APPENDIX FOUR: THE HEART OF GOD

(EXCERPTS FROM HELL: BIBLICAL TRUTH OR PAGAN MYTH?)

Jesus made some puzzling remarks while pronouncing judgment upon the cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida:

“But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you.” (Luke 10:12-14)

Now I don’t know about you, but I have always been under the assumption that the city of Sodom, like its sister city of Gomorrah, were two of the most vile and morally depraved communities that have ever existed. If there were ever a group of people that deserved to be damned for all eternity, then surely these people filled the bill. But Jesus says that their judgment will be “more tolerable” than that of Chorazin and Bethsaida. How can this be? Only one way – that the time of judgment, contrary to the teaching of orthodox Christianity, does not last forever!

“For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight, says the LORD. They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My Name, to pollute it. And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into My heart.” (Jeremiah 7:30,31)

The Valley of the Son of Hinnom, or Gehenna, is famous chiefly for the abominable religious practices of the Israelites who there “built the high place of Tophet” to burn their sons and daughters in honor of the pagan god Molech (II Chronicles 28:3, 33:6). Changed into a public refuse dump and permanent place for burning, this accursed place, “the hell of fire where their worm does not die nor their fire go out,” is used figuratively to represent the place of judgment. Smith’s Bible Dictionary tells us that

“An idol of bronze of great size was set up in the valley, facing Olivet, where children were sacrificed in the fire, which seems to have been kindled inside the idol. Josiah abolished the worship, and strewed human bones over the place, making it unclean, and thus prevented the renewal of worship there (see II Kings 23:10). These inhuman practices gave the place a horrible character, and caused its name to be detested and used as a figure for a place of torment.”

So the literal burning of the children of Israel was an abomination to the LORD, one “which He did not command, nor did it enter into His heart!” So if God condemned the actual practice of the burning of their children in a literal fire, then what do you think will happen to those who teach that He will do likewise? Are you now beginning to see what Jesus really meant when He said that the judgment of Sodom, Tyre and Sidon (used to represent worldly, self-seeking people) will be “more tolerable” than that of Chorazin and Bethsaida (representing those who have witnessed the mighty works of God, yet fail to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth)? Many good, church-going people are one day in for a rude awakening, for they will come face to face with the Lamb of God, see Him as He really is, and come to the realization that the Love of God does not seek to fry unrepentant sinners for all eternity. After a lifetime spent of either knowingly or unknowingly misrepresenting the Love of God, “their glory will be turned to shame” (Philippians 3:19), and they will be “tormented in the presence of the Lamb” (Revelation 14:10). I am convinced that this torment, in the presence of a gentle Lamb, will be the anguish they will suffer within their own hearts. Judgment by (a refining) fire will surely come upon the harlot church, and is described in vivid detail in Revelation 18.

“Come out of her, My people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.” (Revelation 18:4)