God is not sick, man is.
Peace.
Precicely. So how do you imagine god can make people understand that THEY are sick not him? By allowing everybody into heaven? Heaven is the home of gods children. A sick concept to me, would be a father that allows wolves to share the home of his children.
God does things in certain seasons. Right now the jews are not under mercy. But when Jesus returns he shall unite the jews and bring them back into the fold. He will graft them back in. Only a remnant of the jews are under grace now. The gentiles are under grace as well, yet we know that most people will be in the lake of fire, which means, only a remnant of the gentiles will be saved as well. Broad is the path that leads to destruction. God desires to destroy evil not people. To destroy evil, God will take away the power of people and satan to do evil in the lake of fire. When you are stuck with an evil heart and no way to do evil, the result will be weeping and grinding of teeth.
I am an optimist and believe that in due time all shall return to god, and indeed all will bow down and say that Jesus christ is lord. That will not happen by God using force, but rather because the being understands that God is wise in all he does, deserves all honour and glory, and is indeed worthy of our obedience because god is good.
The bible does not go into much detail about the fate of those in the lake of fire, but i know this, that unless paul knew that there would come a time when he would be saved by god even if he cut himself off, he never would have said this:
Romans 9:1
91I speak the truth in Christ--I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit-- 2I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race,
Read that carefully. Paul says this with a clear conscience, confirmed by the HS, therefore he cannot lie when he said the above. He WISHES that he would be cursed and CUT OFF from CHRIST for the sake of his brothers. That is a very dangerous statement to make unless you knew there was a way to return to god.
Now paul knew that the jews would be grafted back in so he knew that there was a time when the curse would be lifted from him if he cut himself off.
The demons when they were confronted with Jesus would say 'what have you to do with us! Have you come to torture us before the appointed time' Jesus had power over demons and they knew that if he took their power away to do evil, they would be in a state of torture. And they know that this time is coming! The demons believe AND TREMBLE!
All power and authority belongs to god.
Collosians 2:10and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
If all a heart knows to do, is evil, having no power to do so, would be torture.
And this is the goal of jesus christ 'to destroy the works of the devil'. To destroy the works of the devil, the devil and people would have to loose their power to do so. And so jesus will destroy all authority and power when he returns:
1 Cor 15:24
Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father
after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.
Satan has a certain amount of power and authority now, and he gets a great deal of it from men, just like he stole it from adam. Adam was given power to rule and dominate.
Revelations 17:12 Shows where the beast gets his authority and power from:
12"The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast.
13They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast. 14They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings--and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers."
And so all of us have been given power to do good or to do evil. We must not use our power to destroy the works of god, like satan tried to do when he appeared in the garden. Because the bible is clear that god will destroy them.
This power to do evil will be destroyed:
2 Tess 2: 7
For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so
till he is taken out of the way.
When satan is taken out of the way, the power to do lawlessness will be taken away as well. And that will happen in the lake of fire. And the result will be like the demons said it will be...'torture'.
Now i understand that there are many people who believe that there is no way out of the lake of fire. But if there is a change of heart in the lake of fire, what then? As i said before, the details in the bible is sketchy about this, but i know this: The bible says to the children of god ''do you not know that you will judge angels''. Hmmm....so maybe the childen of god and those fallen angels in the lake of fire, have still some things to do!
Also, you might want to consider the idea, that all mankind really is, is fallen angels. Paul called himself a messenger of god, and we also know that angels are messengers. Perhaps they are then, one and the same.
By and by....i know that there are people who ferosciously declare that there is no satan outside of us......yes indeed, if a fallen angel would be in the form of a demon in a human body, then there is no such thing as an external devil is there? Jesus chose his twelve disciples and he said, one of them was a devil!
Not all fallen angels are demons. But not all mankind is merely men.
Heneni