I am born-again in the blood of Christ, for
sure.
I love Jesus.
I love the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.
I try, imperfectly, to follow Jesus and please
him.
I believe that all my sins are covered by the Blood
of Christ, which is a sufficient substitutionary sacrifice for the punishment I
deserve.
But there was a post yesterday that terrified me
and I hope that someone can make a good case that it cannot possibly be
true.
The post said that some real, born-again Christians
would be "cast into outer darkness" for a thousand years in a torment of
"weeping and gnashing of teeth."
The only way to escape this horrible, horrible fate
apparently is to have achieved some measure of response to God, some measure of
"getting good", some measure of something.
I don't pretend to be a super-Christian, and even
if I thought I was, I would have no idea whether I had qualified to escape this
horrible fate.
So the prospect of being cast into torment for a
thousand years terrifies me, with no relief from the fear over this prospect,
because there is no way to ever know if I am devout enough -- or whatever the
qualification is.
I had always relied on the Blood of Christ and the
imputed righteousness of Christ to make me fit for the Lord's presence and to
escape his punishment. But this post says that the likelihood of my being "cast
into outer darkness for a thousand years in a torment of weeping and gnashing of
teeth" is very high.
If you think I am being tongue and cheek to make a
point, you are wrong. This post upset me very much.
If this outer-darkness fate is possible for a real
born-again believer then I DREAD his coming. Blessed hope -- are you kidding
me? Where can I hide from God? If there is any chance this is my fate I dread
the Rapture and His appearing. Where I would long to see my Savior, I am
terrified to meet my Judge.
So, maybe I am opening it all up again, but someone
please tell me this cannot possibly true.
I will go on clinging to the Cross and try to find
comfort in the assurance that ALL my sins, even the failure to achieve more
holiness, must surely be covered by the Blood of Christ, yes?
That said, and grasping at straws, allow me to
posit my own explanation. I am very interested to hear your
replies.
Have you ever noticed if you read the words of
Christ thoughout most of his ministry that it sure sounds like "Old Testament
obligation." Mostly he came preaching the "Gospel of the Kingdom", not the
"Gospel of the Cross." In John 3:16 he did say believing in Him was critical,
but he did not say why.
Then LATE, late in his ministry, after preparing
them all, I guess, to hear the truth, he finally turned the corner and threw the
trump card.
Just before going to the Cross, and explaining why
he must do so, for the first time he explained the blessed Atonement
--
"I CAME TO BE A RANSOM FOR MANY."
That caused a radical change in the thrust of the
message, late in the Gospels.
But Paul and the others got it and developed the
whole theme --
Christ had fullfilled the law on our behalf. (With
tears in my eyes I say, "Surely he fulfilled ALL my obligation before God?
--Even my failure to rise to be all I should be for him?")
What we could never achieve on our own he achieved
for us.
And then he was a lamb slaughtered on our behalf
taking in blood the punishment we deserve. Is that not enough to keep us out of
the outer-darkness?
And Paul wrote chapters and chapters on all this
but the capstone of this new Gospel surely must be:
Ephesians
2: 8 For by grace you have
been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
(See the whole passage Ephesians
2: 1-10 below)
I note as follows --
A. Surely if you could be "saved", and still thrown
into the outer-darkness torment, then Paul would not have been so upbeat and
consoling about salvation? Surely he would have warned us RIGHT HERE of the
split-salvation?
B. In verses 1-3 Paul catalogs all our failings
and says we were worthy of wrath -- even as the split-salvation theory says we
have failed and are worthy of outer-darkness punishment. But then in verses 4-7
-- OH, GLORY --
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great
love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us
alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in
the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the ages to come He might show the
surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
OUR FATE, BECAUSE OF GOD'S RICH MERCY (even though
we are un-fit transgessors), IS TO BE RAISED UP IN HEAVENLY PLACES WHERE THERE
ARE SURPASSING RICHES IN CHRIST'S GRACE AND KINDNESS.
Ok, as I go through this, I am making myself feel
better. There is NO HINT of outer-darkness in any of this.
I don't pretend to be able to sort out who-all the
outer-darkness is for. I suspect people who say it IS for those who have been "made alive together with Christ (by
grace you have been saved)", I supect those people who believe that are
perhaps
a.) Straining at gnats? or,
b.) Sucking a category of person that was not yet
known, A PERSON BORN-AGAIN BY THE CROSS, sucking that later category into
earlier teachings before the Atonement was known. The idea of Christ's imputed
righteousness through his substitutionary blood had not yet been taught. So how
could this outer-darkness teaching refer to them?
c.) I suspect that the whole passage is an Old
Testament type of teaching, prior to the Atonement, and I can't sort it out, but
surely in the light of SPECIFIC TEACHINGS in Ephesians
SURELY IF WE ARE BORN-AGAIN IN THE BLOOD - THAT
1000 YEAR TORMENT CANNOT BE FOR US. SURELY.
Ephesians
2
1 And you were dead in your
trespasses and sins,
2 in which you
formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of
disobedience.
3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of
our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by
nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great
love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us
alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in
the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the ages to come He might show the
surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and
that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.