Thought this might be interesting to a few -
Continue reading “N.T. Wright on the Resurrection, Heaven and Hell”
Mar 12 2009
Are you Good Enough to go to Heaven?
Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: “Do not commit adultery,’ “Do not murder,’ “Do not steal,’ “Do not bear false witness,’ “Do not defraud,’ “Honor your father and your mother.”‘ And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.” Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. (Mark 10:17-22 NKJV)
A recent commentator suggested that we respect Joel Osteen, and by virtue of him, all others that inspire ‘good’ because at least they are not preaching evil.
But, is ‘good’ enough to get you to heaven? Is the gospel of Jesus Christ really about just being ‘good’? Let’s answer it rhetorically, for a moment? If being ‘good’ was enough, then why did it behoove Christ die and to be raised again the third day?
The rich young ruler approached Christ, the latest trend in the religious world, to become a ministry partner – if you will. I mean, how hard could it be to walk around all day, to have the entire world as your banquet with throngs of people shouting your name?This young man wanted what this Rabbi had.
But, he made the first mistake – why on earth would you can Jesus ‘Good’?
The Rabbi quickly corrected Him – only God was Good. Did he assume that He was good simply because of His good works? The young man wanted to get eternal life, and maybe he thought the best way to start the process was to declare Jesus good. Maybe He would return the favor.
The Master quoted to him the Law of Moses, a Law of good works, to which the man replied that he had done all of these things! He surely was ‘good.’
We see here a glimpse of the humanity of our Lord, of our Saviour, of God Incarnate – Peter’s preaching remarks that Christ looked at young man, and loved him, but He answered him nonetheless with the Truth. The works were not enough – he needed sacrifice to be good, to get eternal life.
But he could not offer the sacrifice that was needed, to get himself eternal life. There is one other part to that self-sacrifice. The self-sacrifice had to be first, but it was only a beginning. The self-sacrifice would lead to the man’s ability partake of the sacrifice of Christ, the Cross.
These man had kept the Law of works from his youth, but that Law was not good enough. It still required a sacrifice.
We can thank our God that it takes less than being good to inherit eternal life. See, there is none good, except God,
They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” (Romans 3:12 NKJV)
It not about being ‘good’ or having great and wonderful works – it is about repentance, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When Peter was asked the question, what must we do, he said to repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins. It is not about earning but about giving. It is not about being good, but being forgiven.
Feb 10 2009
Indulgences Return, and Heaven Moves a Step Closer for Catholics
The announcement in church bulletins and on Web sites has been greeted with enthusiasm by some and wariness by others. But mainly, it has gone over the heads of a vast generation of Roman Catholics who have no idea what it means: “Bishop Announces Plenary Indulgences.”
In recent months, dioceses around the world have been offering Catholics a spiritual benefit that fell out of favor decades ago — the indulgence, a sort of amnesty from punishment in the afterlife — and reminding them of the church’s clout in mitigating the wages of sin.
Continue reading “Indulgences Return, and Heaven Moves a Step Closer for Catholics”
Feb 02 2009
In what do we rejoice – Miracles or Salvation?
Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:17-20 NKJV)
The great majority of false prophets point us to miracles, supposed or manufactured, and declare themselves of God, rejoicing in the fact – and insisting this as a sign of ministry – that somehow it appears that they, like Tylenol, have stopped a headache.
When Christ sent the Seventy, He sent them out with expressed instructions to spread the news of the Kingdom, but to carry nothing with them – there were to take only what one would give, but not to beg or seek subsistence. They would be supported by the wages from God.
In the above passage, the Seventy returns and instead of singing the success of the Kingdom, they praised their own power. Christ rebukes them in no uncertain terms – He has power over the adversary and He was the one what gave the authority. The power to do these things is Christ’s alone – but He gives it in certain circumstances to further the Kingdom. We not rejoice in this – not in all the seas parted, the giants felled, the lepers cleansed, the blind made to see – no, we rejoice in on fact alone, that our name is written in heaven.
Paul says,
We, however, will not boast beyond measure, but within the limits of the sphere which God appointed us–a sphere which especially includes you. For we are not overextending ourselves (as though our authority did not extend to you), for it was to you that we came with the gospel of Christ; not boasting of things beyond measure, that is, in other men’s labors, but having hope, that as your faith is increased, we shall be greatly enlarged by you in our sphere, to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man’s sphere of accomplishment. But “he who glories, let him glory in the LORD.” For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends. (2 Corinthians 10:13-18 NKJV)
And,
But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Galatians 6:14 NKJV)
We do boast anything of ourselves, but only in the glory of the Cross, but it is only by the cross of Christ that we may find our names written in heaven.
Aug 28 2008
Fewer believe in hell
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Ernie Long believes he has been to hell. He can even narrow it down to a particular moment.
His mother was dying of cancer. As she lay on her death bed, he swiped her last $5 and the car keys from her purse, went out and got high. When he returned, she was dead.
Long goes quiet, thinking about it in the chapel of Guiding Light Mission in Grand Rapids, Mich. When he first moved to the homeless shelter, he recalls, he would wake up in the night haunted by what he’d done.
“The shame and guilt engulfed me,” he says quietly. “I couldn’t stop crying.”
Today, Long is an intake supervisor for Guiding Light’s recovery program. He believes Jesus saved him from the pit of hell and wants other men to be saved too, here and hereafter.
“I think hell is being in the absence of purpose,” says Long, 64, who was addicted to crack cocaine before coming to Guiding Light two years ago. “When I had no purpose, no direction, I actually felt like I was living in hell.”
For Long, hell is all too real — a temporary torment in this life, an endless agony in the next. But for more and more Americans, hell is a myth.
In a survey released this summer by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, just 59 per cent of 35,000 respondents said they believe in a hell “where people who have led bad lives, and die without being sorry, are eternally punished.”
That’s down from the 71 per cent who said they believed in hell in a 2001 Gallup survey. And it is lower than the 74 per cent who said they believe in heaven in the recent Pew poll.
Skepticism about hell is growing even in evangelical churches and seminaries, says one theologian here, a bastion of conservative evangelicalism.
“In a pluralistic, post-modern world, students are having a more difficult time with (the idea of) people going to hell forever because they didn’t believe the right thing,” says Mike Wittmer, professor of systematic theology at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary.
“That’s the biggest question out there right now: ‘Would God send someone to hell if they were someone as good as me, but didn’t believe what I believe?’ ”
It was easier to believe in hell 20 years ago when missionaries tried to convert people in far-flung places, Wittmer says. In today’s global village, many live next to good, non-Christian neighbours and wonder why an all-powerful, loving God wouldn’t eventually empty out hell, Wittmer says.
Americans’ optimism and tolerance for diversity complements a growing view of God as benevolent, not judgmental, other experts say.
“They believe everyone has an equal chance, at this life and the next,” said Alan Segal, a professor of religion at Barnard College and the author of Life After Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion.
“So hell is disappearing, absolutely.”
But for those who believe, hell can be a terrifying place of eternal punishment or the complete extinction of the soul.
The Pew survey showed the biggest believers in hell are evangelical Protestants, African-American Protestants and Muslims. Sizable majorities of Jews, Buddhists and Hindus — as well as atheists, agnostics, and the rest of the unaffiliated — say they do not believe.
Wittmer holds to a literal Christian view of hell as a place of physical torment. He points to Revelation 14:9-11, where an angel describes the damned burning in sulfur: “And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever.”
“The whole person is suffering, probably in utter hopelessness, just being absent from God and goodness,” says Wittmer, author of Heaven is a Place on Earth.
Though the popular image of hell as eternal torment drowning in a lake of fire has been popularized by evangelical notions of salvation, it’s not solely an evangelical — or even Christian — concept:
ISLAM
Over at the Islamic Center and Mosque of West Michigan, Imam Sharif Sahibzada also listens for the devil’s footsteps. Though faithfully following God, Sahibzada says he nevertheless fears hell.
“I don’t know how I will end up,” Sahibzada says. “I have to show trust in God and his mercy all the time. Always Satan is circling and trying to misguide me.”
He says Islam teaches those who reject God are condemned permanently to hell, where the Quran says they will be “fuel for Hellfire.”
Believers who have totally surrendered to God will go directly to heaven. Those who have not totally followed God’s commands must first go to hell and be punished according to their sins. God decides everyone’s fate, including those who believe in God but reject the Prophet Muhammad, Sahibzada says.
JUDAISM
Although many Jews believe in neither hell nor heaven, others have varied views of the afterlife, says Rabbi David Krishef of Congregation Ahavas Israel.
One is that souls go to a place called Gehenna, often translated as hell in the Bible. It is derived from a burning valley south of Jerusalem where garbage was dumped and children sacrificed. Their souls are purified in a kind of purgatory before most go to heaven, but some are so evil they are punished or utterly destroyed, Krishef says.
He tends to believe in the latter as the fate of unrepentant evil-doers such as Hitler, Osama bin Laden and Yigal Amir, the assassin of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. In any case, the morality by which one lives is the key, he says.
CATHOLICISM
How we live can keep a lot of people out of hell, if you ask Sister Carmella Conway.
“We can transform the world by helping others,” Conway said following a morning Mass at Marywood, the Dominican motherhouse. “We’re kind of guilty if anybody goes to hell.”
© The Leader-Post (Regina) 2008
Mar 31 2008
What is the Church – Sermon notes
Church: Derived probably from the Greek kuriakon (i.e., “the Lord’s house”), which was used by ancient authors for the place of worship. -Easton’s
Psa 48:1-14
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. (2) Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. (3) God is known in her palaces for a refuge. (4) For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together. (5) They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away. (6) Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail. (7) Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. (8) As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it for ever. Selah. (9) We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. (10) According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness. (11) Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments. (12) Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. (13) Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following. (14) For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.
Isa 2:2
And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
Isa 26:1-2
In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. (2) Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in
Isa 33:20
Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. (Remove not the ancient landmark!)
Isa 54:1
Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD. (2) Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; (3) For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
(Amos 7:7-8 contrast the two plumblines) (Eph 2:11-22) (The name is not Christian, that was a name applied by the heathen)
Other thoughts:
Psalms 87, Rev. 22:14-15
Genesis – She is the Garden of Eden, where God walked with Adam in the cool of the evening.
Exodus – She is the Promised Land
Leviticus – the heavenly example of the earthly tabernacle
Numbers – Israel in the wilderness always attacked
Deuteronomy – she is the Lord’s portion and the lot of his inheritance
Joshua/Judges – she is worth fighting for, and the choice for a family
Ruth – a gentile who forsook all to follow God
The Kingdoms and the Chronicles – she is the mighty kingdom, the temple and the hope.
Ezra – she is worth coming home to
In Nehemiah – she is the great walled city, rebuilt by the King’s decree
In Esther she is the loyal wife raised up at the moment to save God’s people.
In the Job, David and Solomon, she is Zion, wisdom, our mother, our strong tower, and the assembly of his saints
In Solomon’s Song she is the bride of God.
In Isaiah she is the obedient and faithful wife, a branch of God’s planting, she is sought out and a city not forsaken
In Jeremiah she is the new covenant.
In Lamentations she is repentant and the perfection of the whole world
In Ezekiel she is a city with a watchman, listening for the trumpet.
In Daniel she is the kingdom that breaks all others, the stone cut without by hands.
In Hosea she is saved and loved by her husband.
In Joel, she is God’s mighty army and his heritage
In Amos she is the rising tabernacle of David and the plumb line
In Obadiah is the ambassador among the heathen
In Jonah she is God’s unquestionable reason.
In Micah she is God’s justice.
In Nahum she is God’s remembrance.
In Habakkuk she is the work among the gentiles.
In Zephaniah she is the restoration.
In Haggai she is the glory of the latter.
In Zechariah she is the holy mountain
In Malachi she awaits her Messiah.
In Matthew she is a city set on a hill
In Mark she is the kingdom of God
In Luke she is the people of God
In John she is the vine and the flock of the shepherd
In Acts she is in the upper room.
In Paul she is established, strengthened, set aright – she is protected, overseen and guided.
In Hebrews she is past, present and future
• the tabernacle, the temple and heaven
• she is the city of the living God
• she is can be approached, touched, and lived
In James she has a holy name.
In Peter she is the ark, the priesthood, and a people purchased for redemption, she is Joy unspeakable and full of Glory.
In John she is the elect lady.
In Jude she is that common salvation once fore all delivered to the saints
In Revelation –
She is the bride
The one going up
The one coming down
She is tried, true and perfect.
She is triumphant
She is home.
Mar 14 2008
The Purpose of Life
The Purpose of Life:
The special purpose and life fulfilling realization that entails great prosperity, peace, and a quiet heart before God, entailing the one who understands to gain future promises of help, comfort, a mansion, a new body, comfort, and an abundance of riches, glory, and grace.
Below is a list of daily affirmations that seek to enable people to feel better about themselves, to help them find a purpose in life. They need to repeat these several times in the morning, and perhaps a few times throughout the day.
A List of positive affirmations you can use to boost your self esteem:
* I deserve to be happy and successful
* I have the power to change myself
* I can forgive and understand others and their motives
* I can make my own choices and decisions
* I am free to choose to live as I wish and to give priority to my desires
* I can choose happiness whenever I wish no matter what my circumstances
* I am flexible and open to change in every aspect of my life
* I act with confidence having a general plan and accept plans are open to alteration
* It is enough to have done my best
* I deserve to be loved
The above was taken from: http://www.more-selfesteem.com/affirmations.htm
If you want, there are books, computer programs, websites, seminars, and even individual counseling to help you determine your purpose in life. At the Life Purpose Institute (http://www.lifepurposeinstitute.com/ ), you can pay to become a Life Coach, which I am sure you can turn around and earn a living from. You can get quotes from famous people, mostly telling you that your purpose is exactly what you want it to be and that your desires will determine your destiny. And if that doesn’t work, don’t worry it is not your fault; it is your parents or society’s fault for correcting you and inhibiting your creative growth when you where younger. If they had only encouraged you to be violent, lazy, and selfish instead of correcting you!
Prosperity preachers tell us that our purpose in this life, and indeed the purpose of the Cross, was to give us health and wealth. They see only peace in the bank account, not the peace that enables us to share in the riches of the grace of God. If we but want something, we just have to snap our heels together three times, say a magic phrase, send money to some white-suited preacher and we will have everything that we could want.
Brethren, each of us has a special purpose, not just us, but the entire world! We can live in the prosperity that comes from God. It is God’s purpose for us to be rich and not burdened by sins, but by treasures from heaven. We have a higher purpose.
We do have a purpose on this earth, and indeed, I believe that everyone else does as well. We have been predestined to greatness, to riches, to something greater than ourselves.
In Genesis 1:26-27, the Bible plainly tells us that we are made in the image of God. We were not made to till the earth or to go to work every day. We were brought forth for a reason, for a purpose. Don’t skip ahead and think that the purpose of man is the same as man’s duty. Purpose is why, duty is what. In this Garden, Man walks and talks with God and is in free communion with him. Man is free of sin, because there is no sin, so he is holy. Here is paradise.
We know that Adam fell when he sinned, creating a wall of separation between God and creation, and we also know that at that moment, not in some after thought, God set about to restore all things to Himself. He devised a plan and put it into action. He did not give up on us nor set us aside. He did not destroy us or remove us from His thought altogether, but His very first actions detailed the compassion of the Deity. He demanded separation, but did not leave Adam and Eve without a covering, making a sacrifice of flesh to hide their sins. He spoke the first prophecy, pointing to a time when Man would once again walk with God. Why did he do these things when he could have easily turned us aside?
It is no small thing to say that He loved us, and so He did love us. (Ephesians 2:4, 1st John 4:10, 1st John 4:19) He also had a purpose for us from the very beginning, and although sin interrupted it for a season, there is a pathway to it.
(Eph 1:3-5) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
There are several ways to look at this passage, concerning especially the καταβολης κοσμου (foundation of the world).
1.) World could very well be the world order created after the fall of Adam, where death reigned.
2.) The world is literally this planet. The problem with this is that sin would have to be predestined to, meaning that God predestined pain, suffering, and heartache.
3.) The first and ideal purpose of God was for humanity to share in the holiness of God, but the fall of Adam interrupted that plan.
The word “predestine” (προορίσας, proorizô) means literally “to set out boundaries in advance.” God staked out the boundaries for the group he would adopt. By his sovereign decree, all those in Christ – that is, in the name of Jesus Christ, in His Church – would be in the group. Whether a person is in God’s group, then, depends on what that person has done concerning the Gospel.
We see in 2nd Timothy, Paul makes the same suggestion: that we have a purpose in Christ that has existed before the world began.
(2Ti 1:9) Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
In Greek, the phrase translated as ‘before the world began’ is πρὸ χρόνων αἰωνίων, literally ‘before times eternal’. Time began after the Fall, so we had a purpose before then. What is the purpose that was given in Christ before time began?
To be holy and to share in the glory of God.
So, if we had a purpose before time began, what then afterwards?
(Rom 9:22-24) What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
This passage, of course, details the destruction that the Jews brought upon themselves. Peter tells us that God is longsuffering, is patient, in order that all may be saved. The Jews knew, by their prophets, (just as we do by John) that destruction was coming. They were fitted, like someone getting a tailored suit, for destruction, but God held off until the Church began, and even then it was not until 40 years after the Resurrection that the temple, and thus the Priesthood, was destroyed.
There is a purpose that God has for us once more. The problem is that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
The writer of Hebrews tells us that the goal of Christ in his sufferings was to bring in many sons unto glory (2.10). Paul in Romans 5:2 says that by faith we stand in the Grace of God, and rejoice in confident expectation that we will obtain the glory of God. In 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, he reminds us that no matter what we are going through, no matter the weights that afflict us, all these things are working together for the eternal weight of glory, because we are working not for the things seen, but for the things unseen, that is the heavenly things.
In 2nd Thessalonians 2:14, Paul tells the Church that we are called to obtain the glory of the Lord. In 2nd Timothy 2:10, in one of Paul’s final letters to his dear friend and son in the Lord, he writes that he is enduring all things that he may obtain the salvation in Christ that comes with eternal glory.
Our purpose during this life is to be saved, in order to obtain the Glory of the Lord.
What is ‘glory’?
Thayer’s defines it this way: a most glorious condition, most exalted state AND the glorious condition of blessedness into which is appointed and promised that true Christians shall enter after their Savior’s return from heaven.
It is an eternal state. It is not used in Scripture to speak about anything external or temporal. No privileges can be attained through this word. It does not bring prosperity or wealth untold. When the Apostles spoke about glory, they were not speaking about new cars, new homes, or happiness on earth. They were living in a world of persecution, where if they but uttered the name of Christ, they stood in violation of the Jews and the entire Roman Empire. They had the entire world against them, so their concerns were not material gain. They were speaking about being with God, as it was first before the fall. They had made Heaven their only priority, seeking first the Kingdom of God.
In Colossians 3:4, Paul says that when Christ comes again, we will appear with him in Glory. In the same letter, Paul tells us that Christ is our hope of glory. (Col 1.27).
We do not need daily affirmation to remind us that we are something special, or that we have a purpose. We but need to read the scriptures to find our true purpose. We hear a lot today from various so-called preachers who say that God’s purpose is external privileges, but nothing in Scripture proves that. We do have riches, but it is a glorious wealth that will see it’s fruition in eternal Glory one day, on that Day when Christ is manifested to the world.
Let me draw your attention to one final detail. Back in Genesis 2:9, we see that God put the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden. In Revelation 2:7, we are told that if we overcome, then we will eat of the Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God. Further in 22:2, we are told that in the middle of the city of God is the Tree of Life which will bring healing to the nations and in verse 14, we are told that those who keep his commandments we will partake of the Tree of Life. We see the grand scheme of the Bible at work, if we follow the evidence. In Genesis, humanity falls into a separation with God because of disobedience; in Revelation, those who are obedient are united with him forever. In Genesis, there is a tree of life set in the middle of the Garden; in Revelation, it is the city of God that holds the Tree of Life.
Adam fell from his purposed life in the Garden of Eden, and interrupted the set course for this world. God predestined the Church as a set of boundaries as the only way to unite God and man once more. The Tree of Life was there with Adam, and we will see it again.
Mar 05 2008
The Unworthy Glimpses of God
People incorrectly assume that when we die, if we do not achieve holiness or justification, then we will simply perish into non-existence. Allow me but a moment to dispel that a bit.
2Thess. 1.9:
The KJV says: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
The RSV says: They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,
Premise: The simple idea is that the Lord will judge those who received Him not and banish them, from his immediate presence.
Gill: As soon as the Lord appears, they will perish at his presence like wax before the fire; and so awful will be his appearance, they will flee from it with the utmost terror, and call to the rocks and mountains to hide them from the face of the Lord, and to screen them from his wrath:
Barnes: That is, a part of their punishment will consist in being banished from the immediate presence of the Lord. There is a sense in which God is everywhere present, and in that sense he will be in the world where the wicked will dwell, to punish them. But the phrase is also used to denote his more immediate presence; the place where are the symbols of his majesty and glory; the home of the holy and the blessed
Here we have the Apostle Paul telling the Church at Thessaloníki that those who fail to receive Christ and hold to His dear name will indeed still see God, and will catch a glimpse of Heaven, but on the cusp, as if standing on the sea shore, of the eternal home, they are ripped from it, to face eternal destruction. What can also be seen is that their is indeed a final and eternal separation between the righteous and those who are not.
See also:
Genesis 3:8 – example of standing in the presence of God, literally.
Matthew 7:22-23 – Speaking about that day, before God, claiming the name
Revelation 20:12 – The dead, the small and the great, standing before God.
