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As believers in the complete and successful work of Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world and the sovereignty of God in all things, it’s apparent that our previous misunderstanding of hell is a part of our Creator’s perfect plan. This temporary misconception was never out of His perfect plan in our lives.
Most of us, within the circle of believers who have come to see and understand God’s unconditional mercy, came from backgrounds that involved the teaching of hell. What a wonderful thing it is to have that idea behind us and to realize that it’s not true. However, we might ask ourselves, “Was God sovereign over our lives and environment when we were younger, absorbing this concept of hell?”
Yes! God was perfectly and fully in control of the false and incorrect notions we soaked up in traditional churches and our “Christian” culture. Our sovereign God uses all things to fulfill His perfect plan, including erroneous and inaccurate teaching.
Some of us who are parents may be responsible for the exact same strategy. We either told our children about Santa Clause, or at least allowed them to believe in the fictional Santa along with his strategy of rewarding those children who were good.
When we reached the age where we learned that Santa was not true, it was no big deal; we simply matured out of it. However, when one of our friends or siblings told us that Santa wasn’t real – before we were ready to accept it – our young minds denied this information and we may have said, “No! Santa’s real. I know he is. You’re wrong!”
Perhaps this is a microcosm of “the hell concept” that most of us see in our friends and families thinking. Telling others about God’s successful plan to save the world by the finished work of Jesus Christ may be like telling a seven year old, “There’s no Santa Claus.”
Mike Owens
Daily Email Goodies
