As we continue to talk about life as a journey, lets finish our discussion about the destination where we will find ourselves if we choose not to follow Jesus. This is the “place” where we end up by default by not choosing the correct destination. I am referring to Hell. See the previous post to get a good introduction to this “place”, along with the different words used in the Hebrew and Greek language when referring to Hell. As discussed before, there are four major views of Hell.
Traditional View – place of fire- people burn and suffer forever.
Matthew 18:8,9 8 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.
Matthew 25:46 46 Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.
Mark 9:42-48 42 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. 44 45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. 46 47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.
II Thes 1:5-10 5 All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
It sounds straight forward. Stay away from this place of eternal punishment, fire, and destruction. Here are a few of the problems people have with the Traditional view.
• If God is just, does finite sin in eighty plus years on earth justify eternal torture? Is it our place to even try to justify this?
• Does eternal punishment really reflect the nature of God, who came in flesh so that everyone can be saved? Remember, Jesus asked God to forgive them because they didn’t know what they were doing. Did God forgive them or was that just a rhetoric statement by Jesus? Does that kind of love reconcile with punishment that never results in anything positive?
• The church has used the fear of Hell to “save” people for years. However, 2 Tim 1:7 says that God has not given us the spirit of fear. How many continue to have a walk with God after being led to God through fear? Not to mention, as discussed in the prior post, more people believe in Hell now than ever before, but fewer people are attending church.
Modified traditional view – Eternal suffering – not actual fire and burning. The state of being eternally separated from God and all that is good. Gehenna was an actual place that Jesus used as a physical example of what happens spiritually when someone dies. This idea is believable because the Bible does not say that we will have a body when we die “lost”.
Universalist View – Hell is temporary and remedial. Eventually, Hell will be empty once everyone decides to follow Jesus.
Romans 5:18 18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.
1 Corinthians 15:22 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
Colossians 1:19-20 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Philippians 2:10,11 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
If every knee will bow and every tongue acknowledge, then…
John 3:16 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Universalists believe in Hell, but find it hard to get away from the ALLs and EVERYs in the scriptures above. This is not just a modern, “liberal” view. There were some very early church fathers in the 2nd and 3rd centuries that had this belief as well. Don’t we all hope that God’s love is so great that everyone, ultimately, will be saved? Or do you find yourself hoping that some people get what they deserve? Then we must ask ourselves, what do I really deserve?
Which one do you like the best so far?
Annihilationist View – Hell is eternal because, eternally, one will not exist anymore. Yet, one will not suffer forever, because one would cease to exist.
2 Thessalonians 1:9 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might
Hebrews 5:9 he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him
Annihilationist’s would say that our salvation is eternal, because once we are saved it’s forever. We are not being saved repeatedly for eternity. The same goes for everlasting destruction. Once one is destroyed, it’s forever. One is not destroyed again and again for eternity. Read the following scriptures with the annihilationist view in bold.
2 Peter 2:6 6 if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly – They were all burned up.
Matthew 3:12 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. – The fire is unquenchable, but the chaff is burned up.
Matthew 7:13-19 13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction…19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
What happens when the tree is thrown in the fire? It is destroyed forever.
Matthew 10:28 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. – Being destroyed is eternal.
Romans 6:22-23 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a]Christ Jesus our Lord.- One will either be alive or dead forever.
No matter where you find yourself on this topic, I firmly believe this is one of the major beliefs that shapes our love for God. How we view God’s punishment/forgiveness for sin, ultimately affects whether we perceive Him as a good Father. This is so important because it determines whether we believe in the true destination that He has prepared for us.
1 Cor 2:9 However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him–
There is a “place” we should be seeking. We can’t believe or understand what God has for us in this place if we don’t have the correct view of God in our minds. However…
Hebrews 6:1-3 Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God,2 instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so.
Even though eternal judgment is an important idea to build our foundation, we must move beyond it. This is elementary teaching. We must move on to more important things: our true destination. “And God permitting, we will do so.”
But before we go there, let’s discuss one more idea in the next post, the rapture.
Join me next time as we continue to seek the kingdom – From Egypt to the Promised Land
Bill
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