Hebrews 6:2c

Hebrews 6:2c

Eternal Judgement

This is the last of the “elementary teachings” that should be familiar to all believers, let alone the new or immature ones! The doctrine of “eternal judgement” was very much at the forefront of the Gospel message preached in times past and was regularly taught in the village chapel in which I grew up. Too often today, God is presented only as all-loving, and merciful and compassionate, which He is, but His righteousness and His judgement go hand in hand with His love for our world. We are commanded NOT to make God in our own image, to present Him exactly as people would like to see Him rather than who He really is.

This God flooded the world in the time of Noah. He sent catastrophic judgements on Sodom and Gomorrah for their filthy and ignorant behaviour. He condemned the Egyptians to a night of horror as their firstborn sons were killed, in order to allow the Israelites to escape the land. Later, the entire Egyptian army was drowned.  God consigned a whole generation of Israelites to a miserable life in the desert because of their unbelief. When Joshua and his army took Jericho this gentle, compassionate God allowed them to kill all the men, women and children who lived in that city. Today, the UN would label that as genocide. So, we could go on! 

Those who deliberately rebel against God and who live their whole lives in disobedience are consigned to Hades at death, the place of sorrow and silence where they must await their fate on the Day of God’s judgement; even then there will be no abrupt end to their suffering for God’s judgement is eternal and filled with regrets for those who suffer it. It is human failure to even acknowledge the One who made us and who allows us life, to fail to appreciate just what a gift this is and how much God would do to change things, that condemns the foolish to the consequences of their ignorance. God is angry with sin; He is also angry with sinners. Maybe a highly descriptive explanation of God’s judgements is not the best theme for a Gospel message, but it is certainly a subject that should be made clear to the immature amongst us. We cannot and should not mess with God! That is why we are called to live holy lives and those who have not been taught this think that they can get away with “playing” at Christianity. 

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