TWO ROADS

"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it"    (Matt. 7:13-14).

     Dante's Inferno tells of Virgil leading Dante to the entrance to Inferno. There is a sign saying, "Abandon all hope, all ye who enter here." There is a sign over the entrance to the Kingdom of God also and it reads: "Abandon all pride, all ye who enter here."

All who would enter this narrow road must abandon all pride. They must recognize that they do not deserve to enter this way. They must know that they have forfeited all right to escape the just damnation of their former evil ways. God is under no obligation whatever to rescue them from their Hellbound way. He has every right to permit them to go on to their destruction.

The narrow road is a road of free grace, of condescending mercy. No one ever deserves to find or enter this way. Only God's grace can show and open it. They must enter it in abject penitence, with nothing in their hands, with only a plea of mercy on their lips and in their hearts. "If any man ," said Christ, "will come after me, let him deny himself." Let him pull himself up by the roots. Let him turn away from himself and rely entirely on Christ. This road is for sinners only. If a man has any righteousness of his own, an iota of merit or goodness to which he can lay claim, the other road is for him. That is where the supposedly virtuous make their self righteous way to perdition.

The road of Life is for sinners only - sinners whose hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

___ John Gerstner

A Little Context for my post: "Two Kinds of People"

On my post, “Two Kinds of People” Gregg left this comment:

"I have to think on this one very carefully. I have come across it before and dismissed it, but I wonder what the context was, maybe I might understand what he was trying to say. When God chose the elect, passing by those whom he didn't and as he left them in their sin, men do desire their sin and do not desire to come to God."

I understand Gregg’s concern; especially since we both hold to Reformed Theology, as does Timothy Keller, and the C.S. Lewis quote standing alone may seem out of place. Here is my email response to Gregg, slightly modified from its original form in order to reformat it into a blog post:

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I ran across this C.S. Lewis quote in Timothy Keller's book, The Reason for God: Belief in an age of Skepticism. It is in chapter five: "How Can a Loving God Send People to Hell?"

Let me give you a bit of context so we understand Keller's point, and why he uses this Lewis quote (from the book, The Great Divorce).

"The people in hell are miserable, but Lewis shows us why. We see, raging like unchecked flames, their pride, their paranoia, their self-pity, their certainty that everyone else is wrong, that everyone else is an idiot! All their humility is gone, and thus so is their sanity. They are utterly, finally locked in a prison of their own self-centeredness, and their pride progressively expands into a bigger and bigger mushroom cloud. They continue to go to pieces forever, blaming everyone but themselves. Hell is that writ large. That is why it is a travesty to picture God casting people into a pit who are crying, 'I'm sorry! Let me out!'...

A common image of hell in the bible is that of fire. Fire disintegrates. Even in this life we can see the kind of soul degeneration that self- centeredness creates. We know how selfishness and self absorption leads to piercing bitterness, nauseating envy, paralyzing anxiety, paranoid thoughts, and the mental denials and distortions that accompany them. Now ask the question: "What if when we die we don't end, but spiritually our life extends on into eternity?" Hell, then, is the trajectory of a soul, living a self-absorbed, self-centered life, going on forever."

Keller then quotes Luke 16:24-31, the rich man and Lazarus, to support the view of hell that he is presenting here. He then suggests that the rich man built his identity on his wealth rather than on God.

"...In short, hell is simply one's freely chosen identity apart from God on a trajectory into infinity. ... All God does in the end with people is give them what they most want, including freedom from himself."

(After that, came Lewis' "two kinds of people" quote that I used in my blog post.)

Keller was focusing more on tracing the characteristics of people in hell back to when they were here on earth, in this life, rather than on the the subject of reprobation from the point of view of God's eternal decree. His aim was to answer the skeptic's objection to a loving God's sending people to hell.

C.S. Lewis again states, "Hell is the greatest monument to human freedom." As Romans 1:24 says, God "gave them up to ... their desires."

I do not believe that man can over-ride what God has decreed from all eternity, and I don’t think Timothy Keller believes that, either. Thanks Gregg, good call.

__Craig Boyd

Two Kinds Of People

There are only two kinds of people -- those who say "Thy will be done" to God or those to whom God in the end says, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell choose it. Without that self-choice it wouldn't be Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. __C.S. Lewis

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind...(Romans 1:28)

Two Great Commandments And One "New Commandment"

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first and great commandment; and the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

Matthew 22 & John 13

The Only Two Times the Word Should Be Preached:

1. In Season

2. Out of Season

Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. (2 Timothy 4:2)

TWO GREAT PROMISES

I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel!

Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

THERE ARE ONLY TWO THINGS: GOD and CREATION

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. __Genesis 1:1

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.__John 1:1-3

Two Places Where God Dwells

For thus says the high and exalted One
Who lives forever, whose name is Holy,

"I dwell on a high and holy place,
And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit
In order to revive the spirit of the lowly
And to revive the heart of the contrite."

(Isaiah 57:15 NASB)

Two Verses that Summarize the Theme of the Bible

Hear O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!

For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

(Deut. 6:4 & 1 Timothy 2:5)

Two Great Questions

What is man, that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?

What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul; or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?