Everyone wants to think Hell doesn’t exist and they’d be terribly, terribly wrong one day when they find out that it does. Check out this exerpt from J.C. Ryle on the reality of Hell and I’ll see you at the end of his bit of wisdom.
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There is such a place as hell. Let no one deceive you with vain words. What people do not like, they try hard not to believe. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes to judge the world, He will punish all who are not His disciples with a fearful punishment: all who are found unrepentant and unbelieving, all who have clung to sin, all who are stuck to the world, and all who have set their affections on things below. All who are without Christ shall come to an awful end. Whosoever is not written in the book of life shall be “cast into the lake of fire.” [Rev 20:15]
I call on all who profess to believe the Bible, to be on their guard.
1) Some do not believe there is any hell at all. They think it impossible there can be such a place. They call it inconsistent with the mercy of God. They say it is too awful an idea to be really true. The devil of course, rejoices in the views of such people. They help his kingdom mightily. They are preaching up his old favorite doctrine, “You shall not surely die.”
2) Some do not believe that hell is eternal. They tell us it is incredible that a compassionate God will punish people forever. He will surely open the prison doors at last. This also is a mighty help to the devil’s cause.
3) Some believe there is a hell, but never allow that anybody is going there. All people with them are good. As soon as they die, all were sincere, all meant well, and all, they hope, got to heaven. Alas! what a common delusion this is!
Summary: If I never spoke of hell, I should think I had kept back something that was profitable, and should look on myself as an accomplice of the devil. Beware of new and strange doctrines about hell and the eternity of punishment. Beware of manufacturing a God of your own: a God who is all mercy, but not just; a God who is all love, but not holy; a God who has a heaven for everybody, but a hell for none; a God who can allow good and bad to be side by side in time, but will make no distinction between good and bad in eternity. Such a God is an idol of your own.
-J.C. Ryle
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God loves you, you should know that right up front, and because he loves you he wants the best for you. Now you’re idea of what’s best for you and His idea may be completely different because He knows you intimately, since He made you.
Hell is also a real place. God made that dwelling for Satan and all those who would follow him (Satan).
Hell is a place where there is complete separation from God…and anything good. It’s not nearly as interesting as people make it sound on TV shows. It’s completely awful as it is made out to be in the Bible. Revelation 19 refers to it as a “Lake of Fire.” Yes it is indeed that painful. Nobody would want to go there.
Whether we like it or not, there will come a day when God will judge everyone who is or has been on earth. If they have a relationship with his son Jesus Christ, and believe he died on a cross for our sins defeating death forever (He did indeed do that) then we will be able to join him in the paradise that is Heaven…which will be even better than we can imagine.
Those who don’t believe in Jesus, God, or the Holy Spirit and all the work that they have done in their lives will be sentenced to Hell…which will be even worse than you can imagine.
Hell is just as real a place as heaven, and it is very dangerous to think otherwise.
Now, you might think this unfair that some would be sent to Hell, but look at it this way. If someone stomps on your toe at work (right in front of your boss) for absolutely no reason…and your boss just lets him get away with it. You wouldn’t like that very much. You’d want some sort of judgment. God is a perfect and fair judge who sees and knows everything inside and out.
Having an actual relationship with Jesus Christ, not just hearing about him, is still the only way to get into heaven. It’s not based on anything good that we may have done on earth. That being said, we should not stop doing good to one another, because that is how people who may not know Jesus can see Him working through us. …And it’s just good to do nice things for people, and make this world a little less of a pain.
You could be the best, nicest person ever…but if you don’t know Jesus as your Saviour…and we all need saving. Romans 3:23 says all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God…you will still go to Hell. I’m just saying it like it is.
THERE IS HOPE though. That’s what this week is all about, on my blog anyway.
But Jesus has provided a way that we can still be with Him if we admit to him that we are sinners and need him to save us. He will! And he can forgive us for every bad thing we’ve ever done! He takes our sins as his own….since Jesus never sinned He can do that, giving us in return His righteousness. After this happens, when God sees us on Judgment Day…and it is coming. He sees the righteousness of Christ covering us, as if we never sinned at all. Our reward? Well it’s certainly not hell. When a non believer in Jesus goes up for Judgment, he does not have that merciful covering of Jesus’ righteousness, and God cannot live alongside sin because he is holy. There is only one place for the non believer to go. And that place is Hell.
If Hell was not real, Christians would not be out there telling their friends, coworkers, and loved ones about Jesus and his saving work on the cross, not to mention the reasons everyone needs saving through him. God doesn’t want anyone to go to Hell and he has placed Christians all over the world so that everyone can at least hear about, and have a chance to be saved by Jesus Christ. God has done this so that there will be no excuse on Judgement Day. Every breath you have (if you are not a believer already, is another chance to accept the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. If you go your whole life and choose not to accept Jesus’ free (for you) gift, then when the day of Judgment comes around…. You may not be very happy.