Why Is Hell Forever?
By Russell Moore
— MONDAY, MARCH 21ST, 2011 —

http://www.russellmoore.com/2011/03/21/why-is-hell-forever/

For the past several weeks, evangelical Christians have spent a lot of time talking about Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins, in which he seeks to redefine the Christian doctrine of hell. As others have noted, Bell’s argument is not new at all. But Bell’s central point is always relevant. One of his questions weighs particularly heavily. Why, if there is a hell, is it forever?

The idea of eternal hell weighs heavily on the heart, as we think of those we know and love apart from Christ. Sometimes a devilish desire to condemn (“You will not surely die”) is behind a denial of future judgment, but sometimes the human motive is just the unbearable gravity of it all. Why, Bell and others before him ask, would God sentence an everlasting punishment for crimes committed in what God himself describes as a life so quick that it’s like a vapor of mist?

First of all, the Scripture is quite clear that hell is indeed everlasting. Jesus leaves the psychic burden intact. Yes, Scripture speaks of hell as “death” and “destruction” but defines these in terms of a place where “they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Rev. 20:10). Why must this go on forever? There are at least two reasons.

First, the revolt against God is more serious than we think it is. An insurrection against an infinitely worthy Creator is an infinitely heinous offense. We know something of this intuitively. This is why, in our human sentences of justice, we sentence a man to one punishment for threatening to kill his co-worker and another man to a much more severe punishment for threatening to kill the nation’s president.

Second, and more important, is the nature of the punishment itself. The sinner in hell does not become morally neutral upon his sentence to hell. We must not imagine the damned displaying gospel repentance and longing for the presence of Christ. They do indeed, as in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, seek for an escape from punishment, but they are not new creations. They do not in hell love the Lord their God with heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Instead, in hell, one is now handed over to the full display of his nature apart from grace. And this nature is seen to be satanic (Jn. 8:44). The condemnation continues forever and ever, because the sin does too. Hell is the final “handing over” (Rom. 1) of the rebel to who he wants to be, and it’s awful.

Attempts to navigate around the truth of hell as everlasting punishment show us something of our complicity in the Edenic sin: the substitution of human wisdom and human justice and, yes, human notions of love for the authority of God.

Yes, hell is horrifying. God deems it so. Our response to such horror should not be denial, but the fervent evangelism of the nations. Knowing the terror of it all, we should plead with people, as though Christ himself were pleading through us, “Be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20).

• As C.S. Lewis writes, “In the long run the answer to all those who object to the doctrine of hell is itself a question: ‘What are you asking God to do?’ To wipe out their past sins and, at all costs, to give them a fresh start, smoothing every difficulty and offering every miraculous help? But he has done so, on Calvary. To forgive them? They will not be forgiven. To leave them alone? Alas, I am afraid that is what he does.”

Hell ought to drive us not to find misplaced hopes for the lost, but to the only hope for us, and for the whole world, the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Christian gospel maintains that “the day of salvation” is now (2 Cor. 6:2), during this lifetime’s temporary suspension of doom. After this, the grace of God is not extended, only his justice, and that with severity.

Jesus does indeed triumph over all things (Love wins!), making peace through the blood of his cross (Col. 1:20). But this peace doesn’t mean the redemption of each individual. Instead, Jesus triumphs over his enemies, as they are defeated beneath the feet of his kingship. Yes, every tongue confessed Jesus as lord, even Satan himself (Phil. 2:9-11). This does not mean, as Jesus himself teaches, that every tongue cries out to him for salvation. Instead there is a universal recognition that Jesus has triumphed over every rival to his throne. The redeemed will love this truth; the impenitent will lament it.

Until then, we preach, we plead, we beg, we warn. Hell is awful, and unending, and completely avoidable.

Russell D. Moore is …

President of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention’s official entity assigned to address social, moral, and ethical concerns.

Dr. Moore earned a B.S. in history and political science from the University of Southern Mississippi. He also received the M.Div. in biblical studies from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and the Ph.D. in systematic theology from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

http://www.russellmoore.com/about/

Hello Everyone,

Here are recent newsletters from Don and Bev Roth, Good News Radio and IDES for those who are interested. I am finally beginning to get things organized and am going to try to make this a habit. I would recommend subscribing to the blog and you will have very attractive notices delivered to your email “doorstep.”

Dave

• PDF Don Bev Roth October – December 2013
• PDF Good News Radio December 2013
• PDF IDES November 2013

English Standard Version (ESV Bible)

Publisher Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/English-Standard-Version-ESV-Bible/

• The English Standard Version (ESV) stands in the classic mainstream of English Bible translations over the past half-millennium. The fountainhead of that stream was William Tyndale’s New Testament of 1526; marking its course were the King James Version of 1611 (KJV), the English Revised Version of 1885 (RV), the American Standard Version of 1901 (ASV), and the Revised Standard Version of 1952 and 1971 (RSV). In that stream, faithfulness to the text and vigorous pursuit of accuracy were combined with simplicity, beauty, and dignity of expression. Our goal has been to carry forward this legacy for a new century.

• To this end each word and phrase in the ESV has been carefully weighed against the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, to ensure the fullest accuracy and clarity and to avoid under-translating or overlooking any nuance of the original text. The words and phrases themselves grow out of the Tyndale-King James legacy, and most recently out of the RSV, with the 1971 RSV text providing the starting point for our work. Archaic language has been brought to current usage and significant corrections have been made in the translation of key texts. But throughout, our goal has been to retain the depth of meaning and enduring language that have made their indelible mark on the English-speaking world and have defined the life and doctrine of the church over the last four centuries.

• The ESV is an “essentially literal” translation that seeks as far as possible to capture the precise wording of the original text and the personal style of each Bible writer. It seeks to be transparent to the original text, letting the reader see as directly as possible the structure and meaning of the original. More about the ESV translation philosophy…

Well … It looks like we are going to be able to have church this Sunday. And that is so good.

Here is the bulletin. You will notice that it is in both PDF and DOC (MS Word). I have done this to increase accessibility. So hopefully this helps. Let me know if it works or doesn’t work. Thanks.

Dave

• DOC Bulletin FFC January 12 2014
• PDF Bulletin FFC January 12 2014

http://bible.com/59/PSA11.1.ESV

In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to my soul, “Flee like a bird to your mountain, for behold, the wicked bend the bow; they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart; if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord ’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man. The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. Let him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.

Bible.com/app

I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High …

http://bible.com/100/PSA9.1.NASB I will give thanks to the L ord with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders. I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.
Bible.com/app

Sent from Samsung tablet

http://bible.com/100/PSA8.1.NASB O L ord , our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens! From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength Because of Your adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O L ord , our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!
Bible.com/app

Sent from Samsung tablet

Happy New Year!

Next week we begin our Ezra study, and I am very much looking forward to plunging into this OT book of the Bible.

This week, however, we look at “men come and men go.”

• In Mandela’s Way: Lessons on Life, Love, and Courage, his biographer, Richard Stengel, wrote this: I once asked him [Nelson Mandela] about his mortality while we were out walking one morning in the Transkei, the remote area of South Africa where he was born. He looked around at the green and tranquil landscape and said something about how he would be joining his “ancestors.” “Men come and men go,” he later said. “I have come and I will go when my time comes.” 

And we, as people, not just men, come and then we go. The question is – Where do we go?

In his book – Hell Is Real (But I Hate to Admit It) – Brian Jones speaks of his sojourn of faith as a seminary grad and a pastor who just could not accept this teaching of the Bible. He lists all of his “good” reasons for not believing in hell, but what he couldn’t escape was the clear and abundant teaching of Scripture.

• Do you want to know what’s scary? When I confessed this, nobody really cared. In fact, the response from a man on my Leadership Team captured the response of just about everyone: “Oh, thank God. You really scared me,” he said. “I thought you called us together to tell us that you did something serious like have an affair.”
  — Jones, Brian (2011-08-01). Hell Is Real (But I Hate to Admit It) (pp. 26-27). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.

And as he noted, even the words of Jesus …

• Matthew 13:41–43 (ESV) ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, ⁴² and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

It is sometimes very hard to understand and accept that good people will go to the lake of fire. But God says it. We don’t have all the answers, but we do have some very important answers:

• God is love.
• God is just.
• God is light.
• God is merciful.
• God is holy.
• God is sovereign.
• God provided salvation through the death of his own Son.

Here are the handouts for this week.

Message Title: Men come and go … Heaven OR Hell!

Message Text: Psalm 90:1-12, Revelation 20:11-21:8

• PDF Men Come and Go : 010514 : FFC : Dave Scott : Psalm 90-1-12 : Revelation 20-11-21-8 : HANDOUT ONE
• PDF Men Come and Go : 010514 : FFC : Dave Scott : Psalm 90-1-12 : Revelation 20-11-21-8 : HANDOUT TWO

It is clear that he does not pray, who, far from uplifting himself to God, requires that God shall lower Himself to him, and who resorts to prayer not to stir the man in us to will what God wills, but only to persuade God to will what the man in us wills.”-ST. THOMAS AQUINAS (1225–1274)

I maybe shouldn’t admit it but …

I had never read Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon. But now I have and can confirm first-hand the brilliance of the man, both intellectually and biblically. Anyway, not that JE needs my attaboy but the sermon is pretty excellent and if you haven’t read it, you probably should.

I will share some excerpts.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
A sermon by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758). 
Delivered at the 2nd Meeting House in Enfield, Massachusetts, July 8, 1741.

• Promising themselves that they shall escape …
  It may be they are now at ease, and hear all these things without much disturbance, and are now flattering themselves that they are not the persons, promising themselves that they shall escape. If we knew that there was one person, and but one, in the whole congregation, that was to be the subject of this misery, what an awful thing would it be to think of! If we knew who it was, what an awful sight would it be to see such a person! How might all the rest of the congregation lift up a lamentable and bitter cry over him! But, alas! instead of one, how many is it likely will remember this discourse in hell? And it would be a wonder, if some that are now present should not be in hell in a very short time, even before this year is out. And it would be no wonder if some persons, that now sit here, in some seats of this meeting-house, in health, quiet and secure, should be there before tomorrow morning. Those of you that finally continue in a natural condition, that shall keep out of hell longest will be there in a little time! your damnation does not slumber; it will come swiftly, and, in all probability, very suddenly upon many of you. You have reason to wonder that you are not already in hell. It is doubtless the case of some whom you have seen and known, that never deserved hell more than you, and that heretofore appeared as likely to have been now alive as you. Their case is past all hope; they are crying in extreme misery and perfect despair; but here you are in the land of the living and in the house of God, and have an opportunity to obtain salvation. What would not those poor damned hopeless souls give for one day’s opportunity such as you now enjoy!

• However unconvinced you may now be of the truth …
  However you may have reformed your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of God, it is nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction. However unconvinced you may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone from being in the like circumstances with you, see that it was so with them; for destruction came suddenly upon most of them; when they expected nothing of it, and while they were saying, Peace and safety: now they see, that those things on which they depended for peace and safety, were nothing but thin air and empty shadows.

• No, I never intended to come here: I had laid out matters otherwise in my mind …
  But the foolish children of men miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in confidence in their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow. The greater part of those who heretofore have lived under the same means of grace, and are now dead, are undoubtedly gone to hell; and it was not because they were not as wise as those who are now alive: it was not because they did not lay out matters as well for themselves to secure their own escape. If we could speak with them, and inquire of them, one by one, whether they expected, when alive, and when they used to hear about hell, ever to be the subjects of misery: we doubtless, should hear one and another reply, “No, I never intended to come here: I had laid out matters otherwise in my mind; I thought I should contrive well for myself — I thought my scheme good. I intended to take effectual care; but it came upon me unexpected; I did not look for it at that time, and in that manner; it came as a thief — Death outwitted me: God’s wrath was too quick for me. Oh, my cursed foolishness! I was flattering myself, and pleasing myself with vain dreams of what I would do hereafter; and when I was saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction came upon me.