THE GRACE OF RECONCILIATION

 

Mark P. Toohey

 


The concept that God "wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4), is met with much resistance by mainstream Christianity. It is decried as heresy by a church system which must tenaciously cling to the doctrine of eternal damnation as a fundamental "truth" by which God is vindicated in forever banishing the lost from sharing in the abundance of His unmerited grace.

Various schools of thought exist concerning the ultimate destiny of man, which span the spectrum of viable resolutions in an attempt to satisfy that which remains a mystery to the natural mind. Each view may be steadfastly supported by any number of Scriptural references, as well as disproved by an equal number of valid Biblical citations, depending on one's choice of belief. For the fundamentalist, the simple black and white finality of eternal damnation works well. The saved go to heaven, the lost go to hell. End of story. On the other end of the spectrum is ultimate reconciliation, embraced by many who dare to believe that God not only intends that no man be lost, but that He will bring all to the grace of His salvation. Somewhere in the middle lies the doctrine of extermination, teaching that the saved will be saved, and the wicked will be disposed of per manently. In the end, of course, God will bring His plan for mankind to pass in precisely the way He has foreordained it from the beginning, despite what men may think or believe.

Certainly we do not like to have our doctrinal "safe zone" challenged. We prefer to feel secure in what we believe, and we are prone to defend it for the sake of retaining our sure foundation. To allow one’s foundation to be shaken is not a comfortable experience. It is akin to being caught in an earthquake; you are at once terrified by the upheaval of what you thought was stable ground, nothing to grab on to, confused by the wrenching of your surroundings, and quite unsure just how the matter may end. Welcome to the Kingdom! To lose a grip on our doctrinal position is to face a whole new arena of uncharted uncertainties. There are so many questions to which we have no ready answers. Nothing is cut and dried anymore. Even the diehard verses upon which we have come to rely with great conviction no longer work. The prospect that our doctrine and our belief may be wrong is a most fearful one to face. But our Father will at times bring us to just such a crisis in our walk. He will bring us to a place where we have no choice but to throw ourselves wholly and trustingly upon Himself for the direction we seek. When we arrive at such a crossroads, our apprehension is tempered by the assurance that He is broadening our vision, deepening our understanding, and ultimately forming His nature in us in a measure of greater fullness. To refuse His beckoning onward is to decline a further unveiling of His life. We must, at times, trust Him to lead us into Truth, even at the expense of our doctrinal security.

As a young believer, forty something years ago, I was schooled in the belief that the Baptism in the Holy Spirit was no longer a valid experience for the modern church. Armed with an impressive array of chapter and verse, I could prove to the most adamant opponent that the Baptism and gifts of the Holy Spirit had incontrovertibly passed away with the first century church. God was no longer in the gift giving business. So firmly entrenched was I in my conviction, no man could have ever persuaded me otherwise. I was right where God wanted me. The earthquake was imminent. It wasn't long before He placed me among a fellowship of saints who moved in the gifts and spoke in tongues! I was forced to consider the possibility that I might be wrong in my belief; and I didn't need to read another book on the issue or listen to another taped sermon. I needed to seek the Truth Himself. After a week of seeking the Lord, lo and behold, my persuasion changed dramatically. The Bible became an entirely new book, and the workings of the Spirit of God a present reality. Needless to say, I became a glad recipient of an enlargement of His life, and by no means was it to be the last of His unveilings as I became willing to hear HIM despite the “sure foundation” of my beliefs.

I share my experience to illustrate a point. We may know our doctrine well. Our beliefs may be written in stone, and we may have a phylactery of Biblical evidence to our credit. But unless, and until, we have heard the Voice of the Spirit of Truth, we are walking in a dead word.

Inasmuch as sound doctrine is "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, (and) for training in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3:16), unsound doctrine inevitably gives rise to confusion, division, strife, and debate. Religion has been the breeding ground for numerous such doctrines. Denominations, sects, and cults proliferate on their account. But it is not the correctness of our doctrine which brings us into the reality of Christ Jesus. Knowledge and understanding are vital, but knowledge without LIFE is useless. The Jews knew the Scriptures with impeccable accuracy; yet they knew nothing of God. They had their doctrines down pat, yet Jesus admonished them, saying, "And you do not have His WORD abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent. You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have LIFE" (Jn. 5:38 40). The message is, LIFE is not inherently contained in the written Scriptures that we hold so sacred. LIFE is contained in the person of Jesus Christ, and that life becomes reality as HE is progressively unveiled within us in Spirit and Truth. One may know the "word" with unerring precision; yet without the reality of the Living WORD abiding within, all the scriptural knowledge one may possess is nothing more than a dead letter.

At issue is not whether our doctrine is correct, but rather that we have come into a fuller measure of His LIFE. It is the HEARING of His Living Word, the Voice of His Spirit which quickens an impartation of Truth that brings us into the Reality of Himself. When He is unveiled, our sacred doctrines turn to dust. Having heard His voice of Life, it becomes a futile exercise to debate the rightness of our doctrine, for our doctrine becomes so much straw in the wind.

What Good News would we, as ambassadors of Christ, proclaim to a world sold under the bondage of corruption? Religion has employed a vast array of tactics and persuasions in its efforts to coerce the wayward one into the kingdom, often with more motive of adding his name to the denominational roll and his tithe to the coffers. Some preach threats of a loving God who would just as soon damn the poor wretch to eternal hell fire for failing to make the proper decision. Good news? Others, using the escapist approach, hold the prospect of Rapture for the fortunate few, and paint a doomsday scenario of tribulation and satanic dictatorship for the ill-fated masses left behind. A gospel of false pretense? Others offer the sugar-coated gospel of prosperity and blessing for those counted among the "King's kids," transforming the straight and narrow path to the cross into the yellow brick road to Emerald City where the wizard awaits to grant their every desire. Abundant life? There is, of course, the mush god gospel of love and unity which envisions the worldwide embracement of all religious persuasions into one, great ecumenical system. Religious totalitarianism? We must not omit the social/political gospel with its humanitarian appeal, polarizing debate on issues as diverse as capital punishment, abortion, church and state separation, equal rights, creation science, the rabid unwavering veneration of the state of Israel, and whatever else may be politically palatable at the moment. Which majority? And ranking high on the list of great religious deceptions is the gospel of bondage by which the captive faithful are made baptized subjects of  the Roman church/state, unwitting participants in Babylon's ancient apostasy. Holy Mother Church or Mother of Harlots? Little wonder that the world remains lost.

Through this maze of religious gallimaufry shines the Light of Truth as a beacon piercing the darkness: "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD; not as a result of works, that no one should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). The salvation of man is in no way conditional upon any of man's concoctions or devises. We need none of his ritual religion, pious ceremonies, liturgical observances, dogmas and creeds, or majestic edifices to realize the redemption of God. We may dispense with them all and loose nothing of the abundant riches of grace lavished upon us through the Faith of Jesus Christ.

The Good News which we would proclaim is the Gospel of the Grace of Reconciliation. It is the Gospel concerning THE SON through whom we have received grace (Rom. 1:1-5). Unlike the doctrines of religion, this gospel is not what you must do to gain salvation, but rather what GOD HAS DONE in order that you may apprehend His life. Now that's GOOD NEWS!

The Apostle Paul wrote the telling words, "But by the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15:10). GRACE; so very much more than God's "unmerited favor." It is the power that sustains us, the force that motivates us, the substance of our foreordination in the Father. It is the catalyst of our salvation, and the assurance of redemption. It is the provision of the Father in making good His promise that all men shall be drawn unto the Son. By grace does a man utter, "Lord, Jesus," in response to the finished work of Calvary. By grace do we hunger and thirst for an increase in Him. By grace do we pant after the depths of God; and by grace do we apprehend the high calling of God in Christ. From its inception to its final completion, the work that God has purposed for His creation is totally of grace, apart from which we are absolutely destitute, without hope, and entirely incapable of receiving even the slightest portion of the life of God. If that sounds to you like God Himself is fully in charge of the matter, you're absolutely correct! He alone is the unmitigated Sovereign of all creation. He is at once the creator of all, the sustainer of all, and the object of all. All things heavenly, all things earthly, all things seen, all things unseen, all thrones, all dominions, all rulers and authorities, ALL THINGS are out from Him, ALL THINGS are sustained by Him and proceed through Him, and ALL THINGS have their final consummation into Him (Rom. 11:36).

He is the beginning, He is the ending, and He is all the in-between. This is not the faltering, failing God of your Sunday school texts, whose plans were thwarted in Eden, whose will is undermined by the devil at every opportunity, and who will ultimately loose the greatest portion of His precious creation to the eternal clutches of Satan in an everlasting hell. This is a sovereign God who purposes all things in Himself, performs out of the source of Himself all that He purposes to do, and in His responsibility to His creation loses nothing of the ALL THINGS over which He is Lord.

Let us now turn our thoughts to two men; Adam and Jesus. Each performed an act which was to have universal ramifications affecting all men. Both men partook of a tree, the one to universal condemnation, the other to universal redemption. The text of Romans 5:12-21 is of such significance that we would be well served by a verse by verse investigation of its contents.

"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned." There is little argument among those who profess the title of "Christian" to the foregoing statement. Sin made its entrance into the world through the disobedience of ONE MAN, Adam. By partaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that is, by permitting the carnal nature of the soul to reign in God's stead, Adam had sealed the condemnation of death for ALL MEN. Death was passed through the lineage of Adam's race from generation to generation, millennium after millennium, exempting none from its inevitable judgment. The act of ONE MAN concluded the sentence upon ALL. "For until the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come." Even though sin was not imputed to the multitudes that lived from Adam until the Law was given through Moses, death reigned nonetheless. The consequence of death could not be circumvented. Its dark veil laid claim to even the most God-fearing of men. When God spoke the sentence of death to Adam, He spoke it to all who would follow after his seed, to ALL MANKIND. His judgment of death reverberated down the corridors of time to embrace every man of every age. The sentence was all-inclusive. Not one would escape.

"But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many." Ah, the free gift is not like the transgression! How, then, does it differ? We see clearly that the transgression was the power of death to every man. By the transgression of the one THE MANY DIED. But now cometh the grace of God; MUCH MORE GRACE! The grace of God was MUCH MORE than the transgression in its power, for by it did the free gift through Jesus Christ ABOUND TOWARD THE MANY. The word “abound” is far too timid to express the sense of the Greek perisseuo, which means to super-abound, to be in excess, overflowing, and beyond the fullest measure. In light of this passage we may compare verse 20: "And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, GRACE ABOUNDED all the more." Here the Greek is even more emphatic; huperperisseuo; HYPER-SUPER-ABUNDANCE! EXCEEDING ABUNDANTLY ABOVE the ability to be fully received and absorbed. SUPERABOUNDING IN EXCESS FAR BEYOND THE FULLEST MEASURE. PROFUSION ABOVE AND BEYOND ALL THAT COULD EVER BE SUFFICIENT. Think of it as asking for a drink of water and receiving a TIDAL WAVE! That is how the free gift of grace differs from the transgression. If by the transgression THE MANY died, how much more the grace of God is able to hyper-super-abound to THE MANY in the ministration of the Life of God!

"And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification." Again, we see a distinct difference between the transgression and the free gift. The judgment of condemnation arose from ONE transgression. ONE. UNO! One transgression was all it took to conclude all men under the judgment of death. But the free gift resulting in justification arose from MANY transgressions; so many that only God Himself could count their number. If then, by one transgression ALL were condemned to death, what will be the outcome of the grace which arose from MANY transgressions?

"For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ." The hyper-super-abundance of grace which arose due to many transgressions OVERCOMES the penalty of death which arose from the one transgression. Life through the One, Jesus Christ, conquers forever the death which has reigned all these millennia through the one transgressor, Adam. Where sin has increased, grace has hyper-super-abounded. Where death has reigned, Life has triumphantly conquered. Who, we may inquire, are the glad recipients of this wondrous, excessive, hyper-super-abounding profusion of God's grace unto Life? Why, the condemned, of course!

"So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so, through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men." HEAR IT! Through one transgression condemnation of death to ALL MEN. Through one act of righteousness justification of life to ALL MEN. What we have is a Scriptural equation, equal on both sides, absolute and incontrovertible. On the one side, transgression, condemnation, and death to ALL; EVEN SO, on the other side, righteousness, justification, and life to ALL. There can be no mistake that the second half of the equation carries as much strength, authority, and validity as the first half. EVEN SO denotes that what is to follow is just as much the unequivocal truth as that which was stated before it. Both sides of the equation are equal. EVEN as on the one hand condemnation and death has been imputed to all men, SO on the other hand, justification and life is the free gift to all men. ALL MEN condemned; ALL MEN justified. ALL MEN dead in Adam; ALL MEN made alive in Christ. Lest we still be dull of hearing, the Holy Spirit graciously states it again:

"For as through the one man's disobedience THE MANY were made sinners, even so, through the obedience of the One THE MANY will be made righteous". A statement so black and white surely cannot be gainsaid. We will, however, allow the Spirit of Truth one further confirmation: "For God has shut up ALL in disobedience that He might show mercy to ALL" (Rom. 11:32).

And let us see God's immutable purpose of the ages in the ministration of such unbounding grace. "That as sin has reigned in death, even so, grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." How sin has reigned! Its mastery over the human race has been complete. Death had been the unchallenged dictator of Adam's progeny until grace appeared. And even as the reign of sin and death has had its day, so now shall grace reign through righteousness resulting in life unto all until even death itself shall be forever abolished.

Grace is able, despite the objections of men, to fully overwhelm and eradicate every vestige of sin and death imputed to men for all time. If it is not, then your Bible is untrue, for it declares, "For as in Adam ALL DIE, so also in Christ ALL SHALL BE MADE ALIVE" (1 Cor. 15:22).

 

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"Tell me, Brother: How were you saved?"

Who among us has not at one time or another jumped at the opportunity to testify as to how we came to know the life of Jesus? Ask that question of a Christian, and he or she will quite likely pinpoint a date on the calendar, a specific time and place, and recount with great joy every detail of how he "got saved," what brought him to his decision, how he prayed, just exactly what he did to effect the salvation of God in his life. The preachers of  religion have imbued our thinking with the premise that salvation is entirely up to us; it is a matter of our own "free will" that we "make a decision" for Jesus, that we "accept" Christ. We have been "invited," we are told, to receive the free gift of God, and our eternal destiny hangs in the balance.

Rare indeed is the one who bears witness that he was saved two thousand years ago when Christ Jesus suffered death on Calvary's cross, that all may enter into His life. That is where my salvation, and yours, was effectuated. That is where the reconciliation of all men was secured, performed, and guaranteed. Men can only respond as the Son draws them unto Himself, as He declared He would, giving profession to the faith imparted by His Spirit. The truth is we have done nothing to "get saved"; GOD HAS SAVED US.

Of his own experience along the Damascus road Paul testified, "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me" (Gal. 1:15). Paul took no credit for having "made a decision." He could lay no claim to having "found the Lord" (as if Jesus is engaged in a game of “hide and seek” and must be found). Nor was there any boast on his part to having chosen by his own "free will" to serve Jesus. It was not when he answered an altar call or prayed the sinner's prayer, but WHEN IT PLEASED GOD TO REVEAL THE SON! Paul had not been extended the courtesy of an invitation.

Nor have we. What we have received, rather, is a revelation, an unveiling of the living Christ as a result of God's foreordination and calling. And it is only by grace that we respond, "Lord, Jesus!" with the utterance of faith. The churches are filled with those who have chosen to accept Jesus; the kingdom of heaven is filled with those who have been chosen by Jesus, accepted in the Beloved.

Let us once and for all time settle it in our thinking that this is GOD'S WORK. He who has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4), is He who shall fulfill completely that work in us until the day of the full manifestation of Christ (Phil. 1:6). He who has predestined us to the placement as sons through Jesus Christ in harmony with the good pleasure of His will (Eph. 1:5), is He who is at work in you, energizing you both to will and to perform that which is according to His good pleasure, toward the apprehension of His foreordained calling (Phil 2:13). "For whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son...and whom HE PREDESTINED, these HE ALSO CALLED; and whom He called, these HE ALSO JUSTIFIED; and whom He justified, these HE ALSO GLORIFIED. What then shall we say to these things?" (Rom. 8:29-31). We shall say that it is only by the grace of God that men are reconciled through Christ Jesus, and brought into the fullness of His life. God foreknew. God predestined. God called. God justified. God sanctified. God glorified. It is by GRACE that you are saved.

Apart from grace, mankind can obtain nothing of the righteousness and life of God, for He has concluded all men to be under the yoke of unrighteousness. "There is NONE righteous, NOT EVEN ONE; there is NONE who understands, there is NONE who seeks for God, all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is NONE who does good, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE" (Rom. 3:10-12). In His sovereignty, God has made all men to drink the bitter cup of sin and death. All have missed the mark. From the least of men to the greatest, the death sentence is all-inclusive "that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God" (Rom. 3:19). And for what divine purpose has the Father of all subjected His creation to such a state of imposed unrighteousness? The truth is so simple, yet so profound: "For God has shut up all in disobedience THAT HE MIGHT SHOW MERCY TO ALL" (Rom. 11:32). The overwhelming realization of God's ultimate work of grace makes me want to shout together with the inspired Apostle, "Oh the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!"(Rom. 11:33).

"For all the fullness (of God) was pleased to dwell in Him (Christ Jesus), and through Him to reconcile all things into Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross...and although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet HE HAS NOW RECONCILED YOU in His fleshly body through death..." (Col. 1:16-22). RECONCILE; defined by Webster as "to restore friendship or harmony; to settle or resolve differences." The Greek is apokatallasso, a compound of three words literally meaning "away, down or opposite, change." To reconcile, therefore, is to take two or more elements, in this case God and His creation, who are separated by differences, estranged through offenses, and completely out of harmony with one another, and to bring them back together again in unity, peace and friendship, resolving all strife and variance that may have existed. This is precisely what Jesus proclaimed from the cross of Golgotha as having been FINISHED.

Reconciliation is an act totally of God's doing, and by God's grace alone. Men have done nothing to obtain it. And when was the reconciliation of mankind affected? "But God demonstrated His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For if, WHILE WE WERE ENEMIES, WE WERE RECONCILED TO GOD through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved in His life" (Rom. 5:8-10). While men were yet sinners, while men were the enemies of God, while men turned aside and thought not to seek after God, while every man was counted unrighteous in His sight -- THEY WERE RECONCILED THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. Ponder momentarily the solemn declaration of 2 Corinthians 5:19: "God was in Christ -- RECONCILING THE WORLD TO HIMSELF, not counting their trespasses against them." It is finished.

The full scope of God's reconciliation, then, is this: God in His sovereignty has reconciled all things to Himself through Jesus Christ; all things, therefore, shall be reconciled into Him. The completed purpose of God is that all things are reconciled; the ongoing work of God, therefore, is the reconciling of all things. The human mind is not sufficient to comprehend the wherewithal of such a task, which is precisely why this is God's reconciliation. It is that which He has purposed to perform out of Himself, and into Himself. Despite the objections of men, God is faithful to bring His work to completion, for He has declared, "I am God and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that have not been done, saying, My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure; truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I HAVE PLANNED IT, SURELY I WILL DO IT" (Isa. 46:9-11). To which we can only humbly add, AMEN!

It is apparent that we do not now see all men "saved" and serving God. That is how it should be, for God is not calling all men at the same time, but each in his own order. "Christ, the first fruits. After that those who are Christ's in His presence in the day of His unveiling. Then comes the end -- the obtaining of the final result and purpose of God's work -- when Christ delivers up the kingdom to the Father, having abolished all rule, authority, and power; having put all enemies under His feet, abolishing even the last of His enemies, death" (1 Cor. 15:23-26 paraphrased). The sense of the Scripture is that each is called in orderly succession, or by series. If you have ever flown on an airliner you surely know that the passengers are boarded by rows. Each passenger's ticket has been purchased in advance, giving him the right to board the plane, and designates which seat he is to occupy. Each passenger has the assurance that his ticket will be redeemed for a seat on the plane, and that he will certainly arrive at his destination. The back rows of the plane are the first to be boarded. (Yes, the last shall be first!) Those passengers possessing tickets for the back rows respond to their call to board. The rest must remain in the lobby waiting the time when they, too, are called to take their seats. By and by, another group is called, and then another, until finally all have boarded the plane and the lobby is empty.

In this present age, God is calling a firstfruit people. He is choosing, calling, purging, and preparing a Son to rule in His kingdom -- Christ, the firstfruits. That is His work in this age. In the ages to come He will call yet others, bringing all who are redeemed through His blood into the fullness of Himself, subduing all powers in man which are contrary to His righteousness, vanquishing even death itself, until God is all and in all.

The work of grace that God has purposed to perform in man, indeed in all of creation, has suffered immense denigration as men have sought to form God after the likeness of their religious theology. The doctrines of religion dispense grace by the thimble-full only to "whosoever will," and bring it to a screeching halt at the end of the age when we all "get to heaven." Thereafter, it is forever relegated to some dusty volume in the celestial archives, a museum piece to be viewed despairingly by every wretched soul consigned to the flaming inferno of hell that refused their "chance" to come to Christ.

Fortunately, God has not left the work of grace and reconciliation to chance. He has not left the decision up to man, nor to the choosing of man's "free will." No, actually God has WILLED that all men are to be saved, and has even gone one step further and COMMANDED that it be done. The plain statement of Scripture is that God "will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). The Concordant Literal translation renders it beautifully: "God, Who wills that all mankind be saved and come into a realization of the truth." God does not merely desire it, or hope for it, or wish for it -- God WILLS IT. Most folk have no problem accepting that God calls into existence those things which are not by the decree of His Word. He WILLED that there be light; He spoke it, and it was so. He WILLED that there be the heavens and the earth, the moon and the stars, the galaxies of the far reaches of the universe, and all that they contain. He commanded, and it was. God has yet to speak a word that is not brought to pass entirely in accordance with the decree of His will. If God WILLS that all men are to be saved, it's a safe bet that that is precisely what shall come to pass.

The doctrines of religion notwithstanding, God's will in the matter cannot be undone, for God has taken an oath -- yes, God has sworn by no higher authority than Himself that it shall be completed. "Look unto Me, and BE YE SAVED, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I HAVE SWORN BY MYSELF, the word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and it shall not return, that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear" (Isa. 45:22-23). Unless I err in my elementary grammar, that first sentence is an imperative statement. "Look unto Me, and BE YE SAVED." God has not merely invited all the ends of the earth to turn unto Him and be saved -- GOD HAS COMMANDED IT! As God's sovereign Word cannot return void, we may only conclude that every knee shall indeed bow before Him in worship and adoration, and that every tongue shall indeed acclaim that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father (1 Cor. 12:3).

The command has gone forth that every knee shall bow. Since God is the Sovereign over every realm of His creation, it is certainly no stretch of the imagination to envision every knee bowing to Him of things earthly, of things heavenly, of things visible or invisible. Every rulership, every authority, every power and dominion, every knee in every dimension of the creation has received the command -- thus, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW. This bowing of the knee is not, however, the forced acknowledgment of defeat by a conquered enemy before an Almighty dictator. The word “bow” in this usage carries the sense of bowing IN WORSHIP. J. Preston Eby has penned these words in this regard:

"The meaning is clarified when we understand the Spirit that moved Paul when he said, 'For this cause I BOW my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ' (Eph. 3:14). No compulsory adoration there! What love and worship and adoration moved Paul to BOW low before the One whose love had completely won his heart in unmovable allegiance? He was captivated by this altogether lovely One. Humbled by the knowledge that he was the 'chiefest of sinners,' and awed by the love and mercy of the Lord, he bowed his knees -- worship and adoration freely and spontaneously flowing from every part of his being. For the present time, such bowing, such worship, is found only in the firstfruits -- those whom God has apprehended and drawn unto Himself in this age. But we read of a coming day, witnessed in spirit by the beloved apostle John: 'And EVERY CREATURE which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth...heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever' (Rev. 5:14)."

God will not have forced servitude in His kingdom. Unlike man, God does not subdue His enemies by the use of terror and coercion. He does not demand submission; He wins the hearts of men through more rehabilitative means – grace, love, mercy, and forgiveness. Hearts so won can naught by cry, "Lord Jesus!" by the Holy Spirit, and joyously bow before Him in grateful adoration.

All things that have originated out from Him, and that proceed through Him, shall be consummated into Him, with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth...and through Him to reconcile ALL THINGS into Himself (Eph. 1:10, Col. 1:20). The Father has commanded it. Jesus has finished it. All creation must obey it.

Oh, how men struggle with such a proclamation. They will go to great ends to deny the sovereignty, grace, and faithfulness of God according to the limitations of their theology in arguing that such a work of grace is not possible. Yet such an all-encompassing work cannot be fathomed until it is realized that the hyper-super-abounding grace of God continues to magnify from age to age until all that He has declared has been fulfilled. His grace shall fully overwhelm and eradicate every vestige of sin and death imputed to men in every age past, and in every age to come. If it does not, then Jesus spoke amiss in declaring, "And I, if I be lifted up, WILL DRAW ALL MEN TO MYSELF" (Jn. 12:32). So also is the anointed word penned by Paul untrue: "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ ALL SHALL BE MADE ALIVE" (1 Cor. 15:22). No clearer a word could be spoken. It is this Good News that we joyously proclaim to all creation, imploring all men on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God in accordance with His solemn command.

 

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This leaves us with a doctrinal conundrum: What do we do with hell? If all men throughout all ages are to be reconciled into God by the exponential magnification of His grace through the finished work of Calvary and sealed by the resurrection life of Jesus Christ, what the hell are we going to do with hell? If that sounds frivolous, that’s because it was so intended. Yes, what shall we do with untold billions of unregenerate souls whom our religion has sentenced to an eternal damnation in the fiery bowels of Satan’s cauldron? Perhaps we may need to re-think our doctrine.

 

The idea of purgatory, the state of the dead where men are purified or “purged” in the flames of the underworld is as old as religion itself. Worship of the fire god, Moloch, was integral to the Chaldean Mysteries of Baal worship dating back to the kingdom of Babylon. Moloch was appeased only by the sacrifice of human flesh cast into the blazing bowels of his graven image. Religions in every nation and culture have some variation of a place of judgment into which the soul of man is cast upon death, there to languish and suffer until if, by chance, he may reach a higher level of purification or transcendence, though never having any assurance of his escape therefrom.

The threat of eternal damnation serves religion well; the fear factor, as in any form of tyranny, is instrumental in the control and subjugation of the faithful. And the ruse can be very profitable. During the centuries of the Dark Ages, when the common man was forbidden to even possess a Bible or dare to think of his own reason apart from the counsel of his father confessor, the Roman Catholic Church filled the coffers of the Vatican selling “indulgences,” credit for “good time,” as it were, from the fate of damnation. The indulgence sellers of Roman popery would ride into town displaying images of Satan tormenting suffering souls in purgatory, eliciting the generous contributions of the fearful faithful toward the alleviating of their certain fate. To this day, the families and relatives of the Catholic deceased pay the church for frequent indulgence Masses to be offered for the supposed liberation of the departed soul from purgatory, although there does not exist the priest, bishop, cardinal, or pope who can say when that might be. Religion makes good money off of eternal damnation.

The denominations of Christianity have been all too complicit in adopting the apostate precepts of their Roman Mother of Harlots. The imagery of hell, with the specter of a satanic devil orchestrating the never-ending torment of the un-savable is always a sermon well received (makes for a good altar call), and accepted as an “article of faith” of the religion that calls itself by the name of the Savior.

The religions of Christendom have retained a firm belief in the eternal damnation of unrepentant souls. The pagan image of God as a wrathful, vindictive, merciless despot disposed to tormenting for eternity all that refuse His salvation is indelibly etched in the religious thinking of multitudes who profess the Faith of Jesus. Indeed, the gross misconception of many is that the foremost purpose and benefit of their “decision for Jesus” is the assurance of “going to heaven” to escape the prospect of hell fire; and the “blessed hope” of rapture is their “fire escape.” The "believe or burn" mentality of popular Christianity makes no allowance for the operation of God's grace beyond the present age, and even goes Catholicism one better; the "Christian" doctrine skips the purgatorial interlude and sends the unrepentant wretch straight to hell! Better answer that altar call.

If the religion of Rome effectively denies men access to the grace of God and feeds them fantastic lies of their fate beyond the grave, the churches of Christendom do little better. In either case, salvation is obtainable only by an elite few; in paganism, the priests of the craft; in Christianity, those who have made a "decision for Jesus" (or maybe it’s just the 144,000). The remaining throngs of unsubmissive humanity are relegated to an unrelenting, irrevocable damnation in a hellish abyss of eternal anguish. Religious minds somehow derive a sense of justice and satisfaction from the thought of numberless billions of human souls forever writhing in the most excruciating of horrors, from which there is to be no alleviation or mercy. Some go so far as to teach that one of the greatest JOYS of the believer will be in looking upon the tormented damned as their cries of terror fall upon the deaf ears of the Almighty. "You had your chance to accept My redemption and to believe on Christ Jesus, My Son," He will sternly rebuke, "But now it is too late. Your well-deserved torment will now be meted out without measure, heaped upon you in waves of horror, grief, and anguish for as long as eternity shall stand." By what demented reasoning do men relish such a fate for unrepentant souls, yet profess to believe in a God of love, mercy, and forgiveness?

"But God is a righteous and just God," one will surely protest, "and can do naught but give the unbelieving their just reward. If men have refused so great a salvation as God has freely given, then they deserve every moment of torment that has been reserved for them." To see that the damned get DAMNED is every bit as important to the sermonizers of religion as to see that the saved get SAVED.

My friends, it is my supreme joy to tell you that I do not serve such a God! I know no such God from the pages of Scripture, nor do I know such a God by the life of the Spirit. Such "righteousness" and "justice" as is demonstrated by this sort of thinking is merely that of MEN, not that of God; for men have ascribed unto God the same vindictive brand of justice as they themselves possess. In their carnal religiosity, men unwittingly proclaim that Calvary's sacrifice is INSUFFICIENT, that God's righteousness has NOT BEEN SATISFIED, that the precious blood of the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world, is INEFFECTUAL in destroying sin and death and in procuring the justification of all men. Fittingly, the Catholic Church still has Him hanging on the Crucifix. (Don’t worry; they’ll resurrect Him on Easter).

“And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, wilt thou that we COMMAND FIRE to come down from heaven AND CONSUME THEM, even as Elias did?’ But He turned and rebuked them, and said, ‘YE KNOW NOT WHAT MANNER OF SPIRIT YE ARE OF. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, BUT TO SAVE THEM.” (Lk. 9: 54-56)

What a graphic illustration of the self-righteous religious vengeance inherent in the hell, fire, and brimstone doctrines of Christendom! As the disciples, incensed because others that were not among the followers of Jesus were observed casting out demons in His name, religious Christianity has drawn the circumference of acceptable doctrine, inscribed the boundaries of divine mercy and grace, and committed all who do not follow into everlasting consumption by fire. To all such we would declare along with the Lord Jesus, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of!” For those who are of a spirit that would cast the unbelieving into an eternity of vindictive torment have yet to understand that “the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives BUT TO SAVE THEM!”

So what does your Bible have to say about hell? Let’s take a closer look.

There are actually four different words, one Hebrew and three Greek, which are translated “hell” in the Authorized Version. The Hebrew word sheol means “the place of the dead,” referring to the state, the realm, or the habitation of the dead, rather than the literal grave in which the body is buried. It is derived from the root shael which by implication means “to request, to demand.” Sheol is, therefore, that realm beyond this earthly life which draws and beckons all men to the final inescapable conclusion of all flesh, the estate of death.

Sheol is quite often used in a figurative manner to describe the perils and anguish encountered in life. In calling upon the Lord to deliver him from his enemies, David intoned, “The cords of death encompassed me, and the torrents of destruction terrified me. The cords (or restraints) of SHEOL surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me” (Ps. 18: 4-5). Again in Psalm 86:13 he testifies, “For Thy lovingkindness toward me is great and Thou hast delivered my soul from the depths of SHEOL.” The Psalmist had obviously not gone to hell, but had been profoundly distressed by his adversaries and delivered from them by the hand of God.

Solomon, in his wisdom, wrote concerning the duty of disciplining a child, “You shall smite him with the rod and deliver his soul from SHEOL” (Pr. 23:14). Not that the rod of correction will save the child from burning forever in hell fire, but the loving CORRECTION of a father will turn the child from the error of his ways, and instruct him in the path of righteousness, perhaps sparing him many foolish and needless agonies in the course of life.

Jonah, also, was overtaken by distress at the hand of the Lord, and in his state of torment cried from the belly of the fish, “I cried for help from the depth of SHEOL; Thou didst hear my voice” (Jonah 2:2). God had most certainly delivered him into Sheol, a state of utter terror and anguish, until the repentant Jonah was made willing to honor the Lord with obedience. That his judgment was not eternal is evident from the fact that God commanded the fish to vomit Jonah upon dry land from whence he went to prophesy against the wickedness of Nineveh.

The Greek word tartaroo appears only once in the New Testament in 2 Peter 2:4. As rendered in the Concordant Literal translation, “For if God spared not the sinning messengers, but thrusting them into the gloomy caverns of Tartarus, gives them up to be kept for chastening (and) judging.” The thought is one of confinement, incarceration, restraint; a condition in which apostates are held, reserved for final judgment, much as a prisoner is held captive in a jail awaiting the day of his trial.

The word gehenna occurs twelve times in the New Testament, and is the transliteration of the Hebrew Gai’ Hinnōm referring to the Valley of Hinnom outside the walls of Jerusalem, where the fires through which the children of Israel were passed in the worship of Moloch burned day and night. In our Lord’s day the idolatry had ceased, but the fires were still continually burning there for the destruction of the refuse of Jerusalem. Hence, gehenna was used in a metaphorical sense denoting the fires of destruction associated with the judgment of God. What is significant is that those described as having Gehenna as their judgment are not the unregenerate of the world, but the UNRIGHTEOUS AMONG GOD’S PEOPLE. In denouncing the self-righteous religious hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees Jesus proclaimed, “Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel about on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of gehenna as yourselves. You serpents, you brood of vipers; how shall you escape the judgment of gehenna?” (Mt.23:15, 33). (Let the proselytizers of religion take heed!)

The Apostle James writes concerning the wickedness that proceeds from the heart of man, “So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. Behold how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! The tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our existence, and is set on fire by gehenna” (James 3:5-6). The fires of Gehenna are kindled in the midst of God’s people to consume the refuse of carnality and flesh from their lives, to purge them from the wood, hay, and stubble that they may be refined as pure silver, that out of the fire of His judgment may emerge One like unto the Son of God, the pure gold of His nature. Here the fire is not quenched, the worm dieth not, until all that is refuse and waste within God’s holy city is consumed.

Lastly, the Greek word hades is used eleven times in the New Testament, and is  rendered “hell” in the King James in every passage except one, where it is rendered “grave” (1 Cor. 15:55). Thus hades is the word most often associated in the minds of believers with the place of the damned. In the essence of its meaning, however, it refers only to the unseen or hidden realm into which the dead depart. Hades is the Greek equivalent to the Hebrew Sheol as can be seen in Acts 2:27 and 31 as the writer quotes from the Hebrew text of Psalm 16:8-11: “’Because Thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades (Sheol in the Hebrew), nor allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay’…He (the Psalmist) looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that ‘He was neither abandoned to Hades , nor did His flesh suffer decay.’” Although having been laden with centuries of development in which the word has acquired new senses, meanings, and usages, we have no liberty to assign to it any meaning other than that of its Scriptural usage. It is derived from the Greek aides; the prefix “a” is akin to the English “un” and the stem “id” means “perceive.” Thus we have “unperceived” or “imperceptible.” Our English word “hell” comes from the Anglo-Saxon “helle” or “helan,” meaning a hidden place. In parts of England men still say, “I plan to hell my potatoes,” meaning to store them in a pit or hole. Hades is, therefore, the unseen realm, that state of being which cannot be tangibly perceived or explained by the natural eye. To believe and teach that only the damned go to Hades is to misrepresent the implication of the word, for ALL WHO DIE go to Hades, the unseen, imperceptible world of the departed.

Given the extent of Catholic doctrinal corruption still so prevalent in the minds of the translators of the 1611 King James Bible, and the imagery of hell so inculcated in their belief system, it is little wonder that the pagan concoction of purgatory would be carried over into the reformed church and passed down through the Authorized Version to modern Christendom. The doctrine of hell has been embellished as the domain of Satan, the modern incarnation of the fire-god, Moloch; and Satan himself has been exalted to the stature of a once-mighty archangel, “Lucifer,” now cast out of heaven into the pit of hell, a notion borrowed from John Milton’s 1667 work of fiction Paradise Lost. The idea stuck, and with the misapplication of a verse or two of Scripture, it is now proclaimed as “truth” to the gullible masses. It would appear that Christianity’s sacred article of faith is, in reality, pure myth and fantasy born out of pagan tradition and Christian fiction.

We need not relegate hell to the afterlife, however, for men need not “go to hell” to find the chains of darkness they so fear; a man’s hell is much closer than that. Look upon the drug addict and the alcoholic and you will see one held captive in hell’s unrelenting grip. Hell’s torment is manifested in the demented, insatiable lust of the rapist, the psychopathic serial killer, the rage of the abusive spouse, the inhumanity of the child abuser, the senseless violence of terrorism and murder that man visits upon his own kind; men given wholly to the depravity and wickedness of the carnal heart, held as caged beasts in Tartaroo, as it were, reserved unto the day of judgment. Millions of lives are held captive in hell’s torment, ever constraining the life of man to walk in the precepts of death until the day when he shall be inexorably compelled to possess the reality of that state of Hades in which he has dwelt all the days of his life. The insatiable fires kindled within the dross of the flesh rage incessantly, ever seeking fulfillment and gratification, and finding none, for “Hell and destruction are never full (lit. satisfied)” (Pr. 27:20).

A long-time friend and Brother of mine, now passed, knew all about hell; he had been there and came back to tell the story. For many years of his life he found himself engulfed in the terror and darkness of Sheol, bound in drug and alcohol addiction. Twice, he should have been dead. He had known the Lord since his teenage years, and despite the shackles of death in which he walked, never lost sight of Jesus for very long. Oh, how he implored God to deliver him from the hands of his enemies! Having tried rehab on three separate occasions, and having relapsed three times, each one worse than the last, he knew the dark shrouds of Hades would be only one needle away. But defeat had never been in God’s purpose; for the Son of man has not come to destroy men’s lives, but to SAVE THEM! He found victory in Alcoholics Anonymous and the hyper-super-abounding grace of the Faith of Jesus. Oh, how God is so fully capable of delivering the damned from the depths of hell! He was clean and sober and walking in the fullness of Life for more than a dozen years when the Lord said, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

 

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The dogma of religion renders a great disservice to correctly discerning the truth that the Scriptures seek to reveal. Indeed, our reading of the text is grossly skewed and twisted into knots when studied through the error of vision so vigorously promulgated in the doctrine of hell.

For instance, I could never quite figure out why, if every unbelieving sinner is cast eternally into hell at the moment of death, that “death and HELL delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to his works…And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20: 13, 15). If the unregenerate go immediately to the eternal damnation of hell at the time of death, what is the sense or purpose of delivering them up once again to stand before Him Who sits upon the great white throne? Dredge them up from the depths of hell fire where they may have already been burning in torment for untold centuries, so that their judgment of damnation might be reiterated from the mouth of the Almighty (as if it had not yet been made “official”), thereupon only to be cast once AGAIN into the same hellish judgment for the rest of eternity! Twice damned! Furthermore, if the lake of fire is, as the preachers of modern Babylon are wont to proclaim, hell itself, then the Scripture presents a most perplexing enigma; for we are told that “death and HELL were cast into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:14). Not only are the damned regurgitated from hell only to be delivered thence a second time, but we have HELL being cast into HELL! Not only is such a scenario laughably absurd, it is not at all what the Word of God declares. A reasonable sense of the Scripture can be had by simply rendering “hell” in its true meaning, as does the New American Standard translation: “And death and HADES (the unseen realm) gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one according to their deeds. And death and HADES (the imperceptible state of the dead) were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”

We would note three things that now become readily evident: Firstly, that the dead are delivered up for judgment from out of the unseen, imperceptible realm of the dead – HADES – not from “hell”; secondly, that both death in its literal, physical effect, and HADES, the realm in which the dead abide, are to be cast into the lake of fire, for death remains the last enemy to be destroyed (1 Cor. 15:26); and thirdly, that the effect of the lake of fire upon death and Hades is the second death. The Scripture explicitly states that death and Hades cast into the lake of fire IS THE SECOND DEATH; conversely, therefore, the second death IS death and Hades cast into the lake of fire. And while many will be quick to parrot the accepted belief that the second death, or the lake of fire, is that ultimate, final, eternal death which awaits the unbeliever in hell, the Scripture overtly opposes such thinking. There is coming a day when death itself will CEASE TO EXIST. John saw that day at the revelation of the new Jerusalem, the Holy City which is the habitation of the life of God among men, and declared of it, “And there shall be NO MORE DEATH…for the former things are passed away” (Rev. 21:4). What will become of our sacred hell and all who have been damned to its bottomless depths by the doctrine of religion when there is NO MORE DEATH, no more Hades, and NO MORE HELL! How do the dead remain DEAD when there is NO MORE DEATH? The instrument ordained by God for the eradication and abolishment of all that is characteristic of death and Hades is the lake of fire, and THIS IS THE SECOND DEATH – the DEATH of DEATH. “The last enemy that WILL BE ABOLISHED is death” (1 Cor. 15:26).

Well, not to worry; God has just the solution: He plans to SAVE THEM ALL

Death and Hades reigned as the unchallenged destiny of man until the Last Adam, the Man out of heaven appeared as the quickening Spirit, taking upon Himself the likeness of flesh and blood, “that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14). He confronted death by partaking of its sting, boldly strode into the very halls of Hades itself, and emerged victorious through the power of His resurrection, forever conquering its dominion over the lives of men. Christ Jesus has abolished death, bringing life and immortality to light through the Gospel (2 Tim. 1:10). Death is His footstool, Hades bows before Him, as He proclaims to all creation, “I am the first and the last, and the Living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have THE KEYS OF DEATH and OF HADES” (Rev. 1: 17-18). He has unlocked the gates of that realm which held captive the souls of men, broken down the barrier that kept men strangers and foreigners from the promise of life, destroyed the fortifications of Hades’ domain to set captivity free from its chains of darkness. Death cannot stand where LIFE REIGNS!

The resurrections, judgments, and processing of the ages yet to come speak to us of an ongoing work of redemption from which no man is to be excluded. The hyper-super-abounding grace of reconciliation is fully capable of redeeming THE MANY, bringing ALL into the reality and fullness of His life, whether on this side of the grave or on the other. What we may perceive as the black and white of the matter is of no consequence in the purpose of God. The Good Shepherd shall not cease to seek out that last remaining lost sheep; the Savior shall not cease to draw every last man on whose life He holds the right of redemption; the grace of God shall not rest throughout the ages until hell is empty, until death and Hades have not one remaining captive – until God is ALL THINGS IN ALL.

 

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