Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

//In my book about Revelation, I assume that this verse symbolically presents the end of death … that death has been conquered. Hades, the holding place of the dead, is therefore no longer needed. It is emptied and discarded.

There is, however, a deeper way to read the verse. It is by referring back to the four horsemen, where Death and Hades are first introduced as villains:

So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with [disease], and by the beasts of the earth. –Revelation 6:8

Clearly “Death and Hades” are still to be understood symbolically, but does this change the meaning of their destruction?  Is it only the sword, hunger, disease and wild beasts that are conquered? Will people still die of old age after Death and Hades are conquered?

… who [God] alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.

//I was taught as I was growing up that I possessed an immortal soul. That this soul could not die, and after the body perished, it would continue living forever. Some souls went to heaven, some to hell.

Today’s verse presents a different opinion. It claims that only God is immortal. Man, who is not innately immortal, must seek to attain it:

To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. –Romans 2:7

God then gives eternal life (immortality) only to those able to believe. Does this leave hell out in the cold? Do the unsaved merely die, having not received the gift of immortality? Some theologians think so, on the basis of verses like the following:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. –John 3:16

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. –John 10:28

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. –Romans 6:23

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. –1 John 5:11-12

(To be fair, my own understanding of “eternal life” differs from the norm, so the verses don’t read quite the same to me as they may to you.)

Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

//Do you ever wonder if it’s possible to discern the nature of God? Might some theological stumpers—such as whether or not a God of love could condemn someone to eternal conscious torment—be easier to answer, if only we could get a handle on what God is really like?

And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. –Luke 23:33-34

★★★

For anyone who hasn’t heard of the late Charles Colson, he was known as Richard Nixon’s “hatchet man,” convicted during the Watergate scandal. He pleaded guilty and served seven months in prison. Just before serving, he converted to Christianity and underwent a radical life conversion. He founded a prison ministry and authored perhaps two dozen books about Christianity.

In this book, Colson promises to explain what Christians believe, why, and why it matters. He succeeds in two out of three goals, describing conservative beliefs and how the beliefs transform lives. He doesn’t, however, explain very well why conservatives believe.

The book is in two parts, and the first part is painful, so bear with me until I get through this section. Hoping to explain why Christians believe the way he does, Colson instead highlights how differently many Christians really do believe. For example, a poll showed that “49 percent of Protestant pastors reject core biblical beliefs,” whatever that means. Colson is unfazed; he chops them out of the church, so they don’t count. One of his favorite phrases is “true Christians,” by which he means anyone who agrees with his “nonnegotiable, irreducible fundamentals of the Christian faith.”

Colson argues with emotional appeal. For instance, he writes about struggling with his children’s illnesses, questioning God’s love, and then stepping outside the hospital to see the beauty of creation. God Is, he immediately concludes, and the book transitions into a discussion of three possibilities: A godless universe; a pantheistic universe; and a personal God. But why does he neglect to consider the most obvious fit to his observation: Deism. Doesn’t his observation imply a creative creator who then ignores his creation?

Colson’s logic in this book seems to be that since the Bible is true, everything in it is true. The Bible is our rock, the ultimate authority, and because it came from God, it must certainly be true. And how do we know the Bible is literally true? Because “there has been no discovery proving the Bible false.” Sigh. Maybe the most obvious “fail” here is that archaeology has thoroughly debunked many of the claims of conquest in the book of Joshua. Elsewhere, Colson argues that Jesus’ resurrection must be true, because nobody has yet disproved it. I guess Elvis fans can take heart: Nobody has yet proved he’s dead, either.

Colson especially goes on the offensive against liberal Christianity, labeling it “institutionalized agnosticism,” “no better than paganism,” and insinuating that liberal Christians were responsible for Hitler’s eugenics movement. I can handle the anti-liberal posturing by people who misunderstand the nature of Christ. I’m quite used to that. But the first half of Colson’s book is little more than fundamentalist rhetoric.

After whittling the Christian community down to his own mold, he is ready to move on to part 2. But not before dissin’ even my man Einstein, claiming that Einstein detested the “religion of fear and morality” that a personal God brings (Einstein actually said something quite different … that development from a religion of fear TO moral religion was a great step forward, and he pointed to the Bible as evidence of that progression).

Anyway. On to part 2 where the intolerance continues but where it now mixes with some very inspiring words about how Christians are to live out their faith. This is where “why it matters” rings true, and this section raised my rating from one star to three. God’s favorites, Colson notes from scripture, are the poor, the destitute, the widowed, the fatherless, the sick, the prisoners, and anyone suffering injustice. So we choose sides. We choose love, and plunge into the battle between good and evil. Once on God’s side, we come to understand God’s point of view and position ourselves to experience God’s love and friendship in a whole new way.

This time, Colson is correct. He has identified the “true Christians.”

Each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. –1 Cor 3:8

Each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. –1 Cor 3:13-14

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. –2 Cor 5:10

Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. –2 Cor 9:6

Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. –2 Cor 11:15

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. –Gal 6:7-8