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That Which is to be Considered

To understand the one to come, the one who learned the obedience by keeping the Father's will, there are questions to be considered which have arisen throughout Church history, and which have often caused conflict and bloodshed.

The foremost is this: Does our theology dismiss or take away from us the truth that Jesus of Nazareth was the man[1] utterly dependent upon His God, the man who set his heart to obey his word and succeeded? Does our theology even look upon Jesus as a man, a brother, who like us was tempted at all points, as a man can be tempted, and who learned from the things which he suffered ...the obedience[2] that was necessary to satisfy God's justice?

To be more precise, does our theology have an answer for what this means: “Jesus learned the obedience?” If we hold to a theology that dismisses these kinds of questions, then it is a theology that has made null and void the very purpose for Jesus coming into this world.

From the mire of Church dogma[3] the question is raised:  Was the Christ sent because God needed to send an ambulance to an accident? Is there any truth in the idea that God sent the Christ to repair or fix “the poor choice Adam made?” Are we to understand God took a chance with Adam by giving him a “will that was free” to choose between good and evil? And if so, was there any surprise on God’s part that Adam chose to be disobedient to His command not to eat from the forbidden tree? To sum up, is the freedom of man's will the big test, the reason or catalyst for redemptive history?

Based on such a rationale, does everything we know about the relationship between God and man revolve around the freedom of man's will? In other words, has it been God’s intention that man's free will, beginning with Adam, be the central issue and the very means to drive redemptive history? More importantly, if the freedom of man's will is the fundamental issue driving redemptive history, will those who have been saved be able to retain, and not lose their free will, in the age to come?

In other words, will the redeemed become mere robots or will they still have a will that's free to choose, even if that choice is against God's will? In the end, will the redeemed of God be able to choose (have a choice) to love and obey God in the promised age to come?[4]

The larger problem we face, and where the rubber meets the road in our theology, is whether God’s experiment with man's free will[5] reached the point where Yahweh Himself stepped down from His throne in heaven, “ robed Himself in the flesh of a man,” so He could save some of us? Is this what the scriptures reveal to us, that God became a man to save us from the poor choices we made while using our free will?[6]

To be more precise, did the Almighty El Elohiym Yahweh become a man so he could be killed at the hands of wicked men, lie dead in the tomb three days, and then raise Himself from the dead—resulting in payment of the penalty for mankind’s sins? Was it really the Almighty Yahweh, the LORD of Hosts of the scriptures, who died on the cross nearly two thousand years ago, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth? Was this the plan of God, to come into the world and to die the horrible death of the Roman cross, so He might save some of us from what our own free will brought upon us?

A more provocative question is this: How exactly does this act of God change the fundamental state of man’s free will? And would not such an act, from an Almighty Sovereign God, out of His desire and love for all those whom He has created, override mans' free will so that He could save all men? In simpler terms, would this act of God not save everyone?

More intriguing, why is the act of God dying on the cross to secure the salvation of a people for His name’s sake, spurned, ignored, treated with indifference, or simply unknown by the vast majority of mankind?

What happened to the countless millions who lived prior to Jesus (God’s) death on the tree?[7] What happens to the countless millions who never heard of Jesus? And how do we reconcile the idea that God died for the sins of the world while so many people remain unaffected as they continue to make their way into eternal damnation?

 

Fundamentally, these kinds of questions point to what serves as the theological position for much of what the world perceives as mainstream Christianity. From this stream flows a theology that few question; and one would be hard-pressed to find an atmosphere of freedom in which to analyze and discuss it, for doing so puts one in a position of jeopardy if not under threat of outright condemnation.

Regardless, this dogma is a Pandora's Box few dare to open.

It is this dogma that is being preached from thousands of diverse pulpits and classrooms which comprise a divided Christianity. This would include, by default, the oldest and largest segment of Christianity, Roman Catholicism. Without dispute, the Roman Catholic faith held the world in its grip for more than a thousand years, and gave to the wider Church the creeds that continue to serve as a foundation for the dogma found in today’s many denominational branches of Christianity.

The picture created by Church dogma is difficult to look upon or consider in the light of a God, who, as it is taught, loves all men, desires to save all men, but cannot. It is a picture of a God, who in the end, is forced, because of man's free will, to allow multitudes to suffer the wrath of eternal punishing.

Even worse, the dogma has an underlying reality of countless millions, whose only crime is having lived and died and never heard of the one true God or the name of Jesus, who are condemned to forever regret their ignorance while suffering the eternal hellfire that God created especially for them.

 

This is the unspoken message to those who sit in Church pews every week (for the greater part of what people see as Christianity).

God, out of His love, died for you (the good news) and offers a place with Him in heaven forever. As part of God's offer of salvation, it is understood, you are obligated not only to believe in, but also to choose to receive the deliverance from the punishment of eternal hell fire that He has provided. This good news, according to “accepted dogma,” is intended for every human ever conceived in a womb.[8]

However, if you do not believe in and choose God's free gift of salvation—or have not even heard the message—then the God who loves you will be forced, against His will and desire to save you, to send you into an eternal hell of fire and punishment. There, as the dogma of the hell of the Church espouses, you will remember forever your rejection of Him while you endure the flames of torment and agony—even if you never received the message.   
    These are the issues that arise from the dogma espoused from the pulpits of Roman Catholicism and her offspring that comprise denominational Christianity.

The issues cast a spotlight on the conundrum of the God who loves all but cannot save all. He cannot save all, because He holds mankind accountable for a free will which is the captive of a deceitful and corrupt heart.[9] We are then left with the dilemma that a man[10] must choose to believe God, while in the darkness of such a heart.
    It is the dilemma facing everyone who has come into existence: Choose God, or face the prospect of damnation to a hell of everlasting punishment.[11]

The dilemma is exacerbated further, because the picture becomes ever clearer of a God who cannot save the majority of mankind. This dogma clings to a hell where billions will hate and regret throughout eternity while they grind their teeth against the God who created them and condemned them.

 

In the end we are left with the picture of a God who wrings His hands while desiring that you and I should believe Him and choose to accept (receive) the payment for our sins that He made for us, but is bound not to interfere with our free will. But worse is the picture of a God who, out of love, has given man a will that has the ability to supersede His own!

Finally, the dogma with the impending threat of hell and its damnation has become centered on the requirement that every human being make the choice that will save them. This, at the core, is the message based upon what is considered to be the good news preached by what the world perceives as denominational Christianity.

 In the face of this accepted dogma is the consequence that haunts everyone who would seek God’s face. It is the reality that reveals the effect upon every person who wonders, but dares not ask…did God truly die?

It is the question blocked from our conscious minds because of fear or ignorance in the face of a theology that does not honor—does not even believe in—the sovereign God who does all things well, even in His dealings with the wicked and those who are lost.[12]

We may never understand the depths of the wisdom of God, for God is not a man with whom we may compare ourselves.[13] Moses, God’s great prophet and lawgiver reminds us, "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”[14]

To trust God is a gift, as not all men have faith.[15] In truth, everything we have is a gift from God, from the faith of believing in His grace toward us, to the food we put into our mouths.

 

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