This is a long post so skip over it until you have some time to think about it! Paul said to the Romans: “Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, now revealed and made known through prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith....” (Romans 16:25-27) For me the phrase “Obedience that comes from faith” literally means faith-obedience, which to me is living daily as if what I believe is actually true. So here is my question: Why did Paul deliver the gospel of Jesus Christ all over the Roman empire without mentioning the word hell if he practiced what he preached? He had received direct revelations and instruction on what to preach from the risen and ascended Jesus Himself. He had been a student of the Old Testament all of his life. He had visited the apostles of Jesus on several occasions to discuss what he and they were teaching. And yet never uses the word hell despite telling the Ephesians he was innocent of their blood because he had not failed to deliver to them the whole counsel of God (Acts26-27). If Paul believed in a place of eternal conscious torment for the souls of those who reject Jesus it seems to me he would have emphasized it rather than ignore it in his letters. Now I thought - What about Jesus? He used the term hell more than any other writer in the Bible. Well actually he used the Greek words Hades and Gehenna. And both have perfectly logical meaning within the context OTHER THAN a place of eternal conscious torment for unbelieving souls. And the associated phrases translated eternal damnation and eternal punishment and forever and ever by most English translations and paraphrases of the Bible could have correctly been translated age lasting destruction, age lasting chastening and ages of the ages as do some English translations. Any honest Greek scholar will admit that. And even the related phrase in Revelation - lake of fire - is there defined as the second death, not some underworld filled with tortured souls like we find in Greek mythology. Paul said we should seek to learn more and more of God’s “mystery hidden for long ages past” and seek to know His purpose in the ages to come. Paul outlined this purpose in 1 Corinthians 15:22-29 and said in the end God will be ALL in ALL. If I have faith-obedience, I find that His will is so perfect that I prefer it to my own will or that of others. However, I have found myself strangely out of harmony with much of the rules and doctrines that characterize organized Christianity and its various churches and institutions. I have sadly even found myself out of fellowship with many of my Christian friends. But in losing that fellowship, I found the true God of Christ Jesus my Lord. They were worth getting to know!
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 15:25:33 +0000
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