Ears to Hear

 Every now and again – although it seems to be occurring more often than it used to be – I hear or read about some Catholic bishop or priest, or some Protestant pastor opining that hell – if it exists – is not full of souls of those who rejected Christ and His commandments in this life. They reason – quite irrationally and impiously and deceptively – that a loving God would never send anyone to an eternal and fiery hell.

 

Anyway, I’m reading now through Matthew’s gospel and can’t help but notice how often Jesus speaks of hell. For example, Matthew 10:28, “ Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

 

Either Jesus was mistaken – or those who scoff at the idea of eternal death in the lake of fire are mistaken.

 

This morning I read through the 13^th chapter of Matthew’s gospel. It’s the one with all the parables. When His disciples asked why He speaks to the crowds of laity and clergy alike in parables, He first says this:

 

¹³ Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. ¹⁴ In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; 15 For the heart of this people has become dull, with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes, otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them.’

 

Verse 15 stopped me again. Notice what He said: People who FIRST close their eyes and stop up their ears get everything in hard-to-grasp parables – hard to grasp because they have already decided what they will believe and what they will reject.

 

But – but – but what about the clergy? You know, the ones whose seminary training is supposed to equip them to accurately teach God's truth in all its undiluted fullness?

 

Well, the Lord answers that question several verses further along in this 13^th chapter:

 

³⁶ Then He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.” ³⁷ And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, ³⁸ and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; ³⁹ and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. ⁴⁰ So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, ⁴² and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

 

I hope you did not miss that grim warning by our Lord. Those who dilute God's truth, who soften it, who make it more agreeable to modern sensibilities  – Jesus calls them ‘sons of the evil one.”

 

Please read verses 37-42 again. Jesus always said what He meant, and He meant what He said.

 

So, why do some Catholic bishops and priests and Protestant pastors preach a diluted message of ‘feel good’ error? Why have they made themselves children of the devil? Only they themselves (and God) know.

 

But – and this is the point of my words: If you sit under such a priest or pastor, I URGE: You must – you MUST – leave that particular local church today and find a pastor or a priest who believes and teaches the word of God in its entirety.

 

Otherwise, you WILL eventually be seduced into believing what is false.  Please, do not be ignorant of Satan‘s tactics.