The Song of God
A Fresh Appraisal of the Christian Doctrine of the Ultimate Destiny of Humankind:
IMCF Lectures on God's Universal Salvation
by
Les Aron Gosling, Messianic Rebbe
Copyright © BRI, 1996
Lecture Format © 2016
All Rights Reserved Worldwide
Originally Produced as a BRI Study Manual
LECTURE FIVE
PAINS OF HELL, PANGS OF LOVE
The Lord Yeshua died both physically
and spiritually in order to reconcile us, and indeed the entire world, to God the Father (
Romans 5.10). Yeshua's mission was the actual salvation of the whole world (
1 John 4.14). He could not, indeed dare not, fail in this task. The salvation of all men makes Yeshua not only truly Lord of all, but the Personal Saviour he really is. He
is the Saviour. He is not merely the
provider of salvation.
The implications of mere provision are apparent to all who would take only a few precious moments of serious contemplation. As a result of the cross of Mashiach the Father has been conciliated to the world. Yeshua died for the world, not merely the church, while still the world was the enemy of God. It was for the ungodly, and the hostile, and the beggarly, and the haters of God that Mashiach died. In being conciliated to the world, the Father justified humankind corporately (
Romans 5.18). Nobody was left out of the equation.
You were included in it, and
I was included in it.
My neighbour and
your neighbour were included in it. Indeed, every single individual was specifically represented by Our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. God the Father did not inadvertently leave anyone out; not one person was overlooked and forgotten. Each man and each woman and each child that has ever lived or ever will live will have his or her opportunity to actually taste God's Light and Life personally (
John 1.9).
Reconciliation is the heart and the core of the Gospel message for "God was reconciling the world to himself in the Messiah, not imputing their trespasses to them: and has committed unto us [the Messianic Community or "church"] that same word of reconciliation" (
2 Corinthians 5.19).
Vincent Taylor observes, "The best New Testament word to describe the purposes of the Atonement is Reconciliation" (Vincent Taylor,
The Atonement in New Testament Teaching, 1946, 312). Similarly, theologian Hughes admits "that in the New Testament the basic idea of the Atonement is that of reconciliation" (T.H. Hughes,
The Atonement, 1949, 312).
Thus this basic understanding of the church accords with rabbinical teaching that the annual sacrificial atonement of
Yom Kippurim restored an "inward sense of close relationship with God which is lost through sin, evil desire, or constant brooding upon sinful things."
In English, the word "atone," which now means "to make amends," originally meant "to set at one, to reconcile, persons at variance."The atonement of Mashiach is at the centre of the Christian message, and with it the doctrine of reconciliation. In fact reconciliation is integrally the Gospel. The entire sweep of New Testament teaching, and even "the Christ event" in reality, centres on his atonement. Yet it appears there are some who never bother to think the ramifications of the atonement through to their logical Salvific conclusion, namely reconciliation. For, they view the atonement as strictly and necessarily limited. It was in their thinking only for the church, the elect of God. Others think it might have also included the "Old Testament saints." The Holy Scriptures, which reveal the intent, purpose and movement of God in history, seem to indicate that the motive in the atonement was the conciliation of the world to God and God to the world. Even the very word itself means "at-one-ment" -- the world at one, in unity, with God. In a word, God is no longer angry with human beings as a consequence of the cross.
Did you notice the statement by Rav Shaul, the enlightened emissary to the Gentiles, in our Corinthian quotation? This "free spirit" understood that God is not imputing trespasses to the world. He is no longer making a note of sins committed. There is no fervent activity of scribbling negatives on the debit side of "the book of life." For the world, spiritual sin is no longer the issue. Let us stop once and for all reading "church" where the Jewish Scriptures plainly state "world." Reconciliation through the Messiah Yeshua is the only method predetermined by the Eternal Ground of All Being for the ultimate salvation of humankind (See
Acts 4.12 in this regard).
Now we have all heard a good deal from the pulpit, if we have had any sort of experience with churchianity, about "sin," "righteousness," "hell," "heaven," "sacrifice," "imputation," "redemption," "propitiation," "sanctification," "salvation," and sometimes even "justification." But these terms, and others like them, are not necessarily "biblical." They are all technical Latin terms coined by the brilliant mind of the Canaanite Carthaginian church "Father," Tertullian (circa 160-220 CE). He also gave us the useful terms (although some might disagree as to the degree of usefulness) "sacrament," "trinity," "substance," "person," "perdition," "damnation," "dispensation," "priest," and of course, "mediator."
But these days we very rarely hear the equally Tertullian term "reconciliation" or "conciliation" mentioned unless it is during a pagan Xmas carol extravaganza (shouldn't the focus of "reconciliation" be emphasised during the "Easter" celebration?) Today's ministers and priests are squatting uncomfortably atop a scandalous situation, but many of them appear to be content with a certain mass ignorance about the issue of reconciliation.
And why?
Because many of them can continue to paint the loving Creator God in the light of a cruel, sadistic fiend with a huge, oversized personality problem. This God doesn't seem to get on with anyone! It almost delights them, and our cruel Foe, to portray the
El Shaddai as the proverbial Local Village Idiot! Small wonder the Christian church has not grown since 1967! It is suffering from a worldwide credibility crisis. The entire message of reconciliation indicates that from the cross to the Age of the Messiah God is not holding people's sins, transgressions and iniquities against them spiritually. We have all just considered that breathtaking Pauline statement to the Corinthian church. Let's read it again in the English equivalent of the original Greek.
"God was conciliating the world to himself in Messiah
not imputing their trespasses unto them" (
2 Corinthians 5.19).
Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest translates the latter portion of Paul's statement as, "Not putting down on the liability side of their ledger their trespasses." Vincent adds, "The emphasis is on the fact that God was reconciling, not on the fact that God was in Christ. God was all through and behind the process of reconciliation" (Marvin Vincent,
Word Studies in the New Testament, Vol.lll, 321).
How often have we heard this message? Or have we rather been subjected monotonous church service after church service to vocal harangues about "judgment" and "fires of damnation"? That the conciliation is a reality is glaringly apparent. God has taken the first step in the salvation drama by sending the Son of His love to die for lost, rebellious humankind. For He also loves the world (
John 3.16,17). And indeed, when we properly understand it, God takes every other step in the process of salvation as well as the first. But that a strategic season of judgment will be initiated at the Advent of the Messiah is also the verdict of the Scripture. Yet we would hasten to remind our readers that such "judgment" is now being experienced in God's own spiritual community as Peter confidently wrote (
1 Peter 4.12-19) and that being for our essential character development as we are being molded into the Divine Image. "Judgment" is not necessarily tantamount to, or synonymous with, "condemnation" (another Tertullianism).
Augustine, however, disputed the sacred Word of God and refused belligerently to accept the plain comments of both John and Paul regarding the justification of all and the salvation of all. He twisted the Scriptures to his own ends, and distorted God's Gracious
intent and
act of the cross -- they are really one and the same -- endorsing, for politically advantageous reasons, a limited atonement.
"He often calleth the church itself by the name of the world; as in that, "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself"; and that, "The Son of man came not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." And John in his epistle saith, "We have an Advocate, and he is the propitiation for... the sins of the whole world." The whole world, therefore, is the church, and the world hateth the church. The world, then, hateth the world; that which is at enmity, the reconciled; the condemned, the saved; the polluted, the cleansed world. And that world which God in Christ reconcileth to himself, and which is saved by Christ, is chosen out of the opposite, condemned, defiled world" (Augustine,
Tract. lxxxvii., in
Johan. Quoted in Owen's
The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, reprinted from Vol.X of the
Works of John Owen, 1852, reprinted 1967 Banner of Truth, 312).
Leaving our blessed "Saint" for a moment or so, let us look again at our key word in the Corinthian passage which has been freely translated as "reconciliation." It should be more properly noted, as some modern translations have dutifully corrected, as "conciliation." Our reasons for this stand are simple. Unless a conciliatory attitude is present, at the very least in one party,
reconciliation can never take place. God is conciliated to the world. This is the message which Paul commanded his elders to preach -- a message which has all but been lost.
In simple terms, as we have already declared, God is not now angry. Admittedly, from the evidence of Jewish prophecy relating to the coming of the Messiah, the Lord of all will terminate human government and following the administration of the Messianic Kingdom the solar system is predicted to be engulfed in flaming fury so that the very elements will melt in a ferocious heat. That's horrific stuff. That's end of the world stuff. But now, at this present moment and during this Christian administration of God's Grace, he is conciliated to the world through the wrath unleashed on the torture tree at Golgoleth. The issue
NOW at the conclusion of this present Age of GRACE is the "Son" -- and not "sin" as such. This is the plain teaching of the Scriptures, notwithstanding the sincere objections of some that the unbeliever "has the wrath of God abiding upon him" (
John 3.36). With apologies, John the Baptist's pre-cross testimony held true right up until the time Yeshua died and it really has no place in a sophisticated Grace-oriented theology be it Jewish-Christian theology or Gentile Christian theology.
What then, we naturally follow, of the current and popular teaching of "substitution" in this important doctrine of reconciliation?
"Although," notes theologian Dunn, "substitution expresses an important aspect of Paul's theology on the atonement, I am not sure that Paul would have been happy with it or that it is the best single word to serve as the key definition of that theology." Substitution, insists Dunn, is too one-sided because it depicts Yeshua as substituting for man in the face of God's pre-cross wrath. "But we do no justice to Paul's view of Jesus" death unless we emphasise with equal or greater weight that in his death Jesus also "substituted" for God in the face of man's sin -- "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself"... In other words "substitution" shares the defects [in Tertullian's terminology] of "propitiation" as a description of Jesus' death. It still tends to conjure up pagan ideas of "Jesus standing in man's place and pleading with an angry God (and it must be said that the usual illustrations of popular evangelism only confirm that picture)" (James D.G. Dunn,
Paul's Understanding of the Death of Jesus in
Reconciliation and Hope: New Testament Essays on Atonement and Eschatology (presented to L.L. Morris on his 60th birthday), [ed] R. Banks, 1974, 140).
Dunn's theological perspective and insight have not been widely appreciated. While respecting and concurring essentially with his theological views regarding the cross, Yeshua certainly fulfilled the role of substitute. But Dunn cannot be denied his position relating to representation. For, as Dunn has so aptly pointed out, Yeshua represented in his death not merely
suffering man to God but suffering God to man. Yeshua was our Representative Man. He came specifically and particularly to save fully reprobate man. Only the "heavenly Man" could work this real magic effectively. Some will argue back and forth between substitute and representative, meaninglessly. Whatever arguments can be buttressed the outcome of the cross is that God is manifestly conciliated to the world. Nobody was missed out, overlooked, glossed over, ignored, forgotten. Recall that it was "while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us" (
Romans 5.8). We were saved when we had no personal leg left to stand on; no self-justification to ward God off. Again, "While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God" (
Romans 5.10). Yet again, "And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works" (
Colossians 1.21). God is not hostile now toward humankind.
As Dunn rightly articulates, the common imagery (and it is common) of the Lord Yeshua pleading with tears as a substitute on our behalf before a lofty, vicious, demanding and heartless Deity is yet another idea the church has conveniently borrowed (stolen would perhaps be a more appropriate word) from the cesspool of rank paganism. To place the Son of man and the Son of God on the same platform as the gods of other nations does not show Our Lord the honour he so fitfully deserves.
God is at peace. God is conciliated to the world. The cross crucified Christ. The cross crucified Man. The polarity of opposites, brought into the material creation by Infinite Intelligence (
Isaiah 45.7), and into the illusory realm into which Adam "fell," has
in the crucified Lord produced the ultimate Unity. In traditional western Christian theology Christ and the devil are irreconcilably opposed, but in fact the Serpent Wisdom does duty for both. Our Lord Yeshua said plainly enough, "For as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so also shall the Son of man be lifted up" (
John 3.14,15 cf Numbers 21.6-9).
As a result of the Oneness or Unity of opposites it has become our privilege to enter at this time the new creative activity of God (
2 Corinthians 5.17). It is ours now, by faith, although we are still in the limitations of our flesh. Yet if we are authentically Mashiach's then we are
already inheritors (and not just "heirs") of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of the Child. It is the heart of the Child to which God the Father (and Child) looks. God's word is as good as if he were already living here and in active, loving, laughing communication with us. Such is the vision of revelation. Such is immediately the vision of the Holy Spirit, the
Ruach HaKodesh. God always speaks (breathes) in terms of
His view of reality. There is with the transcendent God no yesterday or tomorrow or even today, nor time and space in the void of himself, for
He inhabits eternity and is (in the terminology of quantum physics) the "Singularity." His word, breathed forth from the void in the original sound of the primeval Song, is always certain in its predictive force and profoundly creational intent.
God thus brings forth His mental imagery into material existence. This new creative activity of God is the bringing forth of an entirely new universe, an entirely new Age and an entirely new Man, a new Humanity -- One made in His Substance (in Messiah) as the Earthly Man (in Adam) was His physical reflection or Image. Paul talks of this "new man" and he considers him as already (by faith) inhabiting this "new age." As to our own personal and very human view of reality which can be, admittedly, distorted in our subjective state of perception, God is entreating humankind (in our present star system's spectrum of space and time) desirous that he in turn become conciliated to Deity (
2 Corinthians 5.20).
Impresses Knoch, "Sin and transgression must be dealt with in accord with the inflexible rules of righteousness. But what necessity was there to deal with these at all at the cross? Why not wait until the judgment and give each his due deserts? What claims had his creatures which outweighed the request of His beloved Son that the cup pass from Him? If God had taken account of the reproaches and scorn and contempt men heaped upon Him in the person of His Son, would He not be highly offended? Would He not have remained firm in the face of Christ's request? O, how gloriously His grace shines even in Gethsemane! Men's sins and transgressions He lays upon His Christ, [and] their offenses, which well might turn Him against them, are all ignored" (A.E. Knoch,
The Mystery of the Gospel, 1969, 163,164).
Through the Atonement (the shedding of the precious blood of the holy Messiah for the sins of the world) conciliation takes place. God, by virtue of the sacrifice of the Unity of Opposites
in the flesh and spirit of the holy One, ignores sins and transgressions, iniquities and offenses. Very few theologians are courageous enough to actually voice the obvious, that nothing remains, through the cross event, to separate Creator from his creatures. Nothing partitions the world from the Subjector of All. But the world by and large has not received the fact of the conciliation! The priests have been silent. The church doors are shut when it comes to such a message. But this message of conciliation is why Christ established his Messianic Community! This is where the authentic Christian Community of God (indeed, the New Man) comes into its own. This is primarily the reason for the existence of the "Church."
We are to be Ambassadors of the Government of God initiating peace negotiations on behalf of Mashiach (witnessing, or pointing humankind to him). This is what evangelism should be all about.
"And all things are of God," writes Rav Shaul with a full acknowledgment of the awesome sovereignty of the terrible God who controls all in His creation, "who has conciliated us to Himself by Yeshua the Messiah, and has given to us the ministry of conciliation how that God was conciliating the world unto Himself in Mashiach, not imputing their trespasses unto them: and has committed unto us the word of conciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for the Messiah as though God was pleading through us and so we intervene in communication, 'For Mashiach's sake be conciliated to God'" (
2 Corinthians 5.18-20 Tentative BRI/IMCF Version).
Compare this translation from the Greek with the more common KJV of the Bible which has totally lost the intent of the inspired text.
"And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God" (
Authorised [KJV] Version of
2 Corinthians 5.18-20).
Kenneth Wuest, the brilliant Greek scholar, translates the text as: "But the aforementioned all things are of God as a source, the One who reconciled us to himself through the intermediate agency of Christ and gave to us the ministry whose work is that of proclaiming the message of this reconciliation, namely, that absolute deity in Christ was reconciling the world [of sinners] to himself, not putting down on the liability side of their ledger their trespasses, and lodged in us the story of the reconciliation. Therefore, on behalf of Christ and in His place we are acting as ambassadors, as though God were saying, I beg of you, please, through us as His intermediate agents. We beg you in Christ's stead, Be reconciled at once to God..." (Kenneth Wuest,
The New Testament, An Expanded Translation).
God is conciliated to the world. The authentic Christian Community of Faith has presently been conciliated to him. Writes Denney, "Unless we can preach a finished work of Christ in relation to sin, a... reconciliation or peace which has been achieved independently of us at an infinite cost... we have no real gospel for sinful men at all" (J. Denney,
The Death of Christ, 1951, 86).
By the shed blood of the crucified Man God was conciliated to the world, at the cross. In conjunction with Grace, or as a
reflection of it, this conciliation is the heart and core of the Gospel which has all but been lost to modern man. Clearly, the church in its universal aspect recognises that Christians are seen in a variety of Scriptures to be presently reconciled to God. The conciliation occurred once for all on the cross, "before there was anything in man's heart to correspond" (Leon Morris,
The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, 3rd ed., 1965, 225).
The application of conciliation is progressive. This is seen to be the case in the undeniable fact that almost two millennia have elapsed since Yeshua the Jewish Messiah and Saviour of the world died and made mutual conciliation (reconciliation) truly more than a theoretic possibility. During this present time-period of salvation men and women all over the world have come to a knowledge and acceptance of the conciliation through the evangelistic work of the Christian Church in all centuries.
We are thus a divine society, a supernatural order established for the ministry of reconciliation by Yeshua the Messiah, nurtured by Grace to be the most powerful, constructive and progressive force the world has ever known. Yet we shrink from our responsibilities, fearful of accountability, and timid of men's negative reactions to what we perceive to be the truth. We need to be reminded that only those called of God can come to Christ (
John 6.44,65). Elijah called down the fires of heaven to destroy the enemies of God who were sent to despatch the prophet (
2 Kings 1.10). When the idolatrous Samaritans similarly rejected Elijah's Lord the
talmidim urged the Lord Yeshua to follow a similar course of action. Astonishingly, the Lord rebuked those disciples stating that they failed to discern the change in the spirit of the times (
Luke 9.51-56).
It appears that the world must be given ample opportunity to accept the conciliation in order for an authentic reconciliation in God's intentions to consummate. After all...
"God our Saviour will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth that there is... the Man Messiah Yeshua who gave himself a ransom for all" (
1 Timothy 2.3-6).
A certain knowledge of the conciliation is of primary importance in the understanding of the world. The vast majority of humankind alive at this writing have never had such an opportunity to hear about "Jesus Christ," let alone Yeshua haMashiach! They have never heard one mention of "the Name" let alone been given an appropriate opportunity to respond to this Christ. What is to become of the little African child who happens to die and enter eternity without Messiah simply because the missionary had a flat tyre and couldn't make it to his village in time to preach the word? As Paul said,
"Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
HOW then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
HOW shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
HOW shall they hear if no one is proclaiming him?
HOW shall people proclaim him unless God sends them? as it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those announcing good news about good things!'... So faith is out of the source of that which is heard, and that which is heard [the message of the conciliation] is through the agency of that word concerning Mashiach" (
Romans 10.13-17 Greek).
The overwhelming majority of all who have ever lived, since the dawn of time, have never heard of the Messiah and his Father's conciliation. In fact one is tempted to say the main part of those who call themselves (or carry the appellation) "Christian" are equally ignorant of who "Jesus" really was, not only regarding his self-view as Messiah or God's Son, but in his pre-birth existence as the cosmic
Logos -- the very thought forms of God. They have never understood, nor yet appreciated, the Gospel. Most ignore the Bible and thus the revelation of God. It sits gathering dust on the bookcase, unopened, unexplored, a mere status symbol, and the mysteries within its covers sealed. They are saved, Christ died for them. They have no pity for their fellow man who has never heard of Christ and his gift of salvation, and for whom the Lord also died. They have never read "the old, old Story" though they may have sung the hymn many times at Sunday School when they were young. The Bible and its message remain a mystery. As a result most ignore the fundamental reality that although, as concerning intent, death is abolished for them ("Death, where is thy sting?") our world yet lies in death, decay and bondage to despair.
We are told confidently in the Messianic Scriptures of the Yeshua School that a political Messiah is to rule until he has put all things under his feet. When this is finally accomplished the Lord Yeshua will voluntarily abdicate and all rule, authority and power (and as a direct consequence all the myriad related governmental and judgmental operations of the Messiah) will come to a satisfactorily abrupt conclusion. In simple terms God will be all and in All (
1 Corinthians 15.24-28).
Now there are believers who perceive that Yeshua accomplished this at the cross. Still other Christians hold that he did this in his resurrection. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthian Messianic Community, sees in this drama a very definite eschatological application of what was gained at the cross and in the resurrection of his Lord Yeshua. This letter, we will recall, was penned years after the cross event. This vision of the abolishment of death is most assuredly an eschatological conquest.
J. Davis McCaughey says eruditely that
1 Corinthians chapter 15 "provides a time scheme within which the resurrection of Christ and of those who belong to him each has its proper place... the conquest of death belongs to that future: it is the very last event of all, before the Son hands everything to the Father... A careful reading of the passage suggests that what is at stake among the Corinthians is not simply a matter of a correct or incorrect reading of the time-clock of history. Apocalyptic discourse is not being introduced merely in order to correct the calendars" of the converts to Christianity in the city of Corinth in Greece. Rather, the passage in chapter 15 is inserted to reassert the doctrine of the awesome sovereignty of the Hebrew Lord and God.
"What is at stake is not simply the anthropological question, the question of the self-understanding of believers, but the Christological ("He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet") and the theological ("that God may be all in all")... Christ will deliver the kingdom to the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign till he has put all his enemies under his feet (a citation from Psalm 110.1 but with the adjective inserted by Paul)... The Corinthian Christians who in their enthusiasm claim that already they are filled with the Spirit, already they reign with Christ in heavenly places, are denying the sovereign work of Christ over history, over the contrary forces which beset men, over death itself. Moreover, a too-exclusively risen-Jesus centred experience of the Christian faith, excludes God whose sovereign will and purpose Jesus was appointed to serve." "Death" concludes McCaughey, "is the last of the contrary forces to be overcome by the Lord of life. Christ who was raised from the dead will bring meaning to the processes of history and of life" (J. Davis McCaughey,
The Death of Death (1 Cor 15.26), in
Reconciliation & Hope, op.cit., 250,251).
McCaughey grasps adequately that the Messianic reign of the Saviour and the depressive reign of death coexist in the meantime right up to the end of all things. He adds, with a touch of compelling and forthright insight, "Christian faith exists not only as
memoria passionis, mortis et resurrectionis Jesu Christi, but also as hope based upon promise, a promise which encompasses the individual believer and the race. Indeed unless Christ's reign is triumphant over the contrary powers on the grand side, including death, it is difficult to see how it can be regarded as totally effective."
In other words it is not merely my own death that is to be overcome, according to promise, but the death of my world. More's the pity that the depth of spiritual insight that blazons from McCaugheys' pen is not shared more widely among our modern champions of Christian theology.
The death of death is twofold. The death in which our world is immersed must be swallowed up in Christ's resurrection victory. And the destruction (annulment) of death at every level (physical and spiritual) must be eradicated in the perfumed breeze of Grace, in a resurrection to Life of all who have ever lived. Victory over death in the physical sense is not nearly enough. The precious shed blood of Mashiach must
not be seen to be ineffective. Victory over death must also be a conquest over
spiritual death. And it must have a
universal significance. If one individual persists in
perpetual spiritual death at the handing over to God from the Saviour Christ of all reign, authority and power in his total and free abdication to the Father, then we Christians are of all men and women most miserable. Caught in the vortex of an unpleasant cosmic joke we shall have been worshiping hopeless banality (or perhaps better, senility) and most assuredly graduated impotence on a grand, if not monstrous, scale.
Let the modern scribes theologise as to the contradictions in their textbooks concerning the abolishing of all rule, authority and power and their lame, unsuccessful attempts to explain the continued existence and prevalence (and that with eternal dimensions) of a hell populated with spiritual morons, deviants, and enemies of the cross. This defiant mass of incorrigible wills, according to the perpetuation of gross medieval superstition, is the estranged garbage of our world condemned to be forever removed "from the presence of the Lord" who died for them. There, in that place, still remains the subjugation of misery, gloom and a pathetic coexistence of the rule of spiritual death still unconquered and unconquerable by the love of Christ.
Clearly, hell must terminate. For, if nothing more, it remains the unwelcome startling presence of death.
And, "Our Saviour Yeshua the Messiah... has abolished death and has brought life and incorruption to light through the Gospel" (
2 Timothy 1.10).
We rejoice that hell will lose both its bondage and its victims. This was even the teaching of early church "Fathers" particularly up to the third century. In fact it is also the teaching of the Bible that gathers dust. Speaking of the valley of Hinnom, known popularly as Gehenna, outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem in which fires burned perpetually consuming not only the bodies of criminals but also the refuse of the environment (and the location in which raging fires are again predicted to engulf the rebellious), the prophet Jeremiah opined:
"And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kedron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east
shall be HOLY unto the Lord. It shall not be rooted up, nor thrown down any more for ever" (
Jeremiah 31.40).
The fires will burn themselves out, and they will cease to exist. "Hell" will be pronounced, "Holy to the Lord." There is hope for those who are Mashiach's. There is hope for those who have never heard of the Mashiach. There is even hope for the so-called incorrigible. Yeshua in the guise of someone called "Jesus" is often proclaimed to be a
Personal Saviour. Yeshua can only be a
Personal Saviour if he saves
personally. He
is the
Saviour of the world (
John 1.29).
By means of the vivification of all (
1 Corinthians 15.22), the death state, as the last enemy, will become inoperative. The Gospel will be heard during future "strategic seasons" in God's time and purpose for this universe.
For, "Lo! Now is
a most acceptable era! Lo! Now is
a day of salvation!" (
2 Corinthians 6.2 Greek).
QUESTIONS & ANALYSIS OF LECTURE 5
The Messianic Rebbe wrote: "The entire message of reconciliation indicates that from the cross to the Age of the Messiah God is not holding people's sins, transgressions and iniquities against them. We have all just considered that breathtaking Pauline statement to the Corinthian church. Let's read it again in the English equivalent of the original Greek. 'God was conciliating the world to himself in Messiah not imputing their trespasses unto them' (
2 Corinthians 5.19)."
The sad fact is, that although Christians (and their pastors) "nod" their collective heads in agreement with this biblical sentiment, it certainly fails to translate into actual practice (and thus belief) if sequential Sunday church meetings are any valid indication. For, it is the issue of SIN that is hammered home week after week in sermon after sermon. The world is full of transgression, sin and iniquity. The world is forever separated from God because of sin, and it is up to us to save them from their sins by making "Jesus" the answer to their hellish plight. It's a Gospel the churches of this world have about sin, sin and even more sin.
Yes, of course, sin exists. Even Paul recognised that sin dwelt in him (
Romans 7.17). There is an emphasis right throughout the epistles in the "NT" concerning our need to reject and overcome "sin." We recognise that there is a valid emphasis that ought to be made when it comes to sin. As far as justification is concerned, God looks at each of us (as believers in Yeshua) in the same way He views Yeshua -- we are sitting IN Christ at His right hand (
Ephesians 2.6). We have been
declared (
not "made") RIGHTEOUS! But, equally and admittedly, there ought to be an emphasis upon Christians (not the world) regarding transgression and iniquity. Why is this the case? Because God is
conciliated to us and we MUST become
conciliated to God through Yeshua the Messiah in order for a
true Reconciliation to take place!
We all need to learn to align more properly to God the Father's requirements and expectations of us -- just as any true son and daughter ordinarily seek to find ways to be more pleasing to their parents in what they both wish in life for them. This reconciliation takes place initially at once, in a moment of (and in) time, but in ACTUALITY it's a process which translates into a gradual life-changing challenge -- it takes time (a lifetime) to gradually become more "holy" or "moral" in character and so in authenticity. In other words, God accepts us FULLY when we are initially converted, and then expects us to GROW into a more moral character as His authentic IMAGE in Yeshua the Messiah. Some believers really do need to differentiate between righteousness and holiness.
Righteousness is imputed to us in a
declarative LEGAL sense (
state) by what Christ accomplished for us in His life and death experience.
Holiness, on the other hand, is a condition of sanctification that is developed over time in the Christian life, as the believer struggles against sin and works with the holy Spirit in becoming more Christ-like in His character-image as anticipated and expected by God the Father-Mother toward us in our daily behavioural patterns.
If God has been conciliated to the world (and we Christians have made that conciliation effective by agreeing to be, as a consequence of the cross, conciliated to God -- thus according a true
reconciliation) then we all ought to STOP
spiritually condemning the world for its rebellion and hostility against God. God is presently at peace. God is not presently holding the transgression of the "Torah of Messiah" against the world. True, that peace will not last much longer
in one sense of looking at God's intent of salvation for humankind. God the Father will soon send Yeshua his Son to take action against those who continue in hostility toward all for which Heaven stands. Still, even in such an instance as the Advent of Mashiach, God's aim, intent, purpose and plan for a rebellious humankind (and who even among God's "elect" can claim freedom from sin in a SUBSTANTIAL sense?) is entirely with a view to the SALVATION of the lost.
We ought always not overlook this fact.
The Messianic Rebbe wrote: "It appears that the world must be given ample opportunity to accept the conciliation in order for an authentic reconciliation to consummate. 'God our Saviour will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth that there is... the Man Messiah Yeshua who gave himself a ransom for all' (
1 Timothy 2.3-6)."
This Messianic lecturer feels an inner agitation of the Spirit to insist on the process of salvation as it really is... and that is to see the emphasis that Paul places upon the sequence of activity in the occasion of (what is interpreted as) the act of being saved. For, all too often I have sat through monotonous sermons which "get the cart before the horse" quite literally. The pastoral emphasis is invariably upon the need of the sinner to first come to an understanding of the existence of God and the need to accept as Lord and Saviour the Son of God. The Church asserts, of course, that "only by confessing the Lord Jesus Christ" can one be saved. Once we come to an intelligent spiritually mature decision to "confess with our mouth the Son of God" we can THEN be saved. Isn't this precisely what you have heard as a Christian believer all your life?
The truth is, as it often is shown to be, the diametric OPPOSITE. Rav Shaul made the entire salvation issue one of the SOVEREIGNTY and SUPERINTENDENCE of Almighty God. According to the plain word which we just read in
1 Timothy 2.3-6 we are
FIRST SAVED BY GOD the Father, and
THEN -- and ONLY THEN --
do we find out who it was that saved us and what was required to save us from sin.
We proceed now, in this series of lectures, to discover the AMAZING GRACE OF GOD and we come to recognise that an event which transpired 2000 years ago brought about our salvation in truth, and ALL that accords with it. It is a most humbling experience indeed to open the Bible and to expand the parameters of our ignorance.
THUS CONCLUDES LECTURE FIVE
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