August 19

Ezekiel 18
A few days ago I watched the original pilot episode for the TV show Stark Trek. The episode was not broadcast as originally produced because it was deemed ‘too cerebral.’ Interesting, I never thought of Star Trek as ever possibly being ‘too cerebral’. Anyway, the pilot deals with Captain Pike and landing party beaming down to a planet inhabited by a race which was greatly mentally evolved but not evolved emotionally or physically. They had gained the ability to use mental telepathy to change the way lower life forms viewed reality. The motivation for the superior being to do so was that they could then live vicariously through the thoughts and emotions of the lower beings. They could not force the lower beings to do anything, but they would manipulate them to do what they wanted by controlling their thoughts. In one scene they forced Captain Pike to writhe in agony in a pool of molten brimstone and fire. The superior being then told him that the scene was taken from a fable buried deep within the recesses of his mind. Obviously implied in the statement is the idea that there is no hell.
What is behind the idea that hell does not exist? Is it not that if there is a hell, then God must take pleasure in it? To think that God would take pleasure in the eternal torture of someone is rather twisted.
God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Some liberal theologians posit that the God of the Old Testament is a harsh and vengeful God and that the God of the New Testament is a God of love and mercy. Yet it is the New Testament and Jesus that speak so much of hell. Some people including Christians seem to live under a cloud that God is harsh and joyless. Yet when I come across passages like today’s passage, I see the compassion and mercy of a just God. He must be just or we would want nothing to do with Him. He must be compassionate and merciful, or He would strike us dead. When God assigns someone to hell, it is because He must do so or He is no longer just, but He has no pleasure in their death. It is simply what must be, in order for justice to be just. The real problem lies in our distorted views of justice and compassion. He is indeed just and compassionate. Therein lies the depths of His glory. Indeed, we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john