On the previous page we looked at why the belief that many are going to Heaven is false. Since we know that according to the Bible many people are going to a place of destruction, it would only be fair to ask why that is.
Jesus, while giving His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:48, said:
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
The reason we know that there are many people heading to Outer Darkness is that Jesus said “Be ye therefore perfect.” He did NOT say “Become ye therefore perfect.” It is commonly believed and taught that we should become perfect. Jesus, however, said that we are to “be” perfect. The word “be” is present tense. It requires perfection, NOW!
When you see a child misbehaving and the parent tells them to “be good,” do they mean for their child to become good, say, in ten minutes? Or do they mean for the child to stop their misbehaving and be good now? The obvious answer is that the parent means for them to be good starting now, not at some future point.
Perfection is not a becoming process. God requires perfection, and he requires it now!
Commonly, people use the Ten Commandments as a standard of perfection. The reality is that they show us just how short we fall. Although, the Ten Commandments are just a few of the laws God has given us, let's start here in Exodus chapter 20.
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain.
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honour thy father and thy mother.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness (also known as: Thou shalt not lie).
10. Thou shalt not covet.
It doesn’t take long to realize we are not perfect. If we are honest with ourselves we will have to admit that each of us has broken at least one of these laws...repeatedly. In fact God himself has told us that we have fallen short of keeping his law. In Romans 3:23 we read:
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
We have all sinned or disobeyed his law and fallen short of His glory. God requires perfection now and we all fall short of that demand. God has said he will punish those who fall short with an everlasting destruction. Let us take a look again at that verse in II Thessalonians 1:9:
In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
Those who are disobedient to our Lord will be punished with everlasting destruction. We know that our Lord's Word is true; therefore we believe what he says about perfection and about Outer Darkness.
The issue of perfection is serious because there are no degrees of perfection. Many people believe that while they may not be perfect, they do register somewhere on the perfection scale. In James 2:10, however, we read:
For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
We know that we are all guilty of breaking the whole law by this verse. God has said those who break his law, even in one little point, they are guilty of breaking the whole law. In order to gain Heaven by our perfection, we would have to be perfect in all areas of our lives. If we fail in one point it is like red dye being dumped into a cup of water, it ruins the whole cup of water. In the same way our sin causes our lives to be completely ruined. It is an all or nothing situation. We must be perfect, now!
An illustration of this is to imagine that the only thing saving a person from
going to the place of Outer Darkness is a chain with ten links. Each link in the chain represents one of the Ten Commandments. If you break a commandment the corresponding link in the chain breaks. How many links would have to break for that person to be severed from dwelling with the Heavenly Father?
The answer is obvious: one.
If we break God's law in just one point then we have fallen short of perfection. Once we have fallen short of that perfection we are on our way to an everlasting destruction, the place of Outer Darkness.
This serious situation should not be taken lightly…there is Good News, but only for those who realize they fall short of God's glory.
*All Bible Quotes are from the King James Version
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