“For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment.”
into chains of darkness
The word “chains” denotes a pit or deep hole. Secular Greek used the word “chains” for an underground granary. We obtain the English word “silo” from this term. This is a place of imprisonment for fallen angels until the time of their final judgment.
“Chains of darkness” is a place of intense gloom that was incredibly and exceptionally dark. This is the gloom of the world below, nether darkness, a place of punishment. This is the severe despair of the nether world. Feelings of dismay and foreboding accompany this place (He 12:18). Tartarus is a pit of intense “gloom” where God keeps fallen angels, a place of extreme darkness and depression.
to be reserved for judgment
These fallen angels are “reserved for judgment.” They are not yet in the final judgment when placed into Tartarus. God will haul them out of Tartarus for the final judgment. These angels have been in Tartarus for thousands of years, yet it is still a temporary hell for them. God will place them in permanent hell in a coming day. He protects His plan of salvation by placing these rebels in this hell jail.
PRINCIPLE:
God is always consistent with His character; therefore, He must judge what is incompatible with Himself.
APPLICATION:
It comes as a shock to the “do-gooder,” the bleeding heart type of person, that God can be a God of judgment. This is the general characteristic of liberal thinking and Progressive Christianity today. Usually, these people are sheltered types. They are weak sisters who are afraid to believe the right thing. They compromise the unchanging standards of the Bible. Political liberalism also weakens the toughness and fiber of a national entity and the toughness of Christianity.
If you walk down a street and someone picks a fight with you, you have no choice but to fight that person (some of you do not know what I am talking about). You have never lived in a situation where you had to fight to survive. You were never in a corner like that where you could not get out. Some people in the world do not understand how to “communicate.” These people do not understand good manners and politeness. That is their way of life. We deal with these people differently than those who are civilized.
It also comes as a great shock to some that God is consistent with Himself. God is immutable, and He cannot change His character. God has a tough side. It is a “fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.” If God were to change His character, He would no longer be absolute. God has a perfect Being. How can He change that? He would be erratic and unstable to change perfect consistency.
Liberals emphasize God’s love to the exclusion of His other attributes. Love is only one of God’s characteristics. Judgment is another. We cannot separate love and judgment when it comes to God. God is not free to give eternal life to everyone.
Only very dumb people love everyone the same way without discretion. We have heard the phrase “fat, dumb, and happy.” This is an idiom that everything is “wonderful.” God has more than one attribute. He is more than love. Love is at His essence, but He has more attributes other than love. Just because you love people does not mean you do not use discernment in business and make hard decisions.
Specific attributes of God call for different situations. If it is necessary for you to be wise and tough, you do it. If it is required for you to love, you do it. Liberals latch on to only one attribute – love. This is distortion, a distortion of God, for God is more than love. God can love and be tough simultaneously (toughness is also part of His love). God is love, but He is also justice and righteousness.
Some organizations try to sell us on the fact that our relationship with an unchanging God does not mean anything. These institutions are hardcore apostate organizations. Their leaders are often charming and charismatic. They are always self-righteous and very sincere but diluted about the Bible. So, they peddle their false doctrine of a distorted God. These people even delude evangelical Christians. Naïve sheep drink from muddy water. Sheep, who know the Bible, do not drink from dirty water but from the clear springs of God’s Word.
For God to be consistent with Himself, He must judge false teachers. He will always judge false teachers. The goat is the false teacher. Do not look for any horns or red epidermis, or forked tail! They dress in clothes of virtue or the garb of religion.
There is only one thing worse than injustice, and that is justice without her sword in her hands. When right is not might or execute justice, that kind of “right” is evil. God’s justice grinds slow, but sure.
