lake of fire

2/ The inexcusable

The  inexcusable will join the stone hearts in the lake of fire. I am not who calls them the inexcusable, but Jesus Himself.

One can hear a talk on the Bible and not necessarily hear the gospel. Having heard religious statements about Jesus is not having heard the gospel. A political or philosophical discourse does not introduce anybody into the presence of Jesus Christ, the Savior. At best it faces you with God's law whose purpose is to expose and condemn the guilty.

The true gospel does not condemn anybody but saves the guilty.

Do you know which name 2 Corinthians 3: 6 to 9 gives to the preaching of efforts to obey God's commands and the shame and danger of not doing so?

The ministry of condemnation and death. A very widespread preaching alas, which does not save or transform anyone but condemns and kills! God himself initiated this ministry at a time. The Bible tells us it was a glorious ministry, but it also says that it is now outdated, abolished.

2 Corinthians, 3:6 - He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant – not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory.

The preaching of the gospel, that of the new covenant, establishes a living relationship with Jesus Christ. The supernatural and ability to preach it comes only from above. It is a new ministry, a new way to deliver, the ministry of the Spirit. If the ministry of condemnation was glorious, this ministry of righteousness that gives life and not death is much higher in glory.

A heart that was not touched by the spiritual ministry has not seen the kingdom of God as only the Holy Spirit can make us see what is invisible and thist does happen when preaching is anointed and talks not about the Mount Sinai's stone letters and of all its requirements but about Jesus -Christ , the Savior of the world and His generously offered grace.

Only the Holy Spirit can open spiritual eyes and allow the listener to see and thus truly be able to make a choice of who (s)he wants to follow. All things have become new in Christ; even the way of preaching the Word of God has changed.

Anyone brought into contact with this living gospel enlightened by the Holy Spirit, having heard Jesus speak to his/her heart, so somehow having seen Him (God knows them), and having refused, becomes a no-excuse. A no-excuse for having rejected the Savior without cause for who could reject the Jesus the Holy Spirit reveals?

• A God who erases all faults and throws them into the sea, forgetting them for ever.
• A God who does not treat us according to our faults, who does not punish us according to our iniquities.

Psalms, 103:10 - he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

• A God who descended from heaven in the form of a man servant (Philippians 2:7) to be tortured and murdered by unrighteous men, in order to pay the high ransom of sin and redeem people who do not even care about Him.
• A God who, when invited, fills the heart with happiness, joyful hope and leads his sheep into green pastures, near peaceful and refreshing waters, promising an eternity of unimaginable beauty and fullness, without boredom or weariness.
• A God who, if we let him fully live in us, transforms us from the inside and fills us with strong desire and ability to live according to His standards.
• And living according to His standards is the opening door to continual flow of peace and joy by the Holy Spirit, a springing and constant stream of living water that quenches all heart thirsts and triggers down here, the answer of all prayers.

How many would refuse such a God when the Holy Spirit reveals Him in the heart?

Very few.

Some will, however, knowingly rejecting Him again and again. They are the no-excuse. We read in the Gospel of John:

John, 15:22 - If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.

John, 9:40 - Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, ‘What? Are we blind too?’
Jesus said, ‘If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

These men, religious doctors of the law, scribes, scholars of the Word of God were standing before the Son of God who was teaching them through the power of the Holy Spirit. They were hearing, they were doubly seeing, with the eyes of flesh and the eyes of mind, for the Holy Spirit was powerfully with Jesus to convince. So, they knew without a doubt who was in front of them. They were also seeing the works of the Father operated by the power of the Spirit. They knew, Jesus affirms it when he tells of them:

John, 15:23 - Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfil what is written in their Law: “They hated me without reason.”.

Despite this, they intentionally hated and rejected this Grace, preferring the glory of men or for some other deep and mysterious reason. It is the mystery of iniquity, the same hatred which animated the fallen cherub called Satan.

A no-excuse is such because he has really been introduced into the presence of Jesus and has truly seen him or heard him as these Pharisees.

Jesus is today in heaven sitting at the right of the Father so we can't see Him anymore with the eyes of flesh. In Jesus time, crowds were seeing the righteousness of God, a man in the flesh walking on the dusty roads of Galilea. But now?

That’s why, when still on earth, the Lord Jesus had announced He would send the Holy Spirit to convince the world about righteousness because He was returning to the Father and would no longer be seen physically:

John, 16:8 - When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;

It's done. Today, the Holy Spirit palliates the fact that we no longer see in the flesh, Jesus, the righteousness of God, the image of the invisible God, the imprint of His Person. The Holy Spirit does this work of making the person of Jesus seen without physical eyes. He speaks directly to the heart and opens the eyes of faith through anointed preaching. The anointed preaching, that is to say inspired by and filled with the Holy Spirit opens, sufficiently opens the eyes of the heart so that one can see or foresee the kingdom of God and above all its King.

Religious and unanointed preaching brings a legalistic and repulsive speech that only conveys information, threaten and bad news. It's like the manna. A delicious and nourishing food yesterday but an infected one today, filled with worms and unfit for consumption. The religious discourse does not open the heart eyes. That is why it has no qualifying value, to lose or save. Many should think twice before declaring themselves preachers of the gospel.

The old covenant easy preaching is out of date. Anyone knowing biblical principles can share one's knowledge. But this is not necessarily new covenant preaching inspired by the Almighty Spirit, a quite different sort of preaching that produces life or death. Death for the no-excuse who do see and reject. Life for those who do hear, believe and invite Christ as the shepherd of their hearts.

2 Corinthians, 2:15 - For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.

You don't really speak from God unless you've been called, sent and therefore equipped. Transmission of commands and directives without setting them in the context of Christ new life is an old covenant practice, a dead product of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Everything has changed after Jesus Christ. The Father sent the Holy Spirit to proclaim Jesus, to reveal Jesus, to convince through a preaching carried by chosen and anointed clay pots and to fulfill the law in the heart of the believer.

"I only believe what I see" may say some. Well, this conception is outdated! Sight or hearing are no longer the only ways to be convinced. The Holy Spirit convinces your heart directly and you even see more than if you saw with your flesh eyes for it is not a view in the proper sense but an intimate conviction that quietly settles in you and is called seeing with the heart eyes.

Without being able to intellectually explain it or emotionally feel it, in spite of a few uncertainties still floating at the surface of your thoughts, very deeply in yourself:

• you know that when Jesus Christ died, He erased your sins from the eyes of the Father and that His Precious Blood poured onto the Cross was considered sufficient by the Father to make you completely reconciled with God.

• You know that the resurrected Jesus is able to communicate his righteous life to you, which makes you appear righteous in the eyes of the Father and gives you the power to live that same quality of life that He lived. He comes to live it in you, with your agreement.

• You know that this quality of life will produce happy and constant happiness if it has not already begun

• You know that He is sitting on a throne in heaven from which he sent the Comforter to dwell in you, for eternity, communicating you the will and ability to be wholly pleasing to God.

This is the gospel of glory, a communication of life, a revelation produced by the Holy Spirit beyond rational reasoning. You know it without explaining it and this quiet certainty is unemotionally just as unshakable as Mount Everest.

Once you know it, then you have freedom to entrust or not, in full knowledge of the facts, the direction of your life to the Lord and give your heart to this God full of love who wants to take you in His arms and desires so much to live in and unite to your mind. That's what preachers call giving one's life to Jesus. It's simple to say yes when the Holy Spirit speaks to you.

Workers of iniquity

The responsible for the unbelief and rejection of many of the true God and His wonderful living Son are all those ignorant speakers announcing on the net, on some evangelical TV and elsewhere, a weak and repulsive copy of the gospel which is not gospel at all, made of laws, bonds, outdated traditions, heavy rituals, sales disguised as blessings or healings and guilt sermons and sometimes ridiculous. People associate God with this disgusting spill and of course reject it. Unknowing it, they do not reject the true God but this pathetic parody that they are presented to.

These self-proclaimed preachers and sometimes accredited by who knows who, do not fulfill the divine mission, they do not allow the Lord to add living members to His body, they do not give a chance to souls to make a real choice.

They make promises of healing with few effects, promises of wealth if you give them your dime or your offerings, they beat you by threatening you with hell or divine punishment. Some modern conquistadors even dare to use the second return of Jesus as a threaten to induce people to convert whereas it is the most wonderful and desirable event that can happen to our murdered planet.

Philippians, 3:2 - Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh.

All this is disgusting, and Paul rightly speaks of dogs, of evildoers who announce another gospel than that which was transmitted in the beginning. The Holy Spirit clearly tells us to watch out. Watch out, exercise your discernment.

Galatian, 1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

These people will be judged more severely and unless they change course, for them a place is prepared, a place that we don’t talk about much, a place that is neither Hades nor the lake of fire. It is only found in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus mentions several times ' outside, the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth'.

The darkness indicates that they will be far from the One who is light. Outside means that they will not be inside, in His presence, but outside the kingdom. The weeping talks about deep regrets and the grinding of teeth about intense frustration for having missed the goal, without possible rear machine. They were in first row for the wedding. They had a talent to grow, and they didn't do anything with it. They won't be part of the party and they'll weep and grind their teeth. They had been called to reign with Jesus. These sons of the Kingdom will be far from His light and presence, in the darkness of the outside. Called but not elected.

Matthew, 8:11 - I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Matthew, 22:11 - But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.
He asked, “How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?” The man was speechless.
Then the king told the attendants, “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Matthew, 25:26 - His master replied, “You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
“So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Do you realize that the people mentioned here are servants, sons of the Kingdom. Some had received talents, prophesied, made miracles, and even chased demons in the name of Jesus. They are not unbelievers, but servants!

Matthew, 7:22 - Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!"

Did they believe that exercising spiritual gifts was a proof they were endorsed by God? Had they not read Acts 3 and forgotten that a miracle or healing is not the fruit of any godliness or personal power but of faith in the power of the Name of Jesus.

Acts, 3:12 - When Peter saw this, he said to them: ‘Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?

Acts, 3:15 - By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.

Healings, miracles and even evicted demons are not proof of the faithfulness of a man towards Christ but proof of Christ's fidelity and mercy towards men whom He wants to heal and free. Power remains God's.

2 Peter, 2:15 - They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness.

Balaam was an authentic prophet of God. God was talking to him. (Numbers 22:9). He had received a talent but was seduced and prostituted it for money and human honors. He turned away from the right path and got lost. He did not, however, lose his gift as a prophet because God who does not repent of His gifts and appeal, did not withdraw what He had given. That can be misleading when such a man performs supernatural deeds in the name of God.

There are still such men, bad workmen.

Watch out those people who draped in so-called biblical knowledge and titles of prophets, preachers, doctors or even apostles, teach the biblical principles of seed, generosity and giving to open your portfolios. They twist and divert the Holy Word of God to their profit.

Their religiously disguise their appetite for money and honor. The Apostle Peter had prophesized on such people, saying that by greed, they would exploit you with deceptive words.

2 Peter, 2:3 And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

You recognize their endless calls for offering, their subtle condemning allusions if you don't give, their promises that you will receive from God a multiplied portion of what you have given them, the disguised threats of impoverishment if you hold the blessing. The Bible had announced these people who would deceive you.

Give to your local assembly according to what you have freely decided, without yielding to any ‘spiritual’ blackmail that never comes from God. Give God your dime or offerings with the joy that the Spirit inspires you.

2 Corinthians, 9:7 Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not regretfully or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

God will not deprive you of ANY blessing for reason of money and He will never give you more if you give Him more so that He gives you more. These are impure and insulting motives because His blessing is already acquired in Jesus Christ, without consideration. The Lord will never deprive you of anything because you have not given enough.

Romans, 8:32 - He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else?

May God open the eyes of these men on the poor and pathetic results, and even the damage that their human unanointed words produce and may they no longer deceive themselves by the few miracles and healings that may occur, which only prove the goodness of God.

They should stop opening their mouths to proclaim a so-called gospel that was not been able to free them from the vices and passions of the unregenerated nature: jealousy, desire to be recognized and famous, love of money, impulsivity, intemperance, fanaticism, legalism and search for the glory of men.

These modern scribes and Pharisees do not communicate the word of life, the word of righteousness. They might mention it but have never experienced it.

Matthew, 23:13 - But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in you stop them.

Without the anointing of the Spirit and the experience of the word of righteousness, speeches are fountains without water, clouds without rain, inefficient, flashy religious spill to impress the crowds, a replacing of the power of God by the noise of screaming and loud volume of sound systems.

In the end, it does not only make God's kingdom not go forward, but it displays our magnificent and full of love God as a religious manipulating, repelling, noisy, difficult, sad and powerless system. What a huge responsibility!

2 Peter, 2:17 - These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest darkness has been reserved. For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with debased desires of the flesh they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, for people are slaves to whatever masters them.

The darkness of the outside is reserved for those who will persist in these bad practices. Jesus is gentle and humble of heart but He took the whip with the temple merchants and did not chew his words towards the religious who veiled the true God to the languishing and slaughtered crowds without a shepherd.

John, 2:15 - Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, with the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.

The Word advises you to avoid these bad workers. Boycott their tweets, their channels, or their TVs. They preach not by the strength of the Holy Spirit but by means of psychological human manipulation.

2 Timothy, 3:5 - holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them!

They have the appearance of godliness, but the Holy Spirit of peace, sweetness, love and true liberating power is not with them. Like the wild virgins, they brandish the lamp of the Word without the oil of the Holy Spirit to make it shine and enlighten.

Psalms, 119:105 - Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Nourish, strengthen yourself with the living and encouraging message of the new covenant gospel, with the living grace of Jesus Christ. It is the only one than can truly strengthen in Christ and make us walk as He has walked with all the blessings that consequently flow and are numerous and real.

I invite you to listen on this blog the article 'the gospel explained' and do everything to get into this rest of the splendid gospel of Jesus Christ. Understand how much God is willing to dispense generously, abundantly His transforming grace provided by His living Son and only Him.

Let the Word transform the intelligence of your soul because it is with your soul that you live on earth and it is by your soul, fortified by the Spirit, that you will be able to transpose the living principles of Christ in your daily life with joy and in peace. Save your souls!

Jacques 1:21 - Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

Run away from the bad workers and feed yourself with the simple and powerful message of the Grace in Jesus Christ, the pure gospel that cannot be mixed with old covenant and legalistic principles.

Are you looking for faithful ministers of the gospel to listen on Internet? I recommend one I very recently discovered: Joseph Prince. (He doesn't know I'm talking about him. He preaches the true gospel, these same verses, the same doctrine, sometimes with the same expressions). We don't know each other but hearing him confirm all what is written on this blog strongly encouraged me and I guarantee that his inspired instructions will nourish you, will help you grow in Christ and trigger abundant blessings in your life. Search and listen the message of grace!

2 Timothy 2:1 - You then, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus,

As for the other venerable preachers we have mentioned above, if they read or hear these lines, they will recognize themselves. The Lord of grace keeps calling you: It is not too late to come back to common sense and stop leading His thirsty sheep into the sterile lanes of your misdirection.

It is not too late to let the true gospel transform you too, and free you. You will then be able to grow the talent that Jesus has entrusted to you by announcing a powerful gospel and see Him confirm His Word, for He always confirms His Word, not the human one. And you will not face a permanently closed door on that day.

You are destined to bear a fruit that remains and to be glorified in Him.

The fruit of a man of God are the Christians whom He will have strengthened, trained by means of sound instructions, facilitating their communion with Jesus Christ who frees from the power of the unregenerated nature, who transforms from glory to glory, who makes able to be fully pleasing to the Lord, serving Him with joy, in rest, loving him with whole heart, strength and thought. This fruit is worth more than billions!

On that day, you will hear the Lord say to you: Well done, good and trustworthy servant; you have been trustworthy in a few things; I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.

Ephesians 4:11 - He himself granted that some are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

To be followed : the blasphemers of the Holy Spirit

3/ The blasphemers against the Holy Spirit

What is exactly a blasphemer against the Holy Spirit? We’d rather know it as sin against the Holy Spirit is the only one that will never be forgiven.

Matthew, 12 :32 - Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

Marc, 3:28 - Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin..

This third category is close to that of the inexcusable, but one level up. This is not about those who, out of ignorance, say or have sometimes said anything, very irreverently, about the Holy Spirit. The Lord always forgives those who do not know what they are doing.

The people being referred to here have acknowledged Jesus, and most likely, they have been touched by the grace of God and received the Holy Spirit. And mysteriously, mystery of lawlessness, they have deliberately turned away and are actively and deliberately fighting against the Lord and His Church, and they blaspheme against the Holy Spirit.

2 Thessalonians 2 :7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.

How could he, who was the highest cherubim next to God, bathing in the presence and light of the Creator, imagine becoming equal to God? How could he rebel against the Lord who had bestowed upon him all the honors and come to blaspheme against Him? It is the mystery of lawlessness. Men will follow him on this path, contaminated by this darkness. The blasphemers of the Holy Spirit do not merely despise Jesus and His Church, which is His body (we are talking about the Church in its broad sense, containing all those who belong to Christ); they are knowingly fighting against it and accusing it of being driven by an unclean or demonic spirit.

Mark, 3:22 - And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.

Mark 3:28 - Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin. He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure spirit.

Apostle Paul condemned Christians to death, but he belonged to the category of 'thinking they know' but not knowing anything about the ways of God. By doing these things, he was convinced that he was doing what was right, as Jesus had predicted:

Jean, 16 :2 - They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.

He did not know, he had never known Jesus, and he received forgiveness, then became the author of more than half of the New Testament that we read today. Here is what he said in the first letter to Timothy:

1 Timothy, 1:12 - I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.;

Blasphemers against the Holy Spirit know what they are doing. Blasphemers of the Holy Spirit, in our time, are not commonplace and will not be numerous in the lake of fire either.

I say in our time, because in the future there will come a very sad era where they will abound. This will be addressed shortly under the chapter: sinning willfully.

Je dis en notre temps car dans le futur viendra une époque très triste où ils abonderont. Cela sera abordé dans un instant sous le chapitre : pécher volontairement.

Misunderstood texts that scare people.

Some texts in the Word, taken out of context, can be interpreted, misinterpreted, and damage our faith. Especially if you have gotten into the habit of opening your Bible at random, hoping to receive a Word from the Lord. Be sure to read the context before and after the verse.

1/ Sinning deliberately

Hebrews, 10:26 - For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

This text obviously does not address weak Christians who cannot attain the victory of perfect salvation in Jesus, but it addresses the category that has just been described: the inexcusable and/or those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. To sin deliberately here means to sin with the intention of defying the Lord. There is no relation to the falls of spiritual childhood, the spiritual weakness of children in Christ.

An adult or a father in Christ is someone in whom Christ is formed and who externally manifests the mature life and virtues of Him who is the source of all his attitudes, behaviors, and words. A child in Christ is under construction. Some traits of the life of Christ in him begin to show through, but there are still many old habits from his former life, on which the Holy Spirit is working.

The inner circumcision of Christ that the Holy Spirit performs consists of the stripping away of the flesh, that is, the abandonment of the old reflexes of the old nature.

1 Corinthians, 3:1 - But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

Somehow, it is always deliberately that we sin, but in the context of Hebrews 10:26, the author is rather talking about a will to harm God than the will to enjoy the sin that has victoriously seduced us, the desires of the child of God who does not yet know how to live in Jesus Christ and put to death by the Spirit the evil desires of his old nature.

These people use their will to sin (which is usually not really necessary as it is so natural), to sin intentionally even though they have received the knowledge of the truth, the verse says. Knowledge of the truth in the Bible is never an intellectual knowledge of doctrine. One can only have this precise and correct knowledge of the truth (Greek term = epignosis) by being united, in spiritual communion and with the whole being with the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Truth is a person. He comes to dwell in us, merging with us in some way. We are grafted into Him and His thoughts, His desires become ours and make us act accordingly. We then speak of an active and experiential knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ. This knowledge then becomes an epignosis (precise and correct knowledge of moral and divine things), the same as we find in the passage of the second letter of Peter, which explicitly speaks of active knowledge through practice, implementation, and outward manifestation in actions of our hidden inner life in Christ; to know through action.

2 Peter, 1:8 - For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Anyone who has this knowledge and sins willfully (one wonders how it can even be possible, but it is because of this mystery of iniquity) clearly has the intention to harm the Lord. He does not do it out of weakness or ignorance but knowingly and is animated by the same spirit as that of the ancient serpent.

We see prophetically this arrogant and blasphemous spirit expressed through a character called the beast, seducing men and which will express itself so openly in a future announced in the book of Revelation.

Revelation, 13:6 - It (the beast) opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also, it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

This text is very sad because we see a relatively large number of inhabitants of the earth who have chosen the side of the blasphemer and who will clearly be among the goats, the hearts of stone mentioned in the first chapter of this article.

Matthew, 24 :11 - And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

The power of iniquity working in concert with the prince of the power of the air will invade the spiritual atmosphere of the earth and cover its inhabitants with a dark and oppressive veil, obscuring their understanding and emotions. Charity will cool in an unimaginable way.

Ephesians, 2 :1 - And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

Even the most apocalyptic futuristic films cannot convey the extent of the unprecedented selfishness and wickedness that will then reign on the planet. The power of iniquity will influence the minds of the majority, and cool love and charity in the hearts of men, for the beast will have authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation. Its authority will not only be political, economic, and social but also, and above all, spiritual. Hearts of stone and blasphemers will abound. It is a period of nightmare darkness, and men will worship the beast and its blasphemies against the name of God, His tabernacle, and His saints.

This will happen in future times that will bear no resemblance to anything the earth has ever experienced since its creation, in times very close to the end. The ratio of goats will significantly rise in these dark times.

2/ Fall away after having been enlightened

Hebrews, 6:4 - For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

This second text concerns the inexcusable and/or blasphemers and applies only to them. It is necessary to mention this because, misunderstood, this text can discourage an unestablished or poorly taught child of God and lead them to temporarily abandon their faith and waste a lot of time. Some who have read it have imagined that they have lost what they call their salvation.

This is not about inconsistent children of God who fall accidentally, even frequently. The word "fall away" is inappropriate for them. They sin because they do not yet know how to remain in the rest in Christ by the Holy Spirit, which keeps the power of sin, lurking in each of us and ready to manifest at the slightest relaxation of faith, powerless.

Romans, 6:14 - For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

The original Greek word "parapipto" translated into English as "fall away" actually means to deviate from the right path, to turn away, to wander. The translation into English using the verb "fall away" is inaccurate and distorts the correct understanding of the thought. We are not talking here about accidental falls, but about a deliberate practice of deviation after having truly experienced fullness.

We are talking about people who have been enlightened; they have known Christ; they have tasted the heavenly gift, the gift and not a religion; they have shared in the Holy Spirit, they have tasted the powers of the age to come, (the powers!). At this point, it is difficult to deviate unless one is seduced and seduced for a long time as this does not happen in one day. They have deviated from the right path despite all they have known and persisted in their apostasy despite all the attempts of the Good Shepherd to bring them back into the safe and straight path.

May God save us from reaching this ultimate stage of conscious rebellion where repentance becomes impossible!

For all sins, except conscious and deliberate blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, grace abounds. It is vital to remain in the abundant grace of Christ and to have no illusions about ourselves. Our strength and security are in Christ who lives in us and in the Holy Spirit who alone gives victory over sin and protects us from this rebellion. We must feed and strengthen ourselves on this gospel every day. (Read or listen to the gospel explained).

Galatians, 5:17 - For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

1 John, 1:8-9 - If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus protects us from the sin that so easily entangles us. Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus is what the gospel of grace teaches us to do, and it also gives us instructions on how to do it (or rather, how to let it be done to us!)

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,

3/ The lake of fire and sulfur for unbelievers, the abominable, and liars

Revelation, 21 :8 - But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

This verse is often quoted as is.

Taken alone, it is true that it could support the thesis of damnation for all sinners who do not know Jesus.

Nevertheless, those who think this overlook the word 'but' that introduces it. 'But, for the cowardly...' This 'but' means that this verse cannot be separated from the preceding one. This 'but' marks an opposition with what has just been said, it means: on the other hand, nevertheless, in contrast. And this 'but' prohibits the interpretation of damnation for sinners who do not know Jesus. Let's read again the entire text starting from verse 7.

Revelation, 21:7 - The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

Two sentences separated by a period but forming a single block. And to whom is God addressing here? The pagans or the sons?

He is addressing the sons in both cases. Those who have overcome and those who have not overcome. In both cases, these verses concern the sons of the kingdom. Only the sons have received the ability to overcome and the supreme goal of overcoming is given only to them. How could an unbeliever overcome? By what power? In both cases, whether victorious or not victorious, it is about people who have known the gospel of Christ, called to overcome.

We see this in another verse in Ephesians that addresses the church of the Ephesians, therefore to correctly taught Christians, not to unbelievers.

Ephesians 5:1 - Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.  And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Why did the apostle Paul tell the Christians not to even mention impurity or immorality? There are therefore sons who need to be given this kind of advice. Some will have overcome the power of sin in their lives, they will have reigned in earthly life by the power of the Grace that resides in Jesus Christ, and they will inherit a place in the new Jerusalem, the tabernacle of God with men.

However, it is essential that they have been taught about Grace and its liberating power!!! That was the case of those to whom this letter was addressed. The Ephesians had been taught by Paul.

Romans 6:14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Those who are preached the traditional religious message of the old covenant have no chance of being among the victorious ones! None! They are not concerned with the introductory verse of this chapter.

1 Corinthians, 3:15 - If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

At best, they will be saved as if through fire, but it is better to turn to the magnificent and effective message of the gospel. Only it produces the conquerors!

The others, although properly taught and perfectly instructed on how to live in Christ and root themselves in Him, these others introduced by this "but" will not have conquered and will have continued to practice the works and attitudes of the unregenerate nature, of cowards, abominable, murderers, impure ... etc.

Note that the epistle of John gives a broader meaning to the word "murderer":

1 John, 3:15 - Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

It is possible to have known Jesus and accidentally fall into (until the Lord enlightens us) impurity, uncleanness, and passions, otherwise why would we be invited to put them to death by the power of Jesus' grace and His Spirit within us (and not by our futile efforts!).

Colossians, 3:5 - Put to death therefore what is earthly in you:[b] sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

The cowardly, abominable, etc. do not refer to ignorant, carnal, or poorly taught Christians who have only heard the preaching of the old covenant or worse, that nauseating mix of old and new covenant, grace and law (which are radically opposed) that frees no one and makes no victors. They are even less the unbelievers who will be judged according to their works and either be goats or sheep.

If you are not a victor or on the path to victory, it is because you are not receiving the right food, for the Gospel is the power of God for salvation (effective liberation from the power of sin, healing of the soul, and fullness of life in Christ).

And for those who have gone down a bad path and think they might be among those mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, the cowardly, the abominable, the murderers, the liars, I have good news for you:

Matthew, 18 :12 - What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?

One does not become hardened overnight! Jesus will seek you out without giving up; He will find you. The mere fact that you have read and gone on reading what you just read is proof that His plan of deliverance has already begun for you.

Change your spiritual food. Stop struggling. Flesh cannot conquer flesh. Let Jesus in you fight for you, and start feeding on nourishment that will strengthen your faith and your inner being, the only one capable of defeating the old self that persecutes you and keeps you lying down with your head in the dust and shame.

Feed on grace by listening to instructions on how to live in the Grace of God every day, and let the Lord set you free, transform you, and raise you up from the dung to sit with the greats (of His kingdom).

Hebrews, 3:13 - But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.  

Salvation in Jesus Christ is a wonder. The Lord commits Himself in the new covenant to produce a willingness and a doing in accordance with His will, if only we allow Him and humbly give Him the opportunity. The true transformative gospel is easy and accessible to all. This is why those who, knowingly and willingly, neglect this great, this very great salvation become the without excuse.

Hebrews, 2:2 - For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

"No ignorant pagan of the Gospel will go into the eternal fire but will be judged according to his deeds and declared a goat or a sheep.

Similarly, Christians ignorant of the true grace of God are not affected by this word, and there are many among those online speakers or TV channels we talked about earlier.

Many are just foolishly blinded by their thirst to be glorified by men or by their more or less unspoken desire to become rich. They are completely ignorant of the true Gospel and very unaware of the sacredness and gravity of the things they are playing with.

Reading this article, for those who may read it, will hopefully shake their conscience, and awaken them. It is never too late to turn back from a wrong path one has taken.

Grace abounds for whoever turns to grace in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul was a murderer by ignorance and unbelief, and the Lord made him the most remarkable person in the New Testament. Turn around, abandon your wicked and remunerative practices.

Learn the true Gospel and let the power and love of God make you victorious, so that you may enter the new Jerusalem and already, here on earth, bear much fruit that remains for the glory of God. (The Gospel explained)

The whole world, ignorant of the Gospel, does not go to hell, as you have understood. We must abandon this wicked and false viewpoint. It is not biblical. Let it encourage us to proclaim this magnificent Gospel even more through the testimony of our transformed lives and our words.

This teaching contrasts with all the religious clichés that are floating around in many people's minds, simply because we are content with principles that are in our heads, without even knowing how they got there. And we repeat what we had vaguely understood or heard in a sermon or in the collective unconscious.

I invite you to reread this article because I understand that it can be a real shock. This study was for me. It goes against received ideas and the traditional current.

Studies have surely been conducted on the subject, and if they were in line with this, they apparently did not reach the ears of many preachers as they continue to propagate these vague and simplistic concepts of damnation without ever placing them within the new context of Grace and the new covenant in Jesus Christ.

The most concerning thing is that these binary and unfounded concepts prevent the world from approaching a wonderful God, extraordinary in love and wisdom. A God, the only God, who lives and acts, whose eternal plan of justification, implemented by his Son and through the action of the Holy Spirit, has succeeded so that many, the vast majority, will spend eternity in bliss, either as kings, happy residents of the New Jerusalem, or as simple citizens of the new earth and new heavens that God will create in due time.

Revelation, 21:1 - Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.