For even as you were once stubborn towards God, yet now were shown mercy at their stubbornness, thus these also are now stubborn to this mercy of yours, that now they also may be shown mercy. For God locks up all together in stubbornness, that He should be merciful to all.
Romans 11: 30-32, Concordant New Testament
For much of my life as a Christian, I believed that I truly could never be worthy of going to heaven. Somewhere, this wicked heart of mine would trip me up once again and God would blot my name from the book of His chosen ones {Jeremiah 17:9, Mark7:21}. This is the Lords righteous judgement upon those He deems to sinful to be on His presence. For I was born a sinner, and that was all I would ever be {Romans 3:23}. This belief was all but solidified each and every Sunday as the local pastor assured me that all I could ever hope to be is to "Be like" His Son. That even though Jesus had come to cleanse me of my sins, somehow my wicked heart would someday prove me unworthy of the Lords love. When I look back, it's plain to see that I was blinded by the words and scripture interpretations of those in the church. God was not the God of love I know today, but a vengeful God just waiting to root out all who lived their lives against Him. Sadly, this continues to be the image of God that perpetuates much of the mainstream church today. If you do not tow the line as far as church attendance, tithing and devotion you will surely find yourself bound for hell. Does this sound like something God would do, to express His deepest love for me only to find me at some point unlovable? Now, you might find this tough to swallow, but if you've heard many Sunday sermons then you know all too well that the church makes it a point to assure us that hell is our ultimate destination. So, we struggle to live our lives in a way pleasing to the Lord. At the direction of the pastor, of course. But why would God go through all the trouble of saving me only to condemn me in the end? That was the one question which always bothered me. I mean, if the intention of God was to condemn me to hell, why didn't He just do that and save Himself the effort? Why indeed. So, the predicament we find ourselves in as believers is that either God is a liar, or that we ourselves have been lied to.
And I hear another voice out of heaven, saying, "Come out of her, my people, lest you should be joint participants in her sins, and less you should be getting of her calamities."
The Unveiling Of Jesus Christ 18: 4, Concordant New Testament
When was the last time you knew God as a liar? When was the last time in which you saw that you could not trust Him at His word? The mainstream church will shout from the rooftops that one of the beautiful attributes of God is that He will never lie {Numbers 23:19, Hebrews 6:18}. So, if we are to take God as His word, we will discover that His one true desire is that ALL of His children will be saved {Romans 11:30-32}. For those who have been spoon fed the lectures on guilt and just punishment (Sunday sermons), this might be a tough pill to swallow. We've been conditioned by those around us to accept this idea that God will dole out His righteous judgement upon all who do not live up to His standards of holiness. This indeed would be true, if not for Christ Jesus. For God, in His unending love He has for us, dispatched His Son that He would take our sins upon Himself as He died upon that cross {2 Corinthians 5:21}. Yes, but weren't those our past sins? What about the sin I continue to do today? Well, the apostle Paul assures us in Romans that Jesus gave Himself ONCE FOR ALL TIME {Romans 6:10}. What does this mean exactly? It means that we've been lied to. It means that Jesus took all of our sins past, present AND future upon Himself and put them to death on the cross with Him. The author J. Preston Eby, in his Saviour Of The World series, has referred to the mainstream church as the cursed Babylon we read of in the book of Revelation. It is the mainstream church, Eby states, that God is calling His children out of in Revelation 18:4. It is this mainstream church which will one day feel the righteous judgement of the Father. It is the church, and all which it has been against the Father, which will one day receive the Lords ultimate judgement. Yet God, in His unending love and mercy, calls His children out of her, that we might not receive of the punishments which the Father has in store for her {Revelation 18:4}. It has never been the Fathers desire that we would live in fear of His judgement upon the church. It is the Fathers desire that we know and understand the love which He has for us.
~Scott~
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