Those who know God know His character.
But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord.
Jeremiah 9:24
The platform for understanding God’s character must start with John’s bedrock description of God Himself:
All Biblical understanding must conform to this grand description of God the Father and Jesus Christ.
If God’s character of love does not transfer into our own experience, it is a demonstration that we don’t really know God. If we don’t have love in our hearts for God and other people (even our enemies), we don’t know God. John said this very clearly:
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
1 John 4: 7-8
If our understanding of God rejects these characteristics, it is likely due to a misunderstanding of who God is. If this is the case, certain Bible texts about the nature of God will be twisted to make God uncaring and cruel beyond belief.
A Modern Parable
There was a certain young boy who loved his father very much. We will call him Jim. His Dad, Bill, took an interest in everything Jim did. They often talked about life while fishing or working around the house. His Dad taught him many things about relating to family, friends, and even enemies. He encouraged Jim to love them all and to honor each person. To love them as God loves them.
As far back as he could remember, Jim’s Dad read to him. Nightly, many good books, including the Bible, brought peace and understanding to Jim. Dad taught him how to pray. In the morning, Jim would see his Dad on his knees at the window, praying to God.
When war came, Jim’s Dad volunteered for service and went away to war. Bill was a good soldier that could be trusted. He was promoted rapidly as a leader and was in charge of taking men into battle. After the war, Bill was decorated for his bravery and leadership. Jim was so proud of his father!
The boy grew, and so did his relationship with his father. The boy knew his Dad better than anyone else. He wanted to be like his brave and kind father.
Jim went off to college. While there, he met some young men whose dads had also been to war. They remember the stories told to them of the war. One young man, in particular, had heard of Jim’s decorated Dad. The young man said his father had told stories about Bill torturing the enemy troops that were captured. In detail, Jim’s classmate described the torture of burning a prisoner a little at a time and keeping them alive to suffer even more. The prisoner would cry out for mercy and even death, but Bill ignored them.
Jim was shocked!. He knew his Dad was not that kind of person and rejected the gruesome story of torture.
After discussing this with his Dad, the true story came out. The father of the young man at college was someone who disliked Jim’s Dad and was angry because he did not get the promotions in rank as did Bill. He began to spread rumors and lies to smear Bill’s good name and character. The truth was turned into lies and events twisted to satisfy the narrative of cruelty.
Jim knew his Dad. Because of this, he was certain Bill was not capable of torturing anyone. It was beyond reason and contradicted everything he knew about his Dad. The lessons taught to Jim about God’s love and compassion, even for enemies, did not square with the conflicting characteristics of someone who did not know his Dad nor his God.
God’s Character
Image a God who tortures his enemies for eternity. Is this a God of love and mercy? To believe that God gives no relief from the flames lost sinners can suffer without end means one of a couple of things:
1.) Passages of scripture have been twisted to teach that the lost have eternal life in burning flames even though the Bible clearly states that the wages of sin is eternal death, not eternal life in flames. We may have created a God, in our heads, where His wrath is never satisfied. Unlike God, we want revenge on the evil person and for them to pay for their wrongs through suffering. We want revenge, but God wants justice.
How is it justice that my lost relative who refused to believe in Jesus or go to church should burn without end for his free choice?
2.) We don’t know God. We like the idea of hell where people burn for their evil deeds, but remember…When we talk about salvation, we are talking about the good moral people who don’t care for Jesus or religion. They pay their taxes, have families, and are good neighbors. Should they burn forever along with Hitler? Is it justice to live for 30 years in riotous living, die in a car wreck, and then burn for 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 + years?
Someone suggested I don’t believe in hell. I always tell them, “I believe in a hell that is hotter than the one you support. The hell of the Bible burns up and leaves no root or branch. It is not meant to torture.
For behold, the day is coming,
Burning like an oven,
And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble.
And the day which is coming shall burn them up,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“That will leave them neither root nor branch. Malachi 4:1
This means nothing will be left of the person for eternity. Even Satan is turned into ashes:
Therefore I brought fire from your midst; It devoured you, And I turned you to ashes upon the earth In the sight of all who saw you.
Ezekiel 28:18
So yes, I believe in a firey END…not firey torture. Sodom and Gomorrah are no longer cities, but they are examples of what will happen to the ungodly at the end of time:
and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly;
2 Peter 2:6
Destruction awaits the lost. Jesus tells it plainly:
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
Matthew 7:13
Do you know God?
Do you know God like Jim knew his Dad bill? If God takes no delight in the death of the wicked, He would take no delight in unmerciful torture.
‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.
Ezekiel 33:11
Do you really believe our Heavenly Father, that sent Jesus to die for our sins, would make the penalty of unbelief flames licking at their body parts of melting skin and bones in a torture chamber where people cry out to die? We would need to alter several verses to support this idea. The most famous one of God’s love, John 3:16 would need to be changed to read:
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish (burn in flames) but have everlasting life.”
John 3:16
Wages of sin is death life in a burning hell for eternity.
Romans 6:23
He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. has a life in burning flames called hell.
1 John 5:12
Friends, salvation is a matter of life or eternal death. Eternal death is punishment enough. But it is also an act of mercy. Heaven is not the place for those who love sin. Their reward or their heaven is while they are on earth living a life of selfish indulgence. Their philosophy is “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.”
Salvation also includes the victory over the sins that we love. A born-again follower of Jesus is given a new heart, God replaces that love of the world of sin with a love for Him and other people.
Salvation and eternal life are more about who you know rather than what you know:
Author
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
John 17:3
We also know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 1 John 5:20
God does not scare people into accepting Him. He uses powerful words of reason, demonstration, and understanding. It is His love, mercy, compassion, and kindness that win people to Him for eternal life. It is the cross of Christ that draws people to Him.
“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.
Jeremiah 31:3
And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.
John 12:32
This is the God of love that we serve and preach to a dying world. There is no opposing character in our God. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He never changes (Hebrews 13:8, Malachi 3:6).
He loves even the sinner and desires him/her to turn (repent) and live. If this is you, will you do that just now?