Would we all be in a better place as divine human beings if we didn’t need a Devil or a Hell to compete with a God of Love?
Would the one true God of Love and Light be terribly upset if we kicked the whole idea to the failed trash bin of recorded history?
If Hell and the Devil fell in the woods and nobody cared would it make anymore noise? For if God is a still small voice Hell and the Devil must only be breathed into existence by us.
After all these are just usurper ideas of an ancient age, something that helped explain unpredictability as if the beauty of the night or a great storm needed a mascot. You don’t need to explain the space between the breath, it’s all God and it’s only ever been all God.
So what about the holy books and the ideas of ancient men and their world & the universe, well have you ever considered he could have been wrong?
But then if we get rid of the Devil and Hell isn’t God and Heaven next Pastor?
No just the idea that God needs a nemesis at all, but rather just willing divine humans ready to step out of bronze age thinking and into a divinely ordained future.
Luke 13:23 Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few be saved?” So he said to them, 13:24 “Exert every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.
If this was the end of this story and Jesus is talking about the whole world, further more if Jesus is talking about literal Heaven & Hell in this story then Yes most human beings ever born go to Hell. If you connect this verse to John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” and interpret this in a Protestant way you can also exclude all Catholics and all other non Born Again believers. How ever if any of these interpretive assumptions are wrong, then just maybe there is a wider hope then we have been lead to believe.
LUKE 13:25 Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, then you will stand outside and start to knock on the door and beg him, ‘Lord, let us in!’ But he will answer you, ‘I don’t know where you come from.’
So which house are we talking about here, could it be the house of Israel? In which case this section of scriptures scope would be restricted to the house of Israel. Could Jesus be speaking of the end of one season and the beginning of another? Do we have to understand this as an absolute and universal statement, or Particular and local?
Luke 13:26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’
This verse appears to be limiting this verse to a particular time as well as location. I understand it so much easier to just understand this verse as absolute and universal but I would plead to you that is just not the case.
Luke 13:27 But he will reply, ‘I don’t know where you come from! Go away from me, all you evildoers!’ 13:28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves thrown out.
Ok can you see these are people who are evil doers we have narrow the group Jesus is talking to even further. Wow could Jesus really be talking to a very select group of people and not the whole world. Also is this story talking about Heaven or a coming Earthly Kingdom and did I miss something here or has Hell been mentioned?
Luke 13:29Then people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and take their places at the banquet table in the kingdom of God. 13:30 But indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”
So there is more people than just these evil doers who refuse the narrow gate, and that some who thought they where first or preferred will be last but not forgotten? These teachings of Jesus are much more hopeful than I was taught or lead to believe.Could it be that Jesus is the savior of the world after all, and not the leader of a very small secret society.
First let me say Questions are great especially in the search for knowledge and wisdom, but there are questions which have neither of these noble quests in mind. I have noticed a rise in questions that are purely for the purpose of an Inquisition. An Inquisition is “an official investigation, especially one of a political or religious nature, characterized by lack of regard for individual rights, prejudice on the part of the examiners, and recklessly cruel punishments.”
There was a man during the Salem Witch Trials whose name was Giles Corey, this brave man refused to plead innocent or guilty. He correctly understood that to answer that simple question was to justify the validity of the Inquisition. For this rejection of a Question which was based in an Inquisition he was killed in a very gruesome manner. Jesus also refused to answer question at his mock trial before Pilot and his accusers, I find it interesting that Satan means accuser in the Hebrew tongue. The Book of Job opening heavenly scene is Satan asking God Questions, the purpose of which was to destroy what was in balance in order to rule in pride.
This brings me forward to the 21st century and in many respects not much has changed with regards to Questions and Inquisitions. The other day I read an article where Mark Driscoll was interrogating another Christian and calling him a coward because he held a different interpretation to the Questions. This kind of stuff goes on all the time especially in religion and politics, both areas where Unity is Vital. For some though the answer is not a question that leads to Unity but rather leads to Conformity, this is the Inquisition I speak about.
One in which a “Christian” goes up to a person made in the image of God, and then asks “Do you know where you will go if you die today?” Is it any wonder that many people see God as the lead Inquisitor, and the Jesus Question as the one you must answer their way or else. What if you asked a person a question in order to learn about them and how you might Unify, but then its just so much easier to view them as Dead and Hell bound.
I encourage you to look at the questions you ask and above all else reject those questions that are based in an Inquisition Mindset. I understand you have been taught this way but my Friend look at Jesus and see another Way.
