Posted on 06/20/2014 5:29:48 PM PDT by SoFloFreeper
We have often heard statements such as “War is hell” or “I went through hell.” These expressions are, of course, not taken literally. Rather, they reflect our tendency to use the word hell as a descriptive term for the most ghastly human experience possible. Yet no human experience in this world is actually comparable to hell. If we try to imagine the worst of all possible suffering in the here and now we have not yet stretched our imaginations to reach the dreadful reality of hell.
Hell is trivialized when it is used as a common curse word. To use the word lightly may be a halfhearted human attempt to take the concept lightly or to treat it in an amusing way. We tend to joke about things most frightening to us in a futile effort to declaw and defang them, reducing their threatening power.
There is no biblical concept more grim or terror-invoking than the idea of hell. It is so unpopular with us that few would give credence to it at all except that it comes to us from the teaching of Christ Himself.
Almost all the biblical teaching about hell comes from the lips of Jesus. It is this doctrine, perhaps more than any other, that strains even the Christian’s loyalty to the teaching of Christ. Modern Christians have pushed the limits of minimizing hell in an effort to sidestep or soften Jesus’ own teaching. The Bible describes hell as a place of outer darkness, a lake of fire, a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, a place of eternal separation from the blessings of God, a prison, a place of torment where the worm doesn’t turn or die. These graphic images of eternal punishment provoke the question, should we take these descriptions literally or are they merely symbols?
I suspect they are symbols, but I find no relief in that. We must not think of them as being merely symbols. It is probably that the sinner in hell would prefer a literal lake of fire as his eternal abode to the reality of hell represented in the lake of fire image. If these images are indeed symbols, then we must conclude that the reality is worse than the symbol suggests. The function of symbols is to point beyond themselves to a higher or more intense state of actuality than the symbol itself can contain. That Jesus used the most awful symbols imaginable to describe hell is no comfort to those who see them simply as symbols.
A breath of relief is usually heard when someone declares, “Hell is a symbol for separation from God.” To be separated from God for eternity is no great threat to the impenitent person. The ungodly want nothing more than to be separated from God. Their problem in hell will not be separation from God, it will be the presence of God that will torment them. In hell, God will be present in the fullness of His divine wrath. He will be there to exercise His just punishment of the damned. They will know Him as an all-consuming fire.
No matter how we analyze the concept of hell it often sounds to us as a place of cruel and unusual punishment. If, however, we can take any comfort in the concept of hell, we can take it in the full assurance that there will be no cruelty there. It is impossible for God to be cruel. Cruelty involves inflicting a punishment that is more severe or harsh than the crime. Cruelty in this sense is unjust. God is incapable of inflicting an unjust punishment. The Judge of all the earth will surely do what is right. No innocent person will ever suffer at His hand.
Perhaps the most frightening aspect of hell is its eternality. People can endure the greatest agony if they know it will ultimately stop. In hell there is no such hope. The Bible clearly teaches that the punishment is eternal. The same word is used for both eternal life and eternal death. Punishment implies pain. Mere annihilation, which some have lobbied for, involves no pain. Jonathan Edwards, in preaching on Revelation 6:15-16 said, “Wicked men will hereafter earnestly wish to be turned to nothing and forever cease to be that they may escape the wrath of God.”
Hell, then, is an eternity before the righteous, ever-burning wrath of God, a suffering torment from which there is no escape and no relief. Understanding this is crucial to our drive to appreciate the work of Christ and to preach His gospel.
I told an Evangelical friend that I was a rotten sinner & though I believe Jesus died for our sins if we but believe in Him that even so there was the chance that I would end up in Hell which terrified me worse than any other possibility.
He replied, “If you’re that scared of going to Hell, you probably won’t wind up there.”
Thoughts?
Nietsche said “Hell is spending eternity with your friends.”
Bump for later...
Hell is Satan’s worst lie about God. And his most productive. .
Work of Christ, to be murdered after horrendous torture so as to die for every sin ever committed just so long as you believe on his name for that salvation.
True. You evade the question of Hell.
The Evil are not relieved from the presence of God. Being in the presence of perfection and infinite love, and then having it taken from you, is infinitely painful and distressing. Agony.
So in your cosmos God chooses to live with the knowledge that people He created live in eternal agony. What a horrible god you “worship”
I Workshop a God of Love.
If you reject Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you will burn in hell for all eternity. The Bible is very clear on this. Ignore at your own peril.
Then we really don’t have a choice do we?
I have struggled with this, too.
If a father told his kids, “Obey me and love me, or else I will throw you into the furnace,” he’d probably have the most well-behaved kids on the block. But they wouldn’t really be choosing to love him; they would be acting out of fear.
I know the Bible is clear on this, but it’s hard to make sense of it.
It is not hard to make sense of it. It is IMPOSSIBLE to make sense of it. So if this is what you think the Bible teaches then you are misinterpreting the teaching of the Bible.
Listen to me. Concentrate. You claim that every human ever born is given a binary choice - eternal bliss or eternal agony. And you think a significant fraction of humanity is going to freely choose eternal agony?
No.
To quote Free Will by Rush: "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."
I've been doing a lot more reading along these lines for these last few years thanks to obama's fundamental transformation, including reading the stories of those who've had a near death experience.
Most are the good stories where the person usually meets Jesus and one or more dead relatives and are quite interesting.
But in one story, that of an atheist, My Descent into Death: A Second Chance at Life by Howard Storm, he doesn't initially get the UP elevator, but instead is taken to the basement.
I found Howard Storm's story the most compelling of the all and came away with a strong belief that yes, "Heaven is For Real", but Hell and Purgatory are also real. (So did he, btw)
You seem to be saying that the Bible is lying and that God is. Within the Biblical story, from whom/where would such a belief and such doubt come from and to what end?
The biggest lie told is that Satan doesn't exist, some of his most effect work to date. None the less, he still loses end the end, but takes a bunch of souls down with him.
There are plenty of first hand accounts of both to check out, if you want to research your theory first before you put it to the final, ultimate test.
TEA Party approved PC uses of the word “Hell” in casual conversation for NSA recordings of our private emails:
* How in the “Obama” does B. Hussein not suffer from Jet Lag?
* What the “Obama” was B. Hussein thinking when he 5 putts a hole?
* Where are the Military Troops that will follow B. Hussein into the “Gates of Obama?”
I “claim” nothing. I am just trying to figure things out.
Read some of the threads concerning a prisoner being executed. May he burn in hell" is a common enough expression on those threads. Occasionally a Christian will weigh in with, "I hope he found the Lord before he died" but the former expression is more common than the latter.
I choose Jesus. If I don’t choose Jesus I don’t believe I’m choosing veteran agony. I relive I’m choosing oblivion.
Spell checker.
I choose Jesus. If I don’t choose Jesus I don’t believe I’m choosing eternal agony. I believe I’m choosing oblivion.
Thoughts?
That is probably about true, because if you know about Hell, and are scared to death of it, as I was, it will most likely drive you to faith in Christ. I freely admit, I was not loved into Heaven, but scared out of Hell. Heaven will not be filled with good people, it will be filled with bad people, people who were so bad, they recognized it, and fled to Jesus Christ for forgiveness. I don't care what motivates a person to come to Jesus Christ, love for God, or fear of Hell, as long as they come to Him.
I know, and unfortunately, sometimes I am guilty of that too. However, a question for you: we can probably be about 99.999999% sure people like Nero, Caligula, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, are in Hades, along with the rich man who would not help Lazarus, awaiting the Lake of Fire. I guess it does not matter a hill of beans, because their fate is sealed forever, and forever, but I wonder if we should think that we hope they enjoy the long hard eternity of eternities they will have to endure? I know it is kind of a meaningless question, but I was wondering.
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