cyberjosh
Member
I noticed this as I was reading an article which pointed out God's promise to Solomon which said, "As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. IF YOU SEEK HIM, He will be found by you; BUT IF YOU FORSAKE HIM, HE WILL CAST YOU OFF FOREVER." (1 Chronicles 28:9) Solomon in his later days, though he was once righteous (see Ezekiel 18) turned away to idols and forsook God. I must come to the conclusion (since the Bible doesn't say otherwise) that he died with his heart still turned away to idols. Thus it makes it a fair possibility that Solomon is in Hell.
More importantly though: how can this apply to us? We see warnings in the NT (wake up people, these aren't for someone else - and the OT was given as an example to us) that no immoral, impure, or greedy person who is an idolator has an inheritance in the Kingdom of God (Ephesians 5:5). Jesus also said that he would not cast us away but we see here plainly that like Solomon we might instead forsake him. And the scripture in Hebrews 13:5 says that Jesus will never forsake us but read what I found on that same site which talked about Solomon:
I think this calls for some serious consideration and study so that we do not neglect Scripture and the truth just because its difficult to accept or because "it's Old Testament" (God's word will never pass away), but rather we must rightly divide the whole word of God. I hope this generates some very good discussion.
God Bless,
~Josh
More importantly though: how can this apply to us? We see warnings in the NT (wake up people, these aren't for someone else - and the OT was given as an example to us) that no immoral, impure, or greedy person who is an idolator has an inheritance in the Kingdom of God (Ephesians 5:5). Jesus also said that he would not cast us away but we see here plainly that like Solomon we might instead forsake him. And the scripture in Hebrews 13:5 says that Jesus will never forsake us but read what I found on that same site which talked about Solomon:
You may have heard of Hebrews 13:5, where it has - For He Himself has said, "I wlll never leave you nor forsake you." ~ The writer of Hebrews got that from when the Lord spoke to Joshua, "I will not leave you nor forsake you." (Joshua 1:5). Earlier, "He will not leave you nor forsake you" is what Moses told the people and then to Joshua in Deut. 31:6,8. The reason Moses said this is because he just told them that the Lord told him that he would not cross over the jordan. Moses was giving them assurance of their crossing without him. It doesn't mean that no matter what we do (like being a fornicator, adulterer, or coveter, which are in Hebrews 13:4,5), that God will never leave us. In fact, after this word was given to the people and Joshua in Deut. 31:6,8, the Lord said this...
Deuteronomy 31:16,17 - And the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. Then My ANGER shall be aroused against them in that day, AND I WILL FORSAKE THEM, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured..." ~ Note: Here we see God said that He would forsake them because of their sin. So people should not be preaching that God will never leave you nor forsake you no matter what you do, because we just saw the truth of God saying otherwise. I see the Lord corrected Moses in what he said to the people, because what the Lord said about the people is different than what Moses said. So if you been telling people that God will never leave them nor forsake them, maybe God through Scripture (Deut. 31:16,17) is correcting you like He did Moses. True, it's in Hebrews 13:5, but if you take it out of context by not mentioning the verse right before and the one after (13:4-6), then you could unknowingly be preaching a license to sin. The point in Hebrews is to not be in sin, then the Lord won't leave you.
I think this calls for some serious consideration and study so that we do not neglect Scripture and the truth just because its difficult to accept or because "it's Old Testament" (God's word will never pass away), but rather we must rightly divide the whole word of God. I hope this generates some very good discussion.
God Bless,
~Josh