Section Three of the booklet, Two Ways to Live: The Choice We All Face, unfortunately continues the trend of incompleteness that it started in the previous two sections. As in those parts, so also here we see a tendency on the part of the authors to omit truths that would provide a fuller, more illuminating explanation of the topic at hand. In this section, it is the topic of divine judgment against human rebellion that receives inadequate coverage.

The left-hand page is a good start, saying:

God won’t let us rebel forever.
God’s punishment for rebellion is death and judgment.
Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.
Hebrews chapter 9, verse 27
God’s justice sounds hard. But…

The explanation that follows on the facing page is where the problems lie. The very first paragraph, in fact, is troubling:

God cares enough about humanity to take our rebellion seriously. He calls us to account for our actions, because it matters to him that we treat him, and other people, so poorly. In other words, he won’t let the rebellion go on forever.

As before, there is nothing false here. It is true that God cares about humanity, that he takes rebellion seriously, that he holds man accountable for his actions, that the way we treat him and others matters to him, and that ultimately he will put a stop to rebellion. What is troubling is that the authors put it too mildly. To say merely that “it matters to him that we treat him, and other people, so poorly” is like saying, “It matters to the judge that the serial killer treats others so poorly.” Of course it “matters” to the judge, but this statement does not come close to painting a full picture of a righteous judge’s attitude toward such crimes. If he is a judge worth his salt, he will intensely loathe the crimes and desire earnestly to execute judgment.

The next paragraph is just as problematic, if not more so:

The sentence God passes against us is entirely just, because he gives us exactly what we ask for. In rebelling against God, we are saying to him, “Go away. I don’t want you telling me what to do. Leave me alone.” And this is precisely what God does. His judgement on rebels is to withdraw from them, to cut them off from himself—permanently. But since God is the source of life and all good things, being cut off from him means death and hell. God’s judgement against rebels is an everlasting, God-less death.

Although the authors do mention hell, they describe it merely as a separation from God. In limiting their description in this way, they neglected to give the full import of the word—including conscious, eternal torment. The authors clearly avoided any mention of the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15), the unquenchable fire and the undying worm (Mark 9:48), or “tribulation and distress” (Romans 2:9).

The Bible clearly portrays hell as far more than mere exclusion from the divine presence. God does not merely, in effect, draw a line in the ground and say, “You stay on that side and I’ll stay on this side.” Hell involves more than an angel preventing access to Paradise with a flaming sword. It is a continuous, eternal punishment of the most agonizing nature. One has to wonder why these important details were omitted.

Another problem in this paragraph lies in the statement, “The sentence God passes against us is entirely just, because he gives us exactly what we ask for.” What is troubling about this is that it implies that human desire is the basis on which God makes his judgment for sin. There is much more to it than that, though. The fairness of God’s judgments stems from his character and authority: “Let God be true but every man a liar” (Romans 3:4, NKJV). God’s judgments are just because God is always true, and there is no falsehood in him. People may lie, but God does not. In addition, Scripture says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness; you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness” (Psalm 45:6–7). God rules in uprightness, not with injustice. He hates wickedness, so to judge unfairly would be contrary to his nature. Finally, his judgment is just because he is omniscient: Knowing all things prevents him from making a misjudgment of any kind.

We could probably attribute his justice to a number of other aspects of his character, but the important point is that the fairness of God’s judgments stems from who God is. God’s judgments are just, not because he complies with man’s wicked desires, but rather because he complies with his own nature of being just and holy. Again, the issue here is God-centeredness vs. man-centeredness.

As we can see, Section Three displays a tendency on the part of the authors to provide a man-centered gospel message rather than a God-centered one. In Section two they describe sin only in terms of its earthly consequences, steering clear of setting it against the backdrop of God’s holiness. In this section, they seem to say that the fairness of divine judgment is determined by the kind of choice that man makes and not also by the character of God. A pattern is clearly emerging: Man’s temporal misery and personal choices are presented as the standards by which sin is defined and God’s judgments are measured, respectively.

Continued in Part Four…

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.