Comments on Wilkin’s The Ten Most Misunderstood Words in the Bible
Thomas Allen
With The Ten Most Misunderstood Words in the Bible (2012), Robert N. Wilkin has written an interesting and enlightening book. He discusses and explains in detail faith, everlasting, saved, lost, heaven, hell, repentance, grace, gospel, and judgment. Also, he briefly discusses eleven other often misunderstood words. Below are several questions, observations, and comments about his discussions.
1. One of the attributes of God is that He is omnipresent: He is everywhere simultaneously. Nowhere and no place exists where He is not. Nothing exists where He is not. If there is somewhere or something where He is not, then He is not omnipresent.
Therefore, He has to fill every void, every particular, every wave, every energy, every force, every spirit, and every whatever simultaneously, including the Lake of Fire (what most people mistakenly called Hell) and even Satan himself. Since the inhabitants of the Lake of Fire, the unbelievers, are tormented forever, then beings tainted with a sin nature exist forever. They have everlasting life. How can God, whose holiness is beyond our comprehension, tolerate the everlasting sin nature of unbelievers? Further, how can He tolerate the everlasting existence of Satan and his gang of fallen angels?
2. Wilkin is an adherent of the free grace doctrine of salvation. Thus, he claims that everlasting life is obtained by believing in Jesus for it. Then, he claims that unbelievers are tormented forever in the Lake of Fire. To be tormented forever requires unbelievers to have everlasting life so that they can endure everlasting torment. Consequently, based on Wilkin’s description of believers and unbelievers, all humans have everlasting life once they are conceived. This means that humans must be innately immortal. Though the physical body dies, the conscience essence lives forever.
If belief in Jesus and a lack of belief in Jesus determine where believers and unbelievers spend their everlasting lives — the New Earth or the Lake of Fire — then believing in Jesus does not guarantee everlasting life. Humans already have that. Therefore, believers do not obtain everlasting life by believing in Jesus. Being innately immortal, they already have everlasting life. Belief and the lack of belief merely determine their ultimate destination, where they will spend their everlasting life. (If a believer obtains everlasting life by believing in Jesus, does an unbeliever obtain everlasting life by not believing in Jesus?)
Some of the doctrines that Wilkin condemns, such as annihilation, overcome the problem of humans being innately immortal, having everlasting life. Contrary to Wilkin’s doctrine, they really do have Jesus giving everlasting life to people who believe in him for it.
3. I have always been told that the New Earth (what most people mistakenly called Heaven) is a place of everlasting happiness, joy, bliss, contentment, serenity, peacefulness, etc. It is a place without sorrow, sadness, suffering, etc. How can one live forever in peaceful bliss, etc. knowing that one’s spouse, children, siblings, parents, and other relatives and close friends are tormented forever? Such a person would naturally feel sadness, sorrow, etc. Moreover, how can a truly compassionate empathic believer find peaceful bliss void of sorrow in the New Earth while knowing unbelievers are tormented forever in the Lake of Fire?
(According to Wilkin, Heaven or more correctly Paradise is not the permanent residence for believers; the New Earth is. Before Jesus’ ascension, Paradise is that part of Hades or Sheol where believers stay temporarily, and after Jesus’ ascension, Paradise is that part of the third heaven where believers stay until their judgment. Furthermore, Hell is not the permanent residence for unbelievers; the Lake of Fire is. Hell is that part of Hades or Sheol where unbelievers stay temporarily until their judgment.)
4. Wilkin argues that repentance refers to temporal life and never to avoiding eternal condemnation in the Lake of Fire. Further, he claims that repentance leads to a longer and better physical life.
This conclusion seems questionable. If people who abuse recreational chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs are omitted, the “good” seem to live no longer than unrepentant “bad” persons. On the contrary, the opposite often seems true. The old saying that “the good die young” came into being because people noticed that many good people die young while really evil people, including Satanists and Luciferians, live into their late 70s and 80s and even 90s.
This rule that repentance leads to a longer and better life seems to have as many exceptions as the “‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’ or when sounding like ‘a’, as in neighbor or weigh” rule. This rule has more words that are exceptions than words that comply with it. Perhaps, someday someone will do a study to find out if repentance results in a statistically significantly longer life and a more healthy, prosperous, and joyful life.
5. Wilkin notes that in the world to come, the police, jailers, lawyers, thieves, and other occupations related to the criminal justice system cease to exist because they are not needed in a sinless world. He also notes that some believers will be rulers. The legitimate function of government is to protect life, liberty, and property from trespasses from others, and, much beyond this, the government morphs into a state, which is a form of idolatry. (For example, public works not paid for by user fees, public education, and public welfare are the actions of a state.) Since no real government will be needed, what is the function of these rulers? Is it to feed their egos by giving them people to boss?
Moreover, being God the Son, Jesus is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Therefore, why does he need anyone to assist him in ruling? If Jesus does not need any assistant rulers, what is the purpose of making some rulers, other than feeding their egos so that they can boast “I made the cut and you didn’t?”
6. Since the streets of the New Jerusalem are paved in gold, women will not be able to wear high heels when they cross a street. Moreover, transportation will be difficult, unless some kind of antigravity form of transportation is used. Because of its malleability, Gold is too soft for pavement.
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