Posted on 09/19/2015 6:13:19 PM PDT by SoFloFreeper
“There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ’s moral character, and that is that He believed in hell.” So wrote the agnostic British philosopher Bertrand Russell in 1967. The idea of eternal punishment for sin, he further notes, is “a doctrine that put cruelty in the world and gave the world generations of cruel torture.”
His views are at least more consistent than religious philosopher John Hick, who refers to hell as a “grim fantasy” that is not only “morally revolting” but also “a serious perversion of the Christian Gospel.” Worse yet was theologian Clark Pinnock who, despite having regarded himself as an evangelical, dismissed hell with a rhetorical question: “How can one imagine for a moment that the God who gave His Son to die for sinners because of His great love for them would install a torture chamber somewhere in the new creation in order to subject those who reject Him to everlasting pain?”
So, what should we think of hell? Is the idea of it really responsible for all the cruelty and torture in the world? Is the doctrine of hell incompatible with the way of Jesus Christ? Hardly. In fact, the most prolific teacher of hell in the Bible is Jesus, and He spoke more about it than He did about heaven. In Matthew 25:41–46 He teaches us four truths about hell that should cause us to grieve over the prospect of anyone experiencing its horrors.
1. Hell is a state of separation from God.
On the day of judgment, Jesus will say to all unbelievers, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire” (v. 41). This is the same sort of language that Jesus uses elsewhere to describe the final judgment of unbelievers (see 7:23).
To be separated from God is to be separated from anything and everything good. That is hard to conceive because even the most miserable person enjoys some of God’s blessings. We breathe His air, are nourished by food that He supplies, and experience many other aspects of His common grace.
On earth even atheists enjoy the benefits of God’s goodness. But in hell, these blessings will be nonexistent. Those consigned there will remember God’s goodness, and will even have some awareness of the unending pleasures of heaven, but they will have no access to them.
This does not mean that God will be completely absent from hell. He is and will remain omnipresent (Ps. 139:7-8). To be separated from the Lord and cast into hell does not mean that a person will finally be free of God. That person will remain eternally accountable to Him. He will remain Lord over the person’s existence. But in hell, a person will be forever separated from God in His kindness, mercy, grace, and goodness. He will be consigned to deal with Him in His holy wrath.
2. Hell is a state of association.
Jesus says that the eternal fire of hell was “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). People were made for God. Hell was made for the Devil. Yet people who die in their sin, without Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, will spend eternity in hell with the one being who is most unlike God. It is a tragic irony that many who do not believe in the Devil in this life will wind up spending eternity being tormented with him in hell.
3. Hell is a state of punishment.
Jesus describes it as “fire” (v. 41) and a place of “punishment” (v. 46). Hell is a place of retribution where justice is served through the payment for crimes.
The punishment must fit the crime. The misery and torment of hell point to the wickedness and seriousness of sin. Those who protest the biblical doctrine of hell as being excessive betray their inadequate comprehension of the sinfulness of sin. For sinners to be consigned to anything less than the horrors of eternal punishment would be a miscarriage of justice.
4. Hell is an everlasting state.
Though some would like to shorten the duration of this state, Jesus’ words are very clear. He uses the same adjective to describe both punishment and life in verse 46. If hell is not eternal, neither is the new heaven and earth.
How can God exact infinite punishment for a finite sin? First, because the person against whom all sin is committed is infinite. Crimes against the infinitely holy, infinitely kind, infinitely good, and infinitely supreme Ruler of the world deserve unending punishment. In addition to that, those condemned to hell will go on sinning for eternity. There is no repentance in hell. So the punishment will continue as long as the sinning does.
The dreadfulness of hell deepens our grateful praise for the salvation we have in Jesus Christ. Hell is what we deserve. And hell is what He experienced on the cross in our place.
Believing the truth about hell also motivates us to persuade people to be reconciled to God. By God’s grace those of us who are trusting Christ have been rescued from this horrible destiny. How can we love people and refuse to speak plainly to them about the realities of eternal damnation and God’s gracious provision of salvation?
Clearer visions of hell will give us greater love for both God and people.
This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.
Beautifully done, m’Lady! The bride and the bridesmaids are leaving soon, sooner than most would want to believe.
Interesting and apt analogy!
No man, not even me of myself, can take me from the two hands of God, for God’s Promises are never unfulfilled.
Luke 16 ... yes. And I Thess 4:13-18. ‘Even so them also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.’ And we know that when the Bible speaks of the dead, it is to their bodies that the notion of sleep is addressed, not their souls, for those are with the Lord ... ‘To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.’
Perhaps a lesson from nature is appropriate here: how many turtle eggs, for instance, hatch and make it to the sea, to return someday to lay eggs in the same sands? Why would a Creator God sacrifice His only begotten son to make a way fro the perishing to be delivered from their destiny? Love. The calculus of dead souls cannot enter Love into their equations of ‘destinies’.
I can’t wait to be able to eat again.....
Was Lucifer saved? Yes
Did Lucifer fall? Yes
Until you can reconcile this your doctrine doesn’t exist.
Um, would show an old man where the Bible says Lucifer was saved?
Salvation isn’t offered to non-humans ie angels......
I’m sorry, when did Satan fall in sin then ask Christ to forgive Him again? I misses that part in my bible- maybe you have a different bible?
your posts have become far too long to address- IF you wish to pick one or two issues and comment on them I’ll be more than happy to keep replying=- But I’m not spending hours addressing the myriad of points you are bringing up
[[Sorry, this means that for the first and only time, the Lord was teaching science fiction,]]
Read my post 122 for WHY He DID sue Jewish myth for THIS particular parable-
I find it VERY odd that you assert that God ‘could do’ such and such IF He wanted to- but then turn around and make it impossible for Christ to use a myth that was very common in his day and which was used by the very people He was talking to to make a very potent point>? Whatever!
[[there is no conflict with Lk. 16 for it is not teaching that the rich man was in his physical body that He had on earth, but speaks of some sort of existence in which the entity had equivalents to his earthly body with it sensory aspects.]]
And you accuse me of reading into passages? Wow!
[[That God will “create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind,” (Isaiah 65:17) does not speak to that, but perhaps you can make it to. ]]
Nah- I’ll let Your making it say the dead can speak to those in heave speak for itself
Like I said- you posts are far too long now- After reading just the first few paragraphs it’s clear you are on very shaky ground theologically
Did Lucifer fall? Yes
Your premise is faulty.
[[Allegorical? Speaking of a non-existent place and experience which represents a spiritual reality? Try to find where the Lord ever did that.]]
I already did in post 122- and showed WHY it was necessary for Christ to use their own Myth against them- And just for the record- using the MYTH DID show spiritual reality because the MYTH that the Pharisees was preaching was FALSE and Christ showed them this in no uncertain terms- He used their own myth against them - that’s all- Christ wasn’t allowed to do this? I’m sure He’ll be amused to hear this-
Yes, I could agree with that, but let me run this by you. I am certainly not dogmatic, but I think that Hell and the lake of fire are two different places. The only difference, is that one is temporary, the other is permanent. I think that suffering in Hell begins IMMEDIATELY at death, and is the same suffering they will experience in the lake of fire. I picture it like being in county jail, which is temporary, as opposed to being in state prison, which is permanent. Again, not dogmatic, and for the redeemed, it really IS a moot point. 😅
That would be very similar to Roman Catholic dogma of purgatory which for which I find no scriptural support for.
The language of Rev, can and has been used to support eternal torment, but the apocalyptic wording make easy understanding. Very difficult in comparison to the many passages in the other books of the New Testament that seem to put the knowtion of eternal life or destruction as the operative duality. As we agree that to those safe in Christ the point is as you say moot.
Ok not the word I should have used (saved). No he wasn’t saved as we are, but he was a Holy Angel in Heaven and through disobedience was cast down. Just like we are removed from the Book of Life for unrepentant disobedience.
I believe kids are automatically saved from birth and at some point they come of age and must receive Jesus and be born again. Now that age of accountability varies from person to person, but for this exercise we will say they become accountable at 13. Now they go through life and living in unrepentant sin for the next 35 years and accept Jesus at 48. They were either not saved as kids meaning all kids go to Hell or they lost their salvation for 35 years.
I don’t think many true believers lose their Salvation, but I believe it happens. I do think that God will put all kind of road blocks up to try and stop it from happening, but he wants absolute free will by choice Souls not forced robots.
Jesus had a choice... and he chose not to sin by his own free will.
Um, Paul does not agree with your assessment that Jesus chose not to sin. Paul said Jesus could not sin because His SEED remained within Him. God cannot sin. Jesus was tempted in all ways as we are, but He could not sin because His Seed remained within Him ... the Holy Spirit remained in Jesus ...
School me even though this conversation isn’t about the original comment chap and verse please. The Holy spirit remains in believers though we sin.
Jesus said that no one, not even you, can take you from the two hands of God. Yes, the two hands. Jesus said no one can take you from The Father’s hand and Jesus said no one can take you from His hand. I like to image that as God has you cupped in His protective hands, like holding a little bird to prevent it flying away. [ John 10:28 - 30 ] When Jesus said No Man, that included you, for even you cannot snatch you from His grasp.
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