Just Like a Hearse You Died to Get in Again

Do any of these sound familiar?

• Every Dominicus the preacher shouted from the pulpit that you're a terrible sinner. God is angry at you. Considering of God's wrath, yous're going to burn in hell for all eternity.
• Your parents drilled information technology into you that y'all're just no good. And they're probably right. You but can't feel good about anything y'all do.
• Yous've done terrible things . . . horrible things. What you lot've done is then bad that y'all deserve to be in hell. There is no hope for you. Y'all're a goner.
• No affair how hard you endeavour, you only can't be adept. You know what you should exercise, but you simply keep on doing the things y'all shouldn't exercise.

If whatsoever of these are much likewise familiar for you lot, I'll be direct: At that place are no easy answers. As well, y'all've probably tried the easy answers already, and learned the hard way that they don't work.

I'thousand also not going to tell you that all you have to do is believe in Jesus. Believing in Jesus is not bad. I highly recommend it! Beingness born again is wonderful! Only for Christians, believing in Jesus is just the start. Then come up the many years of growing from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity.

The fact is, if any of the things on this list describe your feel, then no matter how yous piece it, you've got some hard piece of work to practise. And it may have years to fully recover, fifty-fifty with God's help.

What I can offer you is new low-cal and a new understanding of your situation. Zip I say will snap you right out of it and instantly make your life a bed of roses. But it will give y'all hope that there is a path out. And it might help y'all take your next steps on that path toward the life of heaven God has in mind for you lot.

No matter what that preacher or your parents or anyone else has said, God created you for heaven, non for hell. And there is no reason on earth that y'all tin can't find your fashion to heaven . . . no affair what your history.

So let's straighten a few things out.

Is a wrathful God angry at you?

The short reply is: No.

Huh?!?

Then what most all those Bible passages the preacher quoted virtually God's wrath and fury?

Doesn't the Bible say, "God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every solar day" (Psalm 7:11, King James Version)?

Well, there'due south a funny story about that verse . . .

Showtime, the give-and-take for "the wicked" came from an ancient Aramaic (or "Chaldee") version. It is non in the original Hebrew text, nor is information technology in the other ancient translations. Even in the King James Version, the words "with the wicked" are in italics, meaning they are not in the original. And then it should read, "God judges the righteous, and God is aroused every day."

But wait, there'south more than!

Y'all see, the Hebrew word for "God" in the second half of the poetry could also mean "not," depending on how the Hebrew is interpreted. And that'due south exactly what well-nigh of ancient translations, including the well-known Septuagint Greek translation, accept in that verse. The first one-half of the verse is also a little off in some of the older English language translations.

What does this all mean?

The verse almost certainly should read, "God is a righteous approximate, and is not angry all mean solar day." (Compare Young'south Literal Translation for this verse.)

Picture a judge taking hundreds of cases, one after some other, pronouncing just judgments all day without ever getting angry, even at the worst evildoers. That'southward the picture the Psalmist is painting. And information technology's but the opposite of what that old fire and brimstone preacher said!

Now, don't get me wrong. There are lots of other verses in the Bible that talk about God'southward anger and wrath. Just as I pointed out in the article, "If God is Love, Why all the Hurting and Suffering?" that's just how God's love looks to u.s.a. when nosotros're bent on an evil and destructive path that'southward opposed to God'due south love.

God's love is like the warmth of the sunday. But what if you're a snowman? What if you want to be common cold and unloving? If you're a snowman, God's love looks wrathful and destructive. It'southward a horrible, destructive heat that melts and destroys y'all.

When the Bible talks about God's wrath, information technology's talking about the effect God'southward beloved has on everything that's evil and faux in us and in our world. It's only when we identify with the evil and cling to information technology as our own that we feel God's beloved as acrimony and wrath. And the Bible frequently speaks to u.s.a. according to the way things seem to united states of america, even if the reality is dissimilar from God'south perspective.

Did you know that the Bible talks about God'southward love far more than often than it talks nearly God'south wrath? Here is a cute passage assuring us that God feels only love toward us, whether nosotros are evil or expert:

Y'all take heard that it was said, "Yous shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to y'all, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may exist children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his lord's day rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:43–45)

And the famous verses from the Gospel of John:

For God so loved the earth that he gave his but Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish just may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, merely in order that the world might exist saved through him. (John iii:16–17)

Notice that it doesn't say God was and so angry with the globe, but God so loved the world.

And so here'due south the offset ray of new light, and the virtually important new information about your state of affairs: No affair what you may have been told, God is not angry at y'all. Information technology's just the opposite. No matter what yous take done, and no matter how horrible or worthless a person you think y'all are, God loves yous.

God sends you the sun of divine love, and the rain of divine truth, whether you lot are evil or adept, and whether you lot are righteous or unrighteous.

There is nothing you can practice to brand God stop loving y'all. As the Psalm says:

O Lord, you have examined me, and you know me. . . .
If I get up to sky, you are there.
If I make my bed in hell, you are in that location.
(Psalm 139:1, viii)

Are yous condemned considering of what your parents did?

Our parents were responsible for bringing us into this world. They are supposed to love u.s., care for united states, teach the states right from wrong, and guide us toward a healthy and responsible adulthood. And some of u.s. were fortunate plenty to have parents who did a fine job.

Unfortunately, some of the states were born of parents who fell far short of the marker. Maybe they simply weren't gear up to have children. Maybe they were likewise focused on money or power or pleasure to really care about their children. Peradventure they were just plain evil and destructive types who used and driveling their children at volition. Bad parents tin can cause nifty damage to their children.

If yous were one of those unfortunate children, does this mean your life is ruined from the start, and you might equally well simply throw in the towel?

In ancient times, it was common for whole families to exist condemned and executed for the offenses of the head of the household. For example, when three men named Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rebelled against God's commandments to the ancient Hebrews most the priesthood, not only they, but their wives and children died as a effect of their disobedience. Y'all can read the story in Numbers xvi.

Even so, in form of time, God pronounced an stop to the practice of children being judged guilty for the crimes of their parents. This pronouncement comes in Ezekiel eighteen—one of the most beautiful chapters in the Hebrew Bible. Hither's how the chapter begins:

The word of the Lord came to me: What do you mean past repeating this proverb concerning the country of State of israel, "The parents take eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are prepare on edge"? As I live, says the Lord God, this proverb shall no more exist used by you in Israel. Know that all lives are mine; the life of the parent as well as the life of the child is mine: information technology is only the person who sins that shall die. (Ezekiel 18:one–four)

The affiliate then goes on to explicate in detail that if a father is good, but his son evil, then but the son shall be held guilty; and if that son has a son who sees how his father lived, and resolves not to alive that way, but to live a good life instead, then merely the father, not the son, shall be held guilty.

Sounds reasonable, doesn't information technology?

To u.s. today, yes. Our justice system is based on individual innocence and guilt. To the aboriginal Israelites, though, this seemed quite unjust. They thought it was right and proper that if a man sins, his whole family should be punished!

God was quite clear, though, that this was not to be our exercise anymore:

When the son has done what is lawful and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. The person who sins shall die. A child shall not endure for the iniquity of a parent, nor a parent suffer for the iniquity of a child; the righteousness of the righteous shall exist his ain, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be his own. (Ezekiel 18:nineteen–20)

However, when information technology comes to our spiritual and emotional life, sometimes we oasis't gotten the message. We think that because our parents were evil, and neglected or mistreated us, that means we, as well, are doomed, and headed toward hell.

It's not true.

Yeah, we may have a long, hard road undoing the damage that our parents did to us. It might take much prayer, counseling, and much hard and painful introspection and rearranging of our emotional and social life.

But God does not hold us responsible for the errors and sins of our parents. And neither should we. If our parents drilled into us that we're just no good, they were lying to the states. And if they used and driveling united states, they were perpetrating evil on usa.

That lying and that evil was theirs, not ours. And though information technology did have a profound effect on us, there is a pathway out of the damage our parents did to u.s.. Information technology is the path of recognizing that what our parents did to us had nil to do with us. It was their ain immaturity, neglect, and evil, not ours, that damaged u.s.. As nosotros recognize that what they said was non true, and what they did was only patently wrong, nosotros can gradually recognize that we ourselves are not what they said we were, nor did we deserve what they did to us.

If you were neglected or abused verbally or physically past your parents, it is not going to be an easy path out of what they did to y'all. But there is a path. And information technology starts with recognizing that you are non condemned for the sins of your parents. God created y'all for a reason. God loves yous, and has prepared a place for you in heaven (see John fourteen:1–3, 1 Corinthians ii:nine).

You have the rest of your life to go out backside the lies and the wrongs that were inflicted on y'all when you lot were young. You have the rest of your life to walk, even if painfully sometimes, the path toward the life of sky that God has prepared for you.

Take y'all committed terrible sins?

What if it wasn't your parents who did a number on yous? What if you yourself have washed terrible, horrible things? What if y'all don't deserve to go to heaven because of what you've done?

If that'due south the state of mind yous're in, then Ezekiel xviii has a message for you likewise:

Merely if the wicked turn away from all their sins that they have committed and keep all my statutes and do what is lawful and correct, they shall surely live; they shall not die. None of the transgressions that they have committed shall exist remembered confronting them; for the righteousness that they accept done they shall live. Have I whatever pleasure in the expiry of the wicked, says the Lord God, and non rather that they should turn from their ways and alive? (Ezekiel 18:21–23, accent added)

Based on his experience in the spiritual globe, Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) tells united states that this is precisely how it works subsequently we dice. In Heaven and Hell #509, he writes:

No 1 suffers any penalty for evil things done in the globe, only for current evil deeds. . . . Good spirits are never punished, though, even though they have done bad things in the world. This is considering their evils do not come back.

Swedenborg is simply affirming what God tells the states in Ezekiel 18: Nosotros are not held responsible for things we have washed in the past. Only for things we keep doing in the present. If we have washed something terrible in the past, but take repented of it, have reformed our character, and no longer practice things similar that, then none of the transgressions we take committed will be remembered against u.s.a..

If you have done something terrible, in that location is no style to undo it. You lot and those you hurt volition still have to live with the repercussions of your deportment. But one of those repercussions is not that you must become to hell for it.

Of course, if in that location is whatsoever fashion you can brand apology for what you have washed, you should certainly do then. However, when your time on this earth comes to an end, you will notice your place in heaven or in hell depending on the person you accept become in the present, and the way you are living at present, not based on any wrongs you have washed in the by.

As the erstwhile saying goes, "Every saint has a past, and every sinner a future."

So please don't worry about the terrible things you have done in the past. God has already forgiven yous for them. God has no pleasance in your eternal death. No affair what you've done, God wants yous to turn from your onetime ways and live! Now it'due south time to build a new life for yourself, so that you won't do things like that anymore. For more on how to do this, meet the commodity, "What does Jesus Mean when He Says we Must be Built-in Again?"

What if you keep doing things you lot shouldn't?

It sounds like you're in the aforementioned gunkhole as the apostle Paul when he wrote:

I know that my selfish desires won't let me do anything that is good. Fifty-fifty when I desire to do correct, I cannot. Instead of doing what I know is right, I do incorrect. . . . In every part of me I discover something fighting against my mind, and it makes me a prisoner of sin that controls everything I exercise. What a miserable person I am! (Romans 7:eighteen–xix, 23–24)

As he went on to say, Paul found a rescue from this state of affairs in Jesus Christ. However, as I said earlier, for Christians, assertive in Jesus Christ is just the first footstep. After that comes the more than challenging steps of living co-ordinate to Christ'due south teachings.

And for many of us who are very sensitive nearly our own wrongs and our own bad habits, ane of the ways we don't follow Christ's teachings is to lay burdens on ourselves that are much too heavy—and are sometimes completely unnecessary.

In a recent article titled, "Is it Like shooting fish in a barrel or Hard to Become to Heaven?" I expanded on this proverb of Jesus:

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you residue. Take my yoke upon you, and acquire from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and yous volition find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is lite. (Matthew 11:28–30)

I invite you to read that commodity if you feel you just tin't live up to what you know is correct.

Hither'south another thought that might help:

Have y'all considered that even though you have some bad habits, and do some things that really aren't good, peradventure they aren't really evil either?

Let'due south face information technology: neither you lot nor I nor anyone else is ever going to be perfect. Each i of us will die as an imperfect human beingness, still thinking, feeling, saying, and doing some things that we actually shouldn't.

What we need is some standard by which to decide just how serious our bad habits and incorrect actions are.

There are many possible standards. In case you don't have one that works for you lot, may I advise something really simple? The 10 Commandments. Especially the second office of the Ten Commandments, which is about how we humans are supposed to behave toward 1 another. I'm talking especially about these commandments (in their short versions):

• Honor your male parent and your mother.
• You shall not murder.
• You shall non commit adultery.
• You shall not steal.
• You lot shall non give faux testimony confronting your neighbor.
• Yous shall not covet.

"Covet" is an old-fashioned word meaning wanting something that belongs to someone else. The trouble with appetent is that information technology tends to lead to the other offenses: murder, adultery, stealing, and lying.

And about honoring your male parent and your female parent, if the parents who raised you abdicated their parental responsibilities and did a number on you, feel free to remember of God as your father and your mother instead. (For more on this, see "The Mother of All the Living.")

Now here's the question: Are the things you're currently doing that are wrong actually against whatever of these commandments? Are you killing people, committing adultery, stealing, lying about other people, and so on?

If the answer is yes, so you exercise have a existent problem—and you need to do the work of rebirth or "regeneration" in guild to overcome it.

Only if you're not actually breaking any of these commandments, it's quite possible that you're laying as well heavy a burden on yourself. Practise you think you have to be perfect in order to get to heaven?

I'k not saying you shouldn't continue to piece of work on yourself. I'yard not saying you shouldn't keep taking steps to give up your bad habits and stop doing hurtful and subversive things. There is always room for improvement.

But are the wrong things y'all say and do actually bad enough that y'all should go to hell for them? Chances are, they are non. They are simply areas where you still have work to do.

Then get a petty easy on yourself. The very fact that you lot're concerned most your eternal state, and want to go a better person, suggests that yous are on the path to heaven, not on that glace gradient to hell.

God wants You in heaven

God wants YOU for heaven

Perhaps you've given up on yourself. Simply God hasn't given up on you. If God had given up on you, y'all would no longer be alive on this earth. In fact, hither's a idea to take habitation with you:

As long as you lot are alive and animate on this world, you lot tin even so find your way to sky.

God has given u.s.a. a lifetime here on earth because God knows that information technology takes some of us many years to whip ourselves into shape—with God's help, of course. So utilize your time here well. Then you volition not be disappointed when your fourth dimension on earth is finished, and y'all motility on to the next life.

If yous still think you're going to hell, consider these final words from Ezekiel eighteen:

Therefore I will judge you lot, O house of Israel, all of yous according to your ways, says the Lord God. Repent and plough from all your transgressions; otherwise iniquity will be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that yous have committed confronting me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why volition you lot die, O business firm of Israel? For I accept no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God. Plough, then, and live! (Ezekiel 18:30–32)

Why would God say these words to us if God did not know and expect that we tin can exit our past behind, and live a new life?

Sky is possible for you! The option is yours. God will be with you, guiding and strengthening you every pace of the mode, because God loves you lot and cares about you. God has a chore for you in sky, and has prepared a abode for yous at that place. Do yous actually want to go out it vacant?

For further reading:

• Ezekiel 18: God's Message of Hope . . . If You Think there's No Hope for Yous
• Is it Easy or Difficult to Become to Heaven?
• How Can a Criminal Become to Sky?
• What is the Unpardonable Sin? Am I Doomed?
• What does Jesus Mean when He Says we Must be Born Once again?
• Heaven, Regeneration, and the Pregnant of Life on Globe

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Source: https://leewoof.org/2014/01/16/if-you-think-youre-going-to-hell-please-read-this-first/

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