Leaving and Letting Go of This World: a Remonstrant’s Reflections

J. D. Gallé | Tuesday, 22 June 2021

        It was not long ago that we entered this world, and it will no doubt not be long ere we shall depart, never again to partake in the bad or the good under the sun. All that we have here we will soon leave behind. We shall take nothing and no one with us from this world.
        This life is very much one of loss. There is nothing here we were intended to keep for ever. Yet it is hard not to cling when this world is all we have ever known. We may seek our happiness here, but it is ever elusive and fleeting.
        Christ or the world? Is the one whom we cannot now see truly worth more than the entire visible created order? Is the one through whom all things were made greater than all that has ever been or will come to be?

        What can we give to the Lord of all that he has not given to us? What is it he desires? It is our hearts, our lives, our very selves, that we must yield and return wholly to him. For love of the world and love of God are mutually exclusive; they cannot coexist. To find the Lord Jesus Christ, one must lose and let go of the world, being crucified to it while still living in it. And this is very hard.

Copyright © J. D. Gallé, 2021. All rights reserved.

Phoney God-lovers and (What Should Be) the Obvious Incongruity between Loving God and Contemning Truth

J. D. Gallé | Monday, 21 June 2021

        For the one who is loving and practising falsehood (Rev. 22.15), it is impossible that s/he can have any regard for the God of truth (Ps. 31.5b [alétheias, Ps. 30.6b LXX]); his word, which is truth (Jn 17.17); his Son, who is the Truth (Jn 14.6a); or the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth (Jn 14.17; 15.26; 16.13). Therefore, it is yet another lie whenever a lover of falsehood claims to love the God of truth whom, in reality, s/he despises. It is a flagrant untruth when those who practise falsehood claim to be in a justified state before the God who has by no means acquitted them of their lawless works.
        Persons who, without a conscience, live, eat, breathe, and sleep lies, have been handed over by God to their love of falsehood. It is only a matter of time before lovers and practitioners of deception shall eat the fruit of their evil ways (Prov. 1.31). They will not turn from their mendacity; their minds are not fit to receive the truth or the love of it (2 Thess. 2.10–12). Their lifelong disregard for the truth is but a manifestation of their disdain for God.

        We can be certain that the inheritance of all liars shall be, as may be read in the Apocalypse, the lake burning with fire and sulphur, the second death (Rev. 21.8).[1]

Note

        1. The nature of which, incidentally, I am inclined to understand as entailing the actual end (i.e. annihilation) of evildoers rather than their preservation and perpetuation in misery, wherein they are to everlastingly exist in a pocket somewhere outside (or alongside) God’s new creation.

Copyright © J. D. Gallé, 2021, 2022. All rights reserved.

Latest revisions: added two scriptural citations (9 Jun. 2022); added a paragraph break (28 Sept. 2022).