Here is a statement I want each reader to carefully consider: Some people already have fiery judgement ordained as their unchangeable, everlasting destiny. How a person responds to this statement says a lot about who they really are. Some will respond with immediate rejection. This shows one or more of the following conditions…

Preconceived notions about God and man based upon spurious religious training.

A free will religious background of weak divine justice, powerless grace, and empowered human volition.

The natural bent of fallen human nature toward love for self and hatred for God.

The natural and insatiable love of fallen man for sin and his contempt for the absolute justice of the thrice-holy God.

A person completely convinced within himself or herself that they are as righteous as God Himself.

Others will respond in apathy. This shows one or more of the following conditions…

A person uncontrollably absorbed with cares for the temporal things of this world.

A conscience seared with a hot iron.

A self-absorbed person with contempt for all their fellow humanity.

Others will respond with overwhelming shock and dismay. This shows at least one of the following…

A person with a background in the social, economic, and civic based religious gospel [which is indeed not the gospel of God] of the upper classes.

A person with an overly timid temperament, especially toward "religious" things.

People with a total lack of spiritual backbone, a.k.a. cowards.

But there are those who, although originally shocked at first reading such, they will respond with a desire to know more about this. This shows at least one of the following…

Possible spiritual enlightenment but a timid temperament.

Possible spiritual enlightenment but limited in the knowledge of the truth.

Human intrigue based upon the curiosity of fallen human nature, which tends to take spiritual truth and twists that truth for its own fleshly designs.

There are, of course, those soldiers for the truth of God’s unbending justice who take a hardy and straightforward approach to this fact. They do so because, according to scripture and in light of God’s absolute holiness, the Almighty (who does nothing apart from divine, eternal purpose) determined that rebels would be punished with severe judgement (Ecc. 3:14-15; Prov. 16:4-5; Rom. 1:2-3; 9:22).

We must all take note that this judgement was no mere collective and impersonal determination by God toward sins in particular but only toward men and women in general. In other words, the individual persons mentioned here in The Revelation of Jesus Christ chapter 21:8 are said to have their "part" in the lake of fire. This word part can be, when speaking of a place, such as the lake of fire, it can be translated as destiny. God’s holiness certainly determined or ordained, by counter distinction, what conditions and actions would be unholy and thus sinful. But God, in His individual election of a people to salvation, out of the mass of humanity (of Gentiles, Acts 15:14; of Jews, Rom. 11:5-6; of the whole human race – Jews and Gentiles, Rom. 9:1-29; II Thess. 2:13-14) also reprobated the rest by foreordination (of perverted humanity, Rom. 1:21-32; of humanity Jew and Gentile, 9:13, 17-18, 21-22, 27-29; the truth rejecting of the human race, II Thess. 2:10-12; and of apostate teachers Jude 4-5) to finally have their justly deserved lot, or portion, or section, or allotment, or piece, or share, or destiny in the lake of fire. To reply against this truth, whether against the election or the reprobation or both, is not just a response against a human idea or a religious opinion among many religious opinions, but it is to actually reply against God (see Rom. 9:19-20). We should also note that these sinners shall have their part in the lake of fire. This unquestionably shows the absolute certainty and the unchangeable nature of their everlasting doom, which, though not yet come upon them, it is already foreseen and prophesied for them. To reject this is to reject God’s sure wrath and judgement (Rom. 1:18-20; 2:1-3; 3:5-6, etc.).

To those who would respond with rejection, apathy, or shock and dismay I am compelled to say this, it may well be to you that "Except ye repent ye shall likewise perish." To these I also say that nothing short of the free and reigning grace of God, which you may presently now despise, will bring you to repent – you are shut up unto God’s sovereign mercy! To those who would respond with a desire to know more I warn against mere human intrigue, for such as this only is the manifestation of the lack of that same afore mentioned grace of God. But one thing does tend to show whether the interest is mere human intrigue or the outflow of free grace given by God, and that is true God given spiritual interest continually moves a person to know Christ in His person and work, and those so desirous seek the fellowship of likeminded believers. An interest in doctrine only will lead to destruction when Christ is not the central love of the heart, mind, and soul. Finally, to those soldiers who already stand forth in defense of the great truths of God, even election and reprobation, to these I say, stand fast and be diligent and let not the whining of cowards embarrass you or the threats of vicious rebels make you shutter. The enemies of God may, if God so ordains, they may well destroy our reputation among their fellows, and they may kill our bodies, but let us beware when all men speak well of us and remember that only God can destroy both the body and the soul in hell. To our great God be all the glory, both for His free grace and for His absolute justice!

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