Confusing the Two

The underlying mythology of our age is rabid materialism married to a grouchy Norse god. This god’s moods range between cold indifference and implacable rage, smiling only when he has played some heartless cruel trick on someone. We think of justice as blind and indifferent to human capability, and runs to excessive cruelty and inhuman demands. We talk about a loving God of the Bible, but in the back of minds reigns this ugly heathen image that belies our nice talk.

It’s that same old nasty mental habit, in which our minds are pickled from birth. It matters not a whit that we give lip service to the truth, when every thing we do, and everything we build, serves the lie from Hell. The very reflexes of our mind won’t allow us to even think as if it’s true that there are Two Realms and that they are distinct.

What gets people into Hell? Human birth. By default, we are all born for damnation. Nothing at all can we do to change that. It is the initiative of God that changes things. No human words or thoughts can explain how it works, but God says it starts with Him or it doesn’t happen. Jesus Himself said there were some folks who were going to Hell and some who were not. Universalism is a lie.

By the same token, it is not possible for anything you think, do or say to remove your spiritual awakening. Since it does not come from this earth, nothing on this earth can affect it. You didn’t save you, so you cannot lose you. It’s not as if God ignores rebellion; the consequences are explained, chief among them being an early death. On the other hand, we are told to suspect that folks who stray too far from moral goodness probably are spiritually dead in the first place.

So much for the truth of the Eternal Realm. Now for the Fallen Realm.

Some sins are worse than others, particularly in terms of consequences. That is, the more completely you surrender yourself to the Enemy of souls, the more it’s going to hurt you and a lot of other folks. However, it is not an issue of some sins are worse, but that some sins are worse for you, while others are worse for me. God’s justice is not blind. We don’t live in the same context, so ranking sins by human logic will fail. Instead, we live with a revelation of broad generalities, a flexible standard that takes into account all kinds of things we don’t even understand. That’s how God’s moral divine justice works.

The issue really stands on the glory of God. How your actions affect your mission and calling to bring Him glory is the primary measure, and God says it’s He alone who gets to make that calculation. Nor are the primary consequences what you might imagine, but it has more to do with how much of our share of shalom is reduced. Again, it is contextual; you and I are different folks, with different callings, and different standards. We each have our own part to play in His glory, and the primary method is working toward His definition of social moral stability.

So there are scars on my soul today from things that would not have so much as gained your notice. And you’ve done some things that I would never have done. Yet we both stand before His Laws as individuals. My sexual restraint means little if I have fantasies of raping little kids (Matthew 5:27-28). That’s because, while having mere fantasies might not hurt any kids, it sure would leave some nasty holes in my moral strength, because the Law will notice. The Law reads your mind and motives (Hebrews 4:12-13). The Law is the living character of our God. It also knows if something in my background created a moral weakness, and it knows that if I confess before God that I am by nature deeply perverted, but hoping desperately that I don’t hurt anyone, that also has an effect on the end results before divine justice.

On the other side of the imaginary room here is someone who probably never dreams of such hideous things, living a silly and shallow life of pretense. Not doing much bad to anyone, really, but deeply self-absorbed. I can find peace before the Laws of God, but this other person has no awareness of God’s moral justice. Instead, this person thinks they understand traditional evangelical theology and obeys all the good church rules of behavior. All things are measured in that mind by human standards of religiosity. That person stands condemned before God’s Laws; they cannot share my shalom.

If you have ever engaged in sex that was not morally optimal, you have lost something that cannot ever be returned. You will forever miss out on a certain measure of shalom. Then again, having repented and turned to walk in God’s moral truth with all your heart, maybe you won’t miss it much. God’s Laws measure from the heart, not from some imaginary objective standard of conduct. The Law forgives; there is mercy written into the Laws of God. There is no point system. We might like to pretend that we can grasp the notion of intent, but we hardly know our own hearts, so we cannot judge another. Standard Western Christian rules are built on a false mythology, a moral blindness that cannot comprehend God’s Word. Sometimes things work out okay under that bogus system, but only by accident. Chances are you’ll never know either way in this life if you stay under that system.

Don’t confuse the Two Realms. Your spiritual birth is eternal — period. Your moral conduct will reap very real blessings in this life. The two theoretically mesh through moral awareness in the sensory heart. However, nothing about that is simple enough for the mind to grasp. We have to pretend some folks can gain the full advantages of the Laws of God and never see Heaven. We have to pretend that some folks will waste every moral opportunity granted them here and still see Heaven. There is a correlation between spiritual awakening and a growing moral awareness, but that’s about as much as you can say for sure.

Our Father is a doting ANE feudal sheikh, given to quick humor. He has a deep and abiding interest in each of us as individual people, knowing us better than we could possibly know ourselves. He lets us choose whether we will enjoy the blessings of His courts or the lies of living in Satan’s prison.