Caroline's Blog

eternal punishment and eternal life

There is a parable of Jesus in Matthew 25:31-46 that is problematic for a lot of Christians.

Non Christians have no problems with this parable because it seems obvious that good people, regardless of religious affiliation, will go to heaven and bad people will go to hell. In fact, this parable is rather comforting because Jesus is saying it's the little acts of kindness that we're all capable of doing that gets us into his good grace, not the heroic 'walk on glass and get burnt at the stake' martyrdom stuff of saints. You don't have to be Mother Theresa or the Pope to get in; you could help out at the food bank.

The problem Evangelical Christians have with this parable is because we believe we're saved by grace through faith alone. It is Martin Luther's battle cry sola fide - faith alone. I have a problem with this parable because I don't believe in eternal damnation.

The key to this parable is found in the epistle 1 John, particularly the verse 1 John 1:2. "The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us."

Eternal life is Jesus Christ. It is the incarnation. It is us in Him and He in us. If we do good, we get Him as our reward. Being kind and loving to someone is practicing His presence. Being cruel means not getting him or getting the other guy which counts as the opposite concept, eternal punishment. Eternal life begins right now with our next act of lovingkindness.

This is because God is Love and Love gives. God gave us everything He had: His Son to show us who He is; His Spirit to guide and comfort us; and Himself to love and father us. We are all His children.

Both Paul and Jesus said that if we loved God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and if we loved our neighbour as ourselves, we fulfill all the commandments. The odd thing I've found when teaching people this concept is that some believe that loving God means hating certain people like Muslims or homosexuals. To my consternation, I found that I could not convince them that we love God by loving others and we love others by loving God. In the end, I had to drop God from the equation and say, "When caught in a moral dilemma, do the most loving thing for the people involved." I hope someday I can put God back in but I'll have to change who people believe God is and that is a herculean task.

Just in case that sounds like a cop out (which it is, by the way)....

A friend introduced me to a group who believes God is angry all the time against sinners. (Thanks Lance) The surprise is they are more gracious and loving than their God. But they believe loving God means hating those He (or so they believe) hates and their hate is unleavened by mercy or grace because they believe God is unrelenting in His judgment. They were the ones who got me thinking about Matthew 25 because they threw it to me along with other biblical passages, all in the Authorized King James Version, which had double the references to hell than my bible. So I do owe them thanks for this post.

"Luke, don't give in to hate. That leads to the Dark Side." Obi-Wan Kenobi

Blood, blood everywhere!

I spent some time today trying to convince someone that God is not an ANGRY GOD who needs blood sacrifices to appease Him. I didn't succeed with him or the listeners.

God can forgive anyone for anything anytime He wants. Jesus forgave the paralytic who was lowered through the roof. I don't think either he or his friends were seeking forgiveness when they ruined that house. God even forgave the Ninevites when they repented, much to Jonah's disgust.

When God decided to shape Israel into the "womb that will earth Him" [Torrance], He did not start with a blank slate. He had a rabble who was brought out of Egypt. Some of the objects and patterns of worship He instituted at Mount Sinai have a distinctly Egyptian flavour. It was something familiar for an uprooted people.

Many religious cultures offer animal and human sacrifices to their gods. They believe all aspects of life is influenced by some kind of deity and it was necessary to appease or feed this god in order to have peace and prosperity.

But YHWH is different. He is the God of everything, everyone and everywhere. We don't feed Him; He feeds us. The sacrifices He required from His people were thanksgiving for what He has blessed them with, and...their sins. People laid hands on their sin offering, opened its veins and splashed the blood around, and then burnt their sins and the animal on the altar. As the smoke rose, forgiveness and blessing flowed back from God. The priest would say to the people, "The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace."

This is because God is Love and Love is about relationship.

Later Love stepped in when everything was ready and took the place of the sin bearing animal. Our sins were laid on Him and it was His blood that got splashed around.

Much later still we learn that blood fights diseases and heals wounds. It brings nutrients to every part of our body and removes waste by-products. Any part that is cut from its blood supply dies.

male and female sacrifices

being a continuation of the post above
some musings on the relative worth the bible gives to males and females.

Only males without blemish are acceptable as animal sacrifices. A common person could offer a female goat or lamb for their sin offering. The usual explanation is that they prefigured Jesus Christ, the ultimate perfect sacrifice for our sins.

I think it's wise animal husbandry. Male animals are usually eaten. Female animals are kept for milk and breeding along with a few (lucky) males. Intact males are often difficult to handle. Animals, I mean. Really!

Fellowship offerings can be an animal of either sex. It is a voluntary act of worship, a celebratory party with the local Levites because God is good and life can be sweet.

Love in Sodom and Gomorrah

The story begins with the LORD saying, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."

This is a rather odd statement from One who is omniscient. God does know everything but one thing is still unknown and that is how the people in Sodom and Gomorrah will react when the holy presence of Love appears in their midst. So God decides to visit Sodom and Gomorrah in the manifest, tangible form of two angels.

The angels enter Sodom and Lot (perhaps the only righteous man in the whole region) recognizes them and asks them to stay in his home. The angels have every intention of spending the night in the town square but Lot is so insistent, they follow him. Later that night, men of Sodom surround Lot's home and say, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."

So the answer to the question, "How will the people react if Love's holy presence appeared in their midst?" would be, "They will try to:
a) dominate, master and own it like it was one of their chattels?
b) destroy and ruin it like pigs trampling pearls?
c) experience, enjoy and know it?

Anyway the scene was getting rather ugly and threatening and Lot goes outside to 'reason' with the crowd. He even offers his own virgin daughters as substitutes for them to dominate, master, own, destroy, ruin, experience, enjoy and know. This makes Lot sound unnatural, unfatherly and craven but give the man credit for standing outside and trying.

I think we often make the same mistake Lot did in trying to protect God from the people around us, from spending the night in the town square. We even sacrifice ourselves and our families to ensure He doesn't have to deal with anything unclean or unpleasant because He is too holy to look upon sin. But He does not need our protection. The angels pull Lot inside and strike the men outside with blindness.

For me, the moral of the story is that God does not need our protection. He can take care of Himself. We should just let Him spend the night in the middle of our city and let the people meet Him. Sure things could get weird, unpleasant, even ugly. But then again, we may be pleasantly surprised.

Love's Hate

"Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated" Romans 9:13

A look at the life of a man God hated

Before Esau was born, God said he would be destined to be less than his younger brother.

Esau was a man's man, born with a generous covering of red hair. He lived with gusto and for the moment, a skilled hunter, at home in open spaces. One day when he was famished, he sold his birthright (whatever) for a bowl of stick-to-your-ribs stew. His father loved him best which is the usual case when you're the first born son.

His mother loved Jacob and together they tricked his father into getting the blessing meant for the first born. It was basically inheritance of the world including the servitude of his brother. When Esau finally showed up for his blessing, this is what he got: his dwelling will be away from the earth's richness, away from the dew of heaven; he will live by the sword; he will serve his brother; BUT when the time is right, he will break free.

Needless to say Esau was murderously angry and Jacob left town. Life for Esau went on as usual. He had married Judith and Basemath, both Hittites which his mom and dad did not like, and later Mahalath, whom they did. They gave birth to a bunch of kids and settled in Edom, in the hill country of Seir, their very own Promised Land. When Jacob returned, Esau could gather 400 men, a veritable army, to meet the rascal but Jacob won him over with a charming array of gifts. Esau, ever the guileless one, wept when he hugged Jacob and refused the gifts because he already had plenty. In fact, the two brothers could not live in the same area as they both had too much lifestock and people. The last time we see the brothers together is at their father's funeral.

Esau became known as the father of the Edomites and they lived securely on their land while the Israelites ended up as slaves in Egypt for 400 years. As the Israelites passed by Seir on the way to their Promised Land they were told that: God has given this land to Esau; these people were their brothers; they must not start a conflict here; and they had to pay for everything they used.

When I hate someone, I wish them all sorts of evil. It is easy to transfer that kind of thinking to God and easy to imagine what horror awaits a person whom God hates. But there is a major difference between my hate and God's hate. I have the capacity to plan and do evil. God can't. There is no darkness in Him.

Love's hate is more like benign neglect, like letting a child grow wild like a weed instead of guiding and educating him. Jacob, whom God loved, was being shaped into the 'womb that will earth Him' as Torrance puts it. In the process he had to leave his home, wrestle with God, end up in slavery, get the Law, endure punishing years in the desert, enter the Promised Land, fight for every bloody inch of it, live precariously and in much terror through most of his time there, get exiled to Babylon, come back to a demolished city and temple, end up under Roman rule.

This is so Love's incarnation will have it's proper setting and context. This is what is meant to be loved by Love. Being hated by Love is not that bad after all. Not that bad at all.

Love's Wrath II

"When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. The LORD's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God."
2 Samuel 6:6-7

This story is one of the most difficult for all of us who believe God is Love. The usual explanations are:
a) Uzzah ought to have known better because the bible says the ark can only be carried on poles by Levites. It should not have been on an ox cart in the first place.
b) Uzzah's act was irreverent and it defiled God's holiness. He had to die so that the Israelites will continue to show proper respect for the ark.

I have problems with either explanation. The Lord did not strike dead the people who picked up the ark at Uzzah's home and placed it on the cart. He didn't strike dead the Philistines who captured it in the first place and moved it from place to place. They did suffer for having the ark in their midst but the people who carried it did not die instantly or the ark could not have toured the Philistine cities. He didn't strike dead the Israelites who brought the ark to battle which began this whole episode even though God did not sanction this irreverent act.

Uzzah acted instinctively with an impulse to protect. The ark stayed at his family home for 20 years and his brother, Eleazar was consecrated to guard it when it first arrived. Uzzah and his brother Ahio were responsible for bringing it to Jerusalem. He knew about the ark and he was doing his job.

I do take seriously the holiness of God but I consider that to be an aspect of His Love, not a separate characteristic so I have trouble with the second explanation as well. The Lord can dial up or tone down His Presence at will. He is not tied to the ark like some genie caught in a bottle and does not have to be there in full force or even there at all.

His Spirit entered people like Kings Saul and David and the prophets and He did not kill them. Even when Saul performed the sacrifices. Even when David committed adultery and murder. Even when Elijah lost faith. Elijah also didn't do two of the three things God told him to on Mount Horeb but God still took him up to heaven in His fiery chariot but that's another blog all together.

When Joab was running from King Solomon, he fled to the tent of meeting and took hold of the horns of the altar. The Lord didn't strike him down but Benaiah did on King Solomon's command. The Lord didn't strike down either Benaiah or Solomon for spilling human blood inside the tent. When King Solomon first built the temple and the ark was brought in, the Lord dialed up His presence so high, the priests could not perform their service because His glory filled the temple.

Theologians have always referred to God as both transcendent and immanent; both far above us and very near to us.

I have a different explanation for Uzzah's death. I believe that there are different consequences to the same action. Sometimes you run a red light and nothing happens; sometimes you run a red light and you kill another person. One time it is as it you didn't do anything; another time you've affected adversely a number of lives. There are consequences for Uzzah's act that has nothing to do with Uzzah himself, consequences that we don't know and can't imagine. God, who is Love, can see what Uzzah had invoked for himself and for those near him so in His mercy decided it was best to remove Uzzah from the scene even though it hurt King David and will continue to hurt and confuse generations of Jews and Christians. Sometimes mercy is severe and Love follows inscrutable reasons.

I believe Uzzah lives. He lives with God. And he lives in this story that confounds us and asks us so who do you say that I AM and what do you say the bible says about Me?

Love's Wrath

There is such a difference between the God of the Old Testament and 'the God as revealed by Jesus Christ in the New Testament' that some people
a) theorize they are two different gods
b) believe Jesus' crucifixion changed God into a more mellow Person
c) postulate that the OT prophets and writers got it wrong and part of Jesus' mission was to fix that
d) read only the New Testament and Psalms

For most Evangelicals, none of the above are palatable options. God's wrath breaks out with depressing regularity against His children and they suffer all kinds of horrific fates, plagues and deaths. It is hard to see the One who is Love in the Old Testament. It is hard even to see the One described by Mr. Beaver as not safe but good.

We handle this God by believing
a) all those people in the bible deserve whatever befell them and
b) thank God this will never happen to us because we are saved.

What if we stripped off this mind numbing cocoon and searched for Love in these stories?

I believe that loving someone means desiring the best for that person and Love has a steel backbone. C. Baxter Kruger said God's wrath is His NO! to a world turning away from Him and choosing to create darkness and chaos. Wrath is Love experienced when we're in the midst of rebellion. Wrath is Love in zealous pursuit when we try to scuttle away like cockroaches from light. Wrath is Love's grief over what we have done to ourselves and to our brothers.

King David was a man after God's own heart; Israel's psalmist really knew what God is like. Once he was given a choice of punishment: three years of famine, three months of fleeing from his enemies or three days of plague. He replied, "Let us fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men."

Love's Justice

Justice to me is about restoring and redeeming what was stolen, lost or broken. If someone stole all my money, what good would it do me to put him in jail? I just want my money back. If someone raped and murdered someone I love, what good would it do me to kill him? I just want my loved one back, whole, restored, perfect.

We can only do so much in terms of human justice but I expect a lot more of God. He promised that in the end, He will restore all that was stolen, heal all that was broken. That is true justice.

If we truly believe that, then we can forgive, turn the other cheek, go the extra mile. Then we can love our enemies and bless our persecutors. If we don't believe that, then we will do ourselves an injury when we make ourselves forgive as we have been forgiven.

I suppose God would also require the wicked to repent. I don't particularly care. My victim impact statement would have been rather lame. "Everything's okay, your Honour. I have all that I used to have and more. I'm perfectly happy."

Brian McLaren in Generous Orthodoxy wrote that God saves by judging, forgiving and teaching. In that case, salvation is an ongoing process like our concept of sanctification. In fact, it might be wiser to call it sanctification because salvation, being born again and being saved have so much baggage. Or maybe it would be wisest to call it living with God. God is present in each of our lives, showing us where we are wrong (judging), bathing us in His Love (forgiving) and then showing us what is right (teaching).

Sorry are those who believe they are saved and will never come under God's judgment.
Sorry are those who know they have sinned and feel unforgivable.
Sorry are those who never heed God's direction.

Blessed are you who got caught in His fiery defining gaze.
Blessed are you who stopped, turned and fell into His all consuming love.
Blessed are you who survived to tell others about it.

Love's Holiness

The first objection or correction I get whenever I say God is Love is "God is also holy." Many people believe He is holy first and love is an additional characteristic like icing on a cake or, at the most, His love and holiness are equal like two sides of a coin. On one hand, I can see why this idea appeals. It corresponds very well to reality and I like my theology internally coherent and corresponding to reality. But I hate this concept of a schizophrenic God. Heads, mercy; tails, death. How does God decide when to look upon us with love and mercy and when to look upon us with wrath and judgment? Should we not be studying that higher level/nature so that we can understand Who we are truly dealing with, so that we can shape our prayers into the biggest lever possible?

But of course, no one has proposed a higher level because there isn't one. God is Love. Period.

I believe holiness and righteousness is a part of Love. Paul and Jesus said that if we loved God with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind and if we loved our neighbours as ourselves, we fulfill all the commandments. All moral choices boil down to whether we chose to love or not to love.

From the musical Rent, Seasons of Love
"525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee. In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife. In 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life?

How about love? How about love? How about love? Measure in love. Seasons of love."