Would A Loving God? Series

WOULD A LOVING GOD

Terra Bella Presbyterian Church March 4, 2012

2 Peter 3:8-15 2 Pet. 2:4 Gen. 1:1, 26, 27 Isa. 1:17 Ezekiel 18:21-23 Ps 103

Would a loving God create a Heaven AND a Hell? I suppose I could make this a really short sermon and simply say, “No, He wouldn’t, but we would.” End of sermon.

Seriously, though, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that, when some-one asks that question, there’s still another shoe that hasn’t dropped. It’s their reason for asking. Either they want to put God in a box, or they have some major issues with accountability.

Anyone who has read even a few of the books in the Bible must surely realize that God doesn’t share his authority. He can do anything He wants. Remember? “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Gen. 1:1) “And God said, ‘Let us make man in our image; in our likeness . .” (1:26) and “God created man in his own image; in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (1:27) In the account of all God created, it never mentions Him creating Hell. So where did it come from?

In Matthew 10:28, we read, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

And in 2 Peter 2:4 it says, “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell . . . if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment . . . .”

In both Old and New Testaments, it seems that Hell’s existence is taken for granted. So let me stretch this just a bit. If God didn’t create it, but it does exist, could it be that Satan – or even we ourselves – have created it?

Around 450 AD, St. Augustine – the Bishop of Hippo – wrote this about Hell.

It is, “That condition of dreadful torment; to depart from the Kingdom of God; to be an exile from the City of God; to be alienated from the life of God; to be deprived, with so great a multitude, of the delightful fellowship of God.” (112f.)

The first inhabitants of “the Abyss” or “Hell” we are told were Satan and the angels that fell with him. This is the consequence of their rejection of God. So why would it not follow that, by our own rejection of God, we too could dwell there as well? It is a consequence – a judgment by God who did not desire it.

If someone says they believe in God, but they don’t believe in a Judgment, then they don’t believe in God. They may believe in “a god” but not in “God”. Their belief is restricted by their un-belief. They want God on their terms or not at all. Well, it doesn’t work that way. Our own souls tell us there is right and there is wrong. We know this because there is a reflection of God within us. We each share a part of that reflection, and one day God will make the parts whole.

There’s the story of a preacher who was preaching to a crowded church. The preacher was wound up to a fever pitch speaking on the 2nd coming of Jesus. Quoting Jesus’ promise, he shouted out, “I am coming soon!’” He preached some more and said even louder, “I am coming soon!!” He preached a little longer and threw his arms up in the air and cried out, “I am coming soon!” At this point, he lost his balance and tumbled off the stage into the lap of a gentleman in the 1st row. The preacher got up and apologized to the man, but the man replied: “Oh, that’s ok, you warned me three times.”

Jesus IS COMING soon. For each of us individually, it could be at any time – at the moment we die, we will be face-to-face with our Creator, and we will be held accountable before His terrifying holiness.

Back in May of 1969 a national magazine told the story of Port Royal, Jamaica. It said, “No disaster quite matches the one that struck Port Royal, Jamaica, at 11:43 a.m., on June 7, 1692. In the space of less than 10 minutes, the thriving pirate port, reputedly the wickedest city on earth, sank convulsively into the Caribbean.’

“An eyewitness described the scene: ‘The earth heaved and swelled like the rolling billows, and in many places the earth cracked open - opened and shut – with a motion quick and fast. In some cases, people were swallowed up; in others, they were caught by the middle, and pressed to death. The whole was attended with the noise of falling mountains at a distance, while the sky was turned dull and reddish, like a glowing oven.’”