Month: July 2025

1.  Did the Pastor go to Hell?

I watched a video recently, a very sobering video, of a pastor and his wife in hell.  He was an active pastor, who often spoke to others about the Holy Spirit, about God, and so on, but there may have been something hidden that only they and God knew, despite their flamboyant spirituality.  Then they moved to a different city, and their neighbours heard, after a silent while, that they had both died.  It was a shock, but those neighbours consoled themselves that they would, after all, meet that pastor and the wife in Heaven.  To their surprise, God said that the couple was in hell.  Very disturbed, one of the grieving neighbours asked God to show her that that was the case.  God granted her a very disturbing trip to hell.  They were there.  Sad.  Unfortunately, such woeful tales have not been few.

A preacher told a similar experience.  He attended the funeral of a great pastor, who was a prophet and an acclaimed holiness preacher.  Sadly, when he got to the elaborate funeral service, with many dignitaries there to honour the dead,

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An object can be so far that it is almost invisible, yet not seeing it from one’s standpoint does not mean that it is not there.  As you draw closer to it, it could become visible but indistinct; then clearer and clearer the closer it approaches, or the closer you approach to it.  That something can be seen or not seen may be a function of how close you are to it, rather than because the object is unseeable.  Visibility, then, may sometimes be a factor of proximity.

Hebrews 10:25 employs the metaphor of proximity to speak about a certain historic “day” that then was far; a day considered unseeable by many because it was distant.  The writer of Hebrews cautioned believers to be mindful how they lived, especially “as ye see the day approaching,” implying that the day is ‘seeable,’ although then far.

Prophet Joel spoke of a season that he called “afterward,” when God would pour His Spirit “upon all flesh” (Joel 2:28).  The word translated “afterward” in that verse is ‘achar, which is explained by Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary as

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33.   What God has Joined Together

In this chapter, we shall consider some compelling true-life stories, and questions to which we shall together seek answers.  The Pharisees approached Jesus, “tempting him” with the question of whether a husband could divorce the wife “for every cause.”  Jesus concluded His answer by saying to them, “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Genesis 1:27; 2:24; Matthew 19:3-6).

The expression, “What therefore God hath joined together,” indicates clearly that God joins together.  The word “what,” however, serves the function of exclusion, technically separating and excluding the “what” from the others.  In other words, the fact that God joins together does not mean that He is responsible for everything joined together.  “What God has joined together” suggests that there is also ‘what’ He did not or has not joined together.

There are three forces that may administer a joining together: God, Satan, and humans.  The command to not undo what God has done should apply only to “what” He joined together, not to “what” He did not join together.  There are many ‘joined’ situations where God was not involved.

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31.  God Hates Divorce

It is commonly said that “God hates divorce.”  Of course, divorce is not the ideal marital situation, and the angels in heaven do not celebrate because a divorce has occurred.  Does anyone expect God to say, “I love divorce”?  No.  All the same, a lack of the ideal does not limit the options of God.  The Great Potter still makes other “good” options out of marred clays (Jeremiah 18:4-6).

It grieved God “that he had made Saul king over Israel” (1 Samuel 15:35), but that did not foreclose David from being made king.  God greatly regretted “that he had made man on the earth” (Genesis 6:6), yet He made a way for His fallen creation.  Divorce is not God’s ideal, but that does not limit the options of God (Genesis 24:7-8; 1 Samuel 13:13-14; 16:1), especially when they are options provided by Him. God did not institute divorce, but God recognised it all the same (Jeremiah 3:1; Deuteronomy 24:1-4).

If we should say in absolute terms that “God hates divorce” (and interpret that to mean that He forbids it); if “God hates divorce” means that whoever divorces is damned for doing what God hates, yet Jesus provides a ground for someone not only to divorce but to remarry,

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