It Hurts
It hurts me when I read or hear of someone who has died and I know they did not have Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. It gnaws on me that they are now spending eternity in hell without a way out. It makes me want to believe in purgatory or Universalism, although I cannot accept either because scripture says differently.
RC Sproul writes this about hell:
We have often heard statements such as “War is hell” or “I went through hell.” These expressions are, of course, not taken literally. Rather, they reflect our tendency to use the word hell as a descriptive term for the most ghastly human experience possible. Yet no human experience in this world is actually comparable to hell. If we try to imagine the worst of all possible suffering in the here and now we have not yet stretched our imaginations to reach the dreadful reality of hell.
Hell is trivialized when it is used as a common curse word. To use the word lightly may be a halfhearted human attempt to take the concept lightly or to treat it in an amusing way. We tend to joke about things most frightening to us in a futile effort to declaw and defang them, reducing their threatening power.
There is no biblical concept more grim or terror-invoking than the idea of hell. It is so unpopular with us that few would give credence to it at all except that it comes to us from the teaching of Christ Himself.
There have been many speculations as to what hell is. Some say it is fire and brimstone, burning eternally, some say it is separation from God, while others, such as RC Sproul say that God will eternally be there in wrath and judgment. All are horrible.
I agree with RC Sproul in that if the fire and gnashing of teeth is a symbol, that is worse than the symbol.
If we truly think about people that we know,love, and admire, going to hell without Christ, maybe that would spur us to begin to live the Great Commission Resurgence, and to begin to prayerfully give the Gospel to anyone and everyone.
I have gone through the heartache of knowing those who have died without Christ. Some in my family. Friends. It is agony knowing that I will not have the opportunity to give them Christ.
I also know that God in His Sovereignty will make opportunities available, if not through me, then through someone else, for those I have not been able to reach.
Reading through the deaths of celebrities these past few weeks has caused me to pause, as I am burdened that those who have died did not have Christ as their Lord and Savior. I don’t want to see another lost soul die without Christ.
Think and read about hell this week, and no matter your view of what hell is like, think about the lost who are dying daily. There are no more opportunities for them. How many more do we want to see go to hell?
Think about this as some are turning the CRR into a Calvinist vs. anti-Calvinist issue. Focusing on whether we drink alcohol in moderation or abstain. While this is being focused on, there are those who are dying without Christ and going to hell. That is the bottom line. What is being discussed is folly. So, think about hell this week. Then, maybe our perspectives will begin to change.
Believe me, Satan would much rather you focus on the non-essentials. He would like that very much. So far, we seem to be pleasing him. And by all means, don’t let gifted women, or anyone you disagree with theologically among Southern Baptists join in your evangelistic efforts, because that is just less people he has to worry about giving the good news.
But Debbie, it’s like Wm says, everyone is going to go to heaven. And he said in a radio interview that the lake of fire mentioned in Revelation was for purification and not for punishment because, and I’m quoting here, “It’s in the presence of the Lamb”. Now, I have no idea why the lake of fire being in the presence of the Lamb would mean that it is not punitive and that it is not eternal punishment but Wm said it so it must be true. I mean, we don’t want to be judgemental and suggest that he might be wrong.
I think Wade answered you quite well Joe. It certainly makes more sense than saying Christ died and paid the price for all yet not all go to heaven. We then have double jeopardy. Yet I would not say what you believe is heresy, just not what I believe the Bible teaches.
Thanks, Debbie. Actually, I’m a 5 point Calvinist so your comment as to what I believe is somewhat misinformed.
Then you of all people should know this and my apologies for assuming your beliefs, thank you for the correction. Unless you think Jesus is going to fail to save those whom God has called, why sweat the small stuff?
That’s ok. You assumed I was BI. I get that a lot, being a fundy and all.
I “sweat the small stuff” because I don’t see deceiving people as small stuff. When someone says Jesus isn’t the only way but He’s the “best way” that isn’t small stuff. When someone says God’s voice had been “reduced to paper” thereby mocking God’s precious word, that’s not small stuff. When someone writes that God doesn’t need to punish sin but “it’s my joy to cure it” when the Bible says that God does punish sin that’s not small stuff.
Is any of that garbage that Wm wrote able to affect the eternal destiny of the elect. No. But that doesn’t mean that he should not be opposed when he writes things that are not just points of disagreement but pure out heresy.
Joe: For the Christian, God doesn’t punish. That was taken by Christ for us on Calvary.
That is why I do not understand those who preach Christ died for every single person, because the price for sin and its punishment would have been paid for on the Cross. No punishment for sin could ever be. So the result would have to be Universalism.
I agree with you on the points you have given Joe. It tends to give people the idea that even after death there is a way to escape rejection of Christ. But it’s consistent with unlimited atonement. He is just being honest about it.
But, in showing God’s love for us as believers, the book is right on target. It’s well done and a needed message today. Fire and brimstone just doesn’t cut it as it is only half of the story. We are New Covenant Christians. Christ’s death did more than provide a way for us to get to heaven. The curtain was torn. That is a big deal.
If you ever met William Paul Young, you will find that he is very knowledgeable of the Bible, and he is being more consistent with this than those who preach that Christ died for everyone but was ineffective except for some.
If you want some straight facts concerning Paul Young and The Shack, some background watch this set of videos of an interview with one of the Publishers, Wayne Jacobson. If you can find much to argue about, I would be interested in further discussion, although this is not where this post was going, I’m flexible sometimes.
Some of this is the same thing Paul told us the first night he spoke at Emmanuel.