Absolute Holiness Leaves No Shadow

[Dimmesdale]

It is said by some Christians that Perfect Holiness demands Hell. A Hell of infinite pain and infinite duration, commensurate with the standard of that perfect holiness to which no sinner can fully live up to (without Christ's atoning sacrifice on his behalf). That is the price of sin, in the Face of a Holy God, for the Christian.

This concept is wrong for the reason that it misinterprets the true meaning both of Holiness and sin. Holiness is indeed wholly Holy, and sin wholly sinful, and never the twain shall meet, but they bear a much different relationship to each other, one that is not mutually antagonistic in the sense perceived by Christians. It is not that Holiness can in any way make amends with sin, make compromise with sin. No. That sort of synthesis is indeed out of the question. But here is the kicker: such need not be the case because sin, in the first place, is no rival competitor that needs to be bossed out. It itself has no substance. It simply has to be exposed for what it is -- pure vanity, and hence neutralized as the nothing that it is. And the way that happens is the Spiritual Sun asserting itself in Full Splendor.

Christians only see this partially, even half-way. They have no realization of the Full Spiritual Sun. If the Cross of Christ is God's Almighty Standard, then in their eyes the shadow cast by it is hell - absolutely necessary, perhaps even part and parcel of God. But the true way to see God's standard is not in these terms, not in this "light", so to speak.

Rather, instead of seeing the Sun of God as casting a darksome shadow, it is far more accurate to see that Sun situated differently. Not upon the Horizon, like a sunset, but instead at the top of the sky, at the very zenith. There, the Sun is fully bright, fully luminous, revealing all. No shadow is cast, because no shadow is necessary - all shadows depart; they cannot stand in that Noon-Day Heat. Where is sin? Is it excused? If it were excused, it would find a way to live. But it cannot live. It must die; it cannot survive, not even in hell. Just so, eternal punishment is not needed when all living beings without exception must surrender to that Sun, must be exposed in that blazing incandescence.

Holiness is not compromised, for Holiness itself finds final Victory. Sin is not wedded to that Holiness in any way but is totally expiated. Its price is fully found in the matter of its complete vanishment. And that is sufficient both for God and the erring soul. To ask for anything more is to feed into the folly of illusion and place the currency of "Payment" and "Debt" more highly than the Almighty Merciful Essence of He Who is Made of Pure Mercy.

No shadow whatsoever remains in the end, except it be the Good Shade under the Cool Eaves of the Cross-Beam of Christ wherein the Fully Surrendered Souls find their Eternal Consolation....