Is Hell A Myth? # 2

Is Hell A Myth? # 2

III. Actuality

Though some today in the theological and educational world are "fond of a mist that rises from the ground" and rebel against the concrete, the definite, the actual - still there is a hell! Though many vaporize every great fact and doctrine of the Christian faith and talk as though they believed that only when these great facts and weighty doctrines have been "sublimated into the mythical and poetic" are they worthy of the intellectual - still there is a hell!

We need realities to meet realities - and we find them in the New Testament, which is not "a collection of photographed mirages" and does not "tantalize wit vapors a world perishing of thirst." Watkinson says "To take away hell is to reject the physician and leave the plague, to overthrow the lighthouse and leave the hidden rock, to wipe out the rainbow and leave the storm, to take away the firelight and leave the fire to rage, to take away the vaccine and leave the smallpox. To take away hell is to meet the tragic blackness of sin with a candle gospel, to make a mild twilight out of eternal retribution, to take away the trumpet and open the gate to enemies, to take away roses and leave the thorns, to throw way gold and press bankruptcy upon human life."

In the light of Bible truth, consider the actuality of hell. If there is not a hell, I do not want to preach that there is. But I would rather believe and preach unpleasant truth than to believe and preach error. And as awful as the thought is, I can have no other conclusion than that there is a hell because I believe the Bible is the very word of God. The Bible is the only book that makes death room bright. The Bible is an oasis in a desert of despair. I must believe it! In the original purpose of God, there was no manifest provision for hell. Every being, bearing the image of the Creator, was with Him about the throne of heaven. There was no necessity for a hell. Necessity arose when His hosts rebelled in heaven and were cast out. Then was the "everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels."

"Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matthew 25:41).

"And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power" (2 Thess. 1:7-9).

Hell is a terrible actuality.

Yet some say: "Scholarly preachers have given up belief in an orthodox hell." If so, they did not give up that belief for reasons of Greek or New Testament scholarship. If so, they gave it up for sentimental and speculative reasons. No man can go to the New Testament and not find hell there. But suppose it is true that some preachers have given up a belief in hell. That would not prove anything. Religious scholars have been wrong more than they have been right!

None of the scholars in Noah's day believed a flood would come. But it did. No scholars, except for Abraham and Lot, believed that fire would fall on Sodom and Gomorrah. But it did. No scholars, except Jeremiah and Baruch, believed Jerusalem would be destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. But it was! Four leading schools of thought in Jesus' day scoffed at Jesus' prediction concerning the coming judgment of God on Jerusalem. But secular history tells us that in spite of the dissent of all the scholars, it came true just as Jesus predicted. No university in the world in the days of Luther and Huss believed in the doctrine of justification by faith. But it was so - and Luther was right - and every university of Germany, France, England and Scotland was wrong! So if all the scholars, preachers, scientist, artists, statesmen, politicians, musicians, and teachers on earth gave up belief in the doctrine of an orthodox hell, it would not prove anything!

Some say: "I hate hell." So do I. But nobody can hate hell out of existence. I hate snakes, but my hatred does not exterminate them. I hate rats, but rats still live. If we are Christians, we hate hypocrisy. But hypocrisy continued. Christians hate all manner of sins, but that hatred does not alleviate the sins. The hatred of hell does not alter the fact that THERE IS A HELL!

~Robert G. Lee~

(continued with # 3)