January 25 – LD 4, Day 4: God’s Holy Judgment
by Prof Herman Hanko
Read: Deuteronomy 6:1-10, Isaiah 6:1-5.
Many people find it
difficult to believe that the punishment of sin could be as severe as the Bible
says it is. And so, it is becoming increasingly common, even among
evangelicals, to deny the reality of hell. We cannot do that, if we want to be
faithful to Scripture.
Others,
and they too are to be found in the Reformed community, deny that the misery
that we endure in this life is the result of sin. A minister in the States, for
example said on TV that the HIV virus was God’s punishment for the sin of
homosexuality. He was nearly driven out of town and was forced publicly to
confess his “error.”
A classmate of mine
during our college days became professor of philosophy in
There are two reasons why
men do not like the doctrine of temporal and eternal punishment. The first
reason is that men do not want to admit how bad their sins really are. They are
trying to excuse themselves and charge God with injustice when he punishes them.
The second reason is that
men do not want as holy a God as He is. He is almost too holy for them. They
wish he were not quite as holy as he really is.
Scripture has a difficult
time of it to explain to us what holiness really is. This is not because God
cannot make his holiness clear, but because we are so thick-headed that it is
hard for us to understand spiritual things.
Probably the clearest
description of God’s holiness is in Isaiah 6:1-5, where it is said to be like
light that filled the temple, and made the angels cover their faces with their
wings and cry out: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty. The whole earth
is full of his glory.” And Isaiah, when he saw it, could only
say, Woe is me! For I am undone, and I dwell in the midst of a people of
unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”