« Kicking the Can of Celibacy by Tony Bartlett | Main | The Radical Alternative of the Gospel of Peace by Brian Zahnd »

February 20, 2013

Comments

jan

God’s judgment is when all the lights are turned on and we must come to terms with the truth. It is the horrible experience of fully realizing the pain we have caused others and that we have caused God through our self-centered ways of living. It is a pain that can be experienced now or then, and it is a pain that can cut deeper than any other pain.

your name should be Health.. because this is full of truth.
i too believe that Restoration/Reconciliation is the last Word.
Blessings!

jan

Alf.. i so appreciate your response! Who among us can be certain of anything, let alone our own hearts...
if Love is our Judge then we will all find ourselves deeply and utterly grateful.

alf penner

I have wondered about this ‘burning away of chaff and stubble’ and pondered (with much trepidation) what part(s) of me would not pass the test, so to speak. Then I began to wonder, when I die, which ‘Alf’ will go to be with the Lord? What I mean is, who I am today is much different than would I was 20 years ago and (Lord willing) much different than who I will be in 20 years from now. I’ve always assumed (until now) that the version of me that goes to Heaven is simply the latest version, that is, who I was at the moment of my death. But is that the best, sum product of me? C.S. Lewis in Screwtape talks about God seeing all of history in his eternal present, so doesn’t He see me as I am at all stages of my life? Maybe there are parts of me that were nearer to Jesus as a 20 year old than I am at 40 (and vice-versa), which can also apply to the future version of me. Maybe who we become after the refining is the best of everything we were during our lives. This is a comforting thought.
So what about Hitler? Well, surely as a little child Adolf was a delightful little boy, like all little children are. Wasn’t he one of the very ones that Jesus bid come unto him? Surely, at the very least, the Adolf Hitler that enters the welcoming arms of our Lord and Saviour after all has been burned away is a giggling 4 year-old uncorrupted by the wars, suffering, and politics he was subject to as a growing youth. Could Jesus send a child like that to ‘Hell’? Looking at my own small children, I know I couldn’t.

The comments to this entry are closed.