Too Hot, Too Cold, or Just Right?
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Once upon a time there were different bunches of people who fought and had heated arguments with each other over which is the best way to imagine the Unimaginable, to comprehend the Incomprehensible. Some would insist that the Incomprehensible is so utterly, absolutely sovereign that anything and everything He decides is automatically what will happen: if He chooses for me to go to heaven when I die, there's nothing I have to do about it - indeed, there's nothing I can do about it: I've been chosen and elected even against my will to spend all eternity walking the streets of gold. But if the Incomprehensible in His sovereign will chooses to throw you into the burning garbage heap of Gehenna for all eternity, that's just your tough luck: it's awfully hot down there. Sorry! Well, actually, I'm not sorry because that's simply the way things are predestined to be so there's no use feeling sorry, we must simply accept our fate, our predestined destiny.
Other people replied that such an Incomprehensible Being is just too, too... well, incomprehensible. They would rather imagine the Unimaginable to be all love, love, love... no harsh, hard, rough edges, no judgmental attitudes, just all mercy and kindness and fluffy niceness. The Incomprehensible wants everybody to go to heaven. You know the saying, "All dogs go to heaven"? Well, that applies to people too. In the Final Judgment, all bad thoughts, mean feelings and nasty actions will be purged away by a refining fire. That's all hell/Gehenna is, just a purging, refining fire for a short while - no eternal lake of fire, please. Let's be reasonable and rational about this; after all, the Incomprehensible must fit into our rational minds; we must be sensible, tolerant and inclusive, you know.
What's the problem with each of these scenarios? In the first, such an Absolute, such a totally sovereign Being leaves no room for human freedom to choose between right and wrong, good and evil. If there is no real freedom, no choice, then there is no basis for morality. Those who are chosen and elect will go to heaven no matter what they do, so they can do whatever they want: "A little drunkenness, a string of homosexual acts, how about embezzling that widow's savings? It's all OK - I'm chosen! Nothing can stop me from getting into heaven!" And those who aren't among the chosen and elect can also do whatever their passions and lusts dictate because doing good wouldn't do them any good - they're damned anyway, so they might as well have a good time while they can.
In the second scenario, there are no unelect, no damned. Everyone gets a green card, all go to heaven. There's no Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates; in fact, there are no gates at all - it's Open Borders, folks! Come one, come all! You were "Born That Way"? Doesn't matter, come on in! You peddled heroin and fentanyl to grade schoolers? Here's your free pass to heaven! You see, the second scenario is simply the first part of the first scenario but applied to all: God chooses everybody, His love extends to all. But again, it leaves no room for real freedom and no moral responsibility. This is called "hard universalism."
A fundamental problem with hard universalism is that it offers mankind a false hope, a "whitewash" - "Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have spoken falsehood and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, says the Lord God. My hand shall be against the prophets who see false visions, and who prophesy lies: they shall not be in the council of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and you shall know that I am the Lord God. Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there is no peace; and when one builds up a wall, behold, they daub it with whitewash... Because with lies you have grieved the heart of the righteous, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not repent from his wicked way, and be saved alive" (Ezekiel 13:8-10 & 22).
But perhaps the most important failure of both viewpoints is that it renders meaningless all of the commands in Scripture to evangelize and make disciples of all nations: why preach the Gospel of salvation if everyone will be saved anyway? The first scenario is too hot, the second scenario is too cold. What's just right?
In January 2016, I wrote "DOES GOD GIVE US A SECOND CHANCE?" It explores the Biblical idea of Christ descending into hell and preaching to the departed. These Scriptural texts are neglected and not very well understood in western theology. But in Eastern Orthodoxy, these passages form the basis for a "soft universalism" that leaves room for our human freedom and moral responsibility for our choices. Good and evil, right and wrong still exist; people are rewarded for good acts and punished for evil acts. It still makes sense to preach the Gospel of forgiveness. When Christ descended into hell and preached to those who lived before He came to earth and to those who died later without ever hearing a clear presentation of the Gospel, they all had or will have the opportunity to choose whether to accept the grace of God, salvation through faith in Christ, or not.
But even with the clearest presentation of the Gospel from the lips of Christ Himself, some simply will not repent:
"The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they would not worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk. They did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their sexual immorality, nor of their thefts" (Revelation 9:20-21).
Also, "People were scorched with great heat, and people blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues. They did not repent and give Him glory. The fifth poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was darkened. They gnawed their tongues because of the pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. They did not repent of their works" (Revelation 16:9-11).
The Incomprehensible God is not limited to what we humans can comprehend by our finite rational ability: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9). God is infinite and absolute, we're not. Our little brains are like an old Commodore 64 computer with a cassette tape for storage compared to His racks upon racks of multi-threaded, multi-core processors and terabytes of solid-state drives. If you think you can comprehend God with your puny rationality, you either have a very small god, or a very big head.
What must we do? "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon" (Isaiah 55:6-7). If you have heard the Gospel during your lifetime on this earth and rejected it or simply procrastinated: "Not now, I'm too busy with my career making money, or fooling around having fun; no time to repent right now," you won't get a second chance in the afterlife. Do you think you can tell God on Judgment Day that you never had an opportunity to really hear the Gospel? Now that you've heard, you can't use that excuse. Don't even begin to think you can "work the system" and outsmart God! He's way smarter than you!
This is your "Goldilocks moment" when things are "Just Right." Don't put it off 'til tomorrow, for tomorrow may never come.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
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Bob, Sorry to hear about the carcinoma. May God bring healing - and grant you His peace.
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