The Abode of Satan
Poll: American Men
Literal Fire?
Does God Punish People Forever?
Whatever happened to hell?
Donald Trump
Bertrand Russell
The Mason Jar
Down Under
Topic : Hell
Tell the Story
In one of his sermons, E. V. Hill tells of a time when he preached in Michigan with Dr. Jack Hyles, the former pastor of First Baptist Church in Hammond, Indiana. Hyles' church averaged 20,000 in Sunday school back then. "[E. V.] asked, "Jack, let me in on why you're so caught up in soul winning. You're on the verge of fanatic. What's behind all that?"
He said, "One night, I was awakened by this piercing scream from my sister. I ran upstairs to her bedroom, and there she was sweating and in hysterics. I shook her, and I couldn't get her attention, so I had to slap her. I said, 'What's wrong? You had a dream?' She said, 'No, no dream.' I said, 'You had a nightmare?' She said, 'No it was real.' I said, 'What happened?' She said, 'Jack, I just got back from hell. After a few miles of the glitter and lights and all of that which deceives mankind, there was nothing but desolation. It was a bummed-out situation. It's nothing but desolation and hopelessness. You walk towards the gates of hell knowing that you will never again be free. I got to the gates of hell and the keeper said, "Hold it." I stood outside hell, and I saw people whose faces were twisted and tongues were thick, eyes bulging and hands split, dropping blood. I said, "Sir, please let some air in." And he said, "No air in hell." Then I said, "Kind sir, let them have a drink of water." And he said, "No water in hell." Then I said, "If that's true, let 'em die." And he said, "No death in hell." She said, "My God, how long will they suffer?" And he said, "Forever and ever! Hell has no exit and there is no death."
"She said, 'Just as I turned to leave, he said, "Go back and tell the story." And just as I turned I saw Daddy.'" And I said, "Yep, our Daddy is in hell, because he never got around to doing the most important thing. He schooled us, he fed us, but he never got around to saying yes to Jesus Christ." Jack concluded by saying, "I win souls every day so that nobody else's daddy has to go to hell." Citation: E. V. Hill, A Savior Worth Having (Chicago: Moody Press, 2002), 91-2.
The Abode of Satan
The abode of Satan and his angels (Matt. 25:41), described in the Bible with the imagery of eternal fire, outer darkness, being lost, perishing, and the like. It is impossible to envisage a state that can be described in so many different ways. Clearly it is horrible and is to be avoided at all costs (Mark 9:43).
Poll: American Men
GLENDALE, CA (EP) - American men are among the world’s “most pagan,” according to pollster George Barna. A study reported in The Barna Report, his newsletter, found that the church has little or no influence on many American men.
About one in three American men claims to be a born-again Christian, but only 28 percent attend church on any given weekend. Other forms of religious activity—including Bible reading, Sunday school attendance, and giving time or money to a church—have all declined among American since 1991.
Barna also found that even men who claim to be Christians often hold unorthodox beliefs that are at odds with biblical Christianity. For instance, 28 percent deny that Jesus was physically raised from the dead, while 27 percent say He committed sins. Surprisingly, 55 percent of self-identified Christian men agreed that all people “experience the same outcome after death, regardless of their way into heaven.”
Barna found that less than half of Christian men believe that there are absolute moral truths (47 percent) or that the Bible and religion should be primary influences on moral thinking (40 percent).
To reverse this trend, Barna says churches must provide a male-friendly environment, including opportunities to interact with other men, practical Bible teaching, and real-world solutions to personal problems.
Literal Fire?
Is the fire spoken of literal fire? It is an accepted law of language that a figure of speech is less intense than the reality. If “fire” is merely a figurative expression, it must stand for some great reality, and if the reality is more intense than the figure, what an awful thing the punishment symbolized by fire must be.
Does God Punish People Forever?
1A The possibilities (five viewpoints)
1B. Denial: “There is no such place. Christians just made it up.”
2B. Earthly suffering: “Hell is what you go through on earth.”
3B. Annihilation: “It refers to the final destruction of all evil persons.”
— II Thessalonians 2:8: “Destroy (“katargeo”) with the brightness of His coming” (cf. Romans 6:6; I Corinthians 13:8).
— Matthew 10:28 (Hell—”Gehenna,” “apolesai”— cf. Romans 14:15).
— II Thessalonians 1:9 (“olethros”— cf. I Corinthians 5:5).
4B. Restoration: “All persons will ultimately be saved.”
— Primarily centers the attention on the usage of words translated “eternal” or “forever” (age).
— “Aidios” used two times: Jude 6 and Romans 1:20. Stresses permanence and unchangeableness.
— “Aionios” used 68 times— unmeasured time. Contrasted with the word “temporary” (“proskaira”) in II Corinthians 4:18.
— Used of God in Romans 16:26; I Peter 5:10; I John 5:20; (and of God’s power: I Timothy 6:16).
— Used of blood of Jesus: Hebrews 13:20.
— Used many times of the eternal life of the believer: Romans 6:23.
— Used of the Holy Spirit: Hebrews 9:14.
— “Aion” used 102 times— refers to the moral and spiritual characteristics of a particular period of time. Greeks used this word to contrast with that which comes to an end.
5B. Unending torment: “Hell is a place of eternal suffering.”
2A. The proof that he does punish people forever in a place called hell.
1B. The biblical description of hell.
1C. Hades used 11 times (“unseen”); refers to dwelling place of the wicked dead.
2C. “Tartaros”: II Peter 2:4—abode of certain wicked angels (cf. Jude 6-7).
3C. Lake of fire used five times in Revelation. Revelation 20:15; 21:8 (second death).
4C. Bottomless pit: pit of the abyss. —Used nine times; refers to lower regions as the abode of demons, out of which they can be let loose at times.
5C. “Gehenna” used 12 times: Aramaic form of Hebrew Gehinnom of Valley of Hinnom—dump.
— Valley of Hinnom, where children were burned with fire as sacrifices to Molech Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 7:31 (cf. Matthew 23:33).
6C. Outer Darkness: Matthew 8:12: 22:13; 25:30 (weeping and gnashing of teeth).
7C. Place of torment: Luke 16:28 (also called “Hades”—verse 23).
2B. The specified duration of hell.
1C. Everlasting punishment: Matthew 25:46.
2C. Eternal condemnation: Mark 3:29 (sin).
3C. Eternal judgment: Hebrews 6:2.
4C. Everlasting destruction: II Thessalonians 1:9.
5C. Eternal fire: Matthew 18:8-9. (“Gehenna”); Matthew 25:41; Jude 7.
6C. Unquenchable fire: Mark 9:43-38 (cf. Isaiah 66:24).
7C. Eternal torment: Revelation 19:20; 20:10.
Whatever happened to hell?
The following are some of the cults listed by John Ankerberg and John Weldon in Facts on Life after Death. Listed also is each group’s divisive opinion about both heaven and hell along with its founder’s quotations.
1. Christian Science, founded by spiritist Mary Baker Eddy, teaches that “there is no death.” They believe that “heaven and hell are states of thought, not places. People experience their own heaven or hell right here on earth.”
2. Edgar Cayce, a spiritist and New Age prophet, said that “the destiny of the soul, as of all creation, is to become One with the Creator” and that no soul is ever lost.
3. New Age cult leader Sun Myung Moon of The Unification Church believes that “God will not desert any person eternally. By some means...they will be restored.”
4. Mormonism, founded by occultist Joseph Smith, argues, “The false doctrine that the punishment to be visited upon erring souls is endless...is but a dogma of unauthorized and erring sectaries, at once unscriptural, unreasonable, and revolting.”
5. Jehovah’s Witnesses, founded by Charles Taze Russell maintains that the wicked are forever annihilated because “the teaching about a fiery hell can rightly be designated as a ‘teaching of demons.’”
6. The Church of the New Jerusalem (Swedenborgianism), founded by spiritist Emanuel Swedenborgh, emphasizes that God “does not condemn anyone to hell.”
7. Eckankar, a New Age religion founded by Paul Twitchell and Darwin Gross, insists that “there is no death”...and that there is no eternal hell.
8. Lucis Trust and the Arcane School/Full Moon Meditation Groups, established by New Age spiritist Alice Bailey, argue that “the fear of death is based upon...old erroneous teaching as to heaven and hell.”
9. The Love Family (The Children of God), founded by spiritist David Berg, views hell as a temporal purgatory: “The lake of fire is where the wicked go to get purged from their sins...to let them eventually come...out.”
10. Rosicrucianism, an occult philosophy, declares that “the ‘eternal damnation’ of those who are not ‘saved’ does not mean destruction nor endless torture,” and that “the Christian religion did not originally contain any dogmas about Hell.”
11. Unitarian Universalism confesses the following: “It seems safe to say that no Unitarian Universalist believes in a resurrection of the body, a literal heaven or hell, or any kind of eternal punishment.”
12. The Theosophical Society, founded by medium Helena P. Blavatsky, declares, “we positively refuse to accept the...belief in eternal reward or eternal punishment.” Hence, “Death...is not...a cause for fear.”
13. The spirits everywhere proclaim their allegiance to cultic teachings, declare Ankerberg and Weldon. “Ramtha,” the spirit speaking through medium J. S. Knight, claims “God has never judged you or anyone” and “No, there is no hell and there is no devil.” “Lilly” and other spirits channeled through medium Ruth Montgomery argue that there is no such thing as death” and that “God punishes no man.”
Donald Trump
Early in 1989, when Trump’s bank account was still bulging, a writer asked Trump the inevitable question about what horizons were left to conquer. “Right now, I’m genuinely enjoying myself,†Trump replied. “I work and I don’t worry.†“What about death?†the writer asked. “Don’t you worry about dying?†Trump dealt his stock answer, one that appears in a lot of his interviews. “No,†he said. “I’m fatalistic and I protect myself as well as anybody can. I prepare for things.†This time, however, as Trump started walking up the stairs to have dinner with his family, he hesitated for a moment. “No,†he said finally, “I don’t believe in reincarnation, heaven or hell—but we go someplace.†Again a pause. “Do you know,†he added, “I cannot, for the life of me, figure out where.â€
Bertrand Russell
“I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly human can believe in everlasting punishment.…I must say that I think all this doctrine, that hellfire is a punishment for sin, is a doctrine of cruelty.”
The Mason Jar
The old mountaineer had lived a full but not exactly saintly life and now was on his deathbed. He summoned his weeping wife. “Sara,” he said, “go to the fireplace and take out the third stone from the top.”
She did as instructed.
“Reach in there,” said her husband, “and bring out what you find.” Her fingers touched a large Mason jar, and with some effort she pulled it up. The jar was full of cash.
“Sara,” said the old man, “when I go, I’m going to take all that money with me. I want you to put that jar up in the attic by the window. I’ll get it as I go by on my way to heaven.”
His wife followed his instructions. That night the old mountaineer died. After the funeral his wife remembered the Mason jar and went to the attic. There was the jar still full of money and by the window.
“Oh,” the widow sighed. “I knew I should have put it in the basement.”
How deeply has the tendency to deny hell penetrated evangelicalism? One survey of evangelical seminary students revealed that:
- Nearly half—46 percent—felt preaching about hell to unbelievers is in “poor taste.”
- Worse yet, three out of every ten self-professed “born again” people surveyed believe “good” people will go to heaven when they die—even if they’ve never trusted Christ.
- One in every ten evangelicals say they believe the concept of sin is outmoded.
Down Under
A politician awoke after an operation and found the curtains in his hospital room drawn. “Why are the curtains closed?” he asked the nurse. “Is it night time already?”
“No,” the nurse replied, “But there’s a fire across the street, and we didn’t want you to wake and think the operation was unsuccessful.”
