Jesus has come at the end of the ages to do away with sin. He has done that by offering himself. What did Jesus come to do? He came to do away with sin. Did He do away with sin? I think He is still working on it. But that is why He came. He finished His mission in one way. But in another way, the results of what Jesus did are still not totally here yet. Every knee has not yet bowed to Jesus and not every tongue has confessed Jesus is Lord yet. And people still do bad things. People have to die once. In the same way, Christ was offered up once. After people die, God will judge them. Some people think this means Christians go to heaven and everybody else goes to hell (the lake of fire) to be tormented for eternity. But the book of Hebrews says no such thing. Jesus judges us. Thank God. He is the Prince of peace. He is love. He loves His enemies. He salts everyone with the fire of His presence. He burns away our chaff and leaves the pure wheat. His judgment is like soap. Look it up in your Bible. The judgments of God teach righteousness. The rich man was learning righteousness in hades. No one said he had to stay there for eternity. Yes, there was a great gulf fixed between him and the bosom of Abraham. But the Bible says Jesus is the savior of the whole world. He came to seek and save the lost. That rich man was mourning in the flame. Jesus says, all who mourn will be comforted. Is this a true statement? I think so. I think all mourners will be comforted. The mourning rich man was learning righteousness in Hades. He wanted to warn his brothers. Yes, he was learning righteousness. The God of the universe will do what is right. This statement assumes that we know what "right" is. We know deep down God does not torture people in FIRE for eternity. Jesus says to love our enemies. Jesus is not a hypocrite. He loves His enemies too. Praise God that He judges us. He spanks His children to teach them. He is a loving Father not a mean unreasonable torturer. The Bible says: The Lord is gracious. He is kind and tender. He is slow to get angry. He is full of love. The Lord is good to all. He shows deep concern for everything he has made. Lord, every living thing you have made will praise GOD. How can people praise GOD if they are being tortured in hell? BUT the Bible says that EVERY LIVING THING will PRAISE GOD. This includes HITLER and any other "bad" sinner you can think of. Even the rich man that was in Hades. The Bible says: Jesus did not come to judge the world but to save the world. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world. He is our propitiation and not for our sins only but also for the whole world. Jesus is the bread of God. He came down from heaven and gives life to the world. Since Jesus was lifted up from the earth, He will draw (lit. drag) all peoples to Himself. The Gospel is GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY which will be to all people. It is not supposed to be BAD NEWS for most people. All the ends of the world shall…turn to the Lord, all families of the nations shall worship. ALL families? Hitler's family? Yes! ALL families. All the earth shall worship you and sing praises to GOD's name.The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.
Through the greatness of GOD'S power HIS enemies shall submit themselves to HIM. This is all from the BIBLE. Search it out. We have just been blind to these verses because our churches have taught us some wrong stuff. Now is the time to look this stuff up for ourselves. Yes God will judge us when we die. I say bring it on. He does it for our GOOD, to teach us righteousness. He is a good judge. Not a torturing judge. His judgments are all fair and just. Christ was offered up once. He took away the sins of the many. In Adam the many died. In Christ, that same many is made alive. Jesus came back already in judgment in a certain way. In 70 AD the temple was destroyed but SALVATION was brought to those who were waiting for Him. God judged. And God will judge. I believe the Bible promises that I have mentioned. All families of the earth shall be blessed. I believe that means all families. Gerry Beauchemin wrote that these promises of the Bible appy to: billions of Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists,...etc What about the poor and homeless in the streets of Calcutta (Kolkata), the dumps of Manila, the rubble of Haiti, the slums of the world? Will all non-Christians be tormented in hell forever along with millions of unfaithful Christians? What about the 6 million Jews who were tortured and sent to the gas chambers by Hitler? Did they all suffer terribly and die only to go to an infinitely worse fate? No! A thousand times, no!
All the families of the earth shall be blessed. Ge.12:3, 18:18, 22:18, 26:4, 28:14
Christ came to destroy the devil’s works! 1Jn.3:8
The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 1Co.15:26
Fear not, I…have the keys of Hell and of Death. Re.1:18 (KJV)
God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol*. Ps.49:15 (NAS) Redeem from “Hell?”
Oh Hades* where is your victory? 1Co.15:55 (NKJV) The only time Paul used the word “Hell.”
His mercy endures forever. Ps.136:1-26 Repeated 26 times in this one Psalm!
God is love and love never fails [or ends RSV]! 1 Jn.4:8, 16; 1Co.13:8
Every knee will bow… and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! Ph.2:10-11
