The Little Boy in Hell

I came across an account of a person who was shown Hell, and there they saw an eight-year-old boy burning in the flames.

This, of course, raised some concerns.

Primarily, how could God create a being who was prone to commit sin well before he or she had the mental and emotional faculties necessary to make a decision with such grave eternal consequences?

After all, we won’t trust them with driving, owning a gun, voting, business contracts, dating, or even what movies they can watch, how late they can stay up, or what food they can eat at that age.

So, why would God force them to decide on Hell at that age -forever burning, thirsting, starving, and being eaten alive by worms, over and over, for eternity, with never any release, never any comfort, and never any escape?

So I asked Him.

Answer: He didn’t.

It was one of those bursts of insight that takes one by surprise. It’s what the word of wisdom does: reveal mysteries.

When God created Adam and Eve, they were INCAPABLE of committing sin, even as adults.

That’s right. They did not sin by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They sinned by being publicly naked.

Curiously, they had no commandment telling them not to be naked. Yet, their nakedness was the sin that caused them to die.

Say what!?!

Everyone knows that sin is breaking the commandment.

Ah, but it isn’t, per se. Sin is knowingly choosing evil from your heart.

That is why John said in 1 John 3:4, “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” This sounds a little like double-speak, but it isn’t. When you sin, you ALSO transgress the law. So you actually sin twice: once because you sinned, and twice, because you also broke the law saying not to do it. (So, now you REALLY have no excuse!)

Paul explains this relationship a little more. In Galatians 3:19, he says that the Law was added because of transgressions that were already in existence. In Romans 7:7-9, he explains that the law brought knowledge of sin, and once sin was known for being sin, sin drove him to spiritual death.

Why?

Because you cannot commit sin if you don’t know it is evil. Sin, in it’s raw form, is the choosing of evil from the heart.

But isn’t all sin, sin, regardless of whether you know it is or not? If you commit murder, but don’t know it is wrong, isn’t it still murder? Ignorance of the law is no excuse, after all.

In the High Court of Heaven, ignorance of the law IS an excuse. Sin is a violation of your conscience. (A sin “not unto death” is a sin you are ignorant of: 1 John 5:16-17.)

However, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8:7-13 that you can be destroyed by “sin” that is not even a sin, because your ignorant conscience THINKS it’s a sin! (See also Romans 14:14-15).

And that is why Adam and Eve could not sin. Before they ate of the fruit, they had no knowledge of good and evil.

But, did they do evil before eating of the tree? Did they have lust and covet? Did they lie?

Absolutely.

Eve coveted the fruit because it would make her wise like gods. And, she clearly believed God lied.

Either she put words into God’s mouth concerning the tree, or Adam lied to her: whichever. (I vote for Adam exaggerating to her to make super sure she never ate of it. But then, he stood right there and watched her do it. Hmm.) However it came about, Eve told the snake God had said, “Neither shall you touch it.” God had not said that, and Eve was not around when God said it. Someone goofed!

Adam ate the fruit because he coveted Eve - or, because he’d waited to see if she fell over dead first, and she hadn’t, so God must have lied.

No matter how you look at it, all of that behavior is what we know to be sin.

THEN they ate of the fruit of the tree.

AFTER they ate the fruit, they knew they were naked. They tried to correct this, but, too late! Their conscience was defiled. Yes, nakedness was the first sin! They feared God, and hid from him. As surely as God had said, the day they ate of the fruit, they died spiritually. But it wasn’t the fruit that killed them, nor even the eating of it, it was their new found ability to KNOW EVIL, AND CHOOSE IT.

And that is why little boys and girls can now go to Hell.

God did not make them that way. He created man WITHOUT the ability to sin. Hell was never his plan for man. And it still isn’t.

But we all inherited from Adam the ability to recognize and choose evil. And we all have. And we all do.

At about the same time I heard of the little boy in Hell, I also heard of a study that had proved certain plant proteins activate genes within our cells, and alter their function. They have even found that certain things from our environment that activate and deactivate certain genes can be passed to our offspring. So it isn’t beyond the realm of possibility that the fruit of a certain tree permanently altered the genome of the human race.

We didn’t inherit some spiritual taint of “original sin” that we are born with. But we did inherit the ability to spiritually discern evil. I remember the exact time and place and activity where I first discerned evil, acknowledged it, and chose to follow it anyway. I was nine at the time. And I chose to sin. And all I was doing was picking apples off of the tree, and throwing them at my brother!

Funny, yes, but evil (as my Dad made sure to point out when he got home).

It’s a little late to learn the lesson, “Don’t believe anything a snake tells you.”

But we can all learn the lesson of Calvary.

And we can all make sure little boys and girls - and even grown up boys and girls - know how to escape the fires of Hell.

Copyright © 2012 Burley Ward. All rights reserved

The Shadow of David and Bathsheba

For many years, I have been puzzled why David fell with Bathsheba. Most of the detailed prophecies concerning Jesus came from David. That the entire incident occurred has puzzled me. Much of David’s life was symbolic of the church age.

I now understand this symbol, this shadow.

Let me set the stage.

We know that without Holiness, we cannot see Jesus (Hebrews 12:14): we will not pass the judgement seat of Christ.

But what is holiness?

This is simply answered for us in another shadow of the Old Testament: the day of Pentecost. Almost all believers know Pentecost was the day the Jesus had the Father send the Holy Spirit. But then the significance is somewhat lost. But what happened on the day of Pentecost in the Old Testament? That will tell us what significance God places on that day.

That was the day God delivered the Law: the Ten Commandments.

Even today, people look to the ten commandments as the standard of what holiness is. “Did you break the commandment? Then you sinned. You are unholy.”

This standard, however does not hold for the believers. In the body of Christ that cast the shadow that is the ten commandments, Jesus delivered a new law, a new standard of holiness.

“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit!” (Ephesians 4:30.)

When you grieve that Holy Spirit, you have committed an unholy act.

Christians are to remain sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and obey him as he leads us.

And now I can explain the shadow of David and Bathsheba.

When the Holy Spirit lets us know we are grieving him, and we go ahead and commit the sin anyway, we sear our conscience over (I Timothy 4:1-2). Eventually, we no longer sense the Holy Spirit when we commit that sin. Then, we assume it isn’t a sin.

We are knowingly living in sin, and we no longer feel the Holy Spirit correcting us.

This is a very dangerous spot to be in. If the Lord were to return... well, let’s not leave ourselves in this position.

Many times we wind up in this condition because we didn’t recognize that the Holy Spirit was saying no. Nobody told us it was wrong to grieve the Holy Spirit! Nobody showed us how to recognize his leading!

Yet, here we are, committing things we know are evil, and not feeling one twinge of conscience concerning it.

That is where David’s sin comes in. Not that he committed the sin, but in how he got out of it.

Psalm 51 is the supplication David prayed. Yes, he reminded God of his mercy. Yes, he fully owned his sin. But what I want to look at is excerpted below:

Psalm 51:10-12, 16-17
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

David got right to the heart of the matter: he asked God for a new heart, a broken and contrite one.

One that was sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

That is what we need to do when we find our hearts have become calloused to the Holy Ghost. We need to repent with the same goal in mind: a heart that remains with its attention on the Holy Spirit, sensitive, quick to back away from what grieves him, quick to obey what brings him pleasure.

Now I know why David fell. It was so out of character for the man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22).

And now, so do you.

Copyright © 2012 Burley Ward. All rights reserved

Obeyers of Sheep

In John 14:23, Jesus made a very curious statement. It is not so much what he said that was curious, but what people think he said when they read or hear it.

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. John 14:24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.

Jesus did NOT say that if you obey him, God will move in with you. The word “keep” means to watch, as in, "Abel was a keeper of sheep."

Some Bibles even translate it “obey.” But that isn’t what it really means.

Have you ever heard anyone say, “Oh, he’s out in the field, obeying his sheep”? Or, "He's very good at obeying secrets"? Or, "Take this, and obey it safe for me"?

Jesus said, “If a man loves me, he will watch - focus his attention on - my words. He that does not focus his attention on my words, does not love me.”

That changes things.

And it means the difference between making the rapture - and missing it.

You can obey all Jesus’ “rules” - go to church, give in the offering, pray over each meal, etc, - and focus none of your attention on his words. Ever.

(You can’t really obey all his commands without watching his words, since watching his words is one of his commands. But you get the idea. Do you love him, or do you love your favorite TV show? Sport? Money opportunity? Son or Daughter? Where does your attention go?)

But what does this mean, “Watch his word?”

Paul describes it differently to Timothy. “Study to show yourself approved a workman that needs not be ashamed,” (2 Timothy 2:15).

What is a workman that needs to be ashamed?

When they pray, God doesn’t answer. How embarrassing. How shaming. (In John 5:36, Jesus said that the miracles he worked were God’s witness that he was a workman sent from God. When God dwells with you, answered prayers follow you.)

You study his word. You keep it before your eyes, and in your mouth. You make his word the desire of your heart.

Then, obeying his word is second nature, not just a cheap copy that will be left standing on the ground when the Lord gathers his own to himself.

“If a man loves me, he will tend my word.”

Copyright © 2012 Burley Ward. All rights reserved

Why Wait?

Why do people wait on God? What do they mean by that?

“Well, I’m just waiting on the Lord.”

If one is actually waiting on the Lord, they are not likely to say that.

Here is what I mean.

If they are waiting on God to do something for them, I mean truly standing in faith, then they are rejoicing in the hope faith brings, and en-dunimating their faith with the anointing of the Holy Ghost. That’s not likely to come out of their mouth as a “Just waiting.” It’s much more likely to sound like a “Glory to God, I always have victory in Jesus!”

If they already know the mind of God, it could be they didn’t like what God said, and are waiting on him to change his mind. God said “No,” they know God said “No,” and they know it is an outright sin, but they continually pester him to say “Yes.” This isn’t just a double mind, it’s outright rebellion. It is tempting Christ. Not smart. Eventually, someone will say yes, but it will be a different lord than Jesus. And they will follow it, instead.

Sometimes, they already know the mind of the Lord, but just don’t want to do it. So they wait for God to do it for them. This is also a double mind. It’s like the young man whose girlfriend wants to get married, but he just doesn’t want to do that yet. So, he waits for certain things to be “just right” first. Those “things” are just excuses. The truth is, he’s afraid to commit. That’s when, suddenly, he’s “waiting on God.”

People in this position are like the rich man who came to the Lord that he might have eternal life (Matthew 19:16-22). Jesus said, “Sell what you have, give to the poor, and come, walk with me.”

The rich man now had a choice. He knew the mind of the Lord, but he didn’t want to do it. And that is often what people mean when they say they are waiting on God. God told them what to do, and it filled them with sorrow. It meant they had to give something up, and they didn’t want to do it. So, they are “waiting on God.”

Perhaps the best prescription would be to repent, and do what Jesus told the rich man to do: Physically get rid of everything that competes for your heart, and go follow close after Jesus. Pour that alcohol down the drain, and spend your whole day prayerfully reading your Bible, instead. Give your TV away, burn those magazines, sell your fancy car, whatever it is that causes your heart to stand in they way of committing to the Lord.

Then you will be truly waiting on the Lord:

Isaiah 40:31
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

The Hebrew word translated “wait” here means to bind yourself to, to entwine yourself with. To be twisted together with him. To become one with him. Those who do this are not likely to say they are waiting on the Lord
if you were to ask them what they are doing. They have too many other things to talk about.

Then there are those whom God has called into a work, but it isn’t happening. They are waiting on God, but God is waiting on them. God’s call is a seed. He expects you to water and nurture that seed, until it grows into the fruit bearing work he commissioned. Perhaps the heat of the day - those obstacles the devil throws in front of us - has persuaded them to back off. Perhaps the cares of this life or the lust for money are competing for their heart, and the call is being choked. (Matthew 13:18-23.) But, those who are good ground are not likely to say they are “just waiting.” They may not have fruit yet, but thriving plants still have blossoms you can smell.

So why wait? It’s time to mount up with wings as eagles. It’s time to bind ourselves to the Lord, follow close after him, and learn of him, for his yoke is easy, and his burden is light.

Copyright © 2012 Burley Ward. All rights reserved