Believers Armed and Dangerous

The Bible is a wonderful Book.  Most Christians know how to read it.  But, reading isn’t all we’re commended to do with the Bible.  We’re commanded to read it, sure, but we’re also commanded to study and maybe even to memorize it.

2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV)
¹⁵  Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Psalm 119:11-12 (ESV)
¹¹  I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
¹²  Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes!

The act of memorizing the Bible is actually a very excellent form of Bible study.  The process of memorization requires you to think more deeply about that passage and what it means.  You become aware of every word and how it relates to others in that portion of Scripture.

So, how are we to do this?  Well, it’s pretty much up to you and how you learn best.  I do best just reading and repeating.  Some of us learn best by listening to someone else recite a passage and repeating it, some like flash cards.  There are other methods, too.  The Navigators are pretty good  and you might check Youtube.com for some more methods.  I do suggest you memorize by topic: salvation, for instance.  That helps you share with other if that is your purpose for memorizing Scripture.

How about studying rather than just reading?  “Just reading” is important.  God likes us to sit and read His Word to learn the stories, lessons, doctrines, etc. as we read.  It’s a good way to commune with God and have Him speak with us.

Studying involves a more deliberate approach.  One of the simplest way to dig a little deeper into Scripture is to paraphrase a verse or two, put that passage in your own words.  That way, it makes you look more closely at the passage and analyze it.  You are forced to understand the idea better in order to write it down in another form.

Another simple study method is called the ABC Method.  You can use this method for a paragraph or chapter, even a book of the Bible if you’re ambitious.  It goes like this:

You need to find A title for the passage.  That’s the “A”.

Then you need to decide on a Basic verse for the passage.  That’s the “B”

And, the “C” is for commitment.  What commitment has this passage made on your life?

Some students of the Bible add a “D” for “difficulty” to the study.  So, if there is something they don’t understand about the passage, they can research it a little later using more advanced study tools to better understand what is puzzling them.

Memorizing and Bible study go hand in hand.  The passages I’ve memorized keep coming to mind when I’m studying Scripture.  Maybe I’m reading a portion of Acts where the disciples are in trouble.  James chapter one comes to mind about trials, what they mean to us and how we are to respond to them.  Sometimes I even compare one passage I’ve memorized with another I’ve memorized or one I’ve heard on the radio program with one I’ve memorized and the Holy Spirit gives me insight through whose two passages being put side by side.

And, that’s it.  There’s nothing miraculous about better understanding the Bible.  It just takes some time and dedication.

The great old hymn Just As I Am has blessed millions over the years.  Billy Graham used it for decades to close his crusades.  There is a dramatic and inspiring story behind this wonderful hymn.

Charlotte Elliot was from an upper middle class and pious family.  Both her grandfathers were pastors as were her two brothers.  Charlotte received a college education at a time when few women did.  After college, she fell in with a somewhat worldly crowd and drifted away from her religious upbringing.

In 1821, Charlotte suffered a “severe illness.”  No one at the time knew what it was, but it left her an invalid the rest of her life.  Early in her illness, she befriended Belgian pastor Rev. Dr. Malan.  Rev Malan asked her if she had made peace with God.  Her response was that she wanted to clean up her life first.  Malan’s response was, “Come just as you are.”  She did, and from this came the hymn Just As I Am.

Spending most of her life in bed didn’t get Charlotte down.  She wrote 150 hymns, edited the Invalid’s Hymn Book including 115 of her own hymns, and edited an annual publication called The Christian Remembrance Pocket Book for some 25 years.

Her Hymn, Just As I Am, describes her attitude perfectly.  She did not let her condition prevent her from serving.

The other day, a couple of buddies and I talked about this very thing to a group of seniors, how we can’t allow our condition of life prevent us from serving.  I referred to a list I’d found on the internet to illustrate those who were unworthy or unable to serve, but did it anyway.  Moses was 80 before he was fully used by God. David had an affair, Mary Magdalene was likely a hooker, Gideon was a coward, and the list goes on.  My favorite on the list, though, was Lazarus.  He was dead, and God still used him.  With that in mind, what excuse can we really provide that would qualify us to sidestep service to God?

One of the women in this group of seniors said she couldn’t serve because she didn’t have a car.  Another in the group told her she was the finest Christian woman in the community.  She was an example to the others there, both believers and non-believers, of what it means to be a Christian.  Her ministry was to those in the seniors’ community there.

Philippians 1:6 says, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”  In other words, if we’re still alive, God hasn’t finished with us.  Our ministry is not complete until the day of Christ whether when He comes or we go to Him.

So, what can unqualified people do?  Well, there’s an old saying, “God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called.”  If God is telling us to do something, we need to do it.

When I took Economics in school, the instructor told us if we wanted to be successful entrepreneurs, we needed to do at least one thing each day to promote or advance the business.  It didn’t matter if it was just a phone call, answering a letter, or closing that big deal.  All were important.

If God is calling us to serve in an area, and we’re not quite sure precisely where He wants us but we have a general direction, we should take a step in that general direction.  God will guide us.

Two years ago I had no opportunities to teach.  Since this is my drive, my spiritual gift, I needed to find an outlet.  Teaching was the general need.  I needed to find a step that would lead me in that direction.  One result of the small steps I’ve taken is this blog.  In the two years it’s been in existence, it has reached 22 countries including places like Estonia and even Communist China.  It has had nearly 3350 views, and only God has promoted it.

A few months after I started the blog, I formed a website for Jehovah’s Witnesses.  It has been viewed over 1,000 times with little promotion.  The site has been visited from 20 countries worldwide including Senegal, South Africa, and the Ukraine.  These two sites, the blog and the website, cost me less than $100 a year, and I am not a tech person.  It’s just one way, one way a teacher, a shut-in, or a shy person can reach out and maybe make a difference for Christ.

I’ve learned if you’re uncertain about what steps to take but know what your direction should be, just step out in that direction.  If it’s of God, We’ll know it and need to take another step.  We may not be qualified or “spiritual” enough.  But, if God has called us, he’ll equip us.

Acts 17:28a (ESV)
²⁸  for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’….”

When I attended philosophy classes in school, I was presented with questions, earth shaking questions, questions only the greatest trained minds could possibly ponder: Why don’t sheep shrink when it rains, why isn’t phonetics spelled phonetically, and does a fish know he’s wet?

The other day, I was discussing the latter with a friend and wondered if we might be like the fish.  Maybe Acts 17:28 means we’re immersed in God.  His presence is everywhere, right?  He’s all around us, yet most people don’t recognize He’s here because they’ve known nothing else.  Like the fish who has never been anything but wet, we’ve never been anything but immersed in the presence of God.

If we’ve been immersed in His presence since time began how would we understand that to be the case? It would seem to be the “normal” state of affairs.  The terrifying part for the fish is when he is removed from the water, gasps for water to breathe, and eventually suffocates.  He didn’t know he was wet or that there was an alternative state.

We humans are all going along in our happy lives.  Many deny the very God in which we are immersed.  Like the fish, we don’t know God surrounds us because we’ve never known a time when He hasn’t.

With that in mind, we know that God is love (1 John 4:16).  Maybe no love exists without God being present.  We love because we are saturated in the presence of God.  Our love for our friends, our spouses, our siblings, our parents, all may be drawn from the love that surrounds us in God’s presence.

Now let’s consider what sort of world it would be and what sort of lives we would lead without God surrounding us and without His love to draw on.  It would be a lonely unloving, and – since fear is the opposite of love – a terrifying existence.  There might be others around us but without love or any desire to commune together, help one another, or encourage one another, it would be a place of sadness, fear, and pain.  It would be a terrifying place, a very dark and empty existence.  It would be very much like what Jesus describes in Matthew 25:30:

Matthew 25:30 (ESV)
³⁰  And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Life wouldn’t end in that place, but love would.  If standing in the presence of God is light, then being cast away from His presence would be outer darkness.

God will not remove His light from those who reject Him while they are still here.  Surely they can love and have compassion for others because the love of God is still present, still around them filling them and protecting them.  They believe the love they express comes from them alone, not from God.  They have an inner darkness, though, a personal darkness.  The light in them comes only from being made in God’s image.  But, there will be a day when they will be asked to account for the light they were given, for what they have done with it.  If they have refused that light, rejected the love of God which surrounds them, if they refuse to believe they are “wet,” they will be cast into outer darkness, a place where there is no light, no love, no presence of God; only darkness and fear.

What was comfortable and natural for them when they were alive will now be foreign to them.  Now their natural state will be dark, empty, and alone.

The solution to this terrible tragedy is simple.  We are the light of the world.  We are the city on a hill.  We alone know we are immersed in God’s love.  We alone are the fish who know we’re wet.  Our job is to splash a little water around on fish who are drying.

I’ve done at least one blog on prayer before, but I heard a new (new to me) concept of prayer and thought I’d share it here with you.

When our children are young, try to include them in things we do.  One example might be when I asked my son if he would like to build a headboard for our bed.  I could have done it myself, of course, and it might have looked pretty much the same.  It might even have taken less time, but the idea was to include my son in something I was doing, to teach him a useful skill, and to give him self-esteem through achievement.  That’s how we’re to build self-esteem, by the way, not praising our children for everything and anything they do.  But, I digress.

Let me take this opportunity to throw a little philosophy and theology your way.  God chooses to exist in three divine Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The standard philosophical definition of God is, “that of which nothing can be greater.” I think that is a good definition.   If you can think of something greater than your concept of God, then your concept is incorrect and God exists in that greater form.

The Bible tells us God is triune, so existing in three divine Persons must be the perfect and greatest way for God to exist.  Since that is true, then God is a communal being and seeks interaction with others.  Otherwise, He would just exist as one Person. 

Back to the topic at hand: prayer.  I’ve actually always had a bit of a problem with prayer, it’s purpose, that is.  I’ve always seen prayer as fellowship with God.  God is a communal Being.  Therefore, I concluded prayer to be God’s desire to interact with His children, and I think that’s pretty much true.  But our Pastor put a new spin on it I hadn’t considered before.

In his concept of prayer sees it as more than just fellowship.  He thinks God wants to include us in His work.  I agree.

Like when my son and I worked together to create that headboard, God has a task He wants done.  Also like working with my son, God wants to include us, so He impresses on us the desire to pray for a particular thing: the healing of a friend, the loss a widow experiences, the financial needs of a child.  We pray for that healing or sadness, or need, and God grants that prayer.  He could have done it without us, of course, but He didn’t want to. 

Again, like the example of my son and I, God wanted to show His child how things work, how He does things, what is possible.  He may also want to improve His child’s skills.  For instance, when we pray for someone in the hospital, His answer is often, “Go visit them.”  After we’ve visited the sick in the hospital enough times, we don’t pray so much about it but just do it.  We feel more comfortable doing it, too, because God has taught us the skills of what to say, what not to say, some of the stories to tell, etc.  God had built in us a more Christ-like spirit.  We just know what He wants.

Sometimes, we’re not sure how to pray about something, but there are lots of things we can be certain are in God’s will.  We know God wants everyone saved, so we know that is how to pray.  James says we are to visit orphans and widows (James 1:27) and so on.  The more we know God’s Word, the more certain we can be on how to pray and act on those prayers.

I have a different view of prayer now, a more exciting view, even a more precious view.  I now realize some of my prayer life involves God tapping me on the shoulder to say, “Let’s do something together.”

Matthew 7:13-14 (ESV)
¹³  “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
¹⁴  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Most of us know what Jesus meant here.  There are many paths out there to take. He supports the idea in John 14:6 where He says He is the only way to God.  Christianity is the narrow way.  That’s because Christianity is the Truth.  There can be an assortment of lies but only one truth.

French philosopher, Rene’ Descartes, said that truth is consistent.  It does not contradict itself.  So one way to tell if something is true is to look into the opposing views searching for contradictions.

Detectives use this line of reasoning all the time.  “Where were you at 7:00 Friday night?”  “I was at the baseball game, Angel’s Stadium, watching the game.”  “But 20 people saw you enter the Disneyland Hotel with a blonde woman at 7:00.” 

The truth doesn’t contradict itself.  Truth is a reflection of reality.  If something doesn’t correspond with what actually happened, then it is a lie.

We have the Truth in Christ.  Anything which comes against it is a lie and must have contradictions.  There are lots of good stories, complex stories with so many facets it’s hard to weed out the contradictions.  But, if they do not correspond with the truth, they are wrong and contradictions are contained within the set of beliefs.

Unfortunately, since lies can be plentiful and truth can only have one position, lies pervade our world spiritually.  From Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Wicca, Druids, to Satanism, lots and lots of lies.

The way banks train tellers to recognize counterfeit money is not to have them inspect the counterfeits but to recognize the features of the original, the genuine article.  God has told us to do the same with our “Genuine Article,” the Bible.

2 Timothy 2:15 (NKJV)
¹⁵  Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

So, while there are lots of paths out there we can take, only one is true.  Only one corresponds to reality.  Let’s study our Bibles, talk about what we learn with other believers, and test ourselves to see if we are still on the true path.

2 Corinthians 13:5a (ESV)
⁵  Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?

Thomas A’ Kempis (1380-1471) wrote a remarkable book, Imitation of Christ.   It’s a devotional outlining the qualities Christians should find in their lives.  We should all be imitators of Christ.  But, of course, there is another meaning to “imitation.”  “To imitate” can also mean it is not the genuine article.  It is that type of imitation I’d like to look at today.

There are imitations of Christ, fake Christs which look much like the original but are not really the same.  Many people will say they believe in Jesus and begin to list many facts about Him.  The Jehovah’s Witness, for instance, will tell you that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, escaped to Egypt, returned and lived in Nazareth, and did the majority of His ministry in Galilee.  They will also seem to agree with us doctrinally saying Jesus is divine, the only son of God, that He died on Calvary, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven where He sits at the right hand of God, and He is coming back to judge the world. 

That sounds like the Jesus you and I know, doesn’t it?  So, why then do we call them a cult?  It’s the definition of terms where we differ.  The Jehovah’s Witnesses believe Jesus’ being the Son of God means only that He was the first and greatest creation of God.  Being divine means only that Jesus is a heavenly creature, specifically the Archangel Michael.  When they say He rose from the dead, they don’t mean He rose bodily but as a spirit.  So, you see, the Jesus of Jehovah’s Witnesses is an imitation of the Biblical Jesus.

The Mormons tell us Jesus is also the Son of God, that He is the second Person of the Trinity, they will say Jesus has existed from all eternity and will exist for all eternity, yet is the Mormon Jesus the Jesus of the Bible?  Well, when a Mormon says Jesus is the Son of God, he means that Mary was sexually impregnated by God the Father, a physical being, and Jesus is their son on earth.  Now they believe Jesus pre-existed from all eternity as they believe all of us have existed from all eternity as intelligences.  Then Elohim, God the Father, had spirit children in heaven among which were Lucifer and Jesus.  Lucifer and Jesus each presented a plan for man’s salvation to the Father, and Jesus’ plan was chosen.  Lucifer got ticked off and is now the devil.  However, don’t miss the fact the Mormon Jesus is the brother of Lucifer.

When a Mormon tells us Jesus is the Second Person of the Trinity, his definition of the Trinity is three separate gods (actually among a pantheon of gods), the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit a spirit creature.

Muslims believe in a Jesus as well.  They will tell you that Jesus is the Messiah and will return one day, that He was virgin born.  He did miracles

What Muslims do not believe is that Jesus died on the cross (or anywhere else).  They believe Allah made someone else look like Jesus, and that man was crucified in His place.  They don’t believe Jesus is God the Son, Second Person of the Trinity.  For them, God is only one person and never had a son.  They believe Jesus did not rise from the dead since He didn’t die.  Jesus was taken up into heaven by Allah.

So, there are many imitations of Christ out there.  We must be careful.

2 Corinthians 11:3-4 (ESV)
³  But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
⁴  For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

Memory is an awesome thing.  I memorized a couple of chapters of Scripture years ago, and they still come to mind when I need them.  Because I memorized them, they can teach me, reproof me, correct me, and instruct me still today without needing a Bible at hand.

John Newton, the writer of Amazing Grace was standing on the deck of his slave ship when he remembered a verse from childhood.  He turned his life over to Christ because of that one verse.

When my children were young, I was working on a memory verse collection.  We were driving to church, and they asked if they could memorize some too.  Together we memorized Proverbs 7:1, “My son keep my words and treasure my commandments within you.”  My children are in their 40s now.  Last year my son sent me a Fathers’ Day card.  At the bottom, he wrote Proverbs 7:1.  How wonderful that my son still remembers that verse and our time together memorizing it.  

In the very early church, the congregation engaged in responsive reading.  The leader would recite a portion of Scripture and the congregation would recite the next portion from memory.  In this way, the illiterate people in the congregation and those who could not afford the very expensive scrolls of Scripture learned important passages for Christian living and for understanding teachings of the faith.

Before new converts could be baptized, they would need to study the faith for up to three years.  They would then be tested and often would be required to recite a creed or doxology they had memorized before the congregation to show they knew what they believed.  These creeds are still around.  Most of us are familiar with the Apostles Creed and Nicene Creed, but there are others. These would still be beneficial to memorize today.

Much of what Jesus taught was recorded in a form that was easily memorized so it could be kept close to the hearts of those hearing it.  The Beatitudes, for instance, are laid out like this. 

Then there are doxologies like “Praise God for Whom all blessings flow, praise Him all creatures here below. . . .”  But, did you know there are doxologies in the Bible, portions of Scripture which were meant to be memorized and/or presented publicly to praise God?  Phil. 2:5-11 is one.

At the end of Jude, there’s another: “Now to Him Who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.  To God our Savior Who alone is wise be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever.  Amen.”

There are dozens of doxologies and benedictions in Scripture.  Google them for yourself. Deut. 6:22-26 is a well-known benediction: “The Lord bless  you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”  These were there for instruction and for comfort, for reproof and for correction.  They were also memorized by the congregation.

Memorizing Scripture is a good practice.  David said, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”  Memorizing Scripture also helps us to resist sin.  So, to put God’s word into your heart and mind helps us to stand firmly against the devil as we have the Sword of the Spirit sharp and shiny and ready for battle.

God’s Word is both an offensive and defensive weapon.  Even if we don’t have the written Word of God in our hands, If we carry it in our hearts and minds, we are prepared . . . ready for battle.

Memorization has many uses from creeds, doxologies (praises) and benedictions, to defenses and personal instruction.  It is a powerful tool to help us stay on the straight and narrow, to draw us closer to our Lord, and to better understand what He has for us.

Many say they can’t memorize Scripture.  If you’re one, I suggest you start with John 11:35: “Jesus Wept” or 1 Thess. 5:16, “Rejoice always.”  You’ll begin on a path that will bless you the rest of your life.

This past week I learned that God had healed a couple of friends of mine and has put it on my heart to pray for another who has an ailing heart.  While preparing this blog, I came across the doxology in Romans 11:33-36.  I think I’m going to memorize it and keep it close.  I want to remember what He has done and can do, and I want to better praise Him for it.

Romans 11:33-36 (ESV)
³³  Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
³⁴  “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”
³⁵  “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”
³⁶  For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

In America and Western Europe, there were two great revivals, two “Great Awakenings.”  The first began about 1720 and lasted for years.  It was led by preachers George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, and others.  The common tactic of this major revival was to simply teach God’s Word and let the Holy Spirit do the work of evangelism.  Tens of thousands came to know Christ.

The result of the revival wasn’t just large numbers of converts but an educated church.  Those who came to Christ came because they had learned the Truth, why it was true, and had decided to commit to it.

Then there was a “Second Great Awakening” in the early 1800s.  Charles Finney was the most prominent of the preachers.  Finney’s sermons were not like those of the First Great Awakening.  He used very little Scripture but told emotional stories to draw people to make commitments.  He found the immediate number of converts was greater if people could be persuaded rather than taught and allowed to decide for themselves on the basis of knowledge.

Finney’s crusades were effective.  Thousands of the lost came to know Christ through his revival meetings.  But, there were consequences.

The result of Finney’s tactics was an uneducated church, a church whose faith was not founded on fact but on Finney’s emotional pleas.  This practice of very little teaching but lots of stories was continued by most preachers for the following decades.  The church was happy in its ignorance.  The culture was such that nearly everyone went to church.  There were few to challenge the believers or to test their faith.

But, that didn’t last for long.  In 1835, Joseph Smith Jr. published the Book of Mormon and started the Mormon “church.”  Smith lived only 14 more years but led thousands astray.  Because the church was, for the most part, poorly taught and ill equipped to defend itself and tell those lost in Mormonism why it was unbiblical, the cult grew mostly unchallenged.  Few knew the Truth well enough to lead the Mormons away from error.  Today, it is estimated there are 4.5 million Mormons worldwide.

In 1879, Charles Taze Russell published the first copy of Zion’s Watchtower Herald of Christ’s Presence, and the Watchtower organization began.  Today, there are about 8.5 million Jehovah’s Witness worldwide because the church was still unable to defend the truth.

The church looked at these lost people and often didn’t even see them as lost.  They were considered as just holding differing views of the Truth even though the Mormons taught and still teach that Jesus is Lucifer’s brother and the Watchtower taught and still teaches Jesus is the Archangel Michael.

By 1925, the church still had not seen their need for in depth teaching.  That year, John T. Scopes, a substitute science teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, had been recruited by the ACLU to teach evolution in the local high school.  Teaching evolution was against the law in Tennessee at that time, and the ACLU wanted a test case.  Scopes was arrested and put on trial.

The Scopes trial of 1925 was as big a trial as the O. J. Simpson trial 70 years later.  The trial was broadcast gavel-to-gavel nationwide on radio.  The two major players were ACLU attorney, Clarence Darrow, and William Jennings Bryan, three times Democrat presidential candidate and very public Christian.

Because Bryant was as ignorant of the Bible and of the science of his day, Darrow wiped the floor with him.  The church had been publicly humiliated and was now seen as a bunch of ill educated ignorant bumpkins pushing an outdated superstition.  The church withdrew.  It became self-involved.

Today, nearly 100 years later, many Christians are still very much like the church of Scopes’ day or Finney’s for that matter, and are still looked upon at as a bunch of ignorant uneducated fools. True, the church is beginning to emerge again into the marketplace of ideas, but it is slow and we face much resistance.

Claiming to know something implies heavily that the “knower” can explain what they know and give convincing justification for it.  The church of Finney and Bryan couldn’t give a good account of what they believe.  We’re doing better, but it is still our responsibility to know what we believe and why we believe it.  In this way, we can change the church and the world.

Jude 1:3 (ESV)
³  Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

The God of the Bible is a loving God, isn’t He?  Could this loving God ever really condemn people to eternal punishment?  Many think not.  They believe we will all be saved from punishment, no matter what.  After all, the Bible says He is not willing that any should perish (2 Pet. 3:9; 1 Tim. 2:3).  How could a God of love create people destined to eternal damnation?  This belief is called “Universalism.”

Some versions of Universalism differs, of course.  Some believe everyone will show up to a home in heaven immediately upon death.  Some believe all sinners will be allowed a second chance to repent once they stand before God.  Still others believe there will be a sort of purgatory where they will experience a “waiting period” prior to being allowed into heaven.

No matter what their beliefs entail, to say that all will be unconditionally saved is to create a number of conflicts with historical Christian belief:

First, of course, you would need to trivialize Scripture, or at least the passages with which the Universalist disagrees.  Jesus Himself said those who would reject Him would suffer eternal punishment (Matt. 25:46; John 3:36).  So, that’s an issue.

Then there’s the issue with Jesus’ sacrifice.  It really wasn’t required if everyone is destined to spend eternity in heaven anyway.  No offering is needed to pay for our sin in the view of the typical Universalist.  To be fair, though, there are universalists who come at this from the other end, that Christ’s sacrifice covers all sin and that there is no need on the part of the individual to take advantage of the gift they are offered (Eph. 2:8-9).  It is theirs without qualification. 

Universalism dwells completely on God’s attributes of mercy and love but ignores His attributes of justice and holiness.  It also assumes God’s love is defined by how he treats mankind.  “If God loves us, He has to save us.”  That would mean that it is up to man to define what true love is.

God is love (1 John 4:8).  So, love is defined by God, not us.  He is the standard by which love it so be judged.  How God expresses His love is also how we need to understand how love is to be expressed.  Believing love means to forgive everyone doesn’t make it so.

The Bible says, “God is Love.”  It does not say “God is justice” or “God is mercy”.  In fact, there are very few nouns applied to God’s attributes: adjectives, yes, but not many nouns.  The Bible doesn’t even say that God is loving.  It says God is just and God is merciful.  So, justice and mercy are then facets of God’s love.  What that means is that God is pure love.  His justice, mercy, even his wrath are all aspects of His love.  God’s love is not a part of God’s nature.  It is His nature.

The God of the Bible is a just and holy God.  In order for us sinful humans to stand in the presence of this pure and holy God, He would either need to change His nature to allow for unclean, unholy beings to stand before Him; or He would have to pay a price for our sins so that we might qualify as holy, in this case through the cleansing blood of Christ.  His sacrifice was more than sufficient to qualify us (Rom. 8:1-4).

Universalism wants God’s love to be unjustly “universal.”  For God to be loving He must be just.  Those who have sinned against God must answer for their transgressions.  It is foolish to say,  “For God to love, He must allow all into paradise, the just and the unjust.”

Universalism is a result of the church drifting away from the whole Gospel.  We like telling people that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives.  When we do so, we should not turn from telling them the resulting punishment should they reject God’s generous gift of salvation.

Preparing for sin?  Why would anyone want to prepare for sin?  But, believe it or not without even realizing it, we can find ourselves doing just that.  Let me give you an example.

I used to smoke, and when I would try to quit, I’d still keep a pack or two around the house just in case quitting didn’t take.  “Strangely” with the temptation of the cigarettes close at hand I fell back into smoking again.  It wasn’t until I coughed all the way to work one morning that I threw five packs of cigarettes and a Zippo lighter into a dumpster.  Turns out that was what I needed to finally quit.  When I didn’t have any cigarettes around, any easy way to yield to temptation, I didn’t fall.   

I must admit I went back the next day to see if I could reclaim my property.  The dumpster was empty, though.  It was then I realized how much of a grip smoking had on me.  I was actually willing to dumpster dive for a smoke.   Sin has a similar grip on us.  We just don’t often recognize it. 

Sinning is like striking a match.  All the pieces may be there, the match, the striking strip on the box, and the person (you and me) needed to strike the match.  True, the match will never be struck unless the person picks it up and runs that match head along the striking strip.  But, if we can remove the match, the striking strip, or both, there isn’t even an opportunity to light the match.  In the same way, if we eliminate the necessary factors in our lives that draw us into temptation, we couldn’t sin if we wanted to.  Keeping that box of matches around is just asking for trouble.  We’re making provision for sin.

There’s a story about a boy who kept falling out of his bed at night.  After his father had put him back in bed several times, he asked the boy, “What part of the bed do you sleep on?”  The boy said, “Right here on the edge.”  The father said, “Of course you’re going to fall out of bed when you’re this close to the edge.”  Then he told the boy to sleep back on the part of the bed that was against the wall, far from the edge.  The boy did and never fell out of bed again.  Avoiding the edge is much easier than trying to balance on it.  Avoiding temptation is much easier than resisting it.

For us to keep from being tempted, we need to stay as far away from the temptation as possible, as close to the wall as we can.  Sometimes, it’s just that simple.  Of course, when we do sin, our Christian walk suffers, our relationship with our Lord suffers.  Our Christian example to others suffers as well.  As we mature as Christians, more people have their eyes on us.  When we stumble, we can stumble others.  Let’s stay far from the edge.

We can run from temptation as Joseph did with Potipher’s wife (Genesis 39).  But, it’s better if we just stay away from the environment of temptation in the first place.  We don’t want to hang out at a bakery or candy store when we’re trying to drop a few pounds. 

We can make sure we don’t provide for our own fall.  We should all do that.  But, we must remember there is always a gracious and forgiving God who waits for our confession if we do fall.  We can be restored to the relationship we need as Christians.