Oh hell!

Hell is a topic rarely mentioned these days even in Christian circles apart perhaps from the expletive ‘What the hell!’.  This is a terrible oversight on behalf of those who know or should know that hell is the default destination of mankind after death. 

I suspect that all the hellfire and damnation preachers from past times have given hell such a terrible reputation, a reputation it completely deserves, that it seems one doesn’t speak about it in polite company, rather like the drip on the end of Uncle Harold’s nose that nobody mentions.

Jesus had no such qualms. He had a lot to say about hell. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, ‘Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad the path that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it.’ Matthew 7: 13 -1 4.

That knocks on the head universalism; that everyone is going to heaven. It is my belief that the Church and Christian’s reticence to talk about heaven and hell has led to many of the theories of our eternal destination readily expressed but none of which mentions hell.

Most people hope they are going to heaven and believe either that their good works balancing out their bad works (not sin – please) will mean God is bound to let them into heaven. Alternatively the atheistic view is that when we die, that’s it – curtains. We exist no more. For there to be any form of afterlife means the person of God has to be included and he is the creation of Man, not the other way around. Time and space do not permit reincarnation and other theories.

Everyone knows what they believe or at least hope for when they die but few have any credible, authoritative basis for that belief. The Bible is clear about the afterlife – it is either heaven or hell -  but few want to talk about it, let alone believe what it says. Unfortunately that all too often includes Christians.

If anyone dares to admit they maybe they are hell-bound, usually with a self-deprecating shrug, it will be depicted, in their minds at least, as a place where all the old sinners congregate to party, swapping hair raising stories of their Godless exploits over a few drinks.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Unfortunately the Bible depicts hell as ‘a blazing furnace where there will be gnashing of teeth’ (Matthew 13: 42 and 50). In fact the term ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’ is referred to six times in Matthew alone. Jesus’ words – not mine. No mention of parties. In fact it is when one sinner repents that there is rejoicing and that is in heaven (Luke 15: 7 and 10).

All references to hell in the Bible talk of weeping, torment, eternal punishment, fire or blazing furnace. In fact in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus that Jesus told (Luke16: 19 – 31), the rich man was fully conscious of his torment and punishment. What’s more is that, according to Jesus, this punishment is for eternity (Matthew 25: 46).

The Bible says of those who die without Jesus in 2 Thessalonians 1: 9 ‘They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.’  God is the source of everything good therefore hell without God must be the absence of all things good – no love, no community, no fellowship, no friendship. Misery loves company but hell will be misery alone. Hell will be a place of ‘utter inactivity and insignificance – an eternal non-life of regret’. It will be place of punishment for sins with no relief. That reality should break our hearts.

Some of course, including well meaning Christians, cannot possibly believe that an all-loving God would send anyone to hell. That, with the greatest respect, shows no understanding of either God or ourselves and trying to take the moral high ground with God is total arrogance.

What is incredible is not that God sends anyone to hell – and he doesn’t, they send themselves  – but that God should let any man into heaven.

God is divine, majestic, omniscient, transcendent, pure, spotless and holy. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Man, aside from God is sinful, rebellious, arrogant, wicked, malicious, envious – in fact everything that God is not.

Why on earth would God have anything to do with his sinful creation? Why would he remedy man’s sin by sending his Son Jesus to die for people like you and me? Because He loves us. There is no other reason that would make any sense. He wants us with him in heaven for eternity. In fact as Randy Alcorn says in his definite book Heaven, ‘Consider the wonder of it. God determined that he would rather go to hell on our behalf than live in heaven without us.’

So Jesus holds out this wonderful promise of eternal life and when we accept it, acknowledging that we are sinners in need of a Saviour and asking God to forgive us our sins, he not only takes away our sins but he transforms us into the likeness of His Son. We become glorious (2 Corinthians 3: 18 and Philippians 3: 21).

You see hell is where mankind is going unless they take hold of God’s amazing gift of eternal life in heaven with him. As Christians we need to find ways to again express the reality of heaven and hell to a generation with a high level of entitlement for whom the very idea of going to hell is a complete antithesis.

Perhaps we need a glimpse of the eternal torment and punishment of hell to make us more effective in reaching out to a lost and broken world.  Teresa of Avila was still traumatised years later after her glimpse of hell. In the past, people were frightened into the Kingdom. Now maybe we need to love people with a love so strong, so powerful, so transforming, so kind and so gracious that people clamour to know the God who loves us so they too can know him.

Hell is real and it needs to become real and dreadful to Christians and non believers alike. Let no one be able to say, like the rich man in the parable in Luke 16 that they didn’t know. A choice must be made and Christians being silent on the issue is tantamount to sending someone on a known road to destruction.

God’s gracious offer of eternal life in heaven is open to all – but it has to be spoken about, asked for, and taken.

Higher than our ways

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  Isaiah 55: 8 - 9

I love the fact that God’s ways are nothing like our ways because his ways are full of grace, truth, mercy and compassion.  Every time I read an account in the Bible of Jesus’ dealing with people, he treated them with love and not with the judgement, criticism and condemnation that man would use.  His way with adulterers, sinners and tax collectors was so different that the religious people complained about it all the time.

Everyone wanted to stone the woman caught in adulteryer to death which the law did not require (John 8: 2 - 11). According to the law, both man and woman were ‘to be put to death’ (Leviticus 20:10).  Jesus dealt with her differently.  First of all he confronted those who had caught the woman with their own hypocrisy and then he instructed her not to sin any more. 

Jesus always had an answer to the tricky questions. The Pharisees hoping to trip him up, confronted him with whether to pay taxes to Caesar or not. He just took a coin and instructed those listening to give to Caesar what was his and to God what belonged to him. Anyone else asked that question would have probably tied themselves up in knots over whether it was right to support the invaders and conquerors of their country which is what the Pharisees wanted. Jesus again confronts their hypocrisy and cut to the heart of the matter and those trying to trip him up were not just silenced but amazed (Matthew 22: 15 - 22).

When Jesus and his disciples were watching everyone give their gifts into the temple treasury I am sure the disciples would have been impressed with those giving great gifts but Jesus turned their attention to the widow whom most people would have overlooked and the two tiny coins that she gave. Jesus commended her for her outstanding generosity and re-aligned the disciples’ thinking on giving. The amount you give is not what matters.  It is how much you give out of what you have that is the true test of generosity. 

The disciples, like all of us, were constantly impressed with the outward appearances.  They drew Jesus’ attention to the magnificence of the temple (Mark 13: 1 and Luke 21: 5) and Jesus again re-aligned their thinking by prophesying the destruction of the temple which happened in AD70. Jesus wants us to focus our lives on matters of eternal significance. So many wonderful empires and buildings have come and gone. What matters is the eternal truths of God’s word and living our lives by them not being impressed by passing glories. 

God constantly seeks to re-align our ways and especially our thinking to come into agreement with his ways and thinking.  I am amazed at how often my thinking about God is so faulty and yet with love and grace he redirects me to his truth and then helps me change the way I think and therefore the way I live. 

God’s Word is a wonderful book which cleanses our minds as we read it. The Holy Spirit uses it to point out truth, convict of sin and instruct us in better living. He never condemns or tries to control or manipulate us. God is not cross with us or seeking to tell us off or punish us.  We have nothing to fear from God. His single aim is to liberate us from sin and its effects so we can walk in freedom and truth and fulfil the plans and purposes he has for our lives. 

Honour your father and mother

³ Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? ⁴ For God said, ‘Honour your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’  ⁵ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ ⁶ he is not to ‘honour his father’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. Matthew 15: 3 – 6

The Pharisees came to Jesus to complain about why his disciples were not keeping the tradition of the elders by not washing their hands before they ate.  I find it interesting that of all the examples Jesus could have used to show their hypocrisy, he used God’s command to honour your father and mother.  The Jewish leaders had introduced a huge number of  ‘traditions’ for the people to follow which were weighing them down with their demands and they were even being used to circumvent God’s laws.  Jesus took them back to God’s law and reminded them that not keeping it, even for what sounds like a very good reason, was not right and his commands were far more important that the traditions of the elders.

In the Ten Commandments it actually says ‘Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you’ Exodus 20:12. It was not just a social nicety to honour your parents but had a condition attached to it of living long in the land.

In this day and age it is vital that Christians promote a positive attitude to parenting by both helping our children honour us and not let them be disrespectful and by being gracious and appreciative of our parents.  Most parents need all the help they can get – it has to be one of the most difficult jobs to do well – and God regards it as vital. Bringing up children in his ways with a proper respect for others is essential.

For some it is an easy thing to honour parents but for others whose parents may have been abusive or have deserted them, it can be very hard. Honouring them can feel like eating sawdust – it chokes them. However God did not say honour your parents when they make a good job of it or are nice to you.  Honouring is unconditional. So how can we do this for parents who have not been good to us? I believe the way we talk about our parents is vital. If we have or had good parents let’s be thankful and appreciative even if they have become difficult in old age and even if they were the most dreadful people let us honour God by being gracious and forgiving to them. Letting go of the past brings release to our lives and not speaking ill of bad parents honours us. 

Even the best parents make mistakes but it is always a shame when we only fully appreciate them after they have gone. So whether dead or alive, good or bad let’s talk positively to and about our parents and honour God as we honour them.