What Does The Bible Say About Hell?
“But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!” (Luke 12:5, New American Standard Bible)
Hopefully you’re like me and you’re not given to a constant fixation on this place or this reality. This topic, when given an undue focus, has produced many a bizarre and obnoxious follower of Christ. These are the kind that tend to inoculate people with enough Gospel so that if the real thing comes along, they can’t “catch it”. I’m well aware that this is also not a popular topic in the world, or even in the Church. I’m not sure it should ever be “popular”, but after years of studying and careful consideration and prayer I am more convinced of its reality and necessity. Before going any further, I think it necessary to state that almost all of our Christian theology on the doctrine of hell comes directly from the mouth of Jesus and not from medieval monks of a monastic order, Martin Luther, Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, or John and Charles Wesley. Without the words of Jesus we would really only have Jewish tradition and one verse out of the book of Daniel and some O.T. references to “the grave”, or Sheol. Not much was given on the subject before the preaching ministry of Jesus.
Our modern Christian climate seems to shrink back from the idea of fearing God, of God “killing” and then sending to hell. It doesn’t really make my heart flush with joy but it does help me to keep a healthy and sober perspective on things.
My biggest hang-up is that it’s just simply there, right there in the Bible and there’s not a single thing I can do about it but accept its presence in Christian doctrine.
I would also like us to remember that nobody showed the Father but Jesus. The Father showed us parts of Himself in the Old Testament but was never fully revealed until Jesus. ”If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” If God is love and Jesus is God (kind of an important doctrine) then we have to conclude that Jesus’ speaking about and revealing details of hell is an act of love.
I feel as though I can hear the sound of screeching brakes and skidding tires in your minds. It’s okay; if it didn’t happen I’d think you were weird. That should jar us a little. It’s okay for our human sensibilities to have confrontations with things that make us blink real hard, shake our head and go, “huh?”. I say all this so that you will hopefully know that I’m not a hell monger, judgment monger, wrath monger…monger, monger, monger!!! No, I’m just going to go through the rest of this with stoic, cold logic from here on out so as to hopefully keep opinion out of the way and simply set forth what the Scriptures actually teach. But it was important to have a sort of a preliminary disclaimer and to try and show a little of my heart first. The main focus and thrust of my Christian walk is one centered around the awareness of God’s love for me and His immediate nearness, not groveling in some bizarre posture of constant thankfulness for not going to hell. God’s love and the things of The Spirit are the dominating themes in my mind.
So then…let’s have a look.
Page 1 of 3 | Next page
