The road to hell is wide

Whose Rules Rule? - Part Eight

To recap, I've been talking for a few months about morality and it's place in Christian thought. I've compared Christian rational foundations with non-religious foundations. Non-religious philosophies, I've argued, have no rational basis for morality. They want to say some things are right and some things are wrong. They even sometimes treat Christians as if we are evil because we transgress their rule that no-one is allowed to question their authority! But because they have only themselves to turn to for authority, because their fundamental belief is that humans are no more special than rocks, apes, dolphins or roses, because they can't define anything objectively, their rules reduce to arbitrary preferences that they try to enforce on everyone else.

In the last couple of articles I've tried to show the foundations that Christians have for morality in more detail. Our responsibility is to God, because He created human beings to have a special relationship with Him. We are created equal. But because of the sin of Adam and Eve, the first human beings, every descendent has been tainted with self-centred, God-rejecting, sinfulness. And out of that sinful, self-centred heart comes immorality and sin. Human beings are equally sinners.

The consequences for sin are the same for every human being too.

Since all sin is an expression of a rejection of God's authority, He is perfectly justified to be filled with wrath and anger and indignation. The Bible warns us that we will all one day face God's judgment, and our sinful rejection of God's authority will be punished forever. Frankly, we deserve Hell.

People baulk at the idea of Hell, but if we only understood the nature and perfection of God we would see that it is the only punishment possible. God is perfect, and the source of everything good - love, joy, peace, perfection. To be cut off from God is to be cut off from the source of everything good, and therefore to suffer everything bad for the rest of eternity. Those who reject God's authority, because they would rather go their own way, want to enjoy the good things that come from God - beauty, love, joy, peace, power - but they refuse to submit to Him. God only allows that situation temporarily in "this life" - up to 80 years or so nowadays. When the Judgment Day comes, those who reject God's authority, evidenced by their sin (using the good things God has made and given to them for their own selfish ends, rather than for the purpose He gave them), will be given what their actions deserve - to be cut off from God forever, and therefore sent to an eternity without access to anything good, sent to Hell.

"It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment…" (Hebrews 9:27)

"For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." (Ephesians 5:5-6)

"… following the course of this world… among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind..." (Ephesians 2:2-4)

We may not all be equally sinful, but we are equally sinners and therefore equally deserve God's wrath and the eternal punishment in Hell that comes with that.

I'm going to publish the next chapter soon, but I do want to give you chance to dwell on this for a little while. In fact, if you are reading this retrospectively (in other words, you are picking up the series after the series has been completely published) then I'd encourage you to pause here and reflect.

This is not popular stuff, but it is reality. It's not just idle talk, it's not simply for lecture theatres, pulpits and blogs. It's not simply "very interesting stuff". It's about our eternal destiny. It's what will really happen in history because of what our real actions have been based on. And that's why it's important, as Christians, that we don't shirk from talking about it, unpleasant though it is.

I once talked to one of my housemates at university about the gospel, and tried to do so as sensitively as possible. At one stage, though, he asked me outright, "so you believe I'm heading to hell?" I said quietly, "Yes, I do." And he walked out of the room, and didn't speak to me again… ever. He avoided me until the end of the summer term, and that was his final year. I have not seen him or heard from him since that day in 1991.

In the film The Day After Tomorrow, one scene always strikes me. The film is a disaster movie, about how a particular combination of weather events conspire to bring about extreme weather across the whole world, leaving half the USA under snow and ice. Dennis Quaid plays the heroic scientist (Jack Hall) who predicts the events, and then has to go and find his son, Sam, who is trapped in the ice in New York. Having managed a brief conversation on the phone with his father, Sam knows that the best chance for the group of survivors he is huddled with in the New York Public Library is to stay indoors. If they go outside they may get caught in the huge freezing cyclones that are moving over the world, and they will freeze to death in seconds. At one stage the survivors in the library get impatient and talk of moving on to find better shelter. Sam pleads with them not to, telling them what his father has told him. He knows that by going outside they will die, and he tries to warn them. Some of the group simply ignore Sam, some argue with him and tell him to be quiet. Even when he explains that his dad is a climatologist and knows what is happening, and that he has just spoken to him, they still refuse to listen. All except a couple of the group go outside. Jack discovers their frozen bodies as he treks north through the snow to try to rescue Sam and his friends.

It strikes me that this is like the way Christians are treated when we try to warn about hell, eternal punishment. What we are doing is warning, because we have been told by our Father, that a big storm is coming - a Day of Judgment. Yet we are ignored, marginalised, mocked and sometimes shouted down for doing so.

The worst outcome can be avoided by listening to the Son. Jesus.

If you are not a Christian, don't, whatever you do, exit this series at this point. There is good news to come.

Nobody's perfect

Whose Rules Rule? - Part Seven

 

When we say, "nobody's perfect!" we are normally trying to find an excuse for something we have done wrong. But at the same time we all know that it's true. We know that we have faults as individuals, and we know that everyone has different faults. We disappoint ourselves with the mess we make sometimes, and others disappoint us too.

The Bible gives the reason that this is universally true and not just an exasperated exaggeration. We sin because we are sinful, not the other way around. We are not made sinful by the sins we commit. We commit sins because we are already sinful. Human nature is corrupt and therefore we all tend to do things that are wrong. Of course, it is also true that our sins tend to further corrupt us and that we can wreck our lives by getting into sinful habits. But my point is that none of us can escape sin. Our nature is corrupt.

It all stems from Adam and Eve, the original human beings. They disobeyed God, and were punished, and their condemnation comes down on the whole of the human race (read more in Genesis chapter 3). This is taught most clearly in Romans 5:12-21. Paul says, "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man [i.e. Adam], and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned - for sin was indeed in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam…" In other words, since death was the consequence of sin, sin must have been universal in the world from Adam onwards, even though the Ten Commandments and written law of God were not given until thousands of years later. Sin is still sin even if it does not arise from transgressing an explicit command (like the transgression of Adam).

Paul continues, "… many died through one man's trespass… the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation… because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man… as one trespass led to condemnation for all men… by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners."

Because of this, as Paul says earlier in the letter to the Romans, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)

So when Christians talk about equality of human beings, we are not just talking about being equally created - created equal and being equally responsible. We also mean that we are equally sinners.

This can seem harsh, because we have to say in all honesty that no-one in the whole world, except for Jesus Christ, is or has been perfect. And God's standards are perfect, because they arise out of His own perfections. God's purpose in creating the universe was to show His power, wisdom, beauty, perfection and love. But rather than following His purpose we have gone our own way. Adam and Eve's sin was not fundamentally about a piece of fruit. It was about seeking their own pleasure and trying to set their own direction, rather than following that of their Creator.

There are obviously specific rules which people trip over - whether that be lying, gossiping, cheating, having an affair with a married man, getting unnecessarily angry, killing an unborn baby, assisting an old or disabled person to commit suicide or offending people with the language you use. But these outward actions occur because they spring from a sinful heart - a heart that is basically selfish and self-centred and does not love God above everything. And everyone has a sinful, selfish, self-centred heart. If we were honest we would acknowledge that. The foundation of all that we do is actually our own pleasure, and not the pleasure of God. But that's the reason why we say that we are all equally sinners, even if some don't exhibit obvious outward sins. Nice people are sinners too!

That's something that some non-religious people also need to take note of when they accuse Christians of victimising them for their sins. And it is something that Christians need to be better at articulating. Nice people are sinners too! It is not just murderers, not just fraudsters, drug dealers and rapists. Respectable people are sinners too, because at their core they are self-centred and refuse to acknowledge God or follow His purposes and His rules.

In fact, let's be explicit. Christians are sinners too. A lot of people who are not Christians think they are giving a great rebuttal when they point to our flaws, failings and sins. But far from disproving our gospel it actually emphasises the point! We know we are sinful. We know we are internally corrupt. We are human and therefore that's what we are. We are ashamed of it, we don't like it, we pray for the strength to be less so. But we are equally sinners along with the rest of humanity.

Note that I didn't say we are all equally sinful - some sins are worse than others, as defined by God's law; and some people, therefore, sin more than others (more frequently, more seriously, more brazenly). Some people are more sinful than others. But we are all equally sinners - we are all sinful.

If you are not a Christian this may leave you wondering why morality matters so much if every person who has ever lived (apart from Jesus) has been brought down by it. But this is the road that you must travel in order to understand Christianity. It will take another two or three chapters to fully explain this.