You Can Go to “H3!!” (The Kindness and Severity of God) The Sanctuary Downtown / Relentless Love
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- Christianity
Romans 11:2, “God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.”
Who would God NOT foreknow, other than those that he did not make, who by definition don’t exist, but only think they exist, like a bad dream—that is my false self, my “ego?”
That’s the self that gets jealous of other selves, for it thinks that it deserves things, for it dreams that it is its own creator, savior, and redeemer—it dreams that “[God] did not make me (Isaiah 29:16).”
Romans 11:11, “So I ask, did [Israel (Paul’s church)] stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass [falling away] salvation has come to the Gentiles [the Nations] so as to make Israel Jealous.”
Do you ever feel jealous of others who have received God’s grace?
(Everything is grace. So, to be jealous of anything is to be jealous of Grace.)
Perhaps it’s a warning: You’ve become trapped in an illusion that you are your own creator, savior, and redeemer; it’s the illusion that you deserve salvation, which is actually damnation, for we are saved by Grace through faith and this not of ourselves.
Believing the lie, we take knowledge from the tree in the middle of the garden to justify ourselves.
Believing the lie, we take the Life, and everything dies. . . although we pretend to live.
Believing the lie, we manufacture false selves, false churches, false kingdoms, and a false world.
Romans 11:15-16, “If their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.”
Isaiah had been called to preach Israel down to a remnant, then a stump, that is a root, that is the Holy Seed—who “makes all things new (Revelation 21:5).”
For as Paul has said in a hundred different ways, “Where sin increased Grace abounded all the more (Romans 5:20).”
Some hear that and say, “Great! We don’t have to do anything, and God does everything. Great! We no longer need to fear God. And Super-Great! There is no such thing as Hell and so, we can’t go there!”
Romans 11:20, “They were broken off because of [the un-faith], but you stand fast because of [the] faith. So, do not become proud, but fear. . . Note the kindness and severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off.”
Holy Crap! It sounds like you can go to “Hell,” we better fear God, and we better do something! . . . maybe take more knowledge, apply it to our flesh, so as to make ourselves like God . . . or he might not love us and make us new?
Well, God will make all things new . . . but yes, I think you can go to a place that some call “Hell.”
Paul, who preached to Gentiles, never actually used the word. Jesus, who preached to Israel (Paul’s old church) used it a lot. And yet, he didn’t, for he didn’t preach in English. In Greek and Hebrew, there is no word equivalent to the concept of endless conscious torment; but there are words that get translated into English as “Hell.”
In Scripture, there are three concepts—two the exact opposite of each other, and one representing the boundary between the other two—all spoken of by modern church people as “Hell.” I call them Hell #1, Hell #2, and Hell #3.
Hell #1 is the experience of the absence of God. In Hebrew, that’s “Sheol;” In Greek, “Hades.” Hell #1 is the land of ghosts. “You will be brought low,” says God to Jerusalem in Isaiah 29 (which Paul has been quoting). “Your voice will come from the ground like [as] the voice of a ghost.”
“Ghost” is the Hebrew word “Obe,” which also means “water bottle.” Apparently, a ghost is like a “tupos (Romans 5:14),” the hollow imprint of a man without the life of the man.
Not only can you go there, I think I’ve been there—I’ve even had some e
Romans 11:2, “God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.”
Who would God NOT foreknow, other than those that he did not make, who by definition don’t exist, but only think they exist, like a bad dream—that is my false self, my “ego?”
That’s the self that gets jealous of other selves, for it thinks that it deserves things, for it dreams that it is its own creator, savior, and redeemer—it dreams that “[God] did not make me (Isaiah 29:16).”
Romans 11:11, “So I ask, did [Israel (Paul’s church)] stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass [falling away] salvation has come to the Gentiles [the Nations] so as to make Israel Jealous.”
Do you ever feel jealous of others who have received God’s grace?
(Everything is grace. So, to be jealous of anything is to be jealous of Grace.)
Perhaps it’s a warning: You’ve become trapped in an illusion that you are your own creator, savior, and redeemer; it’s the illusion that you deserve salvation, which is actually damnation, for we are saved by Grace through faith and this not of ourselves.
Believing the lie, we take knowledge from the tree in the middle of the garden to justify ourselves.
Believing the lie, we take the Life, and everything dies. . . although we pretend to live.
Believing the lie, we manufacture false selves, false churches, false kingdoms, and a false world.
Romans 11:15-16, “If their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.”
Isaiah had been called to preach Israel down to a remnant, then a stump, that is a root, that is the Holy Seed—who “makes all things new (Revelation 21:5).”
For as Paul has said in a hundred different ways, “Where sin increased Grace abounded all the more (Romans 5:20).”
Some hear that and say, “Great! We don’t have to do anything, and God does everything. Great! We no longer need to fear God. And Super-Great! There is no such thing as Hell and so, we can’t go there!”
Romans 11:20, “They were broken off because of [the un-faith], but you stand fast because of [the] faith. So, do not become proud, but fear. . . Note the kindness and severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off.”
Holy Crap! It sounds like you can go to “Hell,” we better fear God, and we better do something! . . . maybe take more knowledge, apply it to our flesh, so as to make ourselves like God . . . or he might not love us and make us new?
Well, God will make all things new . . . but yes, I think you can go to a place that some call “Hell.”
Paul, who preached to Gentiles, never actually used the word. Jesus, who preached to Israel (Paul’s old church) used it a lot. And yet, he didn’t, for he didn’t preach in English. In Greek and Hebrew, there is no word equivalent to the concept of endless conscious torment; but there are words that get translated into English as “Hell.”
In Scripture, there are three concepts—two the exact opposite of each other, and one representing the boundary between the other two—all spoken of by modern church people as “Hell.” I call them Hell #1, Hell #2, and Hell #3.
Hell #1 is the experience of the absence of God. In Hebrew, that’s “Sheol;” In Greek, “Hades.” Hell #1 is the land of ghosts. “You will be brought low,” says God to Jerusalem in Isaiah 29 (which Paul has been quoting). “Your voice will come from the ground like [as] the voice of a ghost.”
“Ghost” is the Hebrew word “Obe,” which also means “water bottle.” Apparently, a ghost is like a “tupos (Romans 5:14),” the hollow imprint of a man without the life of the man.
Not only can you go there, I think I’ve been there—I’ve even had some e