Further Considerations of Hell

Yesterday I left you with my belief that God, The God, The One True God, Jehovah God, created Sin. and that he actually allowed evil to come into existence by design.  I also stated that I believe he did this by creating Satan (the Angel Lucifer) as a vessel of dishonor for the purpose of bringing evil into existence.

This thought probably does not sit well with most non Christians and quite a few Christians as well.  But let me ask you a couple more questions.  Did God create the Angel Lucifer (Satan)?  Of course he did.  We know from Scripture that God and God alone is the only being outside of time and space (meaning he just IS and always HAS BEEN).  And did God know that Satan was going to rebel (Sin) against him and take one-third of the Heavenly host with him at the time (at the exact moment) He created him?  Of course He did.  He absolutely knew what would occur.  To think that God did not know what Satan’s actions would be in advance of his creation would be to limit God.  And if you limit God against his nature, he would no longer be God.  In other words, God is either omniscient (all-knowing) or else he is not God.  You can not have it both ways.  If an attribute of God is that he is all-knowing (and this is a base characteristic of God for me), then he has to have full knowledge of the actions and their consequences that He is taking.  And by-the-way, if you want to bring a god to the table that is somehow only partially omniscient, I’ll tell you that is not my God or else your understanding of my God is incomplete.  My God is in full control, including in control of all of the evil in the world today, or that ever has been in the world, or ever will be in the world.

If you are with me up to this point, we are at the shocking (for some) realization that God carried through with a certain set of plans knowing that those plans were going to result in evil and Sin (that which is against the nature of God).  And that he did so with intent and that it is part of his great plan.

I believe the next question most reasonable people ask at this point is: Why?  Why would God allow evil, and pain, and suffering, and hurt, and Sin to come into the world?  Why would he do that?  And some might even ask (or state): Doesn’t that make Him a bad God?  Paul addressed this in Romans Chapter 9.  He asks this very question in Romans 9:14.  I hope you take time to read the whole chapter very carefully, but here Paul acknowledges that some would come to the conclusion that there is unrighteousness in God.  And if I may paraphrase his answer: ABSOLUTELY NOT!

I have on many occasions mentioned Dr. Ravi Zacharias here.  I sincerely hope you take some time to follow this man’s ministry.  I can only hope to say this as eloquently as he would, but consider this:

Without evil how would you ever know good?  Without pain how would you know sorrow?  Without sadness how would you know happiness?  Without loss how would you ever know gain?  Without lows how would you ever know highs?  Without unrighteousness how would you ever know righteousness?  Without God’s great plan how would you ever, ever know of His great mercy and love?

Every scientific discipline I know of in the world today creates baselines of study.  In other words they collect data to establish what is normal.  They then conduct their experiments with-respect-to that baseline.  Looking for good deviations and bad deviations.  Without establishing the baseline first, the results are meaningless.  I need the baseline in order to determine what my data actually means.

Could God have created a perfect utopia without sin or pain?  Sure, he could have.  But then you and I would have not had any reference point when God told us about the suffering he had kept us from.  We would have existed without a baseline, without a reference point, and would have never, ever known God’s Mercy or his Love.

With this line of reasoning, Paul of Tarsus has brought us to the realization of two things.  One is that God is completely in control.  There is nothing more freeing (in my experience) than the understanding that Satan, Sin, Evil cannot (and will not) win.  This world can throw all the pain and hurt and sadness it possibly can at me and it simply does not matter.  In the end, God wins and I am his child.  The second is that God has established for us a baseline.  We can now know His Mercy, His Righteousness, His Love, His Grace, and we can know it experientially because he has shown us the unmerciful, the unrighteous, the hateful and the scornful.  We now KNOW what God means when He says He Loves us.  We understand His Mercy and His Grace.  We can fully praise Him for His Righteousness because we were unrighteous and He made us Righteous before Him.

But now that God has created the baseline, the contrast, the experiential part of this creation what do we think he will do with it?  Is it going to go away?  I believe the answer to that is No.  Humanity is a fickle set of creatures.  We need to constantly refer to our baselines and update our reference points.  No, I believe God is going to keep the Sin and the Unrighteousness around.

And He has a place for the Sin and the Unrighteous.  And that place is Hell.  Hell is where he will lock away Sin for all of eternity.  A constant contrast and an ever-present reminder of His Mercy and His Grace.

And now, from that perspective, Hell suddenly becomes a very real place.  Hell: Fantasy or Reality?  I assure you, very, very REAL.