Two-step processes

Deut. 16:16 says, “Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:”

Jordan explains, “When you go before the Lord those three times wherever you live, wherever a Jew was, wherever he lived, in all the land mass of Israel or if he lived in a foreign country, three times a year he was to go to Jerusalem. One of the things they had to go there for was to keep their loyalty toward the place where God put His name. That’s the way they were to finance that holy day.

“When you say ‘holiday,’ what you’ve done is taken the word holy day and made one word out of it. So what they did three times a year was—Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. They financed a trip; a festival or a holiday to Jerusalem with that second tithe.

“Think about if I told you that you had to tithe TWO tithes. Give God one and you got to keep the other to go on vacation--you probably wouldn’t mind tithing so much, would you? They took a vacation with an eternal purpose. They went to Jerusalem and worshipped, and if they couldn’t take it with them because it was too far, they could turn it into money.

"When they go to Jerusalem, that’s what the money changers were there for (that Jesus ran out of the temple). People come in there with the money, then they were buying the sacrifice animals and so forth when they got there.

*****

“The Lord Jesus Christ talked about hell a lot, but Paul never uses the term hell. And people say, 'Paul never used the term hell; he must not have believed in it.' And I think, 'Well what do you think verse 9 is talking about?!'

“If you want to argue and say, ‘Well, that is that ultimate end out there—the lake of fire—then that’s not technically a reference to hell,’ but death and hell are cast into the lake of fire. Hell is the place where the souls of lost people are held in prison as it were, until the Great White Throne Judgment.

“And I’ve tried to use the illustration to you already about lost people. The prognosis is ‘he that believes not is condemned already’ (John 3:18). You don’t need to stand before God to find out whether you’re lost or not.

“Hell is like the jail in which the condemned are held; you’re already guilty but you haven’t been sentenced yet. The Great White Throne Judgment
is the sentencing and after it death and hell are going to be cast into the lake of fire. That’s the Big House! So when we talk about hell, technically you’re talking about that confinement place up until the great white throne judgment. And then after that it’s the lake of fire. That’s that ultimate end.

“What Paul does talk about is everlasting destruction. He talks about the wrath of God. Ephesians 2:3.

“Ephesians 5:6. So why does the wrath of God fall on lost people? He says because of these sinful activities that people participate in they earn the wrath of God. Well, he didn’t say hell, but hell’s just the place where the wrath of God is executed.

“The idea that Paul didn’t believe in eternal judgment simply because he didn’t use the term that describes a temporary place where that wrath and judgment is executed doesn’t mean he doesn’t believe in eternal judgment.

“Romans 2:3. That’s what you get when you deal with God based on your own works. Now where does that take place? When Jesus Christ comes back ‘in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God’ and destroys them with everlasting destruction that separates them eternally from God.

“Romans 5:9. That’s a comforting verse when you think about the everlasting destruction that the wages of sin brings about.

“People say, ‘Well, when he talks there about everlasting destruction, that word ‘everlasting’ doesn’t mean that it lasts forever. You say, ‘Well, where do you get that?’

“The way people do that is they go to the Greek word ‘eon’ and the Greek term is ‘eon of the eons and age of the age.’ And the ages of the ages. And then they say, ‘See, when he describes eternity as the age of the ages, well, sooner or later, the ages are going to come to an end.’

“No matter how many there are, it’s a finite idea and they use the Greek terms like that, and what happens when people start doing that is what you find out is people don’t know enough about the Greek language to tell you what the Greek words mean, and you don’t know enough about it to find out about it either, so you wind up everybody being confused and led into error.

“Now when he says they’re going to be punished with everlasting destruction, come with me one verse that will settle the thing. Luke 1:33.

“Talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, the angel’s appeared to Mary and told her she’s going to be the mother of the humanity of Christ and he says to her in verse 32.

“What does forever mean? It means no end. Well in the verse eons of eons means ‘no end!’ Eph. 3:21. How long do all ages last? World without end. When he said all ages, he’s not talking about all of them until they end. He’s talking about the fact they’re not going to end. It’s going to be world without end.

“If you come back to Isaiah 45 it’s a concept that comes out of the Hebrew bible. Isaiah 45:17. So how long is everlasting? It’s without end. Isaiah 23, just in case you have a problem with that word ‘world,’ there’s more than one way that term world can be used.

“We can talk about the world and sometimes be talking about the earth, but most of the time we’re not. We’re talking about the activity of life on the earth during a period of time, which would be an age.

“You talk about the world of sports. Is there a planet called sports? No, you know that. The world of politics, economics, we’re talking about the cosmos, the system of sports. The system of economics.

“Isaiah 23:17. There the term world is obviously not a reference to the planet. It’s a reference to something taking place on the planet. The planet is the face of the earth. So when you see the word ‘world’ in your Bible, don’t just immediately assume it’s talking about the planet. It can be also be talking about the world on the face of the planet. In other words, the organization of the kingdoms of the world; the organized affairs of the governmental systems that are on the earth.

“So when he talks about world without end, being without end is ‘it doesn’t ever stop.’ There will always be the organized universe and it’s going to last forever. And the ‘without end’ the ‘eon of the eon,’ the forever means it never stops. It means it’s going to go on forever; it’s going to be an everlasting salvation.

“Another way people try to take eternal and say that it’s not forever is to say that when you die ‘the everlasting destruction’ is that they don’t exist anymore.

“In Matthew 25:41, Jesus is talking about people who are judged out of the tribulation. How long does that fire last? Forever because it’s everlasting! It’s not going to be annihilation. Verse 46: annihilation means the punishment is over. It’s gone because you’re gone.

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“With the skins God covered Adam and Eve with the clothing. There’s a two-step process. One, God went and sacrificed the animal. Then He came to Adam and Eve and said, ‘Here’s the clothing.’ Adam and Eve had to willingly accept the clothing and put it on. God provided it.

“Until He skinned it and brought it, there was no provision for Adam to have his nakedness covered. But had Adam not accepted the clothing, he’d have still stood naked with the clothing at his feet.

"It would have been like he told Cain, ‘Sin lies at the door. The answer’s right there but you got to put it on.’ So there’s really a two-step process there in the first example of redemption. There’s the shedding of blood. God did that but then they had to accept the covering and put it on.”