A third assumption which makes God’s wrath
against sinners difficult to understand is the notion that hell is about kinds of and numbers of acts committed.
We promote this mistake when we tell a child
that stealing a cookie makes him a sinner, and sinners go to Hell. The
statement is a half truth. The lie is in the cookie. We are not sinners because
we sin. We sin because we are sinners. It is that difference which makes the
connection with the reality of Hell.
The final state of judgment is referred to as a Lake of Fire, and perhaps the most frequently given effort to describe it is a solitary freefall through a sea of flames. However, two
considerations should be addressed, not in an effort to make the Lake of Fire
less than it is, but to assess our imagery and grasp its connection with
sin.
First, we are dealing with a Hebrew writer describing
what he sees. The vision is real, but Hebrew minds could see a lush
pasture with a chaos of flowers and describe it as a land flowing with milk and
honey.
The second consideration has to do with the name given to the Lake of Fire - Gehenna. This was a despicable place of abomination
outside the city of Jerusalem in the days of its flagrant apostasy. It was a place of human sacrifices to pagan idols equated with Tophet in Isaiah 30:33 and is graphically sketched in Isaiah 66:24 as an expanse of burning and smoldering corpses. It is a garbage dump, not of burning piles of discarded newspapers, product packaging, and junk mail, but of human beings trashed by their own agenda - a sea of rebels which sacrificed itself and its
children to the service of treason against their Creator.
The Lake of Fire is not about kinds and numbers of evil acts committed. It is not about stealing cookies. It is about hearts set on stealing God's right to be worshiped and obeyed. Interestingly, it is especially associated with the use of our tongues. It is about a core contempt for God who interferes with man's effort to justify both good and evil in pursuit of his own god-hood. And it is that core contempt which makes the thought of crying for mercy unacceptable.
The Lake of Fire is not about kinds and numbers of evil acts committed. It is not about stealing cookies. It is about hearts set on stealing God's right to be worshiped and obeyed. Interestingly, it is especially associated with the use of our tongues. It is about a core contempt for God who interferes with man's effort to justify both good and evil in pursuit of his own god-hood. And it is that core contempt which makes the thought of crying for mercy unacceptable.
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