3 Lessons from the Beautiful Bloom of a Ric Rac Plant

Hope's Ric Rac Plant in Bloom

My wife, Hope, loves plants. She takes care of plants in various types of pots all around our home. Some of the plants are quite pretty. Others are rather plain. Like the ric rac plant that lives and grows in my office. It’s not ugly, but I’ve never thought it was especially pretty either. Sometimes I wondered why Hope continued to take care of it year after year. It never had any flowers. It just keeps slowly growing. Until last night.

A little while ago a closed bloom began to appear on the ric rac plant. I barely noticed it. But then last night when Hope walked into the office, the bloom had suddenly opened into a large, spectacular, beautiful flower. The colorful bloom was 7” across. It turns out that the ric rac plant is also known as a fishbone orchid cactus. Thinking about this beautiful flower inspired a few devotional thoughts.

1.  God’s Work Often takes Place Over Generations

 Someone gave Hope’s aunt a ric rac plant. She took cuttings from that plant and gave them to Hope’s mom. Hope’s mom then gave one of those cuttings, just a few inches tall, to Hope. This reminded me of how God often works over generations. This applies to biological generations where parents invest God’s love and truth into their children, who then pass it on to their children. Much of God’s deep, long term work happens in this way.

NIV 2 Timothy 1:5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

This principle can also apply to what we might call “spiritual generations”. Someone invests spiritually in you. They pray for you, care for you, encourage you, are an example to you, and/or share some of God’s truth with you. Then God can use you to pass on that care, encouragement, example, and truth to others. This is exactly what Paul encouraged Timothy to be doing:

NIV 2 Timothy 2:2 And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.

Notice how this verse speaks of God’s truth being passed on for four spiritual generations:

Paul → Timothy → Reliable People → Others

When you share God’s love and truth with someone, you never know how far it will go or what fruit it may bear in future spiritual generations.

Most of this work of investing God’s love and truth into others does not look very spectacular while it is happening. Which brings me to the second lesson.

2.  Investing Patiently in Plain Looking People Is Worth It

I thank God for my parents, and all the pastors, Christian teachers, and other Christians who have taken time to invest in my life. I also thank God that He allows me to invest in the lives of other Christians.

Hope’s ric rac plant didn’t look like anything special most of the years she has cared for it.  And most of us are like that. We appear to be just plain, normal people. Nothing spectacular. Yet, God Himself is investing a lot in order to care for us and help us grow. And if we are worth God’s time and care, we are certainly worthy of each other’s care. In fact, we are commanded to love and encourage one another. Paul writes about this:

NIRV Ephesians 4:16 He makes the whole body grow and build itself up in love. Under the control of Christ, each part of the body does its work. It supports the other parts. In that way, the body is joined and held together.

As all of us plain, ordinary people are helping each other grow in Christ, we need to remember that one day we will all, every one of us, blossom into glory.

3.  Every Plain Looking Christian will Blossom with Glorious Beauty when Christ Returns

Even in this life, we see glimpses of God’s glory in each other. But the best is yet to come. Every plain looking Christian brother and sister whom you help in their journey is destined for glory.

NIV Matthew 13:43a Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

There will be many joys and rewards in the presence of Christ when He comes. Among the chief of these will be seeing people whom God enabled us to care for, serve, help, and encourage on their journey in this world.

1 Thessalonians 2:19-20 For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy.

In this world we may seem like ric rac plants. But one day soon we will all bloom with eternal glory.

Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .

Al Mohler Reveals One of the Reasons Correcting the Error of Eternal Conscious Torment is Important

Prelude

Before discussing the main topic of this post, I want to point out that there is a difference between why we believe something is true and why we think it is an important topic to discuss.

For instance, I believe the resurrection of Jesus Christ is important to discuss because of the many wonderful ways believing in His resurrection should change how we live (I discuss seven of these in a post here ). But these benefits from believing in the resurrection are different from the reasons I believe the resurrection is true (I share some of those reasons in a different post, here).

The top seven reasons I believe in Conditional Immortality (also called annihilationism) instead of eternal conscious torment may be summed up like this:

1. Scripture

2. Scripture

3. Scripture

4. Scripture

5. Scripture

6. Scripture

7. Scripture

Each of the “reasons” above links to a blog post or series of blog posts where I argue for Conditional Immortality using Scripture. I’m intentionally trying to emphasize that I do not believe in Conditional Immortality merely because of some emotional distaste for eternal torment. Of course, eternal torment is extremely distasteful, but that would never be a valid basis for rejecting it if it were taught in God’s Word. I also do not reject eternal conscious torment because it causes problems and causes people to stumble. Yet, it has caused many to stumble. And that is one reason I feel it’s worth my time to continue to address the long held, deeply entrenched error of eternal torment.

In other words, the rest of this post is about why it is important to teach Conditional Immortality, not why Conditional Immorality is true.

The Doctrine of Eternal Conscious Torment has Led Many to Stumble into Theological Liberalism

At a recent T4G Conference, Al Mohler briefly discussed the topic of Hell. His comments were partly prompted by recent reports in the news that the Pope does not believe that Hell consists of eternal conscious torment. But Mohler also specifically mentions a recent Rethinking Hell conference. I was not able to attend that conference, but I am part of the Rethinking Hell movement.

Mohler’s comments regarding Rethinking Hell and the conference were unfair and inaccurate. But I’m not writing to address that. Chris Date already published an excellent short article addressing that issue, which you may read here:  “Hath God Said?”

I’m writing to address something specific Mohler said which in a way I agree with, even though Mohler is overall arguing against annihilationism. Mohler points out that the doctrine of Hell played a major role in the start of theological liberalism. Theological liberalism has been and continues to be one of the most damaging distortions of the gospel found among those who claim to be Christian. Mohler explains that a rejection of the doctrine of Hell was one of the factors which led to the false teachings of theological liberalism. Here’s the one minute portion of Mohler’s talk where he discusses this:

It’s important to note that the liberals were not reacting against just any vague concept of Hell. They were rebelling against the specific horrors of eternal conscious torment. Tragically, many of those who rejected eternal conscious torment did not find the biblical truth of Conditional Immortality. Instead, they stumbled into full blown theological liberalism. Mohler correctly points out that theological liberalism often leads to a rejection of many core and vital Christian beliefs such as substitutionary atonement.

The doctrine of eternal torment continues to cause many to stumble in our generation. For instance, in Rob Bell’s (in)famous book Love Wins, he rages against the doctrine of eternal torment. Bell writes:

Has God created millions of people over tens of thousands of years who are going to spend eternity in anguish? Can God do this, or even allow this, and still claim to be a loving God?

Does God punish people for thousands of years with infinite, eternal torment for things they did in their few finite years of life? (Love Wins, Rob Bell, pg. 2)

Tragically, Bell does not point to the biblical teaching of Conditional Immortality as the alternative to eternal conscious torment. His alternative is not very clear (a lack of clarity is a hallmark of postmodern theology), but he seems to point people towards a type of theological postmodernism which in many of its specifics as well as its overall effect is very similar to theological liberalism. For example, like the liberals before him, Bell also questions the doctrine of substitutionary atonenment.

In addition to leading many Christians to stumble into theological liberalism, the false doctrine of eternal torment has also caused many people to stumble into atheism. For example, in his book Why I am not a Christian, Bertand Russel wrote:

There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ’s moral character, and that is that He believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment.

And one of the most damaging atheists in modern history wrote these words:

I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all of my friends, will be everlastingly punished. (Charles Darwin)

Darwin was wrong to think that the plain text of the Bible teaches eternal torment. But, I wonder if history might have been far different if in Darwin’s day most churches taught the truth about Conditional Immortality instead of teaching eternal torment.

Do I think that if a large portion of the true Church begins to teach Conditional Immortality instead of eternal torment that this will prevent everyone from becoming theologically liberal or falling into atheism? No, of course not. But I believe it will help. In this dark world, removing even one major stumbling block seems like a worthwhile task.

Conclusion

The Bible teaches Conditional Immortality, not eternal torment. The Word of God teaches that the unrighteous will suffer the destruction of their bodies and souls (Matthew 10:28), that they will perish (John 3:16), that the wages of their sins is death (Romans 6:23), that their destiny is destruction (Philippians 3:19), and that they will be burned to ashes (2 Peter 2:6).

Tragically, many in the church have distorted the biblical teaching of hell to mean eternal torment. This in turn has caused many to stumble into serious errors such as theological liberalism, theological postmodernism, and even atheism.

This is one of the reasons (not the only one) why I pray that God will work to correct the error of eternal torment. I thank God for the efforts of those in Rethinking Hell. I also thank God that it seems like more and more Christians are studying what the Bible truly says about the final fate of the unrighteous and as a result are embracing the doctrine of Conditional Immortality.

Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .