The Art of Divine Contentment: An Exposition of Philippians 4:11 by Thomas Watson. Excerpt 67

Watson continues his argument for a Christian being contented:

Sect. XII. The twelfth argument to contentation is, Whatever change of trouble a child of God meets with, it is all the hell he shall have.
Whatever eclipse may be upon his name or estate, I may say of it, as Athanasius of his banishment, it is a little cloud that will soon be blown over, and then his gulf is shot his hell is past. Death begins a wicked man’s hell, but it puts an end to a godly man’s hell. Think with thyself, what if I endure this? It is but a temporary hell: indeed if all our hell be here, it is but an easy hell. What is the cup of affliction to the cup of damnation? Lazarus could not get a crumb; he was so diseased that the dogs took pity on him, and as if they had been his physicians, licked his sores: but this was an easy hell, the angels quickly fetched him out of it. If all our hell be in this life, in the midst of this hell we may have the love of God, and then it is no more hell but paradise. If our hell be here, we may see to the bottom of it; it is but skindeep, it cannot touch the soul, and we may see to the end of it; it is an hell that is short-lived; after a wet night of affliction, comes the bright morning of the resurrection; if our lives are short, our trials cannot be long; as our riches take wings and fly, so do our sufferings; then let us be contented.

Thomas Watson lived from 1620-1686, in England. He wrote several books which survive. This blog, God willing, will post excerpts from his The Art of Divine Contentment: An Exposition of Philippians 4:11, over a number of weeks, on Sundays.

My source for the text is here, and I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this text (and many others) available. The previous excerpt is here.
  
Philippians 4:11 Not that I speak because of lack, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content in it. (World English Bible, public domain.)

Hellfire for not helping others

Matthew 25:37 “Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you; or thirsty, and give you a drink? 38 When did we see you as a stranger, and take you in; or naked, and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?’
40 “The King will answer them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you didn’t give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in; naked, and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’
44 “Then they will also answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t help you?’
45 “Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me.’ 46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (World English Bible, public domain.)

Sunspots 571

Christianity: Like many of us, the author of an article in Relevant is troubled by the idea of eternity in hell, for some people. But he decides that God knows more than we do.

Health: NPR reports that Utah has declared pornography a health hazard, and indicates why.

Literature: Listverse describes 10 attempts at punctuation marks that didn't catch on.

Politics: Relevant warns us not to confuse America with God's Kingdom. Some Christians have done that.

Surprise! FiveThirtyEight finds that politicians, as a whole (both parties, in both Congress and the Presidency) keep most of their promises.

Science: Wired reports on the difficulties of using modern genetic techniques on marijuana plants.

Science News discusses the "Goldilocks Zone" -- conditions on a planet, necessary for life as we know it.

Sports: Oksana Chusovitina has qualified for the Olympic gymnastics team from Uzbekistan. She is 41 years old. Good for her!

UK astronaut Tim Peake was the official starter of the London Marathon, and finished the 2016 marathon, while in the International Space Station, according to NPR. However, US Astronaut Sunita Williams ran the first Marathon in the ISS, competing, and finishing, the 2007 Boston Marathon. (She also competed, and finished, on earth, in the 2008 Boston Marathon.)

Image source (public domain)

Why is there evil in the world?

Why is there evil in the world?

The classic Christian answer is this: When God created people, He gave them the power to choose. If the power to choose was real, then people could choose bad things, with bad consequences. The first, and most profound, bad choice was when Adam and Eve disobeyed God about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, whatever may have happened then. That choice resulted in a fallen creation, with human death, necessity to work, diseases, extinctions, parasites, hurricanes, earthquakes, pollution, wars, exploitation of other people, and of animals, other types of sin, and violence of all kinds.

God’s answer to bad human choice (sin) is Himself. Christ, who was God and man, paid the price for our sin by personally suffering on the cross, a voluntary, sinless sacrifice. (The resurrection shows that the sacrifice was acceptable.)

There will come a time when human suffering, for those who have chosen to accept Christ’s sacrifice, and accept Him as Lord, will be over. Our bodies will be restored to the state God planned for them in the first place, free from aches and pains, aging and death. The earth will also be restored to the state God planned for it.

God doesn’t send anyone to hell, a place of eternal suffering. People choose to go there, and God honors that choice.

Suffering builds character. We can’t achieve salvation by suffering, but undergoing suffering may help us serve God better.

“I ended my first book with the words no answer. I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?” – Orual, the main character of Till We Have Faces, by C. S. Lewis.

The book of Job is largely about the previous paragraph. Bad things happened to Job. They weren't his fault. He blamed God. (See here, for example.) But, in the end, Job realized that God was infinitely more wise, and good, than he was. (See here.) God also allowed Job to live a long time, restored his health, and replaced the possessions and children that he had lost. (However, there is no promise of that sort of earthly recompense for the suffering of all of God's followers. See Hebrews 11.)

Thanks for reading. Bad things will happen. The most important result of them is what my response will be.

Sunspots 415

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: A most interesting description of what a church, based on the New Testament pattern, should be like. (Not much like most of the churches I am familiar with.)
J. I. Packer gave a brief, but important discussion of the question, "Won't heaven's joy be spoiled by our awareness of unsaved loved ones in hell?" in 2002. Christianity Today has re-posted it.
Ken Schenck's series on Practical Theology continues with a post on "God as Eternal." Readable and thought-provoking. 

Computing: Gizmo's freeware has found a Firefox add-in that can extract and save the audio from a YouTube video, and also has found an on-line tool that can remove unwanted beginnings and ends from MP3 files.

Science: A demonstration of how a wet washcloth behaves when you wring it out, on the space station.
Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 386

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Humor: (I know -- it's not funny at all) You probably don't wonder why women have so much more difficulty finding things that fit them than men do, but, if you do wonder, it's because women's sizes are anything but standard. (From the New York Times.)

Science: (not Science Fiction) Fox News reports that scientists are working on a real warp drive, which drive was popularized in the Star Trek TV series (all of them) and the Star Trek movies.

The cost of sequencing a person's genes is getting affordable, less than $5,000, and going down. National Public Radio reports that this has promise, and raises numerous ethical questions. Also practical ones -- will your doctor be able to interpret the results and explain them to you?

The Arts: The trailer for the soon-to-be-released Hobbit film.

Politics: National Public Radio has done a graphic analysis of candidate Romney's 47 percent who don't pay income taxes, showing why they don't.

(or Christianity) The Christian Post reports that an Egyptian man is to be put on trial for tearing out pages of the Bible. The blog that pointed me to this says that Christians should protest this arrest and trial. I agree. We should protest this.

Computing: (Or Education) National Public Radio reports on Coursera, which offers free on-line education, high quality education.

Christianity: "This God of rough edges will not be smoothed out, neither by the fundamentalists who think he is mainly interested in populating hell, nor the liberals who imagine hell is empty." Mark Galli, reviewing the movie, Hellbound?, for Christianity Today.

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 385

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Science: (not Science Fiction) Fox News reports that scientists are working on a real warp drive, which drive was popularized in the Star Trek TV series (all of them) and the Star Trek movies.

The cost of sequencing a person's genes is getting affordable, less than $5,000, and going down. National Public Radio reports that this has promise, and raises numerous ethical questions. Also practical ones -- will your doctor be able to interpret the results and explain them to you?

The Arts: The trailer for the soon-to-be-released Hobbit film.

Politics: National Public Radio has done a graphic analysis of candidate Romney's 47 percent who don't pay income taxes, showing why they don't.

Christianity: "This God of rough edges will not be smoothed out, neither by the fundamentalists who think he is mainly interested in populating hell, nor the liberals who imagine hell is empty." Mark Galli, reviewing the movie, Hellbound?, for Christianity Today.

Image source (public domain)

Comfort in hell?

One of the strangest Bible passages I have read recently is this one:

Ezekiel 32:30 “The princes of the north are there, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who have gone down in shame with the slain, for all the terror that they caused by their might; they lie uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with those who go down to the pit.

31 “When Pharaoh sees them, he will be comforted for all his multitude, Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword, declares the Lord God. 32 For I spread terror in the land of the living; and he shall be laid to rest among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword, Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord God.” (ESV. This is a page that gives copyright information for the ESV.)

There is the abode of the dead, and, in Pharaoh's case, the unrighteous dead. Comforted? Really? That was so strange a phrase that I checked it with the Blueletter Bible, which gives several versions of 32:31. They all agree, so this is not a mistranslation by the ESV.

Despite the title, it is not clear that Pharaoh, in this passage, is actually in hell. (See the Wikipedia article on Sheol.)

Like a lot of other things in the Bible, I can't explain this one. Perhaps you can. I will say that, even if there is some sort of comfort in hell, that doesn't make make hell any more desirable. It should be avoided at all costs!

Thanks for reading.