Destroy them!

We live in an age where it does not matter what you do now.  If, twenty or thirty years ago you did something wrong, you are still condemned.  You are derided as useless, fit for the garbage heap and a hypocrite.  

Let us look how the God of the Bible handles mistakes. 

#  Abraham is the ancestor of the Jews.  According to the standards of our day he deserves to be denounced because he selfishly put his wife in a predicament with  foreign leaders on two occasions.  He should be dismantled and removed from his position.  Well, not if God has a say.   The Lord called him ‘Abraham my friend.’  Isaiah 41:8

#  God sent Moses to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.  He had fled Egypt 40 years before because he murdered an Egyptian.  In our time he would be shouted down, ‘You murderer!  Out!  We will not listen to you!’  Yet God used Moses to lead His people out of Egypt.  Moses was the leader of the Israelites for 40 years and wrote the first 5 books of the Old Testament. 

#  King David took the wife of one of his trusted supporters.  Later he caused her husband, Uriah, to be killed in war.  In our time he would be derided as a scoundrel and his history should be expunged from the Bible.  Yet God forgave him when he confessed his sins and said about him,  ‘I have found David, son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’  Acts 13:22b  

#  Saul was an educated, devout Jew and Pharisee.  He made it his business to persecute, arrest and even have those who believed in Jesus, killed.  If he lived in our time, he would surely be shouted down as, ‘Persecutor of Christians!  Unfit to live!  Traitor!’  Yet God stopped him in his madness, made him the apostle Paul and gave him back some of his own medicine.  God personally taught him the hidden treasures of His Gospel plan.  Paul wrote 13 of the letters to congregations in the New Testament.   

#  Jesus warned His disciple, Peter, that he would betray Him three times during the Lord’s trial.  Peter did exactly that.  If he lived today, people would denounce him and ‘send him straight to hell.’   What did Jesus do?  He gave Peter the opportunity to repeat three times that he loved him.  The Lord Jesus told Peter, ‘Feed my sheep.…  Follow me!’  John 21:15-29 

Maybe we should learn from God.  We live in a world where people search for the ‘dirty laundry’ of others and parade it for all to see.  Who cares if that person changed?  As long as he can be humiliated and degraded (tear down his monument).  Who cares that Jesus teaches mercy and said, ‘Do not judge, or you too will be judged.’  Matthew 7:1  

The lesson

We will all appear before God to give an account of what we did while on earth.  That means all people, not just some.  Maybe it is wise to leave judgement to God. 

Hallelujah, no Judgement!

The one essential aspect of God’s Kingdom is the final division between humans: those who were willing to serve God, and those who were not.   That will take place on the Great Day of the Lord, the final Judgment.  Revelation 20:11-15

God has assigned Jesus to be the Judge. 

‘…the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father.’  John 5:22  

The Great Problem

If Jesus was an ordinary man who was ‘elevated’ during His life to become the Son of God, there can be no Judgment Day.  The reasons are: 

• The Final Judgement is based on what a person did while on earth (‘each person was judged according to what he had done,’  Revelation 20:13b). 
• God is clear that no one can ever be considered sinless, ‘There is no one righteous, not even one.’  Romans 3:10  If Jesus was an ordinary human being, it means sin was part of his life.  
• For Jesus to be the Judge, God must have declared Him sinless.  But, that is manifestly unfair!  To be fair God then has to declare all humans sinless, not only one specific one.   
• The holy God can never do that.  Judgment is serious since on it hinges man’s eternal destiny.  God is a just God.  He will never commit such a serious ‘sin.’ 

Conclusion

God’s rule applies to all people: all sinned and need forgiveness.  Jesus was not a man that became the Son of God, He is the eternal Son of God who became a sinless human Sacrifice on our behalf.  He is qualified to be the Saviour and Judge. 

The ‘Iron Curtain’ around the Bible

We all know about the Iron curtain, Bamboo Curtain and Berlin wall.  Each one was erected to keep some elements out and others in.  Well, Scripture also has a barrier around it.  Extra books cannot be smuggled in from the outside, or inside books banished (as some people try to do).  Let us look at some of the ‘barriers’ that protect Scripture:

#  Scripture is unchangeable. 

‘…the word of the Lord stands forever.’ ¹  Because it is the product of God, not of man, God declared that the Bible is unchangeable.  Through the ages many voices called for deletions or additions to the 66 books.  A modern example is the Gospel of Thomas that is not part of the Bible.

#  Scripture is a ‘closed’ book. 

Let us say, at the last Great Judgment where all people will be judged for what they did on earth, a person who lived in 1500 AD hears about the Gospel of Thomas.  He will most certainly complain that if he had that Gospel, he would have done what God wanted.  So he cannot be judged.  Because God is fair, He will have to concede to the argument.  Logically then many more people will complain.  So Judgment will be impossible.  That is one of the reasons that no one can add or take away from Scripture.

#  Scripture has a wall around it.

The devil uses liberal or unbelieving ‘theologians’ to teach the Church that this or that book, verse, or passage doesn’t belong in Scripture; or that the ‘lost Gospels’ must be added (like the Apocryphal books).  The 66 books of Scripture give us all the knowledge we need to walk the walk and arrive safely at the New Jerusalem.  The 66 books are a unit that is unchangeable and authoritative.  It is the ‘Constitution’ of God’s Kingdom.

#  Scripture is an integrated unit. 

Information in the Bible is scattered.  So we need to study Scripture with the help of the Holy Spirit.  For example we read about Sodom, Gomorrah and Lot in Genesis 18-19, Matthew 11:23-24; Mark 6:11; Luke 17:28; Romans 9:29; 2 Peter 2:6; Jude 7: Revelation 11:8.   We can never understand God’s intentions if we read only the New Testament, or only the Old Testament.  Together they form a complete revelation.

#  Scripture is one ‘fixed unit?’ 

Most countries have constitutions that cannot be changed at will by anybody.  Why do people think they can change God’s ‘Constitution,’ Scripture?

• If they delete one book, chapter, passage or verse, how do they know which one it should be?
• If they can delete some, why not everything?
• If they can add things, which things must it be?

 

Sound advice

We have to be very wary of the traps of the devil who uses people who try to add or delete parts of Scripture.  The Holy Spirit is our Guide and Counsellor when it comes to God’s ‘Constitution’ bound together in  66 books.

References

1. 1 Peter 1:25, Isaiah 40:8