Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Fifteen

                                                                                                                                              Verse 22 continued

The Holy Spirit works through the spoken and written Word of God to bring clear conviction to the hearts of sinners that they need to repent of their sins and evil and put their trust in Christ to save them. When Jesus came and preached the Word of God, He used the Holy Spirit to bring conviction to His hearers of their need for repentance and faith in Him. Jesus also authorized the writing of the New Testament so that the written Word of God could be finished so that it could be preached and read so that its convicting power could save lost sinners. Acts 2:37-41; John 14:26.

God has revealed His Word in other ways. God reveals His Word in His creations, but that revelation does not cause the Holy Spirit to bring conviction of sin to unbelievers. Psalm 19:1-6. The first spiritual humans knew that God exists because of His creations, but over time, that sinful pride which causes humans to desire to be independent of God compelled humans to invent their own gods who allowed them to have their own immoral code. Romans 1:18-32.

When God created man in His image, He gave humans a conscience to tell them right from wrong. But the conscience of humans is weak. I Corinthians 8:6-7,10,12. Humans can rationalize their conscience. But humans cannot easily rationalize their spirit when they hear or read the Word of God that tells them they are sinners in need of a Savior. Humans can convince themselves that they have to do wrong in some cases in order to achieve a necessary goal. Only the Holy Spirit can use the power of God's spoken or written Word to bring clear conviction to human consciousness that they are sinners in need of a Savior. John 8:9.

God does not hold humans responsible for their sins and evil who have never heard or read His Word. God knows that they have a weak conscience and that their spiritual deaths within them inevitably causes them to sin. They cannot deliberately sin, like Adam did, because the spiritual death within them compels them to sin. Romans 5:12-14; Acts 17:29-30.

The Bible (KJB) clearly teaches that three different regions of death exist. Revelation 20:13. God created Hell because that happens to be His burning wrath against evil and spiritual death. Deuteronomy 32:22. God also created the Sea into which He casts the separated sins and evil of humans saved by grace, and into which He also casts those sinners who have never heard or read the Word of God because He does not hold them accountable for their sins. But God also cannot accept the spiritual death within them. Micah 7:19. God may have accidentally created the Bottomless Pit because when He created reality out of nothing, He left a non-existent void behind from which emerges all evil that has a negative power that tries to destroy reality. This negative power happens to be less than nothing. Job 10:21-22; Isaiah 40:17; Isaiah 45:7. The Old Testament consistently describes sin and evil as being vanity; that is, emptiness and pride. God probably casts into a burning Hell only those humans who deliberately practice evil and who have heard or read the Word of God. God requires sinners saved by grace to daily repent of their sins because they know the Word of God. I John 1:9.

If God has representations of His spiritual creations in His material world, then the earth and sky could represent the beauties of Heaven. The oceans could represent the spiritual Sea. Volcanoes could represent the burning Hell. God could also have a representation of the Bottomless Pit in the Black Holes in space. Black Holes completely absorb all material reality including light itself. The bottom of a Black Hole can only be an absolute nothingness similar to the Bottomless Pit.