What is heaven like? One perspective:

Rewritten & posted by Michaelsei (that's me!) on Helium.com

"We will never have God’s exhaustive knowledge of reality (in my judgment, not even in heaven)." John Frame

If this is true, and I think that it is true, then we will always be ever increasing and never diminishing. How does that feel? In a finite capacity we have felt this.

Have you ever read a good book? It was so great that you could barely put it down; you couldn't wait to pick it up again. And how did you feel when you finished it? "The End." No. "Where's the sequel?"

Then the feeling diminishes. It goes away. We remember the book though.

Have you ever seen a good movie? It is similar to a book, but it only has minutes to build up before it is all over; and usually doesn't quite evoke what a book can.

Have you ever been "in love?" You could not bear to be away from that person. No matter how long you were together it was never enough. You wanted to spend the rest of your life with that person; then you got married. Seriously, not being a cynic, marriage is great but it is hard work (a good marriage is).

What I'm saying is that we are bound by the "constrictions of time." "All good things must come to an end." They do and oftentimes change form. A good book ends with the beginning of the next one. Your romantic interest becomes your lover. But what of heaven? What of God?

It is beholding perfect love; not fully understanding it, but growing in it always. "Let the good 'times' roll." It will be good; it will not end. The good feeling won't go away; ever. That is eternity. Whatever God actually has for us (playing harps, making cloud castles, opening and closing gates for others, living on the 'new earth'); whatever it is, it won't be dull, boring.

God made us and He knows us. Jesus Christ is a man (though He is God). It's gonna' be good.

How could a loving God send people to hell?

Posted by Michaelsei (that's me!) on Helium.com

This is truly the wrong question to ask. As usual we approach thinking about God in a self centered way. "Why, God, do I deserve to be punished?" Instead we ought to raise our level of awareness to the depth of reality; which is: God is righteous. When we think in this way about God, the issues become clearer. That is not to say that we will like the conclusions, but that they do begin to make sense.

If you will accept the statement, "God is righteous," as a premise, then I can show you by this thinking: (1) that God must send people to hell, (2) God is loving, and (3) hell is not what we should be worried about.

In order to really understand what it is at issue, we need to decipher this statement: God is righteous. First, when I say "God" I am personally talking about the triune God of the Bible. Second, when I use the word "righteous" I really mean that righteousness as we know it is simply a reflection of who God is and what He is all about. God holds the moral high ground and as such is righteous and without sin. Note: He is without sin. As a consequence He cannot sin. That is to say God cannot contradict Himself. Furthermore He cannot allow sin to enter His presence (or glory; truly God is everywhere and sin is too so that makes me a liar. No, for the sake of simplicity I will use the word "presence" what I really mean is "glory."). We know this concept anecdotally as, "I'll burst into flames if I go into church!" and/or as a phrase, "No man can see God and live." Thus it is clear to see that God must send people to hell because God is righteous and cannot allow sin in his presence.

If God is righteous and is the standard of righteousness, then we who are mere mortals are bound to His Law-Word. Let me ask you a question; have you ever sinned? Let me be more specific; have you ever lied? cheated? stolen anything? Perhaps you have had anger without merit towards another (even if you think you were justified, your thinking was clouded by emotion so how can you be sure?). Maybe you have lusted after someone. If you have done any of these you have broken God's Law-Word. God calls this sin. In light of the previous paragraph you can only conclude that all men must be headed for hell. Who can say that they have not sinned? If you can show me someone like that then you may have found a liar. So God destroys all of humanity in a vengeful spirit, end of story. No. He sends His Son to take the punishment for sin and makes a way to seek and find Him in this dark and fallen world. Not all are saved. Not all want to be saved. But for those who are saved, the love of God is not merely an intellectual idea but an experienced ideal. So what is the love of God? The love of God is that He is not allowing everyone to perish in their sins but He is saving some. That is real mercy and grace. "To err is human, forgive divine." Why do we say this? Because it is so hard to forgive. God does forgive, this is love. Seek and find Him and you too will experience that love.

What can be worse than hell? Well, what God says is worse than hell for starters. What place has God prepared for the devil and his demons from before time began? Where will He send all of the unrepentant sinners on that Final Day of Judgment where time will end and [for us] eternity begin? The answer: what the book of Revelation refers to as the Lake of Fire. The lake of fire is not hell. It is not synonymous with hell and should not be confused with hell. Hell is bad, yet it is only temporary. The lake of fire is worse, but it is everlasting. If this does not unnerve you then do not ever say, "I wasn't warned."

Yes it is true that if you end up in hell you cannot change your religion, start serving God and go to heaven after all is said and done. Your chance to go to heaven really does exist. God is love and has made a way for you to avoid the lake of fire. Seek after Him and find Him. Acknowledge His existence, then follow Him. Read His Law-Word and obey it. If you believe Jesus (i.e. believe what He taught) and that God raised Him from the dead, then you will be saved. If you persevere in this faith you will be saved. Obey Him by getting baptized. But if any of these elements are missing then you have reason to doubt your salvation (if you "used to be" a Christian but are not persevering then it is probable that you never were saved). If there are any doubts as to the truth of my statements then seek the truth and you will find it. Or contact me.

How could a loving and righteous God NOT punish unrepentant sinners? If He did not punish them, how could He reward the repentant sinners (now called saints)? Reward and punishment are two sides to the same coin (two "faces" of the one God). That is, whatever face of God we are beholding when we die is the face of God we will experience for eternity. So in a way, bear with me, we could say that a loving God could not send people to hell. Let me leave you with this last thought: God's wrath sends people to hell, but God's love saves some from hell.

No Covenant, No Commitment

Posted by Michaelsei (that's me!) on Helium.com

In everything that you do, you are investing in your future. If you live like hell today, you should expect to receive hell tomorrow ('you reap what you sow'). This principle speaks succinctly to the issue of premarital sex. There are no rewards for having sex before marriage: instant and immediate gratification of lust will only bring the judgment of God. In the long run, there can only be negative results. If you engage in this immoral behavior, you will have sinned against God, you will have sinned against your own body, and you will have sinned against the one with whom you had sexual intercourse.

In the seventh of the Ten Commandments, God has commanded all of mankind to be morally pure: "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Although it seems like a stretch to apply this command to premarital sex, it must be understood that this commandment is really a summary of all the commands like those found in Leviticus 18, which are considered a definition of the seventh commandment. The Westminster Shorter Catechism states: "Question 71: What is required in the seventh commandment? Answer: The seventh commandment requires the preservation of our own and our neighbor's chastity, in heart, speech, and behavior." Furthermore, Jesus Christ stated: "Ye have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Matthew 5:27-28 (RSV). What an indictment! No man will ever be found guiltless of committing this sin. I think that if Jesus Christ condemned guys "checking out" girls, then He severely condemns premarital sex.

You also sin against your own body and the one you are involved sexually with when you engage in sexual intercourse outside of the marriage covenant. You take the risk of contracting an STD and/or getting pregnant. Abstinence until marriage is the only 'safe sex' and 'no fail' contraceptive.

Our bodies were made for God's glory not our own pleasure. On the other hand, God extends to us these pleasures inside of the marriage covenant. "Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled..." Heb 13:4 (KJV). We rob ourselves and pillage our future delight with the wife or husband of our youth. We trade our birthright for a pot of porridge, so to speak. We have the opportunity to give our future spouse a beautiful gift on our wedding night, 'you are the first, I have remained true to you even before we met.'

Everyday the number of single parents increases. Consequently, there is a major problem with thinking that premarital sex is okay. For those who value long-term commitment, it is clear to see that if there is no marriage covenant; there is no assurance of true commitment.

Is Hell a real place or a metaphor to deter evil-doers?

Posted by Michaelsei (that's me!) on Helium.com

God is sovereign. God is Holy, Pure, and Just. God hates sin and evildoers. God created man in His image.

Man erred from conforming to God's attributes. Thus, sin was brought into the world. From Adam, the sin nature passed from father to son, on and on. All have sinned. God cannot stand sin to be in His presence.

Hell is real, but hell is not a place. It is being without a place. It is being away from the presence of God. Hell may be depicted as a place of fiery torment, but it is usually depicted as a place of outer darkness. A cold, dank morgue where solitude and fear reign over you. You scream and cry out for death to take you, but death has already taken your mortal body. You are experiencing what is called the second death. Your immortal soul is separated from your creator. You have been cut off from your source of life, but again not in the corporeal sense. This death is not a perishing away but an eternal perishing that ceases not. This is hell.

It ought to deter evildoers. The commandments given to the nation of Israel served to conform them to God's image. In so doing, evil was not allowed to persist. Capital crimes required capital punishments. Lesser crimes required retribution. If I was starving, I may steal to replenish my strength, but I would be required to pay back many times more than I stole. If I took a life in premeditated murder, my blood would be required; however, if I committed manslaughter in the heat of a struggle unpremeditated, then I would have refuge according to the Law. Capital crimes are deterred by capital punishments, this is God's design. On the contrary, not every individual is unilaterally deterred from doing what they will. They will serve as examples and will be punished.

On deterrence, another example is Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan was an authoritarian ruler who went far beyond God's perfect justice to his own form of deterrence. I use him only as an example of how punishments are deterrents. He used capital punishment even in cases of lesser crimes. He achieved a peace that would still be seen in his grandson's lifetime. When Kublai Khan was in power, Marco Polo passed through the region, living the adventure story that he would later bring home.

Ultimately, God determines the number of the elect. However, in a society where God's justice is utilized, the restraint of the Holy Spirit will be seen at work in that nation against evildoers. Hell can be lauded as the final punishment for evildoers, and for some, I hope and pray that it is a deterrent from evil. The only thing that he would lack is to seek after Jesus Christ and His salvation.