Category: John

Posted in 1Corinthians, 1Thessalonians, 2Peter, John, Revelation

Two Very Different Judgments

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did good to a resurrection of life, those who committed evil to a resurrection of judgment.” John 5:28-29

Our souls go to heaven or hades when we die but our bodies are held by death until the second coming of Christ. Every human being that ever lived will receive a new body, of which their body on earth was a seed (it doesn’t matter if people were cremated or buried); and then will be judged by Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The judgment of those who trusted Him as their Savior will be very different from those who rejected Him in three ways.

  1. The timing of the judgment. Those who trusted Christ will be raised first and that will begin at what is commonly known as the rapture of the church. Paul tells us that “..the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” (1Thessalonians 4:16-17) The second resurrection doesn’t happen until after the millennium: “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. (Revelation 20:13)
  2. In what is being judged. Those who trusted Christ will not be judged for their sins – that judgment happened already on the cross. Jesus, in the text above, says their resurrection is to life, not judgment. However, believers will be judged for their works and 1Corinthians 3 says that some will have all their works burned up in the fire of God’s judgment, even though their souls will still be saved. The righteous are only judged to determine their rewards, not their salvation. Those who reject Christ will be judged for all their sins. They chose to pay their own penalty, so they will. 
  3. The kind of body received. The righteous are raised immortal and their new bodies are imperishable. (1Corinthians 15:42) Those who reject Christ are given a new body but it is perishable like the one they had on earth. Jesus says they will perish – John 3:16; Paul says they will perish – 1Corinthians 1:18; and Peter says they will “perish like the beasts.” (2Peter 2:12)
Posted in John

Responding to the Light 

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” John 3:19

People are not judged because they are in darkness or because their deeds are evil. They are judged on their response to the Light who has come into their darkness to save and transform them. It is not being in darkness that brings ultimate judgment, but staying in it when God has made a way out. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of the central sin of not believing in Jesus. (John 16:9) Without Christ, who is the Light (John 1:4), there can be no real relationship with God.

When a relationship with God is established, the Holy Spirit brings light into the remaining darkness of a believer. It is not ours to make ourselves better, but rather to cooperate with the Spirit who alone can bring us into closer union with Jesus and internally conform us to His beautiful image. 

I have marveled for years at how wonderful Christ is yet how long it seems to take us to change. Here are four wrong responses to the conviction of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life:

  1. “Not now…” This is the response of procrastination. “You are right, I need to work on that area, but not now because I’m busy.” We are often able to put off conviction by simply involving ourselves in something else.
  2. “Relax, it’s not that bad…” This is the response of justification. “Everybody does this, in fact, I even know pastors who do this so it’s not a big deal.” God doesn’t compare us to other people so it is very dangerous to base your righteousness on what you think other people get away with.
  3. “It’s not my fault…” This is the response of blame. “What I am doing is okay because I’m in a lot of pain right now; pain, by the way, that You allowed.” God has compassion on our hurts and pains – He is the friend of sinners. However, our pain does not excuse our sin.
  4. “I agree, so I will now punish myself…” This is the response of works. “I will do more so this bad feeling will go away.” Don’t bypass the cross by punishing yourself. Jesus took the punishment so we could be free from the guilt, shame, and power of sin.
Posted in John, Psalms, Romans

Natural Disasters

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” Romans 8:20-22

As we witness earthquakes, volcanoes, and hurricanes around the world,  the age old question arises: Is this an act of God? Was this somehow God judging people for not responding to the gospel? Or maybe His way of preparing them for the gospel? We know God could have stopped the disaster, but did He intentionally plan it? Or was this an act of Satan? Do demonic forces somehow have the power to bring about disasters according to their mission statement of “kill, steal, and destroy?” (John 10:10)

I believe it’s neither God or the devil, but a result of the curse which came on this earth when Adam and Eve sinned. In nature we see evidence of the beauty of our God, but also evidence of the ravages of the fall. Very similar to what we see in mankind.

Although neither God nor Satan directly causes disasters, in my opinion, both kingdoms are very active in the aftermath. Darkness will use tragedy in human minds as proof that God doesn’t love them, or that God doesn’t exist at all. It will try to bring despair, survivor’s guilt, bitterness, etc., anything to lead precious people who Jesus died for away from the help only He can bring.

What is God doing? “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18) Notice it doesn’t say, “Close to the brokenhearted if they’re Christians,” or “if they’re praying.” He is unconditionally close to the brokenhearted whether or not they even believe in Him. He is speaking gently to hearts about His love; He is bringing comfort beyond comprehension; He is raising up individuals and governments to help; and yes, He will use tragedy to show people that they can’t put their trust in anything man builds or guarantees.

One day soon Jesus will not only liberate the children of God from their sin nature, He will remove the curse from creation itself, and then the lion will lay with the lamb.

Posted in 1Corinthians, John, Matthew

Knowing in Part

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.” 1Corinthians 13:12b

I’ve seen a great evil in the body of Christ that has plagued the church throughout the ages. Those who know in part often presume they know fully and so divide themselves from other Christians who don’t see things exactly their way.

Jesus prayed in John 17:17 that we would be sanctified (set apart) by the truth and then defined truth for us: “Your word is truth.” The word of God was given to set us apart from the corrupt value system, perspective, and ungodliness of this present age, so that we would reflect God and His ways in the darkness of this world.

Christians have taken the word that was given to separate or divide us from the world’s system, and instead used it to divide the body of Christ. In the very chapter that Jesus prayed we would be sanctified, He also prays that the Father would make us one. The result of this oneness, He said, would be that the world would believe in Jesus.

Instead of accepting each other, the body of Christ is often found rejecting each other on things that aren’t essential to the gospel. Pride makes us “strain at gnats and swallow camels.” (Matthew 23:24) There are essential truths that unite us and divide us from the world and these need to be embraced with a passion we are willing to die for: the authority of Scripture; Jesus is the Son of God and Savior of the world; the gospel calls all people to repent and put their trust in Christ for salvation; Christians are called to love God and love people; everyone will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and go irreversibly to heaven or hell. Even these clear truths in the word of God are only known in part, yet Christians through all the ages have established these as essentials that define one as a Christian.

Matters like communion, baptism, how the second coming will unfold, how predestination is defined, spiritual gifts, the age of the earth, etc. are all examples of issues that sincere believers disagree as to how the Bible should be interpreted. You probably have an opinion on every one of these topics and you more than likely think you’re right. (If you didn’t it wouldn’t be your opinion) Yet, we need to hold these opinions with humility or our attitude can end up bringing division to the church instead of the unity that Jesus prayed for.

Posted in John, Psalms

Born Broken

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘ It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.’” John 9:1-3

Many people become blind because of an accident or disease, but some are born blind. The disciples are troubled by this because they think bad things only happen to bad people and this doesn’t fit their formula. When they ask if it was this man’s sin you see how predisposed they were to this thinking. You can almost hear their thoughts: It absolutely has to be this man’s fault that he’s blind… but he was born blind… maybe he sinned in the womb!

Jesus says that it wasn’t his sin or his parents’ sin. He also says that the work of God is not his blindness, but him being healed and made whole. So why was he born blind? I think it’s just the brokenness that sin has caused to the human race passed down from generation to generation. It has affected everything, including our DNA, so much so that some people are born blind even though Adam and Eve weren’t created blind and no one will be blind in heaven.

We have spiritual DNA as well as physical and it too has been broken by sin. In fact, the Bible says that the effects of sin multiply over generations. The sin nature passed down will become worse and worse if given into by the previous generation, so much so that people can be born with strong tendencies toward addictions even though they themselves haven’t done anything wrong yet. It doesn’t seem fair, but the truth is all of us are born broken in some way.

Although God has allowed this, He has promised to be close to the broken (Psalm 34:18) and He sent Jesus to redeem us from our sins and to bind up our brokenness. He doesn’t judge us for being broken, but invites us to make our identity in Him instead of in how broken we are. The work of God is that we become whole. Although blind eyes can be instantly made whole, spiritual wholeness is a process that won’t be completed until heaven.

Posted in Genesis, John

Raising Hell – Part Two

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever.” Genesis 3:22b

Part of becoming a Christian for me was accepting the Bible as the final authority on every area of life and doctrine. I was brought up in the Lord by people who believed that the Bible was clear on the nature of hell’s punishment, so I never even questioned it.

The argument went something like this: Because men and women are made in the image of God they are automatically eternal beings. The great tragedy of someone rejecting Christ, therefore, was that they would live in conscious torment for all eternity. No one chooses, whether they are eternal, I was taught, it is just a by-product of being in the image of God. Everyone is born with eternal life – they either spend it in heaven with Jesus or in the conscious torment of hell with Satan and his angels.

In the last few years I’ve questioned whether this is true Biblically or if it is only a tradition of man that was passed down. The context of the passage quoted above was God putting Cherubim with swords at the entrance to Eden because He wanted to ensure that Adam and Eve would not eat from the tree of life and live forever apart from Him.

Apparently being in the image of God didn’t mean Adam and Eve would automatically live forever, but only that they had the potential of being eternal. According to the text, to live forever they would have to eat of the tree of life.

Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Eternal life is God’s gift to humanity in Christ; without it, I believe, you and I will eventually perish. It was never in God’s heart that we would be able to live forever apart from Him.

Posted in John, Matthew

Raising Hell – Part One

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28

Two years ago I approached our elder board with a desire to present a position on the nature of hell that is different from what most of the traditional church believes. The elders asked me to wait on doing the talk publicly until they had a chance to study and discuss the topic with me. So I waited, and we went through Scripture together. Here are some of the points we were in full agreement about:

  1. Hell is a place of punishment where those who reject Christ will go.
  2. Hell is a place of conscious torment.
  3. Hell is a place of eternal, irreversible judgment or punishment. There isn’t a second chance nor is its punishment remedial.

What some respectfully disagreed with is the duration of conscious torment. I believe Scripture teaches ultimate annihilation after souls have paid a just penalty for their sins while others believe the traditional opinion that the torment of hell goes on forever. Of course, they would argue that in God’s economy, this too is a just penalty.

I was given the freedom to do the talk as long as I was clear that we were in agreement on the essentials and that the exact nature of hell’s punishment is a non-essential that Bible believing evangelicals can agree to disagree on. (I ended up writing an ebook on the topic called: Raising Hell: A closer look at the church’s darkest doctrine)

God wants us to behold His severity so that we will never experience it. He loves us and has made a way for all of us to be saved through Christ, so that all we ever need to know is His kindness. Yet we are to behold His severity, so that we never forget that He is a holy Judge. If we choose to turn our backs on Christ, Paul warns, we will experience His severity along with all those who have hardened their hearts to His love.

It is important that we believe in hell. There is a heaven, Jesus said so, and He even said that if it wasn’t so He would have told us. (See John 14:2) But the One who is the truth also said there is a hell. In fact, He warned us many times about hell urging us to make sure we didn’t end up there.

Posted in 2Chronicles, John, Romans

Let’s Talk about Politics

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, My servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.” John 18:36

“You would have no power over Me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” John 19:11

In our texts above we see that there are two kingdoms – the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man. Jesus says that the kingdom of God is from another place and that it does not advance with physical force at the present time. The kingdom of God isn’t here to overthrow governments; it’s here to change hearts. “The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17) Only the kingdom of God can bring real hope and change to a human being.

But God is also over the kingdom of man, so Pilate is assured that he would have no authority to judge if it wasn’t given to him from above. Paul says: “The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently he who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong…For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” (Romans 13:2-5) Because of the power and possibility of sin, God has appointed civil government to limit the evil man is able to do while on this earth.

The kingdom of God alone can redeem; the kingdom of man can only restrain. If we don’t believe in redemption, we tend to see government as the solution for all mankind’s problems. For Democrats the answer usually means more government involvement, and for the Republicans, less. When problems continue there is a lot of time spent blaming each other because “if there was only more”, or “if there was only less”, things would get better.

I don’t think God is looking at Democrats or Republicans to turn America around; He’s looking at His people, the church. “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2Chronicles 7:14)

Posted in Genesis, Isaiah, Jeremiah, John, Revelation

The Age of the Earth – Part Three

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning…” John 8:44

Satan was already Satan at the beginning; not his beginning, but our beginning. Even though God called everything He made good, there was something evil left over from another time. The story of Satan’s fall is an untold story in Scripture even though we are repeatedly assured of the presence of an evil kingdom and given many instructions on how to stand against evil and how to exercise authority over demons.

So when did he fall? Genesis 1:2 says that after creation; “The earth was formless and void.” The greatest Hebrew scholars in the world say that the word “hayah” translated “was” in this text, can just as easily be translated, “became.” (See the footnote in the 1984 translation of the NIV Bible) In fact, the King James Bible translates “hayah” as “became” in 67 other places. Is it possible that God didn’t create the earth formless and void but that it became formless and void sometime after the creation?

The Hebrew words translated “formless and void” are “tohu va bohu.” The phrase “tohu va bohu” is only used in two other places in Scripture. One is in Jeremiah 4:23 where God is describing the result of His desolating judgment on Israel’s rebellion. Because they rebelled, God left Israel “tohu va bohu.” The other place this phrase is used is in Isaiah 34:11 where God is describing the result of His desolating judgment on Edom. Because Edom rebelled, God left the land “tohu va bohu.”

What if Genesis 1:2 is describing the result of God’s desolating judgment on the earth following Lucifer’s (Satan’s) rebellion? God created the early earth perfectly and it was inhabited by angels and animals but when Lucifer fell, God’s judgment followed. We don’t know when or how long until other angels followed him, we only know that a third did fall (Revelation 12:4, 7) and that judgment did come. The earth is covered with water and darkness in Genesis 1:2, not because God created it that way, but because it became that way after Satan’s rebellion.

Posted in John

Difficult Questions

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“And His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?’” John 9:2

The disciples asked Jesus a difficult question and He answered them. I’m so glad they asked it, so that we could all hear the answer. The church can either welcome questions or see them as a threat to the established system. God is very secure in Himself, and I think He likes questions when they are accompanied by a heart that wants to know the truth. Asking often leads to study which can lead to deeper convictions than those who never bothered to ask.

There are some people, I am convinced, that want to not believe. They have another issue with God and may use difficult questions to hide the real problem. Sometimes people are mad at God because of unresolved pain, so their questions are really only accusations against God. Others seem to resent that they are not the ones who ultimately decide what is right and wrong. They question God to justify their own lifestyle.

But there are others who are genuinely open to believe, and some who actually want to believe, but they have honest questions that hinder them. God does not ask us to set aside our minds to believe in Him. In fact, He calls us to love Him with all of our minds. Faith does not contradict our minds, but it does transcend them. For these people, it can be very helpful to give the mind rational answers for troubling questions. Explanations for difficult questions will not give a person faith, but they can give a person’s mind permission to exercise the childlike faith it takes to connect with God. He is so much higher than us, and His ways so beyond us, that we must humble ourselves like children to experience the fullness of His love and salvation.