A Consuming Fire?

Heb.12:25-29 - See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29 For our God is a consuming fire.

Decisions have consequences. And indecisions have consequences as well. Riding down the road we can turn left which can be the wrong turn and lead us into a dead end. But just one crossroad before we turned, we failed to turn which opened up that opportunity for the wrong turn. Our entire lives are a series of decisions and indecisions.

And our lives are also impacted by the decisions that others make as well as their indecisions. The indecision about pursuing terrorist leads in 2000 and in 2001 led to the 9/11 tragedy. But the decision to invade Iraq has led to a multitude of unpleasant consequences in personnel and upon the economy. And there are many more small, medium, and large decisions that tend to impact and even shape our earthly lives.

The verses in Hebrews warn us about the consequences of indecision in the matter of certain spiritual truths. This includes the indecision concerning the gospel witness here and abroad, as well as the decision by the western church to give basically a token nod to missions as compared to the passion given to politics, patriotism, and all things concerning money. The world is an interactive human amalgam whose decisions and indecisions ( a decision as well) impact each other on different levels.

But the consequences of ignoring eternity and the coming judgment, whether by a personal death or God’s wholesale visitation upon this earth, are deadly, eternally deadly. This is no game and no political football. This issue cannot be overstated and as it concerns divine judgment and eternal damnation there is nothing melodramatic about it. But since we do not hear it today, and since the Joel Osteens and Rick Warrens are the current theology-du-jour, anything about divine judgment is considered unsophisticated, doctrinally Neanderthal, and mocked by Rob Bell’s “Bullhorn Guy”.

Of course the realities of such a colossal truth can only be seen “through a glass darkly”, however when it arrives it will surpass by light years any reality we have ever known. Does that sound like hyperbole and melodrama? When sinners, draped in unredeemed sin, stand before the Great White Throne Judgment no one will claim our words were hyperbole and melodramatic.

If the heavens were opened, and all mankind caught just a glimpse of heaven and a glimpse of hell, the issues that drive mankind now would seem like foolishness. But the god of this world continues to blind the eyes of the lost, and the residual effect sometimes is that believers are drawn into that same blindness by championing the same fallen and self centered causes as do the lost. That in large part contributes to the cold and impassioned state of the church.

But the writer of Hebrews (probably Paul) makes it clear that there will be no escape. No one will be able to talk their way out of judgment, or give some excuse for their own sin. And at the very moment that an unredeemed sinner meets a Holy God, and as he stands without excuse in the courtroom of eternity, at that moment he will spiral immediately into an unfathomable hopelessness. All will be lost. Each sinner will stand entirely alone before the witness of heaven and the consuming fire of a Creator God.

Does it still sound like so much Dante? Do my words seem like embellishment? Is this some ancient superstition that has evolved into an abject misrepresentation? If so, then Rob Bell and his crowd are your spiritual community. And men like me are ignorant throw backs who lend credibility to ancient fables by modern word pictures and literary adornments. In short, pay no attention to the words of Scripture because you know better.

And the “our God is a consuming fire” thing? I guess you just have to shake your head and laugh. And oh yes, you better hope it’s a joke.