False translations, Roman control of scripture, the ignorance of church leaders, and the lack of scriptural integrity from the common man have led to a belief in the doctrine of eternal hell.
This false and hideous lie is so ingrained in church and society that mankind believes this is the foe from which we need to be rescued.
So in reality, creating the false enemy of eternal conscious torment actually leads people away from God by thinking it is their ‘free will choice’ that will save them. Therefore, God is no longer God because He loses most of His creation…not to mention this sick and sadistic god tortures his own creatures in fire for all eternity. Would any of you do that to your own kids? I digress.
The almighty God is now a victim of man’s free will. He can do nothing to influence the mighty decision of man. Of course this is false and eternal hell’s objective is exactly that: To get man’s focus off God and on ‘self’ by getting man to focus on the false enemy as opposed to real one.
Okay, so if not eternal hell, then what are we saved from?
Great question. Let’s explore:
In Genesis 2:17, God said to Adam that when he eats from the tree, “To die you shall be dying.” This begins the understanding of the common enemy that is woven throughout scripture. Notice that God did not say, “To eternal fire you shall be tortured.” Okay, that’s the last time I’m going to mention hell because scripture never does.
Adam is a unique human being as he sinned and ‘to die you shall be dying’ was pronounced on him. We, on the other hand, inherit the ‘to die you shall be dying’ part form Adam and because of this, we sin.
12 Therefore, even as through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and thus death passed through into all mankind, on which all sinned -- -Romans 5:12
The condemnation of death was given to us by Adam. So Christ saves us from condemnation, death, and sin. As Romans 5:12 says, we inherit death from Adam and because we have this death operating in us, we sin.
Notice in the following verses that we get death from Adam by no action on our part. Therefore, we are justified by Christ by no action on our part. This is what Christ saves us from: The condemnation of death and sin…
18 Consequently, then, as it was through one offense for all mankind for condemnation, thus also it is through one just award for all mankind for life's justifying.
19 For even as, through the disobedience of the one man, the many were constituted sinners, thus also, through the obedience of the One, the many shall be constituted just. -Romans 5: 18-19
Now scripture says we are saved from other things, like indignation, vanity, etc. However, all of this is based on death and sin.
So, since because of death we sin, it is important to truly understand what death is exactly in order to understand what we are actually saved from. I have covered this in other articles, so I am going to give the cliff notes version here:
Death is death. It is not life somewhere else. The dead know nothing whatsoever according to Ecclesiastes 9:5. Scripture equates death to sleep because there is no conscious experience for a person that is dead. That is why the dead know nothing. We would remain in this state forever if Christ didn’t enter it and subsequently be resurrected from it. That is exactly what we are saved from…the death state.
Job 14:14 asks if a man dies will he live again? That is the great question posed throughout the old testament and the answer is NO! Man will not live again.
That is…until Jesus Christ came along. Because of Christ, every man will live again!
Again, God said to Adam “To die you shall be dying.” So, we understand that we are saved from the death state. However, we are also saved from all that death brings. The sting of death is sin. So, Christ saves us from all that death brings, including sin.
So to summarize, Christ saves us from the death state and sin.
Now, the ‘dying’ and ‘death’ includes our lives of evil and vanity. WE are subjected to this experience of evil (Ecclesiates 1:13), this old humanity and vanity (Romans 8:20) by God.
Why? So that we will be set free from it. Therefore, Christ Jesus sets us free from the sin, uselessness, and evil that holds us in bondage throughout our entire lives. Christ frees us from the corruption that death brings us. We are freed in order to experience the glorious freedom of being children of God (Romans 8:21-22).
So, what are we saved from?
WE are saved from death (sleep, unconscious state) by putting on Christ’s immortality.
WE are saved from the corruption, sin, and vanity that death brings by putting on the incorruption of Christ.
WE will become brothers and sisters of Christ, like Him in every way. WE are saved from everything He died for.
WE will be filled with God in all things! Saved from every experience of evil given to us in this life. In fact, every experience of evil will magnify our joy when we are perfected.
Grace and peace to you all.
Make a one time donation to this work below: