Trust in the Lord

Trust in the Lord "I have spent years trying to reconcile the belief that Jesus Christ's death on the cross redeemed the entire world with the idea that millions of people - including millions who had never even heard of Jesus - were suffering forever in hell." -Chad Holz (Former Pastor) Chad’s comments are based on the Rob Bell book “Love Wins”. Rob’s book attempts to answer the question “Who’s in Hell?” And by Rob Bell’s account, the answer is everybody. Reverend Bell and Chad are grappling (ineffectively I might add) with the same theological questions we all have. I think Reverend Holz and Pastor Bell have a lot of problems, but I will stick with what might be the most urgent... they do not trust God. Consider this saying, "When you cannot see God's hand, you can trust His heart." We don't need to understand (and can't possible begin to fully grasp) God's decisions on such things. If you are filling in the blanks, you have forgotten to trust God's heart. Rob Bell suggests that all people, no matter what you’ve done, go to Heaven. Now if I could talk to either person I would ask one question; "If everyone goes to Heaven, then why do we need Jesus?" There isn't one Bible verse that says we can be with God because we ascribe to some preconceived idea of good (today’s standard of good is to be non-judgmental, polite and amenable). Scripture never suggests that God’s love outweighs his righteousness. We get near to God by Christ. "No one comes to the Father except by me", says Jesus (John 14:6). We all know the verse, John 3:16. The word "believe" in that verse isn't as simple as "just believing". I think the word implies belief, action, internal change and tenacity. All of the aforementioned are God-inspired, God-led and God-fulfilled. Ultimately all of these things are always (and only) accomplished by God, in Christ, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This whole discussion is proof that a college education does not make you impervious to foolishness. You can never depend on your intellect or success as a measure of faith and spirituality, it is by faith that we live in this world (2 Corinthians 5:7). You have to start and end with Christ. Everything else is foolishness. Consider this quote: "Reason is a whore, the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but more frequently than not struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God." - Martin Luther Sometimes... probably more times than not, Faith will overrule anything else. And these types of people are showing tell-tale signs of losing their faith. But I would like to remind you that God can be trusted with the things we don’t understand. We can’t reason our way to God, we have always had to trust our way to Him by the shed blood of Christ.