Liberating Planet Earth
by Gary DeMar by Gary DeMar
182 Liberating Planet Earth the best proof we have: God is both wrathfid and loving. Without the fires of hell as the reason for the cross, the agony of Jesus Christ on the cross was a mistake, a case of drastic overkill. What about heaven and hell? We know from John’s vision of the day of judgment, “Death and Hades [hell] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14-15). Those whose names are in the Book of Life spend eternity with God in their perfect, sin-free, resurrected bodies. The Bible calls this the New Heaven and the New Earth. Now, which is more eternal, the lake of fire, or the New Heaven and the New Earth? Obviously, they are both eternal. So, God’s wrath is equally ultimate with His love throughout eternity. Christians all admit thfi, but sometimes only under extreme pressure. And that is precisely the problem. For over a hundred years, theological liberals have blathered on and on about the love of God. But when you ask them, “What about hell?” they start dancing verbally. If you press them, they eventually deny the existence of eternal judgment. We must understand: they have no doctrine of the total love of God because they have no doctrine of the total wrath of God. They can’t really understand what it is that God in His grace offers us in Christ because they refuse to admit what eternal judgment tells us about the character of God. The doctrine of eternal fiery judgment is by far the most unacceptable doctrine in the Bible, as far as hell-bound humanists are concerned. They can’t believe that Christians can believe in such a horror. But we do. We must. This belief is the foundation of Christian evangelism. It is the motivation for Christian foreign missions. We shouldn’t be surprised that the God-haters would like us to drop this doctrine. When Christians believe it, they make too much trouble for God’s enemies. So if we believe in this doctrine, the doctrine above all others that ought to embarrass us before humanists, then why do we start to squirm when God-hating people ask us: “Well, what kind
Wkat Are Biblical Blueprints? 183 of God would require the death penalty? What kind of God would send a plague (or other physical judgment) on people, the way He sent one on the Israelites, kdling 70,000 of them, even though they had done nothing wrong, just because David had conducted a military census in peacetime (2 Samuel 24:10-16)? What kind of God sends AIDS?” The proper answer: “The God of the Bible, my God.” Compared to the doctrine of eternal punishment, what is some two-bit judgment like a plague? Compared to eternal screaming agony in the lake of fire, without hope of escape, what is the death penalty? The liberals try to embarrass us about these earthly “down payments” on God’s final judgment because they want to rid the world of the idea of final judgment. So they insult the character of God, and also the character of Christians, by sneering at the Bible’s account of who God is, what He has done in history, and what He requires from men. Are you tired of their sneering? I know I am. Nothing in the Bible should be an embarrassment to any Christian. We may not know for certain precisely how some Biblical truth or historic event should be properly applied in our day, but every historic record, law, announcement, prophecy, judgment, and warning in the Bible is the very Word of God, and is not to be flinched at by anyone who calls himself by Christ’s name. We must never doubt that whatever God did in the Old Testament era, the Second Person of the Trinity also did. God’s counsel and judgments are not divided. We must be careful not to regard Jesus Christ as a sort of “unindicted co-conspirator” when we read the Old Testament. “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38). My point here is simple. If we as Christians can accept what is a very hard principle of the Bible, that Christ was a blood sacrifice for our individual sins, then we shouldn’t flinch at accepting any of the rest of God’s principles. As we joyfully accepted His salvation, so we must joyfully embrace all of His principles that affect any and every area of our lives.
- Page 138 and 139: The Inevitability of Liberation 131
- Page 140 and 141: The Inevitability of Liberation 133
- Page 142 and 143: The Inevitability of .Lib~ation 135
- Page 144 and 145: The lneuitabili~ of Liberation 137
- Page 146 and 147: The Inevitabilip of Liberation 139
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- Page 150 and 151: Th Inevitabili& of Liberatwn 143
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- Page 154 and 155: Z3.e Inevitability ~Liberation 147
- Page 156 and 157: CONCLUSION All things have been del
- Page 158 and 159: Conclusion 151 or our civil governm
- Page 160 and 161: Conclusion 153 And why would this p
- Page 162 and 163: Comdusion 1!55 ety’s institutions
- Page 164 and 165: Conclusion 157 A Liberating Gospel
- Page 166 and 167: Conclusion 159 10. We must preach t
- Page 168 and 169: 162 Liberating Planet Earth Moses a
- Page 170 and 171: 164 L@eratmg Planet Earth Deuterono
- Page 172 and 173: 166 Liberating Pla@ Earth 1 Corinth
- Page 174 and 175: 168 Liberating Planet Earth Marxism
- Page 176 and 177: 170 Liberating Planet Earth free ma
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- Page 180 and 181: 174 Liberating Planet Earth represe
- Page 182 and 183: 176 Liberating Planet Earth w=, 18,
- Page 184 and 185: 178 Liberating Planet Earth Will th
- Page 186 and 187: 180 Liberating Planet Earth tion to
- Page 190 and 191: 184 Lib~ating Planet Earth The Whol
- Page 192 and 193: 186 Liberating Pihet Earth God. It
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- Page 196 and 197: 190 Lib~ating Planet Earth The Marx
- Page 198: I I I I I I I I i / I I I I I Jesus
182 <strong>Liberating</strong> <strong>Planet</strong> <strong>Earth</strong><br />
the best proof we have: God is both wrathfid and loving. Without<br />
the fires of hell as the reason for the cross, the agony of Jesus<br />
Christ on the cross was a mistake, a case of drastic overkill.<br />
What about heaven and hell? We know from John’s vision of<br />
the day of judgment, “Death and Hades [hell] were cast into the<br />
lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written<br />
in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation<br />
20:14-15).<br />
Those whose names are in the Book of Life spend eternity with<br />
God in their perfect, sin-free, resurrected bodies. The Bible calls<br />
this the New Heaven and the New <strong>Earth</strong>.<br />
Now, which is more eternal, the lake of fire, or the New<br />
Heaven and the New <strong>Earth</strong>? Obviously, they are both eternal. So,<br />
God’s wrath is equally ultimate with His love throughout eternity.<br />
Christians all admit thfi, but sometimes only under extreme pressure.<br />
And that is precisely the problem.<br />
For over a hundred years, theological liberals have blathered<br />
on and on about the love of God. But when you ask them, “What<br />
about hell?” they start dancing verbally. If you press them, they<br />
eventually deny the existence of eternal judgment. We must understand:<br />
they have no doctrine of the total love of God because<br />
they have no doctrine of the total wrath of God. They can’t really<br />
understand what it is that God in His grace offers us in Christ<br />
because they refuse to admit what eternal judgment tells us about<br />
the character of God.<br />
The doctrine of eternal fiery judgment is by far the most unacceptable<br />
doctrine in the Bible, as far as hell-bound humanists are<br />
concerned. They can’t believe that Christians can believe in such<br />
a horror. But we do. We must. This belief is the foundation of<br />
Christian evangelism. It is the motivation for Christian foreign<br />
missions. We shouldn’t be surprised that the God-haters would<br />
like us to drop this doctrine. When Christians believe it, they<br />
make too much trouble for God’s enemies.<br />
So if we believe in this doctrine, the doctrine above all others<br />
that ought to embarrass us before humanists, then why do we<br />
start to squirm when God-hating people ask us: “Well, what kind
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