These are the personal reflections of a small town pastor in rural Northeastern Oklahoma. Content here is designed in hopes that any and all who spend time with me will be brought closer to Christ through a faithful local church and daily disciplines.
Years ago I realized that I needed to memorize John 3:17-19, if only to inform those who stop at John 3:16. It forced me to take a sober view that has no gray area. First, I started compiling a chart that includes all of Christ’s binary expressions. For your brother was lost & now he is found, he was dead & now he is alive. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish., etc. Jesus does not provide a vast gray area, with black pushed to a narrow side of the rectangle and white pushed to a sliver of the opposite side & a sea of gray in the middle. In Christ’s descriptions, he does not include the American notion of “the presumption of innocence.” That would be a gray area where people could take solace. Maybe they can find a Pastor who also shares that notion. Then I illustrated what you have described here by taking a blank sheet of paper & drawing a verticals line down the middle, then a horizontal line across the top about 1” down. At the header for the left column, I write the negative symbol. To the right half header, I write the positive symbol. As Jesus & you explain things, because of the events in Genesis 2, we all find ourselves in the minus column from birth. There is no “presumed innocent” column. We do not work ourselves into the + column, genuine belief in Jesus brings us from the “lost” column to the “found” column. Many passages confirm Christ’s expressions. Great article, again stressing our total depravity and His all - sufficiency for each of us.
I’m with you 100% up to the point about eternal conscious torment in hell. I was raised to believe in ECT and did up until a few years ago. I came across an article about conditional immortality on a Baptist Pastor’s blog in Enid Oklahoma. His name is Wade Burleson. In this well documented post he listed many well known conservative Christian theologians down through the centuries that believed that God alone was immortal ( 1 Timothy 6:16) and that for humans to experience eternal conscious torment that God would have to “gift” them with immortality simply so that they would live in that state. Those who have this belief, state that the natural man possessing an immortal soul was an idea imported in from Greek philosophy, and not to be found in Scripture. Personally, for me, Genesis 3:22 where man was expelled from Eden so as to prevent him from eating from the tree of life proves that man naturally does not have immortality. John 3:16 states that faith in Christ prevents the soul from perishing. Matthew 10:28 states that God is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. Revelation 20:14 indicates that the lake of fire is the second death. And verse 15 states that those whose names are not written in the book ok of life will be thrown into the lake of fire. Finally Romans 6:23 states: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The article that Pastor Burleson wrote stated that Martin Luther himself believed in conditional immortality, but Calvin did not, and Calvin’s view won out. I offer this as food for thought. I realize it’s the minority opinion.
Jesus also spoke of a place "where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Jesus spoke of both heaven and hell. Hell is described. Heaven is described. We will not know it until it is our time to pass from this life to the next. At that time we will experience either heaven (life in the presence of God) or hell (eternal separation from God, a.k.a. outer darkness) based solely on our repentance and love for Christ.
Years ago I realized that I needed to memorize John 3:17-19, if only to inform those who stop at John 3:16. It forced me to take a sober view that has no gray area. First, I started compiling a chart that includes all of Christ’s binary expressions. For your brother was lost & now he is found, he was dead & now he is alive. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish., etc. Jesus does not provide a vast gray area, with black pushed to a narrow side of the rectangle and white pushed to a sliver of the opposite side & a sea of gray in the middle. In Christ’s descriptions, he does not include the American notion of “the presumption of innocence.” That would be a gray area where people could take solace. Maybe they can find a Pastor who also shares that notion. Then I illustrated what you have described here by taking a blank sheet of paper & drawing a verticals line down the middle, then a horizontal line across the top about 1” down. At the header for the left column, I write the negative symbol. To the right half header, I write the positive symbol. As Jesus & you explain things, because of the events in Genesis 2, we all find ourselves in the minus column from birth. There is no “presumed innocent” column. We do not work ourselves into the + column, genuine belief in Jesus brings us from the “lost” column to the “found” column. Many passages confirm Christ’s expressions. Great article, again stressing our total depravity and His all - sufficiency for each of us.
I’m with you 100% up to the point about eternal conscious torment in hell. I was raised to believe in ECT and did up until a few years ago. I came across an article about conditional immortality on a Baptist Pastor’s blog in Enid Oklahoma. His name is Wade Burleson. In this well documented post he listed many well known conservative Christian theologians down through the centuries that believed that God alone was immortal ( 1 Timothy 6:16) and that for humans to experience eternal conscious torment that God would have to “gift” them with immortality simply so that they would live in that state. Those who have this belief, state that the natural man possessing an immortal soul was an idea imported in from Greek philosophy, and not to be found in Scripture. Personally, for me, Genesis 3:22 where man was expelled from Eden so as to prevent him from eating from the tree of life proves that man naturally does not have immortality. John 3:16 states that faith in Christ prevents the soul from perishing. Matthew 10:28 states that God is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. Revelation 20:14 indicates that the lake of fire is the second death. And verse 15 states that those whose names are not written in the book ok of life will be thrown into the lake of fire. Finally Romans 6:23 states: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The article that Pastor Burleson wrote stated that Martin Luther himself believed in conditional immortality, but Calvin did not, and Calvin’s view won out. I offer this as food for thought. I realize it’s the minority opinion.
Jesus also spoke of a place "where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Jesus spoke of both heaven and hell. Hell is described. Heaven is described. We will not know it until it is our time to pass from this life to the next. At that time we will experience either heaven (life in the presence of God) or hell (eternal separation from God, a.k.a. outer darkness) based solely on our repentance and love for Christ.