Don't You Hate Christian Tracts?

I found a “Christian” tract in the airport. It’s a good example of modern evangelicalism’s unfortunate cluelessness about the Gospel. It’s entitled “You have God’s Word on It.”

When you open this little tract, the very first three words inside are these:

“THE BAD NEWS”

I’m not kidding. Modern evangelicalism begins with bad news. That in itself should clue you in that something is wrong here. Like this tract, the message of the church, especially from modern evangelical circles, begins with bad news, not good.

What is this bad news that so many churches begin with? I’m following the tract word for word. If you doubt me, order the tract for yourself. Ways to order it are listed below.

The tract quotes below are in italics with quotation marks. My rebuttals, occasionally dripping with sarcasm, are in parenthesis:

1. “You are a sinner.” (What a shock!)

2. “You will die [damned]. . . because of your sin.” (The reason that damnation is God’s factory default setting for you is because, the tract writer assumes, you are a sinner and God is holy. And since God supposedly can’t even look at your sin, he can’t accept you as you are. He can’t even come near to you. You are separated from God. He’s turned away from you and is far away. Hmm. Funny how God the Son, Jesus Christ, the one who said, “When you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father,” the one who said that he “came to seek and save the lost,” entered a sinful world, loved sinners, welcomed sinners, touched sinners, and ate with sinners. Hey, Paul wrote that Jesus even became sin. (Romans 8:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21) But if God the Father is far from me and can’t accept me and can’t come near to me because I’m a sinner, and Jesus can do all those things easily, then Jesus and the Father aren’t alike. And if they’re not alike, how can they be one? Does this tract expect me to believe that the loving side of God sent a sinner-friendly Jesus to take my whipping to appease God’s holy side? Please pardon my sarcasm. The God of this tract is double-minded about me.)

3. “[You will] be cast into the lake of fire.” (God’s very first impulse toward me, a creature he made in his own image, a creature he supposedly loves, is to reject me and punish me forever? Is this supposed to be the “gospel”—a word that means good news?)

Then the tract presents a “solution” to God’s bad news, calling it:

“THE GOOD NEWS”

1. “God doesn’t want you to perish.” (Wait a minute. God doesn’t want to fry me, but that’s his first impulse toward me because he’s holy and I’m a sinner? Again, pardon my sarcasm, but following the logic of the tract, God’s Eternal Plan A is to torture me. Though his loving side really doesn’t want to do it, he has to do it because he’s a holy, legal God. How comforting to know that God is bound by law to reject me! (Dripping sarcasm. I apologize again.) There’s nothing God can do about it. His hands are tied. Rules are rules. He’s regretful, but he has to follow regulations. I wonder who came up with these laws that GOD has to follow?)

2. “God has provided the only way to be saved from hell.” (Is it just me, or does this sound like he’s trapped me like a rat and gone away? Is he an absent rejecting Trapper who requires me to love him? That makes sense . . . NOT. And not only that, but rather than salvation being about universal grace, here in this tract, you are saved from your sentence to hell. But who sentenced you to hell? The tract says God did. That means Jesus came to earth to save you from God! Think about that. The tract is telling you that the “good news” is that God sent Jesus to earth to save you from himself! Is that what the Scriptures say Jesus came for? Did he come to save you from God? Do you see how utterly bankrupt this theology is? If a legal, non-relational God must avoid sin and must punish sin, then why would he bother to send Jesus to stop himself?)

3. “God saves you forever when you trust Jesus.” (The distant Trapper’s holiness demands my blood. But the Trapper has a split personality. He sends someone (Jesus) to spring the trap he set for me. Does that make God holy or psychotic?)

Finally the tract instructs you on how to implement your escape from God’s eternal sinner roast. This section is entitled.

“IT IS YOUR DECISION”

Well, at least the tract is consistent. If your theology is decisional rather than relational at the beginning, it should remain decisional throughout. Who wants personal relationships anyway—not when you can have the comfort and warmth of legal, decisional individualism instead? (I’m truly sorry about the sarcasm. One of my friends says I can sometimes get a bit snarky. I have no idea what snarky means, but I don’t think it’s good.)

1. “You must turn from your way and completely trust Jesus.” (Turn from my way? I guess that means turn from sinning. So all I have to do is obey all the Trapper’s rules from here on out. If I can manage to be a perfect peach, then maybe he’ll come back. Maybe he’ll accept me. But wait. It also says I have to “completely trust Jesus.” But if I try to turn from sin and keep Gods laws, then I’m not trusting Jesus. And if I completely trust Jesus, why do I have to keep all the laws? There is a contradiction here. Which do I do? Trust completely that Jesus has taken care of me? Or work hard as hell to keep all the rules so Trapper-God won’t zap me? I can’t do both! What’s the point of having a savior if we do all the saving?)


2. “Will you . . . ask Jesus Christ to save you?” (I have one more question. If Jesus saved humanity 2000 years ago, being the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world, then why do I have to ask him to save me? I thought Paul said God saved us while we were still sinners to prove the Father’s love for us. Why can’t I just say, Thanks, Jesus? And by the way, what’s the difference between “the sinner’s prayer” and a Harry Potter incantation? Yeah, I know. I’m being snarky again.)

3. “If you will accept Christ as your Lord and Savior, please pray the sinner’s prayer with all of your heart.” (So what words exactly do I use to make sure this “sinner’s prayer” works? How can I make sure that I really mean it? Will it help if I kneel and cry a lot when I ask? Do I get dramatic and throw myself prostrate on the ground? How will I know when I’ve groveled enough? Do I have to walk the isle of a religious institution? Do I have to shake the “right” preacher’s hand? Wait a minute. Come to think of it, if it’s up to me believing enough, then I’m just thrown back on myself. I’m not believing in Jesus. I’m believing in believing enough! I’m having faith in having enough faith. But how do you ever know you have enough faith? How do you know that you believed in believing enough for Jesus to save you from God? How much screwier can decisional evangelism get? Parenthetically, I have a comment about acceptance: I thought that the point of the incarnation and crucifixion and resurrection and ascension was Jesus accepting us into the heart and Life of his joyful relationship with his Father, not us accepting him into our hearts. Who made your heart anyway, and if he made it, how could he not be in it from the start?)

OK, let me get this straight. (I’m on a snarky roll! Sorry, I can’t help it.) According to this tract, the only thing standing between me and eternal punishment is whether or not I can stop sinning and then believe completely without a doubt that I’ve convinced Jesus in a very sincere prayer and/or religious ceremony to stand between me and the blood-rage of a rule-driven G-O-D? How should I word the prayer? “Jesus, please save me from your Dad. Amen.”?

Then the tract ends with a warning and a plea:

1. The Warning: “If you reject Jesus Christ—condemnation.” If you don’t turn from sin and ask Jesus to save you from God’s destiny for you in hell and believe with all your heart that Jesus has saved you from God’s plan, you are rejecting him. If you reject Jesus, you will burn in “a lake of fire” as planned from the beginning by G-O-D. You’re toast.

2. The Plea: “Please don’t reject the Gospel.” In this tract, the Gospel, which is supposed to mean Good News, is that God’s eternal plan to roast you might be changed provided you stop sinning and start praying earnestly the “Jesus-provision prayer.”

Let me personalize this:

1. God’s initial plan for Bert is to burn him forever because he’s a dirty sinner.


2. If Bert doesn’t improve his morals dramatically, and if Bert doesn’t pray sincerely enough, God will burn Bert as planned.


3. But if Bert cleans up his act and convinces Jesus of the sincerity of his I-wanna-get-saved prayer, then Jesus will try to stop G-O-D from burning Bert.

I have one question: In what sense is this Good News?

First, it’s certainly not good news about God. The tract portrays him non-relationally. He’s an automaton bound by rules. He doesn’t love first. He doesn’t love last. He’s absent from you and cannot reverse your sentence unless you invoke the Jesus clause. His first impulse toward you is fire-torture. Good News about God in this tract? There is none.

Second, what about the relationship between Jesus and his Father? In this tract there is none. They are at crossed purposes. They are bound together by rules, not love. It’s God’s job to broil you. It’s Jesus’ job to stop God. Your job is to convince Jesus to stop God. If you don’t, he won’t. Good news? Hardly.

Third, what about Jesus? No good news there either. Jesus not only doesn’t have a relationship with his heavenly Father in this tract, he doesn’t have a relationship with you or anyone else either. Jesus is a mere legal loophole. He’s a provision. If you invoke the Jesus clause, Jesus is legally bound to try to stop God from microwaving you as planned. It’s legal, decisional, and contractual, but not relational. Is that Good News? No way.

Enough said. If you love laws, rules, verdicts, sentencing, punishment, and no loving relationships whatsoever, you’re going to love this tract. If you’d like a copy, you may order it at:

Fellowship Tract League (A non-relational tract is produced by a “Fellowship”? How ironic.)
P.O. Box 164, Lebanon, OH 45036

They are not for sale. Request © Tract 134

Or order online

If you love the gospel, however, you might like this quote from author Wayne Jacobson:

“When you realize sin doesn’t make you worthless it just makes you lost, you will know God’s compassion for people caught in sin, not contempt for them.”


For more evangelical bad behavior:
Hell House
The Prosperity Gospel: God In a Box
Katrina - The Wrath of God?
The Christian Ambush: A True Story

Names In the Book of Life

Adapted from Chapter 9 of Heaven for Skeptics © 2008 by Bert Gary for FaithWalk Publishing

The theme of John’s vision is Jesus, just like the rest of the New Testament. But rather than presenting the story of his life as the four gospels do, and rather than interpreting him doctrinally as the various New Testament letters do, the artist—John the Revelator—paints Jesus with symbolic images. He’s a radiant Son of Man, he’s the Lion of Judah, he’s a standing slaughtered Lamb, he’s a newborn, he’s a conquering horseman, he’s the Morning Star, he’s the temple, he’s the lamp, he’s the book of Life, and more.

The subject of this blog is the book of Life. Our text is Revelation 20:11-15. Let me summarize.

John sees the Great White Throne again. But the one on the throne is not alone. All stand before him. Then books are opened. These books are the accumulation of everybody’s deeds. But there is an additional book, and it is different. It’s called the book of Life. (Later we are told that it’s the Lamb’s book of Life. Revelation 21:27) The moment John envisions is resurrection day. Those buried in the ground and those who died at sea are raised for judgment. Everyone is judged by their works found in the record books. Then John sees that Death (Thanatos) and the Grave (Hades) are destroyed in the lake of fire. And if your name is not in the Lamb’s book of Life, you are thrown in to the lake of fire. (See my blog, The Lake of Fire Defined.)

In this next-to-the-last scene in the final vision, out pop the record books. Can you feel the dread? Everyone is judged by their deeds listed in John’s symbolic scrolls. There appears to be no hope. Just as there was no hope in Revelation 5 because there was no one found to open the seven seals of the scroll of the Father’s eternal plan, here in Revelation 21 there is no hope for humanity because its deeds are evil. Again, it appears there is no hope. If no one is righteous and everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, as the Scriptures insist (Rom 3:10 & 23), then who can stand in this judgment? Absolutely no one! That’s John’s point.

Our deeds are judged as evil, as they must and should be. Do the math. We’re all goners if the record of our deeds is the sole criterion by which we are judged. But, according to John, there is another single volume that appears containing humanity’s only hope. All hope is in this one little book. It’s called the Lamb’s book of Life.

The Lamb’s book, logically, contains the accomplishments of the Lamb. What accomplishments? Oh, little things like . . . he took away the sin of the whole world. Unlike our sad records, there are no black marks in the record of Jesus’ life. All of humanity’s hefty scrolls are full of sin, but not the Lamb’s little scroll. So what in the world does this vision of John’s mean?

It means that while our sins are judged, and thus we are all judged as guilty sinners, there is another book that stands in for humanity’s pitiful record. We have a pinch hitter. It’s the Lamb’s blemish-less book. So what is the Lamb’s judgment on humanity’s fate? It’s his own Life. The Lamb’s book of Life trumps all the other books. Life is the point and the criteria for everything. Look again at John 12:

John 12:48 “[O]n the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge,”

John 12:49 “[T]he Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak.”

John 12:50 “And I know that his commandment is eternal life.” (italic mine)

Life is the word that judges. Jesus says that he is the Life. So if the Lamb’s book of Life is a symbol of Jesus’ judgment on the last day, then doesn’t that mean we’re covered? He gave us Life already. He took away our sin already. There’s no point in trying to fix a totaled car. So hitch a ride with the Lamb. The only way to miss this Life is to continue embracing non-Life, that is, sin, death, and evil, even though the Lamb’s book already made those things null and void. Our evil works are condemned by Life, true. Our deeds are evil, true. We are wrecked and totaled, true. But not even sin and death can stand against Life.

Let’s go ahead and clear this up. John’s books of deeds aren’t literal books (or scrolls). They are a symbol of the voluminous record of sin against us all. The Lamb’s book of life then is not a literal book either. It is the Life of the Lamb himself. His Life both judges sin and blots out sin. John shows in pictures that Jesus is greater than our sin. Just as he is the bread of Life in John 6:35 & 48, here in Revelation 20 Jesus is the book of Life.

It took Jesus’ Life to cancel sin. It took his resurrection Life to cancel death. Life burns up sin and death and evil. Do you see it? It’s the Lamb’s book. It’s the Lamb’s lake of fire. And his book and his lake seem to be doing the same thing! They are judging sin and death and evil.

Is there a sense in which he is the slaughtered Lamb, he is the book of Life, and he is the lake of fire? I think so. John places the lake directly in front of the Son of Man’s (Jesus’) feet. (Revelation 14:10) The lake is a heavenly fire in the throne room of God. The fire of Life burns up sin and death and evil. If I’m right, and I think I am, then the lake is not a literal afterlife “hell” run by Satan, nor is it anything remotely akin to that. (See my blogs, Hell Defined 1 and Hell Defined 2, and The Lake of Fire Defined.) It’s the judgment of Jesus’ own white-hot fire of Life. It’s his “burning bliss”. (Caird, p. 258) Jesus said that his very purpose was to bring fire:

Luke 12:49 “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”

So is your name in the book or not?

You might argue that John seems to want it both ways, however. On the one hand, you’re given grace (via the Lamb) regardless of what good or bad things you do. On the other, if you worship the beast and persecute Christians in 1st Century Ephesus, then you’re in trouble. Yet what John is showing you is that no matter what you do, grace is stronger. At the same time, however, if you remain an unrepentant, idolatrous, grace-rejecting meanie, you’re in grave danger spiritually. Does what you’ve done matter or not? Will your actions be held against you or not?

OK, so is your name in the symbolic book of Life or not? This book mentioned in six verses in the Book of Revelation. Here they are. I’m using Young’s Literal Translation here because I like the way that it calls the book of Life “the scroll of the life."

^YLT Revelation 3:5 He who is overcoming -- this one --
shall be arrayed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the scroll of the life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before His messengers.

^YLT Revelation 13:8 And bow before it shall all who are dwelling upon the land, whose names have not been written in the scroll of the life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world;

^YLT Revelation 17:8 'The beast that thou didst see: it was, and it is not; and it is about to come up out of the abyss, and to go away to destruction, and wonder shall those dwelling upon the earth, whose names have not been written upon the scroll of the life from the foundation of the world, beholding the beast that was, and is not, although it is.’

^YLT Revelation 20:12 and I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and scrolls were opened, and another scroll was opened, which is that of the life, and the dead were judged out of the things written in the scrolls -- according to their works;

^YLT Revelation 20:15 and if any one was not found written in the scroll of the life, he was cast to the lake of the fire.

^YLT Revelation 21:27 and there may not at all enter into it any thing defiling and doing abomination, and a lie, but -- those written in the scroll of the life of the Lamb.

Note that you can get your name blotted out of the Lamb’s book of Life, or so says Revelation 3:5 above. But note what that implies. It must mean that your name must start out in the book, and you already have salvation in Jesus Christ. Guess what? That’s the Good News. Salvation was given to the world. Still, if you don’t want Life and grace and stuff like that because you hate God, or you love doing evil, or if you just think it’s unfair of God to save people who aren’t as good as you, then you have the right of refusal. You can exercise the free will he gave you (in love) to reject the salvation you had from the get-go.

It must be remembered that the book of Life is the Lamb’s book of life. (Revelation 21: 27) The Lamb of God took away the sin of the whole world. (John ..1:29.. & 36) That means everybody. So what’s the logical conclusion? Everyone’s name starts out in his symbolic book. Everyone’s. Can I give more prove of that? Yes.

John doesn’t give any instructions on how to get your name added to the Lamb’s book! Actually, you don’t have the power to get your name in there. But the Lamb did it for you, says Scripture. That’s why it’s his book. The Lamb’s book is Revelation’s symbol of gracious Life given to the world—every name in the
world. You don’t get this Life by striving or merit. No verse of the Bible says you have to do anything to get your name in there. But it specifically says you can get your name blotted out. Here’s 3:5 again:

Revelation 3:5 If you conquer, you will be clothed like them in white robes, and I will not blot your name out of the book of life; I will confess your name before my Father and before his angels.

Therefore, if there is no instruction in Revelation for getting your name added to the Lamb’s book of life, and if there is warning that you can get your name blotted out of the Lamb’s book of Life, then your name—and everyone’s name—must have started out in there. That supports the gospel proclamation that the Lamb saved everyone (the world) when he finished his work. (“It is finished.” John 19:30) He drew all men unto himself. (John 12:32) He fulfilled all righteousness as a gift. (Matthew 3:15) He reconciled all things to himself, and he made universal peace between God and humanity with his own flesh and blood. (Colossians 1:20) Scripturally, Jesus is indeed the savior of the world. (See my blog, You’re Saved.)

John 4:42 They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”

1 John ..4:14.. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world.

Back to the contradiction

But this brings us back to the contradiction above: John seems to want it both ways. No matter what you do, grace is stronger. At the same time, however, if you remain an unrepentant, idolatrous, grace-rejecting persecutor of the church, you’re in grave danger spiritually. Does what you’ve done matter or not? Will your actions be held against you or not?

So, as we’ve seen, John affirms all names starting out in the Lamb’s book of life. Grace wins, period. But, strangely, then John also writes that some names weren’t in the Lamb’s book of life to begin with! How can this be? Could the Lord have created creatures damned from the get-go?

Revelation 13:8 and all the inhabitants of the earth will worship [the beast], everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life.

Revelation 17:8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to ascend from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the inhabitants of the earth, whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will be amazed when they see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.

Revelation 20:14-15 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire; ¹⁵ and anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Revelation ..21:27.. But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

For complete clarity’s sake, let me summarize John’s provocative contradiction:

1. Since the Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world, that means that all sin was taken from the world, all were forgiven, and all names must start out in the Lamb’s book of Life. Since no one can make himself righteous, the Lamb did all the work. He finished it. There’s no way (and no need) to get your name added, but there’s a way to get it removed.
2. Since some people worship the beast instead of the Lamb, this indicates that their names were never in the Lamb’s book of Life from the start.

How can both be true? It does seem that John is having it both ways. John affirms God’s eternal foreknowledge from God’s end, yet he also affirms our temporal free will from our end. I have a suggestion. Perhaps it is a matter of perspective.

From my perspective, my rejection of grace results in the blotting out of my name. But from God’s perspective, the absence of my name is from the beginning. Do you see it? Is this what John is telling us? I think so. It’s a temporal “both/and.”

Yes, all names start in the book because of the finished work of Christ from the foundation of the world. And yes, the absence of a name from the book is both foreknown by God and a result of a person choosing to have his name blotted. So what is John saying in a nutshell?

That which is clearly self-blotting to us is foreknown by God as absence from the beginning.

Let’s keep it simple. Here’s what I hear John saying step by step:

1. From the Lamb’s perspective, all names are in his book of Life originally,
   affirming his gift of Life and redemption to all.
2. Yet we can by our choosing get our names blotted out, affirming God’s gift of choice for all too.
3. But at the same time, from God’s vantage point (which obviously includes the future), the self-blotted names were never in the Lamb’s book to begin
   with.

This is not predeterminism, however. God doesn’t create some folks just so he can hate and damn them. He allows self-condemnation and self-judgment to operate freely within our temporal flow. From your temporal perspective, the question is: Do you embrace the Life he gives or not? From his eternal perspective, however, he is from the beginning aware of who the blotters will eventually be, just as Jesus was aware from the beginning, it seems, that Judas, for example, was a betrayer.

Jesus didn’t create Judas just to damn him. He made him and loved him and chose him and taught him. Judas may have damned himself (Who am I to judge?), but Jesus’ foreknowledge didn’t cause it. Therefore:

1. From the Alpha perspective (the beginning of time), all names begin in the book of life.
2. Yet in the course of time (our present, temporal life-spans), some choose to blot their names out by rejecting Life.
3. But at the same time, from the Omega perspective (the end of time), the blotters’ names were never in the book of life to begin with.

It sounds contradictory, I know. John’s paradoxical time perspective doesn’t fit neatly into our western, Enlightenment-locked, Newtonian mindsets. But it’s John’s intention to express 1) the universal gift of Life and atonement, and 2) the gift of human free will, and 3) the foreknowledge of God concerning who chooses Life and who doesn’t. Here’s an example that I think will help. Look at the crucifixion of Jesus:

1. From the Alpha perspective (the beginning of time), Jesus was the non-bodily, pre-existent Word of God.
2. Yet in the course of earth-time (during his lifetime), from a temporal
   perspective, Jesus was a human being crucified bodily.
3. But at the same time, from the Omega perspective (the end of time), Jesus was “slain from the foundation of the world”, a human being slain bodily all along.

Again, it sounds contradictory. But John insists that Jesus Christ is both the pre-existent, non-corporeal Word of God and the forever-from-the-beginning crucified and risen corporeal, first century, flesh and blood human being named Jesus of Nazareth. The second letter to Timothy agrees:

2 Timothy 1:9 This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,

It’s about temporal perspective

I think I’ve demonstrated that for John it’s a matter of temporal perspective. From an eternal perspective, isn’t the blotting out of your name the same as it never having been there? Yes, it really does sound contradictory, but it’s really a mysterious paradox of time that John embraced. Just because God sees from the beginning that Billy’s name is not in the book does not mean that Billy’s choice to blot it out wasn’t real—especially to Billy.

So, how do you keep your name in the book of Life? To endure to the end without being awed by the beast, or seduced by the beast, is to know that your name is in the book of Life, says John to his churches. Again, Jesus and his message and his resurrection and his kingdom of heaven are all about love and Life. Remember how Young’s Literal Translation put it: “the scroll of the life.” The scroll of the Life is Revelation’s symbol for the completed redemptive work of Jesus Christ. “The Life” that we are talking about, remember, is Jesus. He is “the Life,” as he insists to his disciples in John 14:6.

Loving this Life, says John, is resisting and enduring the forces that resist this Life. That keeps your name in the Lamb’s symbolic book. To love this Life and to resist and endure the forces that resist this Life is to remain in this Life that has found you and embraced you.

I have a concern

There is an unfortunate emphasis today on decisional salvation—pressuring unbelievers to make “a decision for Christ.” Revelation in particular is used as a weapon to frighten and coerce unbelievers. But John’s book was not written to unbelievers at all! His message is for believers only. I might go so far as to say that the Book of Revelation was written to believers with advanced, mature understanding of the Christian faith.

I see zero evidence that John intended to use fear and death to get unbelievers to “make a decision for Christ.” “Decision for Christ” isn’t biblical language. And the subject matter in Revelation has nothing to do with who in the end will “make a decision for Christ” (again, a phrase not found in the Bible) and who won’t. John is addressing and encouraging believers, period.

John tells his churches that they are to continue resisting the pressure to worship the State, the Ruler, and his idolatrous, religio-political temple practices. (20:11-15) They are to continue to share the Good News that in Jesus you are already reconciled to God from his end, says John. And they are to continue to endure the persecution of those who react negatively, even violently, to the free and universal gift of light and Life-filled relationship to which they witness with their words, their lives, and sometimes even their deaths.

It’s not about a decision whereby you get Life. It’s about a relational Life that came and got you.

Postscript: God Hated Esau?

For those who’ve believed that God creates some people just to hate and damn them, let me add this postscript about Esau. It’s often said that God predetermined to hate Esau for no good reason. Some translations of Romans 9:13 seem to say that very thing.

Romans 9:13 As it is written, “I have loved Jacob, but I have hated (Hebrew: sane') Esau.”

Some see Romans 9:13 as an example of God creating someone to love and someone to hate—Jacob and Esau. Paul in Romans was quoting Malachi from the Old Testament:

Malachi 1:1-3 An oracle. The word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. ² I have loved you, says the LORD. But you say, "How have you loved us?" Is not Esau Jacob's brother? says the LORD. Yet I have loved Jacob ³ but I have hated (sane') Esau; I have made his hill country a desolation and his heritage a desert for jackals.

Yet loved and hated in this context mean chosen and rejected. It’s saying that God preferred Jacob over Esau concerning his first covenant. Some English versions of the Bible translate sane' as rejected:

^NET Malachi 1:3 and rejected Esau.

^NLT Malachi 1:3 but I rejected his brother, Esau,

^TNK Malachi 1:3 and have rejected Esau.

Here’s a helpful example:

^RSV Genesis 29:31 When the LORD saw that Leah was hated (sane' - here meaning un-preferred), he opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.

Jacob wouldn’t have born children with Leah if he literally hated her. He didn’t detest her. She’s his wife and the mother of his children. It’s just that Jacob preferred her little sister Rachel in his heart. He did from the moment he met her. Here’s another example:

Genesis 25:28 Isaac loved Esau because he was fond of game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.

See again how loved means preferred?

Paul then in Romans 9 uses the Malachi quote as an example of God’s freedom and right to choose whomever he wants to, not just including the Jews, but also in Jesus Christ choosing Gentiles too. This is the second or new covenant, the New Testament. It’s a covenant with the world.

For more on the Book of Revelation see my blogs 666, Rapture Interrupted, The Giant Flying Cube, The Millennium, Pearly Gates and Streets of Gold, and The Lake of Fire Defined.

The Lake of Fire Defined

Includes excerpts from Chapter 9 of “Heaven for Skeptics © 2009 by Bert Gary for FaithWalk Publishing

In John’s vision in the Book of Revelation he mentions six times a “lake of fire.” So what is it? Here are five of them.

Revelation 19:20b   These two (the beast and the false prophet) were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.

Revelation 20:10 And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were,and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Revelation 20:14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire;

Revelation 20:15  and anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Revelation 21:8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."

I can’t interpret John’s entire revelation in one blog.That’s why I wrote a chapter doing that in an upcoming book, and that’s why I’ve begun a commentary on it that I hope to publish next. But I can try to give insight into John’s purpose while I try to define the lake.

If the lake of fire is a portrait of an afterlife hell (See my blogs Hell Defined 1 and Hell Defined 2) as some insist, then note that “hell” is in heaven. “Hell” is not separated from God underground somewhere, but is in the throne room in front of the Lamb, under his all-seeing seven eyes, subject to his all-powerful seven horns.

Revelation 14:10b   “. . . and they will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.” (emphasis mine)

I want to make sure you see this. In the five verses that mention the lake of fire above, they speak of torment in fire and sulfur. In 14:10b (immediately above), this torment with fire and sulfur is in the presence of the lamb and the holy angels. This is a clear reference to the lake of fire, and the lake is in the presence of the lamb and the angels. Where are the lamb and the angels in John's vision? They are in the throne room of God in heaven. This vision of the throne room of God is in Chapter 4, and before the throne is a "crystal sea."

               Revelation 4:6   and in front of the throne there is something like a sea of glass, like crystal.

The sea of glass like crystal can't be the lake of fire, can it? Oh yes it can.

               Revelation 15:2   And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. (emphasis mine)

The the sea of glass mixed with fire (or the lake that burns with fire and sulfur) in the heavenly temple is the mirror image of the earthly "molten sea" in the earthly temple (1 Kings 7:23). This holy fire represents God's glorious purifying love. Our God is a consuming fire (Deut 4:24; Heb 12:29). Jesus' eyes in John's first vision are as a flame of fire. His feet are like bronze hot from the furnace. The angels' feet are like pillars of fire. The seven spirits of God are described as torches. The Spirit of God falls on the disciples at Pentecost as tongues of fire.

[It may not be a coincidence that the Sea of Galilee is also called the Lake of Gennesaret, and the Dead Sea is also called Lake Asphaltites. In John's vision of heaven we apparently have a sea that is also called a lake; the sea of glass is also called the lake of fire.]

So, as I've shown, in John’s vision, the lake is surrounded by angels in heaven.“Hell” isn’t far away from Jesus the Lamb and his Father. It’s in their presence, at the feet of the throne of God and the Lamb:

Revelation 5:6 Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered,having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

There is no separation. There is no dualism. The kingdom is all in all, as Jesus is all in all (1 Cor 15:28; Eph 1:23). If we just look at the vision as John presents it, it creates lots of problems for literalists, but one of them is quite provocative:“Hell” is up. “Hell” is before the throne of God. “Hell” belongs to the Lamb and the Father. Imagine that!

But John tells us it’s a vision.

Revelation 1:1-2  The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what mus soon take place; he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,  ²who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.

Revelation 1:10-11   ¹⁰ I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me aloud voice like a trumpet  ¹¹saying, "Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches,to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea."

John tells us his vision reveals (is a revelation of) Jesus Christ. His vision tells us about Jesus, who he is, what he’s accomplished, and what he purposes for his kingdom. It’s about Jesus, period. It reveals him,though not in gospel stories or doctrinal letters, but in apocalyptic pictures. It is successive, varying images of Jesus. So the reader should look for him.The reader should try to discern what John is telling us about Jesus in figures.

And John tells us not to take his vision literally. He tells us that each image stand for something else. And sometimes he specifically tells us what they mean. For example, the Son of Man stands among seven lampstands holding seven stars in his right hand.These are not literal lampstands and stars. How do I know? Because John says so. In the final verse of chapter one, John, for the first time but not the last, tells his readers what his visionary images represent.

Revelation 1:20   “As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”

A well known television evangelist said in a documentary interview, “I do not believe the Book of Revelation is metaphorical. I do not believe it is symbolic. I believe it is literal. For example, I believe there are coming four literal horsemen (He was referencing Revelation 6:1-8.) who represent. . . .” He went on to explain who and what future events he believes that the four horsemen represent. But did he not use the word “represent”? Wouldn’t literal horses and horsemen have to be real, actual horses and horsemen? Isn’t that what “literally” means? The evangelist contradicted himself. He is adamant that the horsemen are literal,yet in the same breath he interprets what they represent. He is interpreting Revelation symbolically while insisting that he’s taking it literally.

How can we possibly take anything in this apocalyptic vision literally when John didn’t? He writes that the seven lampstands and stars are figures. They represent something else. They are symbolic. It’s safe to assume that virtually everything in the Book of Revelation is symbolic unless otherwise noted by John.

This is so important. For example, in Revelation 5 there is a slain lamb standing. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that this is not a literal dead lamb standing there with seven eyes and seven horns. That would look pretty ridiculous.

But John isn’t showing us livestock. He is showing us Jesus, the one who was crucified and resurrected,slain and yet standing, dead and yet alive forevermore, all seeing (seven eyes) and all powerful (seven horns).

So if the lamb is Jesus, the red dragon is Satan, the great whore is Rome, and the seven lampstands are John’s churches, then shouldn’t the lake of fire be a symbol of something else too? Yes. John shows us how to interpret his vision. It is,after all, his vision. He says to do it symbolically, not literally.

John’s vision gives us the gospel of Jesus Christ in pictures. Each image symbolizes something unless John tells you otherwise. So if the slaughtered yet living lamb represents Jesus, what does the lake of fire represent? Here’s the key verse (again) for me:

Revelation 20:14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire;

John is trying to tell us something important. Death (Thanatos) and the Grave (Hades) are destroyed by Jesus’ death and resurrection. The symbol John chooses for Jesus’ destruction of Death and the Grave is a lake of fire. No wonder the fire is before the Lamb. It’s his fire! It’s the Lamb’s holy fire for finally, joyously destroying sin, death, and the grave. These are the holy things he accomplished on earth. Yet in his second coming he will mercifully wrap it up by allowing evil to burn in his eternal grace and love.

Everything in the holy of holies of heaven must, by definition and common sense, be holy. Therefore, the lake of fire (the crystal sea) must be not an evil thing or an evil place, but a holy thing and a holy place.

“The very fires of Hell are the love and joy of God experienced as wrath and torment by the soul that hates the light and its purifying fire.” Peter Kreeft, ". . . Heaven", p. 206

“Though the damned do not love God, God loves them, and this is their torture. The very fires of Hell are the love of God!” Kreeft, p. 234

“Thus Heaven and Hell are the very same objective reality, the only one there is, the only game in town: the fire of God’s love, which is his essential being.” Kreeft, p. 235

You may doubt this, and if so, I understand. Bear with me and look at this verse again.

Revelation 19:20  And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed in its presence the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.

John shows us in ever evolving images Jesus’ defeat of the enemy. He beats them with the gospel truth and the blood of his cross. The truth has a mixed response in Jesus’ world, in John’s world, and in the world today. It gladdens some hearts while it hardens others. The gladdened enter Life. The hardened enter death. Rome, with its emperors and emperor cults, will be defeated, John insists, and the blood of martyrs will be avenged by the Word of God who speaks the word of God (Life– John 12:47-50) in truth. With the blood of Jesus and the martyrs as an iron rod, God “beats” his opponents into submission.

Will a literal dragon, a literal beast, and a literal beastly-false-prophet be thrown alive into a literal blazing lake? Of course not. Specifically John was symbolizing the defeat of Satan, Rome/Emperor, and the idolatrous emperor cult. But John also is saying that the evil that Jesus already defeated will in The End be disposed of—period—because evil defeats itself. Evil inevitably self-destructs. But what is it that “tortures” evil in“the lake”? How about this:

The Lamb’s holy fire of love before his throne tortures evil. The Lamb’s mercy burns Satan like the sun burns Dracula! Mercy’s eternal truth is eternal agony for any score-keeping liar, especially religious ones! Don’t you love it?

John writes about a first and second death. Here’s a quick definition. The first death is when you die—meaning medically dead. The second death is for the “beast-worshipers” who reject Life—the Life that Jesus spoke and gave, the Life that he is. For those rejecting Life, it’s standing in the presence of the eternal Life that you won’t have. It’s torture in the lake before the Lamb. But remember, the lake is Jesus’ fire of Life. Don’t go assuming that Jesus (or any Person of the Trinity) is a merciless torturer.Jesus hasn’t changed in John’s vision. He’s still the flaming fire of Life. God is still love. And that love and Life brings great joy to those who desire it. But to Satan, his minions, and the beasts he employs to persecute and kill Christians, the flame of Jesus’ Life and the fire of the Father’s love feels like being burned alive.

The miraculous thing, according to John’s vision, is that the baddies remain in Jesus’ presence. (Everything is in Jesus’ presence.) That’s their punishment! They hang themselves on Jesus’ Life line. They drown themselves in Jesus’ baptism of forgiveness. They cut themselves on his sword of loving truth. Baddies aren’t tortured forever in a literal afterlife lake of fire. They are self-condemned Life-rejecters who writhe in the presence of the one who forgives them and offers them Life. “Hell” too is relational.

Also remember that the Book of Revelation is intensely concerned about the relentless pursuit of the church's Roman persecutors, not to torture them,but to win them over. How many delays did they get? How many warnings?

The invitation to Life is presented to them again and again by myriad means in John’s vision. God died for them. God forgave them. God would not give them up without a fight. If John is right, today, even still, he has not given up. His passion for his lost sheep is boundless.

Remember this too: Jesus nullified the first death for everyone. That battle was over a long time ago. John is telling us with his vision that the Life-embracers see neither the first nor the second death. But Life-rejecters see both. As the first and second resurrections are one, so the first and second deaths are one. There is a huge implication here.

Why are Christians today so preoccupied with the afterlife when Life is the point biblically? Life is a person who is alive forever, say the Scriptures. The Bible emphasizes not a place but a person who is Life. In this sense, evil-bent unbelievers are already participating in the second death, for it’s a spiritual death. In this way the second death,ironically, precedes the first. Here’s an example:

To a would-be disciple who wants to wait until his father’s death to follow Jesus, Jesus says, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:60 – For more on the context of this saying, see Jesus Unplugged, Chapter 2, pp. 27-35) You can be biologically alive and spiritually dead. You can live in Gehenna (See my blogs: Hell Defined 1 and Hell Defined 2) before the first death, if you so choose, as this man’s relatives did apparently. On the other hand, however, if you embrace the Life (his kingdom of God/heaven) that you (and all) have been given in him, you bypass both the first and the second death.

John 5:24   “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.”

John 8:51   “Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word (His word is Life – John 12:47-50) will never see death.”

Revelation 2:11   Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Whoever conquers will not be harmed by the second death.

Revelation 20:6   Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has no power,

So what happens to Thanatos (Death) and Hades (the Grave)? John’s envisions them thrown into the Lamb’s holy lake of fire.

Revelation 20:14   Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

I know. It’s hard to stop literalizing and futurizing. We want to find in Revelation 20 the afterlife “hell” we all know and love. (Pardon my sarcasm.) But in 20:14, John envisions Death and Hades being thrown into the lake of fire. So Hades definitely doesn’t equal the lake of fire. It can’t. Why? Because Hades is thrown with Death into the lake. If Hades equals the lake, how can you throw something into itself? Likewise, if Hades and the lake of fire equal our modern concept of hell, how can hell be thrown into hell? Therefore Hades can mean nothing more here than the Grave, as elsewhere throughout the New Testament. (See Ch. 4, p. 143, 169-173; Ch. 5, p. 194, 214; Ch. 6, p. 243) That’s what John saw in his vision: Death and the Grave being annihilated by the lake of fire, the fire of the Lamb’s eternal Life, Jesus’ own fire of Life, his presence as the fire of love. The white-hot fire of Life and love consumes everything that is not Life and love. God is love, and his love is a fire.

^NKJ Deuteronomy 4:24 "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire.

What was Peter feeling when he said this to Jesus:

Luke 5:8  “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”

God’s power is in his love, biblically speaking. That love is pure fire. It always and forever burns. Either we surrender to the purifying fire—as painful as its pure truth may be initially—and receive Life, or we cling to our hate and experience his love as something that it is not nor was it ever intended to be: torture. Jesus loves the world. But those who cling to their darkness experience the exposing light of love like Dracula in a tanning bed.

Given that the Lamb did all the work for us, it’s not surprising that some of us resent being bailed out. But the fire of universal love tortures scorekeepers. I suppose each of us has a tendency to want to stand on our own record. Each of us tends to keep a record of our moral achievements, too. We’d rather not be rescued. (I was rescued from drowning once. Believe me, it’s embarrassing.) We’d rather save ourselves. You can try to do that if you like, says John. You can lean on your own record rather than the Lamb’s. Go ahead. Knock yourself out. Count on the record of your “works” (Rev. 20:12-13) to make you righteous. But the Scriptures have a warning for you. The religious road to righteousness is wide and crowded with people striving to get there by their own merit. Jesus calls that “the road to destruction.” (Matthew 7:13) But—I might add by way of warning—the foundation of all religious fervor is arrogant denial. Your pride says you can make yourself good. Your pride keeps score and thinks you’re better than others. But there’s The Liar’s trap. You can’t make yourself good. Ever. But fear not. You are made righteous by the Lamb or not at all, says John (and the rest of the New Testament). That’s true of everybody else too, whether you approve or not. Letting go and leaning on the Lamb’s gift of righteousness is not merely a viable option, says John. It’s the only option, if you want Life real and free.

John warns and laments in Revelation 21:8, as he did over the tragic fall of Rome (14:8; 18:2), that those who continue in cowardice, faithlessness, pollution, murder,fornication, sorcery, idolatry, and lies, says the voice from the throne, will have rejected Life. They will experience the Lamb’s fire of mercy as judgment.They will choose for themselves the first and second deaths that those who lean entirely on the mercy of the Lamb will never see. Yet notice the tense that the voice uses: “their place will be in the lake.” Even to the end, even now, the door is open from heaven’s end to all of us. Because the warning still stands, then the possibility of entering Life still stands, even in the last portrait in the last gallery of John’s magnificent vision of Christ. The Lamb fights to The End for his sheep.

Matthew 18:14   So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.

So what happens in The End? Death (Thanatos) is swallowed up in victory by the Lamb’s lake of fire. The Grave (Hades) is annihilated in his Life-flame. The sea of chaos from whence all evil comes is no more. And Satan and his buddies writhe together in the flames of the love-wrath of the Lamb.

The implications of God Emanuel are huge, aren’t they? Can you imagine not having to watch your back anymore? Can you imagine an end to spiritual warfare? “No evil” means no evil intentions remain. No grief, sorrow, or pain of any kind means no more tears (compare 7:17 to 21:4—The End) It’s all over, again and finally. But don’t try to relegate this victory to the future only. Jesus did all this already. The Lamb is victorious. His yoke is easy now. One can live unguarded now. Spiritual victory is won now. Eternal Life is present and given now. Living water is available now. Spirit and truth are at work now. New Birth is present now. The Apostle Paul agrees: Newness of life is available now (Romans 6:4), and the new creation is being born now (Romans 8:19-23). We died, rose, and ascended with him now (Romans 6:4; Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 3:1). Death’s sting is gone now (1 Corinthians 15:55). We are in the birth pangs of the new heaven and new earth now.

So the symbols John uses, like the river of Life and the tree of Life and the lake of fire, are not literal descriptions of places or things. They are images of Jesus the Lamb, Jesus the Resurrection, Jesus the Way, Jesus the Truth, Jesus the Life. He is the sun and moon, the bright and morning star, the lamp, the Faithful and True Rider, the radiant Son of Man, and together with God the Father he is the Temple in the New Jerusalem. And the New Jerusalem is the Lamb’s Bride representing his church. Jesus is our husband and our home. He is the ever-burning fire of love. He is the personal and present and coming kingdom of heaven.

Other blogs about the Book of Revelation: 666, The Giant Flying Cube; The Millennium; Pearly Gates and Streets of Gold; and Names In the Book of Life.

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