November 23, 1963

I was twelve; I was in seventh grade; and I was paying attention.

The previous afternoon, the distinguished Mr. Floyd, Superintendent of Schools for Community District #305, Manlius, IL, had interrupted our music class with a solemn and shocking pronouncement, spoken (as was typically the case when he was very serious) as he grasped his right ear lobe with right thumb and forefinger. His words: “Mrs. Johnson, children, the President of the United States is dead.”

He turned, walked out, and left Mrs. Johnson to pick up the pieces. In retrospect, I can’t believe how quickly and decisively she acted. She stepped out from behind the piano, assured us that even though this turn of events was frightening and sad, everything was going to be alright. We must be courageous. Some of my classmates started sniffling softly, one of my buddies mentioned “the Russians,” and Rick – probably the toughest kid in the class and definitely the biggest JFK lover (he had a picture book about the Kennedys in his desk) – actually let out a long wail and then another. If Rick could so quickly be reduced to wailing, it seemed to the rest of us that all the world could soon start spinning out of control.

Mrs. Johnson to the rescue.

My house was less than 150 yards from the “ag shop” which also housed CUSD #305’s choral music room. She turned to me and said: “David, why don’t you run home and get a radio? We’ll listen together to see if we can found out more information.” Even though I was as much in shock as the rest of the class, I also recognized a previously unparalleled privilege to leave the school grounds during the school day.

A gentle but cold rain had been falling all day, but I didn’t bother to throw on my jacket, I just raced through N. A. Johnson’s (no relation) yard, blew threw the front door, informed my mom that “the President of the United States is dead,” scrambled to the bedroom I shared with my two older brothers, grabbed brother Greg’s coveted turquoise clock radio, and hurried back out the door and on to the ag shop and some shaken seventh graders.

It seems that the gentle but cold rain had made the apron to the entrance quite slippery. As I was more concerned with speed than stopping, I hit that apron and tried to slam on the brakes. My feet flew right out from under me, the radio flew right out from beside me, and we were both “broadcast” onto the concrete. Happily, my fall from grace had been unobserved. Sadly, the radio was cracked and scratched. (At that moment, I feared my brother Greg more than the Russians.) Thankfully, the radio still worked.

Mrs. Johnson turned on the radio, settled us all down, and helped us process the hard truth and confusing messages coming across the airwaves. The next few days, even weeks and months, were also times of hard truth and confusing messages. But I was twelve… and I was paying attention.

Our family read the long-since defunct Chicago Daily News back then. Naturally, the  November 23, 1963 edition was utterly dominated by the news from Dallas. I scoured the front page and then the second for any insights I could gain into the tragedy. And then I saw it, bottom left/page two, an entry that seemed to violate the sanctity of the nation’s grief. I don’t remember it word-for-word as I do Mr. Floyd’s pronouncement, but this is essentially what it said:

British author C.S. Lewis died on November 22 at his home in Oxford, England.

I remember this distinctly, not because I knew anything about Lewis but because I couldn’t imagine that the demise of any British author, Shakespeare included, deserved to occupy space on the same page as the news of an assassinated American President. I certainly didn’t know the word “unseemly” at that time, but I knew the feeling. And this miniscule mention seemed an intrusion on the sensibilities of an injured nation’s soul. It made me mad, this interruption by an interloper, but because I was paying attention, I packed away that name into a corner of my brain. Ten years later as a senior in college, I unpacked it, and changed my mind about the import of that British author.

The January term at Illinois Wesleyan University, dubbed “Short Term,” included a class called “The Image of Man in C.S. Lewis.” Our professor, Chaplain White, had written a book by that title. Class consisted of 18 days in which we read the chaplain’s book and, in their entirety, the following:

Surprised by Joy, The Problem of Pain, Miracles, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, A Grief Observed, Mere Christianity, Christian Reflections, Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength, The Abolition of Man, Till We Have Faces, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Do the math – a book a day, with a quiz every morning on the reading of the day, then on to the next day and the next book. My future wife was in this class with me, the only time we were able to take a class together. (She majored in nursing, I in English.) Looking back, this class taught both of us that we could read faster than we thought, retain more than we thought, and (most significantly) discover that here was a Christian writer who greatly encouraged our nascent faith. Maybe for the first time, we knew that, as Christians, we didn’t have to check our intellects at the door of our classrooms, dorm rooms, or favorite hangouts. I, for one, felt emboldened for the first time to “stand up” for the historic Christian faith on campus. Reading Lewis helped me examine arguments both for and against the faith. Reading him gave me (and others) a voice.

This immersion in Lewis was a baptism in brilliance for many of us in the class and an important step in the beginning of faith journeys that I believe have been fruitful. We began to reference him in writing or quote him in class. Such temerity had heretofore seemed fruitless and self-limiting in the IWU arena of ideas. Not only was the strength of his apologetics so empowering and refreshing, I think that we may have been most inspired by identifying with his fictional characters. There was truly great joy in rereading and discussing these stories, whether we put ourselves on the Dawn Treader… or the bus to heaven… or the spaceship to Perelandra.

Without question, one of the great appeals to us was the joy of reading Lewis together, aloud. The sophistication of his arguments and plots, his allusions to things ancient, Medieval, and British, and his humour (sic) were best appreciated by a group because somebody in that group just might know something about Greek goddesses, Norse legends or Oxford traditions.

For me, this all began in 1973. I have been reading Lewis ever since.

Fast forward to 2004. Having traded in my businessman’s hat for that of church planter, I set out to connect with college students and other young adults in Bloomington-Normal. I was soon “surprised by joy” (couldn’t resist) to find that the desire to read Lewis together – aloud – was shared by a new generation. There were typically six to eight readers. All through the years the degree of familiarity with Lewis and his work has varied greatly, but that has only served to encourage the well-read to share and the neophytes to soak it all in.

In recent years, we have averaged 15-20 readers. Most, but not all, are college students.  We try to make it refreshing and a break from the pressures of academia by doing all our reading together. There are no assignments. Further, we sometimes celebrate with British-themed teas or meals and expand our horizons with Lewis-related outings (movies, trips to the Wade Center in Wheaton, or outings to the library or bookstores).

There is “deeper magic” in our little literary society. It has always been comprised of folks from quite varied religious backgrounds. (In year one, we had a regular who is a Muslim from Iran who was attending grad school at ISU; delightful, he loved reading with us and talking about Aslan.)  This current “crop” of Clive lovers is an exciting and eclectic mix from high church, low church, and in-between church. Reading Lewis has encouraged us all to view the faith beyond our backgrounds and share the journey with great freedom.

It has become my great joy to welcome college freshmen into the group and share four years of reading Lewis together. As their experience with Lewis grows, so does their ability to connect the “variations on a theme” which appear again and again in his works. It is encouraging to hear someone offer, “Doesn’t that remind you of Ransom?” or “That’s so much like his argument about animals… and Eden… and the restoration of all things.” The groups have also grown to appreciate the subtleties of Lewis’ humor and will often be reading along and burst out laughing at a nuance or turn of a phrase, offering something like, “He enjoyed writing that!” And that’s part of the pleasure for me in all this: the readers fall in love with the soul, skill, and style of this “prophet to the skeptic.” I continually find that his work has grabbed them just as it did me. Lewis gives us a dose of something we desperately need, something whispered by the apparition of the albatross to Lucy in the crow’s nest of the Dawn Treader as she tried to peer through seemingly impenetrable darkness:

“Courage, dear heart.”

And I think that’s why we love to read Lewis. He feeds the courage of our convictions. He does it with essays and stories and literary criticism and poetry. He does it with amazing prescience and disarming humor. He does it by turning a phrase or phrasing a turn. Thus, we continue to read, together, aloud and we continue to be encouraged.

I needed courage on November 23, 1963. How interesting that it has come not from the President who penned Profiles in Courage, but from “the interloper” who wrote, “Courage, dear heart.”

by Dave Berry

“If Jesus was right that the prayer of faith could cause a mountain to be cast into the sea, it makes one wonder what might be possible, if the church could actually be mobilized in fervent, righteous, and strategic prayer…”

As we touched on last week, The Strategic Prayer Initiative(^TM) (SPI) is striving to find ways to successfully help move large numbers of American Christians into much greater effectiveness concerning fervent, righteous, and strategic prayer, as well as other aspects of spiritual warfare.  This week I would like to share with you one of the most encouraging results to date, as well as one of the most troubling.

The primary methodologies employed by SPI(^TM) are prayer, research, advice from many counselors, pilot launches, adjustments, and then new launches (very much an iterative process).  Having gone through a whole string of launches, the adjustments made to the models about two years ago attained what appears to be some serious breakthroughs.  Two churches, launched about six weeks apart, both were able to move their congregations from about 25% reporting good or mature prayer lives, to over 50% reporting good or mature prayer lives, and this was done in about four months at both locations (the churches were not in the same denominations, nor were they even in the same state).

This movement of over a quarter of a congregation, in about four months time, and subsequently repeating it in a second church appears to be a very important milestone in the efforts to move large numbers of American Christians forward in prayer.  A matter of fact: in querying five of what many would consider the top 30 Americans presently involved in the prayer movement, none of them are aware of two back to back churches that have seen this dramatic of a change (one said it was doable but in 10 year time horizons).  Dr. Paul Ceder, President of the Mission America Coalition, recently said that results like that would be extremely meaningful, and might be driven by the Holy Spirit.  He went on to say that he was not able to achieve such results at his church (where he previously had pastored), even though he had heavily focused on it while in leadership there.

The previous results are still a far cry away from being sure of future success.  Questions remain about maintaining results over the long haul (although these churches currently have a two year track record).  Other questions also apply, such as, can the numbers not just be maintained, but can they continue to progress upward?  Furthermore, do the congregants really know what actually constitutes a good prayer life (even though we provide tools helping them to know)?  Additionally, can they actually demonstrate answers to prayer, some of which are to be expected, if they are praying Biblically?

As a quick summary, the above results were derived by: 1) using the SPI Diagnostic Survey — to help lay a foundation & encourage participation in SPI, 2) doing weekly, or bi-monthly congregation wide measurements using a tool known as the QuickCheck Card(^TM), 3) by having the whole congregation go through their own copy of a short booklet called Love to Pray, 4) making the entry level of the PrayerCords(^TM) System available to those who might be interested in it.  Another “very” encouraging result comes from the second of the two churches previously mentioned (running 100 to 150 in weekly attendance).  In this church about a third of their people are in PrayerCords, and after about two years these Cords are averaging over 75% of the people reporting a good prayer life.

Now on to one of the discouraging results. Since we believe that the scriptures teach that known, unconfessed, and unrepented sin in a Christian’s life can limit the effectiveness of his/her prayers, out of necessity we have tried to get a handle on this very important aspect of a good prayer life.  In the diagnostic survey, we are finding there have been large portions of some of the congregations say (sometimes as high as 40%) that sin does not interfere with prayer.  Additionally, when getting a regular, and anonymous read on this, we have been finding that often little or no progress is being made in the sanctification process.  However, a possible silver lining behind this cloud is that those that have been in SPI PrayerCords, in one of the two churches previously mentioned, have become much more effective in the sanctification process, in comparison to those not in PrayerCords.

by Mike Jebb

After approximately 12 years of attempting to build a great church, Pastor Wilson (pseudonym – name available upon request) decided to turn in his resignation, due to his failed attempts concerning his pastorate.  Just prior to resigning, Wilson accepted a complementary invitation to a three and a half day Pastors’ Prayer Summit on the beautiful coast of the Pacific Northwest.  Wilson loved the coast and thought this would be a wonderful opportunity for him to walk the rugged beaches and write his letter of resignation.

During the first day of the prayer summit, while Pastor Wilson walked along the shore, and contemplated his resignation, a pang of guilt came over his conscience.  He had accepted this complementary scholarship for the summit, and over $100 worth of free books, and consequently felt he should at least attend one or two sessions before writing his resignation.  As Pastor Wilson sought the Lord during one of the sessions, he came to the startling realization that in his effort to develop his church, he had tried ‘everything except prayer.”

In light of this startling yet intriguing revelation, Wilson chose not to resign his pastorate. Instead, he would return to his people, and make prayer the “highest” priority in his own life, and in the lives of his congregation.  And yes, you have guessed the conclusion… This new paradigm led to more than a decade and a half of incredible growth and ministry, and it was the total commitment to prayer, not church growth strategies, that Pastor Wilson is convinced made the difference.

If you ask those in fulltime Christian ministry, if they are for prayer, you will almost always hear a resounding yes.  If you ask congregants, who have at least a touch of maturity under their belts, if they believe prayer is powerful, you will hear very few, if any, naysayers.  If the vast majority of layman and pastors (holding to a high view of Scripture) are for prayer, why does it appear that the preponderance of our people are only scratching the surface, when it comes to tapping into this awesome resource?

The work of the Strategic Prayer Initiative^TM has been acutely focused on aiding average American Christians to become seriously more effective in prayer and spiritual warfare.  Part of that effort has been to gather diagnostic survey information from over 3,000 believers on how well they say they are doing in various aspects, or practices, pertinent to the spiritual battle, prayer being the most prominent of these factors.  This analysis, typically done on Sunday mornings, has given us some strong indications of where these people feel they are.

Before we take a brief look at some of the survey results, let me pose what I believe to be a salient question.   If we believe that the fervent prayers of a righteous person can accomplish much, if we believe the prayer of faith can move a mountain, then why do such large numbers of American Christians tap this great resource so casually?

In looking at some of the data, our research shows that 16.6% spend about 30 minutes or more in fully focused prayer on a typical day (somewhat like Mark 1:35, i.e. not multi-tasking).  Eighty-three percent spend 10 or less minutes daily in fully focused prayer, 56.7% spend five minutes a day or less, and 30.6% spend two minutes a day or less.

When you ask these people to tell you if they are satisfied or not with their current prayer lives, 80.2% will say no, yet 95.7% believe “that God wants all of His true followers to have a good prayer life.”

When we asked people to self-rate their current prayer lives, 25.7% said their prayer lives were good or mature, while 46% said fair, and 28% said their prayer lives were poor.

However, one of the most helpful pieces of data shows both the serious need, as well as the incredible untapped potential.  When asked how much of their entire life as a Christian they have actually had a good prayer life, 52.3% said only a small portion of their Christian life, or never.  In other words, half of our warriors are firing blanks from one of their most important weapons!

In conclusion, the Scriptures are replete with admonitions about the power and importance of prayer, and our nation (& world) are abounding in problems and moral crisis.  If Jesus was right that the prayer of faith could cause a mountain to be cast into the sea, it makes one wonder what might be possible, if the church could actually be mobilized in fervent, righteous, and strategic prayer…

by Mike Jebb

The recent book by Rob Bell, Love Wins, has reopened the controversial topic about the ultimate spiritual destiny of mankind – will every person, no matter what, be reconciled ultimately back to God through his bountiful love in Christ’s sacrificial death and live eternally in His presence, or will Judgment Day separate some men and women to eternal separation from God, that is to Hell, while others, through the reconciling work of Christ on the Cross, spend eternity with God?

The month of May will be devoted to exploring this question.  We thought that there is no better place to discuss this heated topic then at your local seminary.  We have asked D. Scott Reichard, a local proponent of “ultimate reconciliation,” and Dr. Aaron Bird, an adjunct Professor at Urbana Seminary and specialist on the doctrine of Hell – who will be teaching a summer course at Urbana Seminary called “Evil, Hell & Universalism” – to discuss the matter for us on our blog.

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Hell is eternal ruin.

Scripture reveals a strange reality called “Hell.”  Every single New Testament author – Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, James, Peter, Jude, and the author of Hebrews – describes about the sense of “gehenna” and, Jesus himself, utilizes the referent “gehenna” ten times and it’s sense many other times, totaling about thirteen percent of his recorded speech.

The biblical authors believed in Hell.  Jesus believed in Hell.  Annihilationists, Evangelical Universalists, Eternal Conscious Punishment folks, the Metaphorical camp, and Issuantists all believe in this dark doctrine too.

The biblical authors also believe this reality is eternal.  The main verses include Matthew 18:8; 25:41, 46; Mark 9:48; 2 Thessalonians 1:9; Jude 7, 12-13; and Revelation 14:11, 20:10.  The word “aion” itself can mean “without beginning or without end,” as well as “an age.”  There is a quantitative and qualitative aspect to the word’s meaning, then.  The quantitative aspect is problematic for anyone who grants an everlasting quantitative aspect to Heaven but not Hell.  Quantitative meanings for eternal Hell and eternal Heaven, like in John 5:24 or Revelation 7:15 should mean the same thing for both, especially when we find the adjectival qualifier “aionios” in front of both heaven and hell in the very same context and in the very same verse as we do in Matthew 25:41, 46.  Anything less is fudging on the data.

There is also a qualitative aspect to it.  When placed in the immediate contexts of the aforementioned verses, the age refers to the age to come.   There emphasis in Scripture is not on an age that comes to an end; rather, the age to come refers to the kind of unending-life-age.  Hell’s eternity, then, refers predominately to the manner of life one will endure.

Moreover, eternity must be understood in the thicker context of divine actions.  Boethius asserted “Eternity is God’s mode of existence,” that is, God is life/eternity itself.  As such, there is a particular kind of life in Jesus Christ in the age to come.  The biblical authors point in using olam (cf. Psalm 61:8), then, and its counterpart ainions, is not to give philosophical definition to duration and time, but rather to disclose the consuming life force of the divine context and the quality of life one either enjoys or endures.

“Smoke,” “day and night,” and “forever and ever,” are interpreted in the same manner.  For example, “day and night” in Revelation 14:11, Gregory Beale claims, has the idea of a “kind of time—the time of ceaseless activity.”  This becomes even more compelling in light of Revelation 20:10, where the evil Trinity undergoes ceaseless spiritual plight, not just in the way their spiritual plight will always be remembered but in the way their spiritual plight will never stop.  This figurative way for understanding the unending nature of what is happening can also be found scattered throughout the New Testament in general (viz., Mark 5:5; Luke 18:7;; Acts 9:24; 1 Thess 2:9; 3:10; 2 Thess. 3:8; 1 Tim 5:5; and, 2 Tim 1:3).  Again, “smoke” is figurative for a ceaseless activity (cf. Rev 14:11), while “forever and ever,” means the same thing (ceaseless activity) in each of the thirteen occurrences we find in Revelation. (viz., 1:6, 18; 4:9, 10; 5:13; 7:12; 10:6; 11:15; 14:11; 15:7; 19:3; 20:10; 22:5).

This does not mean hell exists in the same way for everyone.  The biblical authors disclose gradations  of one’s existence in and as hell, based on, and according to, one’s life (cf. Ps 62:12; Prov 24:12; Ezek 7:27; Hos 4:9; Zech 1:6; Matt 10:15; 11:24; 16:27; 19:28f; 25:31-46; Luke 10:12; 12:47-48; John 5:28f;  Rom 2:6-9; 14:12; 2 Cor 5:10; Gal 6:7-8; rev 20:12-13).  Because we understand hell’s eternity in light of God’s eternity, however, it does mean every hell-inhabitant shares the similar meaning of his or her existence, namely a quality of life outside of Christ (e.g., Luke 15:24, 32; Eph. 2:1, 12; Col. 2:13; cf. Rev. 21:8 with 22:15; 21:27; 22:14-15, 19).

The kind of life outside of Christ is one of ruin.  There’s a intratextual thread of this idea in the canon, but let’s utilize one text in particular; perhaps the apostle Paul’s most important text about hell, namely, 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9, reads, “He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.  They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed . . ..”  The word “destruction,” here, means “ruin.”  Indeed, Leon Morris claims it means “the loss of all that is worthwhile, utter ruin.”

Ruin is a state one finds oneself in, a state outside of everything God is and does in Jesus Christ.

When we are unfastened from the Christ, there is ruin, which literally means a loss of essence and intended function.  Outside of Christ there is a loss of intended function, a strange and improper form of being; it is a ruined existence.  God wants us to become certain kinds of people, to be caught up in all that God is and does in Jesus, which is the necessary and sufficient condition for human well-being. Similarly, Guthrie states:

The Bible uses the earthly, human categories of time and space not primarily to describe literally where we will be and how we will exist ‘after time,’ but to describe symbolically who we will be.  It is not primarily interested in the ‘furniture of heaven’ or the ‘temperature of hell,’ but in people and whether they will be together with or separated from God.

This is why “gehenna” was such an apt metaphor in Jesus’ day.  That which finds its way to a garbage dump has lost its intended function; the never ending burning refuse exists in a state of ruin.  What was once proper has lost its intended function.  In other words, there’s “no more use,” “a loss of function,” and a people “who did not fulfill their purpose.”   Our purpose is to “be caught up in the Christ.”  They are still formally there, but there is a loss of function, intended purpose, and essence of the original nature.  Something remains, but the something is a subhuman and improper form of existence at best.

In this respect, I do not conflate the imagery of hell with the doctrine itself.  The nature and purpose of hell itself is not blazing fire, pitch-black darkness, teeth gnashing, disgusting worms, and parched mouths; nor as Dante would describe it in his fictional eschatological narrative.  We must practice genre identification, for there are different genres in which we find hell-discourse like the parable of Luke 16, John’s apocalyptic literature, Paul’s didactic teaching, and the gospel-writers’ narrative descriptions.  These accounts are vehicles God accommodates to us in order to inform us of this eschatological reality in different ways.  Each author intentionally utilizes a genre for the purpose of disclosing a particular kind of eschatological reality, not to tickle us into pondering an abstract ethereal underworld, but to jolt us into knowing one can exist outside the famous Christ.  One might initially believe the contrasting images of fire and darkness, for example, or the contrasting pictures of banishment and destruction, for example, leads to contradictory or different hells, but this interpretive stance leaves out generic identification.

These images, pictures, and words in the various genres are all different ways of viewing Hell as eternal ruin.  As we return to our natural dust may God’s grace, mercy, justice, love, wrath, goodness, intensity, and quality of life draw us to His redemption when He wakes us up.  Because He will wake us up.

The recent book by Rob Bell, Love Wins, has reopened the controversial topic about the ultimate spiritual destiny of mankind – will every person, no matter what, be reconciled ultimately back to God through his bountiful love in Christ’s sacrificial death and live eternally in His presence, or will Judgment Day separate some men and women to eternal separation from God, that is to Hell, while others, through the reconciling work of Christ on the Cross, spend eternity with God?

The month of May will be devoted to exploring this question.  We thought that there is no better place to discuss this heated topic then at your local seminary.  We have asked D. Scott Reichard, a local proponent of “ultimate reconciliation,” and Dr. Aaron Bird, an adjunct Professor at Urbana Seminary and specialist on the doctrine of Hell – who will be teaching a summer course at Urbana Seminary called “Evil, Hell & Universalism” – to discuss the matter for us on our blog.

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“The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul; the Judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether” (Ps 19:7-9).  “When Thy Judgments are in the Earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn Righteousness” (Isaiah 26:9).

LOGIC: ET preachers have told me that Everlasting Torment is Righteous Judgment for the single sin of a 12 year old girl stealing a piece of candy because ”all sin gets the same Judgment–Hell forever”.  Wow!   Did anyone learn Righteousness with that kind of Judgment in the Earth?  Does that make sense to anyone?  Infinite penalty for sin not only violates the Divine Law and is biblically illegal but it cannot satisfy Justice by definition.  For at the point at which it satisfies Justice it must end.  “Just Infinite Penalty” is an oxymoron–like a square circle, an utter impossibility. If Justice requires infinite penalty, then verses like Col. 3:25 and Heb. 2:2 are meaningless.  The Divine Law has, “The wages of sin being death” as the worst possible punishment–not Eternal Torment (Romans 6:23).  No sin is worthy of Unending Conscious pain and suffering.

LOVE: God is Love (1 Jn 4:8,16).  ET proponents have pitted God’s Love against His attributes of Holiness and Justice, forgetting that His very essence is Love. God’s Righteous Judgments, like His acts of Mercy, are manifestations of His Love. Both His Mercy and His Judgments serve His one Holy purpose of drawing All men to Himself purchased and made legal in the Courts of Heaven by the Blood of Jesus.  As the only perfect “Father,” I am pretty sure He knows that over-discipline causes a child to lose respect for the parent. And with each Judgment, there must be forgiveness at the end of the time of discipline.  Forgiveness after discipline is what causes a child to gain respect and the healthy “FEAR” of God that David often mentions.  It is a shame that our teaching and portrayal of God has altered the World’s view of Him.

PURPOSE DRIVEN JUDGMENT:   Scripture does not support unjust punishment of any kind.  The purpose of God’s Judgment is to teach the World Righteousness, not burn them to ashes.  Burning/Tormenting People Alive in Hell is not Justice–it is punishment.  True Justice is never fully accomplished until all of the victims of injustice have been recompensed and the sinner restored to Grace. Unending Torment can never accomplish true Justice and permits sin and evil to continue in perpetuity.  Our current Court/Penal system reflects this same injustice.  It punishes without purifying costing astronomical amounts of money to society to obtain “Justice,” only to destroy the sinner with high recidivism rates and leave the victims usually without restitution.  How can we expect our judges to establish Justice in human Courts, prescribing judgments that are neither too lenient or to harsh, when the Church itself prescribes infinite punishment upon all sinners alike, regardless of the nature of the crime. As the Church leads, so goes the World.

FIRE AND THE GWT:  “The Ancient of Days took His seat, His throne was ablaze with flames. A River of Fire was flowing out from before Him” (Dan. 7:9,10).  What John called “The Lake of Fire” in Revelation 20, Daniel describes as a “River of Fire”.  Jesus calls it a “Gehenna Fire” and says, “I have come to cast Fire on the Earth and I wish it were already kindled” (Luke 12:49).  Revengeful Pyromaniac or Loving Savior with a Purpose–what kind of Fire we talking about?

Gehenna was ironically the same location where the Fires to Molech burned and where God says “it never entered His mind to burn people alive” (Jeremiah 32:35).  So, since Fire is obviously the metaphor for Hell, discovering the “nature” of the Fire streaming from the Throne of Justice, may just lead us to the answer of the real Hell.  And since the GWT scene is packed with Saints and Angels, are they watching something Holy or are they Blood thirsty Coliseum spectators as Tertullian describes: “One of the joys of heaven will be the ability of the Saints to watch the damned tormented forever in Hell” (Spect. 30).

THE FIERY LAW:   “The Lord came with 10,000′s of His Saints: from His right hand went a “Fiery Law” for them.  Yea, He loved the people, all His Saints are in thy hand” (Dt. 33:2,3).  The River or Lake of Fire is the “Fiery Law” of God’s Loving Justice being administered from His Throne (always considered a universal symbol of Law and Authority).  The ancient Greek word for Fire is “pur”. It is the root of such English words today as “Purge and Purify”.  This is what the Refining Fire of God does, for it characterizes the very nature of God and His law.  In the end, all sin is thus judged Lawfully, Purposefully and Righteously with the Earth rejoicing at the outcome, wisdom and amazing Love of God.

by Scott Reichard