“Every search for a hero must begin with something which every hero requires – a villain.”
Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt as Dr. Nekhorvich – Mission Impossible II.
What a great way to start a blog for a site focused on defending the Bible: by quoting the king of Scientologists, right? But, I do it to make a point. Type “every hero needs a villain” into a Google search and you will be provided with 172 Million hits relating to the query. In my brief overview of the results I found pages relating to sports, movies, politics, comic books or advice for how to craft a spell-binding fiction novel. The results that stood out to me the most, though, were those who were simply asking the question “is this statement really true”, followed by a variety of well thought out arguments to prove their position . The conclusion I came to is this: by and large, the general populace believes that a hero requires a villain, in some form or fashion. Even when a person stated “I’m a volunteer but I don’t have a villain causing me to do what I do”, they neglect to consider that the cause for which they are volunteering is due to a villain, even if it's only an idea (illness, hunger, etc). My subsequent (non-scientific) conclusion? The majority of those involved in the conversation did not hold a Christian world-view. No one brought forth scripture to show the parallel of good vs. evil and God vs. Satan. It was all a “the world is chaos” approach.
So, what’s my point?
Despite a non-Christian, non-churchy, non-light-shines-in-the-darkness, non-overcome-evil-with-good worldview, these respondents understood the basic concept that there are always going to be two sides. If there is a Hero, they have to be a Hero over an arch enemy. (Can you find anyone that thought MegaMind had a false plot?) There is up, which can’t be up except for the existence of down. I know it sounds like I’m just rambling here, but as much as you’re saying “this is all common sense, what are you getting at already”, I’ll drop the deal breaker. There is a heaven….but I sure don’t know about that Hell thing.
To quote a good friend of mine, in my best Harry Doyle from “Major League” voice….”Now playing left field…..THAT thought!!!”
It is all too often that people enjoy basking in the potential of eternity in Heaven, having a block party by their mansions, without keeping proper focus on the real potential of people around them that they love and care about NOT being in Heaven with them. It’s easier to focus on the good and forget the bad. God wouldn’t REALLY do that to us, right?
Matthew 25:46 says:
“And these (unrighteous) will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life”.
If I was a “slam dunk” writer I would just write that verse, throw up my hands and yell, “I’m out!” That verse lays it out in about as simple a fashion as it could possibly be. And, it’s not the only verse that keeps it this simple. 2 Thess. 1:9 says, “These (people who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ) shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. Matt 18 speaks of eternal fire. The book of Jude speaks also of eternal fire. John 3:16 shows that we are offered eternal life through Jesus Christ in contrast to the “perishing” we have to look forward to without Him. There are countless other verses which speak of the punishment that, sadly, is waiting for many who do not know Jesus as their savior.
Not to focus only on the negative, I need to point out the elephant in the room. Matt 25:46 discusses two opposing destinations. One person will be in “everlasting punishment”, while the other enjoys “eternal life”. Eternal is forever. There is not an expiration date. There is no, “OK, we’re done here, move along”. What’s more, the Greek word used for “everlasting” and “eternal” (aiōnios) are the exact same word. Here’s that slam dunk logic once again: if we want eternal life….we have to accept that it is in lieu of eternal punishment. Like love and marriage, “you can’t have one without the other” as the old song says.
Jesus, time and time again, stated his purpose in coming to earth was to give us life everlasting, despite the fact that we’re all living a life leading to death(Romans 6:23). Let’s get this perfectly clear and out in the open - we are NOT deserving of anything EXCEPT punishment! Yes, it’s a hard pill to swallow, but the sooner it’s digested the sooner you can move on to accepting that salvation!!! It is just simply not possible for us to deserve salvation (Eph 2:8-9). That topic is something another 10 blog posts could be dedicated to, but it’s something that has to be briefly stated here. Why? Because it shows the point/counter point of what we DO deserve. We are deserving of eternal punishment because, as we are, we are separated from a holy God due to sin (Isaiah 59:2).
For the majority of people reading this who profess to be Christians it will seem that I am arguing a point that need not be addressed because this topic is Christianity 101. Jesus came to save us so that, God having received His substitutionary punishment for our sins, we can be with Him in Heaven instead of Hell. Simple right? One would think. I understand I’m coming a day late and a dollar short to the “Love Wins” Rob Bell party, but this post really isn’t about his book. It’s not about his book mostly due to the fact that I refuse to allow my dollars to support his “ministry”. There is PLENTY of information, including Velvet Elvis which I HAVE read, that I could take Rob Bell to task on without reading Love Wins. So, again, I’m not trying to harsh on the guy without reading his book. But, I AM going to harsh on the guy for what he says outside of the book (Eph 5:11). I saw an interview with Rob Bell tonight (http://bit.ly/gSGtBr from CNN) where Bell ever-so-subtly sneaks in this statement, in response to the question, “So, you DO believe in Heaven and Hell? You do believe in both?”
Bell – “Sure. And, here’s why. Because I’m a pastor, I see extraordinary pain and brokenness and hurt from the choices that people make to choose Hell …right…now. So, I begin with the choices we make and the very real consequences of those choices, right now, right here in this life.”
Wait…what?
Shortly after this was then followed by one of the other correspondents asking specifically about her father, who is Hindu, and if, being Hindu, he can be saved, since he is from a culture that doesn’t know of or believe in Jesus.
Bell – “And, this is one of the main reasons I wrote the book, because I think this is a huge stumbling block for lots of people. Because, their committed faith in Jesus, for many people, was told to say yes to Jesus you have to condemn billions of people to Hell. But, what kind of God would send people to eternal torment for not believing in a Jesus they…never….heard of. And, actually, the first Christians, they spoke of a mystery. A grace. A love present in the very fabric of creation that people can respond to without even knowing that it’s God or that it’s the loving Grace of Christ that’s being revealed to them. So, I leave lots of room”.
Let me Cliffs Notes an already really short (He manages to pack a LOT of dangerous material into only 5:04!!!) interview. “Hell is an experience on earth resulting from our decisions, and God is not the kind of God that would punish us in a real Hell outside of Earth, but instead is going to allow us to come to Him through responding to Jesus, even though we don’t know who Jesus is or that He is who we are responding to.”
Call me harsh or inflammatory if you like, but after watching the interview you’ll know I’m not twisting facts here.
“Why am I going after this guy so hard?” you may ask. “He loves Jesus, he said so himself!” another might question. I have covered, extensively, the biblical reasons for exposing a teacher such as this, as well as the dangers involved if they are NOT exposed (http://bit.ly/enzGCq) in a previous blog, which I have linked here. To quickly address the statements of, “he loves Jesus”, I am not one to judge his heart. What I DO judge are his actions and statements. Based on those two things, his actions do not corroborate his proclamation.
What’s so terrible about the whole thing is that, at the end of the day, I actually have a pain of relation with Rob Bell. What I mean by that is, I think I understand WHY he’s concocted all these wrong ideas, because I’ve done the exact same thing! During a time of extreme anger and bitterness toward God, surrounding my father’s stroke, I could not reconcile “what kind of God” would allow something like that to happen to a man who was a preacher and dedicated his whole life’s work to God! I was so upset! I shook my fist at God and blamed Him for everything, when in reality it was not His fault at all. In essence, this is what Bell has done. He has found a painful truth in scripture, he then appears to be unable or unwilling to reconcile it with his opinions and misunderstandings of God, and has in turn created a “new” way to look at things that is more palatable. I didn’t have the luxury of “creating away” my father’s stroke. I couldn’t take the post-modern train out of town to create my own version of truth.
See, here’s the thing. The opinions of man are simply that…opinions. We can twist and turn all we want, but no matter how firmly we believe what we believe because we believe it…if it started with us, it’s just an opinion. Conversely, God does not have opinions. God has fact. God has truth. Correction…God IS truth (John 14:6)! And His Word is FILLED with truth about us, our current state and our future destination. To restate the point, yes, it IS painful to think that our loved ones are going to spend an eternity away from God, from us and in a place of eternal torment if they don’t know Jesus. It IS hard to reconcile that sort of punishment with the lovey-dovey God we hear about that’s always, as I like to say, all gumdrops and lollipops. Unfortunately, for a person who HASN’T accepted Jesus, the same God that will save you when you have accepted His Son will remain angered because of your sin when you do not accept His Son’s substitutionary payment for your sin, and justly hand you the sentence which your crime demands.
“How selfish!” you may be thinking. “What a big-headed God, just sitting up there with a magnifying glass tormenting us little ants on the earth”. (for the record, these ALSO were the things I thought during the afore mentioned timeframe)
Not to over-simplify it, but let me appeal to your logic through a simple statement. God (dramatic Rob Bell-esque pause) made (pause, yet again) us. God MADE US! He created us all in His image(Gen 1:27)! He spoke LIFE into existence! We have no “rights”. We have nothing in which to claim glory for ourselves!
John 1:1-4 states:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life and the life was the light of men.”
What more reason does God need to declare that we are obligated to follow HIS plan of redemption? He made us! If you’re mad at God right now, like I was before, I know that statement doesn’t right all the wrongs in your life. I get that. It took me years to finally put me, myself and I out of the way and TRULY put my faith in God and God alone. But if you’re honest with yourself, you know what I just said is true. And, not because I said it….but because it’s what the Bible teaches! With this in mind, we HAVE to take God’s word at face value. What WE think (wisdom of man) is of little value in light of what God knows to be true (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Don’t think the plan of salvation was an “Oh man, I messed up on this whole human race thing, so I better come up with a way to fix it” scenario on the part of God. Don’t allow, even for a moment, for the thought to cross your mind that Jesus’ death on the cross was an afterthought, double or nothing gamble to save the masses. 1 Peter 1:17-21 (probably my favorite passage of scriptures) beautifully states:
“And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”
My only addition to that? AMEN and AMEN!!!
Jesus redeeming work on the cross was foreordained BEFORE the foundation of the world. He planned out YOUR salvation before the world was ever made. He knew you (and I, and everybody else!) were going to fail Him miserably, yet He still created us knowing that his Son would have to die for us!!!
This leads me to ask the question to end all questions.
If your salvation has been planned since FOREVER (try to wrap your mind around that one, I dare you!), from what are we seeking salvation?
“Nothing” is not the right answer here.
You are being saved from a very real Hell, a very real punishment and a very real torment that will last for eternity if you are not brought to peace with God. I have stated many times to my wife that, “if I knew there was an end date to Hell, a get out of jail free card, even if it was 1 million years away, I could handle it. It’s the never ending that gets me.” Earlier I showed that the Greek word for “eternal” was used to describe both punishment and reward. You can’t have your hero without your villain.
I have to stop and give the traditional “preacher quote” here….The Bible talks more about our eternal punishment, and what that entails, than it does about the place of Heaven. That seems a little, odd, right? No so much. Though the volume of discussion doesn’t always immediately equate to a level of importance, in the many instances and references it should be viewed as a stern and oft repeated warning. To answer the rhetorical question posed of “what kind of God”, THAT’S what kind of God. Our God is a God that does not desire that we spend an eternity in hell, away from Him, but that EVERYONE be saved (1 Tim. 2:4). Further, Hell wasn’t created for us (Matt 25:41) but for Satan and his Angels! He is a God that gives EVERY opportunity (consider the thief on the cross), until the very last breath of life, to confess Christ as our Savior, before a just and righteous punishment is delivered.
Phil 3: 18-19
For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame – who set their mind on earthly things.
Destruction, in this text (apōleia) is literally defined as, “the destruction which consists of eternal misery in hell”. What brings about this destruction? A mean God that’s picking on poor, helpless people? Not at all. It’s a people who have chosen their personal pleasure, the things that make them feel good, earthly conquest and gain…and not the cross. Though Bell, and many who have trouble with “the kind of God” that would allow someone to spend an eternity in Hell, will try to use scripture to prove their views, it’s just not possible.
Once again, let me appeal to your logic. Let’s suppose, for arguments sake, that Rob Bell was right, just for a minute. Let’s suppose that you could live your life any way you wanted, worship any god(s) you wanted, never know the name of Jesus and yet, still avoid Hell, other than the one Bell suggests we are currently living in on this earth due to our decisions. Let’s consider, despite the absurdity, that it were true. How much of a slap in the face would it be to God? How much does it cheapen God’s grace when He is not actually saving us from anything other than a small earthly hangnail in comparison to eternity? Think about it! Imagine how that conversation would go when you just kind of “show up” on heaven’s door step.
“Hey God, how’s it going? Sorry I didn’t talk to you much, before I got here, I followed a pantheon of Hindu gods. Once I got here I heard that you sent Jesus to the cross to die for me, but I never really knew Him, either. That sounds like a great deal, though. Thanks for that, but it just wasn’t for me at the time. I was searching for enlightenment where I was. I probably bumped in to Him once or twice!”
Sounds pretty foolish, right? I heard a preacher once say, “everybody can be wrong, but not everybody can be right, unless they have the exact same answer”. The idea that Hell is a place that doesn’t exist outside of this earth, that how we live doesn’t matter, and that we will all make it to heaven without actually confessing with our mouth that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9) is, ultimately, as foolish as it gets. And the last person I want to slap in the face is the one who sent His only Son to die for the sins I committed.
More import than being foolish (though it is), this way of thinking is dangerous. Love Wins, Velvet Elvis and the thought processes that Rob Bell and others like him propagate, are a tool of Satan. Bell cheapens (save, outright attempts to destroy) the Gospel, he cheapens Jesus, he cheapens our eternal life in Heaven, he cheapens the consequences of Hell and last but not least, cheapens the awesome gift that is God, KEEPING us out of heaven.
At the cost that Jesus paid, with his precious shed blood, which is anything BUT cheap, I refuse to sit idly back while lambs are led to the slaughter.
