Isaiah (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.  By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked:  Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear” (Isaiah 45, NIV).

This is strong language.  What fanfare!  But why?  Why is it so important that God has uttered in all integrity the not-to-be-revoked “Before me every knee will bow”?  A number of Bible translations render the last part of this passage “every tongue will swear allegiance.”  Allegiance?  Yes, to God.  Remember Philippians 2:11 (“every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”).  Again, why the fanfare?  Is it because all people will ultimately be saved, that this is what it means for every knee to bow, etc.?

Isaiah (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.  By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked:  Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear” (Isaiah 45, NIV).

This is strong language.  What fanfare!  But why?  Why is it so important that God has uttered in all integrity the not-to-be-revoked “Before me every knee will bow”?  A number of Bible translations render the last part of this passage “every tongue will swear allegiance.”  Allegiance?  Yes, to God.  Remember Philippians 2:11 (“every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”).  Again, why the fanfare?  Is it because all people will ultimately be saved, that this is what it means for every knee to bow, etc.?

Christian women, like other women, chat about past gatherings with relatives, as on holidays.  Obviously they mention mothers and fathers and grandparents and others who have passed on, liking the stories they tell about them, getting a laugh because of them.  But some, or many, of these relatives were not Christians; they never converted.  They died in their sins.  Thus the church would have to regard them as being damned in Hell.  Yet I inexorably sense that these women (men too) secretly believe that their relatives died in grace, that somehow God went ahead and saved them.  Perhaps they wouldn’t converse about them if they didn’t.  It’s like this:  They had a grandpa who never lived a Christian life—never—but it’s okay.  God didn’t allow him to go to Hell.  He will be judged, yes, but not damned.  Why should they believe such a thing?

They do, however, or they behave as though they do.  Are they secretly noticing an outrageousness in the damnation doctrine?  Do they suspect (I more than suspect) that the traditional church is wrong?

English: Folio 18 recto, beginning of the Epistle to Thessalonians, decorated headpiece (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So:  the anti-Christian persecutors of Second Thessalonians 1 will receive “everlasting destruction.”  The teaching has long existed that a more proper translation is “destruction of the age,” or maybe “age-during destruction.”  That is, a destruction belonging to an age.  The Koine Greek word for everlasting, aionious, does not mean everlasting.  It refers to a period of time.  “Everlasting punishment” in Matthew 25 is punishment of the age.

Where does this leave Hell?

1. 

   Movie poster of The Ten Commandments. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

   The acting in Cecil DeMille‘s The Ten Commandments is not always good, so it’s a wonder the thespians manage to exude as much true spirituality as they do.  Not that it is never artificial—of course it is—but the artificiality of the entire picture fails to upend the spiritual feeling DeMille was after.

2. Since the ancient Egyptians worshipped many gods, cats included, surely it is unsurprising to find an Egyptian woman, Anne Baxter‘s Nefretiri, worshipping a handsome non-god, Moses (Charleton Heston).  Baxter is beautiful, her acting nicely precise in its dreaminess.  Debra Paget and Yvonne De Carlo are beautiful too, but do not have much impact here.
3. It was inspired of the screenwriters to have Joshua (John Derek) paint lamb’s blood on the doorposts and lintel of the house where Lilia (Paget) is being kept by middle-aged Dathan (that pig!)  It means firstborn Lilia doesn’t have to die.  Ah, Moses, however, tells the stricken Nefretiri—nothing really goes right for her—that he is unable to save the life of her small son, and yet this is not true.  He simply needs to urge her to arrange the painting of lamb’s blood on her doorposts and lintel.
   

   Cropped screenshot of Anne Baxter with Yul Brynner from the trailer for the film The Ten Commandments. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)