Light And Darkness

"He is merciful. But He is just."

GOD’S JUSTICE is not violent nor because He’s consumed with hate. It is never out-of-balance and weighted too much so He can relieve His frustration. Now, what is His justice? What does He do to punish the unrepentant? Much talk is done in the church of hell as punishment. But of our images, even some that people have said to have seen, God’s character, His nature, is frequently left out. He is merciful. But He is just. What He desires of those who refuse to repent is for them to see their actions with regret. What He will not do is reward them nor give them anything promised to His children.

I need you to see hell is God’s and not the devil’s. The devil has been rendered useless (Hebrews 2:14), and being frank, he was the first to sin, but he was never any higher or with more authority and craftiness than any other devil who followed him. Though he is called the prince of this world, he isn’t their leader. That word means “first.” Nothing of devils is in control of damnation, as we’ll call it as well. The pit of John’s Revelation is God’s. He is in control of all things and was never, at any point, not in control. Satan never took control from Him but sinned and fell from heaven like lightning (Luke 10:18). So to speak of hell in terms of torture, such as sin would craft, is all kinds of wrong.

We have several pictures from the Word to establish this. First, that Jesus was never there being tortured to redeem us from sin. His death was our redemption. He chose, as an act of the will, to obey the Father, which is what Adam did not do. Adam chose to disobey and to sin. He knew it was wrong to follow after Eve and obey the words of Satan. He knew they were a lie (1 Timothy 2:14). Jesus obeyed and proved man was God’s and not sin’s (Philippians 2:8). The proof of Jesus’ being with God after death is in His words to the thief. He said to him, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.” Today, that day (Luke 23:43). We must see, too, He is Christ, the Anointed One, and the Spirit is the anointing. They have never been separated. Never.

Second, we have the story of the rich man and the poor man. Jesus told this story to the Pharisees and several needful things must be seen in it. One, that the rich man called Abraham “father”. The rich man and the poor man were Jews, one in Paradise, one in torments. Two, that it was torment (Luke 16:23,24,28), yet the rich man had no repentance. Twice he tried to send the poor man where he would be equally miserable. He asked Abraham to send him to where he himself was in torment and then, after that, to send him back to earth where he’d suffered horribly. He did not care about the poor man. Lastly, Abraham said to the rich man that Moses and the prophets were enough to avoid being there, in damnation. Do you get that? The rich man said he wanted to prevent his brothers from coming there. Abraham replied, “If they will not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead (Luke 16:31).” The Torah was enough for salvation.

Another proof is found in 1 Peter 3:19, which tells us Jesus “went and preached unto the spirits in prison.” These spirits being the ones who were disobedient in Noah’s day (Verse 20). Jesus preached, proclaimed as a herald. This was not a damaged, tortured Jesus. How very wrong that image is! These angels are mentioned again in 2 Peter 2:4. There, it says, “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.” Notice, God cast them down to hell, and there it is darkness. 1 John 1:5 tells us God has no darkness in Him, but He is Light. Psalm 139:12 tells us darkness does not prevent God’s vision. So, it is that those cast from His Presence, those who fell from the Light, sit in darkness where there is none of Him.

It isn’t that He becomes blind. Think of it this way. God dwells on the earth. He is in all places, yet here, there is sin. People disregard Him every minute of the day and do things He calls sinful. But He is not tainted by it. Instead, we are cleansed by Him. Such is His holiness, that it forgives and purifies.

God is also not the spirit of fear. He isn’t terror. He is love, power, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). But those absent of Him through sin don’t have His goodness, and in sin, there is fear. God is reverence. This must be applied to His judgment. Where sin is punished and someone, angel or human, is cast into darkness, there is much reverence of Him and yet, none at all, because those are there for being totally consumed by sin. And this is the bottom line. There are many percentages between 0 and 100, many people who have accepted Jesus and aren’t living FOR Him. It takes 100% to be judged. And in judgment, all is known. No one has to wonder why they are judged. This is how God has it to be.

We must set aside our lack of understanding of the appearance of hell and our wrong information. And seek, instead, His Presence. We must learn from the Holy Spirit and always, in humility, assume we need to know our loving Father more. I spend all my time with Him. This came out of a difficult place. And one thing I’m sure of is, what many have seen of hell that they use to preach salvation, including the words of Jude, are wrong.

That isn’t the kind of God He is.


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com