Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Oak Island, Toes, and Treasure

If you ever want to hear a really weird story, look into the history of Oak Island, Nova Scotia. Oak Island is the site of the so-called Money Pit, a place where numerous excavations have taken place to recover treasure believed to be buried there.
The story begins way back in 1795, when a 16-year-old boy and his friends discovered a circular depression in the sand and started to dig. They seemed to find layers of logs and stones on their way down that had been placed there deliberately. They gave up digging at 30 feet.
Eight years later, a professional company made a 300 mile journey to dig at the same site, and at 90 feet down they allegedly found a stone on which had been inscribed, in ancient characters, “forty feet below, two million pounds lie buried.” Since then, approximately ten official excavations have taken place, using a variety of techniques to try and reach the level described on the stone, only to have the shaft fill up with seawater or simply to find nothing. Even so, as of 2005, a portion of Oak Island was for sale with a price tag of $7 million dollars, and as of today, nothing of value has ever been found in the Money Pit. I’ll let you be the judge of whether or not the time, the money, and the loss of life has been worth it.
That kind of makes me wonder what your treasure is and how far you would go to get it. Would you go as far as this Green Bay Packers fan? He tailgated and then stayed through the entire 1997 NFC Championship game. Because the temperature was 17 degrees below zero, he acquired frostbite, and three of his toes had to be amputated. His response to all this? He said, “You know what? I got 7 good toes that I can lose—If I can go, I’ll stay the entire game next time.” It evidently was worth it for him to lose toes to be present at a professional football game. That was his treasure. So what’s yours? How far would you go to get it?
Jesus told a couple stories about treasure that I think you’ll find intriguing. You heard them as part of today’s Gospel lesson, but listen again and let our Lord paint the picture for you. He said, "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”
As stories go, the plots of these tales are simple enough. Upon further inspection there is an interesting contrast between the two. In the first story, there’s a sense that the man stumbled across the treasure in the field. Nothing in Jesus’ story (or in common sense) suggests this guy was out poking around fields looking for treasure. The treasure, you could say, found him. In the second story, however, you’ve got a merchant actively searching for fine pearls. He was on the hunt, looking for the best. And he found a pearl of great value. And even though one man was looking for treasure and the other one wasn’t, their reaction to finding their treasure is the same. They recognize the worth of what they’ve found, and they sell all they have in order to possess the thing they value most. Although Jesus’ parables lend themselves to a variety of interpretations, certainly one point Jesus means us to “get” in this case is that those who find the kingdom of heaven—the kingdom of God—the kingdom of Jesus Christ—treasure it. It becomes the thing that they value most, whether they were looking for it or not.
That kind of makes me wonder what your treasure is—and how far you would go to get it? Does all the evidence in your life point to the fact that God’s kingdom and His concerns are indeed your greatest treasure? Or does the evidence take you in a different direction?
Let me ask the question a little differently, thanks to our Packer fan. What would you be willing to lose a couple of toes for? A better-paying job? A bigger house in a nicer neighborhood? Would you lose a couple digits for the sake of popularity or power? A better body—or improved health? The chance to meet someone you admire? Would you do without a couple toes if it meant that someone you know would come to faith in Jesus and be saved?
Now that’s a little extreme of course, but you understand my reason for asking is to make sure you recognize what Jesus and His kingdom are worth. Because it’s one thing to know who Jesus is and it’s another to treasure Him. It’s one thing to admire Jesus and it’s another to put all your trust in Him for forgiveness, new life, and salvation. It’s one thing to toss a dollar in the plate as it passes by and it’s another to sell all you have and buy the field; to invest not just your finances but your very self in His kingdom.
You see, Jesus didn’t do what He did on the cross to just make you a better person; He didn’t endure the whip to just give you life pointers; He didn’t let the nails pierce his flesh to make sure you were well off and successful. He did it to prevent you and me from having to endure eternal torment in hell! He did it to save our lives for eternity! He did it so that you can look death right in the eye and say: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that I will see Him” Jesus bought and paid for a full ride to heaven for us with his holy, precious blood and his innocent suffering and death. That means there’s no hell for you; no bitter separation from all that is good at the end of your life! Do you see and believe that that’s what Jesus is worth?
In a way, you are the treasure that was found in a field. You are a pearl of great price. Jesus sold all He had to buy you. He gave all He could give to redeem you from sin’s downward spiral. And He did so with joy. He did so with passion. He did so knowing that this is what He had been born to do—to lay down his life for his friends, and take it up again on the third day. All because you are his pearl; his treasure; his creation; his child. What is that worth to you? Amen.

5 comments:

GraceHead said...

Hello. At the risk of sounding nit-picky ...

Hell is a teaching, like purgatory, that has no basis in scripture. It is a tradition that has become orthodox, but scripture as in most cases runs contrary to traditional viewpoints.
Consider John 3:16 ... "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that as many as believe in Him may not PERISH but have Eternal Life."

Life is a gift ... we are not owed life, but we each have it for a time. But it is inherently TEMPORARY ... having a beginning and an end. The doctrine of hell depicts no end ... no "PERISHING" ... but continued and unending conscious torment.

In reality, to accept the very Life of God is to be made alive by His life ... a Life that is unending and unbeginning .. .ETERNAL. To reject that Life is to remain temporal ... having no Eternal destiny.

To perish is to be UNFORMED to nothing .. and those that receive the second death to be made no more will have no thoughts to realize they have received it or not. Thoughts perish with the perishing

The serpent said: "You shall surely not die." ... and the church has been repeating the refrain, even when such teaching goes against the most popular verse ... John 3:16.

Perish means perish.

Consider this:
1/14/06 - From God the Father
...Shall I, even I, torment My beloved, they who are tormented continually by he who is, and has, torment in his vesture? Satan is the tormentor. ... Become, again, a child of God, and learn to walk uprightly, leading others into love, by love, not fear.MORE of this letter about unbiblical "hell" HERE

18 reasons why in a single verse

Theological Myth - Unending conscious torture

Mark said...

So Jesus took on our flesh and died to save us from...ceasing to be?

To say that hell is "like purgatory" in the sense that it is unScriptural is simply to ignore Scripture.

Daniel 12: 2 "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt."

John 5: 28--29 "All who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out--those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned."

Isaiah 66: 24 "Their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathesome to all mankind."

Matthew 25: 41 "He will say to those on his left, "Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels."

Consider as well the Word of the Lord in Luke 16: 19--31; the story of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man seems to be conscious of his surroundings. Even considered as a "parable," it would be a strange plot point for Jesus to include in His teaching, if in fact, it is not so.

It is always wise to let Scripture interpret Scripture and to let the whole counsel of God (namely, His inspired Word) speak. Readers, you be the judge. Any thoughts?

GraceHead said...

Hello.

You asked: """So Jesus took on our flesh and died to save us from...ceasing to be? """

There was a time before man was created and man did not exist (see Genesis account of days 1 thru 5.) In short, man MUST have a temporal existence instead of eternal if there was a time when man was not (yet.) ... Likewise, the scripture has hundreds of verses talking about the "last day." I won't quote them all. Heaven and earth will pass away ... but those found in the Lamb are KNOWN before the foundation of the world and will be KNOWN when all things have been destroyed. What else could eternal life mean?

You said: """To say that hell is "like purgatory" in the sense that it is unScriptural is simply to ignore Scripture."""

I should have narrowly defined the doctrine of hell ... rather than say hell does not exist. You are right to correct me, for indeed hell does exist until (as we read in Rev 20) hell is destroyed.

I was talking about the doctrine of hell that teaches that the damned are subject to unending conscious torment.

My problem is a matter of perspective, yet is sufficient to give me pause in agreeing with any Statement of Faith that promotes the idea of damnation as unending conscious punishment. Primarily, it is against the flattering (and consistent with New Age,) and unbiblical philosophy of the "universally eternal" human soul. I believe that the way that most Christians talk about this aspect of their faith leaves room for a perspective that goes against the whole of scripture.

For example, people mistake 'unending conscious punishment' when in they quote from the passage of Matthew 25:41-46. Yet that passage calls it 'eternal punishment' (which is a huge difference.) This shift of words leaves room for the positing of "eternal life" even to the damned. Let me explain:
There is coming a "last day" as it is written, in which "heaven and earth will pass away" or "be destroyed." The point is that the punishment is beyond the duration of those punished. It is like a man given 5 consecutive life sentences ... we are smarter then to think that such a man will automatically live five times as long then before his sentence. Rather, we intuitively know that he will not last until the duration of the sentence. So, when I read that there will be an "eternal punishment" for the damned, I do not believe that the damned have the eternal life needed to last in a perpetual conscious state nor withstand the fire longer then anything else in creation. Nor do I think God so cruel as to torment them until the time of breaking, and then waken the faint and mend their wounds so that He could torment them again, and once they break from that torment to bandage again and awaken them again just so that He could torment them some more. Surely, this is not consistent with any of scripture, yet that is the implication of saying that they will "suffer everlasting conscious punishment." Nor is it logical to say that those that LACK eternal life, will somehow be able to live eternally!?!?

This is also typified when people use Mark 9:43-48 as support for the conscious torture notion - " 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched." Is this Jesus' way of saying that everyone in hell is indestructible? Of course not, He is saying that the Fire is indestructible, NOT those thrown into it ... Likewise it is the worm that does not turn, not those subject to the worm that supposedly have enough substance to satisfy a worm that does not turn for ages and ages endlessly having enough to feed a worm that does not turn. That is not only counter to logic, but it is counter to what Jesus just said right before: "hell, where the fire never goes out." (verse 43) Furthermore, Jesus was quoting Isaiah 66: 24 which depicts looking upon the lifeless (dead) corpses of the damned as the worm does not turn.

The hell-doctrine error is also perpetuated by the mistranslation of this support passage: 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 "They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power." Let me explain ...

In Dallas we have a monument called the "eternal flame." It isn't really eternal, but for argument's sake, lets say that it really is. Now, if I take a blade of grass and put it in the fire, does the blade of grass become eternal or is it destroyed?

This is quite obvious. The eternal fire does not make everything eternal that is exposed to it ... Rather the eternal fire destroys everything that is not likewise eternal.

Hence, when one reads in scripture about everlasting destruction, one should not assume that whatever is destroyed becomes everlasting. That would be illogical and counter-intuitive. However, that is exactly what Christians are saying when they talk about unending conscious torture.

Essentially, I gather that a prevalent myth is saying that every soul is indestructible / immortal and has everlasting life ... even those in the Eternal Fire subjected to the damnation. HOWEVER, immortality and everlasting life is a promise of the Gospel. What an empty offer that would be if everyone already had that! Christ's accomplishment on Calvary would have been in vain.

"Fear the One that can destroy your soul."- Jesus, speaking of the Father.

"Fear the One that would torment you til you pass-out, and then awaken you for more torment until you pass out, and on and on without an end. He couldn't destroy an immortal everlasting soul of the damned even if He tried." - Christians, while talking about the Father.

See the difference?

"You shall surely not die." The serpent's oldest lie.

Mark said...

I appreciate the thoughtfulness of your presentation, as well as the tone. It is just this type of exchange that I hoped for when I started this blog.

I do believe I understand the distinction you're making and it's giving me much food for thought.

You're going to have to help me understand, in light of what you've written, the meaning of some of the verses I included in my first response.

Such as: Daniel 12: 2 "...others to shame and everlasting contempt."

Matthew 25: 41 "...into the eternal fire prepared for the devil..." (which you did address)

I think I begin to see where you are coming from. That being said, there is much about the faith that is illogical and counter-intuitive. (Need I mention the triune nature of God or the virgin birth of Jesus?)What seems reasonable to us must never be the final word, but the Word must have the final word. It is not logical to assume anything is eternal--on the contrary, things fall apart, break down, and die. But God says there is eternal life--and His Spirit impels me to believe it.

My concern is that the teaching of "hell" you are suggesting weakens God's wrath against sin. Unfortunately, I think there's quite a few people out there who would be more than happy to live life apart from God (and in sin) if they knew that when their life is over, they would simply burn up like grass and cease to exist. "Better to flame out than fade away" says the world, and this viewpoint seems a little too much like that for me to be comfortable with it.

I think we can agree on this--being under God's judgment is not the place to be. Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ!

GraceHead said...

Mark,
As a fellow blogger, I respect anyone who can discourse vigorously and politely our viewpoints of the things of God. It isn't easy to put ourselves out there and go under the microscope of criticism.

It has been a pleasure discussing. I am sure that God can sort all these things out ... perhaps if nothing else, we can temper our opinions as less than absolute until we are confident that we have the entire scripture on our side.

With that said, allow me to temper my own viewpoint ... with some passages that give my annihilation viewpoint some concern.

Rev. 20:10
And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.


This passage is the lone stumbling block to my understanding.

The best I can explain is:
1) it seems limited to devil, beast, and false prophet.
2) forever has a beginning and ending (on the last day) ... so just as this event has a beginning, it leaves room for a possible ending - the end of time. I better explain some more ...

Eternity is not threatened by a last day. Forever is completely undone by a last day. Big difference. Forever really means "for the ever" ... or for all time. Eternity is a different concept. Whereas forever, is a series of events one after another ... Eternity is all things at once ... inseparably unbegun unending. Eternity has no new events, nor any conclusions to previous events. Thus it is written of those that have inherited "Eternal Lift" ... we are known from before the foundation of the world. ... before days 1 through 5 ... before day 6 when man and woman were made ... For Eternal life means no beginning.

I guess that Revelation passage would give me greater pause if it said something like they would be tormented "from everlasting to everlasting" (a phrase borrowed from the Psalmist about God.)

OK. I've gone on long enough.

What is true will be proven ... Truth needs no help from me. ... rather, I need help / correction from my own persistent errors.

Ripening,
Trent