December 23,1996
Dear Br. Chambers:
Last week, a friend gave us a cat for a pet. They brought it in a cat carrier and, when released, the cat promptly disappeared behind a tall cabinet in the kitchen. Thinking this was a case of initial shyness, we left food, water, and a potty box near the cabinet and retired to the next room to let the cat get accustomed to its new home. For the next five days, the cat hid, first behind the cabinet, then behind the washer, and finally under the compressor of the refrigerator where, presumably, it was warmer, for the kitchen is cold in winter, not being heated by anything other then a kerosene stove in the living room.
We desired to shower the cat with love and affection, as a pet,
and were willing to do whatever we could to make it feel comfortable
and loved, however, it refused to come out from its hiding place.
After five days, we realized that it would never become a pet
and accept our love and blessings. It apparently preferred another
home to the one we could provide for it. Therefore, the only alternative
we had was to take it to the humane society or animal shelter,
where it would either find another home or would be destroyed
after a few days.
Here is an interesting symbol of what God is willing to do for
us. Just as the cat did not seek us out, God comes looking for
us. Just as we were willing to provide a nice home, food, water,
shelter, and a potty box for the cat, so he is willing to provide
these things and infinitely more for us, but there is a condition
to His generosity, just as there was a condition to our generosity
toward the cat.
We desired a pet for two reasons, to love it and to be loved in
return by it. May I have the audacity to suggest that God desires
the same things from us, to love us and to be loved by us in return.
While we are selfish in our attitude toward the cat, God is not
selfish toward us.
But when the cat refused our hospitality and offers of love and
rather desired another home, as manifested by his refusal to accept
our love and care, then we had no alternative but to let him go.
It is doubtful that he will be happy in any other home, therefore,
the only possible alternative, for the cat, is eternal death.
Here again the parallel is striking. God has provided an eternal
home for us on condition that we love Him and live in accordance
with His laws which is not difficult for He has already given
us sufficient grace to love and obey Him. Is this too difficult?
Is it difficult to love one who has already manifested such marvelous,
unconditional, self-sacrificing love as Christ displayed when
He condescended to leave heaven, to live on this earth and share
the lot of humanity, then to go to hell for us? I say again, when
we truly understand what Christ did for us, it is not difficult
to love such a God.
But many people refuse Him, preferring another home other then
the one He prepared for us. But is there an alternative home?
NO! Just as there is only one God, so there is only one home.
When the cat choose to reject our home and love, in preference
for the unknown future, it was love that prompted us to let him
have his desire, even though he did not know the fate that awaited
him. It is not love that makes a cat live in a home in which he
cannot be happy, in which he lives in constant fear and anxiety,
even thou there is no reason for such apprehensions.
By the same reasoning, it is not love that compels people to live
with Christ for an eternity in a home that they neither desire
nor want but despise and fear. Many people suppose that God will
change them when they reach heaven and the things they despised
on earth, they will now love, and the person whom they despised
during their entire life time on earth, they will now love and
reverence for an eternity. Those who believe this idea would do
well to provide scriptural proof for such a transformation.
Just as we could not reason with the cat or change its mind, so
Christ cannot affect such a transformation as this false logic
suggests. No, there is nothing about or in heaven that will make
us happy and content to live with someone we have hated and yet
experience happiness and contentment for an eternity.
Therefore, what is God to do with those who prefer another home.
The only possible solution divine love could devise is to let
them have what they desire, a home apart from God. But, since
such a home does not exist, what these people are in effect choosing
is what the cat choose, death. Therefore, it is love that allows
people to enter the fires of hell and to suffer the consequences
of their choice which is NOT ETERNAL TORMENT but eternal separation
from God and His love.
God’s love is so infinite that He allows people to separate
themselves from Him if this is what will make them happy. While
the cat could not possibly understand the consequences of his
choice, we can understand them. While it is not pleasant to contemplate,
the cat would momentarily understand what was happening to him
as he felt the prison enter his veins from the lethal injection
administered by the veterinarian but his sufferings would last
only a moment. In the same manner God’s love will not permit
people to suffer in hell for an eternity but only momentarily
will they suffer the pain they have inflicted upon themselves
through their own wrong choices.
Several months ago, I asked a minister, who believes in an eternally
burning hell, a question. If you were God and had the power to
do whatever you desired would you make people suffer in hell for
an eternity or only for a few moments? He thought about this question
then evaded the truth it illustrated by saying, as did the Pharisees
when confronted with another unpalatable truth that he could not
tell. In other words, when given the opportunity to act Godlike
he choose to equivocate rather then acting in a loving and kindly
manner. Secretly, I suspect, he would have chosen an eternally
burning hell to a hell of short duration for the former type is
better suited to our sinful natures then God’s type of hell.
We are often quite content with the possibility that our brother,
who has sinned against us, will suffer for an eternity in hell.
When presented with the alternative of a hell of short duration
we are offended for it does not administer sufficient punishment
to suit our offended sinful natures. It is Satan who desires us
to consign people into hell for an eternity while it is love that
desires to make their punishment as short and painless as possible.
Let us, as brothers in Christ, seek to warn people of the consequences
of choosing another home other then the one that Christ has prepared
for us and let us not hate so blindly as to desire their eternal
suffering. Love is always better then hate. To classify God as
a God who hates so intensely that He delights to inflect eternal
torment on people who have sinned for only a short life time is
to misrepresent His character. Our duty, as Christian men, is
to give a correct representation of Christ through the witness
of our lives. Let us love rather then hate. Let us exhibit mercy
rather then revenge. Let us show compassion, rather then condemnation.
Let us be humane, rather then cruel. Let us be Godlike rather
then Satan-like. Let us love, rather then hate.
May the Lord encourage you, my brother, to be all the man that
you can be. Love those who despitefully use you and bless those
who curse you that you may have a home in heaven for then you
will be Christ-like in everything and posses the qualifications
that will fit you for an eternity with God. We obtain these qualification
here on earth by reflecting His character. If we do not posses
the passport of unconditional, self-sacrificing love, we shall
never enter the promised land.
Be of good courage, my brother, Christ loves you. Your brother
in Christ.
Allen A. Benson