I hope and feel in my heart that this is wrong, or at least partly wrong, but this is the most severe interpretation of Biblical Reality. If you can live with it and play the perfect legalist you are sure to be free of worry.
Let's say a mass murderer kills someone's family thereby causing a lifetime of grief for the child. Yet they later repent, are converted, and saved. Now let's also assume that the child of about 15, was raised christian, but is now completely alone in the world and without guidance. He harbors resentment in his heart and falls away. He drowns his sorrows for years.
One day the sinner comes to make atonement and the child even forgives him, the child then returns to reading his Bible, realizing this time he'd been forgiven of much, then he stumbles on Hebrews 6:4-6 and realizes he can't come back to God.
Or of what justice, if the now converted mass murderer, can love himself, but an honorable person who blames himself deeply over something is in sin because they have come to despise themselves and everything God has given them.
Now where is the righteousness that the mass murderer, who did this to many many families, goes into heaven, but the children of his victims, are eternally damned?
If such is the case, then clearly there is something far more important to God then any form of righteousness: that of his own pride. God would sooner take a mass murderer to heaven and eternally damn 1000 children who fell away out of grief and anger then see his holy word put to shame. Christianity must always come after.
We know that God is the same yesterday, now, and forever, so let's take a look at some of his old testament laws. We certainly don't see much of his compassion there. We do see many examples of his great wrath which give us reason to fear him. Even in the new testament we see Annais and Sapphira instantly killed for holding out on some money, as if the holy spirit of God were worse than a mafia tax collector.
So what leads you to believe that the same God, who values his namesake more then any amount of human tragedy, wouldn't eternally damn all sinners?
What does God have to do to make people understand he is very serious about his wrath and he wants them to fear him? If a serial killer holds a bunch of chidlren hostage, and they, being naive and thinking him to be their friend, fall out of line, will not he be forced to kill some of them to make his point? And if the other children who have seen this example don't fall in line will not he kill all but one hostage?
Now let's see what happens when the whole world believes that God is the lake of fire. Now we'll have a bunch of people who believe they are addicted to sin, but aren't too concerned, as they believe the sin will just be cleansed in the lake of fire.
So God, clearly a powerful king with a gun aimed at all the world demanding obedience, even has a crowd of people who look forward to going into the lake of fire.
If God were as loving as you make him out to be, could not he have sent a dream or vision to the children who were in danger of falling away? Could not he have sent the same to some sinners who were close to dying, but that had never heard of the Bible? Could not he do something about all the evil in the world?
Here's another story. Once upon a time some people read the whole Bible, are filled the holy spirit, and come to Christ. Then the enemy captures them. Tortures them in every way for some 30 years then kills the ones who won't relent. The others, which relent relatively quickly, he kills them the moment they do.
To add insult to injury, the same powerful man who does this for his superiors, marvels at the ones who endure the 30 years of his torture. In his old age he reads the Bible for the first time, is saved, dies peacefully, and then goes to heaven.
Is there something about God sending his son to die on a cross that makes one inherently righteous? God is saying that righteousness doesn't matter, in the end he's just another king who insists on his own form of obedience, and heaven will merely be filled with those he likes and who contended for their faith according to his rules. He has all the power, therefore he can do whatever he wants.
Behold the fallible loopholes of lawfulness and doctrine, and the subjective nature of what is considered good and evil. Do not all sinners who perish wish that they could have a damascus road conversion experience? Would they not all respond well to just a little personal attention from a loving God? Are they not all lost in all their own tragic circumstances, making a mess of this world, and hoping for God to clean it up?
The sad reality is that out of the billions God created, he only ever meant for a select few to obtain eternal salvation. The rest were predestined to be tormented in hell for all eternity. Whether he is saving the evil or slaughtering the good, all he cares about is whoever will bow down to him faithfully. In his eyes one tiny lie is just as much sin to go into the lake of fire as slaughtering millions of people after getting them to fall away.
Who then is saved? Not the true seeker of truth and righteousness for all, thats for sure. Only the obedient spiritual elitist, who God foreknew before the foundations of the world.
What if Lucifer thought that God was unfair, and so he rebel. What if overtime he even wanted forgiveness and was sorry, but because God would not forgive him he decided to take down as many people as possible? You'd think God could either do away with him or resolve things, but instead he is permitted to test us as a sanctioned adversary. What does this say about God's character?
If there were true justice, the evil would be destroyed instead of getting to rule the world. If there were karma we would see the bad guys getting what they deserve.
I therefore submit to you, it's not about good and evil, right and wrong, love and justice, or any kind of ideals. It's merely about dominion of the forces of the powers that be. Just as God above is an all powerful king, those who would rule the earth are also all powerful kings. Raw power is all there really is.
Just as Christ's mercy extends to accepting us sinners for who we are, we must accept God for who he is. Then the emphasis on the personal relationship.
Oh we know that God is righteous, that's not the issue. The issue is that everyone of us is born in sin and no one has a perfect track record. So if we are all sinners and all sin is equal before the Lord, then we are altogether damned. No man has any claim to mercy, but the mercy of God "I will have mercy upon whomever I will." What then becomes the standard of who is finally saved is that it's entirely up to God.
God might just as well damn everyone of us, yet it is often someone who has sinned a lot that is chosen because they deeply appreciate the saving grace that is offered them.
We are a modern people who are sick of the war, sick of the old barbaric dark ages, yet we are doing much worse to world and to each other and to ourselves. Our refusal to accept reality for what it is, and our insistence upon doing things in a new way, will be our upheavel. Our vast intelligence and interpretative power does little more then delude us when it comes to understanding ancient medieval tomes.
The word of God is a short concise message that says what it means to say, not a gigantic legalistic lawbook with a gazillion clauses for what if scenarios. Nor would God authorize writing such a lawbook, because then the people who knew their situation was hopeless would intentionally sin and bring down other people.
Is Luck therefore the greatest principle of all? Is heaven like a boat, that if you get there too late and it's full, you're out of luck? Are people with bad luck merely cursed?
But we see none of God's mercy in these examples, and what is the need for mercy is the lake of fire is no something to be very worried about? The spirit of Grace did away with the law, but we are naturally more inclined to trying to follow the law and falling short. We have turned the new testament into another kind of law.
This is why, ultimately, it is up to God to judge. The child who fell away and then drowned in his sorrow in sin and booze, but eventually forgave his families murder and came back to God, might be forgiven out of Gods compassion.
Where as someone, with no tragedy in life, who merely was enlightened and had the holy spirit, but fell away and started worshipping other gods, would probably be damned under the full example of Hebrews 6:4-6. Then he found the other religions he chose sucked, and wanted to come back, but it was too late.
Or willfully sinning. One out of tragic loss, and another man thought that grace would abound and he could be forgiven of anything. God might be inclined to have some compassion on the former, but the latter was simply doing what he could get away with.
The man of grace is in a personal relationship with God, by which God knows his heart, his intentions, his thoughts, and his actions. Each person is their own unique case.
Galations 1:6 "I marvel that you are soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ onto another gospel."
Galations 3:3-4 "Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain."
Though the apostle Paul spoke like this, he did not pronounce any of them hopeless, but did regard that anyone teaching another gospel should be accursed, and what happens when one is accursed? Misfortune in all directions. Such that they might think twice about what they are doing.
