Observations.net

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.

This is going to sound doubly blasphemous, but so be it. God's the Creator. That makes Him responsible for everything, including sin and death. In a sense, God died for His own sins (for though God is perfect, He takes ownership of His world, including all the bad things in it.) The Cross not only enables Him 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.

Some people are just too evil and depraved to choose the good. In our own time and place, people like hillary clinton, george soros, john podesta, barry soetero, john mccain, jeffrey epstein, benjamin netanyahoo, bill gates, the rothschilds - these people are too wedded to evil to share in God's Kingdom. They're going to hell, plain and simple. And there's a lot of average people who are going to hell, because they choose evil.

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.

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.)

----------

* Can I explain the apparent contradiction between the idea that God hates evil, but still allowed it to exist to teach us? I'll be honest; the answer is "No". The alternative is that God made the world perfect and never wanted death and evil to exist. But two babies named Adam and Eve and a nasty snake foiled His plans. That makes the Almighty Creator of Heaven and earth appear weak. In my mind, that's an even bigger contradiction. If Adam and Eve had just messed themselves up, that would be one thing. But the idea that they injected the rest of humanity to come with some magical force called "original sin" is weird. Decide which one of these two explanations (life as school or life was supposed to be perfect but got screwed up) makes the most sense to you.

I know of two other explanations, both of which are totally unacceptable. The first of these bad explanations is that God is totally amoral and doesn't have a problem with evil. That explanation is to be found with some new agers and eastern religion adherents, who believe in an impersonal force (pantheism) as opposed to a personal God. It is also found with the moslems and their "Christian" twins, the calvinists, who make God the author of evil. That explanation will get you into spiritual trouble by leading you to the satanic. The second bad explanation is that there is no God. That's a totally idiotic idea.

As long as we live on this side, and cannot see over to the other side, any of our explanations will have weaknesses and blind spots. Of the four explanations mentioned above, I like number 1 (life as school) the best. I have believed #2 (life got screwed up) because that is what I was taught in church. I have never given the time of day to explanations #3 (God is amoral or even evil - pantheism, islam, calvinism) and #4 (atheism).

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.

More on Original Sin -

Again, this may make me heterodox, but I find the concept of "original sin" to be goofy. Were humans really perfect to start out with and then became imperfect when they ate an apple? Adam and Eve weren't perfect, mature adults. They were just innocent babies who grew into rebellious teenagers, and were tricked by a con-man dressed as a snake. The whole story of the Garden of Eden sounds like a metaphor for sin and rebellion in the life of every human in every generation, and not real historical events. As a metaphor, the story makes perfect sense. As literal history, it sounds cartoonish.

Man was created in the image of God because he was given an immortal soul and the ability to reason, and the wherewithal to choose good over evil; but not to be perfect. Man is frail and lives in a harsh world. Perfection is impossible. (Only the God-man Jesus was perfect, but being God, He had an unfair advantage over the rest of us.) But man never lost the image of God. That quality remains.

Yes, some people become so evil throughout life that they reach the point of total depravity. This is what Christ called the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. They have continuously rejected the Spirit's message until becoming so hardened that there is no humanity left.

----------

Note: James, the brother of Jesus said, "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all."

I know that God did not make me perfect. I have no ability to keep the whole law. Am I, a frail human, capable of loving God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength every second of my life? Am I able to love others as myself from birth until death? The obvious answer is "No". I have no more ability to be perfect than I have to make myself ten feet tall. It's an impossible demand.

Maybe James is saying that that the whole of God's law must be honored. And since I can't do it, Christ did it for me on the Cross.

I don't believe that God condemns me for not being perfect. He didn't make me perfect. But He did give me the ability to choose good over evil, and to choose Him over satan. If I were to reject Him and choose evil, I would be rightfully condemned. But if I accept Christ, I will be counted as perfect due to Christ's work for me on the Cross.

What About Universal Salvation for All? -

Is it possible that those in hell can eventually learn their lesson and be let out?

As a mortal man, with limited insight, I don't know the answers. I take it that those who descend into hell, belong there, at least for awhile. The stories of the Near Death Experience offer some hope for those who were not saved in this life, but have not yet gone to hell. Many NDE accounts report a life review in which the person is brought to terms with his life including both the good and the bad. The life review could be the chance for the wayward individual to still find grace and avoid hell. The life review could cause many wayward individuals to reform, and other, more decent individuals to grow to a higher level. This being the case, only those truly wed to evil still go down to hell. But even for them, I refuse to give up hope for one simple reason. "God is love."

----------

Note:

There are limitations to the Near Death Experience as a source of knowledge. Many reported NDEs are downright weird with bizarre imagery of demons and goblins. Certain NDEs appear to be fabricated. The subject NDEers of certain books in Christian circles have later admitted that their stories were not real.

Some NDEs are probably produced by confused minds. Book publishers can change the NDEs of authors so as to fulfill an agenda or sell more books. Some NDEers have taken up careers as psychics, making one false prediction after another. This writer prefers to concentrate on those aspects of the NDE that are seen time and time again.

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.

What does this mean? -

Always remember this, God is love. He simply is not going to send the mass of humanity to hell. Heaven is not reserved for a few super religious people, the ultra-churchgoers, the blowhards. Yes, there are Catholics who believe that Baptists are going to hell. There are Baptists who believe Catholics are going to hell. There are tongue speakers who believe that those who don't speak in "tongues" are going to hell. But guess what? They are all deceived. Heaven is for those who reach out to Jesus, the real Jesus, the Jesus Who is the God of love.

Yes, there are evil people who refuse to let go of evil. These people simply cannot be allowed into Heaven, at least as they are. They would ruin Heaven. Hell is their destiny. But is it their eternal destiny? As long as God is love, I refuse to give up hope for any human being. There is always hope.

In 1 Timothy 4:10, Paul called Jesus the Savior of all. In Philippians 2:10 and 11, Paul said, "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Paul also said in Romans 10:9, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." When all people confess, they shall be saved.