Fire in  the Hole

 

How do you put a value on the concept of Hell?  The whole idea is really beyond what we can really comprehend or grasp.  We can’t understand Eternity, never mind spending it in the torments of the fires of Hell.

So, we have a solution for it.  We just don’t think about it. 

Maybe if we push it off to the edge of our thoughts, it will go away.  But shoving Hell off into the background does not make it go away, anymore than rationalizing our sins make them any less sinful.  It might fade away from our consciousness, but its stark reality will come into sharp focus when we die.

Surely, Hell is for someone else, not us.  We concentrate on all the good stuff and convince ourselves that damnation is a dramatization by extremists.  Certainly, there are plenty of lukewarm pastors out there who will assuage our consciences and tell us not to worry. 

We’re Christians aren’t we?  We go to church.  We believe in Jesus.  Isn’t that enough? 

Or are we like those people that Jesus spoke about who had eaten and drank in his presence but were told that He never knew them.  (Luke 13:26; Matt.7:23; Ezekiel 18:24)

Oh, but surely that doesn’t apply to us, does it?  That’s for somebody else.

The funny thing is that the very people we think will wind up in Hell think we are the ones who will wind up there.  Maybe we’re both right.

Hell has become a four-lettered word and is not supposed to be repeated in polite company.  It’s kinda like that other nasty word -- Fear.  You just don’t say those things, especially in church, because you will surely offend someone.

Exactly.  The preaching of the Cross is an offense to the unsaved.

And that’s pretty much the point, isn’t it?  Nobody, and especially pastors, wants to be some critical, judgmental cranky old sourpuss.  We just want to “love on people”.  So we don’t tell them the truth, we don’t warn them of judgment to come, and we don’t take a stand. 

One local pastor wrote in an email last week that God never intimidates us.  Excuse me?  Which Bible are you reading?  If the stark specter of burning in Hell forever is not intimidating, then I don’t know what is.

We live in a world where everything is nice and warm and fuzzy, and where everybody is going to Heaven – or so it seems.  Sure.  Just ask anybody.  They’ll tell you.  They believe in God, so naturally, they’re going to Heaven when they die.  Do you know anybody that does not think like that?

Unfortunately, according to the Bible, most people are heading for destruction – and they don’t even know it. 

Okay, so I’m a judgmental, cranky ol’ sourpuss, but I know that the Bible requires a level of intensity that most of us don’t want to admit to.  And yet it is all written there in black and white.  We just have to read it with open hearts.

As I have often said, 10,000 years from now you are going to be somewhere.  Better make sure there are no rude surprises in store for you when you die.  There’s no coming back to do it over again.

 

“Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.”  Luke 13:24