What do YOU think about HELL?

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The most fundamental issue you will ever deal with is how to escape the judgement of God. It is an issue that you will either address now or wrestle with for all eternity, without hope.

That God punishes sinners is based on three basic presuppositions;

• That there is a just and holy God,
• That he created man a rational and responsible being,
• That man has voluntarily sinned against him, and brought himself into conflict with a holy and just God.

A denial of any one of these and the entire doctrine if eternal punishment is undermined. Those who deny the existence of endless punishment do so in opposition to God and are those who will populate hell. Matthew 25:46 "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal" teaches two basic, but all encompassing truths concerning the place called hell; It is "punishment" and it is "endless"

Punishment

There is no such thing as virtual punishment; it is a reality.

A virtual experience is something that exists in the mind or in the imagination but not in actual fact. The computer world speaks of virtual reality, something that is simulated or computer generated but not actual or physical.

Punishment in the real and actual world is felt by the senses, by the emotions, by the conscience. This is what the rich man said in Luke 16:24 "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."

The word "punishment" in Matthew 25:46 is the opposite to life in the verse. Consider other Scriptures…

• A soul lost - Mark 8:36 "lose his own soul"
• A soul destroyed - Matthew 10:28 "destroy both body and soul"
• A soul Separated from God - Matthew 7:22-23 "depart from me…"
• A soul damned - John 5:28-29 "they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation."

 

Endless Punishment

Mark 9:44 gives us a very vivid picture of the awful enduring agony of hell; "Where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched."
This picture is taken from the prophecy of Isaiah 66:24 where the prophet is describing the heaps of dead slain in battle; their number would be so great that the worms feeding on them would never die, such was the extent of the death. As long as there were carcasses the worms would be there.

You get the picture then of this everlasting destruction that God calls hell is a place of consuming fire, destruction, words that give the idea of an ending when the soul is destroyed or consumed. But the awful irony is that this consuming and destruction is endless. Revelation 22:11 "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."
This is a state of eternal sameness, there will be no change beyond the grave.

• If you die an adulterer, an adulterer you will be for all eternity.
• If you die a drunkard, a drunkard you will be for all eternity.
• If you die a thief, a thief you will be for all eternity.
• If you die loving the material stuff of the world, you will do so for all eternity…

But none of these sins will be satisfied, you will not be free to practice your sin, and you exist in a state of unfulfilled lust. your pet sin will be that illusive torment…never finding hope.

But…
We live in the day of grace and there is no reason why you should die in a state of sin

• The invitation is given
• The gospel is offered to you as your only hope

There is hope for those who accept God’s sacrifice for sin and judgement for those who reject it.