Following Jesus Son of God …

Why Is Hell Forever?
By Russell Moore
— MONDAY, MARCH 21ST, 2011 —

http://www.russellmoore.com/2011/03/21/why-is-hell-forever/

For the past several weeks, evangelical Christians have spent a lot of time talking about Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins, in which he seeks to redefine the Christian doctrine of hell. As others have noted, Bell’s argument is not new at all. But Bell’s central point is always relevant. One of his questions weighs particularly heavily. Why, if there is a hell, is it forever?

The idea of eternal hell weighs heavily on the heart, as we think of those we know and love apart from Christ. Sometimes a devilish desire to condemn (“You will not surely die”) is behind a denial of future judgment, but sometimes the human motive is just the unbearable gravity of it all. Why, Bell and others before him ask, would God sentence an everlasting punishment for crimes committed in what God himself describes as a life so quick that it’s like a vapor of mist?

First of all, the Scripture is quite clear that hell is indeed everlasting. Jesus leaves the psychic burden intact. Yes, Scripture speaks of hell as “death” and “destruction” but defines these in terms of a place where “they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Rev. 20:10). Why must this go on forever? There are at least two reasons.

First, the revolt against God is more serious than we think it is. An insurrection against an infinitely worthy Creator is an infinitely heinous offense. We know something of this intuitively. This is why, in our human sentences of justice, we sentence a man to one punishment for threatening to kill his co-worker and another man to a much more severe punishment for threatening to kill the nation’s president.

Second, and more important, is the nature of the punishment itself. The sinner in hell does not become morally neutral upon his sentence to hell. We must not imagine the damned displaying gospel repentance and longing for the presence of Christ. They do indeed, as in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, seek for an escape from punishment, but they are not new creations. They do not in hell love the Lord their God with heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Instead, in hell, one is now handed over to the full display of his nature apart from grace. And this nature is seen to be satanic (Jn. 8:44). The condemnation continues forever and ever, because the sin does too. Hell is the final “handing over” (Rom. 1) of the rebel to who he wants to be, and it’s awful.

Attempts to navigate around the truth of hell as everlasting punishment show us something of our complicity in the Edenic sin: the substitution of human wisdom and human justice and, yes, human notions of love for the authority of God.

Yes, hell is horrifying. God deems it so. Our response to such horror should not be denial, but the fervent evangelism of the nations. Knowing the terror of it all, we should plead with people, as though Christ himself were pleading through us, “Be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20).

• As C.S. Lewis writes, “In the long run the answer to all those who object to the doctrine of hell is itself a question: ‘What are you asking God to do?’ To wipe out their past sins and, at all costs, to give them a fresh start, smoothing every difficulty and offering every miraculous help? But he has done so, on Calvary. To forgive them? They will not be forgiven. To leave them alone? Alas, I am afraid that is what he does.”

Hell ought to drive us not to find misplaced hopes for the lost, but to the only hope for us, and for the whole world, the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Christian gospel maintains that “the day of salvation” is now (2 Cor. 6:2), during this lifetime’s temporary suspension of doom. After this, the grace of God is not extended, only his justice, and that with severity.

Jesus does indeed triumph over all things (Love wins!), making peace through the blood of his cross (Col. 1:20). But this peace doesn’t mean the redemption of each individual. Instead, Jesus triumphs over his enemies, as they are defeated beneath the feet of his kingship. Yes, every tongue confessed Jesus as lord, even Satan himself (Phil. 2:9-11). This does not mean, as Jesus himself teaches, that every tongue cries out to him for salvation. Instead there is a universal recognition that Jesus has triumphed over every rival to his throne. The redeemed will love this truth; the impenitent will lament it.

Until then, we preach, we plead, we beg, we warn. Hell is awful, and unending, and completely avoidable.

Russell D. Moore is …

President of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention’s official entity assigned to address social, moral, and ethical concerns.

Dr. Moore earned a B.S. in history and political science from the University of Southern Mississippi. He also received the M.Div. in biblical studies from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and the Ph.D. in systematic theology from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

http://www.russellmoore.com/about/

I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High …

http://bible.com/100/PSA9.1.NASB I will give thanks to the L ord with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders. I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.
Bible.com/app

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A Prayer for Trust and Confidence
O Lord, we ask for a boundless confidence and trust in Your divine mercy, and the courage to accept the crosses and sufferings which bring immense goodness to our souls and that of Your Church.

Help us to love You with a pure and contrite heart, and to humble ourselves beneath Your cross, as we climb the mountain of holiness, carrying our cross that leads to heavenly glory.

May we receive You with great faith and love … and allow You to act in us as You desire for your greater glory.

O Jesus, most adorable Heart and eternal fountain of Divine Love, may our prayer find favor before the Divine Majesty of Your heavenly Father.

(by St. Pio of Pietrelcina)

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Over the years I’ve helped hundreds of people come to faith in Christ. Many of them ridiculed me in the process, sometimes ruthlessly. But I persisted the best I could. I even hated some of them. I know that’s not something I’m supposed to say as a pastor, but it’s what I felt at the time. Some of the people I reached out to treated me like garbage. But somehow I persisted.

And do you know what many of those same people told me after they became Christians? “Thank you for not giving up on me.”

Years ago a woman in our church asked me to visit her dying father in the hospital. For years this man had rejected Christianity and even made fun of me personally. But despite my years of built-up apprehension and animosity toward this man, I went to see him. When I arrived in his room, I found a different man from the one I’d known. Gone was the bravado. Gone was the glare of defiance I had seen so many times. Hooked to a dozen wires and monitors, the person who spent a lifetime rejecting his daughter’s attempts to share her faith now lay in cold silence staring out the window.

For some reason, I expected the circumstances of our meeting to have softened his heart. Deathbeds have a way of doing that to people. But as I drilled down in our conversation, I hit the same skeptical bedrock I had before. He gave me the same smirks. Same defiance. Same “I’m smarter than God” attitude.

My job was done. He was unmoved and unwilling to talk about spiritual matters, so I said a quick prayer and headed for the parking lot. But something wouldn’t allow me to get on that elevator. This isn’t a game, I thought. This person is headed toward eternal separation from God. And you’re going to just walk away and leave? What are you ashamed of?

The elevator door opened, but I didn’t get in. Prompted by the Holy Spirit, I turned around, headed back down the hallway, and walked up to his bedside once again.

“I’m not leaving you like this. Not today. Not on my watch.” He was taken aback. “Listen, I don’t care that you’ve spent your life making fun of Christians. I don’t care about anything you’ve said or done up to this point. Quite frankly, I think all of that has been a show. I can see it in your eyes. Deep down you want to believe, you just haven’t been willing to humble yourself.”

I spent the next fifteen minutes trying every angle possible to get him to surrender his heart to Christ. No luck. I don’t know what I expected— maybe the gates of heaven to open up and shower angel dust all over the room, I don’t know. All I knew is that this guy’s heart wouldn’t budge.

Then I did something I had never done before. I begged him. I literally began begging him to come to Christ. “Look, is this what you want? I’m begging you, Frank. I’m literally begging you. You’re going to die soon, maybe today, maybe tomorrow, I don’t know when, but it’s soon. I don’t want you to go to hell. I’m begging you to give your life to Christ, right now, this second.”

Then something astonishing happened. His eyes started to water. His lips trembled. Years of skeptical defiance melted as he grabbed my hand. And that’s when it happened— he surrendered his heart to Christ. Right there in that room. After years of hurling insults at Christians.

And as I stood there … he pulled my hand and motioned with his eyes that he wanted to say something. I leaned over to listen. And he whispered in my ear, “Thank you for coming back for me.” As we both sat there, soaking in the magnitude of what was taking place, I started laughing, wiped my eyes, and said, “Frank, after everything you’ve put me through, I don’t know whether I should hug you or sucker punch you.”

• Jones, Brian (2011-08-01). Hell Is Real (But I Hate to Admit It) (pp. 65-67). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.

Happy New Year!

Next week we begin our Ezra study, and I am very much looking forward to plunging into this OT book of the Bible.

This week, however, we look at “men come and men go.”

• In Mandela’s Way: Lessons on Life, Love, and Courage, his biographer, Richard Stengel, wrote this: I once asked him [Nelson Mandela] about his mortality while we were out walking one morning in the Transkei, the remote area of South Africa where he was born. He looked around at the green and tranquil landscape and said something about how he would be joining his “ancestors.” “Men come and men go,” he later said. “I have come and I will go when my time comes.” 

And we, as people, not just men, come and then we go. The question is – Where do we go?

In his book – Hell Is Real (But I Hate to Admit It) – Brian Jones speaks of his sojourn of faith as a seminary grad and a pastor who just could not accept this teaching of the Bible. He lists all of his “good” reasons for not believing in hell, but what he couldn’t escape was the clear and abundant teaching of Scripture.

• Do you want to know what’s scary? When I confessed this, nobody really cared. In fact, the response from a man on my Leadership Team captured the response of just about everyone: “Oh, thank God. You really scared me,” he said. “I thought you called us together to tell us that you did something serious like have an affair.”
  — Jones, Brian (2011-08-01). Hell Is Real (But I Hate to Admit It) (pp. 26-27). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.

And as he noted, even the words of Jesus …

• Matthew 13:41–43 (ESV) 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

It is sometimes very hard to understand and accept that good people will go to the lake of fire. But God says it. We don’t have all the answers, but we do have some very important answers:

• God is love.
• God is just.
• God is light.
• God is merciful.
• God is holy.
• God is sovereign.
• God provided salvation through the death of his own Son.

Here are the handouts for this week.

Message Title: Men come and go … Heaven OR Hell!

Message Text: Psalm 90:1-12, Revelation 20:11-21:8

• PDF Men Come and Go : 010514 : FFC : Dave Scott : Psalm 90-1-12 : Revelation 20-11-21-8 : HANDOUT ONE
• PDF Men Come and Go : 010514 : FFC : Dave Scott : Psalm 90-1-12 : Revelation 20-11-21-8 : HANDOUT TWO

It is clear that he does not pray, who, far from uplifting himself to God, requires that God shall lower Himself to him, and who resorts to prayer not to stir the man in us to will what God wills, but only to persuade God to will what the man in us wills.”-ST. THOMAS AQUINAS (1225–1274)

A sermon by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758). 
Delivered at the 2nd Meeting House in Enfield, Massachusetts, July 8, 1741.

• No, I never intended to come here: I had laid out matters otherwise in my mind …
  But the foolish children of men miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in confidence in their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow. The greater part of those who heretofore have lived under the same means of grace, and are now dead, are undoubtedly gone to hell; and it was not because they were not as wise as those who are now alive: it was not because they did not lay out matters as well for themselves to secure their own escape. If we could speak with them, and inquire of them, one by one, whether they expected, when alive, and when they used to hear about hell, ever to be the subjects of misery: we doubtless, should hear one and another reply, “No, I never intended to come here: I had laid out matters otherwise in my mind; I thought I should contrive well for myself — I thought my scheme good. I intended to take effectual care; but it came upon me unexpected; I did not look for it at that time, and in that manner; it came as a thief — Death outwitted me: God’s wrath was too quick for me. Oh, my cursed foolishness! I was flattering myself, and pleasing myself with vain dreams of what I would do hereafter; and when I was saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction came upon me.

A sermon by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758). 
Delivered at the 2nd Meeting House in Enfield, Massachusetts, July 8, 1741.

• However unconvinced you may now be of the truth …
  However you may have reformed your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of God, it is nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction. However unconvinced you may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone from being in the like circumstances with you, see that it was so with them; for destruction came suddenly upon most of them; when they expected nothing of it, and while they were saying, Peace and safety: now they see, that those things on which they depended for peace and safety, were nothing but thin air and empty shadows.

I maybe shouldn’t admit it but I had never read Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon. But now I have and can confirm first-hand the brilliance of the man, both intellectually and biblically. Anyway, not that JE needs my attaboy but the sermon is pretty excellent and if you haven’t read it, you probably should.

I will share some excerpts.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
A sermon by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758).
Delivered at the 2nd Meeting House in Enfield, Massachusetts, July 8, 1741.

• Promising themselves that they shall escape …
  It may be they are now at ease, and hear all these things without much disturbance, and are now flattering themselves that they are not the persons, promising themselves that they shall escape. If we knew that there was one person, and but one, in the whole congregation, that was to be the subject of this misery, what an awful thing would it be to think of! If we knew who it was, what an awful sight would it be to see such a person! How might all the rest of the congregation lift up a lamentable and bitter cry over him! But, alas! instead of one, how many is it likely will remember this discourse in hell? And it would be a wonder, if some that are now present should not be in hell in a very short time, even before this year is out. And it would be no wonder if some persons, that now sit here, in some seats of this meeting-house, in health, quiet and secure, should be there before tomorrow morning. Those of you that finally continue in a natural condition, that shall keep out of hell longest will be there in a little time! your damnation does not slumber; it will come swiftly, and, in all probability, very suddenly upon many of you. You have reason to wonder that you are not already in hell. It is doubtless the case of some whom you have seen and known, that never deserved hell more than you, and that heretofore appeared as likely to have been now alive as you. Their case is past all hope; they are crying in extreme misery and perfect despair; but here you are in the land of the living and in the house of God, and have an opportunity to obtain salvation. What would not those poor damned hopeless souls give for one day’s opportunity such as you now enjoy!

10 Questions with Rick Warren
The preacher, AIDS activist and author talks about his diet book, his son’s suicide and Christmas parties

A new year is coming up. If you could get people to change one thing, what would it be?
I’d get them to stop believing everything they think. We lie to ourselves more than anybody else. Jesus said the truth will set you free — but first it makes you miserable.

Here’s the link:
http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,2160966,00.html

Good!