Rough Outline of Proposed Book about Hell

Surprise Ending

Book Outline

Overview

GC from God's perspective – context

What's the bottom line, the core issues in the GC

Fundamentals of the two systems

How does Satan operate

Control vs. Freedom

Fear vs. Love

Force vs. Attraction

Shame vs. Blessing

Resistance vs. Synchronization

What is God really like

Character of God consistent throughout GC

Does God run out of patience?

God's wrath and anger

Wrath/anger – original meaning and translation bias

Have we created God in our image?

The fire of God

Fire – what is it, literal and symbolic

God's presence is fire

Duelism throughout the Bible

Language adaptations

True meaning of religious words

Salvation

Sin

Forgiveness

Does God torture people for not loving Him

Character of God consistent throughout GC

Its a matter of what you expect

WYSIWYG

Does God run out of patience?

Have we created God in our image?

God does not treat people different, they respond differently

What is God really after in this world

Bonding, maturing, perfection

Covenant issues

What point is God's passion focused on

Where is God's fixation?

Subjects to include

Excuses

Another early morning insight. When God met with Adam and Eve after the fall may be an accurate model of the final judgment. God did not display wrath and anger as we would expect. He even accepted their excuses without challenging them as we would typically do. When Adam blamed Eve, God asked Eve what happened. He traced the problem back through all the blame links to the source – the serpent. He will do the same thing in the final judgment.

Even though God accepted their excuses, that did not release them from the consequences of their choices. In the judgment He may accept all the excuses and blaming of others offered up by billions of people until the root is traced to the Serpent for all to clearly see. Even so, the consequences of everyone's choices cannot be avoided. Only this time all those who have fully identified in Christ as their Saviour receive the consequences of His perfect life on earth because He took the consequences of their wrong choices onto Himself at the cross.

Because we are created just below God (Ps. 8:5), to worship anything or anyone other than God is not like us to do given the way we are created. We would be elevating something that we were given dominion over to a higher position that ourselves, thereby inverting our created design.

Asherah images

It is interesting how God brings up a subject early in the morning when I am just waking up and discusses it with me, and then not long after I read something like “the rest of the story” confirming that God wanted me to contemplate this and learn something new.

This morning He talked to me about images and I asked Him about the first and second commandments. We have always pretty much dismissed the image commandment as irrelevant to us because we don't externally bow to a hand-carved idol. But He reminded me what Craig Hill keeps pointing out in teachings on the Blood Covenant that we need to get this image on the inside of us so we will start thinking and acting in accordance with the provisions of the covenant.

This image on the inside is quite literally our concept of what God is like. Pieces of concepts from all over started assembling quickly to form a clearer understanding of what an image is. Craig points out that our mind is like a camera and will form an internal image, an identity, shaped very much like what the camera is focused on. So when I focus on entertainment and pleasure-seeking for the short-term quick self-satisfaction that I hope to receive, I not only become addicted to selfish quick-fix solutions to my needs but I come to believe that God acts in the same way. I will subtly believe that God just uses me selfishly as a means to satisfy His “needs” and then may discard me as expendable when I can no longer give Him enough pleasure and satisfaction. This belief is at the heart of legalism and may be the engine that drives it.

Later during my worship time I read the story of Manasseh and suddenly saw the connection. Manasseh made idols, especially an Asherah which was an idol primarily representing sexual exploitation, and then moved the Asherah into the middle of the temple of the Lord. The Bible takes great pains to bring out at the point that the temple was where God had promised to perpetuate His “name” forever if they would just follow and obey God. (2 Kings 21:7-9)

The temple is merely a representation primarily of our minds and hearts. This action by Manasseh was an external demonstration of what many of us do on a regular basis. When we use any means to gratify our base cravings for selfish satisfaction we set up idols in the temple of our hearts to bring us pleasure. We reject God as our source and only provider of our needs.

Do we bow down physically to idols? Bowing is simply a description or evidence of a state of mind. Bowing was an act of surrendering oneself to the “picture of god”, abandoning or surrendering oneself to be controlled by an outside force that will then shape one to become like that god.

The transformation is reciprocal. When we choose a source of emotional satisfaction, any source other than the true God of heaven as He reveals Himself in His word and by His Spirit, we actually bow, surrendering ourself to that lesser god to satisfy our cravings in exchange for our submission. But in the process of feeding us short-term pleasure, that “god” also will quickly form a replicating image of itself inside of us which we come to believe is our true identity. “You are gods.” (see Ps. 82:6 and John 10:34) We always become like the God/god we worship. And worship is merely the “focus of the camera lens,” the source we choose from which to satisfy our longings and desires.

When we watch sitcoms or pleasure-invoking videos we surrender our imaginations and emotions to be manipulated by the creators of the movie. When we immerse our minds in pornography we do the same thing. The main difference is that the first is socially acceptable in “Christian” circles and the second is not. Almost all television and videos today have varying degrees of sexual stimulation. The Asherah image is being built bit by bit in the temple of our imagination forming an image of god that is impossible to avoid worshiping. We always worship what we choose to satisfy our cravings and we then form our identity based on that source's message about our heart. This is one reason why we often live in confusion and darkness and fear – because our image of God is so twisted. We were created in the image of God and our minds inherently look to whatever “god” we worship to discover our own identity and purpose and value.

Inner Musings

It is quite interesting what developed yesterday after writing my thoughts and frustrations. I started listening to the series Victory in Jesus by Bill Liversidge and my heart was warmed by a clear presentation of the real gospel. My wife and daughter were invited to training for a job and I was invited to work for some friends building an addition on their house. Are these all connected somehow? I suspect so because God often works that way though always unpredictably. Is that last sentence betraying a hidden lie about God? Maybe. Craig Hill says unpredictability is an attribute of people who use shame to control others. And one of the lies we often entertain about God is that He is arbitrary and unpredictable and we can never know His will for our lives. That is anti-covenant thinking. I need to understand much better the concept and arrangements provided for me in the Covenant and start living, thinking, feeling and resting in confidence and assurance. God never changes His mind about me and He has already placed me in His salvation arrangement. I am free to live from my heart and make mistakes without worrying that I will suddenly lose salvation or God's favor. How I need to understand this much more clearly and have it permeate all regions of my brain and heart.

Jesus in Hell

The belief that Jesus went to “hell” after He died and suffered and/or fought the Devil is a subtle and fatal twist on truth from Satan himself. It reinforces the lie of righteousness by works. It teaches that there is no resting from works even for the Son of God, that He had to fight and struggle even after His ultimate sacrifice to force His victory onto the enemy. It totally undermines the whole critical concept of Sabbath rest that God wants us to experience to enjoy His salvation. It puts the focus on continual achieving and always needing to do a little more to change God's mind about us. It puts God and Jesus in an adversarial relationship if Jesus came to quell God's wrath.

If Jesus and God are one in thought and heart, how could Jesus suffer the wrath of an angry God toward sinners as is mostly believed and taught? Was Jesus' wrath burning against Himself? Did Jesus suffer the pain and penalty of “hell” before or after He died? If Jesus descended after death to a place of physical burning and torture, why was just one day enough punishment for Him who carried the sins of the whole world but an eternity of suffering is required for each lost sinner to be tortured by God as most Christians believe?