really want to glorify the Father, He has forgiven us for turning our own way, and allow us to reconnect to the Father, through the Son! I am not sure if we will ever be able to connect back to God, but it doesn’t matter, as now we can have His same light and voltage through His Son.

Now we plug into Jesus and we can produce 100w, darkness is conquered. Now, if there is a human casting a dark shadow, God no longer just removed them from the plane to rid of the darkness, He sends us to illuminate the darkness, and all the glory goes to Him! As He is the one illuminating it through us, we can illuminate nothing of ourselves. This is what Jesus means when He says He conquered sin, He allows us through Him, through God, to illuminate the darkness!

So why does God allow bad things to happen? He allows us to be us, we create the darkness not Him. If you kick your kid out of the house and he sees the world is a harsh and terrible place, he might then come back to you as the prodigal son did. He thought the Father was holding him back, not allowing him to produce his great light, but the Father was lovingly protecting and guiding him. When the son left, and saw the harshness of the real world, the darkness, he ran back to the light. If God didn’t allow bad things to happen, we would never realize how much we need Him. Any suffering on earth you see, it is His mercy, pointing us back to Him.

Some say the reason for all this extreme weather we are seeing is from climate change (and it might be). But I think the reason for all of this is not an angry God pouring out His wrath on us, rather a loving God trying to help us turn back to Him! If that is what it takes to show the love of God to the world, the extreme weather is a blessing, not a curse. It is just unfortunate it comes to that. But, like the Israelite’s, when the times were good, there were no enemies, milk, and honey was plentiful, they turned to themselves. Sin grew from them, brewed hate and turning from God, and then God brought a calamity, they turned back to God, loved their neighbors, and the cycle continued. Bad things happen, because God loves us, it is just our unfortunate faults that we required God to allow something bad to happen to us, before we can show His love.

My mom passed away in my 30s. Some might say, “I can’t believe God took her from you at such a young age”, and grow bitter towards God. God didn’t take her from me, I never owned or deserved her. She was a blessing in my life while she was in my life, and I am thankful God gave me such a great mom for as long as He did. He didn’t have to give me any mom, let alone one for that long, let alone one that good.

I know people have emotions and I am accused (mostly accurately, even from my mom) of being to robotic like and emotionless and more logical. We were created to be with other humans, to relate to them, share knowledge, learn from, help, and be helped. That is something I work with, but doesn’t come naturally to me. I think it was the book of Job that taught me this first, but I see it many more times throughout the Bible. “The Lord gives and takes, blessed be the Lord”. Anything I have is from Him, He is allowing me to have it, to bless others with so give Him glory back.