Between Heaven and Hell

Part II

By

Dr. Hal Harless

Foundation Fellowship of Greenville, TX

July 25, 2010

 

I.  Introduction

A.  The poet Dante (1265-1321) described the entrance to hell:

I am the way into the city of woe.

I am the way to a forsaken people.

I am the way to eternal sorrow.

 

Sacred justice moved my architect.

I was raised here by divine omnipotence,

Primordial love and ultimate intelligence.

 

Only those elements time cannot wear

Were made before me, and beyond time I stand.

Abandon all hope ye who enter here.[1]

 

B.  Four centuries later, the great American revivalist and theologian, Jonathan Edwards (1703-58), described the lot of the unbeliever in a sermon delivered at Enfield, CT on July 8, 1741 entitled "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God":

The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours.  You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment.  It is to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep.  And there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God’s hand has held you up.  There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship.  Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell.[2]

 

C.  Here we see the root of what has been called "fire and brimstone" preaching. 

1.  Is Edwards right? 

2.  Is this God's attitude toward us? 

3.  Do we face an angry God who would just as soon drop us into the fire as look at us?

4.  Is God happy to drop people into hell?

II.  Fire and brimstone?

A.  While I do believe firmly in the reality of hell, I fear that Edwards has seriously misrepresented God.

1.  God's has no pleasure in the death of an unbeliever.

a.  The Prophet Ezekiel revealed God's heart:

"Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked," declares the Lord GOD, "rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?  ... "Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!  For why will you die, O house of Israel?  For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies," declares the Lord GOD.  "Therefore, repent and live" (Ezek 18:23, 31-32).

 

b.  God repeated this message to the prophet, "Say to them, 'As I live!' declares the Lord GOD, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live.  Turn back, turn back from your evil ways!  Why then will you die, O house of Israel?'" (Ezek 33:11).

c.  Jesus said:

What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?  When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!"  I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance....  In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:4-7, 10).

 

d.  Paul tells us that God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4).

e.  Peter echoes the same thought, "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance" (2 Pet 3:9).

2.  Where is the love in Edwards' angry God?

a.  Edwards only uses the word "love" four times in the sixteen pages of his sermon, and he never uses it of the person in danger of hell.

b.  However, the Bible tells us that "God is love" (1 John 4:7, 16).

1)  God takes no pleasure in the death of the lost.

2)  God has done everything possible to save people from hell.

c.  Does this mean that God's eternal judgment is a myth? No!

B.  The case for hell[3]

1.  From the Scriptures

a.  Hell is a sober and somber reality.

1)  Jesus Christ taught about the reality of hell.

a)  "If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.  If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell" (Matt 5:29-30).

b)  "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matt 10:28).

c)  "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?" (Matt 23: 33).

d)  "But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!" (Luke 12:5).

2)  John wrote that the antichrist and his false prophet will be "thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone" (Rev 19:20),

b.  Hell is a place of conscious torment.

1)  Jesus said, "So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt 13:49-50).

2)  Jesus said:

If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.   If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell, where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.  If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell, where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED (Mark 9:43-48).

 

3)  In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man "died and was buried.  In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment" (Luke 16:22-23).

4)  John wrote, "They will be tormented day and night forever and ever" (Rev 20:10).

c.  Hell is forever.

1)  Daniel was told, "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt" (Dan 12:2 NIV).

a)  The same Heb. word is translated "everlasting" ('ôlām) in each case.

b)  Therefore, the "everlasting life" lasts as long as the "everlasting contempt."

c)  The Heb. word for "contempt" has been translated "abhorrence" (NET), or "disgrace" (NLT).

2)  Jesus said, "If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire" (Matt 18:8).

a)  The Gk. word translated "eternal" (aiōnios) is related to the Gk. word for "age" (aiōn).  This has been misconstrued by some to indicate that hell is for a long time, but not eternal.

b)  However, aiōnios is always used in an eternal sense.

i)  In the LXX OT, the Heb. 'ôlām in Dan 12:2 is translated by the Gk. aiōnios.

ii)  In the NT, the Gk. aiōnios is used for eternal life fifty times.[4]  I sure hope that eternal life is not just life for a long time!

iii)  In the NT, the Gk. aiōnios is used to describe God as eternal three times.[5]  I sure hope that God does not just live for a long time!

iv)  In the NT, the Gk. aiōnios is used to describe God's kingdom as eternal twice.[6]  He rules forever!

v)  In the NT, the Gk. aiōnios is used to describe God's plan as eternal four times.[7]  Since God is eternal, so is His plan.

vi)  In the NT, the Gk. aiōnios is used to describe hell six times.[8] 

(a)  Therefore, hell must last as long as eternal life, God's kingdom, and God Himself.

(b)  That is, forever, and forever is a long time.

c)  In addition, the Gk. phrase eis tous aiōnas tōn aiōnōn ("into the ages of ages") always refers to eternity.  Therefore, it is usually translated "forever and ever."

i)  God lives into the ages of ages (Rev 1:18; 4:9-10; 10:6; 15:7).

ii)  God's glory is into the ages of ages (Gal 1:5; Phil 4:20; 1 Tim 1:17; 2 Tim 4:18; Heb 13:21; 1 Pet 4:11; Rev 1:6; 5:13; 7:12).

iii)  God's kingdom is into the ages of ages (Rev 11:15; 22:5).

iv)  John wrote, "And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever [into the ages of ages]" (Rev 20:10).

(a)  They are in the lake of fire as long as God, His glory, and His kingdom endure.

(b)  They are in conscious torment.

3)  Jesus said, "Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt 25:41).

a)  Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels.

b)  Those humans who join his rebellion suffer his fate.

4)  Jesus said, "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (Matt 25:46).

a)  The same Gk word, aiōnios, is used both for "eternal punishment" and "eternal life" is the same context.

b)  Therefore, the punishment lasts as long as the life.

5)  Paul wrote, "These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power" (2 Thess 1:9).

a)  Hell is "away from the presence of the Lord."

b)  If we tell God to leave us alone, one day He will honor that horrible choice.

6)  The author of Hebrews said that "eternal judgment" was a foundational teaching of our faith (Heb 6:2).

7)  The Lord's brother, Jude, speaks of "undergoing the punishment of eternal fire" (Jude 1:7).

d.  Hell is God's judgment on sin.

1)  The author of Hebrews wrote that "it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment" (Heb 9:27).

2)  John wrote:

            Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.  And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.  Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.  This is the second death, the lake of fire.  And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Rev 20:11-15).

 

3)  John also wrote, "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death" (Rev 21:8).

2.  From reason

a.  God's justice

1)  Not all sin is punished in this life.

a)  The psalmist, Asaph, complained:

            Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart!  But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling, my steps had almost slipped.  For I was envious of the arrogant as I saw the prosperity of the wicked....  They say, "How does God know?  And is there knowledge with the Most High?"  Behold, these are the wicked; and always at ease, they have increased in wealth....  When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight" (Ps 73:1-3, 11-12, 16).

 

b)  Joseph Stalin and Chairman Mao died in their sleep.  Was Hitler's suicide any kind of atonement for the millions who died because of him?

2)  Therefore, punishment after this life is necessary to uphold God's justice.

3)  Moreover, if there were no hell, there would be no final victory over evil.

b.  Free will

1)  The Bible states that "God is love" (1 John 4:16).

2)  Love does not coerce, it persuades.  God does not force Himself on human beings against the will that He chose to give us.

3)  C. S. Lewis wrote, "There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'  All that are in Hell, choose it.  Without that self-choice there could be no Hell."[9]

4)  Those who chose it must be allowed to separate from God, and eternal separation from God is hell.

5)  C. S. Lewis wrote:

It has been admitted throughout that man has free will and that all gifts to him are therefore two-edged.  From these premises it follows directly that the Divine labour to redeem the world cannot be certain of succeeding as regards every individual soul.  Some will not be redeemed.  There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power.  But it has the full support of Scripture and, specially, of Our Lord's own words; it has the support of reason....  I would pay any price to be able to say truthfully "All will be saved."  But my reason retorts, "Without their will or with it?"  If I say "Without their will" I at once perceive a contradiction; how can the supreme voluntary act of self-surrender be involuntary?  If I say "With their will," my reason replies "How if they will not give in?"....

            The problem is not simply that of a God who consigns some of His creatures to final ruin....  Christianity, true, as always, to the complexity of the real, presents us with something knottier and more ambiguous--a God so full of mercy that He becomes man and dies by torture to avert that final ruin from His creatures, and who yet, where that heroic remedy fails, seems unwilling, or even unable, to arrest the ruin by an act of mere power.  I said glibly a moment ago that I would pay "any price" to remove this doctrine.  I lied.  I could not pay one-thousandth part of the price that God has already paid to remove the fact.[10]

 

c.  If God is eternal, so is hell.

1)  Those who seek to be left alone by God will be separated from God.  John Paul Sartre said, "The gates of hell are barred on the inside."[11]

2)  God lives forever.

3)  Therefore, they must be separated from God forever.

d.  Heaven

1)  Heaven is a place of purity, righteousness, and selflessness.

2)  The impure, unrighteous, and selfish would not enjoy it.

3)  The presence of sin would ruin heaven.

4)  Heaven lasts forever; sin must be quarantined forever.

C.  Objections to hell

1.  General objections

a.  Hell is unmerciful.

1)  This assumes that we have more mercy than God does.  Yet, none has done what God has.

2)  God has done all possible for us.

a)  By sending Jesus Christ to die for our sins

b)  By sending more light to anyone anywhere who responded to the light that he or she had

c)  By offering eternal life to all who simply trust Christ alone for it

d)  By giving us life as long as there is a chance of a positive response.  If they were reformable, they would still be alive.

3)  However, He cannot take away our choice without taking away our personhood.  That would be an incredibly evil act of violence.

b.  Hell is unjust.

1)  All sins are against the eternal God, and as such have eternal consequences.

2)  Although hell is eternal for everyone in it, all do not have to experience the same degree of punishment.

3)  God does not torture in hell.

a)  The torment is real, but self-inflicted.

b)  The flames, etc. may be metaphorical, since resurrected bodies would be immune to fire, but metaphors point to a greater reality.

4)  Ultimately, this objection is an objection to the ability of God to judge. 

a)  Sinful humans want to do whatever we want to do without consequences.

b)  We are outraged when God judges us.

2.  Specific objections

a.  Annihilationism[12]

1)  As we have seen, this is not the biblical picture.

2)  It is impossible to prove logically that non-being is better than being since they have no point of comparison.

3)  Since humans are created in the image of God (Gen 1:27), they have immortality.

4)  Since humans are created in the image of God (Gen 1:27), for God to annihilate them would be like destroying Himself in effigy.

b.  Universalism[13]

1)  This view sees hell as temporary.

a)  As we have seen, this is not scriptural.

b)  As we have seen, hell must last as long as God, God's kingdom, and eternal life.

2)  This view sees hell as reformational.

a)  How can a place devoid of God's grace accomplish what all God's grace and effort could not?

b)  God does try to reform people; that time of reformation is called life.  A merciful God would not allow anybody to die if there was still a chance of reformation.

c)  The author of Hebrews wrote that "it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment" (Heb 9:27).

d)  Some decisions are final.

III.  Application:

A.  For the believer in Jesus Christ ...

1.  We should be grateful to God for rescuing us from such a horrible fate.

2.  We should have a passion to take the Good News to all.

B.  For those who do not yet believe ...

1.  Hell is a dreadful reality, but the God who loves you has done everything possible to make sure that you do not go there.

2.  That you are still alive means that there is still hope.

3.  Please do not delay to place your trust in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life.