Tag: Judgment

Morning Musing: Hosea 2:14

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“Therefore, I am going to persuade her, lead her to the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

One of the ideas about the Scriptures that has been around a long time is that the God of the Old Testament is not the same as the God of the New Testament. The picture of God presented in the pages of each is so different that it’s not the same person. The primary source for this supposed contrast is the judgmental God the prophets describe versus the God of love and mercy and compassion found in the pages of the Gospels, especially if we are going to accept that Jesus really is God. My take? Try actually reading it. Then you’ll see a bit more clearly. 

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Digging in Deeper: Revelation 20:15

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“And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

This morning we started wrestling through what we are supposed to do with a passage like this one and its disturbing images of the final fate of those who reject God as Lord. We started with the basics: The doctrine of Hell is hard, but it’s also necessary. With those two truths in place, let’s deal with the emotional hard of the idea of Hell being a place of eternal death and fiery torment. Are those both true pictures of Hell? Because, if we’re honest, those are the ideas that drive so many away from the doctrine. 

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Morning Musing: Revelation 20:15

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“And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

Preachers of old were famous for their sermons filled with “hellfire and brimstone.” Some, like George Whitfield, were famous (infamous?) for offering their audiences graphic descriptions of Hell that were so compelling people would give their lives to Christ then and there on the spot just to avoid even the remotest possibility of such a fate. Today, however, the idea of a fiery Hell waiting for all those who refuse to have faith in Christ not only isn’t very popular, for many it is an active impediment to their accepting the existence of God in the first place. So then, what do we do with verses like this one?

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Morning Musing: Genesis 3:21

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“The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

This is one of my favorite verses in this whole story. This verse seems like almost an afterthought when you first read it, but I think a good argument can be made that it reveals more important information about God’s character than anything else in this section. Let’s talk about why. 

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Morning Musing: 2 Corinthians 5:9-10

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“Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”‬‬ (CSB- Read the chapter)

At the end of the last post I started talking about what we do in light of the fact that we have this assurance of life after death as followers of Jesus. Paul goes there next too. 

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