IS HELL DEAD?

This (IS HELL DEAD) was the title of the feature article in Time Magazine recently.  What say you?  Is it?  If God is so loving, would He really send people to an eternal Hell?  Over the next week, I’ll be considering this issue in our blogs.

Folks, this is a big, big deal, wouldn’t you say?  Think of the ramifications–which ever side you come down on.  I’ve heard it said that since you and I would be hard pressed to send people to an eternal Hell.  And if we are hard pressed, and if God is infinitely more loving than we are, how in the world could He ever do such a thing?  Certainly, there may be punishment for sin, but, in the end, author Rob Bell, says, “Love wins.”  Of course, this would mean that everyone somehow gets into Heaven.  Now, wouldn’t that make sense if God is so loving?

And if that’s the case, why worry?  Everything will be okay.  Don’t worry, be happy!  God loves you and, in the end, that love will make sure you are in Heaven, no matter what you do or don’t do.  No matter what you believe or don’t believe.  And, come to think of it, why preach the gospel?  If Christ’s death and resurrection ensure that everyone makes it, why knock yourself out to plead with others about their salvation?

And so goes human reasoning.  Don’t these questions remind you of a little discussion in the Garden of Eden thousands of years ago?  Remember?  “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?'”
And, “You shall not surely die . . . for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  

Little has changed in those thousands of years.  The devil’s tactics are predictable.  Get people to question God’s Word, pure and simple.  Coax them to substitute their faulty reasoning for His perfect wisdom, revealed in His Words.  Then, the horrific slide down the slippery slope begins.  And its end is destruction, always! 

Has God indeed said, “Anyone not found written in the Book of Life will be cast into the Lake of Fire?”  YOU BET HE HAS!  How urgent it is for you and me to be awake and alert in the day we are in.  In the next blog, we’ll consider God’s actual words on the issue of Hell.  One final question?  If you were pressed against the wall on this subject, would you be able to make your position clear, based on the Word of God? 

To be continued . . .