Edition 13. October 6th 2009
In this edition:
●Hell
●Number in scripture
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Hell
The previous edition was all about the "glory that is to be revealed". There is another side of the story. The Bible reveals prophetically much about hell. In fact there are three times more portions of scripture dealing with hell than with heaven.
Due to this fact we have no right to ignore it as most churches do today.
In fact there is an astounding side to this story, of which few are aware. You can't really know the depth of the love of God without knowing this side of things. People with an understanding of hell, will be a lot more urgent, passionate and real with their message of the love of God to a hell-bound world.
I am no fan of modern preachers. I cut my spiritual teeth on the old school preachers the likes of Charles Finney, Watchman Nee, AW Tozer, Derek Prince and a few others. These were preachers and teachers that didn't mince their words. They were frequently hell fire and brimstone preachers as well as teachers of the love and forgiveness of God. The majority of their disciples remained faithful to the Lord till death! Charles Finney for example was an incredibly fiery preacher of the 1800s. Yet no one has ever had as many converts remain faithful unto death without ever backsliding, as those converted under his ministry.
Today we have spineless, sickly sweet preachers of hollow love, never daring to preach against sin or what it means to take up your cross and die daily. Their messages are motivational, worldly and powerless. Today, with few exceptions, modern preachers never preach on hell and their converts are carbon copies of themselves, essentially no different from the unsaved! Their members are no different to those of the local sports club.
Hell is eternal, it is a place of imprisonment. It was never created for people, but for the fallen angels, demons and devil. But alas, this will be the destination of all the unsaved as well.
I have often taken a wrong turn and landed up lost. In my car, all I had to do was go back and make the correct turn. The enormous tragedy of life is that if you step into eternity without salvation, you can't go back and change it! It's too late!
You can say you don't believe in hell, as many do, that's like saying you don't believe in gravity! It's real and what anyone believes about it won't change anything.
There are many words used in the original scriptures dealing with hell, some in Hebrew and some in the original Greek. Each gives a slightly different insight. Some of these words include: 'Sheol', 'hades', 'infernus', 'gehenna', 'hinnom', 'tartarus', 'abyss' and a few others.
The meaning of these words, translated into the English Bible include: 'Place of torment', 'pool of fire', 'outer darkness', 'unquenchable fire', 'everlasting fire' 'eternal destruction' 'second death'
Just a quick reading through these words should be enough to give a clear understanding of some of the characteristics of hell.
The key words here are eternal and everlasting.
The single most important thing is the severity and gravity of all of this. The most amazing thing is the contrast of heaven and the glory of God (see previous edition)
Some argue that hell isn't consistent with a God of love. This depends on your interpretation of love. The final cleansing and purifying of the entire universe from all evil and sin is most certainly love in action.
The two eternal judgments to come:
There are two great judgements spoken of in the scriptures and they are vastly, different. 2 Corinthians 5:9 is the first one and is called the Judgement Seat of Christ. Only believers appear here to be eternally rewarded for their works done in response to Gods call and plan for each individual. There is no salvation offered here, obviously because only the saved appear here.
The second is The Great White Throne Judgment of Revelation 20:11. Only unbelievers appear here. It says "books (plural) are opened" These are the Lambs book of life and the book of that individuals works. Their names are not found in the book of life, indicating that they rejected the salvation of the cross and chose to be saved on their works!!!! How many people do you know who say things like "I'm okay, I've been basically good". "God would never send a good person to hell." and the like. That's the biggest and most tragic lie from the pits of hell that could ever pass through anyone's lips.
So now, these Christ-rejecting people chose to get saved based on their good works. Well, horror of horrors! Yes they could've been saved by their works but the mistake they made is not seeing that the passing grade is 100%! So, their book of works is opened and their works are stacked up next to the perfect 100% grade of Yeshua / Jesus and they fail miserably!
No salvation or reward is offered here, it's too late!
These, the "small and the great", are all cast out into eternal hell!
It's kind of enlightened self interest not to trust in yourself and to cast your life into the everlasting security of our wonderful Messiah who paid the price for all failure and who gives you His 100% passing grade as a wonderful free gift!
On top of the amazing grace of free salvation for believers, comes rewards that will be with us forever!
Number in scripture:
Psalm 18:31 "As for God His way is perfect"
Bible prophecy is a very powerful subject because it deals with the present and the future. Everyone has some sort of interest in the future. It really is a powerful tool of evangelism. But many claim that the Bible isn't true, or at least can't be trusted completely! Read on my friend!
There is an amazing fact relating to Bible prophecy. The prophecies of the Old Testament were fulfilled 100% literally and accurately. Some like the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah were very detailed even down to where He would be born. The prophecies of the New Testament have been literally fulfilled as well with not one miss. For example all those dealing with the restoration of Israel and Jerusalem were fulfilled exactly. Therefore the remaining unfulfilled prophecies of both Testaments will be fulfilled in the same manner and pattern. You are gambling against immeasurable odds if you reject or water down prophecy! It's fulfilment pattern has been 100%
But we have another powerful indicator of the veracity of the scripture. It's called Bible Numerics.
The term is Bible numerics not numerology. The latter being an occult practice. This is also not what has become termed Bible Codes. Bible numerics is also called Gematria.
There is a profoundly incredible and intricately complex pattern of numerics built into the Word of God. It makes it completely supernatural, as no human could ever have put this together. It is one of the very powerful pointers towards the fact that the Bible is true!
None of these patterns exist in any other book.
Firstly, this is only found in the original scriptures of which there are some 20,000 surviving copies. The languages of the original Bible are called alpha-numeric. This means that each letter of the alphabet has a numeric value to it. It's like the Roman letters that we see on some watches and clocks. For example the X is a Roman letter, but also has the value of ten.
So, in these alpha-numeric languages you can add up the numeric value of a word. This is the case in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic, the original languages of the Bible.
Now, numbers in scripture also have meaning. For example One is the number of unity, two, the number of division, three the number of the trinity, four the number of the world, five the number of grace, six the number of man under sin, seven is the number of perfection, eight the number of resurrection, nine the number of finality, ten is the number of divine order while eleven is the number disorder, twelve is the number of completion or perfect government, thirteen is the number of sin, rebellion or apostasy to God, and many more which we won't get into now. These meanings are derived from the many verses of scripture themselves that deal with each.
For example Four is the number of the world. This comes from verses dealing with the "four corners of the world", The four seasons". Four rivers flowed out of Eden", the four lunar phases and so on.
What we can now do is simply add up the values of words and verses in the Bible and see what meanings they have. This is where the miracle starts!
The name Jesus in the Greek is Iesous. I=10; E=8; S=200; O=70; U=400; S=200 Now add them up and we come to 888. Eight is the number of resurrection. Contrast this with the name of the coming antichrist which will be 666. Six being the number of man under sin. The name Jesus Christ appears 888 times in the original New Testament.
Amazingly every single name attributed to our Messiah like "The Lamb of God" adds up to a multiple of eight except for one of them. This one that doesn't, adds up to a multiple of 13 which is the number of sin, rebellion or apostasy. Incredibly it is the gematria of the name hung above the head of our Lord on the cross saying "Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews" Isn't it interesting that on the cross our Lord was forsaken and became sin and rebellion in our place!! This title ads up to 2197 or 13x13x13. Coincidence? I think not!
Now here is a staggering fact: Every single name of every single enemy of God in the Bible adds up to a multiple of 13!
There are thousands of other incredible amazing similar situations with all the other numbers as well. The number seven has hundreds of miracle applications.
The mathematical odds behind all of these things being chance is too much to calculate or measure.
The Bible, including its prophecy, is the rock on which every pseudo intellectual and critic who mock and attack it has been smashed to zero in the past and will be in the future!
Today archaeology and all the sciences are catching up with and proving the Bible true. There is design, calculation and plan throughout the scriptures. Job quoting God says "Have you entered into the treasures of a snow flake"!
Yes salvation is by faith alone, but it's interesting to see and know that it's not blind faith and there is some amazing evidence that demands a verdict!
A famous Russian mathematician and atheist Ivor Panin discovered Bible numerics back in 1890 and became a believer as a result. He said "The Bible could not have been written except by the inspiration of God Himself."
Some books dealing with this subject include: The Seal of God by FC Payne, Number in nature and the Bible by Ambrose Fleming who was also the president of the Victoria Institute of Scientists. Ivor Panin's book has been out of print for many years.
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In closing this edition here is a rendition of the last judgement by William Blake
Kind regards and many blessings...Shalom and hang in there!
