Jan 11, 2010

Sunday Rewind 1.10.10

If I were Satan, one of my strategies would be to convince people that Hell doesn't exist, or at least that it isn't that bad a place. If I could do that, two things would happen. First, people would reject God with little fear of consequences. Second, Christians would be unmotivated to share their faith.

Sounds familiar doesn't it. That's exactly where we are. According to an August 2009 USA Today story, 75% of people believe in Heaven, but only 40% believe in Hell. And I suspect that the actual number of people who understand and believe what the Bible says about Hell is a much lower number.

So let's do something about that. Let's look at this unpopular subject. We begin with an obvious question. Why would a loving, gracious God create a place like Hell in the first place? Here are two reasons the Bible gives:
  • Hell exists for God to deal righteously with Satan (Matthew 25:41). Many people think of Satan as the activities coordinator of Hell. But that’s not the case. It is a place where Satan and the demons are punished for their rebellion against God.
  • Hell exists is for God to deal righteously with unbelievers (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9). Far from being a social club where fellow sinners enjoy another round, Hell is a place of separation and everlasting punishment.
When it comes to the specifics of Hell, there's a lot of uncertainty. But Jesus told a story one day about a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus (Luke 16:19-27). Let's look at a few observations from this story:
  • Hell is a place of 
  • The rich man was full in conscious.
  • The rich man's eternal destiny was irrevocably fixed.
  • The rich man pleaded for someone to help his loved ones know Jesus.
This is some of what the Bible says about Hell. The sad part is that many people who call themselves Christians don't believe it. Not really. How do I know? Because if we really believed in the horrors of Hell, nothing could stop us from doing something about our loved ones, friends, neighbors & coworkers who are headed there.

Most of the time Jesus spent warning people about Hell, he wasn’t talking to sinners... not to drunks, prostitutes or tax collectors. He was talking to the religious folks. Jesus warned people who claimed faith, but didn't live it out. So what do we do with that?

What we believe about death and eternity will shape how we live today. When it comes to what the Bible says about Hell, we either believe it or we don’t. And if we do, our lives will be dramatically different.

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