Escape the Night Oh My God Are You Really Doing This Again

Exercise whatsoever of these audio familiar?

• Every Sunday the preacher shouted from the pulpit that y'all're a terrible sinner. God is angry at you. Because of God's wrath, you lot're going to burn in hell for all eternity.
• Your parents drilled it into you that you're just no good. And they're probably right. You just tin't feel good well-nigh annihilation you do.
• You've done terrible things . . . horrible things. What y'all've washed is so bad that y'all deserve to be in hell. At that place is no hope for you. You lot're a goner.
• No matter how difficult you try, yous only can't exist good. You lot know what you should exercise, but you lot merely keep on doing the things you shouldn't do.

If any of these are much as well familiar for y'all, I'll be direct: There are no easy answers. As well, yous've probably tried the easy answers already, and learned the hard way that they don't work.

I'm also not going to tell y'all that all y'all accept to do is believe in Jesus. Assertive in Jesus is great. I highly recommend it! Being born again is wonderful! But for Christians, assertive in Jesus is but the outset. Then come up the many years of growing from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity.

The fact is, if whatsoever of the things on this list draw your feel, then no matter how you slice information technology, you lot've got some hard work to do. And information technology may have years to fully recover, fifty-fifty with God's help.

What I can offer you lot is new light and a new understanding of your situation. Nothing I say volition snap you right out of it and instantly make your life a bed of roses. Merely it will give you lot hope that there is a path out. And it might help you lot take your adjacent steps on that path toward the life of sky God has in heed for you.

No matter what that preacher or your parents or anyone else has said, God created you for heaven, not for hell. And there is no reason on earth that you tin't detect your way to heaven . . . no matter what your history.

And so let's straighten a few things out.

Is a wrathful God aroused at you?

The short reply is: No.

Huh?!?

So what about all those Bible passages the preacher quoted about God's wrath and fury?

Doesn't the Bible say, "God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day" (Psalm 7:11, Rex James Version)?

Well, in that location's a funny story most that verse . . .

Start, the word for "the wicked" came from an aboriginal Aramaic (or "Chaldee") version. It is not in the original Hebrew text, nor is it in the other aboriginal translations. Even in the King James Version, the words "with the wicked" are in italics, meaning they are not in the original. So it should read, "God judges the righteous, and God is angry every twenty-four hour period."

But await, at that place'due south more!

You lot see, the Hebrew word for "God" in the second half of the poesy could also mean "not," depending on how the Hebrew is interpreted. And that'south exactly what most of ancient translations, including the well-known Septuagint Greek translation, have in that poesy. The first half of the verse is likewise a little off in some of the older English language translations.

What does this all mean?

The verse nigh certainly should read, "God is a righteous estimate, and is non aroused all solar day." (Compare Young's Literal Translation for this poesy.)

Picture a gauge taking hundreds of cases, one after another, pronouncing just judgments all day without e'er getting aroused, even at the worst evildoers. That's the picture the Psalmist is painting. And it's just the contrary of what that quondam fire and brimstone preacher said!

Now, don't become me wrong. In that location are lots of other verses in the Bible that talk about God'due south anger and wrath. Simply as I pointed out in the article, "If God is Love, Why all the Hurting and Suffering?" that's but how God's love looks to us when we're aptitude on an evil and subversive path that's opposed to God's love.

God's dearest is similar the warmth of the dominicus. Only what if you're a snowman? What if you lot want to be common cold and unloving? If you lot're a snowman, God'south love looks wrathful and destructive. Information technology'southward a horrible, subversive heat that melts and destroys you lot.

When the Bible talks well-nigh God's wrath, it'south talking about the effect God'southward honey has on everything that'due south evil and false in united states and in our world. It's merely when we identify with the evil and cling to it as our own that we feel God's love as anger and wrath. And the Bible often speaks to us according to the way things seem to the states, even if the reality is different from God's perspective.

Did you know that the Bible talks about God's honey far more ofttimes than it talks well-nigh God's wrath? Here is a beautiful passage assuring us that God feels only love toward u.s., whether we are evil or skillful:

You lot have heard that it was said, "You shall beloved your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you lot, Dearest your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Begetter in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:43–45)

And the famous verses from the Gospel of John:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that anybody who believes in him may non perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not transport the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the earth might be saved through him. (John three:16–17)

Notice that it doesn't say God was and then angry with the world, but God and so loved the world.

And then here'south the get-go ray of new light, and the well-nigh important new information most your situation: No affair what you may have been told, God is not angry at you. Information technology's just the reverse. No matter what you take done, and no matter how horrible or worthless a person you lot think you are, God loves yous.

God sends you the sun of divine love, and the rain of divine truth, whether you are evil or proficient, and whether you lot are righteous or unrighteous.

There is nothing you tin practise to make God stop loving you. As the Psalm says:

O Lord, you lot have examined me, and y'all know me. . . .
If I go upwardly to heaven, you are at that place.
If I make my bed in hell, you are at that place.
(Psalm 139:1, 8)

Are you condemned because of what your parents did?

Our parents were responsible for bringing u.s. into this globe. They are supposed to dear us, treat the states, teach us correct from incorrect, and guide us toward a healthy and responsible machismo. And some of the states were fortunate enough to take parents who did a fine job.

Unfortunately, some of u.s. were born of parents who fell far short of the marking. Maybe they just weren't ready to have children. Maybe they were too focused on money or power or pleasance to actually care well-nigh their children. Maybe they were just patently evil and destructive types who used and abused their children at will. Bad parents can crusade great damage to their children.

If you lot were one of those unfortunate children, does this mean your life is ruined from the start, and you might as well simply throw in the towel?

In ancient times, it was mutual for whole families to exist condemned and executed for the offenses of the head of the household. For example, when iii men named Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rebelled against God'due south commandments to the ancient Hebrews about the priesthood, not only they, but their wives and children died as a result of their disobedience. Yous can read the story in Numbers 16.

However, in class of time, God pronounced an end to the practice of children being judged guilty for the crimes of their parents. This pronouncement comes in Ezekiel 18—one of the most beautiful chapters in the Hebrew Bible. Hither's how the chapter begins:

The word of the Lord came to me: What do you mean past repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, "The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children'due south teeth are assail border"? Equally I alive, says the Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. Know that all lives are mine; the life of the parent as well equally the life of the child is mine: it is only the person who sins that shall die. (Ezekiel 18:1–iv)

The chapter then goes on to explain in item that if a father is good, but his son evil, and so but the son shall be held guilty; and if that son has a son who sees how his father lived, and resolves not to live that way, only to live a good life instead, then only the father, non the son, shall exist held guilty.

Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?

To u.s.a. today, yes. Our justice system is based on individual innocence and guilt. To the ancient Israelites, though, this seemed quite unjust. They thought information technology was right and proper that if a man sins, his whole family should exist punished!

God was quite clear, though, that this was not to exist our do anymore:

When the son has done what is lawful and right, and has been careful to discover all my statutes, he shall surely live. The person who sins shall die. A child shall not suffer for the iniquity of a parent, nor a parent suffer for the iniquity of a child; the righteousness of the righteous shall be his own, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be his own. (Ezekiel 18:19–20)

Yet, when it comes to our spiritual and emotional life, sometimes we oasis't gotten the message. We think that considering our parents were evil, and neglected or mistreated us, that means we, also, are doomed, and headed toward hell.

It's not true.

Yes, we may have a long, hard route undoing the damage that our parents did to us. It might take much prayer, counseling, and much difficult and painful introspection and rearranging of our emotional and social life.

Simply God does not hold us responsible for the errors and sins of our parents. And neither should nosotros. If our parents drilled into us that we're merely no practiced, they were lying to us. And if they used and abused u.s.a., they were perpetrating evil on us.

That lying and that evil was theirs, not ours. And though it did take a profound effect on us, in that location is a pathway out of the impairment our parents did to us. It is the path of recognizing that what our parents did to us had aught to do with usa. Information technology was their ain immaturity, neglect, and evil, not ours, that damaged us. As we recognize that what they said was not true, and what they did was just patently wrong, we can gradually recognize that we ourselves are not what they said we were, nor did nosotros deserve what they did to us.

If yous were neglected or driveling verbally or physically by your parents, it is not going to be an easy path out of what they did to y'all. But there is a path. And it starts with recognizing that yous are non condemned for the sins of your parents. God created you for a reason. God loves yous, and has prepared a place for you in sky (run across John xiv:1–3, i Corinthians 2:9).

You have the rest of your life to leave behind the lies and the wrongs that were inflicted on you when yous were young. You have the rest of your life to walk, even if painfully sometimes, the path toward the life of heaven that God has prepared for you.

Have you committed terrible sins?

What if information technology wasn't your parents who did a number on you? What if you yourself accept washed terrible, horrible things? What if you lot don't deserve to get to heaven because of what you've done?

If that'south the country of mind you lot're in, and so Ezekiel 18 has a bulletin for y'all as well:

But if the wicked plow away from all their sins that they have committed and keep all my statutes and practice what is lawful and right, they shall surely live; they shall not die. None of the transgressions that they accept committed shall be remembered against them; for the righteousness that they accept done they shall live. Take I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that they should plow from their means and live? (Ezekiel 18:21–23, emphasis added)

Based on his experience in the spiritual world, Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) tells us that this is precisely how it works afterward we die. In Sky and Hell #509, he writes:

No one suffers any penalization for evil things done in the world, only for current evil deeds. . . . Good spirits are never punished, though, even though they have done bad things in the world. This is considering their evils practice not come dorsum.

Swedenborg is but affirming what God tells us in Ezekiel eighteen: Nosotros are not held responsible for things we have done in the past. Only for things we keep doing in the present. If we accept done something terrible in the by, simply have repented of it, have reformed our grapheme, and no longer practise things like that, then none of the transgressions we have committed will be remembered confronting us.

If you lot accept done something terrible, there is no way to undo it. Yous and those yous hurt volition still take to alive with the repercussions of your deportment. But one of those repercussions is not that you must go to hell for it.

Of course, if at that place is any mode you tin can make apology for what you have done, y'all should certainly do then. Nonetheless, when your time on this globe comes to an stop, you will find your place in heaven or in hell depending on the person you take go in the present, and the way you are living now, not based on any wrongs yous take done in the past.

Every bit the old proverb goes, "Every saint has a past, and every sinner a hereafter."

And so delight don't worry well-nigh the terrible things you have done in the past. God has already forgiven you for them. God has no pleasure in your eternal death. No thing what yous've washed, God wants y'all to turn from your onetime means and live! Now it's fourth dimension to build a new life for yourself, and so that you won't do things like that anymore. For more on how to do this, see the article, "What does Jesus Hateful when He Says we Must exist Built-in Once more?"

What if yous keep doing things you shouldn't?

It sounds like you're in the same boat as the apostle Paul when he wrote:

I know that my selfish desires won't let me exercise anything that is good. Even when I desire to do right, I cannot. Instead of doing what I know is right, I practise incorrect. . . . In every part of me I discover something fighting confronting my mind, and it makes me a prisoner of sin that controls everything I do. What a miserable person I am! (Romans 7:18–19, 23–24)

Every bit he went on to say, Paul found a rescue from this situation in Jesus Christ. However, as I said earlier, for Christians, assertive in Jesus Christ is simply the first pace. After that comes the more challenging steps of living co-ordinate to Christ'south teachings.

And for many of us who are very sensitive about our own wrongs and our own bad habits, one of the means we don't follow Christ'due south teachings is to lay burdens on ourselves that are much as well heavy—and are sometimes completely unnecessary.

In a contempo commodity titled, "Is information technology Piece of cake or Hard to Get to Heaven?" I expanded on this proverb of Jesus:

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you lot rest. Have my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in center, and y'all volition notice rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my brunt is low-cal. (Matthew eleven:28–30)

I invite you to read that article if you feel you just can't live up to what you know is right.

Here's another thought that might assistance:

Take you considered that fifty-fifty though you lot have some bad habits, and practice some things that really aren't good, perhaps they aren't really evil either?

Let's confront it: neither you nor I nor anyone else is ever going to be perfect. Each one of us will die as an imperfect human beingness, still thinking, feeling, saying, and doing some things that we actually shouldn't.

What we need is some standard by which to make up one's mind just how serious our bad habits and incorrect deportment are.

There are many possible standards. In case you don't have i that works for you, may I advise something really elementary? The X Commandments. Peculiarly the second function of the Ten Commandments, which is about how we humans are supposed to bear toward one another. I'm talking especially about these commandments (in their short versions):

• Honor your father and your mother.
• You shall not murder.
• You shall not commit adultery.
• You shall not steal.
• You shall not give imitation testimony against your neighbor.
• You shall not covet.

"Covet" is an old-fashioned word meaning wanting something that belongs to someone else. The problem with coveting is that information technology tends to lead to the other offenses: murder, adultery, stealing, and lying.

And about honoring your father and your mother, if the parents who raised you abdicated their parental responsibilities and did a number on yous, experience free to recollect of God as your father and your female parent instead. (For more on this, see "The Mother of All the Living.")

Now here's the question: Are the things you're currently doing that are incorrect actually against whatever of these commandments? Are y'all killing people, committing adultery, stealing, lying virtually other people, and so on?

If the answer is yeah, then y'all do accept a real problem—and y'all need to do the work of rebirth or "regeneration" in social club to overcome it.

But if you're not actually breaking whatsoever of these commandments, information technology's quite possible that you're laying too heavy a burden on yourself. Exercise you call up you have to be perfect in lodge to become to sky?

I'chiliad not saying you shouldn't continue to work on yourself. I'yard non saying y'all shouldn't continue taking steps to give up your bad habits and end doing hurtful and destructive things. There is e'er room for improvement.

Just are the wrong things you say and exercise really bad enough that you lot should go to hell for them? Chances are, they are not. They are simply areas where you nonetheless have work to practice.

So go a little piece of cake on yourself. The very fact that you're concerned virtually your eternal land, and want to become a better person, suggests that you are on the path to heaven, not on that slippery slope to hell.

God wants You in sky

God wants YOU for heaven

Maybe you've given upwards on yourself. Only God hasn't given up on you. If God had given upwards on you, you would no longer be alive on this globe. In fact, hither's a thought to take habitation with you:

As long as yous are live and breathing on this earth, yous can notwithstanding discover your manner to heaven.

God has given us a lifetime here on globe considering God knows that it takes some of united states many years to whip ourselves into shape—with God's help, of form. So use your fourth dimension here well. And so you volition not be disappointed when your fourth dimension on world is finished, and yous motility on to the next life.

If you lot still call up y'all're going to hell, consider these final words from Ezekiel 18:

Therefore I will judge you, O house of State of israel, all of you according to your ways, says the Lord God. Repent and plow from all your transgressions; otherwise iniquity will exist your ruin. Bandage abroad from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and become yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will yous die, O house of State of israel? For I have no pleasure in the expiry of anyone, says the Lord God. Turn, then, and live! (Ezekiel 18:xxx–32)

Why would God say these words to us if God did not know and wait that we tin can leave our by backside, and live a new life?

Heaven is possible for you! The choice is yours. God volition be with you lot, guiding and strengthening y'all every step of the way, considering God loves you and cares about y'all. God has a job for you in heaven, and has prepared a home for you there. Practice you really want to exit information technology vacant?

For further reading:

• Ezekiel 18: God's Message of Promise . . . If Yous Think in that location'due south No Promise for Yous
• Is information technology Easy or Hard to Get to Heaven?
• How Can a Criminal Get to Sky?
• What is the Unpardonable Sin? Am I Doomed?
• What does Jesus Mean when He Says nosotros Must be Built-in Again?
• Sky, Regeneration, and the Pregnant of Life on Earth

massenburgarly1977.blogspot.com

Source: https://leewoof.org/2014/01/16/if-you-think-youre-going-to-hell-please-read-this-first/

Share this post