Posted on 02/21/2015 7:50:13 AM PST by RnMomof7
We have often heard statements such as “War is hell” or “I went through hell.” These expressions are, of course, not taken literally. Rather, they reflect our tendency to use the word hell as a descriptive term for the most ghastly human experience possible. Yet no human experience in this world is actually comparable to hell. If we try to imagine the worst of all possible suffering in the here and now we have not yet stretched our imaginations to reach the dreadful reality of hell.
Hell is trivialized when it is used as a common curse word. To use the word lightly may be a halfhearted human attempt to take the concept lightly or to treat it in an amusing way. We tend to joke about things most frightening to us in a futile effort to declaw and defang them, reducing their threatening power.
There is no biblical concept more grim or terror-invoking than the idea of hell. It is so unpopular with us that few would give credence to it at all except that it comes to us from the teaching of Christ Himself.
Almost all the biblical teaching about hell comes from the lips of Jesus. It is this doctrine, perhaps more than any other, that strains even the Christian’s loyalty to the teaching of Christ. Modern Christians have pushed the limits of minimizing hell in an effort to sidestep or soften Jesus’ own teaching. The Bible describes hell as a place of outer darkness, a lake of fire, a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, a place of eternal separation from the blessings of God, a prison, a place of torment where the worm doesn’t turn or die. These graphic images of eternal punishment provoke the question, should we take these descriptions literally or are they merely symbols?
I suspect they are symbols, but I find no relief in that. We must not think of them as being merely symbols. It is probable that the sinner in hell would prefer a literal lake of fire as his eternal abode to the reality of hell represented in the lake of fire image. If these images are indeed symbols, then we must conclude that the reality is worse than the symbol suggests. The function of symbols is to point beyond themselves to a higher or more intense state of actuality than the symbol itself can contain. That Jesus used the most awful symbols imaginable to describe hell is no comfort to those who see them simply as symbols.
A breath of relief is usually heard when someone declares, “Hell is a symbol for separation from God.” To be separated from God for eternity is no great threat to the impenitent person. The ungodly want nothing more than to be separated from God. Their problem in hell will not be separation from God, it will be the presence of God that will torment them. In hell, God will be present in the fullness of His divine wrath. He will be there to exercise His just punishment of the damned. They will know Him as an all-consuming fire.
No matter how we analyze the concept of hell it often sounds to us as a place of cruel and unusual punishment. If, however, we can take any comfort in the concept of hell, we can take it in the full assurance that there will be no cruelty there. It is impossible for God to be cruel. Cruelty involves inflicting a punishment that is more severe or harsh than the crime. Cruelty in this sense is unjust. God is incapable of inflicting an unjust punishment. The Judge of all the earth will surely do what is right. No innocent person will ever suffer at His hand.
Perhaps the most frightening aspect of hell is its eternality. People can endure the greatest agony if they know it will ultimately stop. In hell there is no such hope. The Bible clearly teaches that the punishment is eternal. The same word is used for both eternal life and eternal death. Punishment implies pain. Mere annihilation, which some have lobbied for, involves no pain. Jonathan Edwards, in preaching on Revelation 6:15-16 said, “Wicked men will hereafter earnestly wish to be turned to nothing and forever cease to be that they may escape the wrath of God.” (John H. Gerstner, Jonathan Edwards on Heaven and Hell [Orlando: Ligonier Ministries, 1991], 75.)
Hell, then, is an eternity before the righteous, ever-burning wrath of God, a suffering torment from which there is no escape and no relief. Understanding this is crucial to our drive to appreciate the work of Christ and to preach His gospel.
Summary
Biblical passages for reflection: Matthew 8:11-12, Mark 9:42-48, Luke 16:19-31, Jude 1:3-13, Revelation 20:11-15.
Biblical Truth ping
Hell would be an eternity held away from that love in an unimaginable torment.
Eternal damnation bump.
What is innocence?
They just think that they love their sin. Imagine the Hell that it would be to know that total fulfilling love was held away from you and all you had for yourself was the stain of what you had done, forever.
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Having been completely forgiven through Christ's death and resurrection.
OK. Thanks.
We appreciate the support!
There are many who try to deny that to escape the thought.
Extremely well written and as far as my study has revealed: straight up truth!
My problem: I don’t read this every day, so, from time to time, I tend to forget these admonitions and trade foolish indiscretions for eternal life. I must try harder, because to fail is unfathomable.
Thanks for this posting!
I just can’t reduce the Commandments to SUGGESTIONS, no matter how many stories I hear/read or how spiritually profitable they claim to be.
You do your thing. It’s your soul.
13Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. 16As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3)
John is baptizing with water, but Jesus is going to baptize “with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” There are only two baptisms – one of the Holy Spirit, and the other of fire. Everyone MUST have one or they get the other.
I do believe that the physical pain will pale in comparison to the mental anguish of all the missed chances people had.
An eternity of regret of why they didn’t listen when they had the opportunity.
We often think of heaven being so far beyond the best we can imagine, and yet the same holds true for hell. It is worse than we can ever imagine. All the horrifying images of it can’t compare to its reality any more than the most beautiful images can compare to heaven’s reality.
Nobody can keep the commandments.
Once you’ve broken one, you’re guilty of all.
Adam and Eve only broke ONE commandment to die, to experience separation from God.
Our only hope IS forgiveness, the judicial pardoning of all our sin.
You’d be far better off *gambling* on forgiveness than depending on your own righteousness, which is as filthy rags in the sight of God.
Forgiveness by God is a sure thing.
All true. I think that we are limited in that we envision things in a physical sense when there will be nothing physical after this life. As humans in God’s creation, we live in a bottle: all that we observe - mass, energy, dimensions, time - are creations of God that we are temporarily contained in.
Once this physical life is completed, we enter God’s world where is nothing physical and no time. We will either be with God or held away, an eternity of unimaginable torment.
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