If God had to withdraw the created outcome of his Word concerning the existence of life on our planet, then all evidence of what was created – living cells, atoms and molecules – would evaporate as if it never existed. It goes without saying that this would include human and animal life.

Now how would one express or depict the simple reality of this? Well, there would be nothing to depict because there would be no-one to depict anything about nothing.

Seriously though, all we have to do is think about our daily activities as human beings and the disappearance (or non-existence) of same. This is what we would see – or rather, this is what we would not see; buildings, roads, modes of transport, communication devices, human conflict, wars, destruction and death.

Just think; no shopping sprees, no parties, no sporting events, no business functions, no television, no smart phones, no governments, no political parties, no educational institutions, no insurance policies, no wealth, no poverty, no sickness, no joy, no sorrow - no nothing, zero and zilch. And you would not be reading this because I would not have written it.

Now this leaves a conundrum. The fact that we do exist and we do see and experience all of the above, surely, means that we should be living in acknowledgement of and with accountability to the one who created us. In other words, we should be in constant worship of God and live with reverence to Him. But the world at large does no such thing for the simple reason that it is spiritually dead and alienated from God as a result of the fall of the very first human being to open his eyes on this planet. A sentence of death hangs over mankind.

Despite this sentence of death and the depraved behaviour of humanity, something kept us going and sustained us up to this point in time. “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” (Col 1:16,17)

Yes, it was and still is the very Word of God, namely, Jesus Christ who is holding everything together, including our existence as human beings – even although we destroy each other on a daily basis because of our sin condition. This is where the sentence of death enters the picture. It is a self-imposed sentence because of our rejection of God and which the Word of God does not oppose. It is known as the power of our God-given power of choice. We choose to acknowledge Him or choose to reject Him. It is a matter of redemption or condemnation.

Now let’s picture this world of over 7 billion human beings. They fit into only two categories – those who are condemned and those who have been redeemed. The condemned are oblivious to the reality of their condemned state of existence and neither do they know that sin has been done away with. In fact, they do not even give sin a second thought. Of course, to them the concept of sin is not an unknown, but for them sin simply does not fit in with modern thinking. As paradoxical as this may sound, they are actually in agreement with God. Sin has been removed. It is only the consequences of sin that remain in accordance with God’s laws and the condemned will always suffer such consequences for the duration of their earthly lives.

The redeemed, on the other hand, are well informed and are covered by the blood of their Redeemer, which means they benefit from the promises of God to those who believe for the duration of their earthly lives. And the promises are many.

So the condemned and the redeemed have two things in common. Both have been forgiven and both have their names written in the Book of Life. But when physical life on earth comes to an end for the condemned, nothing remains in common. Only then will the latter be hit by the truth and have their names removed from God’s Book of Life, followed by a speedy trip to a most undesirable place – for eternity. Not believing this won’t make it go away.

While they live (on earth) the condemned can do exactly as they please. It is not for sin that they will be judged, but for rejecting the One who died for their sin nature and the gift of Grace from God making it all possible. “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. (John 3:19,20)

The condemned do not know that they are unwitting human agents for Satan and many of them will endeavour to publicly ridicule and destroy the reputation of those who are redeemed and serving God. They are playing with fire. I have seen the demise of those who choose to do this, for God makes it clear, ‘touch not mine anointed” and God instructs the redeemed not take revengeful action, for “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”  Emotional stress, ill health, tragedy and financial loss can be the outcome for those who dare touch the anointed.

Furthermore, the condemned have a tendency to observe the lifestyles of the redeemed for the purpose of finding a “valid” excuse for saying, “if that’s Christianity, then I want no part of it.” And then they walk away in a prideful manner for being so assertive. What they are really saying is, “I’d rather go to Hell than receive the gift of God’s grace to salvation through Jesus Christ”.

The redeemed will always be subjected to temptation while living in this world and at times succumb to it, but they have a way out by coming to God for forgiveness as per 1 John 1:9, as already pointed out. Conversely, the condemned have no way out. A sword remains over their heads. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36)

Of course, the condemned can join the ranks of the redeemed should they have a change of mind and accept the Truth. This will then secure a permanent place for their names in the Book of Life. After all, if the condemned did not exist, there would be no-one to be redeemed.

The crux of the whole matter is that God no longer looks at sin. Instead, He is concerned with the redemption of all by His gift of grace through faith in Jesus Christ.  This means that everyone has a clean slate up until they die.

Note from the following; the reason God did not send his son to condemn the world is because the world was already condemned - since the fall of Adam.

John 3:17. “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

John 3:18. “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

God has not withdrawn the created outcome of his Word concerning the existence of life on our planet, but He is going to withdraw the continued existence of the condemned on this planet and move them to a place reserved for the devil and his angels. The only time left for the condemned to make a decision is the time between now and the sudden death of their physical bodies - whether by natural causes, by accident or at the hand of a fellow human being.

And the only reason for Jesus Christ holding everything together?  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

Now retired, Jack Vorster has a background in marketing in the field of newspaper advertising. As a result of a life-changing experience he turned his attention to the study of the human make-up and the realities connected to human behaviour based on the Word of God.