Monday 2 May 2016

Hell, Satan and Jesus



I don’t believe in Hell1 and I don’t believe in Satan2 but I do believe in Jesus5.

I do believe in Hell3, I do believe in Satan4 and I do believe in Jesus5.



-----------------------------------

Footnotes
  1. If by Hell you mean a post-mortem place of eternal separation from God, possibly involving torture.
  2. If by Satan you mean a malign supernatural entity implacably opposed to God and humans; possibly a fallen angel who commands lesser supernatural entities known as demons.
  3. If by Hell you mean the ghastly miserable lives some people endure in the here-and-now life; possibly because of their own poor decision making but more often because of terrible life circumstances or the wicked behaviour of others around them.
  4. If by Satan you mean the ‘accusing voice’ that runs people down, belittles them, undermines them and tricks them; possibly an internal voice but sometimes also the voices of parents, teachers, bosses, family members, friends and strangers (that may later be remembered and internalised) but when believed in sabotages efforts to escape their own Hell3.
  5. If by Jesus you mean the incarnation of the triune God as a human being who entered this world in humility and obscurity not in splendour and privilege whose mission it was to reveal God the Father’s unending, undying, unstoppable, unquenchable love for his creation.  To reveal that God was never our enemy and that we had almost completely misunderstood who He is and who we are to Him.  To prove that life lived to the full, in union with the Father, was possible through Him and to ensure that once-and-for-all everything that stood in opposition to that union was put to death when he voluntarily laid down his own life as, and for, the whole of humanity. He also gave us His perfect life when he was raised from the dead and poured out his Spirit on all.  He enters people’s Hell3 and walks through it with them until together they find the way out.  He defeats Satan4 by exposing the ‘accusing voice’ as a liar and replaces it with the words of truth that affirm, encourage, strengthen and uplift.