HELL
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If there be a Hell, a place of confinement, a Prison for the incorrigibly
wicked, it does not matter what the nature of it is, the fact is… It is a
Place of Torment. Even in the most humane conditions, a Prison is still a
Prison, and it is horrible even to contemplate.
Hell is the Jail where the wicked are locked up when under indictment until
the court sits and their sentances are passed on them; then they go into
what is called in the Book of Revelation as The Lake of Fire, the Gehenna of
the New Testament. The Lake of Fire is the Federal Prison of Eternity; Hell
is just the county Jail. No one has yet been put into the Lake of Fire.
The wicked angels and wicked men are both locked up today in Hell, awaiting
the resurrection of the wicked and the judgement, after which they go to the
Federal Prison. Heaven is not the permanent abode of the Believers; it is
merely a tentative place to which the disembodied spirit goes to await the
return of the Lord Jesus Christ and the First resurrection when the believer
will receive his immortal body. He is then ready to enter the New Heaven
and the New Earth, where he will dwell in an immortal, physical body with
his Loved ones throughout Eternity.
When the Sinner(One who has not accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord) dies
today, he, in his spiritial form, Goes to Hell to remain there until the
Second Resurrection when his old body will be raised full of Sin, Disease,
and Corruption. He will enter that body again and stand in it before the
Great White Throne of God. God is the Judge. Then the dreaded sentance will
be passed according to the Court’s findings, and he will be sent away with
the Devil, the False Prophet, and the Fallen Angels into the Federal Prison
of eternity. The Reason for Hell and the Lake of Fire is apparent for every
thinking person.
Man is an Eternal Being. He belongs to the same class as God. If he dies a
criminal, then he enters eternity as an eternal criminal. Logically, as it
is on earth, there is an eternal prison, the criminals must be segregated.
If they were permitted to roam indiscriminately throughout eternity, they
would demoralize the New Heaven and the New Earth.
We have Jails, State Prisons, and Federal Prisons for the criminals who
break the laws of man. Who can raise a protest against God if he has a
prison in which are incarcerated the men who have violated the Laws of
Heaven, and who are eternal criminals.
We may believe in a literal Lake of Fire and Brimestone or that the term is
only used to illustrate the torture and misery of confinement and seperation
from God. The Fact is: to be Locked up in a federal Prison away from your
loved ones with the loss of freedom and with a consciousness that all your
mortal days will be spent behind walls, knowing that Gods Great big out-of-
doors is forever closed to you. That no longer can you go where you wish or
come when you please, that you have lost the power of volition and of action
and that a guard with a gun walks up and down the concrete corridor before
your steel barred doors ina uniform that becomes hateful to you, is Hell
enough for any man. If this is to Last throughout eternity, then God help
me, I want no part of it. I don’t need the fumes of sulphur, nor the
creeping, biting, burning worms of hell described in the scriptures.
To be shut up with the wicked throughout eternity, to be associated with
blasphemers and murderers, with the whoremongers, Homosexuals, the Liars,
the thief and Prostitutes of all ages, never to see a pure face again, never
to hear a baby’s prattle, never to hear hymm of praise or folk songs, or
songs of Love, to hear nothing but Bitter, Hideous, blasphemy, the gnawing
of the tongue, the gnashing of teeth, the biting agony of the eternal
confinement is all that is necessary to make it Hell for me. As for me, let
me escape it, never let me be in any danger of it.
In Isaiah 66:24, it speaks of Hell as a place where the “Fire is not
quenched, and the worm shall not die, an abhorrance to all Flesh”.
According to Matthew 25:41,46 it is the home of the cursed, the eternal
fire, which was prepared for the Devil and the rebellious angels. Now it has
become the Jail and the Home for the wicked Human; it is called the Place of
eternal Punishment or constraint; a place out of which no Pardon has yet
gone or ever can go; no pardon can reach them, horrible as it may seem.
In 2 Peter 2:4, it is called the Pit or Prisons of Punishment, and in
Revelation 9:1-2, it is a place of sulphuric fumes, the home of demons; but
in Luke 16:19-31 Jesus gives a picture of Hell that only he could give.
THIS IS NOT A PARABLE….. IT IS NOT PLACED AMONG THE PARABLES. He says “A
certain Rich Man;” He is quoting history, and He gives a description of Hell
and of Torment, of conscious intelligible torment that surpasses Dante in
his Inferno, or Milton in his Paradise Lost.
During the Old Testament times the underworld was divided in Two – One side
for the Righteous and the other for the wicked people and there was a great
gulf fixed between them, so that no-one could cross over. Jesus continues:
“There was a certain Rich Man, and he was clothed in purple and fine Linen,
fairing sumptuously every day; and a certain begger named Lazarus was Laid
at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell
from the rich mans table, even the dogs came and licked his sores. And it
came to pass, that the begger died, and that he was carried away by the
angels to Abrahams bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. And in
Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham sitting
afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
And he cried and said “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus,
that he may dip the tips of his fingers in water, and cool my tongue, for I
am in anguish in this flame.”
“But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy
good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things, but now here he is
comforted, and thou art in anguish.” “And besides this , between us and you
there is a great gulf fixed, that they who would pass from hench to you may
not be able, and that none may cross from thence to us.
“And he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send
him(lazarus) to my fathers house; for I have 5 brothers; that he may testify
unto them, lest they also come to this place of torment.”
But Abraham said “They have Moses and the Prophets; Let them hear them” “And
he said, Nay, father Abraham, but if one go from the dead, they will
repent.” “And he said unto them, If they hear not Moses and the Prophets
neither will they be persuaded, if one rise from the Dead.
This story is purely a Jewish story. There is no Paradise today, but there
is still the Hell. Paradise was emptied and all the inhabitants taken to
Heaven.
The rich man went to Hell, because he had broken the fundamental principles
of the Mosaic Law: He did not Love his neighbor as Himself. The whole Law
was summed up in this “Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart,
and thy neighbor as thyself.” This he had broken and was paying the penalty
for it.
Notice some significant facts about the man that went to Hell. “And in Hades
he lifted up his eyes, being in torment.” Notice that he has all the
faculties of the Soul. Man is not a physical being, he is primarily a
spirit that has a Soul and Lives in a body, The physical Body is just the
earth suit needed to survive on the earth while you are here. His tongue was
burning in the intense heat, “For I am in anguish in this flame.”
Whether we want to insist that this is purely figurative language or not, is
besides the question. The fact is, that Jesus declared that this man was in
torment in the flames. If the Flame was simply a burning conscience, then
give me Literal Fire.
“Son, remember;” the Man remembered. Memory Lives on in Hell. Two things
will haunt a person in Hell. 1) the sins that he has committed against God
and man; and 2) that he had an opportunity to escape it, but he resolutely
preferred Hell to Heaven. Hell is a place of anguish, with a great gulf
fixed so that there is no passing over from one to the other.
There is no Second probation here. The man who is guilty enough to be sent
to Hell, is guilty enough to stay in hell. Now to the most pathetic things
of all: He said “Will you not send Lazarus up to the Earth? I have 5
brothers there, lest they also come into this place of torment.” What a
hopeless request ! What a preacher someone would make fresh from the agonies
from Hell, But men would not listen to his message. Some of the most
intelligent people that we have in this country believe that they can keep
the subject of heaven and hell and the sufferings of Christ from their
minds, or stay away from places where they hear it preached, that they will
escape the responsibility of knowledge and that in itself will prove their
salvation from Hell. A Dangerous way to Think, and could not possibly be
more wrong!! But the answer came “They have Moses and the Prophets, let them
hear them” “Nay father Abraham, but if one go from here up there, him they
will listen to.” But did they ?? Jesus went from Hell’s dark dungeons and
awful firey sufferings up to the earth and gave his testimony, but have Men
heeded it?
No, Mankind ridicule it today.
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WHO GOES TO HELL ???
Thank God Babies do not, for they know not right from wrong – Good from
Evil. they are still innocent.
Psalm 9:17 says, All the nations that forgot God are cast into Hell, that
the fearful and unbelieving are cast into hell.
Every Person who refuses to recognize the Lordship of Jesus Christ or
confess Him as Savior will go to Hell. There is no distinction; “Unless a
person is born from above, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God; he will enter
the Kingdom of Satan.
There will be no Educational test, No financial test; the person who is not
sheltered by the sacrifices of Jesus Christ will go to Hell as surely as
does the Devil.
Man does not go to Hell because of what he has done, But because of what he
is.
Man goes to Hell on purely intellectual grounds; he can evade it if he
wishes.
He goes to Hell today in the face of modern civilization with his eyes wide
open, and becauses he prefers Hell to Heaven.
He goes there cause he has served self, and Satan and because he prefers
Satan as his God to the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Sin is more attractive to him, and Hell, more desireable than heaven is.