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I love the story Luke tells about Jesus, his two trigger happy disciples and the Samaritan village who would not receive them.
Luke 9:51 51 Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, 52 and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. 54 And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?" 55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.”
So the two disciples, James and John….got all pissy because the Samaritan village wanted nothing to do with Jesus…or with them. None of this…”If they don’t receive you, shake the dust off your feet” and keep going. No…they wanted to call down fire on the village….like Elijah did in 2 Kings. To refresh your memory….
Three times the king sent a group of 50 soldiers and their leaders to bring Elijah in. Twice Elijah said,
"If I am a man of God, then let fire come down
from heaven and consume you and your fifty men."
And fire came down from heaven and consumed them.
Then the third guy, realizing he needed a different plan…..fell on his knees and begged Elijah to have compassion on him and his men. And the Lord told Elijah to go with this humble captain to meet the king.
So that’s the storyline running through the minds of the two disciples. Fire from heaven. Effective and dramatic.
And Jesus said…”Hey, that’s a great idea!” “Why didn’t I think of that?”
No….
he turned, and rebuked them, and said, You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.
I love that passage….!
The disciples wanted to fry the occupants of a small Samaritan village and Jesus refused….scolded them…and reminded them who they were…WHOSE they were. Yet, this same Jesus is going to consign unbelievers to never ending fire and brimstone. Eternal Conscious Torment. Really?
If you believe that….perhaps, like those two disciples, you do not know what manner of spirit you are of.
3 comments:
I love that story too Cindi. Of course my take is that humans are not born immortal and, apart from a spiritual birth, do not survive death. In either case, no one is going to hell.
Thanks for reading and commenting,Bob. You've piqued my curiosity about your views...and I'm going to take a closer look.
I'm not sure that it would definitely eliminate the possibility that a chance for a spiritual rebirth occurs after our last breath..or at the moment of passing.
I came across an interesting quote in one of the Wikipedia articles I was "leafing through" today....
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Wiki article quote...
Some Catholic theologians such as Karl Rahner, Gisbert Greshake, and Cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar[20] have at length discussed the possibility that any man may be led by a final grace to freely-willed repentance if necessary at least at some point in the process of dying.
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Michael Schmaus quote - We may assume that in the dissolving process of the earthly union of body and soul and with the progressing breakaway from earthly entanglements, a special awakeness accrues to man [...] in which he can say yea or nay to God.
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Wiki quote....
If this be true, there is room for speculation that confronted with God and given grace by him, the number of those breaking away from Him may be zero.
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I continue to believe the number breaking away from Him will be zero... :)
Cindi....
I actually cheer for the Universalist's view Cindi. I think that it would be wonderful for God to save everyone.
I simply have difficulty reconciling it with John 3. To me, the view that a person can become immortal through a spiritual birth is so much more interesting (and explains so much more) than either the traditional view or the Universalist one that believes that everyone is born immortal.
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