EP 2 | The Descent into Gloom: What is Hell Like? | What WilL Happen One Minute After you Do, Pt. 2

today on the John Ankerberg show what will happen to you one minute after you die statistics tell us 106 people die every minute 55,000 people die every day four and a half million people die every month and 56 million people die each year if you live for 70 years over your lifetime close to four billion people will have died on earth and eventually death will come to you and to me none of us will escape it what does the Bible say each of us will experience one minute after we die my guest today is theologian and best-selling author dr. Erwin Lutzer senior minister of moody church in Chicago Illinois written the book one minute after you die we invite you to join us for this special edition of the John Ankerberg show welcome to our program I'm John Ankerberg I'm glad that you're watching today we're talking about a topic that I think you're gonna want to hear it's about Hell what was the last time you heard a sermon about Hell you say hey Ankerberg you're pretty smart are you really going to talk about the reality of Hell yes we are not because we're trying to make this up we're trying to make it tough on people but we believe that Jesus Christ the Son of God who rose from the dead is the one that taught about this the most we want to see what he has to say about it you need to take what he says seriously my guest today is dr. Erwin Lutzer the pastor of historic moody church in Chicago Illinois and or what I'm glad that you're here he's written a best-selling book on the topic what happens to you one minute after you die we all know we're going to die and you either the Bible says you're going to be in heaven or a place called Hades that's going to be eventually hell and Erwin when people even hear this they react sometimes harshly you had a workman in your house one day and you were talking about the Lord Jesus and you got to the point of if he dies would he be in heaven and What did he say John I'm so glad to be with you to discuss this topic it's a difficult topic I think that within my heart as well as in yours if it were our choice we would probably say we don't want hell to exist but it's not our choice it's up to God and what he has revealed and exactly there was a workman at her house and I was witnessing to him and he said to me so if I don't believe on Jesus I'm going to hell and I said yes and he said if that's the kind of God that exists he says I will go to hell and I will defy him for all of eternity I looked into his eyes and I told him what a foolish thing to say you're going to defy God forever in suffering in torment in rebellion would that be satisfying to you is that going to matter to God is that going to affect the nature and the purposes of God absolutely not there's another possible response to have to the doctrine of hell and that is to say this if there is a hell if God is the kind of God who sends people to hell I had better flee to a refuge that he has given to us in Jesus Christ who can save us from the wrath to come and I hope that all who are listening today will take that option yeah and Erwin this is such a serious topic and people that think seriously about it and believe that it's harsh have developed or come up with alternative doctrines and one of them is universalism which actually says it this way they believe that God is so loving that everyone in the end is going to be saved no matter what they have done what would you say to those folks John it is true that some people have looked at the Bible and the doctrine of Hell has been so difficult to accept that they have tried to find scriptures that would somehow indicate that in the end everyone has saved and so they go to passages like Colossians chapter 1 where the Bible says that God is going to reconcile all things in Christ and so they interpret that to mean that in the end Hell will be what shall we say reconcile to God Satan will be reconciled to God and there'll be in eternity a universe of happiness with no hell well that's a wonderful vision but it does not stand a scrutiny in Scripture you can't simply pick and choose verses and hope that these verses overcome the plain teaching of Scripture and so I believe that universalism is wrong and as this show continues I'm sure that will become a panther when one of the favorite verses of these folks is Matthew 10:28 which states fear him Jesus said who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell now there's a Greek New Testament scholar who has said that every time the word the Greek word for destroy a paluma is used the fact is it does not mean cease to exist it's not annihilation but it's ruin it's not lack of being but of well-being what do you think this means well for example to carry on from where you through the question to me the fact is that the word destroy is used in different contexts for example Jesus talked about wine skins that are destroyed he did not mean that they are extinct that they go out of existence what he means is they are ruined they begin to leak they break open and so they may no longer be of any use and what Jesus is talking about here is an eternal ruin it's not a matter of going out of existence as a matter of fact we can confirm the by this very important verse in Matthew 25:46 where Jesus said these will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life now John everyone wants to believe in eternal life the fact is if we believe in eternal life we also have to believe in eternal punishment Jesus used the very same phrase in this verse of scripture so we have to understand that the idea of conditional immortality is really wrong yeah and I think oh we need to stop here and say that we're not pointing out these verses with glee we're not trying to be harsh on people we are trying to deal seriously with Jesus Christ what he said and the implications of that before I was a Christian this verse that you've been talking about on one side you have the wicked that go into eternal punishment and on the other side you have the righteous that go into eternal life you don't have to even go to graduate school to figure that one out okay but there's more verses when you said way back at the beginning you can't just cherry-pick certain verses and ignore all the rest let's put one more on the table that seems to answer this question that's revelation 14:11 it says and the smoke of their torment talking about the wicked goes up forever and ever and they have no rest day and night those who worship the Beast and His image and whoever receives the mark of his name what does that mean John this is a very serious moment in this discussion but I think it means exactly what it says the fact is that there is going to be conscious torment in hell forever and you know this isn't the only place in the book of Revelation where this phrase occurs you have in chapter 20 verse 10 it talks about Satan being into the pit and he is tormented and the beast and the false prophet and they are tormented day and night forever and ever I want to just take a moment and share my heart with all those who are listening today and watching us I realize that this is a difficult doctrine but you know God is not the God that we necessarily want him to be we are dealing here with the God who is and it's not up to us to make the rules we may struggle with the doctrine of hell but whether or not it exists has nothing to do with our preferences it has everything to do with God's Word and you and I must be ready so that at the point of death we know that we will not be eventually cast into hell but we will be in heaven and at the end of this show we're going to be giving some specific guidance to you so that you know for sure that this is a place where you are not going to be yeah this revelation 14 passage would answer the question of those who say God in Christ is going to reconcile all things to himself on heaven and earth they would include Satan they would include the false prophet they would include the people that are being talked about here that worship the Beast and take the mark of the beast and so on this verse denies that okay so it's a nice thought but the fact is there's these other verses and Jesus himself in Matthew chapter 23 verse 33 said o generation of vipers how can you escape the damnation of Hell what he was talking to people that were denying the truths of God's Word and John isn't it interesting that there are many people that we are speaking to right now who were brought up with the idea that Jesus was nothing but love and that he was accepting of everyone and he taught us to love each other and we should not be judgmental now Jesus was loving but he was perfectly loving and in addition to be loving Jesus also was just and he knew what the standards of the Father were and that's why hell is so frequently on his lips so the real question is this whether or not we are willing to submit to him and I could tell a story about me being on a plane with a woman who denied hell and I told her I said you've put me into a dilemma should I believe you or should I believe Jesus and then I looked at her and I said just know that I'm going with Jesus on this one and I say to all who are listening we have to go with Jesus because he knew what eternity was like yeah we're going to take a break or when when we come back we're going to talk about another objection that comes up if you talk with just about any skeptic if you read the new atheist if you have a debate with a fellow that's an atheist or a woman that's an atheist they'll bring up this one and that is hell if it exists is a serious case of overkill they believe it would be harsh of God to punish people eternally for sins committed in just this short period of time called life we're going to talk about how the Bible responds to this question this is something you're gonna want to hear so stick with us we'll be right back if you would like to have all 4 television programs on our new series what will happen to you one minute after you die they are available on DVD for a gift of $49 u.s. if you live in america or canada you may order this series by calling us at 1-800-805-3030 hell they say you know if hell exists from their point of view as they look at things hell is a serious case of overkill it'd be harsh for God to punish people in Hell eternally for sins committed in this short period of time called life how would you respond to that first of all John what I want to point out is this that when you think about God being loving and you look around the world and you see the natural disasters and you see the suffering of people that they are going through horrendous suffering if God is willing on his watch to have this kind of suffering which could be preventable I mean he could speak the word and the tsunami would not have happened perhaps then we begin to understand that maybe God will allow people to be in hell and it is not caught tree to his love because thankfully he's also a just God and in a few moments we're going to be explaining to people how hell can be avoided and why it is that God's grace enables us to make sure that we will not be there yeah God also permits free choice he doesn't force people to believe in him he wants them to choose freely he doesn't want people to sin he allows them to do it freely but there are consequences to these decisions so it's important so freedom comes into this equation of why God permits suffering in our world as well but there's other reasons that the Bible gives and one of them Irwin is revelation 20 where the Bible says I saw the dead John writes great and small standing before the throne talking about the Judgment Day when people that have refused Christ come before God what is the basis that they're going to judge be judged he says the 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 so God's gonna judge people I'm more than just not believing in Christ but also what well the Bible is very clear here that hell is not going to be the same for everyone and the reason is because people will be judged on the basis of what they did with what they knew and the opportunities that they were given John I don't believe that anyone will be standing at this great white throne and God will say I'm sending you to hell because you didn't hear about Jesus that would be unjust but the fact is God is going to say now what did you do with what you knew did you live up to the conscience that I gave you the internal law of God did you look up to the starry heavens and tell God whatever his name may be that you wanted to serve him and you wanted to be his what we're going to discover I think in the scriptures is that nobody lives up to the light that they have so that will be the basis of judgment here's another very important verse on the topic he who knew God's will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes he who knew not God's Will shall be beaten with few in other words responsibility is based on knowledge and opportunity there are some people who have lived relatively good lives and their judgment will be far less than someone who deliberately sinned and committed crimes and did evil that he knew was wrong and so what we believe is that throughout all of eternity God is so going to be judging people with such meticulous balance that we will say throughout all of eternity just and true are thy ways thou king of saints but you know John there's something else that I must add the reason that we think hell is overkill is because we don't understand the seriousness of sin that theologian Jonathan Edwards asks this question what if the seriousness of sin is dependent upon the greatness of the being against whom it is committed that is very important for example if I were to throw a snowball I was born in Canada and we used to throw snowballs if I throw a snowball at my brother that's not serious if I throw it at the mailman that becomes more serious if I throw it at a police officer even more serious but you know if you were to throw a snowball at a president or a prime minister now we're talking about a very serious matter even a crime imagine us committing sins against a holy infinite pure God our sins are far more serious than we realize and as a result of that here's the bottom line people suffer in Hell eternally because they are eternally guilty and nothing that they can do can ever possibly pay for their sins if you want your sins paid for you have to hurry to Jesus in this life because there's no hope for you in the life to come yeah if you commit a sin against an infinite being it would require an infinite punishment let's get down to it or 1 what will he'll be like will there be literal fire torment what's it going to be like well you know the Bible always talks about fire in Hell Jesus spoke about that there are other passages that emphasize that whether or not the fire is literal here's what we need to take very seriously the fact is that hell will be a place of torment it will be a place of abandonment as we mentioned earlier in a previous program dante was right abandon all hope ye who enter here and john when it comes to eternity I've given it a lot of thought imagine for a moment that a bird comes to this planet and he takes one grain of sand and it takes him a million years to take that grain of sand away and come back and then he takes another grain of sand and he begins in the Sahara Desert and takes all the sand and then the beaches of Florida and the beaches of the world and then the mountains just to think he would take this entire world to this other planet in multiplied billions and billions of years and eternity would hardly have begun and so what we must understand is that when we talk about Hell being eternal everyone who is listening at this moment should ask themselves am I going there is there a way of escape and the answer is yes there is and quickly or when some people say well listen I'm going to hell and I'm going to be there with all my friends John just to think he'll actually is a place of abandonment you will not be enjoying your friends as a matter of fact if you connect with your friends they will only increase your misery so it is so important that you not go to hell now I'd like to just share my heart with all those who are watching and listening today it is true that in Canada frequently there were prairie fires and farmers feared these prairie fires because they could burn barns and they could burn houses so what the farmers would do on a day when the wind was favourable they would burn around their barns and their houses and so forth so that when the prairie fire came they knew that their area would not be burned because the fire had already been there now listen carefully when Jesus was on the cross the first three hours he suffered under the hands of men but the last three hours he suffered under the hands of God and my friend as I pour out my heart to you today please keep in mind that in those three hours Jesus bore our hell in those three hours Jesus suffered an eternity of hell so that you and I would not have to suffer hell we could receive him as Savior we could believe on him and as the Bible said we would escape the wrath to come John I'd like to pray for people right now yeah and folks if you're watching and you say look I realize I'm a sinner and I want to put my belief in Christ how do I do that you say a prayer and you admit that you are a sinner to the Lord and you put your trust in him and I'm going to ask her when to say this prayer and if you want to do this right now if you want to put your faith in Christ and ask him to save you I'd ask you to pray along as Erlin prays father I know that I am a sinner I know that I am bound for hell and I also know that I deserve it but at this moment I thank you that Jesus died on the cross and rose again and because he is a savior I thank you that on the cross he bore my hell and therefore I receive him as my sacrifice as my Savior I receive him as my Lord and I put my faith in confidence in what he has done for me thank you that he died and was raised again for me I received that is mine in Jesus blessed name Amen folks again if you prayed that prayer God promises in the Word of God whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord you shall be saved and dr. Lutzer I'm so glad you came and you spent all of these programs with us and all this great information and all the study that you've done I'm sure that it's helped so many folks and those of you that are listening right now if you'd like to have all of this information for your own you'd like to know how to get it just stay tuned and we'll show you in just a moment stay tuned for scenes from next week's program if you would like to have all of the information in our new series what will happen to you one minute after you die all 4 television programs are available on DVD for a gift of $49 what information has God given to us so that we can overcome our fear of death what will happen the moment you make the transition from life to death to heaven and what about the death of infants when we get to heaven will my child know me what is happening to them now all 4 television programs in this series are available on DVD for a gift of $49 then we taped a second series called what will happen to you one minute after you die part 2 where we answer the questions for those who are Christians what will heaven be like your first hour and glory for those who have not believed in Christ the descent into gloom but will he'll be like is God really in control of how and when you die what about Christians who commit suicide will they be in heaven and how can you have complete assurance you are going to heaven when you die 4 television programs in this series are available on DVD for a gift of $49 then we're making available to other series with dr. Lutzer first where do we go from here which he documents 5 disturbing cultural trends that may be irreversible unless God steps in and second faith at the breaking point 5 unshakeable biblical truths that Christians can hang on to in a world of chaos and decline each of these series is available for $39 and finally if you wish to order all four of these series containing 14 half-hour television programs they are available together in a special package for only $100 u.s. those of you living in america or canada you may order these programs by calling us at 1-800-805-3030 oh the emptiness came in with no answers only questions tradition tradition tradition you followed it I knew this was not going to get me anywhere and finally I attempted to take my own life you and to learn how to start a relationship with jesus christ go to our website at jashow.org and click on 'pray to accept jesus christ as your savior

Channel: John Ankerberg Show

Views: 163,238

Rating: 4.7982607 out of 5

Keywords: Hell (Quotation Subject), Religion (TV Genre), John Ankerberg (Author), Erwin Lutzer (Author), Salvation (Belief), Heaven (Quotation Subject)

Id: kzHqkwrAs9s

Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 01 2015