Morning At Last

Mat 5:7  Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

The laws of sowing and reaping always apply so it is clear that if you sow mercy, you will reap mercy.  So let’s consider what mercy is.  The Strongs Concordance says that mercy is to have compassion in word or deed and compassion is to have sympathy or pity for someone.  The Bible says that when Jesus healed people He was often moved with compassion for them.  He was also moved with compassion when He saw that they were like sheep without a shepherd.  Mercy tempers judgment.  A judge is merciful when he gives a lenient sentence within the confines of the law.

Psa 89:14  Justice and judgment are the foundation of Your throne; mercy and truth shall go before Your face.  (MKJV)

A king’s throne is the place He rules from.  God judges justly.  Nothing is hidden from Him but He is also merciful.  In His mercy, He sent His Son to concile the world back to Himself.

(WARNING: I differ from most of standard Christianity in this area.  If that offends you, please stop reading my blog.  You are certainly welcome to write your own.  )

Most of the mainline churches teach that Jesus died for the world but that unless you personally accept it, you are going to hell.  On top of that, the Bible says that unless the Father draws you, you can’t be saved.  What kind of good news is that?  Now I ask you, did any of us have a choice when Adam sinned?  Did we have to accept his sin for it to apply to us or were we born mortal without our consent?  If it didn’t take our consent to curse us, why would Jesus act be any less powerful?  To hear them teach it, when Adam sinned, the whole world was cursed and when Jesus died for that sin, He will be satisfied with only getting a remnant of the people He died for.  (I don’t know about you but if I paid for a whole TV, I wouldn’t be happy coming home with just the remote.)

1Jo 2:2  And He is the propitiation (atonement) concerning our sins, and not concerning ours only, but also concerning the sins of all the world.  (KJV)

Do I believe there will be a judgment? YES!  Do I believe that if you personally accept Jesus’ sacrifice for your sins that they are covered by the blood and you will not have to pay for them?  YES!  Do I believe that Jesus is the only way for us to be reconciled with the Father and that all men will sooner or later have to believe in Him?  YES!  But do I believe in the traditional church teaching that hell is a place of fire and men will burn there eternally?  NO.  I believe that if you go back and study what the original scriptures say, that is not a Biblical truth and many of the first century believers didn’t believe it either.

Part of the problem occurred when people who weren’t well versed in Greek, set church doctrine.  Much of our current hell teaching is based on a work by St. Augustine but by his own admission, he wasn’t a Greek scholar.  The word ‘aionian’ that he translated as eternal actually meant for an age.  So even if you believed the hell fire and damnation part of the message, it had to be for a finite period of time.  That alone should cause many of today’s preachers to reevaluate what they are telling people.

Think about Hebrews 2:8

You subjected all things under his feet.” For in subjecting all things to Him, He did not leave anything not subjected to Him. But now we do not see all things having been subjected to him.  (MKJV)

Have you ever wondered how everything could be in subjection to him if they are still rejecting Him while burning in a fiery hell for eternity?  Is there more glory in the image of every knee bowing to him because they have no choice or because they have been won over by Him in love?  LOVE NEVER FAILS.  Why then do we think Adam’s ability to sin was greater than Jesus Christ’s ability to save?

A good book to read that can explain it better than I can in this limited space is Hope Beyond Hell by Gerry Beauchemin.  You can get a free book download here.  Before you write to tell me that I’m a heretic and teaching wrongly, do yourself a favor and read the book.  It is full of scripture and should be very enlightening.

You can get a shorter article on this topic at Hell: Fact or Fable? If you want more resources after reading those, contact me and I will tell you where you can learn more.

Meanwhile, thank God for His Mercy and ask Him to work more of it into your character so that you can reflect Him.

Heb 8:9  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
Heb 8:10  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
Heb 8:11  And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
Heb 8:12  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.