A few months ago, we had a great old couple in our Bible study, Dr. and Mrs. Bob Taussig. We were just chatting before I dug into our Bibles and Mary asked a question for everyone to briefly explain how they came to Christ. This exercise led her to an observation that I think may be nearly universal: almost everyone thinks that they must act well enough for God to bring them into heaven. Somehow you must balance the scales of sin and virtue so that virtue is in your favor, even those who go to church and knew orthodox doctrine seem to think this. I happened to come across an article today regarding the economic consequences of Rob Bell’s assertion that hell is not really a real place or probably not so bad as we’ve all been led to believe.
I pick this up, not because I find Rob Bell’s limp-wrist universalism or Bill Saporito’s analysis to be particularly thought provoking, but because Saporito demonstrates the blindness of the world. The key to his article is what he says in his thesis:
Bell’s I’m-O.K.-you’re-O.K., we’re-not-going-to-hell-today spin is not merely a refutation of a basic belief. If this piece of theological reordering takes hold, it’s the Evangelicals’ business plan that’s going to hell.
Fire and brimstone has been one of the Evangelicals’ main product lines. It’s based on a zero-sum outcome: heaven or hell. Believe or perish. And part of the deal, at least in practical application, is that you can’t get spiritually right without monetarily supporting the church. Pay to play, in other words. It’s the same with most religions.
While this is a pretty offensive statement that Saporito attempts to soften later, it demonstrates the most basic flaw in how human’s attempt to relate to God. Every man thinks of God as a really big, really powerful man who is kind of like us instead of a completely incomprehensible, infinite, and totally alien personal being. God does not exist according to any rules we would imagine since all the rules we can imagine, He originated. He exists without rules and without need.
Saporito goes on to cite some game theory and Pascal’s Wager to suggest ways in which a man might game the system and hedge his eternal risks. Yet, there’s a significant flaw in Saporito’s analysis of the options. In the words of Albert Einstein (quoted out of context), “God does not play dice.” There’s no game to win. If it were a game, then every man and woman is a loser who forfeited before it began. God, the ref, picked the winners for reasons having nothing to do with merit. In fact, we don’t even really understand why God picks any winners at all.
Jesus himself said, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (John 3:17-18) Paying your church money will not save you, no matter what your church teaches. Trying to please God will gain you none of God’s favor because you are a sinner. You are helpless to overcome that status. You are already condemned. Hell is the default outcome for every person on earth.
Unless you believe, you will not be saved and belief is itself something that comes from God, not from within. After belief there’s nothing more you can do to be more or less saved. God rescues the godly and the righteous know his voice and follow him. Yet, any obedience a believer achieves is not done to curry favor with our Lord, but because God has taken the spirit within that man away and made him into a new creature that desires to serve his new Master, the Father in Heaven. Obedience is good, but it is a side effect of salvation rather than the means by which it happens.
If you are in church and trying to prove that you are a believer to God or to others by doing good and giving money, beware. Many who call on the Lord but did not trust Jesus will be cast into hell at the Final Judgment. It might be better for you to simply embrace sin and live for what you can now. You can at least enjoy your short, meaningless life. You will, however, endure unending torment in hell, a place not even made for humans, but for punishing the demons.
Of course, it would be infinitely better to give up your life now and seek salvation from Jesus Christ on his terms. His terms are simple: believe, pray for faith and salvation, and seek to know him. After that, everything else you need to follow will be given to you by His Grace. Any obedience you then render to him in giving, feeding the poor, glorifying his name in song, and anything else, is just a taste of eternity to come.
Amen.
