|
From: Bill Steidtmann
Adam: Whadaya know for sure?
Bob: Jesus saved me!
Adam: Saved you from what?
Bob: Eternal Hell.
Adam: So you’re saying that the wages of sin is eternal Hell.
Bob: Yup.
Adam: And Jesus paid that price so you don’t have to?
Bob: Yup.
Adam: Jesus endured eternal Hell for you.
Bob: Yup.
Adam: And then three days later God let him out.
Bob: Yup.
Adam: Work release program?
Bob: Huh?
Adam: If the wages of sin is eternal Hell, then Jesus needs to go back and finish the job. Either that or you need to find a different savior, one with more patience.
Bob: Are you saying three days wasn’t enough?
Adam: No, I’m saying it’s a good thing that the wages of sin is not actually eternal Hell, because then Jesus would not have been able to say “It is finished”, because it never would be. Eternity is a long time.
Bob: Well, what’s the point of a savior if there’s nothing we need to be saved from? That’s why your universalism heresy is so dangerous, it tricks people into thinking they don’t need a savior.
Adam: Tell me, when God warned Adam and Eve about the consequences of sin, did He say “eternal Hell”?
Bob: No.
Adam: And after they fell into sin, then did God mention eternal Hell?
Bob: No.
Adam: When Cain murdered Abel? Or prior to the Flood, to the wicked people of that time?
Bob: No, but you need to read between the lines! Sometimes you need to add to what God says, like Eve did.
Adam: Seems like a fairly important detail to go missing from the narrative.
Bob: God eventually got around to mentioning it! In Deuteronomy 32:22.
Adam: 2500 years later? God didn’t get around to it, He mentioned the problem immediately, right from the start. God warned them about death. We don’t need to be saved from eternal Hell, we need to be saved from death. The first half of Romans 6:23 reads “For the wages of sin is death...”. So therefore... Jesus died.
Bob: No, you don’t understand. Hell is death.
Adam: The people in Hell are dead?
Bob: Actually they’re zombies, just like in the movie Night of the Living Dead.
Adam: Where did you get that idea?
Bob: Luke 16. They’re living and dead, at the same time!
Adam: In Matthew 22:32 Jesus says ”God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” So tell me, which is it?
Bob: Um... living dead, um... not the God of them! Er... wait, yes He is... He is and He isn’t, at the same time!
Adam: And white is black, up is down, alive is dead, and the Rich Man in Luke 16 is simultaneously God’s worst enemy and deeply concerned about evangelism out of a selfless brotherly love, all at the same time.
Bob: It’s a paradox.
Adam: I’ve noticed that your theology has a lot of that.
Bob: Well, I’ve noticed that you conveniently ignore The Rich Man and Lazarus story from Luke 16, no doubt because you can’t handle the truth of a literal description of Hell.
Adam: And you conveniently forget that proving the existence of Hell is a separate issue from proving the duration of Hell. If “aion” does not mean eternity, and there is an “end of the aions”, then I rest my case.
Bob: As far as I’m concerned you never did prove that.
Adam: Maybe I don’t need to if you think forever is three days long.
|
