The Observations.net Weblog

The Lord described hell (Gehenna, the Jerusalem city trash dump) as a place or state of darkness (Matthew 8:12). He also described hell as a place or state of fire (Mark 9:48). But fire gives off light. So it's obvious that fire and darkness are symbols.

God is not a psychopath. He does not throw lost souls into literal fire. Such a concept is utterly absurd. Fire is a symbol of God's anger against sin, cruelty, wickedness. Darkness is a symbol of rejection and aloneness.

So what is hell? First and foremost, hell was created for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). It is a cosmic prison, a place of separation from God and all that is good (2 Thessalonians 1:9).

For Jesus to make all things new, to make the universe what it should be, to make it a place where we can grow into everything that He meant for us to become, the devil and those who side with him must be separated from the rest of us.

But why was lucifer allowed to become the devil? Why is evil allowed to exist? I take the position that life is a school. It's the school of hard knocks. Jesus created us in His image. He gave us will and choice. He put us in a hard and brutal world, and He's letting us learn from our choices. We must learn firsthand why good is good and evil is evil. God will then use all of human experience to teach us. *

It's important that we choose good over evil. God hates evil and He wants us to hate it too. The moral law of God - natural law - is unrelenting. His law must be honored. We cannot get into heaven if we do not turn our back on sin and accept the rightness of His law.

'I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.' (Luke 13:3)

Jesus came to die to give us life. Upon the Cross, He bore all of humanity's agony. The Cross is the basis for our forgiveness and restoration. Jesus bore all the pain and sin and suffering of the entire human race in His own person. Whatever bad thing happened to you, happened to Him. That gives Him the right to forgive any and all sinners. He can forgive the person who hurt you, because they also hurt Him. And whatever hurtful things you did, were done to Him. Therefore, He can forgive you.

The Cross also gives Jesus the authority to make all things new. He Who bore all our sins and all our pains and all our hurts can make things right.

And this may sound blasphemous to some, but the fact that Jesus bore all our pain, allows us to forgive God for putting us in this horrible world. You had cancer? He bore the pain of your cancer on the Cross. Someone you love was murdered? The whole pain, agony, fear, rage of that murder was thrown on Him full force. He felt it too. The Cross not only enables Jesus to forgive us, it allows us to forgive Him.

So then, what is hell? For God to make you new, you have to choose Him over evil. Some people, clearly will not do that. God respects our decisions.

What is hell like? The fire is the searing gaze of Christ. God's not a psychopath. So it's not a place of literal fire. But it's a place or state of judgment. It's separation from God. It's separation from everything that you were created to be. It's a place of absolute unfulfillment and lostness.

Can those in hell ever repent? Is God a God of love? Of course, repentance is always available. 1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Hell lasts as long as it needs to last, but no longer. And for some, it may truly be forever.

Hell is not something that you would ever want. Therefore, choose Jesus and His goodness over evil. Choose His way and not satan's way.

Does that mean you have to make yourself perfect? Absolutely not. Only Jesus is perfect. The rest of us are evil in our own way. But acknowledge that you are a sinner. Reach out to Him. He will make you perfect in time, in eternity (but not in this life.)

Who is Going to Hell? -

What about the person who never heard the Gospel? This may make me heterodox, but I agree with the great Billy Graham on this one. God knows His own. He knows who would have chosen if they had heard.

Billy Graham said this according to Christianity Today:

The Bible "says all men have some light given by God, both in the creation and in the human conscience. Whoever sees the footsteps of the Creator in nature can ask the God he does not fully know for help, and I believe God - "in ways we may not fully understand - "will give that person further light and bring him to a knowledge of the truth that is in Jesus Christ so he will be saved. He may use our preaching or he may use any other way he chooses, but ultimately it is God … who saves men."

What about the person who rejects the Christian message, not because he is evil, but because he has met so many "Christians" who are self-righteous? God understands.

What about the person who rejects the Christian message, not because he is evil, but because he cannot reconcile the idea of a loving God to a cruel and brutal world? Again, God understands. He is loving and kind, and will take this into account.

Postmortem Salvation -

Equip.org discusses the teachings of C.S. Lewis on portmortem salvation. Equip.org recounts that:

... In the Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle. In Chapter XV, a noble pagan named Emeth (Hebrew for truth) dies and expects to meet the vulture-headed god (Tash) that he has worshipped all his life. He meets instead Aslan (the Christ of Narnia), who tells him that the good that Emeth did for Tash was actually done for Aslan, and that his search for truth has led him to Aslan. Emeth accepts the lordship of Aslan, rejects the falseness of Tash, and is invited into Aslan’s Country (heaven).

In Book IV, Chapter 10 of Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis explains God's work in the lives of non-Christians:

There are people (a great many of them) who are slowly ceasing to be Christians but who still call themselves by that name: some of them are clergymen. There are other people who are slowly becoming Christians though they do not yet call themselves so. There are people who do not accept the full Christian doctrine about Christ but who are so strongly attracted to Him that they are His in a much deeper sense than they themselves understand. There are people in other religions who are being led by God’s secret influence to concentrate on those parts of their religion which are in agreement with Christianity, and who thus belong to Christ without knowing it. For example, a Buddhist of good will may be led to concentrate more and more on the Buddhist teaching about mercy and to leave in the background (though he might still say he believed) the Buddhist teaching on certain other points. Many of the good Pagans long before Christ’s birth may have been in this position.

There is an obsure passage in I Peter 3. Peter wrote, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison;"

Between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, Jesus preached to the souls in hell. It sounds as if He was proclaiming to these lost souls an offer of salvation.