Reality of Hell

Matthew 25:41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

Rev 20:10 The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever

At the judgment of the sheep and the goats as written in Matthew 25, Jesus tells the goats  they are going into an eternal fire, the same place specifically prepared for the Devil and his rebellious angels.  God’s wrath will be poured out on all who reject Him, rebel against Him and disobey His commandments.  Jesus did not come to change these immutable truths about our Creator.  We indeed reap what we sow, and if we sow unrighteousness, we will indeed be eternally condemned and separated from God.  Fear God and Obey His Commandments.  

Whether hell is an actual place of fire and torment or refers simply to eternal separation from God in outer darkness is heavily debated by scholars and preachers.  To me it doesn’t really matter.  Many that study the greek and Hebrew language can show a pretty good line of reasoning that the word “hell” is really the word for “grave”.  Jesus did not go to some fiery place where Satan was in charge but He did spend three days in the grave.   I am not here to debate that point today.  I used to believe hell is an eternal torment of agony and suffering but have come to believe it simply refers to the eternal destruction of the wicked at the end of this world.  Whatever hell is it is horrible and we will do good to avoid it.  Many teach that the fire from heaven unleashed against Satan and the assembly at Gog Magoog, when Satan is turned loose for a “little” while is the fire of hell.  It is the final wiping out of evil on the face of the earth.     I tend to agree with this line of thinking.  The wages of sin is death we are told.  Hell is final death in some way shape or form.

The 2nd Death

Paul told the Romans and Ezekiel warned that the soul that sins shall die.  Jesus also said the same implicitly in the famous quotation of John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  I now understand this to show that not attaining eternal life equals final death.  That is what perishing means, final death.   It is beyond the scope of this post to speak to the second death and what the Bible teaches about that.  But suffice it to say that the second death occurs when fire from God will reign down and destroys ALL evil that is not under the protection of Christ sitting in the New Jerusalem.  The second death is forever, it is eternity, there is no resurrection from the second death.  All who die the second time will be forever separated from God.

The Scriptures tell us Hell was prepared for the Devil and his fallen angels, it was never God’s desire that we (man) ever experience hell.  Our life in the flesh is just a whisper of time.  In the grand scheme of things it is noise, while eternity in heaven with the Lord is forever. Regardless of whether Hell is a literal eternal fire, a fiery tormented death or even pain free eternal separation from God, or something in between;  WE NEED TO DO ALL WE CAN TO AVOID BEING ASSIGNED THERE BY GOD.  God’s wrath will one day be revealed against all who reject the truth including the truth about Hell.  God does not put us into hell, we put ourselves into hell by rejecting Christ. 

Romans 2:5-8 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. ⁶God “will give to each person according to what he has done.” ⁷To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. ⁸But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.

The Prophet Ezekiel, who warned mostly of sin and judgment, had this to say about Hell and the wrath of God.

Ezekiel 22:17-22 The word of the LORD came to me, saying, ¹⁸ “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me; they are all bronze, tin, iron, and lead, in the midst of a furnace; they have become dross from silver. ¹⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Because you have all become dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. ²⁰ As men gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the midst of a furnace, to blow fire on it, to melt it; so I will gather you in My anger and in My fury, and I will leave you there and melt you. ²¹ Yes, I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in its midst. ²²As silver is melted in the midst of a furnace, so shall you be melted in its midst; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have poured out My fury on you.’”  The Bible uses fire and burning often to describe the attributes of God’s judgment and Hell.  Whether that is physically true is a debatable issue as many believe a merciful God could never “torture” His created eternally.  

While God is Love and God is merciful, above all, He is a Holy God.  Throughout the Bible, in both Old and New Testaments, God tells us of His wrath that will come upon the sons of disobedience.  The false teachers have deceived the flock by only preaching the love of God.  This half gospel is not the whole council of God and like all Satanic deception contains  truth as it would otherwise be easily spotted as a counterfeit gospel.  The counterfeit gospel is contaminated with spiritual poison that is leading many down the broad road to destruction.  This road ends at the gates to Hell and that is where the vast majority of people will find themselves on the fearful Day of the Lord.

Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.  Again the word here, destruction just like the work perishes, implies that evil is destroyed, not tormented forever.

I stopped going to my local church.  A stake was put into my heart when my preacher said “We don’t preach hell and brimstone around here, we teach the Love of God.  That is the only true gospel”.  The Holy Spirit made it very clear at that instant that this man and this church were teaching lies leading the sheep to destruction.  Most Christians are not taught the fear of God and are certainly never taught about hell and specifically what the Bible says about it and who will enter into Hell.  I pray this post wakes some people from their slumber as the day of our salvation is growing near. 

Jesus Preached About Hell 

David preached about Hell, so did Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel and all the Apostles.  But do you know the Lord himself taught the disciples and the people of that day about Hell?  When was the last time you heard any of this preached in your church?

Luke 12:4-5 And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. ⁵ But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him! Look what Jesus says here to “his friends”.  We need to fear God as Jesus told us right here otherwise you are going to be ensnared in Satan’s deception.  Jesus is the Lord, He has power to cast into Hell.  We will be judged by His Words.

Matthew 18:8-9 If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. ⁹ And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.  If Hell was not real Jesus would not have made such an extreme example in imploring us to stop sinning.  God hates sin and has never changed.  Those that teach Jesus changed all of that via the cross, do not understand the cross, the Gospel and are on the path to destruction and are worshipping a different God.  

Matthew 23:33 You serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell? Hell is real.  Eternal condemnation is the second of two options for our eternity besides eternal life in Heaven.  We get to choose by our acts of obedience or disobedience.  We can sow to the spirit and reap eternal life or we can sow to the flesh and reap eternal death.

Mat 13:37-43.The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Lawlessness is sin John told us in 1 John, and here Jesus makes it clear, those that practice sin go to hell.

Luke 10:13-15 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. ¹⁴But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. ¹⁵And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades.  Just because you have known the truth about God and for a season walked with Him, if you walk away and begin to follow evil, your righteousness will be remembered no more we are told.  Here the Lord tells us you can be brought down to Hell.  We must overcome and endure to the end to be saved.

The wrath of God will come upon all the sons of disobedience on judgment day.  There will be no rebels in heaven but only those that submitted themselves unto the Lord and strive to follow Him in all areas of their life.  If you do not aim to be perfect every moment of every day, you are a slave to sin and Jesus is not your Lord.  Thankfully we don’t have to be perfect but if we keep on sinning the Bible makes clear we are not His sheep and we deceive ourselves calling ourselves Christians. 

The Apostle Paul begins the often mistaught book of Romans with a clear definitive statement about the wrath of God.  I encourage you to read the whole Chapter.   We have no excuse, God has revealed Himself to all men and if we end up in Hell it is our fault.

Romans 1:18-20 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

It is time for the church to wake-up.  We have raised an entire generation of “believers” who know nothing about the wrath of God and that have been wrongly taught that God is all about Love.   The fury of God is coming and His anger will be poured out on those that practice sin irregardless of whether they “believed” Jesus was God.  Satan believes in God and so do his demons and they shudder says James.

Isaiah 13:13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, And the earth will be shaken from its place At the fury of the LORD of hosts In the day of His burning anger

God is a just God.  He told us the wages of sin is death. We are told in the scriptures that it is impossible for God to lie.  God told us His fury and wrath would come upon all who disobey Him.   This is the truth.  Listen to the words of God not the smooth flattering talk coming from the lips of false teachers of Grace.  If you are not being taught to fear God and that you must Obey His Commandments, you are being swept deeper into the destructive Apostasy of the end times.  

God is Holy.  Those that preach only the Love of God are killing people.  The blood of the lost souls will be on their hands says God.  They are leading people down the path to destruction by not teaching the truth.  These false teachers are in love with their own sin, driven by money and ego, they are unwilling to deny themselves and accept their responsibility to repent of their sins and turn to God fully.  Nor do they teach their congregations the truth.  They are the wolves in sheep’s clothing we have been warned about.

God will get his revenge.  That is what vengeance is.  All sin not confessed, repented of and forgiven (ie under the blood of Jesus) will be repaid.   

Hebrews 10:30  For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The LORD will judge His people.

JUDGMENT COMES QUICKLY

The judgment of God is coming quickly.  The time to repent is growing short and God has told us that as His judgment begins to show itself that men will not repent.  Once the judgment comes, human logic tells us people will repent but the Bible tells us men will only be further hardened and will become angry with God.  The time to repent is before the judgment commences.

Rev 9:20-21 The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. ²¹Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.

Jesus will come to judge and He will pour out the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.  The time to repent and follow Jesus is now!

Rev 19:11-15 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. ¹² His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. ¹³ He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. ¹⁴ The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. ¹⁵Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 

WHO GOES TO HELL?

Read through these verses that have no ambiguity and see if you are ensnared by any things on this list.  If you are I pray you will seek God’s face and repent so that you may live.

Rev 21:8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”  Fear Him who can cause the second death and cast you into hell.  Here Jesus tells us the obvious, that all unbelievers will go into hell.  But he continues to list out those that DO (practice) sin.  The vile means the “morally despicable”, a murderer is not just the classic homicide suspect, it is anyone who hates his brother said Jesus or whom kills babies via abortion.  The sexually immoral are those that practice any ungodly sex and God said any sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is ungodly.  The sexual revolution of the 1960’s was one of Satan’s most successful initiatives as now the world is consumed by an insatiable desire for immoral sex.  We even have little girls dressing up to show it all off.   Idolaters is a big catch all as many Christians have idols before God.  These include money, power, fame, fitness, career, TV, social activities, you name it.  Anything but Jesus.  Finally liars.  Lying has become the new cool.  It shows how smart we are to selectively disclose something or tell half truths to manipulate things and events into our favor.  That is lying and those that practice this will go to hell.

1 Cor 6:9-10 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders ¹⁰nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.This was written to the early church, believers all.  Here Paul adds some additional specifics of actions that lead to hell.  Homosexuality is an aberration against God and while you can argue with me someone was born that way, it doesn’t matter to God.  We must deny ourselves to enter the kingdom and some of us may have unique challenges to deny in order to qualify.  Some have to confront addictions, others alcohol, some homosexuality, some selfishness, it doesn’t really matter as we all have our trial to endure.  We will be judged by our deeds.

Gal 5:19-20 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.  Again written to believers and sadly false teachers  pervert Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians to teach our sins do not matter once we come to faith.  They and not those that preach obedience to God will be accursed on the Last Day.  The world and most Christians live to satisfy their own lusts of the flesh or the pride of life.  The rich pamper themselves and engage in what God calls debauchery.  We must seek God and forsake the wicked ways of the world.

The entire Bible is chock full of passages like these.  I encourage you to study Scripture but above all to repent, turn towards God and away from the world.  Our lives here really don’t matter.  What does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and lose his soul?

Don’t put yourself into hell. You will be sick beyond description when the judgment of God rains down and you finally bow down and confess Him as Lord.  It will be forever too late then, you are going thru hell and will be eternally separated from God.  The time is NOW for you to secure your salvation.   Get right with Jesus, submit to Him, do not deny Him by doing your will, but seek to do His will in all that you do.  The first step is to repent of your sin, acknowledge your wicked ways, your need for a Savior and turn from that wickedness and to the Lord.

MAY GOD BLESS YOU RICHLY!

Prov 11:3 The desire of the righteous is only good, But the expectation of the wicked is wrath.