“But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.” (Romans 2:5) As I have expressed in my last blog, we are living in precarious times where lawlessness will abound and the hearts of men move more and more toward godlessness. We see an intensified resentment to Christianity in this culture. Atheists in elite establishments not only silence the voice of Christians but also openly voice their antagonism against the faith and sadly, even against God Himself. The not-so-funny comedian and actress Sarah Silverman sparked a debate when on January 8, she tweeted “there is no hell, and there is no God”; sarcastically attempting to alleviate the concerns of those who think they might go to hell in the afterlife. The stage has been set for these ungodly kind of views to monopolize mainstream and social media and dominate the marketplace of ideas. As far as the Judeo-Christian worldview is concerned, it is already being shamed, slowly being silenced and eventually will be subject to severe persecution. The Bible teaches that there is a place of wrath and torment called hell that was made for the Devil and his angels. While pagans like Sarah Silverman outrightly deny its existence, even Christians wrestle over many questions on the doctrine of hell. They ask: “how can a loving God create a place of eternal torment for men who only get to live for at most 100 years (an infinite punishment for a finite time on earth)?”; “why did God even create people who, through His foreknowledge He already knew would eventually go to hell?” This is followed by the question “did God really just choose who He would save and who He would condemn?” To many minds, that seems unfair on the part of the creator. These questions venture into the much debated doctrine of predestination which for many centuries has separated Christian schools of thought. There is the Calvinist camp that believes that man’s eternal destiny is based purely on God’s sovereign right to choose. The Arminian camp espouses the belief that it is purely man’s free will or right to choose that determines his salvation or damnation. I have heard pastors who offer a balanced solution, where it is both God’s sovereignty and man’s free will at play on the subject of man’s eternal destiny. I still believe that there is still an element of divine mystery where only God has the complete answer that will resolve this debate. Without claiming that I have solved this centuries-old debate, I see an answer that is very evident in scripture if we really study it. The key is acknowledging what scripture says about the sovereignty of God. When teaching about God’s election, the apostle Paul said that “the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.” (Romans 11:29). God, by His own supreme authority had set universal decrees that are irrevocable. He decreed that man will have a free will, but he also decreed that there is a limit to man’s sin, a line which if he crossed, will hopelessly doom him. One such decree is God’s rule on the unpardonable sin, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit spoken of by Jesus in Matthew 12. This is the sin of overt rebellion against God and opposition to His kingdom plans. That is an example where man is complicit to his eternal destruction on the basis of his violation of an irrevocable decree established by a sovereign God. As stated in the verse above, it is man’s impenitent heart and blasphemies against God that store up wrath for himself in the afterlife. It is for this reason that we should pray for non-believers like Sarah Silverman to repent and not judge them. God indeed is a loving God, but He is also holy and sovereign. In His sovereignty, He also decreed that from Adam and Eve, mankind will multiply on the face of the earth with each having a free will. Those who ask the question: “why did God create someone He already knew would go to hell” and ascribe the blame to God make two philosophical mistakes: 1) They assume that man is created out of a vacuum and separate from his decree of the population of the earth by generational births from Adam and 2) they assume that man is naturally good instead of having inherited a sinful nature from Adam who violated God’s decree. Man has a sinful nature and we were bound to hell when Jesus came to save us. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16).” It becomes natural for us to appreciate the limitless love of God and His abounding grace when we truly acknowledge that God is supreme above all. He is sovereign and has supreme authority over us that even our free will is a gift from Him given by His royal decree. All credit and honor for our salvation belong to Him. With this view of God’s sovereignty and the consequence of an eternity in hell for those who reject Him, our hearts should become more compassionate toward the lost. Even to the rebellious ones, like Sarah Silverman who miss out on God’s tremendous love and opportunity to spend eternity with Him. Share Jesus’ love with someone today! Pastor Ramon
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