The Beautiful Believable Basics 7: Hell

[Music] [Music] we're in our seventh and final part say this with me is just so hard to imagine but a beautiful believable one hell a beautiful believable health from the very beginning of the series people have been saying to me I can see a beautiful believable God and a story and a man and a plan of the miracle and I haven't I can see all of that but from the very first day people were saying to me how could you possibly preach a sermon titled a beautiful believable hell what we're gonna see today if we're able to do that we've been asking three questions in this series number one is it believable is there any evidence for it number two is it livable is it experientially consistent and number three is it beautiful is it is it aesthetically pleasing is it something that that's not just believable in a utilitarian sense but can we actually embrace it the last week we were together we talked about a beautiful believable heaven and I came across in my studies for this sermon this beautiful quotation from the longtime Baptist missionary in Burma at an Iram Gutzon missionary from yesteryear and I just had to include this because it transitions really nicely for us from a beautiful believable hell or heaven into a beautiful believable hell and Adonai Arms said when Christ calls me home I shall go away with the gladness of a boy or a girl bounding away from school don't you love that when it's time when it's my time he says I won't go moping I will go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from school and we all know what that's like right when vacation is here and I think vacation is here is that right right are we on holidays now okay great so last week we asked the question what is heaven and by extension when we find out what it is then we'll also know what heaven isn't this week we're going to transition not just what is heaven and what isn't it but this week but what is hell and what isn't hell we're gonna look at four things today now I'll tell you how I prepared this sermon I spent a lot of time on my knees and a lot of time in preparation this week and I basically put in every single thing that I wanted to say and it was like 350 slides okay and then I just started taking stuff out and with great pain in my heart I said well okay I'll leave that text out I'll leave that scripture out I'll leave that story out I'll leave that illustration now to leave that tation out and so it's still gonna be I mean just get ready I don't know if there's seatbelts on these new seats okay cuz if you might want to look down put your you know trade table into the upright position bring your seat forward buckle your belt because we are this is gonna be a ride are you ready for this now you're ready pray for me and pray for yourself we're gonna be talking about one hell of a lie one hell of a lie we're gonna be looking at four things number one a brief history of Hell in the church number two what's at stake in the question about Hell number three what the Bible actually says the truth of scripture concerning Hell and then finally the beauty of Hell so get ready buckle your safety belts and here we go we're gonna start off by talking about the history of Hell and the thinking about what hell is in the Christian Church I can tell you from an autobiographical standpoint that the number one thing I would say there were two things that sort of prevented my coming across into believing in a God and certainly the Christian God I was a twenty-one twenty-two twenty-three year old seeker I was open to the idea of God I was open to the to the possibility that there might be a God out there but I was absolutely resolutely determinative lees closed against the idea that that God could be the Christian God or the God of the Bible because number one I wrestled with God's invisibility and I subsequently have come to peace with that but the other issue that was just too big for me it was a hurdle too high to get over a chasm too big to cross was this idea how can God a God of love of God a goodness of God a salvation of God that supposedly represented by Jesus allow and not only allow in some cases actually cause sinners to suffer eternal conscious torment in the fires of some place called hell I just for me it was nonsensical it was irrational and it was totally unbelievable in fact I remember actually saying at one point in my sort of early 20s if that's the way that God is and that's true then I don't want to believe in him anyway if I'm going to hell I'm gonna go to hell but I'm not gonna believe that I cannot believe that a God of goodness and of love and of grace and of mercy could be that kind of a god and I distinctly remember a friend of mine who was a devout Christian his name was Tim he said well you know like it or not then you're gonna go to hell and I said I'll be happy to go then I'll be if that's the way that God is why would I want to spend eternity with him anyway I'll be happy to be in the other place now I want to tell you how did we get to this idea why was why was I so adamantly against the idea that this supposed God of love could be a God that was consistent with this idea of eternal conscious torment in a fiery place known as hell well I'm gonna introduce you to a little bit of history here that's gonna be helpful for you and and I'm gonna give you church history the history of the development of not just the doctrine of hell but a great many incorrect and obtuse doctrines that are attributed to the Bible and attributed to Christianity but which in fact are not true and in order to sort of get your mind wrapped around it we're going to talk about today I need to introduce to you two long words right and though the words are long they're actually not at all difficult the concepts are not difficult the two words are number one D judaization and number two hellenization this is really these two ideas D judaization and hellenization if you can get these two concepts in your mind you basically have the story of the history of the Christian Church over the last two thousand years these two ideas now the first word D judaization means just exactly what it sounds like the progressive detachment of the church from its scriptural and Jewish roots right and he would just say it this way to put it in common parlance the unjú ition of the church clearly the church is a Jewish institution right a Jewish Savior Jewish Scriptures all of the early apostles were Jews rooted in the Old Testament which is a Jewish book authored exclusively by Jews so you just have this patently Jewish reality but what happens is is as the church begins to grow especially into the second and third centuries this is a well-documented well attested to phenomenon you have a massive influx of non-jewish people a massive influx of what of what are called Gentiles right and what effectively happens is you have less and less Jewishness in the Church of the 2nd 3rd 4th centuries and beyond right somebody has famously said Yaroslav Pelican and a book that he wrote a five volume set on the history of the church he says think of it like this the Apostolic Church all of whom were Jews and the first century church related to Judaism like their mother right they grew out of Judaism they had longed for the prophecies of Judaism they looked for a Jewish Messiah and so when those early apostles thought of of Jewishness they thought oh that's like a mother to us we are Jews but Pelikan went on to say but the church of the second and third and fourth centuries with this massive in flux of non-jewish people's what are called Gentiles began to relate to Judaism like their mother-in-law mother-in-law's apologies right the idea is is that even if you love your mother-in-law and I have an amazing mother-in-law there's there she can never be the mom right for the early church Judaism was the mother and for the later church Judaism was like the mother-in-law and over time as they began to move away from their Jewish and biblical roots there wasn't a vacuum there wasn't a void that remained what actually happened is that something took the place and the thing that took the place of that Jewish grounding those Jewish roots and that Jewish foundation was hellenization and the word hellenization just means the Greek the Greek aggressive adoption of Greek thinking and philosophy into the church so what you have is the extraction or the increasing decrease of Jewish influence and Jewish thinking and Jewish ideas and Jewish philosophy and in an in putting or bringing about an importing rather of Greek ideas and Greek concepts ok so if you can get those two ideas in in your mind a decrease in Jewishness and increase in Greek thinking you're gonna really going to be well in advance you're gonna be on your way well on your way to understanding what we're gonna talk about here now one of the key doctrines that is brought about by this Hellenistic shift this Greek shift in early Christianity that was massively accelerated by the conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine in 83 12 again this is one of the most well attested - well understood factors in the development of early Christian doctrine and one of the things one of the key doctrines that was brought about was this idea of the natural immortality of the soul no question what does the word immortality mean or immortal what does it mean it means unable to die right your undying mortal subject to death from where they to die right Latin were--they so if you're immortal you are not subject to death right and the Greek ideas we've talked about last week we're gonna come back to this in just a second was this dualistic idea that you were made up of a body which was temporal and physical and lower than the other part of you which was a spirit which was immature or non-physical and better it was also eternal the body was temporal ashes to ashes dust to dust but the spirit was eternal and would live on forever immortal II and so this bifurcation of human beings into two parts body and spirit was a Greek idea that was brought in through Plato and others and so this key doctrine comes in now I'm gonna give you some a lot of Bible references today and I just want you to get your mind wrapped around this basic idea found in first Timothy chapter 6 verses 15 and 16 speaking of Jesus it says the king of kings and Lord of lords and notice these next four words who alone has what's the word okay okay so who alone has immortality God right God possesses immortality the Greek said no no immortality is something that is available to even human beings we have immortal souls and this was slowly but surely and I would say sinisterly brought into the early church the king of kings and Lord of lords who alone has immortality dwelling in what kind of light what's that word there the modifying word on approach of light we're gonna come back to that so I want you to take that idea of unapproachable light put it on a shelf in your mind because we're gonna land the whole presentation on that idea whom no man has seen or can see to whom the honor and everlasting power amen the verse is easy to understand what Paul is saying when he's writing to his young understudy Timothy is this God alone is immortal God alone is not subject to death he alone possesses immortality so no wonder that st. Paul in the the the the greatest of his epistles Romans chapter two verse seven would say something like this those to those who by persistence in doing good seek what's the word I just said everyone seek for a glory and honor and what's that word immortality he will give eternal life so question if you are seeking for something if you're searching for something or looking for something are you in possession of it if I'm looking for my keys if I'm seeking for my keys if you're looking for a spouse or seeking for a boyfriend or a girlfriend you're not in possession of it so what Paul says is we're looking for immortality God has it nay God has immortality what we would say ontologically he possesses it by the nature of his very being you do not you seek it you desire it we seek it and so notice this were just gonna build point on point anyone who hates his brother or his sister is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him now notice that I've helped you out there by putting in brackets that's a location that's a location in him and notice what John says if you're a murderer if you're a somebody this angry with your brother unrepentant he says eternal life does not reside in you it's not located there question is immortality located in God's nature yes oh no yeah he alone possesses immortality so god possesses immortality immortality is in him we could say even more simply life is in God God possesses life he is the Fountain of Life we'll come to that in just a moment but here it says there is a place where eternal life does not dwell where immortality does not dwell and he says you know this no murderer has eternal life dwelling where in him that's not where it's located not located there at all well why well because of according to Romans 6:23 and many other consistent similarly consistent passages it says for the wages of sin is one death but now watch this the wages of sin is death but the what's that word the gift of God is eternal life okay notice that's the location the location is that it's a gift it's it's from God it's in God it's a product of God's basic nature and he gives it to us through Jesus Christ our Lord the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life first John chapter 5 verses 11 to 13 these are probably the clearest verses to this effect and this is the testimony says John that God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son where is this life located where is it located where is this life where would we find it it's found in Jesus it's found in God himself he who has the son has life he who does not have the Son of God does not have one life because if the life is located in him it's like saying the shoe is in the box the shoe is in the box you say man looking for the shoe at looking for the shoe and I say it's in the box if you get the box that has the shoe in it you not only have the box you have the shoe right an eternal life immortality is in God it is in Jesus and so if we have Jesus he's saying that you have eternal life he continues these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know believers may know followers of Jesus may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God and the year we come now to the best-known best-loved verse in all of scripture John chapter 3 verse 16 for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever one believes in Him should not perish but have okay which it's just common sense just just allow the refreshing beauty of common sense to seek and be seep into your mind over the course of this presentation right we're gonna do everything we can to disabuse your mind of the typical traditional view of Hell and we're just going to just think about common sense just common sense can we advocate an actual beautiful believable hell based on Scripture and according to John 3:16 God so loved the world that He gave His Son that whoever believes would not perish but would have the opposite have you never perished if you never died you would have what you would be you would have eternal life right so right there in the best known best loved most quoted verse in all of Scripture we have this simple idea that if you have Jesus if you believe in Jesus if you accept Jesus God gives you not only a quantity of years but a quality of life right he gives you eternal life and if you don't have Jesus if you don't have the box with the shoes in it then you don't have life what is it what is it called when you lose your life is its perishing its dying and so this is really simple I've given it to you here in the simplest possible equation if you have Jesus you have life and if you have no Jesus you have no but even the life you're living right here today is a gift of God in Christ the breathe the air that you're breathing right now the breath that you just took right now the pulsating of your heart right now is a gift of God in Jesus for those who reckon and worship and those that don't everybody that's alive has received a gift of God and God says I gave you that that little period that that 40 years 50 or 60 years seven years so you can see man life is great friendships are great and food is great and mangles are amazing and music is fun you want to do this forever right God gives us a little foretaste and he says everybody has given an opportunity to receive the kind of life that I created you to receive the kind of life that you were created to live and that is an abundant life right didn't Jesus say that the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy he said but I am come that they might have life and have it abundantly some translations say have it to the full not only a quantity of years right years on years on years as a kind of unending sequence but as a quality of life as a quality of life that life is found in Jesus now I'm wondering by a raising of hands if anyone knows who this man is I suspected that no one would know but let me just give you a little hint you won't get it but if this was an Anglican Church everybody would raise their hand if I was preaching this morning on a Sunday in an Anglican Church and I said who knows who this is every single hand would go up and they would say that's one of the foremost theologians in the Anglican Church in fact in all of Christendom and an evangelicalism he passed away in 2011 his name is John Stott arguably what was certainly one of the top three and arguably the most influential theologian of the last hundred years right now I want to just share with you one of my favorite statements from John Stott John Stott was a passionate student of Scripture passionately wrestled with Scripture and he stirred up a little bit of controversy in his own Anglican Church toward the end of his life about the last two decades of his life he stirred up a little controversy not purposefully but he just started going to Scripture you know as you do he's a devout conservative passionate follower of Jesus and a and a theologian and he's just was reading through Scripture and just studying what scripture says and trying to bring his own traditions as we all should be doing his own traditions and his own ideas to bear on Scripture and and he came to a fascinating conclusion he said you know what I think we might be wrong about this whole thing I think the way that we have preached and promoted and advocated hell we might be wrong about this and he began to suggest that in faith the bible did not teach unending conscious torment but in fact it taught something different let me read here what he says dr. staat says as a community evangelical my question must be and is not what does my heart tell me but what does what does God's Word say who in here says amen to that I agree I agree I'm on the same page with you dr. staat he continues and in order to answer this question about Hell we need to survey the biblical material what's that next word I love that word fresh we need to be in a continual state my friends whether you're from the seventh-day Adventist Church the Anglican Church the Baptist Church or any church or no church we need to be in a continual state of exactly what he's saying here surveying the biblical material what's the word afresh to bring our own ideas our own perspectives even our own culture and traditions to bear on Scripture and then to bring Scripture to bear on our ideas right we are living here 2018 just one year after 2017 which was the 500 year anniversary of Luther's theses and he nailed to the to the door there in Vinton burg and the sum total that the cornerstone of his protest boiled down to two basic words to two words one idea who knows what those two words were Sola scriptura scripture alone not the council's not the priests not the Pope's not the early church fathers what does the Bible say and what's taught is saying here he is well and truly in the Protestant vein here well and truly in the stream of evangelicalism when he says I can't ask my heart I can't ask my opinion I can't even ask my church what does the Bible say what does scripture say we need to survey the biblical material of fresh and open our minds not just our hearts to the possibility that Scripture points in the direction of annihilation scripture points in the direction of destruction notice this and that the doctrine of eternal conscious torment has to yield to the supreme authority of Scripture oh I'm so thankful for godly men like dr. staat who over and against their tradition I mean it's one thing to go along with what your tradition says right that's the path of least resistance my tradition says this that's what I'm going to do my church says this is what my parents did my parents parents it and my parents parents parents no problem but when somebody says you know what I think our tradition is out of sync with Scripture I think our culture and our teaching and our doctrine is out of sync with Scripture and I love what Scott says we need to go back to the Bible and say you know what I don't think we can find that medieval version of hell that is often advocated this idea that drove me as I mentioned at the outset do I submit if that's the way God is if that's the way Christianity is I want no part of it and Scott says you know what it's not there increasingly I am persuaded that if we if we are committed to the axiom of Sola scriptura we will be turning away from this idea now notice what's taught says on what grounds dr. staat do we move away from the doctrine of eternal conscious torment he says on two grounds number one it's not biblical and number two the whole idea is Greek the whole idea is what did I say remember our two words there D judaization the unjú issuing of the Christian Church and who remembers the second word the hellenization or the Greek king of the Christian Church notice what it says it cannot I think be replied that it is impossible to destroy human beings because they are immortal he says you can't that's not a good answer well why not dr. staat because the immortality and therefore the indestructibility of the soul is a Greek not a biblical concept he was right on to it if a soul is naturally immortal and you take an immortal soul and you put it in the fires of hell how long will it be there it'll be there forever because it's immortal because it's indestructible in-stock says ah not so fast I don't think that's what scripture is teaching and neither do I neither do i here today so let's continue in his book the fire that consumes another person who went over and against his tradition in this case more of a Baptist tradition fascinating man by the name of II W fudge Edwin fudge who recently passed away in - just recently November of 2017 there's a movie that a friend of mine made about this man and you can actually watch the movie highly recommend it it's called hell and mr. fudge anybody here seen that movie okay good good to see some hands going up if you haven't seen it watch the movie its outstanding hell and mr. fudge and this is what dr. fudge said in his book the fire that consumes released in 1982 that also began to buck the evangelical tradition about eternal torment in some fiery abode overseen by Satan himself called hell he says pagan Greek thought patterns entered the Christian stream early in history and it flowed along almost unannounced for many centuries one hell of a lie so that's a brief history the deed judaization and then the hellenization let's talk now about what's at stake okay so what so what you you think this you say tomato I say tomahto you say potato I say potato you know what's the big deal well there's so much at stake here the quotation that I'm giving here is a quotation from the very book that was responsible for turning me from a 23 year old purple haired punk rocker into a follower of Jesus this was the book that was given to me this was the book that I read a book called the great controversy by a amazing woman of yesteryear named Ellen White and this is what she says about eternal conscious torment and I can still remember where I was sitting what I was doing when I read these paragraphs notice it is beyond the power of the human mind to estimate the evil which has been wrought by the heresy of eternal torment yeah just try to imagine she says you can it's too big the religion of the Bible full of what's that word full of love and what goodness and what a bounding in compassion is darkened by superstition and clothed with terror clothes would tear how so when we consider in what false colors Satan has painted the character of God can we wonder that our merciful creator is feared dreaded and even hated that was my point there was no theologian but I was a 23 year old person with a brain in my head that could say wait a minute you're trying to tell me God his love and then you're trying to tell me that if I don't worship don't serve don't follow don't believe in him that he will allow me to suffer unending conscious torment in the fires of hell no thank you no thank you it's irrational these two things cannot be simultaneously affirmed we'll come back to it in just a second the appalling views of God which have spread over the world from the teachings of the pulpit have made thousands yes millions of skeptics and infidels and of course that's true by the way the word infidel literally means without faith that's what I was I was an infidel when I was approached by Christians that would try to reach out to me that would try to witness to me I would say no thank you no I might be into in some religion or some God or some spirituality but it cannot be your version it cannot be that biblical version because there is no way I am an infidel with regards to this Christian faith because I believed incorrectly as I'm making my case today that that God actually advocated in the name of love whatever love means it's obviously a very pliable elastic term in the name of love that if you don't follow me you will suffer eternal conscious torment in the fires of hell eternal and I was like no thank you no thank you I don't want to spend one day with that God much less eternity now last week we talked about this very quotation from dr. pinic and he he he pointed us to the fact that not only does this Greek teaching of a bifurcation between body and spirit not only does it distort our view of heaven it also distorts our view of hell dr. pinic says anthropological dualism that's what we're describing here this Greek thinking the natural immortality of the soul has done such a serious harm in weaken weakening our Blessed hope of Christ's appearing and in distorting the understanding of the world to come that's what we talked about last week it has also fostered many dichotomies including a negative view of the body and contrast to the soul and a concept of salvation as interior experience rather than a total transformation this is what we dealt with last week but notice this worst of all says dr. Pinette it has given rise to the sadistic teaching and I am in full agreement with his characterization that God makes the wicked suffer unending conscious torment in Hell which has been such a burden to the Christian conscience and an unnecessary offense to many seekers it was an offense to me how many people in here are converts to Christ converts to Christianity and have found or maybe you're not even yet a convert but you found or presently find the doctrine of a current eternal conscious torment to be absolutely abhorrent to you intellectually emotionally just you just can't get your head around it there we go experience very similar to mine and very similar to dr. Penix this Greek dualistic view of human nature has distorted salvation and heaven and hell when we then combine this Greek idea of anthropological dualism with what's called predestination you get a very ugly picture of God what that looks like is this God predetermines ordains and pre decides who is saved and who is lost this is what a great many Christians believe God decides well available I remember asking my friend Tim this I can remember where I was standing on what I was doing and I'm having a conversation or he's trying to witness to me about the goodness of God in Christ and I'm like whoa just let me ask a question do you believe in predestination he said yes I do I said explain it to me and he explained it as I've just done a moment ago not in not as a caricature but he said look I just think that God has pre decided preordained predetermined who will be saved and who will be lost I said okay just a follow-up question do you also believe that he'll last forever and that it's conscious that you were consciously in torment and Fire and he said yes I believe that I said then you know you don't have to say another syllable to me do you have to first of all what difference would it make if I'm predetermined to be saved and I'm gonna be saved and I'm predetermined to be lost I'm gonna be lost but but please do not expect me or invite me to believe this rubbish I didn't say rubbish at the time in fact it would be difficult to imagine a worse or uglier picture of God of God than that we begin this whole series by taking issue with with what does it mean that God is good this this idea that I'm advocating here the twin doctrines of predestination that God determines quite apart from your choice that God determines before you ever made a choice before there was ever you to make a choice who will be saved and who will be lost and then as a as a corollary to that that some will suffer eternal conscious torment in hell and others will live in the bliss of heaven for eternity come on this this yet many believe that this very idea is scriptures God of love and I just can't get my head around it when we began our very first series in this church a beautiful believable God in this series the first in this series we said this the good news God is a God that draws with love if you believe that say Amen and bad news gods are all the other gods that not draw with love and attraction but which drive out of guilt shame and ultimately what's that word out of fear back to Clarke pinic and I am in total agreement with him here I consider the concept of Hell as endless torment and body and mind and outrageous doctrine and I believe that before I had a theological bone in my body how can Christians possibly project a deity of such cruelty and vindictive whose ways include inflicting everlasting torture upon its creatures however sinful they may have been and then notice this sentence surely a God who would do such a thing is more nearly like Satan than like God that's the very point that was made in the book that I began to read that open my mind to the possibility of God this is basically what happened when I saw the biblical picture of Hell God instantaneously became credible all of a sudden the door was open my primary objection my immovable objection to the idea of God and of Christianity was just out of the way and you know what it was just weeks later before I walked through that door once that obstacle was removed I mean how can we turn God into Satan and then say come and believe in this God of love now evangelicals are not stupid Christians are not stupid they know that this is paradoxical I would say it's more than paradoxical I would say it's completely logically incoherent and inconsistent they know it some of the greatest minds I've ever thought about these questions some of them some people that I personally look up to tremendously for their for their spiritual insights and their intellectual integrity people like CS Lewis notice what he says about this there is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this I don't want it to be true he says if it lay in my power but he says it has the full support of Scripture and especially of our Lord's own words it has always been held by Christendom and it has the support of reason now I would not consider myself to be in any way shape or form somebody who would take on CS Lewis in in his intellectual you know he's an intellectual giant but here he is dead wrong he is absolutely wrong it not only does not have the support of Scripture it doesn't have the support of Jesus and it doesn't even have the support of reason now credit to dr. Lewis on this one point when he says that the doctrine of eternal conscious torment has the support of reason he actually is being logical if we accept that no Souls are naturally immortal if we accept the Greek idea of dualism well then it is true that would make sense it would be logical but we can pull the rug right out from underneath that idea by saying that is not true eternal life is a gift that are given to those who place their faith in Jesus for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes would not but have the opposite the converse everlasting life doctor Alcorn says it will be a place of conscious punishment for sins with no hope of relief and then notice what he says he just puts his cards right out on the table he says if I had a choice that if this that if this scripture were not so clear and conclusive I would certainly not believe in hell trust me when I say I don't want to believe in it they say we got this giant thing around our neck that it's difficult it's a massive inhibitor to evangelism and skeptics and infidels and seekers a great many thousands yay millions it's Ellen White said in the great controversy have turned away from God on the basis of this idea right so I'm right in lockstep with Alcorn on this so now let's ask the question I don't want it to be true either but I if that's the way that reality is when I was a little boy and there was spinach and onions and liver on my plate you know closing my eyes and not wanting it to be there didn't make it not there I opened my eyes that was still there right and that's what some well-meaning but I think ultimately misguided evangelicals have said they're saying look it's a painful doctrine it's a difficult teaching it's a hard word from the Lord but it's in Scripture Oh contraire Mon frère I am with John Stott and I am with a great many number of increasing increasing number of evangelical Christians who are saying you know what not so fast we've actually absorbed and imbibed this doctrine that's crept over from Hellenism into Catholicism and then finally into Protestantism but some are putting up their hands and saying thus far and no further there is no textual support I want to talk to you right now about the biblical truth concerning Hell it's really simple I'm gonna give you two basic ideas and if you get these two basic ideas you get everything if souls are not naturally immortal then hell's fire is not needful e eternal it's just that simple if souls are not naturally immortal and we already saw who alone possesses immortality ok very good here's the second one that's number one here's number two if God is love if that statement is meaningful and love means what we think it means greater love has no man than this that a man would lay down his life for his friends if that statement is meaningful if God is love that hell cannot be eternal conscious torment it simply cannot be you cannot consistently affirm these two ideas there not merely paradoxical they are antithetical they are mutually exclusive and I would relish the opportunity if God ever provided this opportunity the providential opportunity to debate any prominent evangelical on this conversation we would do so as Christian brothers we would do so as followers of Jesus but I would love an opportunity to debate one of these fellows because there is just hardly a scintilla of biblical evidence to support this demonic notion it's absolutely absurd if God is not loved in hell it's not eternal conscious torment I'm gonna give you ten reasons the first one I've just mentioned a moment ago god is love first John chapter 4 verse 8 can somebody say Amen he that does not love does not know God for god is love number one number two the wages of sin is well just listen to how different John 3:16 would be if the doctrine of eternal conscious torment in hell was true it would sound like this for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him would not spend eternity in conscious torment in hell but have everlasting life but the text doesn't say that doesn't the text says for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have the opposite of perishing if you never perish you would have eternal life simple simple this word hell is a fascinating the the journey of the word hell is a fascinating journey that I don't have time to get into right now etymologically the English word hell but I just want to give you a couple little just a little bit of biblical data that will help you here points three four and five first of all in the Old Testament we find the word hell 31 times every time it's translated from the Hebrew word oh oh and the word means place of the departed the grave there is no indication of fire there's no indication of torment there's no indication of immortality the word means grave what does it mean grave so you see the word Hell in the Old Testament substitute the word grave get this picture this character this portrait that you have of a fiery burning hot place out of your mind because it's not there it's not in the text it's not in the language right it's not grammatically in the word Shaye oh we come to the New Testament and the word Hades is translated eleven times as the word hell and it has almost the exact meaning of the of the Hebrew word Sheol a place for the departed the grave only twelve times is the word Hell translated from the Greek word Gehenna get enna and that word actually does have the connotation of fire and of burning and of destruction we'll come back to that in just a moment okay so most of the time when you come across the word Hell in the Bible you're just dealing with the word grave now number six hell is not an if hell is an event not an eternal location hell is a it's an event not an eternal location Revelation chapter 20 verse 9 describing the destruction the final destruction of the wicked they the unrepentant wicked went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the Saints that's the New Jerusalem and the beloved city fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them noticed this just a few verses later in the same chapter revelation 20 verse 15 and if anyone's name was not found written in the book of light well what do you think would happen if your name wasn't found written in the book of life death he was thrown into the lake of fire which is a fire of destruction and because souls are not naturally immortal the fires of hell are not needful II eternal then what's the very next thing that John sees envisioned in the book of Revelation Revelation chapter 21 and verse 1 then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven in the first earth had passed away these fires of hell these consuming devouring fires of hell take place as an event on the old earth and then the new earth is created which raises the question where is Hell located could we plot it on a GPS no because it's not primarily a location it's an event hell is an event it's an event that happens one time and when it happens it passes away so that's number six hell is an event Ione EOS is relative to the thing described now you might be saying what's Ione EOS Ione EOS is the Greek word for forever forever right and people say no look it says here that they that they go to hell forever forever Ione EOS well the Greek word Ione EOS is very similar to the English word forever right in terms of its basic usage it's grammatical usage so if I say for example God reigns forever how long does God reign we would say eternally but if I say ah man I went down to the Department of Motor Vehicles today and I stood in line forever how long did I stand in line for the rest of eternity right if if somebody says man that preacher wouldn't stop preaching he preached forever how long did I preach for the rest of eternity now it might seem like that but it's just 57 minutes right so the word forever like the Greek word IO Neos means as long as the thing lasts due to the nature of the thing being described if we're describing God of course forever means it turtley it means it means infinitely or unendingly if we're describing standing in line or some other thing I'll give you a good example Jew chapter 1 verse 7 sodom and gomorrah the cities from the Old Testament book of Genesis and the surrounding cities which likewise indulge in sexual immorality and pursuit on natural desire serve as an example undergoing a punishment of eternal or IOT eyes fire now this just right let's ask a simple question our Sodom and Gomorrha cities from the the ancient world are they burning today is there a father's burning day well that's only a few thousand years friends what happened to those will according to Peter this is exactly what happened 2nd Peter chapter 2 verse 6 the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah turned to what have they turned to ashes why God condemned them - what's that word extinction making them a an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly ashes and extinction so here dr. fudge makes the point abundantly clear the word IO Neos means forever but within the limits of the possibility inherent and the person or the thing itself and he gives a great example when God is said to be IO Neos eternal well that truly means infinitely durable but when the mountains are said to be IO Neos everlasting that means that they last ever so long so long as they can last oh man you find many places in the the various passages in scripture where it will say the mountains will be from everlasting to everlasting well that doesn't mean that they'll be here infinitely it means that they'll be here as long as they are and without interruption until cessation until they're gone they're here right you have Jonah we preached Jonah on Jonah a series on Jonah not too long ago and Jonah says I was in the the bars of the great deep for ever right now if you were in the belly of a fish it would feel like forever but he was only in there three days right so without interruption until cessation as long as the thing being described last and so somebody will say no but look here it says they burn forever yeah but because they're not in more there is no need for that fire to be eternal immortality is a gift say Amen if that makes sense so there's one of the major objections it's raised number eight the idea of hell is eternal consequences not eternal consciousness yes there is a certain eternality to hell but it's the consequence that's eternal and not the consciousness Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 27 but if you do not listen to me God says then I will kindle a fire in the gates its gates the gates of Jerusalem it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem and it will not be quenched well guess what that came to pass twice when Jerusalem was destroyed first by the Babylonians and then later by the Romans just a quick question is Jerusalem today on fire from the fire that was initially begun in the days of Jeremiah and continues to be burned today is it no no it burned until it was done burning Matthew chapter 10 verse 28 do not fear those that kill the body but cannot kill the soul rather fear him who can what's the word destroy both body and soul where does that happen in Hell right so hell is a place of destruction in fact that's actually what the Greek word get enna means if it comes from a place the location that was south of the city of Jerusalem called Gehenna the Valley of Hinnom right and then the Valley of Hinnom was basically the Jerusalem city dump and if you had refuse sir if you had garbage and and even people who couldn't afford a proper burial sadly they would take their loved ones and throw them into the Jerusalem City dump and so it came to be in Greek thinking a place of destruction a place of total destruction a terrible place right and they could see things out there decaying and rubbish and food scraps and other things decay and they would light it on fire right they would light it on fire to burn its volume down and so the the place the the Valley of Hinnom came to be a contraction a Greek word meaning gana not meaning Guyana but gana that means a place of destruction well and truly it will be a place of destruction but not of eternal conscious torment because the consequences of the fire are eternal but humans are not eternal and therefore neither are the flames can he say Amen man it's amazing okay I'm just kidding I'm just getting warmed up believe it or not Gregory boy another one of my favorite theologians I was a little disappointed in my good friend Gregory Boyd I don't know him well but he's a friend of a friend and he released a book and I his book and he came out on hell and he came out all upside down and I was really disappointed cuz I have a lot of respect for the way this guy thinks and then whoa hallelujah about six years later he put up on his website and says I've reversed my position I have examined the biblical material afresh how everyone fresh he looked back at Scripture and this is the conclusion he came to I copied it straight from his website annihilationism is the view that whoever and whatever cannot be redeemed by God is ultimately put out of what's the word existence right from the word annihilate sentient beings do not suffer eternally as the traditional view of Hell teaches dr. Boyd continues I am strongly inclined toward the annihilation his position the reason is that it strikes me as the view that has the best what kind of support it has the best biblical support let me ask you a question what what do you care about more here this morning what tradition says what the church has historically said or what scripture says and what God says yeah was it for me I'm with you I'm with dr. staat I'm with gregory boyd i'm with martin luther so that's the biblical truth concerning how now i want to transition we've just gone through eight of those points but now as we go to the last two points we're transitioning to our fourth and final point which is the beauty of hell how can hell be beautiful okay david i see that it's not eternal conscious torment but how can help possibly be a beautiful thing well number nine god is a consuming fire the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 29 we've already seen that he dwells in unapproachable light this is from first Timothy 6 we quoted this earlier remember I told you to put that on a shelf in your mind God dwells in what kind of light unapproachable light light that cannot be approached where did this idea of God as a consuming fire come from it came from the Mount Sinai experience Exodus chapter 24 the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain and the eyes of the children of Israel exodus 33:20 and 22 but he said God speaking to Moses you cannot see my face because no man can see my face and live so at me while my glory passes by that I will put you in the cleft of the rock I will cover you with my hand while I passed my Moses had said show me your glory and gods like I can show you a little bit but I can't reveal to you the fullness of my glory because no man can see that and live and here's what's gonna happen when Jesus and all of his glory his his unmuted glory and the father's glory returns to earth it will be you're gonna see this in just a moment an absolutely glorious beautiful profoundly unforgettable sight for the save for the redeemed but for the unsaved the unrepentant and the unredeemed it will bring destruction second thessalonians chapter 2 verse 8 then the lawless one will be revealed whom the lord will what's the word consumed with the breath of his mouth and what will he do he will destroy with the brightness of his coming now notice this the psalmist saw this in prophetic vision and records it in a way that is absolutely unmistakable - Psalms Psalm 50 in Psalm 68 out of Zion the perfection of beauty will shine God will shine forth our God will come and will not keep silent a fire devours before him it will be very tempestuous around him he will call to the heavens from above into the earth that he made judges people gather my Saints together to me those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice this is God returning to earth in all of his unmuted unto still glory let the heavens declare his righteousness for God himself is judge and what happens when he comes with that fire devouring before him Psalm 68 verses 1 & 2 let God arise let his enemies be scattered let those who hate him flee before him as the smoke is driven away so drive them away as wax melts before the fire so let the wicked perish at the presence of our God let the wicked what's the word perish John 3:16 for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish when does this happen at the return of Jesus at the return the glorious return now this is a verse that is absolutely mind-blowing mind-bending verse Isaiah chapter 33 Isaiah the prophet says he sees in vision he says man the sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulness has seized those that are hypocrites and then he asked the question two questions actually who among will dwell with the devouring fire consuming fire who could dwell with this consuming fire that Isaiah saw on prophetic vision who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings it looked to Isaiah like anything got near that or came close to that they would be immediately consumed they would be burned up that's the very thing that God said to Moses Moses you can't see me if you saw my face if you saw me and all of my incandescent glory you would die and so Isaiah here says who could dwell and then look at the answer who could dwell in the presence of the consuming fire he who walks righteously and speaks up rightly he who despises the gain of oppressions who gestures with his hand who says no I don't want to bribe who stops his ears from the hearing of bloodshed who shuts his eyes from seeing evil he will dwell on high he's speaking of a righteous man a righteous woman his place of defense will be the fortress of rocks bread will be given him his water will be sure your eyes will see the king in his beauty they will see the land that is a that is very far off Oh friends don't miss it what Isaiah saw in prophetic vision is that an experience of sheer terror for the unsaved was an experience of sheer beauty for the saved now we're gonna unpack this this is hard to believe for some of you this might be new but I want you to hear it with new ears survey with me the biblical material of fresh the beginning of heaven and the beginning of hell are the same event the beginning of heaven and the beginning of Hell are the same event what is that event David according to Scripture I can take you to a hundred passages to this effect in both the old and the New Testaments it is the event of a full revelation of God's glory for one a hellish experience for the other a heavenly experience because for the wicked uncovered by Christ's righteousness God's full glory is terror and destruction God look at this for the saved covered by Christ's righteousness God's full glorious and what strange language the perfection of beauty Wow one is seeing terror and the other is seeing glorious beauty in short there is one fire but two experiences a beautiful believable hell God is who God is if you put clay moist clay in the presence of the Sun it hardens and cracks if you put wax in the presence of their Sun it melts and becomes malleable one son two experiences one grows hard one grows soft look at this that is to say Heaven and Hell are the same event for one is it is a hellish experience to be in God's unmuted glory it is an experience that brings about destruction a terrible destruction not just a physical destruction but a deep restriction of regret and a sense of what might have been of what might have been and I'm going to show you that in just a moment just read it again Isaiah 33 the sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulness has seized the hypocrites who will dwell it with the devouring fire who will live among the everlasting burnings and the answer that he gives is the righteous not those that are themselves righteous but those that are covered by the righteousness of Christ those that have believed those that have received those that have except that our God is a consuming fire and then the tenth and final point here about the truth about Hell is that Jesus himself experienced hell that is to say total separation and this is where a beautiful believable hell really takes on the beauty of Hell Jesus cried out on the cross Eli Eli lama sabachthani that is to say in the Aramaic my God my God why have you what's the word why have you why have you forsaken me why have you separated yourself me I feel abandoned where is God Jesus had stumbled into Gethsemane 'he's garden and he had said to his disciples Peter James and John he said my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to the point of death he didn't say oh I stubbed my toe oh my toe really hurts her all that knees acting up again he didn't say on my back I threw my back out last I know what he says is my soul is dying my soul is dying well Jesus has already told us when and where is it that that the soul dies he says don't fear him that could destroy the body now don't worry about that somebody puts a gun to your head they're just giving they're just tucking you in for his sleep they're just giving you a little nap you don't figure him that can destroy the body but rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell Jesus Christ when he cried out Eli Eli lama sabachthani chose to experience separation or hell for you than live in heaven without you in fact I'm gonna go out on a limb here and it's a pretty sturdy limb I'm persuaded after 20 years of studying this topic if you don't understand this idea of hell then whatever Jesus did on the cross cannot possibly be the paying of an eternal penalty in other words just just just think for a moment here if you believe that hell is eternal conscious torment eternal conscious torment then how did Jesus pay the price when he died on the cross and was in the grave only three days it doesn't make sense because friends what Jesus experienced was not a hell of fire and piercing in all of this you know you know in some hot place some medieval dungeon in you know in the nether world now what Jesus experienced was separation from God God cut himself off from Jesus Jesus felt abandoned Jesus felt neglected Jesus felt forsaken and in that separation came death if God is the giver of life and you are separated from the source of life the giver of life then the inevitable outcome is death and Jesus died but what Jesus died was not just the bodily death Jesus didn't go into Gethsemane and said oh my hip is acting up again Jesus went into Gethsemane and said it's not my body that's dying only my soul is dying insofar as it was possible Jesus was experiencing what the Bible actually calls and this might be new language for some of you the second death the death not just a body but of soul itself CS Lewis and his problem of pain says in the long run objection objectors to the doctrine of Hell must answer this question what are you asking God to do what do you want God to do he says you don't like hell what are you asking God to do you want God to wipe out their past sins do you want God to wipe out their past sins and it all cost give them a fresh start do you want God to smooth every difficulty do you want God to ever offer every miraculous help and I love Louis's response he's done that he's done that in the life and death of his son Jesus what are you asking God to do to forgive them they won't be forgiven what are you asking God to do to leave them alone that is alas what he does that is the last what he does Revelation chapter 6 depicts this very moment the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up in every mountain and island moved out of its place and the kings of the earth the great men the rich men the commanders the mighty men every slave in every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and they said to the mountains and the rocks fall on us and hide us from the it's an experience of terror fine hide us from this glory the perfection of beauty to you the perfection of beauty to you but for the sinner hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb not the wrath of the lion the wrath of the the wrath of the lamb the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world but they wouldn't let their sin be taken away so they are standing in shame they are speechless before God as the the Apostle Paul says in Romans every mouth is stopped you have nothing to say you could have given your sin you chose not to you kept your sin you owned your sin and now you say hide us from him the shame is too great to bear so the great day of his wrath has come and who will be able to stand I just want to close by giving you the best arguments for eternal conscious torment you're right I've read through a number of books by prominent evangelical authors I've been reading these books for years I've I thought you know what to be really good for my local congregation and the larger community that watches us online and on television hope channel I thought I'm gonna rebut the five best arguments against what I've taught you today I'm gonna just bring the best evident and evidence out but this week going back over those arguments they are so weak that I said number one they're number two are number three no number four good number five arguments there are no good arguments friends isn't good news that there is a God yeah it depends it depends on what what kind of a God we are talking out I want to tell you this my friends the god of Scripture the God that Jesus said if you have seen me who have seen the father that God is good news because let me tell you the good news God is a God who can love and then be loved and I'm going to state what I think is it at Ruth and I'm not suggesting that there aren't people out there that have somehow managed to shoehorn this version of God into their own III I'm not denying that there are people out there that believe these things about God but I just want to say you do not have to try and shoehorn this picture of God this portrait of God this caricature of God as allowing and in some traditions causing eternal conscious torment you don't have to shoe that in with a picture of Jesus you don't have to put that in it you don't have to wrench it at manna it's really hard to believe but we're gonna stick it in there and Lewis says I wish it wasn't true and Alcorn says I wish it wasn't true I got good news for you guys it's not true it's not true the good news about a beautiful believable hell is that the God of Bible would rather go to hell for you than live in heaven without you hell is separation and in the final analysis if somebody says god I don't want to have anything to do with it I don't want to have anything to do with you I don't want have anything to do with salvation or heaven or your son I'm out I'm not I don't want to have anything to do with it God finally tragically terribly and with great sadness in his heart he says I honor your request and when that request is honored friends it is a request that brings about not unending conscious torment and some fiery abode called hell it brings about death I leave you with the plainest verse in all of Holy Scripture on this topic for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life I invite you to receive a beautiful believable God a beautiful believable story a beautiful believable plan a beautiful believable miracle a beautiful believable heaven and today a beautiful believable hell how many of you want to receive that with me today I'll take that I'm so glad I'm so glad that I was exposed to scripture when somebody was trying to witness to me about Jesus and I was just totally turned off by this doctrine I'm so glad that I went to the text I'm so glad that I wasn't chased away I'm so glad that somebody came to me a young man by the name of Josh Marco came to me and said you know what let me show you something let me show you what the Bible actually says Father in heaven [Music]

Channel: Kingscliff Church

Views: 8,434

Rating: 4.9000001 out of 5

Keywords: Hell, hellfire, god, love, david asscherick, kingscliff church, hope channel, sda, aeventh day adventist, mr fudge

Id: JAs435pPIpw

Length: 58min 30sec (3510 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 17 2018