GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
HELL
Its Origin, Purpose, Nature
Inhabitants and Duration
Elder Oscar B.
Mink
Pastor - Sovereign Grace Baptist Chcurch
Texarkana , Texas
(Luke 16:19-31
KJV) There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and
fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: [20] And there was a
certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of
sores, [21] And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from
the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
[22] And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by
the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was
buried; [23] And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and
seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. [24] And he cried
and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he
may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am
tormented in this flame. [25] But Abraham said, Son, remember that
thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus
evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. [26]
And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed:
so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can
they pass to us, that would come from thence. [27] Then he said, I
pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my
father's house: [28] For I have five brethren; that he may testify
unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. [29]
Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them
hear them. [30] And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went
unto them from the dead, they will repent. [31] And he said unto him,
If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be
persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
In this Scripture the Holy Spirit gives us a graphic
account of two men, who lived and died on this earth, and of their
eternal and separate destinies. These two men are in a great sense
representative men, depicting the eternal state of mankind beyond the
grave. In Lazarus we see the saved beyond their earthly miseries,
enjoying celestial bliss. In the rich man we see the lost suffering
the woes of an everlasting torment.
WHY A HELL?
Why a hell? All
governments of the earth have prisons for the transgressors of their
laws, and the voice of decency in universal concert cries out,
saying, "This is as it should be." Then I ask, shall not
God have His? Sin did not merely exile man from God, but made him a
fugitive, and a rebel against all that is holy and good. God's laws
are not only violated, but are scornfully flaunted and outraged by
man. In God's sight, sinners are criminals, and it would be
inconsistent with God's holiness and justice to have His laws broken
and blasphemed, and not invoke the penalty annexed to His law. God
will not excuse the guilty (Nah. 1:3).
In spite of the incessant rage of the cults against the
Bible doctrine of hell, thousands upon thousands of people are every
day learning of the reality of hell by dropping off of the precipice
of time "into the fire that never shall be quenched" (Mk.
9:43). The Jehovah Witnesses so called believe Christ's resurrection
resulted in His evaporation, and that there never was nor shall ever
be a hell. Armstrongism teaches that those who die in their sin shall
experience annihilation, and the mainline denominations are at an
accelerated rate imbibing the doctrine of the total restoration of
mankind. But the Scriptures clearly teach that all who die outside of
Christ shall suffer eternal damnation. "Shall not the Judge of
all the earth do right?" And it is right for spiritual criminals
to be punished? "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23).
Dan. 12:2 "And many of them
that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting
life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."
John 5:28-29 "Marvel not at this, for the hour is
coming, in the which all that are the graves shall hear His voice,
and come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of
life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of
damnation."
Death and resurrection
does not change the spiritual character of man. The Lord says of
man's post resurrection state, "He that is unjust, let him be
unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he
that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy,
let him be holy still" (Rev. 22: 11).
THE TEXT IS NOT A PARABLE
Modernistic
theologians teach that Luke 16:19-31 is a parable, but they err not
knowing the truth. Christ is in this Scripture quoting the actual
history of two individuals, one a rich man who held to the pagan
philosophy: "Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for to tomorrow we
die." The other, a poor sick beggar whom the rich man utterly
neglected, but who had heaven's attention, and was at the time of his
demise conveyed by angels to the place of infinite and eternal
comfort.
Parables,
similes, metaphors, and allegories are used in Scripture to set forth
truth which is literally stated somewhere else in the Bible. They are
used to free truth of confusion, and to enhance understanding.
Parables are used to reinforce truth, and never to detract from
truth. Supposing Luke 16:19-31 is a parable (which we do not suppose)
would militate against the "no hell" doctrine, rather than
support it. Couching truth in parabolic language does not diminish
the literalness of the truth, but serves to give it a two-fold
stimulus. The parabolic escape of the hell deniers is like the man in
the electric chair who escaped AC. by asking for DC. Any way they
turn their argument is yet against them.
In their effort to detour around the truth of a literal
hell, the cults (the term "cult" is in this booklet used in
a derogatory sense), and the modernists have made allegory their
favorite vehicle, but due to its ill use their allegory breaks down
and leaves them disastrously close to the brink of the hell which
they think does not exist.
I
am caused to wonder how they who try to force upon Luke 16:19-31, the
ill fitting cloak of parableism, get around the earth shaking
demonstration of God's wrath against sin by sending a flood upon the
earth, which in its wake drowned every person on the earth except
Noah and seven members of his family. Was the flood of Noah's day
merely a figure, and not really a flood? The fire and brimstone which
God sent down out of heaven, and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, was it
real fire or merely a figure? The 185,000 Syrians who the angel of
the Lord killed in one night (II Kings 19:35), were they really dead,
or just merely acting like they were dead? The answers to the above
questions are glaringly clear to the antediluvians, the burned out
citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the 185,000 angel smote Syrians.
To them the flood, the fire, and the death which the angel of the
Lord wrought are all real, and no one will ever be able to convince
the "rich man" of Luke 16 that the "fire" which
the Lord spoke of when He revealed his destiny is merely a figure and
not real.
THE NEED FOR PREACHING
OF THE
DOCTRINE OF HELL, IS CRITICAL
Isa. 30:9-10 "That
this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not
hear the law of the Lord: Which say to the seers, see not; and to the
prophets, prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth
things, prophesy deceits."
As
it was in Isaiah's time, it is even more so in our own day. All one
need do to prove this allegation is to go into the local religious
book store, and count the books which deal exclusively with the
subject of hell, and its unspeakable sufferings. I will venture to
say, where there is found one book that is biblically honest about
the subject of hell, there can be found a thousand dealing with the
love of God and heaven, and the great majority of the authors which
write about god's love and heaven are less than honest. They
conveniently forget that God is a "consuming fire," as well
as "love."
What
is true of the religious bookstore is acutely true of the universal
pulpit. The preaching of a literal burning hell took leave of the
American pulpit a long time ago and now there is a steady diet of the
doctrines of men being served and the doctrines of men can in no way
allow for an eternal hell.
To
highlight the urgency and vital need of preaching and teaching the
Bible doctrine of hell, I will quote a few excerpts from an article
by John Pallay in the Mansfield (Ohio) News Journal, dated Sept. 22,
1979.
The quotes are as
follows, "While the great revival preachers of history may have
warned of 'hell-fire and brimstone,' modern ministers generally have
a more toned-down message." "Some faiths hold that evil men
are annihilated at death, while still others may hold that every
individual ceases to exist at the grave." "Hell can be
overemphasized, according to the Rev. Polly Atkins of Mt. Hope
Lutheran Church in Shiloh. Referring to historical Lutheran beliefs,
she said hell is considered, and viewed only as a separation from God
following final judgment. The bible does not go into it at any great
depth, she said. It (hell) actually does not play a large part at all
in the Lutheran church. We preach good news." Another minister
emphasizing a positive approach to the subject is the Rev. Robert A.
Baker of Mansfield's First United Methodist Church. "Methodists
do not preach on the dangers of hell but rather stress the job of
sharing this life. Hell is absence from God." End quotes.
In view of the sad facts as noted
in the above quotes, and realizing they are representative of the
American pulpit, it is seen that the obligation of the God called
preacher to herald and to set forth plainly what the Word of God has
to say on the subject is superimposed. Christ Himself spoke more
often, and to a far greater extent about hell and its awful
sufferings, than He did about heaven and its joys.
What we want in this treatise is to know what the Bible
teaches in regard to the state of those who die in their sins, and
not what some Bible mocking preachers and satanically inspired cults
have to say about it.
It
is clearly taught in the text (Luke 16:19-31), that when a condemned
sinner dies today, that he, in his spiritual and soulish being goes
immediately to hell. It is taught in other Scriptures that he is to
remain in hell until the second resurrection, at what time his old
body will be raised from the grave full of sin. and being reunited
with the soul and spirit shall stand before the great white throne
judgment, from whence he will be cast in his entire being in the lake
"Which burneth with fire and brimstone" (Rev. 20:12-15,
21:8).
THE ORIGIN OF HELL
Of Christ. we
read, "All things were made by Him: and without Him was not
anything made that was made" (John 1:2). No existence antedates
Jesus Christ. Paul says: "All things were created by Him, and
for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist"
(Col.1:16-17).
"All
things were created by Him," including not only heaven and
earth, but hell also. "By Him all things consist," and not
merely exist or subsist, but "consist". Not only is all of
creation dependent upon God for its orderliness and balanced
proportions in which it is kept together (Heb. 1:3), and by which it
infallibly serves the purpose of its Creator, but all of original
creation, including hell, was perfectly consistent with the nature of
God.
There is no such
thing or place as "A Devil's hell." Hell is God's hell, and
His sovereignty over hell is as absolute as it is over heaven. The
first person God had disfavourably in mind when He created hell was
the devil. for He says, everlasting fire was "prepared for the
devil and his angels" (Mt. 25:41). The devil will suffer in
Hades, yes, more so than any other creature, and he will in hell bow
his knee and confess with his mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil.
1:10 & 11). I do not know it to be so, but I doubt that the
inhabitants of hell would be the least surprised to see and eternally
hear the devil mournfully crying out, "The Lord hath rebuked me,
He hath brought me down to hell, to the sides of the pit" (Jude
9: Isa. 14:15).
The Bible
does not tell us when hell was created. Some scholars believe it was
created before the entrance of sin into the angelic family, others
believe hell was created at the time of the angelic insurrection
against God, and there are some who believe hell came into existence
at the time of Adam's fall. As to when hell actually came into being,
I simply do not know, nor is there any other man who does know, but
there is something I DO KNOW about the origin of hell which no man
can successfully dispute, and that is, it was in the just and eternal
counsels of God and when it pleased Him He brought it forth.
Omniscience cannot have a new thought or know a new thing, so there
is a true sense in which hell is as ancient as God. Hell's point of
origin cannot be established, but the person of its origin has been,
and that person is the sin avenging God.
THE PURPOSE OF HELL
While there is
much about the purposes of God which defies human scrutiny, God has
on the other hand been pleased to lift the cloud of inscrutableness,
and reveal a goodly measure of His eternal mind to His saints. There
are some things the believer can know with absolute certainty about
the purposes of God. I will cite three of the many things which the
disciple of Christ can know about the purposes of God, and let us
remember there is not one thing in all of existence which has its
origin apart from, or acts contrary to the purpose of God.
1. All of God's purposes shall
stand. "The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, surely as I
have thought, so shall it come to pass: and as I have purposed, so
shall it stand" (Isa. 14:24).
2.
The Lord's every purpose shall be executed. "... For every
purpose of the Lord shall be performed ..." (Jer. 51:29).He
"worketh all things after the counsel of His own will"
(Eph. 1:11).
3. God's
purposes are eternal. "According to the eternal purpose which He
purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Eph. 3:11).
God is determined to glorify Himself, and it is this end
which all of God's purposes have in view. God never acts except to
glorify Himself, and God being the author of all creation, the
inextricable, and only honest conclusion concerning the purposes of
hell is, hell was created for the glory of God.
Rev. 4:11 "Thou are worthy, O Lord, to receive
glory and honour, and power: for Thou hast created all things, and
for Thy pleasure they are and were created". God does not save
people merely to keep them out of hell, but His primary purpose in
the salvation of the sinner is to glorify Himself. Neither does God
cast people into hell merely to punish them for sin, but hell was
created for the glory of God, and they who die unregenerate shall in
hell eternally magnify God's great attributes of hate and justice.
The rich man in hell (Lk. 16) brings as much glory to God, as Lazarus
in heaven. Lazarus in heaven magnifies God's wondrous attributes of
grace, love, and mercy; while at the same time the rich man in hell
equally honors God's eminent attributes of holiness, justice, and
wrath. God was glorified as much in casting Pharaoh down to hell, as
He was in translating Enoch to heaven. God was glorified as much in
the burning of Sodom, as He was in preserving the three Hebrew
children in the fiery furnace.
The
modernist preacher presents God as a sentimental indulgent father who
pats his rebellious children on the head and says, "There,
there, I know you didn't mean it." But God is not the Father of
all mankind. He is the Creator of all, but not the Father of all, as
the ecumenist would like for us to believe. Satan has his spiritual
children as well as God (John 8:44). There are children of hell as
well as children of heaven (Mt. 23:15), and both heaven and hell
subserve God's purpose to glorify Himself.
In reading the narrative (Lk. 16:19-31) concerning the
rich man and Lazarus, there cannot be found the first element of
regret manifested by Abraham in his reply to the rich man. The
rich man "Cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me."
Abraham replied, "Son remember..." And then proceeded to
remind him of all the good things which he had squandered in his
earthly life. Abraham did not say, "I know you do not deserve to
be in hell, and I am sorry you are in that awful place." No, he
did not say that, but went on to remind the rich man of his blatant
neglect of the word of God while he was alive on the earth.
Neither will God have the least pity on a single soul of the
multiplied millions that shall deservedly wake up in hell, It is in
this life that Christ must be ones' Advocate, or He will in the next
life be that person's eternal and inflexible adversary.
The Lord says to Christ hating and gospel rejecting men,
"I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear
cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind;
when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call
upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they
shall not find Me: for they hated knowledge, and did not choose the
fear of the Lord: They would none of My counsel: they despised all my
reproof" (Prov. 1:26-30). But just before the Lord said to the
wicked, "I will laugh at your calamity," He states the
reason of His laughter, "Because I have called, and ye refused;
I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at
nought all My counsel, and would none of My reproof" (Prov.
1:24,25)
God does not owe
man the first warning, but out of His general mercy God has filled
the Scriptures with warning after warning, saying, "Why will ye
die?" "Flee the wrath to come." "It is appointed
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment,' etc.. And He
says, "All day long I have stretched forth My hands unto a
disobedient and gainsaying people" (Rom. 10:21).
It is true that hell is for the purpose of punishing the
lost who die in their sins. Christendom so-called with its sickly
sentimentality, and its malformed concept of God may ignore sin by
giving it another name, but God called sin, sin, and He sees through
all the smoke-screens which modern religion uses to make sin appear
to be something less than what it is. In God's sight the girl
who has illicit sex, commits fornication, whether she gets pregnant
or not. With our permissive and sin excusing society so-called free
love is common, and when the girl gets pregnant all that it means is,
the girl "slipped up." The young man who gets caught
burglarizing a home is considered to have had a youthful adventure
which turned out badly. The weak arm of the law slaps him on the
wrist, and send him home. The drunk driver is strewing our highways
with human carnage, and the one who gets caught and goes to jail for
a few days is not considered to be criminal, but merely "unlucky."
But in God's sight fornication, burglary and drunkenness are
abominable, and "The Lord will not at all acquit the wicked"
(Nahum 1:3). Even God fearing Job, said, "If I sin, then Thou
markest me, and Thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity" (Job
10:14).
God will not
indefinitely suffer His Divine perfection to be impugned by puny
man. God's love does not invalidate His law, and man needs to
learn that God is holy, just, and righteous, as well as
longsuffering, kind and merciful. God's holiness is of such a nature
that it begets a perfect hatred of sin, and His unmitigated justice
will not allow sin to go unpunished. So it is, the purpose of
hell is twofold, for the punishment of the sinner, for sin must be
punished, either in Christ, or in the sinner. And hell exists for the
glory of God, for hell is the place of due recompense for sin, and
apart from hell many of God's wondrous attributes, deserving of
exhibition. would go eternally wanting and unknown.
THE NATURE OF HELL
Christ spoke far
more about hell than He did heaven, and now let us note some of the
things which the Bible says about that awful place. Christ said, "...
It is better for thee to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than
having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where their worm dieth
not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mk. 9:47,48). From these
words of the Lord we learn, first that hell is a place filled with
fire. Secondly, that the punishment of hell is eternal, a place of
everlasting burning, "the fire is not quenched." Thirdly,
hell is a place "Where their worm dieth not." The words of
Christ in this text (Mk. 9:47,48) are a restatement of Isaiah's words
found in the sixty-sixth chapter of his prophecy, and proves the
authenticity of that prophecy, wherein we find this further word on
our subject, "Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee
at thy coming ... the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover
thee" (Isa. 14:9 & 11). This he said of the king of Babylon.
Gehenna or the Valley of Hinnom
which is near the city of Jerusalem was a place where they cast the
dead bodies of malefactors or criminals. The putrid flesh of the dead
bodies gendered a deluge of worms, necessitating a perpetual fire to
consume the decaying flesh and worms. and to minimize the awful
stench of the place. The difference between Jerusalem's Ghenna and
the Gehenna of the lower regions is, Jerusalem's Gehenna received
only the body of the criminal, which was readily consumed by the
fire, and the predatory worms were consumed with their stinking prey.
The Gehenna of the lower regions is eternal, with eternal fire,
eternal worms, and eternal sinners, with eternal souls and bodies.
For God is able "To destroy both body and soul in hell"
(Mt. 10:28).
In the
eternal Gehenna the worms are spread under the residents of hell, and
worms cover their already tormented bodies (Isa. 14:9 & 11).
Ugly, slimy worms crawling in and out of the mouth, nose, eyes, ears.
and every other aperture of the body. The helpless but deserving
victims scream for mercy, but their pitiful and anguish laden cry
loses its mournful sound in the dark caverns of endless misery, for
the Scripture says, they shall be "Punished with everlasting
destruction" (II Thes. 1:9).
The
condemned man sitting in death row of the state prison waiting to be
electrocuted would not enjoy a lecture on the nature and function of
the electric chair, and neither does the condemned sinner appreciate
a message on the reality and terrible nature of hell, but the person
who without wavering warns God defying sinners to flee the eternal
blackness of hell, renders then an invaluable service. I saw a man
who had been put to death in the electric chair at Eddyville,
Kentucky, the sight of which has been indelibly stamped on my mind,
and I pray God that for the rest of my life to be spared all such
experiences, for the scene was devastating to my weak frame. Yet, I
know there is nothing so horrible in this life that it can be in any
sense compared with the pain and unhappiness of the man in hell. The
napalm bombs of Viet Nam, and the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki will by comparison with the unending explosions of hell be
like fourth of July firecrackers. Dr. LeRoy McWherter has ably
written:
"The
hell of the Bible is horrible beyond description. It is a lake of
BURNING, BUBBLING, BRIMSTONE, environed with a dense darkness, rising
in black embankments, instinct with Divine wrath. As far as the eye
can see, it is FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! Huge billows of fire rise up, and
roll in rapid succession, while great waves of fiery flames leap high
in the air, like angry waves of the sea during a violent storm. On
the crest of those mighty waves the inhabitants of hell rise for a
moment, to sink DOWN again into the lowest depths of this LITERAL
LAKE OF FIRE AND BRIMSTONE. While borne on the crest of these awful
billows the vast regions of FIRE echoes and reechoes the wails of the
LOST spirits - millions of voices sending up their heart-rending but
fruitless cries for WATER! WATER! WATER!"
Let us further consult the Scriptures, and see what they
say about the nature of hell. HELL IS:
A lake of fire - Rev. 20:15
A bottomless pit - Rev. 20:1 & 3
A devouring fire - Isa. 33:14
A horrible tempest - Psa. 11:6
A place of bitter sorrow - Psa. 18:5
A place where all wail - Matt. 13:42
A place of weeping - Matt. 8:12
A place of torment - Lk. 16:23
A place of filth - Rev. 22: 10
A place of cursing - Rev. 16:11
A place of outer darkness - Matt. 25:30
A place destitute of mercy - Lk. 16:24
A place where tongues are gnawed - Rev. 16:10
A place
where the devil will be - Matt. 25:41
A place where the fallen angels will be - Matt. 25:41
A place
where abominable men will be - Rev. 21:8
A place where there is no repentance - Rev. 16:9
A place
of gnashing of teeth - Matt. 24:51
A place where the residents do not want their
relatives to come - Lk. 16:28
But
the dehydrated bodies of the victims of hell must go eternally
parched and dry-mouthed, for hell has not nor shall ever have the
first drop of water.
It is
a place the terribleness of which is humanly incomprehensible, and a
place to be shunned at the cost of all things which this life has to
offer. The Saviour asks, "For what shall it profit a man, if he
shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mk. 8:36).
I have yet to see a Brink's truck in a funeral procession (I Tim.
6:7).
THE INHABITANTS OF HELL
Acts 17:30 "God
... now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." And the Lord
Jesus Christ said two times in quick succession, "I tell you,
nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke
13:3 & 5). The inhabitants of hell are made up of impenitents.
(Rev. 16:9) "They repented not to give Him glory." One
impenitent or unatoned for sinner in heaven would defile the whole,
and ungod God. The absolute rule which our Lord set down is "repent
or perish," which being simply stated is, "Turn or Burn."
People do not get disturbed when
they are told the devil and his angels are going to burn in hell, nor
are they concerned upon learning that the false prophet and the
antichrist are going to be cast into eternal hell, neither are they
moved when told that all "The abominable, the murderers, whore
mongers, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in
the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone ..." (Rev. 21:8).
The reason being, while they admit they do not believe in the Bible,
they will tell you straight out, that they are none of the mentioned
above. Oh how intense is the darkness of the lost soul, it is not
merely in darkness, but is darkness (Eph. 5:8). Lost man is not
merely at enmity against God, but is enmity (Rom. 8:7). Jeremiah
says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked: who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9). The heart is not merely
"wicked," but "desperately wicked." But what the
unsaved person does not realize is, that disbelief in the Bible is a
sin of such magnitude that in God's sight it is equal to being
abominable, a murderer, a sorcerer, or an idolater, and the same
Scripture which declares hell to be the final and fit abode of all
who commit such evil, also says: "The unbelieving ... shall have
their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone"
(Rev. 21:8).
Under the
biblical heading of "THE UNBELIEVING" are people from all
walks and stations of life, and all who die in unbelief, be they rich
or poor, shall stand before the God of the Bible at the last day and
be made aware of the awful degree of torment they shall eternally
suffer in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:11-15). The rich man's A-1 rating
with Dunn and Bradstreet will be of no value in that final assize, on
the contrary, it will identify him with the rich man of Luke 16, who
mishandled the things which God's common grace bestowed on him.
Neither will the social or welfare programs of this world be able to
help the unbelieving poor in that day, for the body whose foundation
is in the dust will be at that time beyond the reach of any further
help.
The religionists who
pay only lip service to the word of God will hear the heart rending
verdict, "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall
enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My
Father which is in heaven" (Mt. 7:21). All that the lip service
crowd want out of religion is a fire escape, but to their woeful
dismay they shall find themselves in the burning house of the damned,
where exit signs shall never appear, and their eternal lament shall
be, "I am tormented in this flame."
The Pastor who failed to tell his people the truth
concerning hell and their inability to avoid its fiery gates, will
stand before the white throne judgment, along with his poor deluded
congregation. O' they will pleadingly say, "Have we not preached
in thy name? And in thy name cast out devils? And in thy name done
many wonderful works?" But the perjureless and august Judge will
answer, "I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity
(Mt. 7:22, 23).
Some
people, ignorant of God's holy character and fixed opposition to sin,
have said, "Men go to hell, but it is not God Who sends them
there, man puts himself in hell." There is an element of truth
in this statement, but taken in its entirety it is seen to be utterly
false and imminently dangerous, for it causes men to think they are
secure in their sins until death, and most people live as if they are
never going to die.
In the
Scripture just cited (Mt. 7:22) we see man doing his best to stay out
of hell, but all to no avail, and God consigns them to hell; saying,
"Depart from Me ye that work iniquity" (Mt. 7:23). "...
Man puts himself in hell," there is a sense in which man goes to
hell on intellectual grounds, and it is on this basis it can be said
a man puts himself in hell. Man by nature is depraved in all of his
faculties, his intellect, will, and affections are in their every
exercise self-serving. Man in his fallen state does not merely choose
sin over righteousness, but he hungers and thirsts after sin, while
hating every semblance of righteousness. Natural man, when measured
by the divine yardstick is seen to be "at his best state
altogether vanity" (Ps. 39:5). Man does not go to hell
because of what he does, but because of what he is. He may fancy
himself to be something of great worth, but in truth he is a child of
wrath who is ill-deserving of the least favor of God, and fully
merits the eternal and fiery indignation of God.
While hell shall be filled with those who are as
despicable as dung, as loathsome as lizards, as gruesome as Goliath,
as hateful as Herod, and as spiteful as Satan, there will not be one
infidel or atheist in hell, for they all are converted on arrival.
Hell will be devoid of love, even
natural affection will be alien in that place of endless sorrow and
grief. There will be sons and daughters who will point their burning
and puss dripping fingers into the face of their grief stricken
parents, and say in hateful tone, "I am here because of my sin,
yet I blame you, for on earth you taught me by word and example to
ignore the teachings of the Bible, and that the church was for the
unstable."
In hell
there will never be one smiling face, nor the laughter of little
children, neither shall there be any singing, nay, not even the
satanically inspired songs of fleshly lust and lewdness shall ever be
sung. There will never be one friendly handshake, nor the first
gentle pat on the back. A man once told me, "It does not make
any difference to me whether I go to heaven or hell when I die, for I
have friends in both places." He could not be more wrong, and if
he dies in his sins one of the first things he will learn is that
there is no friendship in hell, but that every man is filled with
hatred of every other man and that they gnash upon one another with
their teeth.
Instead of
kindness or concern hell will be a place of the accrued hatred of all
the ages. intense bitterness shall prevail in every quarter, and the
guilt ridden souls shall incessantly cry out, "O wretched man
that I am. I shall never be delivered from this awful death."
THE DURATION OF HELL
One of the first
questions the cultist will ask his unsuspecting prospect is. "Does
eternal mean everlasting, or does everlasting mean eternal?"
Obviously, a foolish question, but nevertheless a favorite with the
cults. The cultist then follows up with a twisting and distorting of
Scripture that makes the devil real proud, for he knows he has
successfully used his dupes to further blind the minds of them which
believe not (II Cor. 4:4). The devil has sown the field with his
tares, and they know that the things "of the Spirit of God is
foolishness unto the natural man" (I Cor. 2:14), and they
capitalize upon fallen mans' spiritual ignorance, whereby their poor
victim is caused to give "heed to seducing spirits and doctrines
of devils" (I Tim. 4:1).
Two
so-called Jehovah witnesses were saying it could not be proven from
the Hebrew scriptures that the soul of man is eternal. The sagacious
pastor to whom they were talking, said, wait a minute, stepped into
his office, and handed them his Hebrew Old Testament, saying, "Find
the book of Isaiah for me." They filtered and fumbled through
the pages for more than ample time. Finally, the pastor said, "Show
me the book of Jeremiah." Again their lengthy efforts were
futile. and the pastor knowing they were mere stereotypes of Russell
(their spiritual progenitor who perjured himself on the witness stand
by saying he was fluent in the Greek language when he did not know
the first word of the Greek language) said, "Read for me one
text if you can?" They did not know a single Hebrew letter, but
were quoting what they had been taught by their deceived superiors.
The Greek word "aionios"
translated "eternal" or "everlasting" in the King
James Version is used to denote that which is eternal in its nature.
Aionios is used seventy one times in the KJV, and is set in contrast
with "proskairos," which literally means, "for a
season."
Aionios or
eternal is used to denote the being or glory of God. (Mt. 6:13; John
8:35; Rom. 1:25, 9:5, 16:27; Gal. 1:5; II Tim. 2:10; Heb. 1:8, 5:6; I
Pet. 4:11, 5:11; I John 2:17; Rev. 1:8, etc.)
Aionios
or eternal is used to denote the believer's life in Christ. (Mt.
19:16, 25:46; Mk. 10:17 & 30; Lk. 10:25; John 3:15,16 & 36,
6:27,10:28; Acts 13:46 & 48; Rom. 2:7, 5:2 1; Gal. 6:8; I Tim.
1:16; Titus 1:2; I John 1:2, 3:15, 5:11; Jude 21.)
Aionios or eternal is used to denote the duration of the
punishment of those who die in their sins. Jude 7 "Even as Sodom
and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving
themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are
set forth for an example. suffering the vengeance of eternal life."
Some other references where the term "aionios" or "eternal"
is used to show that the suffering of hell is unending are, (Mt.
18:8, 25:42,46; Mk. 3:29; II Thes. 1:9; Heb. 6:2; Jude 7:13; Rev.
14:11).
Greek scholars
agree, with little to no exception, that the words "aion"
and "aionios" refer to duration, and unless specified, they
always mean endless duration. When Christ says to those on His left
hand, "... Depart from Me ye cursed, into everlasting fire"
(Mt. 25:41), there is no room to quibble, for His words leave no room
for ambiguity, and unequivocally declare that the duration of hell is
everlasting.
A heavenly
eternity is not long enough to give God all the praise and honor due
Him, neither is hell too long in duration for the occupants thereof
to suffer more than due recompense for their sins. The man, woman,
boy or girl who goes to hell, deserves to stay in hell, and no person
in hell shall ever say, "I ought not to be there."
While no man on earth can know
the date hell was actually created by God, neither shall any man in
heaven, earth, or hell ever know the day of its cessation, for the
simple reason; THE FIRE OF HELL IS UNQUENCHABLE, and shall burn as
long as the glory of heaven shall shine.
In that great hymn, Amazing Grace, John Newton says to
the weary pilgrim, "When we've been there (heaven) ten thousand
years, Bright shining as the sun, We've no less days to sing God's
praise than when we first begun." To those who spurn the gospel
of free grace, I say, "When you have been in hell ten thousand
years, burnt black by the Son, you've no less days to suffer God's
wrath than when you first begun."
EXHORTING THE EARTHLY
The contemporary
believer is not going to hell, and as yet he is not in heaven. Thus
it is the believer's responsibility to warn, not only rich men and
their brethren of their broad way travel to the gates of eternal
destruction, but also the poor, yea, even the "fool" which
says in his heart "there is no God," is to have the gospel
preached unto him. And it is the sincere prayer of the believer, that
the path to hell may grow plushy green with grass from a lack of
travelers thereon.
Let me
exhort those who as yet have no interest in the privileges which
belong to the children of heaven. I pray the God of all grace that He
may enable you to earnestly consider your carnal security, and cause
you to see the urgency of your desperate need. That you may be made
aware that all who believe not the Lord Jesus Christ are children of
wrath (John 3:36), even more, they are bondslaves of the devil, and
his diabolical will is their delight.
O' rebel, you are a stranger to the covenants of
promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. You manifest
in every way that in your present state you are an heir of hell. This
is your natural heritage, and if you die in your sins this sad legacy
will remain as sure to you as God shall remain sure to the heirs of
glory.
When you die you
will leave your earthly substance to another, but the righteous
judgment of God has fastened hard upon you, and will follow you into
the next world. Divine justice is weary of you, and cries out for the
eternal penalty to be exacted from you, the bottomless pit opens her
smoking mouth to receive you, and hell from beneath is coming up to
meet you and to greet you with the spine chilling screams of the
damned.
Your
responsibility is, a denunciation of this present world and its vain
glory, owning your helplessness to save yourself from hell, that hell
has a rightful hold on you, and that if the merits of Christ's shed
blood does not avail for you, that there is no hope for you.
"The wicked shall be turned
into hell ..." (Psa. 9:17). A person does not have to be Judas
Iscariot to be wicked, all that one need do in order to be wicked, is
to be born into this world (Psa. 51:5). By nature man is from the
womb to the tomb, wicked. "The wicked are estranged from the
womb: they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies"
(Psa. 58:3). Man as he is apart from Christ is guilty of eternal
treason against the Lord of glory, the King of kings, and will not
bow to His crown, but with his contemptuous heart, he says "I
will not have this man to reign over me" (Lk. 19:14). Lost man's
stubborn pride has him blinded to the fact "the Lord God
omnipotent reigneth," and that the Lord's sovereign wrath has
steadfastly settled upon his body and soul and will in due season
throw him down at the nailed scared feet of the King Eternal.
But the sounds of mercy are not
fully hushed, even in this dark and late hour the joyful sound of the
gospel is with impassioned tone still going forth in our benighted
land, and some repentingly hear it and turn from their sins unto
God. On the other hand, multitudes upon multitudes are
religiously deceived, thinking that the feeling of remorse brought on
by the thought of their bodies burning in hell, is the repentance
which without, Christ said, "Ye shall all perish" (Lk.
13:3). And being motivated by remorse, they have at the hands of
their beguilers bought in various forms what they believe to be full
coverage hell insurance. However, the true penitent knows that "it
is not by works of righteousness which he has done (Titus 3:5), be it
baptism or any other religious exercise that saves from sin, but his
hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
Genuine repentance invariably
brings remorse to the heart because of sin against Him Who was made
sin for the believer, but God given repentance calls for more than
remorse or sorrow for sin. Every convicted criminal fears this
punishment, and out of that fear feels grief or sorrow for himself.
Yet, having no knowledge that he has sinned not only against man, but
also against God, he cannot or will not leave off the evil which he
is accustomed to doing. Biblical repentance will manifest itself not
only in sorrow for sin, but in a change of mind about God, self, sin,
and about the judgment to come, It will be seen in a forsaking of
sin, and in taking God's side against one's self. Any gospel
which does not include the necessity of repentance is under the curse
of God, and all who die under its deception will awake in a
repentless hell.
Pharaoh
defied the Lord, and was caused to see the darkest and longest night
this world has ever known (Ex. 10:21,22). But Egypt's sightless
night, as bitter as it was, can in no way compare with that absolute
and eternal blackness in which Pharaoh is now immersed. Pharaoh was
obstinate, and was in himself assured he could resist the God of
Moses. To dissuade him, God sent the angel of death to every Egyptian
household to destroy the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his
throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant throughout all the
land of Egypt (Ex. 5:11,12). "There was a great cry in Egypt,
for there was not a house where there was not one dead" (Ex.
12:30). There was weeping and wailing, and heart rending lamentation
in Egypt that night but how soon are the judgments of God upon earth
forgotten Nothing short of personal death will totally negate the
awful depravity of the reprobate heart. God had with plague after
plague reproved Pharaoh, but it took drowning in the Red Sea to
nullify his churlish nature.
If
the death angel who visited Egypt in that dreadful and destructive
night, wherein the firstborn in every Egyptian household died, would
visit hell; His presence would be met with relentless applause. All
the occupants of hell would hurry to His bloody sword, and mournfully
beg for death. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God, for hell's judgment is eternal, not a single moments
respite while the ceaseless ages roll on and on. The unalterable
decree for hell is, eternal burning.
Christ is both light and life, in Him is neither
darkness nor death, and He has said: "He that followeth Me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John
8:12). Man's native love for darkness rather than light (John 3:19)
is no obstacle for God's Sovereign Son, for the "Son quickeneth
Whom He will" (John 5:21), and all whom He quickens are as free
from the flames of hell as He is, because where Christ is, His people
shall also be (John 14:3).
CONCLUSION
No doubt the
modernists who reads this booklet will call the author an "alarmist,"
and charge him with trying to scare people into the church. The
appellation "alarmist" in this case is not utterly
fallacious, for we are living in a time when people are more
apathetic toward the Bible and its teachings than at any other time
in the history of Christianity. The need to confront people with the
truth of a literal burning hell has never been more urgent than it is
today, for spiritual lukewarmness and indifference have replaced God
honoring zeal, and trappings of carnal reason characterize the
churches. The Lord says: "Sound an alarm in My holy mountain:
let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord
cometh, for it is nigh at hand; a day of darkness and of gloominess,
a day of clouds and thick darkness ... A fire devoureth before them,
and behind them a flame burneth" (Joel 2:1-3). This is a
prophecy concerning the terribleness of the great tribulation period,
which is surely near at hand, and being divinely admonished to "sound
an alarm" concerning God's tribulation wrath, is it not
incumbent upon the believer to deliberately make people aware of the
reality of hell, 'whether it alarms them or not.
As to the charge of "trying to scare people into
the church," I deny it. for it is badly flawed. In truth it is
God and only God Who adds to the church (Acts 2:47). When God adds to
the church there is a genuine "increase" in the church (I
Cor. 3:6), and that "increase" is ever fearful of the sin
hating God. Every believer who loves the Lord's church desires to be
used of His Saviour in building up his church, but such a believer
knows "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that
build it" (Ps. 127:1).
The cultist
with his preconceived notions on the subject, may with great
reluctance glance over these pages (although I doubt it), but he
knows in advance what his conclusions shall be. His insatiable
prejudices have precluded any favorable word. The cultist being
thoroughly programmed by his superiors, and moved by evil compulsion,
can only give a disdainful reading to any literature that teaches the
truth concerning hell.
Whatever
the thoughts of the readers may be, I am confident there will be at
least a few among them, who knowing the grace of God, and considering
themselves brands "plucked from the fire." will say: "God
can if He pleases use even this feeble effort to glorify His name."
May it be so.