Can Modern Man Believe In Hell? – Part 1 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The very Word brings to mind hopelessness and torment. Hell, it's a place of judgment that few take seriously.

But that is a mistake. Hell is just as certain as heaven, and God makes it clear that He's made a way for you to escape the one and enjoy the other. Today, a stark picture of a terrible destiny, a destiny you need not face. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, some accuse Christians of using hell as an emotional scare tactic to get people into the kingdom. As such, many deny there even is a hell.

What do you say? Well, you know, Dave, I've often thought about this, and I don't think it was wrong for Jonathan Edwards, for example, to preach a message on hell. He, of course, preached it, and many people were converted. People should be warned about the judgment that awaits them if they have not come under the protection of Jesus Christ. So it's important for us to emphasize heaven, of course, also, and I've written a book entitled One Minute After You Die. By the way, in this book, I do quote a couple of paragraphs from that message preached by Jonathan Edwards several centuries ago. So we must talk about hell because the Bible speaks about hell. Now, for a gift of any amount, we're making this book available to you, and this is the last week that you'll be able to get a copy. Here's what you do.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. The title of the book, One Minute After You Die. Martin Marty, who I believe is the chairman of church history at the University of Chicago, said some time ago, hell disappeared and no one noticed. Newsweek said today hell is theology's H word, a subject too trite for serious scholarship.

Another theologian says there is no future for heaven or hell. Why is hell so difficult to talk about? Well, you understand, of course, that even those who believe in the inerrancy of scripture find it difficult to talk about hell.

I believe that every word that God has spoken is true, all of his teachings are true, and hell is difficult to grasp. As you may know, this is the sixth in a series of messages titled One Minute After You Die, and we have been talking about heaven, the New Jerusalem, we talked about Hades, but today we come to the topic of hell. Put very briefly, the difficulty we have with hell is that the punishment does not seem to fit the crime. No matter what it is that people do, it seems incredible, even if they are criminals, it seems incredible that they would be subjected to a kind of torment that would last into the ages of the ages forever and ever.

It seems more than we are able to absorb in our souls. Bishop Robinson, whose book a number of years ago, Honest to God, influenced a lot of people in their thinking, said, Christ remains on the cross as long as one sinner remains in hell. In a universe of love, there can be no heaven that tolerates a chamber of horrors, no hell for any which does not at the same time make it a hell for God.

He cannot endure that for that would be a final mockery of his nature. You simply can't reconcile hell and the love of God. It does not fit like darkness and light, sick and health.

Those two, it seems to us, do not go together. I've heard people say to me personally, if your God exists, he must be the devil. One day I was witnessing to a man who had come to our home to do some work in the house, and he said, I would not even subject animals to that kind of torture.

And I had to agree with him, animals should not be subjected to that kind of torture because animals are not moral beings in the same sense that humans are. It is a different dimension when we talk about human beings. Well the difficulty that we have also is it's hard for us to grasp the notion of eternity.

And before this message is over, I shall try to help us do it, but we shall never be able to accomplish it. To think about eternity unending ages after ages is beyond our minds to grasp. We say the word, but we can't really understand the concept. We should not be surprised therefore that there are some alternate teachings that have gained some wide prominence and borders. For example, there are those who believe in universalism, universalism in the end, all will be saved, all will be saved. For example, the scripture says in Ephesians 1 16 that God will sum up all things in Christ. Therefore they say if all things are summed up in Christ, Colossians 1 20 says it is God's intention to reconcile all things to Christ. Why then indeed all things will be reconciled to God and no one will be in hell.

The difficulty with that point of view is of course that the Bible states very clearly that Satan will never be reconciled to God. In fact, he was not included in Christ's death at all. Therefore no atonement has been made for him.

No atonement is possible for him. And as we shall see in a moment, he is going to be tortured forever and ever, the scripture says. But when the Bible talks about the summing up of all things in Christ, it does not mean that there will be universal reconciliation. It speaks about the fact that Christ's authority will be undisputed and God's will will have been done on earth as it is in heaven. We can't ignore the many scriptures that talk about hell.

Universalism has never been widely claimed in Christendom, that is in evangelical Christendom at least. But there's another view and that is conditional immortality. Conditional immortality. That means that in the end, in the end, only those who have put faith in Christ are going to live forever, whereas those who do not believe in Christ will be thrown into hell. The flames will consume them and they will no longer exist. That's why this particular point of view is often called annihilationism. Those who do not trust Christ are annihilated. They are blotted out. They are no longer conscious.

That is the end of them. Now, the scriptures that is used to defend that point of view, the most popular is Matthew chapter 10 verse 28, where Jesus said, do not fear those who are able to destroy the body. And then after that, there's nothing they can do, but rather fear him rather who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. So people have said souls are going to be destroyed. They are going to be annihilated. Once again, attractive though, that point of view seems to be, the fact is that nowhere else in the New Testament does that word destroy refer to annihilation.

It talks about wineskins being destroyed. It does not mean that they are annihilated. You can check the uses of the word and you can see that it is not annihilation. In fact, the Bible talks about eternal destruction, eternal destruction. That's why one great grammarian translates it as eternal misery, eternal misery. That's the destruction of the soul. Look in the Old Testament and you will find that already then eternal conscious torment or suffering is taught. Daniel chapter 12 verse two, many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and now notice this, and others to everlasting shame and contempt.

You caught it, didn't you? Everlasting shame and contempt. Now I want you to take your Bibles though and turn to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 25, and then we shall turn to Revelation chapter 20. Those are the only two passages of Scripture I will ask you to turn to today.

Matthew chapter 25 verse 46. Jesus is speaking and he's saying some things that we might not like to hear, but he says these words, and these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Not much room there for universalism. Obviously if universalism were true there'd be no need to present the gospel to people because in the end they all would be saved.

Not much room in this text also for annihilationism. You'll notice that the same word eternal is used for both categories of people. These will go away into eternal punishment, the righteous into eternal life.

If heaven is forever then punishment is forever. There it is staring us in the face, words said by Christ who of course knows all things. Now with this background I'd like you to take your Bibles and turn to Revelation chapter 20. Revelation chapter 20, the great white throne judgment, and what a passage of Scripture this is. Revelation 20, I'm going to pick it up in verse 10.

We shall read it then we shall make some observations and draw some conclusions. First of all it says in verse 10 of Revelation 20, and the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are also. The beast and the false prophet were thrown in at least a thousand years before this time because the devil is bound a thousand years during that period and now he is loosed and he tries to make one more stand against God which is really a miserable show of strength.

But the end has come for him. He is thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are also and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. And I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead great and small standing before the throne and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them and they were judged every one of them according to their deeds. And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life he was thrown into the lake of fire. What a sobering judgment. We call it the great white throne judgment because it says that there is this great white throne. This is not the judgment of believers. You may remember I preached a series of messages on the judgment of believers but that takes place in heaven. You know sometimes there are those who think that when we die we're going to stand before God and then God is going to make the decision as to whether we go to heaven or to hell. No, that decision is made here on earth by our own response to Christ and when we die we show up in heaven and that's where the judgment of believers takes place and if we do not know Christ and have not come under the protection of his grace we then will be here at the great white throne judgment. Two different judgments, two different categories of people and what a judgment this is going to be. First of all let's notice the diversity, the diversity of the people who come.

It says I saw the dead, the great, and the small. I don't think that this has to do with their size physically. It has to do with their stature here on earth. It is at this judgment that the king stands shoulder to shoulder with the farmer. It is here that the storekeeper and the attorney meet.

It is here that the billionaire stands right next to the pauper. The great and the small, the mighty and the weak, they all come together. They all come together. They are diverse in terms of their size. They are diverse in terms of their race. There will be a racial mix. There will be black and there will be white.

There will be red and there will be yellow and any other shade in between. They all will be represented here. They are diverse in terms of the nations, in terms of the nations. There are those who come from Asia. There are those who come from Europe. There are those who come from Israel and from Morocco and from Central America and from Argentina and from the United States and from Canada and from Australia, from all over the world. All those who have died without faith in Christ, those who have not come to trust him, Old Testament people who did not take advantage of the grace of God even before Jesus Christ came, they will be here diverse from all the nations of the earth, rank upon rank, host upon host, multiplied millions. They are also diverse in terms of their religion. Hindus, Buddhists, Catholic, Protestants, it is here that the priest stands with the Protestant minister.

It is here that the nun stands shoulder to shoulder with the Protestant missionary. What a diverse group of people coming from all over, from all over the whole world, those who perhaps knew the truth but never received Christ as Savior. It does not matter at that moment, your denomination, whether you will be Baptists because they will be represented, Methodists will be represented, Presbyterians will be represented.

What a diverse group we'll gather here. But let us now look at their common experience. Let's look at the text now. It says in the middle of verse 12, I saw them standing before the throne and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life. The dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds.

There are at least two books here, at least two books. One has a listing of all of their deeds and so they are judged in accordance with those deeds. There is also the book of life and if your name was not written in the book of life, verse 15, you are cast into the lake of fire and I take it that all those who appear at this judgment discover that their name is not written in the book of life. If their name were written in the book of life, they would not be here but as I mentioned a moment ago, they would be at the judgment of believers which is going to take place in heaven. What a scene comes before our eyes. They are judged according to their deeds.

It says that twice so that we do not miss it. Now I need to say something about the justice of God and those of you who struggle because you may have relatives whom you suspect did not die with personal faith in Christ and you agonize over this text and all of us do, it is not easy for any one of us to accept. But first of all, they are judged according to their deeds. They'll be judged on the basis of what they did with what they knew. He who knew his Lord's will but did it not shall receive one judgment. He who did not know his Lord's will will be judged differently. Remember that the justice of God is going to be so delicately balanced that everything is going to be taken into account. I can assure you that hell will not be the same for everyone. There are those who are going to receive a greater judgment than others based on their response to conscience, to nature if they didn't hear about Jesus Christ.

All of these factors are going to be taken into account. Also bear in mind, as I emphasized in a previous message, that this judgment is going to be so meticulous that it will be evenly distributed. The child who was abused and therefore grew up in a context where he didn't know Christ, he will be judged but so will his parents be who did not teach him about God, who did not teach him about Christ, and who abused him. It is here finally that victims are going to get their day in court because everything is going to be exposed. And in light of that exposition of all things, justice will finally be brought to every situation so that throughout all of eternity we will be able to sing just and true are thy ways, thou king of saints. So let me encourage you by saying God will deal justly, justly. It will be meticulous and it will be reviewed by someone who does not have to wait for the files to be brought from another state. He will not have to call attorneys.

He won't have to call witnesses and try to sift through the evidence. All facts will be known and justly addressed. You know, we often speak about heaven and of course you know that I'd rather preach about heaven because heaven is comforting, but I want you to know today that hell is comforting too. Look at the injustices of the world. Look at what people are getting by with. Think of what they are doing and there is no justice in this life. We try through human courts to bring justice, but how often we fail and they're getting by. Well in the end the judge of all the earth will do right and all will be called into account. All.

All the details taken into consideration. That's their common experience. They are all judged. But now I get to that which is even more difficult. Let's look at their common destination. We've seen their diversity, their common experience, their common destination. Notice what the text says in verse 15, and if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

That is their destination. Now let's look at verse 10 because I need to make some clarifications here because Dante has misled us. A number of years ago I decided to read Dante, his inferno, discovered that along with biblical teaching it was confused with all kinds of legends and different medieval superstitions. For example Dante says that in hell the demons have pitchforks and they go around tormenting people. Well I want you to know today that in hell Satan will torment no one. He will be the tormented. He will not be the tormentor. If Milton was right when he said that Satan rebelled because he would rather be a king in heaven than a servant on earth, Satan was sadly mistaken because there are no kings in hell. No kings in hell. It says in the last part of verse 10 that he is thrown into the lake of fire and tormented day and night forever and ever. He will hardly be in a place to torment someone else. He who strutted about the earth trying to form his own kingdom will now discover that he is limited to the parameters of hell, the lake of fire, the place of torment. Is there literal fire in hell? We don't know that of course but if it is figurative it is something that is still distressing, something that still torments.

Remember that people will still have their same desires. They will be given indestructible bodies but they will not be righteous bodies. They will be sinful bodies and so here people will continue to crave that which they will never have. Remember in Hades which is to be distinguished from hell here it says Hades is thrown into the lake of fire. That's why in a previous message when I spoke on Hades I think the message was titled the descent into gloom.

I stress the fact that no one is in hell today. Hades is to be distinct from that but here Hades is thrown into the lake of fire when it says the sea gave up the dead which were in it. That's a reference to the bodies of people who drowned centuries ago. God is going to resurrect them and their spirits will be joined.

Those are the spirits of those who are in Hades so that they will be whole people but the same people they were here on earth. Imagine an alcoholic craving for a drop of alcohol and it's denied him. Well this is Pastor Lutzer. I'd like to have a personal word with you and ask you this question. When is the last time that you witnessed to a friend? You gave them a book that explained the gospel that helped them to understand why they had to respond to Jesus Christ. I've written a book entitled One Minute After You Die. Someone has connected with us and said after reading it her aunt who was 92 years old prayed the prayer of assurance. I know that I will see her in the great cloud of witnesses and the church triumphant.

I have to say that many people have come to know Christ as Savior after reading One Minute After You Die. We're making it available to you. This is the last week that you can get your copy. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. This book not only discusses the glories of heaven but also the frightening truth about hell.

It's a book that you need for yourself and make sure that you share it with your friends. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago Illinois 60614. Running to Win comes to you from the Moody Church in Chicago to help you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. Next time more of Can Modern Man Believe in Hell?

We'll learn what hell will really be like once we lose our false preconceptions. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.