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Final States · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking, the deep dive designed to
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  provide clarity on the most critical biblical doctrines.
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  Today we are undertaking a truly massive task.
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  We're tackling the revealed final states of humanity, the
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  absolute destinations of every person who has ever lived.
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  This is a heavy discussion. I mean, it's perhaps the most
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  serious topic we ever encounter, because the stakes are literally
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  eternal. Our mission in this deep dive is
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  to distill the scriptural characteristics of heaven and
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  hell, the eternal conditions appointed for the righteous and
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  the wicked. And we're going to do that by
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  focusing strictly on the theological sources that analyze
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  eschatology. We have a comprehensive stack of
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  material that rigorously defines these final states.
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  It covers well everything from the daily life of the redeemed
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  to the duration and nature of condemnation.
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  And the sources make it absolutely clear they do the
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  decisions, the covenant relationships, and the moral
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  dispositions we form in this present sort of transitory life.
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  They govern our future eternal condition.
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  So this knowledge is supremely relevant.
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  It tells you not just what happens after death, but why
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  your every action now matters infinitely.
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  It does. If our goal is to be well
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  informed, we have to understand the boundaries of reality
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  defined by the God who establishes it, and we have to
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  begin necessarily by defining the destiny of the righteous.
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  OK, let's unpack this concept of heaven.
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  Before we can even start to describe the final resting
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  place, we have to confront the the linguistic ambiguity, the
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  biblical terminology itself. Shamim in Hebrew and Uranos in
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  Greek is used in at least three fundamentally different ways
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  across Scripture. We need to clarify which one
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  we're actually focusing on. That's a crucial distinction to
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  make right at the start. The 1st and most common usage is
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  the. Let's call it the cosmological
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  use. The physical sky.
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  The physical sky. Exactly.
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  It simply refers to the physical surroundings, the visible
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  reality of the atmosphere in space.
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  So when Genesis describes the creation of heaven and earth, or
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  when we read about rain or the stars, that's the physical,
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  cosmological definition, firmament.
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  OK, so that's number one. The second usage is just as
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  important for context especially, you know, when
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  you're reading the Gospels, right?
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  This is where heaven is used as a synonym for God.
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  Yes, it's a linguistic maneuver, a reverential convention.
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  You see it specifically with Matthew, who was writing to a
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  Jew and audience. And they sought to avoid
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  speaking or writing the divine name Yahweh.
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  Precisely so. Instead of consistently Speaking
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  of the Kingdom of God, Matthew repeatedly uses the Kingdom of
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  heaven. Can you give us an example of
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  that? Sure, when the prodigal son
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  confesses his sin, he says I have sinned against heaven and
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  against you. He means I have sinned against
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  God. Or when the scribes questioned
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  John's baptism, was it from heaven or from men?
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  Same thing. Heaven stands in for the divine
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  name. It's a way of showing reverence.
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  But the third meaning, and this is the one that really defines
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  our study today, is the abode of God.
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  This is it. This is the eternal reality, the
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  location or state where Christ has gone to prepare an eternal
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  dwelling for believers so they can fellowship with Him forever.
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  When Jesus told his disciples he was going to prepare a place for
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  them, he was Speaking of this final dwelling.
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  And that takes us right to the core nature of heaven.
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  If you strip away all the poetic imagery, all the gold, the
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  jewels, the music, the fundamental reality of heaven is
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  simply the presence of God. Everything else flows from that.
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  Everything, all other blessings, all joy, all perfection, all
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  rest, it all stems from that singular fact.
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  God's ultimate plan, which was derailed for a time by the Fall,
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  was always for perfect fellowship, culminating and
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  taking redeemed humans to be completely, finally, and
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  physically with Him. So if the location is defined by
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  its divine inhabitant, then the experience of the believer must
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  also be, well, radically changed by that proximity.
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  It has to be. And this is where it gets really
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  interesting, the aspect of perfect knowledge known
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  historically as the Beatific Vision.
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  Yes, being admitted into God's unmediated presence guarantees a
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  complete overhaul of our understanding.
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  The sources confirm that for the first time, believers will see
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  and know God in a direct, immediate way.
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  Scripture promises we will see God face to face.
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  The veil is lifted. So what does that transition
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  from veiled knowledge to direct vision?
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  What does that actually entail for a believer?
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  Well, Paul speaks about it powerfully in First Corinthians
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  13. He says now we see only a
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  reflection in a mirror, but then we shall see face to face.
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  Now I know in part. Then I shall know fully, even as
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  I am fully known. A reflection in the mirror He
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  means like a dim polished piece of metal, right?
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  Not a modern mirror. Exactly.
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  Vague and distorted. That's our knowledge.
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  Now in heaven we get a direct vision of God.
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  And this vision is beatific. It means it confers blessedness.
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  The very act of seeing God perfectly accomplishes the
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  completion of our sanctification.
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  So when John says we shall be like him, for we shall see him
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  as he is, that likeness isn't just moral, it's tied to the
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  perfection of our understanding, which is granted by the sight of
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  God. Precisely that vision completes
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  the transformation. It perfects our knowledge and
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  therefore perfects our moral and spiritual state.
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  This moves us into a perennial theological question.
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  Is heaven a state or a place? It seems like splitting hairs,
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  but the sources treat this distinction very carefully.
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  They do, because accuracy matters here.
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  It's safest and most accurate to say heaven is both, but the
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  sources are insistent that is primarily a state.
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  A condition. A condition of sinlessness, of
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  blessedness, pervasive joy and peace.
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  Life there will be completely purged of all the distortions of
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  the fall, making it, in a sense, more real than our present
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  existence. But we can't just discard the
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  place element, can we? Especially since our theology
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  holds to the physical resurrection of the body.
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  No, you. Can't.
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  I mean, if Christ has a glorified body and believers
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  receive spiritual yet physical resurrection bodies, those
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  bodies have to be somewhere. That's the tension.
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  You're right. We have to reconcile a spiritual
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  nature of God with the physical nature of the resurrected human.
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  Jesus explicitly said he was going to prepare a place for us.
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  The new heavens and new earth. That's how we understand that
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  place. It's a new cosmic order.
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  But Even so, while God is pure spirit and doesn't occupy space
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  the way we do, the ultimate definition for us must remain
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  the spiritual condition, the state of absolute fulfillment
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  defined by His presence. The new physical location will
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  just perfectly support that spiritual state.
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  And what is that state of perfect holiness?
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  Guarantee the absolute end of all evil and pain.
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  I mean, that sounds almost too good to be true given our
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  current experience. It is the necessary implication
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  of God's holiness meeting our redemption.
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  The presence of the perfectly holy God and the spotless Lamb
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  guarantees the instantaneous eternal removal of all evil, all
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  struggle, all sin. Not just a lessening of Bane.
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  An absolute eradication of the entire old order.
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  Detail that scriptural promise for us from Revelation 21.4.
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  What are the specific things that pass away?
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  The guarantee is comprehensive. God will wipe every tear from
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  their eyes. And crucially, there will be no
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  more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of
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  things has passed away. The removal is total.
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  Total. It's not just that the devil is
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  bound, but even the effects of sin, grief, death, suffering,
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  the sorrow tied to remembrance, they are banished, the source
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  material stresses. This isn't selective memory
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  loss, it's that the complete spiritual fulfillment overwhelms
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  and renders past sorrow meaningless in comparison.
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  And that transition from sorrow to fulfillment has to be tied to
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  glory itself. It is.
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  Since glory is inherent in God's nature, heaven has to be a place
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  to saturate it in glory. The sources describe this
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  vividly. The New Jerusalem, the final
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  dwelling place. It doesn't rely on the physical
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  cosmos. No sun or moon.
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  Doesn't need them because the glory of God gives it light and
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  the Lamb is its lamp. All the images, walls of Jasper,
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  foundations of precious stones, streets of pure gold, they are
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  there to suggest an unimaginable splendor and aesthetic
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  perfection that far exceeds any beauty or value we know in this
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  world. It's a way of communicating a
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  state that's completely defined by the radiating perfection of
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  the divine presence. OK, so we move now from the
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  state of heaven to the activities within it.
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  The source material outlines the life of the redeemed using three
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  key facets, REST, worship and service.
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  Right. And it's a structure that
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  prevents us from imagining heaven as either a static,
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  boring vacation or some kind of frantic, nonstop ministry.
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  Let's start with rest. This is maybe the most
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  misunderstood part. I think people often imagine
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  eternal rest as inactivity, which quickly leaves to that
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  boredom question we'll get to later.
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  It does, but the sources define this rest very differently.
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  It's not about the cessation of all movement or activity.
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  What is it then? Rest in the final state means
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  the spiritual and ecological experience of reaching a goal of
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  crucial importance. It signifies the absolute
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  completion of the Christians pilgrimage.
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  Like Israel reaching the promised land.
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  Exactly like that, after wandering for 40 years, subject
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  to opposition and thirst and fear, their arrival in the
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  Promised Land was termed their rest.
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  The land wasn't passive. They had to build and govern it.
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  But the struggle to get there was over.
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  The struggle was over, so the rest is cessation from conflict,
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  not cessation from life. So we'll still do things, we'll
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  still work. Absolutely.
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  While service and productive action will occur, this future
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  work will not involve fighting against the flesh, the world, or
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  the devil. We will work, we will serve, but
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  we will do so without internal struggle or external opposition.
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  The fatigue, the discouragement, the moral failures that define
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  work in this life, they'll just be gone.
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  But I have to ask, if we are perfectly happy and at rest, why
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  do we need to worship? Isn't worship generally tied to
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  a lack acknowledging God's glory because we need Him?
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  That's a good challenge, and it shows why worship is the second
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  central facet. Worship is not just a remedial
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  action for sinful beings. It's the natural, perfect
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  response of a created being to the glory of the Creator in
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  heaven. Our vision of God will be
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  perfect, and our capacity for love and adoration will be
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  perfected. Therefore, the response of
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  praise and worship will be proportionally greater and more
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  joyful than anything we can know now.
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  What examples do the sources give us for the content and
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  frequency of this worship? Well, the visions given to John
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  in Revelation repeatedly depict the inhabitants of heaven, the
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  elders, the creatures, the great multitude regularly and
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  spontaneously praising God. Take Revelation 19.
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  We hear the shouts of a great multitude.
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  Hallelujah. Salvation and glory and power
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  belong to our God. And they're recognizing his true
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  and just judgments. They are.
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  They don't just worship His kindness, they worshipped His
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  perfect justice. And the sources connect this
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  back to how we Live Today, don't they?
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  They do the worship and praise that genuine believers engage in
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  on earth, the corporate singing, the study, the prayer, all of
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  that serves as preparation and practice for the future
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  employment of their hearts and voices in heaven.
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  So our current worship is a training ground.
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  It's a training ground for our eternal vocation.
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  If you don't enjoy praising God, now the question arises whether
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  you truly possess the capacity for the life that awaits the
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  redeemed. This preparation leads us right
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  to the third facet service, and this idea challenges that image
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  of passive cloud sitting Saints. It suggests Heaven is intensely
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  active. It is life in the final state
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  includes A robust element of service, which the sources
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  define as work done on behalf of the king.
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  It's productive activity that demonstrates our loyalty and
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  exercises our perfected talents. And we have concrete scriptural
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  examples for this. We do.
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  Jesus promised his disciples they would sit on 12 Thrones
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  judging the 12 tribes of Israel. The redeemed are explicitly
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  called the lambs servants in Revelation, suggesting
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  purposeful work. This isn't menial labor.
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  It's governance, judgment and oversight sight all perfectly
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  aligned with God's. Will and the sources link this
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  service opportunity directly back to our faithfulness in this
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  life through the stewardship parables.
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  That linkage is critical when you look at the parable of the
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  Talents or the pounds in an eschatological light.
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  The sources indicate the reward for faithful work on Earth is
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  not just a crown or commendation.
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  It's more. Work.
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  It's a greater opportunity for work or governance in heaven.
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  If you are faithful with 5 lbs, you're given authority over 5
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  cities. That reframes the whole concept
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  of reward. It's not retirement, it's a
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  promotion. It's promotion into divine
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  partnership. This element of service strongly
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  mirrors the Dominion mandate humans were originally intended
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  to exercise in Eden. Acting as God's vice entrance.
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  Yes, or underlords carrying out his cosmic work on his behalf.
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  But now it's perfected and expanded over the new heavens
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  and new earth. We were created to rule, and in
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  heaven we finally rule properly under the King.
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  Now we have to address that perennial concern.
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  If heaven is a stable situation, a place of perfection and
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  completion, will we eventually get bored?
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  The human mind constantly craves novelty and growth.
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  This is a powerful yet flawed question.
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  It's based on an illegitimate extrapolation from life as now
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  constituted. The source materials address
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  this head on. So where does boredom come?
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  From boredom, frustration, the need for constant novelty.
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  They come from two places, the incompleteness of our knowledge.
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  That's Paul's dim mirror analogy and the inadequacy of our
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  current moral state. We grow now because we are
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  imperfect. We do.
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  Our development is constantly being arrested at finite points
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  short of the goal. In heaven, that goal is reached.
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  The stable situation in heaven is a state of completion beyond
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  which there can be no advance or improvement.
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  When you're perfect, there's nothing left to fix.
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  Nothing. And this state of total
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  completeness leads to total satisfaction.
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  So instead of development towards fruition, it's defined
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  as development in fruition. That's the distinction.
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  It's not static, but it's stable.
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  We will continue to exercise the perfect character we received
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  from God, but without the strain of achieving it.
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  Sources suggest we will eternally explore the infinite
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  glories of God, meaning our appreciation will expand, but
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  our state of being remains perfected.
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  So no internal feeling of inadequacy.
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  No lack, which means no root for frustration or boredom.
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  We will finally be perfectly content with ourselves and our
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  Creator. This idea of total satisfaction
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  leads us into one of the most challenging theological issues
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  related to heaven, the idea of degrees of reward.
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  If everyone is perfectly satisfied, how could there be
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  different rewards for the righteous?
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  The biblical basis for differing rewards is quite clear.
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  The parable of the pounds, where servants are rewarded
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  proportionally, Daniel 12.3. They strongly suggest varying
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  levels of glory or service. It's not egalitarian.
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  But this introduces a massive theological problem, doesn't it?
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  If I know my neighbor is experiencing more blessedness
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  than I am, doesn't that inherently introduce regret or
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  envy? And that would shatter the
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  promised state of completion. How can I be perfectly satisfied
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  if I know someone else is more satisfied?
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  That is the central difficulty, and the sources offer robust
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  speculation on the subjective nature of the reward to protect
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  the doctrine of universal perfection.
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  OK, the differences, it's suggested, may not lie in
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  objective circumstances like, you know, better mansions or
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  larger Thrones, but in the subjective awareness or
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  appreciation of the same infinite blessing.
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  Walk us through that interpretation.
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  OK, think of two vessels, a pint jar and a gallon jug.
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  Both are placed under the faucet of infinite blessedness and
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  filled completely. The pint jar is perfectly,
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  absolutely full. It lacks nothing.
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  It's content. The gallon jug is also perfectly
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  full, lacking nothing but its capacity for enjoyment and
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  understanding is simply greater, built by greater faithfulness
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  and service on earth. Both are completely content and
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  possess the same God and the same glory.
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  So everyone is worshipping the same God, but the gallon jug
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  appreciates the magnitude of God's glory more acutely because
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  of the spiritual muscle they built in life.
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  That's the subjective interpretation.
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  All the redeemed experience the same perfection, the same vision
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  of God. But some may have a greater
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  spiritual capacity, a greater ability to appreciate,
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  understand and use the glory than others.
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  And here is the crucial safeguard against regret.
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  The sources speculate that no one will be aware of the
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  differences in the range of enjoyment.
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  That's a key Awareness of disparity is the root of envy,
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  comparison, and regret. The source material suggests
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  that because of the completion of our character and the
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  overwhelming joy the beatific vision, every redeemed person
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  will be so entirely full, so absolutely content within their
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  individual capacity, that they will have no awareness or desire
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  for the subjective capacity of another.
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  This prevents regret over wasted earthly opportunities from
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  diminishing the total perfect satisfaction of heaven.
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  The perfection remains complete for every single soul.
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  Having rigorously defined the destination of the righteous, we
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  have to now turn our attention to the final state of the
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  wicked. If heaven is defined by God's
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  complete, unveiled presence and the perfection that follows,
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  then hell has to be defined by the opposite reality.
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  That's the unavoidable theological symmetry.
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  The core characteristic of hell is the absence of God.
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  It's the absolute final judicial banishment from his presence.
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  The command is consistent. Depart from me.
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  And what are the resulting consequences of being completely
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  separated from the source of all life, all truth, all goodness,
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  all beauty? The primary consequence is the
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  awful loneliness of total and final separation from the Lord.
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  God is the source of all ultimate happiness and meaning.
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  To be eternally separated from Him is to be separated from
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  everything that gives joy or stability or true fulfillment.
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  And the state is characterized by anguish.
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  Intense anguish, The sources suggest.
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  It's a suffering of body, mind and spirit.
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  A relentless, pervasive distress.
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  And this state has to be permanent, right?
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  It's not a temporary holding cell.
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  It is permanent. The source material stresses
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  that the condition of 1's moral and spiritual self, whatever you
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  are at the end of your life, will continue for all eternity.
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  There is no sanctifying element in separation from God.
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  The absence of God means the absence of grace.
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  And grace is what leads to repentance, so there is no basis
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  for expecting change for the better.
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  This leads to total and absolute hopelessness.
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  Now, this is the doctrine that causes the greatest difficulty
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  for many people. It raises questions about God's
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  justice and love. We often hear the objection that
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  a loving God wouldn't condemn someone to suffering.
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  How do the sources address that tension?
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  We have to reject the popular view of God as vindictive.
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  Hell should be viewed not primarily as a punishment
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  enacted by a vengeful deity, but as the natural consequences of
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  the sinful life chosen by those who reject Christ.
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  God genuinely desires that none should perish.
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  He does. So in this view, God doesn't
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  send people to hell, they send themselves.
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  That's the theological conclusion from Scripture.
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  It is sin is essentially the person throughout their life
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  saying to God through their actions and their rejection of
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  Christ, go away and leave me alone.
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  I want to be sovereign over myself.
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  And hell is God's final judicial reply.
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  You may have your wish. It is God leaving the person to
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  the self they chose to fashion for eternity.
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  I recall the famous analogy that the doors of hell are locked on
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  the inside. And that analogy perfectly
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  illustrates the theological concept of self willed
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  separation. The self determination and
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  separation means that the lost don't desire fellowship with
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  God, even if they desire to be free from their suffering.
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  Because they rejected the only path to reconciliation.
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  Christ. So they're left in a state of
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  eternal rebellion, which manifests as eternal anguish.
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  This concept of self determination leads directly to
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  the question of finality in modern theology.
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  Many schools proposed some form of restorationism, the idea that
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  judgment is temporary, that there's a subsequent chance for
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  repentance or reconciliation after death.
• 19:54
  The sources are unanimous in rejecting that it contradicts
• 19:57
  the entirety of the biblical emphasis on the finality of
• 20:00
  judgment. The moment of physical death
• 20:02
  determines the eternal state. It does The sentence rendered to
• 20:05
  the wicked, that command from the king, depart from me.
• 20:09
  You who are cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the
• 20:12
  devil and his angels, indicates absolute, irreversible finality.
• 20:17
  Does Scripture offer any indication of an opportunity for
• 20:20
  belief after judgment? None whatsoever.
• 20:23
  Furthermore, you have the parable of the rich man and
• 20:25
  Lazarus in Luke 16. It strongly suggests the
• 20:29
  condition is absolute and fixed. A great chasm is fixed between
• 20:33
  the righteous and the wicked. Making crossing over impossible.
• 20:35
  Impossible. Once the judgement is rendered,
• 20:37
  the state is permanent now. Proponents of universal
• 20:40
  restoration, they often cite passages that seem to promise
• 20:43
  universal acknowledgement of Christ, like Philippians 2,
• 20:47
  where every knee bowels and every tongue confesses Jesus is
• 20:50
  Lord. Doesn't that suggest eventual
• 20:52
  reconciliation? That passage is often
• 20:54
  misunderstood. The sources address this by
• 20:56
  clarifying that the required bowing and confession it's
• 21:00
  interpreted not as a joyful, saving commitment or a
• 21:03
  restoration to fellowship. But as an admission of defeat.
• 21:06
  As an acquiescence in defeat, it is God fulfilling His promise to
• 21:10
  put an all enemies under His feet, quelling rebellion and
• 21:13
  restoring harmony by demonstrating His total
• 21:16
  sovereignty. The wicked are submitting to a
• 21:19
  conquering king. They are not reconciling with a
• 21:21
  loving Father. This brings us to the core of
• 21:24
  the debate on duration, the argument for eternality versus
• 21:28
  annihilationism. The philosophical objection is
• 21:31
  often raised that no one deserves endless suffering for a
• 21:34
  finite period of sin. And that objection leads to
• 21:37
  annihilationism. That's the school of thought,
• 21:39
  maintaining that the wicked will be eliminated or cease to exist
• 21:42
  either immediately upon death or after a finite period of
• 21:45
  punishment. And this position is held in a
• 21:47
  few distinct forms, which we should clarify.
• 21:50
  Right, they get lumped together, but there are critical
• 21:52
  differences. First, you have pure mortalism.
• 21:55
  This is a materialistic view that says the human person
• 21:58
  ceases to exist entirely when the body dies.
• 22:00
  No soul, no spirit that survives consciousness.
• 22:04
  So punishment is just non existence right?
• 22:06
  Then there's the second form, which is more common among
• 22:08
  theologians today. Conditional immortality.
• 22:10
  That's the one. This view argues that humans are
• 22:13
  inherently mortal by nature. Immortality is a gift granted
• 22:17
  only to those in Christ. Unbelievers either pass out of
• 22:21
  existence at death or are resurrected for a finite
• 22:24
  judgement and then extinguished. And the final form.
• 22:26
  Annihilation is improper. This holds that humans are
• 22:30
  naturally immortal, but this immortality is somehow lost
• 22:33
  through sin. Some argue sin is inherently
• 22:36
  self-destructive, causing the personality to die out.
• 22:39
  Others argue God actively destroys the individual after
• 22:42
  they've undergone A sufficient finite punishment.
• 22:45
  So if there are philosophical and even some scriptural
• 22:48
  arguments for annihilation, why does the Reform position, which
• 22:51
  is backed by our source material, hold to the doctrine
• 22:54
  of eternal punishment? Because the biblical evidence
• 22:57
  contradicts extinction on several levels, Scripture
• 23:00
  consistently asserts the endlessness of punishment.
• 23:04
  It uses the Greek tomb Aishnios, eternal or everlasting, in other
• 23:08
  words like forever, to describe fire, contempt, destruction,
• 23:12
  torment and punishment. So if the punishment is
• 23:15
  destruction, it's an unending destruction, not an event that
• 23:19
  ends. That's the point, yeah.
• 23:20
  And the specific imagery used by Jesus himself contradicts the
• 23:24
  idea that the wicked are consumed and just disappear.
• 23:27
  This is vital. It is.
• 23:29
  He describes hell as the place where the fire never goes out
• 23:32
  and where their worm does not die and the the fire is not
• 23:34
  quenched. And the sources clarify that
• 23:36
  this means the fire does not consume the one it's inflicted
• 23:39
  on. Right.
• 23:39
  If the fire consumed them, the punishment would stop.
• 23:42
  But because the fire never stops and the worm representing the
• 23:44
  suffering itself never dies, the individual must continue to
• 23:47
  exist indefinitely to receive that ongoing punishment.
• 23:51
  But the strongest scriptural case against annihilationism
• 23:53
  rests on the rule of consistency, the argument from
• 23:56
  parallelism in Matthew 25.46. This is the definitive text and
• 24:01
  it needs to be analyzed carefully.
• 24:03
  Matthew 25 5.46 states then they will go away to eternal
• 24:07
  punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.
• 24:09
  The critical point is the word ishinios.
• 24:11
  It's the same word used for both.
• 24:13
  The same word. And if we accept the doctrine of
• 24:15
  heaven, then the life of the righteous is of unending
• 24:18
  duration. It's endless, correct?
• 24:20
  Therefore, the term ishinios must be interpreted
• 24:23
  consistently. If we interpret the punishment
• 24:26
  of the wicked as being finite, ceasing upon an annihilation, we
• 24:30
  are treating ishinios with unequal seriousness in two
• 24:34
  parallel clauses. That's linguistically and
• 24:36
  theologically unacceptable, according to the sources.
• 24:38
  It is. The duration must be equal
• 24:41
  unending. This forces us to confront the
• 24:43
  deepest tension. How do we reconcile the doctrine
• 24:46
  of eternal punishment with God's infinite love and goodness?
• 24:50
  Many people see this as a divine act out of all proportion to
• 24:52
  human sin. This tension requires a careful
• 24:55
  theological response focused on the nature of sin.
• 24:58
  We have to adjust our perspective on what sin is.
• 25:01
  It's not just a finite act. It's not.
• 25:04
  Stealing an apple is not just stealing an apple.
• 25:06
  Sin is an offense against the very nature of an infinite
• 25:10
  being, God Himself. The status of the offended party
• 25:14
  changes the magnitude of the offense.
• 25:16
  Precisely to sin is to raise a finite created will against an
• 25:20
  infinite holy sovereign will. Any offense against Infinity
• 25:24
  incurs an infinite factor. If a creature offends an
• 25:27
  infinitely perfect being, that offense has infinite weight.
• 25:31
  Demanding an infinite satisfaction of justice.
• 25:34
  Right. And since the creature can't pay
• 25:35
  an infinite satisfaction in one instant, the penalty has to be
• 25:39
  paid infinitely through eternal duration.
• 25:41
  And finally, we return to the nature of human design.
• 25:44
  Yes, humans were created to live eternally with God.
• 25:47
  If they pervert this destiny and actively choose eternal
• 25:50
  separation, they will eternally experience the spiritual and
• 25:53
  physical consequences of that choice.
• 25:55
  The anguish isn't capricious. It is the natural, permanent and
• 25:59
  infinite result of being severed from the source of all ultimate
• 26:02
  existence and goodness. We established that the
• 26:04
  righteous will experience subjective degrees of reward in
• 26:08
  heaven based on their faithfulness.
• 26:11
  Does the scripture suggest a similar principle of variation
• 26:13
  in hell? Does everyone condemned
• 26:15
  experience the same level of suffering?
• 26:17
  The sources affirm the principle of difference.
• 26:20
  The Bible clearly depicts degrees of punishment.
• 26:23
  So while all inhabitants of hell are eternally condemned and
• 26:26
  separated from God, they won't all experience suffering with
• 26:30
  the same intensity. That's correct.
• 26:32
  What governs the severity of this condemnation?
• 26:34
  It can't be arbitrary. The principle is proportionality
• 26:37
  based on knowledge and responsibility.
• 26:40
  The severity of the punishment is directly linked to the light
• 26:43
  that was rejected. The rule is stated explicitly
• 26:46
  from everyone who has been given much.
• 26:48
  Much will be demanded. So that means a person who grew
• 26:51
  up in a Christian home, went to church, and rejected the gospel
• 26:54
  has a heavier condemnation than someone who never even heard the
• 26:57
  name of Christ. That is the necessary
• 26:59
  implication of the doctrine of proportionality.
• 27:02
  The greater our knowledge of God's revealed will, the greater
• 27:05
  our culpability, and thus the greater our punishment will be
• 27:09
  if we reject that responsibility.
• 27:11
  And Jesus own teaching provides clear, concrete evidence of this
• 27:16
  proportionality in action, specifically with the
• 27:19
  unrepentant cities that saw his miracles.
• 27:21
  Exactly. Think about the cities of
• 27:23
  Tourism and Bethesaita. They saw Jesus perform signs,
• 27:27
  they heard his teaching, and yet they refused to repent.
• 27:30
  And Jesus said. He stated unequivocally that it
• 27:32
  would be more bearable for Sodom on the Day of Judgement than for
• 27:36
  those cities. Wow.
• 27:37
  More bearable than for Sodom. Sodom was judged for vile
• 27:40
  wickedness, but the greater offense of the unrepentant
• 27:43
  cities was rejecting God's revelation when it stood
• 27:46
  physically right in front of them.
• 27:47
  Their exposure to divine light increase their culpability above
• 27:51
  that of the most infamous Pagan city.
• 27:53
  And the parable of the faithful and faithless stewards
• 27:56
  illustrates the actual degree of beating involved.
• 27:58
  That parable explicitly links awareness of the masters will to
• 28:02
  the severity of the consequences.
• 28:04
  The servant who knows his master's will and fails to
• 28:07
  comply with it will be beaten with many blows.
• 28:09
  But the servant who doesn't know.
• 28:11
  The servant who does not know but acts deserving of punishment
• 28:14
  will be beaten with few blows. Note that both are beaten.
• 28:19
  Ignorance doesn't absolve guilt entirely, but knowledge clearly
• 28:23
  heightens the deserved intensity of the suffering.
• 28:26
  Just as with the differing rewards in heaven, the sources
• 28:29
  offer speculation regarding the subjective awareness of misery.
• 28:33
  Are these differing blows that change the objective environment
• 28:36
  like fire temperature, or is it something more internal?
• 28:39
  The differences are speculated to be primarily subjective.
• 28:42
  They relate directly to the individual's internal spiritual
• 28:45
  state and their degree of awareness of the pain of
• 28:47
  separation. OK.
• 28:48
  The sources argue that hell reflects God abandoning the
• 28:51
  sinful person to the particular wicked character that the person
• 28:54
  fashioned for herself or herself in this life.
• 28:58
  That makes the self the eternal source of misery.
• 29:00
  In a sense, yes. The spiritual state of the
• 29:03
  unrepentant soul is permanently fixed in its rebellion and self
• 29:06
  focus. The torment, therefore, is being
• 29:09
  forced to live eternally with that self separated from
• 29:13
  everything good. And the misery will be
• 29:15
  proportionate. It will be proportionate to 1's
• 29:17
  degree of awareness of precisely what 1 was doing when choosing
• 29:20
  evil, rejecting the light, and cultivating that wicked
• 29:23
  character. The person who sinned against
• 29:25
  great knowledge will have a much deeper, sharper internal
• 29:29
  understanding of the magnitude of their eternal loss,
• 29:33
  increasing their subjective anguish compared to one who
• 29:35
  sinned in ignorance. So we have spent considerable
• 29:38
  time detailing 2 destinations that are absolute and
• 29:41
  irreversible. The final condition of the
• 29:43
  redeemed is characterized by God's presence, perfect rest
• 29:47
  from opposition, unending worship, and act of service on
• 29:50
  behalf of the King. And the final condition of the
• 29:53
  wicked is defined by total banishment, awful loneliness,
• 29:57
  and a permanent eternal state of conscious suffering, calibrated
• 30:00
  according to the rejected light. This central implication of the
• 30:03
  sources couldn't be clearer and it is the necessary conclusion
• 30:07
  of this deep dive. The decisions, the affiliations,
• 30:10
  the character formation pursued in this life completely govern
• 30:14
  our eternal conditions. The conditions of this life are
• 30:17
  absolutely transitory and fleeting when compared to the
• 30:20
  reality of the eternity to come, and this demands extraordinary
• 30:23
  spiritual care and diligence in the present moment.
• 30:25
  Indeed, we concluded that Heaven is a state of absolute
• 30:30
  completion, perfect satisfaction, beyond which there
• 30:32
  is no advance in moral or relational status.
• 30:36
  Yet we discussed the possibility that differing rewards exist in
• 30:39
  the subjective appreciation of the blessings available to all.
• 30:42
  Right, So if every soul in heaven is perfectly satisfied,
• 30:45
  yet some souls subjectively appreciate that satisfaction
• 30:48
  more acutely due to their prior faithfulness, what does this
• 30:51
  tell you about the true spiritual value of every
• 30:53
  faithful act, no matter how small, during this earthly life?
• 30:57
  The slightest commitment to ServiceNow may expand your
• 30:59
  capacity for joy forever. That is something worth serious
• 31:02
  contemplation. Until we meet again.