Walking With Christ

Numbers 20:12 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”(ESV)

This is a continuation from yesterday since there was so much left unsaid. Yesterday, summed up, I said that hell was a real place that was, in reality, the consequence of our choice to have a relationship with God or not.

Heaven and hell are not the carrot and stick, respectively, and shouldn’t be taught that way. I’ve heard a lot of people say that some people just need “the hell scared out of them”. I think that teaches the nature of God exactly the same way that Moses and Aaron displayed the nature of God when Moses struck the rock out of anger. This was the very moment, the single act, that caused both Aaron and Moses to not be allowed to go into the promised land. Moses was commanded to speak to the rock and tell it to give the people water. Instead, Moses was angry and hit the rock. God is not angry with us. He knows what we are going to do before we do it. He has placed as many obvious road signs as possible in our path and done everything there is to do to open our eyes to the path ahead if we choose to not have that relationship with Him.

Yes, we must acknowledge that hell is a very real place and the final consequence of our insistence in not having that relationship. God is love. Love can’t be forced. It must be freely given. This means that there must be the possibility of choosing to not love. The implicit part of the existence of choice is the possibility of choosing something else. Every choice has distinct consequences. God gave us love then gave us the choice to love Him back freely or not. Choosing to not love God back does have the consequence of being left in a place without God. That’s what hell is, a place without God, a place where He completely removes His goodness and presence. There is no animosity towards anyone or anything that chooses hell. It’s sadness. God does not send anyone to hell. They choose hell by denying Him and His love.

There are a lot of people who say that if God comes down to earth and tell them directly that they need to believe then they will believe. He did come down to earth in the form of Jesus Christ. People will argue and say that God needs to speak directly to them, in person, with witnesses before they will believe. How many times should God have to repeat the message? He only said “let there be light” once and we still have light now. I’m confident that repeating the message won’t help people believe it.