P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

COULD JESUS HAVE SKIPPED CALVARY? #5

THE PARALLEL KINGDOM OF THE ARYAN CIRCLE

We've used as our launching pad for the week this tragic hate crime from Texas, where a neo-Nazi-type murderer was recently sentenced to death. So that's a natural illustration: "The wages of sin is death." Romans 6:23.

What happened in Texas — and what is continuing to happen around the world in this arena of hate crimes — is a kind of kingdom. Just as we were getting ready to record, there were two more tragic, ugly incidents here in the United States. A man tortured and burned on a pile of tires because of the color of his skin. Another man killed because he was gay. And there are many people who see this agenda, this pogrom of hate, as the kingdom they want to live in! I understand there are multiplied hundreds of web sites, well-maintained ones, where the Aryan Brotherhood and the Aryan Circle and such organizations recruit new members. TIME Magazine described these groups as the new Haterati — as opposed to glitterati — on the Internet. One writer, commenting on the horrors of Jasper, wrote: "In the South, the past isn't dead; it's not even past." And this kingdom of white supremacy, of the Hitler salute, actually appears to these devotees to be GOOD! They're convinced of the rightness of their cause. John William King had tattoos all over his body: Nazi SS lightning bolts, Ku Klux Klan emblems, an evil portrait of a black man lynched and hanging from a tree. And to him this is GOOD! This is the way they wish their universe could be.

Well, what does this have to do with how God has chosen to deal with the blot of SIN in His universe? If a person chooses to break God's laws, why does he have to DIE for it? Or why would Jesus have to DIE in our place? Did God, at some point early in the formation of His kingdom, sit down and think about all His rules? "What should be the punishment for stealing? I know — death. And how about lying? I know — death for that one too."

Pastor Morris Venden paints for us an imaginary scenario where, way back in the early moments of time, this holy angel being named Lucifer sins. He clears his throat and proposes a new kingdom, a parallel government where he's in charge. And at that first instant of rebellion, God simply points a finger at him and — bam! — he's dead. Executed for sinning. Many's the time I've wished God had done exactly that: obliterate sin and that first sinner in one quick, fiery moment. Spare us the ordeal of war and genocide and adultery and rape and the agony of Jasper, Texas. If the wages of sin are death, then for heaven's sake — literally for heaven's sake — kill Lucifer! Right now! But there's more to the story, as Venden spins the tale for us.

Because the next day other angels come around to the throne room of God. "Uh, where's Lucifer?" "He's gone." "Where'd he go?" "I killed him." "‘Killed'? What does that mean?" "I caused him to die because he sinned." "‘Sinned'? What's that? We've never heard of it." And God tries to explain, but they just don't understand. Finally He says to them, "Don't you trust Me?" And they answer: "Well, we DID . . . until now!" Friend, that right there is the great dilemma of God's universe and the intrusion of this mysterious thing called sin. Just as the Aryan Nation web site looks good to some followers, and they can't see the deadliness of its agenda, this new, forbidden fruit called sin was an unknown thing as well.

And so God had to wrestle with the fact that created beings would not, and could not, immediately grasp that sin — IN AND OF ITSELF — is a deadly thing. Sin ITSELF kills! First of all, it always escalates and grows; small sins lead to large ones. Cheating leads to stealing, and that leads to murder. Lust leads to adultery and often to murder as well. What's more, sin — any sin and all sins — lead a person directly to separation from God. Sin IS separation from God. And how can a person be separate from God and keep on living? God is the only source of Life!

Like I say, this was the dilemma. God could have instantly killed Satan — and rightly so. But done in that time and in that way, would the universe have understood? Would they have "(quote) taken God's word" for the fact that sin was its own curse, that it was a deadly infection even without PUNISHMENT being attached to it by God? Listen, friend, 6000 years later we STILL don't understand the deadliness of sin! That's why these web sites still flourish, and that's why you and I still have our own dark Internet secrets, our succumbing to the enemy. And if God had moved to destroy the sin and the sinner instantly, He would still have been in charge of the universe. But it would have FOREVER been a universe ruled by fear. "Obey God or He'll kill you" would have been the news that flashed throughout the kingdom.

In Dr. George Knight's marvelous book, My Gripe With God, he comments about this conundrum faced by heaven.

"While the universe would live in fear if God acted too quickly, delay would be interpreted as weakness on His part. Caught on the horns of an impossible dilemma, God chose to face the sin problem on the basis of SUFFICIENT TIME."

Theologian H. E. Guillebaud adds this corollary thought:
"The fact that God has not yet destroyed Satan shows that He has very good reasons up till now for not doing so. He hates evil infinitely more than we can . . . but He is infinitely wiser than we are, and He knows what is best."

Knight then adds these six very important words about the alien kingdom, the Haterati government proposed by Lucifer and watched now for 6000 years by a very interested universe: "HIS OWN WORK MUST CONDEMN HIM."

But now, what does this have to do with the Cross of Calvary? Because this precious thing, this jewel, called the human race fell into the trap of sin. We were deceived: Eve, then Adam, then all the rest of us. We logged onto Lucifer's Web site, not realizing how deadly it is. But it IS deadly! We are sinners, and whether you think of death as a PUNISHMENT for sin, or simply the reality of it being an alien, lost, separate kingdom that must eventually extinct itself . . . DEAD IS DEAD. And it broke the heart of the Father to think that this entire race could be lost because sin leads to death. That sin, if it ran indefinitely, would be a slow suicide, a million Jasper, Texas tragedies piled on each other.

So the same loving God who told the truth when He said that sin kills moved to provide, WITH HIS OWN SON, a timely solution. And in 33 short years here on Planet Earth, Jesus Christ demonstrated conclusively two things. One, that sin is deadly. In that thankfully abbreviated period of time, all of the hatred of Lucifer, all of his evil passion, the full scope of his deadly intentions, were poured into an attack on Jesus. Jesus was the object of Satan's fullest fury. And after 33 years, Jesus was dead. In a very real sense, sin — the totality of sin — killed him.

Now, do we want to think of this as a substitution? Friend, that's fine. As sinners, we should have all died. Sin and death are inseparable cousins. But Jesus, on the Cross, bore that death, that inevitable result, for us. If you want to think of death as a PRICE or as a PUNISHMENT . . . well, fine. Jesus paid it.

Perhaps you appreciate the "ransom" model. Now, we would never say that God paid the devil; heaven doesn't do business with Lucifer. But it's certainly true that we were hostages; we were held captive by the power of this enemy thing called sin. And Jesus paid the ransom price — never MIND to who — and set us free.

Do you relate well to the courtroom model, where the guilty person has someone else pay their fine? Friend, that's what Jesus did. And then Jesus the righteous Lawyer, and God the loving God, TOGETHER rejoice that we can be set free.

Secondly, the Cross of Christ shows us how much God and Jesus love us. We should have died, but they love us too much for that. We were deceived; we were foolish; but they love us. The Cross shows us that sin is deadly; it shows us that rebellion kills; it shows that Satan is a liar; it shows us that God and His law are the same: good, eternal, unchanging, righteous, protecting, the hallmark of our everlasting happiness.

Above all, the Cross makes the universe forever safe. When God finally destroys the devil, it will be with the universe's approval. The great 19th-century writer E. G. White adds this closing thought:

"The plan of salvation had a yet broader and deeper purpose than the salvation of man. It was not for this alone that Christ came to the earth, but . . . it was to vindicate the character of God before the universe. The act of Christ in dying for the salvation of man would not only make heaven accessible to men, but before all the universe it would justify God and His Son in their dealing with the rebellion of Satan. It would establish the perpetuity of the law of God and would reveal the nature and the RESULTS of sin."

Friend, we've come to the end and many questions still remain. Maybe you join me in saying, "God, I don't fully understand Calvary." And that's all right. But I hope you ALSO join me in saying, "Thank You, Jesus. I accept."