Is Hell A Myth? # 4

Is Hell A Myth? # 4

2. "Everlasting fire is a real PLACE." The rich man of Luke 16 is in hell bodily. He wanted his brothers to know where he was after death was a PLACE Jesus taught that the body would be in hell along with the soul" (Matthew 10:28).

3. A place of TORMENT. "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: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name" (Revelation 14:10-11).

4. A place of VILE COMPANIONSHIPS. "But the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable, and murders, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death" (Rev. 21:8). The devil will be there with all his demons. Read the list of the wicked persons in Romans 1:29-31).

5. A place from which there is NO EXIT. In public halls we find in bold letters, "EXIT." But "exit" is a word not in the vocabulary of hell. In other places there may be signs to help point the way out. But there are no exit signs in hell. Jesus says "there is a great gulf fixed..." it is impossible to escape from hell to a better place.

6. A place that is ETERNAL. "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." (Matthew 25:46). No one has any trouble believing the "eternal life" part of this verse. But by every known law of exegesis, it must mean the same thing in the other part of the verse. This word means "unto the ages of the ages." It is an unimaginable duration, a length of time that cannot be expressed. Sometimes it is used to describe the duration of the blessings of the saints, other times it describes the suffering of those in hell. Eternal... Without end... There are 10,000 grains of wheat in one bushel. Multiply that by all the grains in the millions of bushels of wheat grown every year. Multiply that by all the leaves on all the trees of the world. Now multiply that number by all the grains of sand on the seashores of the globe. Now take that number and multiply it by the number of stars in the sky. The number you would get after making such a calculation, if you could, would not even begin to count the length of eternity. Hell would not be hell if it were just a ten-year sentence! The Greek word "Gehenna" means a place of everlasting punishment. It is the word "Gehenna" that the New Testament uses to describe the place of punishment appointed for the unsaved after death.

What a terrible place hell must be. A world where the Holy Spirit never strives, where every soul is fully left to its own depravity; and where  there is no leisure for repentance, even if there was a desire for it. Richard Fuller called it "An immortality of pain and tears: an infinity of wretchedness and despair; the blackness of darkness across which conscience will forever shoot her clear and ghastly flashes - like lightening streaming over a desert when midnight and tempest are there; weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth; long, long eternity, and things that will make that eternity seem longer, making each moment more miserable than the last..."

But now I would have you to think of the....

VI. Assistance

Now I speak of the assistance the doctrine of hell is in preaching to win the lost. The preaching of this doctrine is ever an asset - never a hindrance - to the success of gospel preaching. The minister of the Gospel is under obligation to preach the whole truth of God's Word. If he does, God will take care of the results. We are to preach "as to dying men," as Richard Baxter wrote. If we are never to preach on hell, what is one saved from?

A. C. Dixon said, "If we had more preaching on hell in the pulpit, we might have less hell in the community." General Booth said, "If I had my way I would not give any of my workers a three-year training in a college, but I would put each of you twenty-four hours in hell - the best training for earnest preaching you could have."

We need to preach this doctrine along with the truth of the Cross. Preach it - not as dainty tasters of intellectual subtleties. Preach it- not as dealers of finespun metaphysical disquisitions. Preach it - not as administrators of laughing gas for the painless extraction of sin. Preach it - not with stammering tongue but as a trumpet that gives no uncertain sound. Preach it - with broken heart and yearning soul. Believing in the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ for the sins of the whole world, we must accept the doctrine of hell - for no lesser fate can they expect who, having heard the offer of the Gospel, deliberately reject it. How great the folly of suppressing the revealed fact of hell!

~Robert G. Lee~

(continued with # 5)