The Bible mercifully does not teach an eternally burning hell where lost humans writhe in conscious torment. If you and I were safe in God's New Jerusalem, how could we be happy knowing that these people were in such agony? If we were loving people, we'd be in hell with them just through being compassionate! In truth, the whole universe would be hell itself--there couldn't be a spot free of the horrible plague of anguish felt by everyone.
We'd be utterly hard-hearted if we encased ourselves in isolation and forgot about them while reveling in self-centered "heavenly" enjoyment. Modern electronics makes us conscious of the world's agony today. Many people are virtually in a hell already, like that in which King David found himself after his double sin of sexual adultery and murder. The heart-pain was lethal: "Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God" (Psalm 51:14). "My bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me." "Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord" (32:3, 4; 130:1, NKJV).
In Christ, God has become one of us in bearing this same "blood guiltiness," for on His cross Christ was "made to be sin for us, who knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21). Our modern electronic age which has made us sensitive to the horror of so many people (the Middle East? the multitudes dying of AIDS in Africa?) is concomitant with the Bible truth of God's cosmic Day of Atonement. That's when "the hour of His judgment is come," when the "seventh angel sounds" his trumpet (Rev. 14:7; 11:15). God feels all this agony of hell; but now we look into His sanctuary and feel for ourselves at least a little of what God feels.
The closer we come to Him (or rather, the closer we allow Him to come to us!) the more we are in sympathy with Him, and thus with our fellow-men who suffer. It's a sin to live on this Day of Atonement while denying this closer fellowship with Him and with others.
But just sharing His agony is not good enough; sharing the joy of His salvation (what guilt-ridden David prayed for in Psalm 51) becomes ours, too. That means: from now on our very life is understanding and sharing that special "truth of the gospel" that comes with this grand Day of Atonement! Now we also share the Savior's joy in telling His Good News!
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 9, 2006.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
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