Matthew 11:20-24
20 Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades.[e] For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. 24 But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
Question: There is different levels of punishment in hell/hades?
ReplyDeletehttp://answers.org/atheism/injusticeofgod.html says:
ReplyDeleteThe argument goes like this: Christ himself said that those wicked cities that were destroyed in the Old Testament times would have repented (and been spared God's destructive wrath) if the miracles of Christ and the preaching of his disciples had come to them (implying that the revelation they received from God was inadequate). If this is the case, then their failure to repent and believe is not their own fault, but God's fault - they would have believed if he had sent them the caliber of revelation brought by Jesus Christ and his disciples.
The common misunderstanding of these passages rests on two interpretive problems. First, Jesus is using an ad hominem argument - he is assuming something his opponents believe and then using it against them. Second, Jesus is using a common rabbinical argument, arguing from the lesser to the greater.
The purpose of Jesus's argument is to warn the Jews of his day that because they were rejecting him and his message, they would justly receive judgment and condemnation from God. First, Jesus assumes (for the purpose of his argument) what was the common Jewish opinion - the inhabitants of Sodom, Gomorrah, Tyre, and Sidon were as completely wicked as they could be and deserved every bit of the destruction God brought against them.
In Matthew 12 Jesus uses the Old Testament and the rabbinic argument from the lesser to the greater in a similar context . . . A similar argument is posed by Jeremiah (3:6-13), where the prophet warns Judah (the southern kingdom) that it will be judged more harshly than Israel (the northern kingdom, disdained by the southern kingdom), because Judah not only had the warning of God, but also had the example of God executing his judgment against Israel first, and yet Judah would not repent.
In fact, God is so just that Jesus elsewhere argues hypothetically that one who is truly ignorant can't be justly judged. In John 15:22 Jesus says, "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin." In John 9:41 Jesus says, "If you were [spiritually] blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains."
In some ways the main message of the Bible is so simple and so constant from Genesis through Revelation that even a small child can understand the basics of salvation. In other ways the Bible is so rich in history, language, philosophy, literature, and rhetoric that one can never fully plumb its depths. When we carefully study and come to understand problematic passages such as these, we appreciate anew God's perfect revelation of his perfect character, his justice, and his love, on our behalf.
http://revelationrevolution.org/matthew-11-20-24-a-preterist-commentary/ mentions the "Day of Judgement", which was an actual day in 66 A.D. where the Romans came and destroyed many cities in Israel. It was a horrible day that was unparalleled in history. They are suggesting that the coming judgement and destruction was this.
ReplyDeletehttps://924jeremiah.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/learning-from-sodom/ says:
ReplyDeleteBut if we stop and really think about Who is talking and what His words are implying, this brief little paragraph will force us to seriously rethink what we believe about repentance and salvation. We like to think that God desires all to be saved and that He does everything possible to call us to Him. In this passage, Jesus proves that this is not true. There are times when God knows that we would receive His truth if it was presented to us in a certain form, yet He deliberately refuses to give it to us in that way. Instead, He declares our time for repentance is up and throws us into Hell.
If He says that the Sodomites would have been persuaded into repentance by miracles, then we must take this as a literal fact. But then we have to ask ourselves: if God is so gracious, why didn’t He give them the miracles? Why did He give them fire and sulfur from the sky instead and completely destroy them, thus transferring their souls into a place of eternal torment?
What Jesus is saying here is very radical. We Christians accept the fact that God doesn’t give every soul the same amount of time on earth. If someone has been told the truth over and over again, yet they keep blowing it off, we agree that it is fair for them to be thrown into Hell. As long as we can imagine God calling people until He’s hoarse, begging and pleading with them to come, we can put all the blame onto stubborn people when they end up in Hell. But here Jesus is saying He knew how He could get the attention of all the Sodomites and win them over to Him, yet He chose not to.
Didn’t He think it would be worth it to save a whole city full of souls? Doesn’t God want us to repent more than anything else? According to Jesus, He has other, more important priorities than saving souls. So now we must ask: why did God let Sodom perish? What was more important to Him back then than the eternal salvation of their souls? What higher principle did He feel He would be compromising by appealing to them with miraculous signs?
The answer is submission. God demands submission from us—not just in the matter of salvation, but in every area of life. God demands that we align with Him and He refuses to align with us. He defines sin, He decides what His requirements for salvation will be, and He decides how He will communicate those truths to us. If we refuse to accept something from Him because it doesn’t come to us in the exact way we want, we will be the ones who miss out. God will not adjust to us.
https://924jeremiah.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/learning-from-sodom/ (continued):
ReplyDeleteSubmission is a vital principle that becomes increasingly central to the maturing Christian’s walk. We all want God to speak to us in a clear, audible Voice. We would love it if He made messages appear . . . Instead, He whispers to us so faintly that we’re left wondering if it was Him or just a random thought of our own. Or He speaks to us through some person we don’t like and our pride refuses to accept the message just because we don’t like the delivery system. How much time have you spent sulking because God wouldn’t speak to you when and how you wanted Him to? How many snarky remarks have you thrown in His face because He wouldn’t do what you thought He should? If we’re honest, we have all spent plenty of time having tantrums and pity parties because God wouldn’t do things our way. It’s an ugly reality of being human. It just grates on our nerves to have a God who refuses to adjust to us, and the closer we get to Him, the more stubborn He becomes.
It is to the young fledglings in the faith that we see God giving the most sensual gifts to. They are the ones having Bible verses constantly leaping off the page at them, they hear His Voice in every sermon, they see His hand at work all over their lives and they fill up prayer journals with records of answered requests. But should they choose the path of wholehearted devotion and stick to it long enough, this honeymoon period will end and things will cease to be so simple. They’ll eventually find themselves in some serious pickle, banging on Heaven’s door without getting any response. Or they’ll pray for illumination on some confusing passage of Scripture only to be left in doubt for many years. Or they’ll find Him making promises that He later takes back, and pointing them down certain roads only to keep slamming doors in their faces. In order to become intimate with God, we must learn total submission, and the only way to practice this is by having to adjust to God when He’s doing things we hate. We must learn the lesson Job learned: that God can rip our lives apart anytime He wants because they are His property. He doesn’t owe us explanations. He doesn’t have to justify His actions. A sovereign King does not explain Himself to His subjects. He rules and commands, they kneel and serve. Total submission is essential to being close to God. Until we are willing to drop every fence we put around Him and fully accept that He can do anything He wants regardless of what He said in the Bible, then we are still not in a place of total submission.
Likewise, there are many Christians today who God knows would respond if He came to them in some sensual form, yet He refuses to. Instead, He keeps speaking to them in vague, hard to discern forms that they have to struggle and wrestle over. Many decide they can’t be bothered. They want easy and straightforward or they’re just not interested. As a result, they do not grow, for God refuses to adjust His teaching methods to satisfy their preferences. This is one of the ways that God sifts through His people to determine who is truly devoted to Him and who is not. Those who refuse to wait on Him and those who refuse to sit with uncomfortable doubts and unanswered questions fall into the majority camp of shallow souls whose commitment to God is fickle at best. They’ll show up for the miracles and the adrenaline rush worship concerts, but the rest of time, they’ll tune Him out. Yet those who keep straining their ears to hear His Voice and those who keep calling out for more of Him even when He refuses to speak to them for long periods of time—these become the precious few who will go very far with Him. Which kind of Christian are you?
My two cents:
ReplyDeleteWe (I anyway) tend to think in terms of heaven and hell and final judgement. I don't think that is how the Jews of that time thought. I think they thought in terms of generational blessings and curses (or even blessing or curses on cities or regions).
Jesus was using an entire city in His example. The people He was talking to well understood the fate of these cursed cities. Jesus was saying that those cities were more righteous than the Jews He was talking to.
I really don't think that we can make observations from this about heaven, hell, the Final Judgment, etc. I don't think Jesus is attempting to teach about that here. I think He's making a point to some people based on their understanding of the world, and that's all He is doing.
Furthermore, some of the articles above try to address fairness (by asking why God didn't do the miracles). I don't think Jesus was attempting to teach us about divine justice here either. I think He was making a simple point using the perspective of the people of that time.
We can get into danger if we read more into a passage than what's there. We can create faulty theology there. It's much better to err on the side of caution, and perhaps miss a side-point that Jesus was trying to make.