Tag: homosexuality

Love, Desire and Lust

Is there any difference between love, desire and lust? If we’re listening to the conversation in today’s circles, not much! Tolerance and equality, it seems, can also be ported to mean acceptance and legitimising that which isn’t moral or good.

Allow me to explain. A friend, we’ll call him George, dearly loved three young women. They too apparently loved him, and quickly became more than “good friends”. That’s when things got complicated. George’s desire was torn between them all. Society dictated that he could only legally marry one. But, the foursome wasn’t dissuaded by such mores. They assumed suburban “family life” and over time worked to legalise their relationships. In effect, he was “husband” to three women, which isn’t uncommon in some countries. In terms of Western law, however, the merits of consent and love between a union of more than one man and one woman was not seen as eligible criteria for the historical, religious, legal and widely-accepted definition of “marriage”.

So, legally they weren’t married. Civil law defines marriage as the monogamous, lifelong union between one man and one woman, the origins of which lie at the heart of Christianity. So, George and his wives sought a compromise. A civil union of sorts was attempted in order to give some legitimacy to their family status. By that time, several children had been born. Soon, various government departments began investigating. The news media quickly picked up the story, and of course it made sensational weekend reading.

Were they not consenting adults who chose their relationships? Weren’t they “in love”? They seemed happy! Isn’t it all about love, and the freedom to choose? The vexing question is who dictates then how they should live their lives, or deny them their “equal rights”? It’s an ongoing and topical narrative that seems to reverberate within today’s media and politics. There are those who uphold traditional marriage between a man and a woman, and those who espouse other models, such as homosexuality, lesbianism, union with under-age children, transgenderism, as well as polygamy.

Governed by higher law, civil laws generally adopted and accepted what was understood to form the basis for strong, peaceful and enduring societies based on the healthy, stable family unit constituting a paternal father and a maternal mother, united for life, and including the nurture of any children born to that union. After all, that’s a foundational premise which Christianity espouses to be the God-ordained mandate for human life – as reflected in the pages of its Constitution, the Holy Bible and thus reflected in the marriage vows of: “A natural union but a Divine institution”.

Today, unfortunately, we’re hearing a vocal minority attempting to redefine the family unit without knowing or assessing what future complications and consequences might be – legally or societally. The Christo-centric values that Western society grew from, it seems, have all but been abandoned. Recognised historically, as is woven throughout our legal system, is the understanding that a loving and responsible father and mother together provide the best environment for a stable, nurturing home for the next generation. Marriage also provides that children have a right to life, a right to be protected, as well as a right to know who their biological father and mother are, and benefit from that nurture. Traditional marriage preserves the family as no other unit can, and therefore society depends on its strength. The covenant relationship within marriage between a man and a woman reflects a higher relationship of what God desires of us – of holiness, fidelity and covenant. Interestingly, most gays don’t want “traditional marriage” for the sanctity, holiness and Godliness it represents; it’s said that their desire rather is to malign and ultimately destroy marriage. It is widely known that unions such as those generally outside of marriage contribute to higher than normal rates of depression, dysfunction as well as suicide. Homosexual cultures historically are recorded as being more violent, and generally short-lived.

In terms of defining what healthy desire is, there’s a vastly big chasm between love and lust. It is here that society seems to have blurred the lines. Genuine love leads to covenant, lifelong union between a man and a woman. This nurture in turn is extended to the children which in turn benefits society as a whole. Lust, as a base desire, is a powerful and dangerous agent, parading as love but seeking unhealthy sexual fulfilment as it chooses. Lust is not love. It’s an aberration, a fanciful, unfettered and unhealthy selfish orientation. It may parade as virtue. But it isn’t love – not historically, legally or morally. Lust, a lack of self-control, is the very opposite of what God intended in the tenth commandment when he said, “You shall not covet”. If not remediated, this kind of self-centredness can be also diagnosed as a form of mental illness.

The conversation we’re currently having regarding the “definition of marriage” is one of foundational challenges we face today. Like a ship without a compass, blown with every uneasy wind, a noisy minority is actively and avidly working to simultaneously erase history’s other virtues and bastions beyond traditional marriage, especially those with Christian origins.

An example of this might help. We no longer count the years as from AD, a Latin term meaning “Year of our Lord” (a reference to Christ’s birth), in recent times having subtly changed AD for CE (meaning “Common Era”). Why the change? Perhaps it’s a subtle assault on faith history! Another example: Today we call babies in utero as “foetuses” or “embryos” which seem to be an additional attempt to further dehumanise them, and thus giving abortion the appearance of greater legitimacy. Family and faith values seem to have been progressively eroded in more ways than one.

Of course, although traditional marriage is generally upheld within the faith community as it ought, the virtues and blessing of marriage are generally poorly argued. The Christian community has failed to connect marriage to Jesus Christ, the “Lamb and His Bride”, and it is on this platform that the Christian voice must be united. Ordained at creation, traditional marriage has proven its value. The alternatives of anti-human and anti-family thinking will result in consequences to those of similar past histories remembered for escalated violence and vanishing. Sadly, the assault today on traditional marriage is accompanied by concerted efforts to remove it from its past faith history, and repaint it within the context of a purely secularist and evolutionary-modelled society – a model too many have blindly accepted.

Western society, it seems, is progressively stripping away traditional and historical connections with the past, especially faith-oriented belief, in a subtle attempt to promote its new, moral-less agenda. Changes to legislation are sometimes slow and barely noticeable, other times accompanied by vocal and persuasive politics, but either way progressively swaying the morality and opinion of greater numbers of people.

Yet, the fact remains that lust and uncontrolled desire is not love. It has no place in marriage. It has no place in relationships. It has no place in society. For some it is an illness; for others it is an obsession and perversion.

Concerned followers of Jesus need to know that now is the time to be accounted for. Now is the time to speak for Jesus. Our neighbours, friends, workmates, parents and grandparents, as well as the “George’s” of society, need to know of the healing and new life offered them in Christ alone, as well the consequences of any alternate legacy they’re leaving the next generation. It’s time for the church community not only to voice genuine concern in its reformist voice for the brokenness of society, but also be able to articulate solid, immovable reasons in Jesus Christ as to why their belief in traditional family values as modelled over thousands of years and as ordained at creation, is the only way forward.

John Klassek

John Klassek

Mardi Gras

It seems that more sectors of Australian society is visibly getting sicker with a pronounced depravity, aided by a news media that touts the notion homosexuality as something to celebrate and revel in. Terms like “equality” and “rights” mask their agenda to destroy marriage.

The Sydney annual Mardi Gras is simply “depravity” at its flamboyant worst, demonstrated by the broken, lost and wicked celebrating their idolatry as “liberating and wonderful”. Sadly, with few dissenting voices decrying this immorality and plague, we have every reason to worry. Those who express deep concern for this abandonment from traditional marriage and family values are frequently labelled as homophobic, racist or bigoted.

So what does the future hold? At the heart of every Christ believer is the surety that history repeats itself. The natural laws of consequences are inevitable. Thus, as society descends further into the abyss of immorality, another is already on the rise. Many of our middle eastern immigrants, for example, already have it in their hearts and ideology what their future holds. And, if we’re honest, such histories are too bloody to document here!

Enas Andras

On behalf of our children

On behalf of our children

Surely someone will speak up on behalf of our children! Acquiescing to a popularist, media-driven agenda is nothing less than dangerous – if not fatal.

The definition of marriage and family life is one father, one mother, married for life, providing both emotional and spiritual nurture for their children. Anything else, like homosexuality, paedophilia, adultery, fornication, incest, bestiality and the like are an aberration. In other words, these deviations are plainly sinful and wrong.

Who says so? Why, Jesus, of course! And so do His followers – or at least they should by their example.

When entire countries, supported by their judiciaries and driven by the media, begin “voting in” and incrementing what become sweeping immoral changes, then perhaps we ought to spare a thought, first, for our grandparents who would shudder to think that such immoral antics are undermining the very society they pioneered, and secondly, for our children whose minds and hearts become irreparably damaged because they’ve never known the true love and identity that only a loving father and mother in marriage can provide.

The greatest of civilisations rapidly declined when their morals also waned. Babylon, Persia, Greece and then Rome were once thought invincible. The writing is again on the wall.

Violence today is generally accepted to be on the rise, whether highlighted in other countries or in our own suburbs. Mental illness is a growing scourge, with suicide dramatically increasing. And when our children become the pawns because of our immorality (deprived of a father and mother combination), when we kill the unborn with abandoned wanton (and call it “pro-choice”), when our sophisticated, immersive entertainment becomes more violent and pornographic – then it isn’t long before the law of natural consequences catch up.

Political correctness is dangerous as it is deceitful. We label a baby in his or her mothers’ womb as an “embryo” or “foetus” as the underlying notion is that they are not human. They are. They’re our children. And yet we so easily succumb to a politically correct violence that dissects their little bodies before they gain their first breath of air. And we proudly call it “pro-choice”.

We’ve thrown “God” out of our society. “Hooray”, you say! We no longer introduce children to the Bible. “Ditto”. We no longer believe in absolutes, that right is right, and wrong is wrong. And so, if this God has anything to say about this, it’s in the law of natural consequences that He designed.

Jesus said, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet and show my people their sins.” (Isaiah 58:1)

He said the defiantly rebellious would be “pursued with the sword, with famine, with pestilence; they’ll be delivered into trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth – to be a curse, an astonishment, a hissing, a reproach among all the nations… because they have not heeded My words…” (Jeremiah 29:18)

“The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head and you shall be the tail. All these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God…” (Deuteronomy 28:43-45)

And so, accordingly, history is beset to repeat itself. Nations of strange language and customs seem to assert their power as never before. The Islamic State, for example, defined by their throat-cutting brutality and an ominous black flag seem uncannily unstoppable – perhaps because our will-power and weakened response has become one of containment. Their goal is to raise the black flag of Sharia law on the entire world, and they begin by enticing our gullible youth.

Another example is the increasing Chinese influence through trade and expansionism. It isn’t all that it seems, as this economic juggernaut sponsor the construction of military bases well beyond their recognised international borders. Our policies of acquiescence, appeasement and containment will not work. No need to reiterate the details of the Ukraine crisis at the moment.

The days of western dominance and economic might are over.

Hope for a return to basic morality might seem distant. Revival and right relationships, according to history, do however return, but only it seems after a time of suffering – a time of suffering when our enemies are victors, when perhaps Sharia law displaces democracy, and when the entire world is at war. That is, in effect, what Jesus says. That’s what the Christian Bible echoes in both old and new testaments. And that’s what we need to understand.

War is coming. We have the nuclear missiles, the warships, tanks and planes, as well as the protagonists. And in this war, be it outright conflict or through years of attrition, because of our immorality, it will quickly become apparent who is the weaker side.

Now the “politically correct” might describe our embrace of Jesus’ teachings as “homophobic”. They also commonly tout the term of “marriage equality”. Such trendy buzzwords are subtle inventions designed to linguistically sound appealing to the voting public. And yet marriage historically and culturally has always been defined as the covenant lifetime relationship between one man and one woman to the exclusion of any others. Homosexuality isn’t marriage.

Followers of Jesus cannot remain silent; we’re called to shine the light in both our life example and in the things we speak out for. And as our words find momentum and authorship in the Holy Spirit, then we would have committed the greater sin by remaining silent.

So, cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and allow Jesus’ words to again echo across this country. Someone has to speak up!

Written by John Klassek

John and Rebecca have been married for 26 years and have six children. He serves in ministry in the Church of God (Seventh Day) in Australia, and works as a film producer for MessageWeek Ministries.

The Journey to Hell

Clara was just 18 months old when she died in the winter of 1911. Her small, unmarked grave lies forgotten in the old country cemetery in Goulburn, New South Wales. She would have been Larry’s great aunt. Larry’s grandmother seldom spoke of her, and on those rare occasions when she did, it was usually in terms of looking forward to being reunited on the day of resurrection.

The contention in the local then-quite-religious community was the belief that Clara had never been baptised, and therefore she could never be saved. Her lot, it was automatically assumed, was torment in hell, for she had never confessed faith in Jesus. The irony is, of course, she was too young to know right from wrong, and too young to comprehend God’s love for her.

Today, the pulpit is somewhat conspicuously silent on the subject of hell. Thankfully, there’s a new wave of understanding and discussion regarding God’s will and purpose. Clara’s future, and the millions like her who died, must be accounted for and not escape our heartfelt affection, as guided by God’s Spirit, if we’re to reconcile her future with a loving, merciful God.

Abraham, we read in the scriptures, believed that the Judge of the earth would do right. A lot hinges on the faith that God is righteous, that he will do what is right, and that his will is indeed that none should perish.

Jesus, interestingly, spoke more about heaven than he did about hell. Our knowledge of both is thus entirely dependent on his words. What we do have are the scriptures which, in several remarkable instances, recount where men of God were carried “in the Spirit” and given visions of the throne of God. Our curiosity is naturally piqued as we read and are gripped by their distinct and vivid accounts, whether it be Isaiah, Ezekiel or John’s extraordinary testimonies. Interestingly, little imagery is equally given for what hell might be like, other than of course being a consuming fire resulting in annihilation. Medieval paintings and folklore seem to make up the rest of popular belief.

Preachers in the past often promoted the “turn or burn” mentality through their evangelism. Thus, many religious people assume that those who die in this life without ever having encountered Jesus are automatically condemned to hell, a fiery and ongoing torture of “body and soul”. Like Clara’s predicament, they believe that they simply have no hope, never had any hope, and if we carefully think it through, Jesus’ redemptive victory over sin and death at their moment of prophesied resurrection is somewhat eclipsed and rendered ineffective!

The questions that become apparent at this point are: Is this what the Bible teaches? Is such theology qualitatively little more than acquired supposition? Do the traditions we may have accepted so readily really find their origins in the Bible? In exploring the subject of hell, let’s pay attention to what the Bible actually does say, what it doesn’t say, and then exercise care by not adding or subtracting from its message.

From the outset we know that destruction by hell fire awaits those unrepentant and wicked people who refuse Jesus. This is consistently highlighted throughout many of Jesus’ teachings. God is sovereign over life and death. Jesus explained:

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)

To the religious leaders of Jesus’ day who refused and persecuted him all the way to his crucifixion, who misconstrued the scriptures, whose words and actions trod on God’s grace, Jesus said (alluding perhaps to what the serpent in the Garden of Eden represented):

“Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?” (Matthew 23:33)

There is little ambiguity in Jesus’ exclamation. That’s where those professing wise men were ultimately headed! You are either a child of God, or you are not.

And yet contrasting this, to the battle-hardened Roman soldiers mocking, scourging and torturing him as well as casting lots over his clothes, Jesus’ appraisal was quite different.

Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” And they divided His garments and cast lots. (Luke 23:34)

Jesus asked his heavenly Father to forgive those callous but ignorant sinners who were violently contributing to his suffering and death. Jesus’ petition to his Father was one of forgiveness rather than that of condemnation. We cannot dismiss the heart of a loving and merciful God, expressing grace and forgiveness to those who were deceived and who lived and operated in a spiritually darkened world through little original fault of their own. The only light they may have been exposed to up until that point was Jesus’ petition for forgiveness! (Note that Jesus’ prayer and the powerful events surrounding his death resulted, interestingly, in the Roman centurion’s belief and path to conversion).

What Jesus emphasised and taught was quite contrary to the selfish and dismissive tendencies of human nature. He admonished his disciples when he said:

“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven;…” (Matthew 5:44-45)

This is radical teaching! Elsewhere in scripture, we’re consistently told by Jesus not to judge, not to condemn, for only God is a righteous Judge. Instead, our mandate as his children is to extend grace – unmerited favour – to those who persecute us. We are to love those who hurt us; to do good to them and to pray for them. By so doing we are then truly children of God. In other words, if we are to really be like our heavenly Father, our first and only response must be that of love. Our judgment towards others is rigorously limited to Godly righteousness in the form of grace.

That’s the kind of judgment Jesus passed towards those who did not know any better, and so he wants us to do likewise. Ultimately, judgment is Jesus’ to execute. He is a merciful, righteous Judge who, as the Creator of the world, redeemed it from destruction by his own blood. No one else is worthy of that honour and responsibility.

For those who presume that the second resurrection is a total and automatic wholesale assignment to the fires of hell, think again. The finality of hell is reserved for the wicked, who, although knowing better, by their defiance and wickedness “crucify the Son of God” all over again. This is evident in the following passage:

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. (Hebrews 6:4-6)

Now we’re narrowing down those whom scripture defines as having gone beyond the grace of repentance and forgiveness, and for whom there no longer remains any hope. They are those who knowingly and stubbornly refuse Jesus. They are those who have experienced God’s grace, who have tasted the goodness of God, who have experienced the Spirit of God, and yet have chosen a darker path. King Saul, the first Israelite king, might be an example. Anointed with the Holy Spirit at his coronation, he soon despised its counsel, and thus lived the rest of his life tormented by demonic influences. In his demise, he desperately consulted the occult before being killed in battle.

In Jesus’ day, there were people who followed a similar path, and sadly there are those who tread that same way of life today. This was illustrated when Jesus’ ministry was consistently refuted and discredited by those he reached out to. He said to those disbelieving religious leaders who opposed him:

“But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.” (Matthew 11:24)

What did Jesus mean by that? How could it be “more tolerable” for anyone in the day of judgment? Did Jesus’ pronouncement, directed towards his audience, then amount to a judgment of condemnation?

Those who never knew God, never saw the light, never tasted the Holy Spirit, but instead lived their entire lives blinded and deluded in the grip of a Satanic deception, will awaken in the second resurrection when God will judge them.

Today, when we think of Sodom, we think of wickedness and depravity. Sodom is synonymous with heinous acts of treachery, homosexuality, and mob rule. God passed judgment on those wicked people, and they perished in a fiery blaze. But, one day, those same people will rise from their graves to face their ultimate judgment. So why will it be “more tolerable” for the Sodomites than it will be for the peoples of Jesus’ day? The answer lies in Jesus’ words.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” (John 5:24)

Those in Sodom, going on what Jesus is saying, perhaps had never heard of the true God. We can wonder whether they ever had the opportunity to believe in the One who became Jesus. And, if not, then how can they be accused of refusing the Son of God? But to the Jews of Jesus’ day who opposed him, according to Jesus, it seems they’ll be judged with a less-than-favourable outcome. For them the prospect of annihilation in hell is dauntingly real!

The Sodomites faced their punishment a long time ago. And yet, it would appear from Jesus’ own words, that it will be “more tolerable” for them on the day of judgment. That is, (please excuse the humour) will it be slightly less hot for them in hell than it is for others? Of course not! Does it mean that they may ultimately be given the opportunity for salvation in Jesus Christ? Think about it.

God is a righteous Judge. He is a God of mercy, and according to Jesus’ own brother James:

“Mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:13)

We must exercise care when we examine the scriptures. If we’ve assumed that the second resurrection is an automatic and indiscriminate condemnation to an eternal and fiery obliteration, think again. That’s not what Jesus said.

There are, however, certain characters in the Bible whose lives serve as examples, aiding our understanding of those who remain defiant despite being offered salvation in Jesus. One such man was Judas. He was one of the twelve disciples who, in the end, availed himself as an instrument of Satan. Judas’ betrayal of Jesus seems more of a deliberate and premeditated action than something conceived “on the spur of the moment”. Judas was a thief, helping himself to the disciples’ collective funds. A study of his life reveals a certain ongoing disgruntlement.

Judas lived a double life, right there among the brotherhood of disciples. Jesus knew this, John perhaps had an inkling of it, but to the others he effectively, it seems, travelled undetected. Judas sought and waited for an opportunity to “do his treacherous business”.

At a certain crucial point during Jesus’ last meal with his disciples, we read where “Satan entered Judas”, whereupon he hurriedly left their fellowship to venture out into the night. What did Jesus say of Judas?

“It would have been good for that man if he had never been born.” (Mark 14:21)

Judas was a man who experienced the fullest extent of God’s light and love in the person and ministry of Jesus, and yet he chose a contrary, dark path. Jesus alluded that Judas’ life was worth nothing. For all that Jesus had invested in him, Judas still yielded to the devil to motivate his actions and attitudes. The tragedy of Judas’ life ended in suicide.

The lake of fire exists for those who reject Jesus, the same destiny that awaits the devil and his cohorts.

“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels…’” (Matthew 25:41)

The religious leaders of 2000 years ago also refused Jesus. They saw the miracles, heard the preaching, witnessed changed lives, were confronted by God’s grace, and, in denying the presence of the Holy Spirit, they blasphemed Jesus, who said to them:

“You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40)

It seems from scripture that there will be those who, at their resurrection judgment and resulting condemnation, will exhibit a false display of sorriness at their imminent demise. Jesus illustrated this by using the recurring phrase of “weeping and gnashing of teeth”. With teaching directed at those pseudo-religious folk of his day who lived a lie, Jesus said:

“But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out.” (Luke 13:27-28)

“Weeping and gnashing of teeth” seems to convey an agonising mental anguish, a too-late-regret tinged with anger, a state of mind perhaps much like the peoples of Noah’s day when they finally saw the rising flood waters. For years they had mocked God’s faithful herald, as they witnessed Noah building a big, wooden ship. They sneered at the idea of a global storm. God was the butt of their jokes and derision. But when the flood came, it was by then too late! The door had closed. The ark was sealed. And those wicked outside perished at God’s visitation. The account of Noah’s experience is almost a metaphor of what is set to occur again.

There is no room in God’s Kingdom for the unrighteous. God’s ultimate judgment is reflected in the closing words of the revelation given to John:

“He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:7-8)

The finality of hell fire is total and final death, from which there is no longer any hope of redemption. God offers everyone extraordinary hope in the saving work of Jesus Christ. The rich tapestry of salvation history throughout the scriptures, in the lives of those who have lived before us, forms and defines this thread of hope. And while we do not have all the answers, we do have the sure and adequate words of scripture, echoing Jesus’ very own thoughts, for which we would do well to take to heart:

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2)

The truth is that God is not willing that any should perish, and thus the journey to hell only begins when the Holy Spirit is scorned through the unrepentant sinful things those who hate God intentionally say and do. Jesus reminded his listeners of the ultimate price that awaits those who don’t take him seriously:

“And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.” (Matthew 5:30)

Of course, as an infant, all this was beyond infant Clara. She sleeps in her innocence, awaiting the voice and justice of Jesus. The tears her parents cried way back in 1911 will be more than recompensed when they see and again embrace their little girl. She will be judged by what she had done in her short and innocent life. God’s goodness will be overwhelmingly evident and convincing!

Those who may have doubted God’s grace in this resurrection to judgment will finally be gladdened to witness the fathomless depth of God’s love and redemptive power.

Today, Clara’s grave site is unmarked and forgotten. But not in God’s mind. Not far from where she lies sleeping in that old Goulburn cemetery is a weather-beaten tombstone from an earlier generation. Dated 1889, it remembers the tragic and untimely death of a fifty year old man named David; for all intents and purposes, however, it equally speaks of Clara’s hope. David was a goodly man, and apparently deeply missed. The final words his friends and family left with him feature on his curious but hope-filled epitaph.

Earth to earth and dust to dust
Calmly now the words we say
Leaving him to sleep in trust
Till the resurrection day
Father in thy gracious keeping
Leave we how thy servant sleeping.

John KlassekWritten by John Klassek, as a new chapter for his book Hope of the Resurrection, the 4th edition currently being edited.

That’s not what Jesus said.

What did Jesus exactly mean? He said:

“But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.” (Matthew 11:24 NKJV)

According to Jesus, all the dead, will be raised back to life.

Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth— those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of [lit. judgment]. (John 5:28-29)

Awaiting those who never knew God – the wicked and all unrepentant sinners – is the second resurrection when God will judge them.

Today, when we think of Sodom, we think of wickedness and depravity. Sodom is synonymous with heinous acts of treachery, homosexuality, and mob rule. God passed judgment on those wicked people, and they perished in a fiery blaze.

But, one day, those same people will rise from their graves to face their ultimate judgment. So why will it be “more tolerable” for the Sodomites that it will be for the peoples of Jesus’ day?

Jesus said:

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” (John 5:24 NKJV)

Those in Sodom, going on what Jesus is saying, perhaps have never heard of the true God. They never had the opportunity to believe in the One who became Jesus, and so how can they be accused of refusing the Son of God? But to the Jews of Jesus’ day who opposed Him, according to Jesus – well, it seems they’ll be judged with a less than a favourable outcome.

The Sodomites faced their punishment a long time ago. And yet, it would appear from Jesus’ own words, that it will be “more tolerable” for them on the day of judgment. That is, will it be slightly less hot in hell for them than it is for others? Of course not. Does it mean that they may ultimately be given the opportunity for salvation in Jesus Christ? Think about it.

God is a righteous Judge. He is a God of mercy, and according to Jesus’ own brother, “Mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:13)

We must be very careful at how we interpret the scriptures. If you think that the second resurrection is an automatic condemnation to an eternal and fiery obliteration, think again. That’s not what Jesus said.

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