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HELL by R.C. Sproul 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...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- God never leaves his creatures alone, not even at the moment of death when each person must complete his or her journey without the company of anyone else, Pope Benedict XVI said. God continually stretches out his hand to guide those he loves, the pope said Dec. 14 during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square. "His closeness is not one of judgment that incites terror, but one of support and liberation," the pope said. Offering a reflection on Psalm 139 and its praise of God who is "all knowing and ever present," Pope Benedict...

Commentary on Psalm 138(139):1-12 A Song of Confidence: God Is Always With Us VATICAN CITY, DEC. 14, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave during today's general audience. In his talk the Pope gave a commentary on Psalm 138(139):1-12. * * * 1. In two distinct moments, the Liturgy of Vespers -- on whose psalms and canticles we are meditating -- proposes to us the reading of a sapiential hymn of transparent beauty and of intense emotional impact, Psalm 138(139). Before us we have today the first part of the composition (cf. 1-12), that is...

Is God In Time? Gregory Koukl   Is it possible that all of history is one big space-time manifold--a "block universe"? Put your thinking caps on today. We're going to talk about time. It's common for us to make the comment "The spaceless, timeless God" or "Then we'll pass out of time, into eternity." However, the Scripture is not clear about God's timelessness. Most of the verses seem to indicate God is in time: Rev 1:4; Rev 4:8, Ps 90, Jude 25, 2 Pet 3:8. Two popular books describe a picture of God as timeless. Philip Yancey's book Disappointment...