Has the Curtain Finally Come Down on Hell?

Matthew 10:28, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Matthew 25:41, “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
Matthew 25:46, “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

The shelves of Christian bookstores are sagging beneath the overload of books that describe the peace, prosperity, the present benefits, as well as the everlasting rewards of knowing Christ as Savior. These are great truths but the tendency today is to leave out the sledge-hammer impact of the result of refusing to come to saving faith in Christ. Thus, the unbeliever gets the impression that his life will be poorer for not trusting Christ–yet he concludes that the consequences are not all that bad for not having done so.

The London Times stated in an article a number of years ago, “…that among the causes of the drift away from church going and of the relaxation of moral standards has been the disappearance of the belief in eternal punishment.”

Over the past forty years, I have written and preached many times on the wonders and glories of Heaven – the place of everlasting rest for the saints of God. If that were the only destination from the last terminal of death, I would not have to deal with today’s subject – the place of everlasting ruin for sinners. However the truth of the Bible is there is both welcome and warning in the gospel. If you welcome Christ as Lord you’ll go the Paradise of Heaven, but refuse the Bible’s warning and you’ll go to the Penitentiary of the Damned. If you refuse to trust Christ as the only one who could pay your sin debt, then you’ll have to pay for them yourself, and that will take forever!

After reviewing the rise of the modern age, the Italian literary critic Piero Camporesi commented, “We can now confirm that hell is finished, that the great theater of torments is closed for an indeterminate period, and that after 2000 years of horrifying performances the play will not be repeated. The long triumphal season has come to an end.” 

Is this the teaching of scripture? Has the curtain finally come down on hell? Tragically, millions of postmodern Americans answer with a resounding “YES”! For multitudes the doctrine of hell has become simply unthinkable.

H. Richard Niebuhr was on target in his caustic indictment of nineteenth-century American liberalism as he said, it believed in “a God without wrath [who] brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the work of a Christ without a cross.”

Although hell gets some consideration in that 60 % of Americans still believe in it, yet only 1% believes they might go there. The truth is hell gets little respect. Listen to some flippant phrases that we use about hell: During an election campaign in England, one business man told a reporter, “I’m voting for the Labor party and praying like hell the Tories get back.” One athlete said, “Winning beats the hell out of losing.” Why not beats the Augusta or Atlanta out of losing? People talk of going to “hell and back” to get things done. Impossible things will be done when “hell freezes over.” We say of someone who is very determined that they are “hell-bent”. An extremely graphic scene is said to be “hellish”. When consequences are going to be stiff, we hear the person say, “It’s going to be hell to pay.” A person who lives on the wild side of life is called a “hellcat” or a “hell-raiser.” Certain slums in a very bad neighborhood may be given the name “hell hole.” The word hell has become so cheaply, commonly and frequently used that it has been rendered virtually unthreatening and without meaning.

The late Dr. M.R. DeHaan said, “The more such a word is used in an aggressive, profane way, the less threatening it seems to the user. Accordingly, the subject of hell has become as present in street talk as it is absent in Sunday sermons.”

Reflecting back over the past ten years, I don’t recall but one single sermon that I’ve heard preached devoted singularly to the subject of Hell. It’s obvious that many evangelicals are ashamed of this biblical doctrine and view it like a blemish on God’s face that is to be covered up by the cosmetic of divine love.

Bishop John A.T. Robinson pontificated that “in a universe of love there can be no heaven that tolerates a chamber of horrors; no hell for any which does not at the same time make it hell for God.”
Gordon Kaufman of Harvard Divinity School says, “I don’t think there can be any future for heaven and hell.”

Has the curtain finally come down on Hell? Can we somehow ignore or explain away the more than 162 references in the New Testament alone which warn of hell, and of which over 70 were uttered by none other than the Lord Jesus Christ?

The statement of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 25:41 is laden with some words that carry immeasurable weight. These words are — “Depart,”  “cursed, “eternal fire,” and “devil and his angels.” In these four terms we raise the false curtain that deceived men have placed over the final story of those who have refused to join the cast of God’s Big Redemptive Story and in so doing we see that the curtain of Hell has never fallen.

Depart means Eternal Separation: Cursed means Legal Condemnation: Eternal Fire means Painful Sensation: Devil and his angels mean Evil Associations.
We will consider these three ideas:
(1) The Command by Jesus to “Depart from Me” to a Prepared Place Confirms that Hell is Factual and Forever!
(2) The Characterizing of Those Commanded to Depart by Jesus as “Cursed” Reveals that Hell is Fair and Fearful!
(3) The Company that Jesus Consigns the Cursed to –the Devil and his Angels – Reveals that Hell is Foul and Friendless!

Although the message is lengthy, please take time to read it in its entirety, then print it out and share it with others.

The Command by Jesus to “Depart from Me” to a Prepared Place Confirms that Hell is Factual and Forever!

There are those who suggest that hell is just a state of mind. One very popular preacher in our day suggests that a person is in hell when they have lost their self esteem. Hell is not a state of mind. It is not the present sorrows, hardships, and heartaches of this life. War is most hellish in nature, but it’s not hell.

No teaching of scripture is more viciously attacked and vehemently denied than this one concerning eternal punishment. In an attempt to bring the final curtain down on hell a number of old heresies are being resurrected today and foisted upon the scripturally naïve and ignorant as being the truth that the Bible teaches.

One unscriptural teaching abroad today that is gaining widespread approval is called universalism. This is the teaching that God, through the atonement of Jesus, will ultimately bring reconciliation between God and all people throughout history. This reconciliation will occur regardless of whether they have trusted in or rejected Jesus as savior during their lifetime. This universal redemption will be realized in the future where God will bring all people to repentance.  This repentance can happen while a person lives or after he has died and lived again in the millennium or some future state.  Additionally, a few Universalists even maintain that Satan and all demons will likewise be reconciled to God. 

Some, like J. Preston Eby, teach that hell is remedial and eventually will bring all who are in it to a state of repentance: “To the unsaved, HIS GLORY is a LAKE OF FIRE AND BRIMSTONE – divine, cleansing, purging, purifying, consuming fire! In ages yet unborn God shall expose ALL MEN to the sweet abiding presence of the Lamb. They will come under such severe processings, under such profound conviction that they will be tormented and have no rest day or night until they finally yield. And when they do, many fountains of tears will flow with weeping, praying, and calling upon the Lord. I believe it! God hasten it!”

Carlton Pearson is a well-known pastor and evangelist who for over 20 years has been pastor of the Higher Dimensions Family Church in Tulsa and is the presiding bishop of the Azusa Interdenominational Fellowship of Christian Churches and Ministries, Inc., which includes over 500 churches and ministries. Pearson teaches a doctrine he calls inclusion, which is just a synonym for universalism. He states that sincere people who do not directly acknowledge Christ — such as Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Unitarians — will go to heaven. “The finished work of Christ at Calvary redeemed all of humanity, not just Christians, back to God,” Pearson says. “The whole world is already saved — they just don’t know it.” This may seem like a merciful view, but it’s heresy as far as a biblical position. Pearson explains “The death of Christ made it possible for God to accept sinful man, and that he has, in fact, done so. Consequently, whatever separation there is between man and the benefits of God’s grace is subjective in nature and exists only in man’s mind and unregenerate spirit. The message man needs to hear then, is not that he simply has a suggested opportunity for salvation, but that through Christ he has, in fact, already been redeemed to God and that he may enjoy the blessing that are already his through Christ”(Carlton Pearson, Jesus: The Savior of the World).

Pearson states that a God who eternally condemns non-Christians would be worse than Hitler. “Hitler killed six million [people], mostly Jews. He is the most despised man in the twentieth century. Is God worse than Hitler, who’s going to burn eternally, endlessly, billions of people?” So is Hitler in heaven? According to the Universalists view he and other despots of lesser evil may enjoy being in the kingdom with others who did right because God is SO merciful.

Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, the agnostic, said: “Ladies and gentlemen, the idea of hell was born of revenge and brutality on the one side and cowardice on the other. I have no respect for any human being who believes in it. I have no respect for any man who preaches it. I dislike this doctrine. I hate it. I despise it. I defy this doctrine. The doctrine of hell is infamous beyond all power to express.”

Judge Rutherford, one of the prominent earlier leaders of the Jehovah Witnesses, said: “A creator that would torture his creatures eternally would be a fiend and not a God of love.”

Christian Universalist, Eric Stetson declares that, “The doctrine of eternal hell has done more damage to Christianity, civilization, and the human soul than any other false teaching. But it is nothing more than a lurid nightmare, a fantastic product of the human imagination. When people allow their fears to rule their hearts and minds, they open themselves up to evil deception. But love shall conquer fear through the power of Jesus Christ, and one day we will all finally see the truth, that an endless hell is Satan’s biggest lie.”

Stetson’s website lists a quote from Pastor Charles Slagle, before he found the truth of Christian Universalism: “Sobs and spastic cringes convulsed my body…. I raged. My mind was burning with anguish. Sorrow and shame swept over me in waves of liquid fire…. “I hate you, God! You’re full of empty promises and even more full of cruel threats! I hate life! I wish I had never been born!”… Helpless fury raged inside me. What horror! What injustice! Being called into existence in a world wracked with pain, catastrophe, and abuse — and then — hauled into judgment and sentenced to fiery torment. Forever without hope! “What hypocrisy! You call Yourself a God of love. So why did You invent a hopeless hell for Your cherished creatures?”… White-hot hatred mingled with despair and sorrow coursed through my body. Why had I wasted a moment of my life even trying to serve Jesus Christ?” But when He discovered the real truth about God, i.e., that everyone will be saved and ultimately be in heaven, he became a lover of this God!

English philosopher, Bertrand Russell wrote a book entitled, `Why I Am Not a Christian’. In it he remarks, “There is a very serious defect to my mind in Jesus Christ’s moral character and that is that He believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is profoundly human can believe in everlasting punishment.”
  
We should heed the advice of John Piper: “Instead of coming to the Bible and saying, “I feel that endless suffering cannot be just, and so the Bible cannot be teaching it,” rather say, “Since the Bible teaches it, it must be just and therefore, O how infinitely dreadful sin must be! How infinitely blameworthy it must be to treat the glory of God with contempt! How infinite must be the insult to God when we do not trust his promises! What infinite beauty and glory and purity and holiness God must have, that endless suffering is a just and fitting punishment for disobeying his word!”

Dorothy Sayers, who died in 1957, speaks a necessary antidote to the modern day abandonment of the biblical truth concerning hell: “There seems to be a kind of conspiracy, especially among middle-aged writers of vaguely liberal tendency, to forget, or to conceal, where the doctrine of Hell comes from. One finds frequent references to the “cruel and abominable mediaeval doctrine of hell,” or “the childish and grotesque mediaeval imagery of physical fire and worms.” . . .

But the case is quite otherwise; let us face the facts. The doctrine of hell is not “mediaeval”: it is Christ’s. It is not a device of “mediaeval priestcraft” for frightening people into giving money to the church: it is Christ’s deliberate judgment on sin. The imagery of the undying worm and the unquenchable fire derives, not from “mediaeval superstition,” but originally from the Prophet Isaiah, and it was Christ who emphatically used it. . . . It confronts us in the oldest and least “edited” of the gospels: it is explicit in many of the most familiar parables and implicit in many more: it bulks far larger in the teaching than one realizes, until one reads the Evangelists [gospels] through instead of picking out the most comfortable texts: one cannot get rid of it without tearing the New Testament to tatters. We cannot repudiate Hell without altogether repudiating Christ.”

At the risk of being labeled an old-fashioned, hell-fire and brimstone preacher, I want to go on record as declaring that I believe that Jesus Christ is the Eternal Son of God who 2,000 years ago came from eternity into time and then back into eternity, leaving for us the testimony of an eye witness of the places and things of eternity. If this is true then Jesus is everything He said He was and both heaven and hell are real, literal places.

It is a profound and dreadful reality. There is no way to describe Hell. Nothing on earth can compare with it. No living person has any real idea of it. No madman in wildest flights of insanity ever beheld its horror. No man in delirium ever pictured a place as utterly terrible as this. No nightmare racing across a fevered mind ever produces a terror to match that of the mildest hell. No murder scene with splashed blood and oozing wound ever suggested a revulsion that could touch the border lands of hell.

To speak of it jokingly, or not to speak of it at all, or to speak of it in a way that changes suffering into feeling nothing, simply reveals that we do not grasp its horror. Even the most far out exaggeration of hell cannot overstate its terrors. Who among us could surpass the horrid images Jesus used? “Weeping and gnashing of teeth”; “their worm shall not die” (Mark 9:48); “unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12; Mark 9:43); “eternal fire” (Matthew 25:41); “the hell of fire” (Matthew 18:9); “eternal punishment” (Matthew 25:46); “anguish in the flame” (Luke 16:24). The point of all these is that we are meant to shudder, to tremble and feel dread, and to recoil from the reality of hell, not by denying it, but by fleeing from it into the arms of Jesus, who died to save us from it.

Jesus, speaking in Matt. 25:41, said, “Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” In verse 46, He said, “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous unto life eternal.” Rev. 14:11 declares, “And the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day or night.” In the account of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:26 the Bible says, “There is a great gulf fixed.”

Just as universalism (i.e., everyone will be saved) is the rage in liberal Christian circles, so, too, annihilationism (i.e., God will annihilate unbelievers) is gaining momentum in conservative Christian circles. The question, of course, is whether annihilationism is biblical.

This unbiblical teaching is also known as conditional immortality. The essence of this doctrine is that a person who dies unsaved is simply annihilated, burned like straw.

Professor Clark Pinnock wrote in 1990, “I was led to question the traditional belief in everlasting conscious torment because of moral revulsion and broader theological considerations, not first of all on scriptural grounds. It just does not make any sense to say that a God of love will torture people forever for sins done in the context of a finite life . . . It’s time for evangelicals to come out and say that the biblical and morally appropriate doctrine of hell is annihilation, not everlasting torment.”

A few years ago the prominent pastor emeritus of All Souls Church in London, John Stott, wrote, “Emotionally, I find the concept [of eternal conscious torment] intolerable and do not understand how people can live with it without either cauterizing their feelings or cracking under the strain . . . Scripture points in the direction of annihilation.” Stott confesses, “I do not dogmatize about the position to which I have come. I hold it tentatively.” More recently he described his position as “agnostic” on the ultimate annihilation of the wicked.

Annihilationism reduces sin from high treason to a misdemeanor. It eliminates any future justice. C. H. Spurgeon was right when he said, ”A low view of Hell usually is associated with a low view of the Cross.”

Dr. R A Torrey wrote: “Shallow views of sin and of God’s holiness, and of the glory of Jesus Christ and His claims upon us, lie at the bottom of weak theories of the doom of the impenitent. When we see sin in all its hideousness and enormity, the holiness of God in all its perfection, and the glory of Jesus Christ in all its infinity, nothing but a doctrine that those who persist in the choice of sin, who love darkness rather than light, and who persist in the rejection of the Son of God, shall endure everlasting anguish, will satisfy the demands of our own moral intuitions. . . . The more closely men walk with God and the more devoted they become to His service, the more likely they are to believe this doctrine”

However, there is no cessation of existence found in true, honest, Biblical exegesis. No one has any trouble believing the everlasting life part of Matt. 25:46. By every known law of exegesis, it must mean the same in the other part of the verse. This word “everlasting” is used 69 times in the New Testament. Sixty-one times it refers to the enduring life of the saved and eight times to the enduring misery of the lost. The punishment, the retribution, the duration of hell is eternal.

The old Methodist, Albert Munsey said, “O eternity! God has wound up thy clock and it will never run down and it’s tickings and beatings are heard by all the lost—forever and ever–forever and ever—forever and ever! There is no end to its punishment. There is no escape from its place. It is referred to as eternal death. Two more dreadful words were never joined together—eternal and death.”

Depart from me — It is separation from Christ, from the source of life forever. It is separation from Heaven, angels and saved ones, forever.

Depart from me — It is separation from virtue and happiness, forever. It is separation from all that is beautiful and good, forever. It is separation from all intellectual, social, and moral pursuits which are inherent in man’s identity and destiny as an immortal being and as the offspring of God, and it is separation forever.

Depart from me — It is to be wicked without the hope or power of repentance, to be miserable without alleviation, to be both, forever. It is the utter subversion and destruction of the unity and harmony of man’s nature and the total failure of his life in the accomplishment of anything worthy of him– and both forever. It is the aggregation of all sorrow, pain, woes, and horrors mixed in one fearful beverage – the cup of the wrath of God — to be drunk forever. It is to be lost in Hell or in outer darkness, forever. Forever is a little word with a significance as high, wide, and deep as God. It is death forever–eternal death.

The Characterizing of Those Commanded to Depart by Jesus as “Cursed” Reveals that Hell is Fair and Fearful!

A. Cursed — Legal Condemnation

The last thing which our Lord did before He left the earth was, ‘He lifted up his hands, and blessed his disciples’. But the last thing He will do, before He leaves the throne, is to curse and condemn His enemies. Our text in Mt 25:41 records the dreadful sentence in which the everlasting misery of the wicked is declared.  The Judge’s book declared, Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” (Gals 3:10) Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD.” (Jerm. 17:5)

Gentle Jesus, the Lamb of God is now Judge Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and as judge His verdict is commensurate with the “curse of the law” upon them as transgressors. He must send them away from His presence into the penitentiary of the cursed and damned –hell. It is the terrible sentence of the law by which they are bound over to the wrath of God, as transgressors. This curse does not first come upon them when standing before the tribunal to receive their sentence; but they were born under it, they led their lives under it in this world, they died under it, and rose with it out of their graves. And the Judge finding the curse upon them sends them away with it into the pit, where it shall lie on them through all the ages of eternity.

By nature all men are under the curse. But it is removed from the elect by virtue of their union with Christ. (Gals 3:13) Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”.)  The curse abides on the rest of sinful mankind, and by it they are legally condemned, devoted to destruction, and separated from God. John. 3:18, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John. 5:29, “…and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”

Dante’s hell is a perdition which a poet dreamed. The hell that the Lord Jesus Christ revealed is a pit which He has seen. A black night of infinite darkness without one star to break it’s gloom; a place of utter separation from God; a place of sorrow upon sorrow; a place divested of every good; a place of hate upon hate, of grief upon grief, of despair upon despair where people are eternally crying for help that never comes; with no one to hear their cries but other damned souls.

To sum up what’s been said, “Hell is Fair!” Every sin will receive its just recompense of reward. Every one who chooses to live without God on earth or in heaven will be given over to their choice forever in hell.

B. Eternal Fire — Painful Sensation

Hell not only has the mark of eternity that seals it’s duration, it has the misery of painful sensation that shows the agony of its intensity. Rev. 14:10 says, “The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.” It is said of the rich man in Luke 16:23, “And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments…” Verse 24 said, “…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.”

In heaven, grace is brought to its perfection, profit and pleasure. In hell, sin comes to its height and the punishment of evil also arrives at its ultimate there.

Therefore, as the joys of heaven are far greater than any joys which the saints obtain on earth, so the punishments of hell must be greater than any earthly torments whatever– not only in respect of the continuance of them, but also in respect of vehemence and intenseness.

What’s the source of this torment? The source of the torment of hell is from without and from within. It is from without because it is to be forever under the wrath and judgment of God. There is no escape from the omniscient presence of God, but there is from the benevolent presence. Those in hell shall never more taste of His goodness and bounty, nor have the least glimpse of hope from Him. They will see His heart to be absolutely alienated from them, and that it cannot be favorable towards them; that they are the party against whom the Lord will have indignation forever. They shall be deprived of the glorious presence and enjoyment of God– they shall have no part in the beatific vision; nor see anything in God towards them but one wave of wrath rolling after another! This will bring upon them overwhelming floods of sorrow for evermore.

The torment is from within because in hell the unbeliever’s capacity for loving something, for thinking on something, for trusting in something, is still there. But there is nothing to love but God, and he has no heart for God. There is nothing to think on but God, and that causes terror and torment to his soul. There is no relief from God. There is none from his conscience, because it only accuses him, there is none from the devil, none from the damned, none from the demons. There is none from hope, because it is gone forever. There is none from time, for this state is forever. It is only punishment without pity; misery without mercy; sorrow without succor; crying without comfort. It is bitter memories, tormenting remorse and agonizing despair, forever. Hell is that place where there is no music but the weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. There is no drink but from the cup of the fury and indignation of God’s wrath. There is no light, only the blackness of outer darkness forever.

The Company that Jesus Consigns the Cursed to –the Devil and his Angels – Reveals that Hell is Foul and Friendless!

A. Evil Association –Hell is confinement with Satan, demons, and the damned forever.

I have read the statements of agnostics and atheists as they declared that as for them they would rather go to hell in order to be with many of their friends, and many of the famous throughout history. But I assure you my friend, that relationships are absolutely unobtainable in hell. If you die without a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, you will slip behind eternity’s iron curtain where there will be total news blackout forever. Their will be no one to weep for you; no one to pray for you; no preachers will pester you about the welfare of your soul. There will never be a phone call, a birthday card, a visit from a friend or loved one. You will be shut up in the penitentiary of the damned forever.
 
Dr. Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, in an excellent article entitled, “The Importance of Hell”, observes, “The desire of the sinful human heart is for independence. We want to choose and go our own way (Isaiah 53:6.) This is no idle ‘wandering from the path.’ As Jeremiah puts it, ‘No one repents . . . each pursues his own course like a horse charging into battle. (8:6) What is hell, then? It is God actively giving us up to what we have freely chosen-to go our own way, be our own “the master of our fate, the captain of our soul,” to get away from him and his control. It is God banishing us to regions we have desperately tried to get into all our lives.

If the thing you most want is to worship God in the beauty of his holiness, then that is what you will get (Ps 96:9-13.) If the thing you most want is to be your own master, then the holiness of God will become an agony, and the presence of God a terror you will flee forever (Rev 6:16; cf. Is 6:1-6.)

Why is this so extremely important to stress in our preaching and teaching today? The idea of hell is implausible to people because they see it as unfair that infinite punishment would be meted out for comparably minor, finite false steps (like not embracing Christianity.) Also, almost no one knows anyone (including themselves) that seem to be bad enough to merit hell. But the Biblical teaching on hell answers both of these objections. First, it tells us that people only get in the afterlife what they have most wanted-either to have God as Savior and Master or to be their own Saviors and Masters. Secondly, it tells us that hell is a natural consequence. Even in this world it is clear that self-centeredness rather than God-centeredness makes you miserable and blind. The more self-centered, self-absorbed, self-pitying, and self-justifying people are, the more breakdowns occur, relationally, psychologically, and even physically. They also go deeper into denial about the source of their problems.”

Think of going behind eternity’s iron curtain where men are forgotten and all news is blacked out forever, when just a few days in solitary confinement in a modern prison cell can break the hardest and strongest of men.

Puritan Thomas Boston: “For they must depart into “fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” O horrible company! O frightful association! Who would choose to dwell in a palace haunted by devils? To be confined to the most pleasant spot of earth, with the devil and his infernal furies, would be a most terrible confinement. How would men’s hearts fail them, and their hair stand up, finding themselves environed with the hellish crew! But, ah! how much more terrible must it be, to be cast with the devils into one fire, locked up with them in one dungeon, shut up with them in one pit! To be closed up in a den of roaring lions, girded about with serpents, surrounded with venomous asps, and to have the heart eaten out by vipers, altogether and at once, is a comparison too low to show the misery of the damned, shut up in hell with the devil and his angels! How will these lions roar and tear! How will these serpents hiss! What horrible anguish will seize the damned, finding themselves in the lake of fire with the devil who deceived them! Drawn there with the silken cords of temptation by these wicked spirits and bound with them in everlasting chains under darkness!”

A Final Word of Warning and Welcome:

Only by understanding hell can we grasp the immensity of God’s love. God’s love took His Son to the hell of the cross for our sake. This is a costly love, a bloody love that has no parallel in any of the world’s religions. Although other religions (particularly Islam) threaten hell, none offer the sure deliverance from it that Christianity offers through the sacrificial love of God Himself.
The justice of hell stands as an everlasting witness to the infinite greatness of the glory of God, and the infinite greatness of the suffering and righteous of Christ to redeem all who repent and believe in him. Hell is an echo of the glory of God.

Professor D. A. Carson was right when he stated: “Hell stands as a horrible witness to human defiance in the face of great grace” and “I doubt if any of us is equipped to assess what is an ‘appropriate’ punishment for defiance of the holy and sovereign God, save God himself.”

Yet Hell is insufficient to save anybody. You can’t go to heaven just because you don’t want to go to hell. Telling sinners about Hell cannot scare them into heaven, because heaven is a place for those who love God, not for those who just fear hell. Fear of hell is no proof of love for God. Desiring to be rescued by the lifeboats before you drown does not prove that you love the captain of the ship. James 2:5 says that God promised the crown of life to those who love him–not fear hell, but love God. James 2:12 says that God promised the kingdom of God to those who love him. The pathway to heaven is the path of love to God. Fear may show you that you are on the wrong path. It may point you to the right one. But fear is not the path or the gate that leads to life. It is what you should feel when you wander off the path.

The point of the reality of hell’s horrors is to make us shudder, to tremble and feel dread. We are meant to recoil from the reality. Not by denying it but by fleeing from it into the arms of Jesus, who died to save us from it.

In his book, To Hell and Back, Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular surgeon, Dr. Maurice Rawlings, relates an incident in 1977 that forever changed his life. At the time of the incident he was a devout atheist, who in his own words “considered all religion “hocus-pocus” and death nothing more than a painless extinction.”

“In 1977, I was giving CPR to a patient when the following incident occurred. I inserted a pacemaker through the shoulder and guided it through the vain into Charlie’s heart. His heart stopped so I began to pound on his heart, but as I did blood spurted out, I stopped to adjust the pacemaker. And as I did, Charlie’s eyes would roll back in his head, he would sputter, turn blue, and convulse. This happened several times. Once while I was stopped to adjust the pacemaker Charlie screamed, ‘Don’t stop, don’t stop, I’m in Hell, I’m in Hell.’ Hallucinations, I thought at first, but most victims say, ‘Take your big hands off me, your breaking my ribs,’ but he was saying the opposite ‘For Gods sake don’t stop! Don’t you understand, every time you stop I’m in Hell. He was terrified and pleaded with me to help him.

Dr. Rawlings said, “ I was scared to death. . . Then I noticed a genuinely alarmed look on his face. He had a terrified look worse than the expression seen in death! This patient had a grotesque grimace expressing sheer horror! His pupils were dilated, and he was perspiring and trembling — he looked as if his hair was “on end.”

When he asked me to pray for him I felt downright insulted. I told him to shut up, I’m a doctor, not a minister or a psychiatrist. Then the nurse gave me that expectant look. What would you do? That’s when I composed a make believe prayer. I made him repeat the prayer to keep him off my back. Say it! Jesus Christ son of God, Keep me out of Hell. And a very strange thing took place. He was no longer that wild-eyed screaming lunatic. It was then that I too became a Christian.” (For more testimonies like this go to the website, “Is Hell for Real?” at www.TheLakeofFire.com.)

Believing in hell — with trembling and with tears brings a seriousness over all of life, and an urgency in all our endeavors, and a flavor of blood-earnestness that seasons everything and makes sin feel more sinful, and righteousness feel more righteous, and life feel more precious, and relationships feel more profound, and God appear more weighty.

Hell should serve to fill us with wonder that the death of one man–the God-man, Jesus Christ–could bear the infinite penalty as a substitute for everyone who repents and trusts in him. Hell is an echo of the glory of God. It reveals the greatness of the glory that has been rejected and the greatness of Jesus’ suffering because he bore that hell for all who believe.

We conclude with the words of Pastor John Piper: “True remorse and contrition and repentance flow from falling in love with all that God is for us in Jesus. Until God is our treasure we will not grieve over our falling short of being satisfied in him and living in a way that shows that satisfaction.

Hell cannot produce satisfaction in God. And so it cannot produce remorse for not having God. And so it cannot produce gospel repentance. And so it cannot save. It is insufficient.

If we want to bring about tears of gospel repentance we have to say things that make God and his holiness–not the comforts of heaven or the escape of hell–but God himself and all that he is for us in Christ–look alluringly attractive. The Holy Spirit takes this alluring portrait of God and Christ and causes people to fall in love with God. That’s called regeneration or new birth, or effectual calling. And when a person falls in love with all that God is for them in Christ, then the tears for sin will come. And they will be tears of remorse that God had been missed and spurned; and they will be tears of joy that finally there is something infinitely satisfying to live for and not just something to fear and to flee.

The most striking way to put this is that the pain of genuine repentance flows from the pleasure of seeing God for who he is. As paradoxical as it may sound, genuine grief over sin flows from genuine joy in the glory of God.

Hell is powerless to produce this. The tears that hell can produce are the tears of remorse and fear that the sin we love will destroy us. The practical purpose of hell is to shock us out of our love affair with the world and send us running to the fountain of life. But only the taste of that fountain will give a passion for God and break our hearts that we have loved anything else.

So I urge you: Don’t let the fear of hell be your only motive for wanting heaven. Instead, come to the living waters of God’s love and truth and goodness and wisdom and power and justice and grace and glory. Taste and see that the Lord is good. His steadfast love is better than life. Let the fearful insufficiency of hell drive you to the all-sufficiency of God.” AMEN!