Hell?

I’m reading Leviticus with its complicated rules regarding worship, sacrifices, and the tabernacle, and I’m thinking, “Just give me the Gentile version.” But somewhere in the middle of the “priestly linen undergarments,” it hits me: No unholy thing can abide in the presence of God; without all of that ritual, any human being approaching God would die. Yet I, a once unholy being, am invited into God’s Holy presence and filled with His Holy Spirit. How? The blood of Christ—the eternal sacrifice—cleans me and makes me fit to be with God!

I am His. I am holy. I will live with God for eternity, and worship with my Christian brothers and sisters for all time. I will see the new heavens and the new earth and live forever where there is no sin or pain or fear or sorrow or death. Praise God!

If I do not allow Christ to wash me in His blood continually, I remain unholy, and the unholy cannot be with God. Which leads me to the question, is there a place of eternal punishment, and if so, what is its nature and who ends up there?

I witnessed a debate in the ‘70s between a Christian minister and the British Scholar and then-atheist, Antony Flew. Dr. Flew cited the Holocaust in his argument against the popular concept of Hell, saying something like this: According to some Christians, anyone who does not accept Christ as savior is damned. Jews, by definition, do not accept Christ and will, according to those Christians, spend eternity being burned alive. So God used the ovens of Hitler to usher millions of Jews into the ovens of Hell. Is this a loving God?

I am in no position to judge a good and perfect God, but God made me in His image and able to know good from evil. I do not believe that simple existence and sin, though abhorrent, justifies eternal, excruciating torture for anyone. (Punishment, yes. Death, yes. Eternal torture, no.)

If not eternal torture, what? What ultimately happens to persons who do not follow Jesus?  The Bible tells us that all sinners are doomed to “destruction."

 

Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

Galatians 6:8

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Meaning God)

Matthew 10:28

 

These two scriptures imply that the bodies and souls of sinners are not eternal, that they can and will be destroyed "eternally."

So, what about “The fire that never goes out?”  or the “unquenchable fire”? I don’t know. I know Hell was prepared for the Devil and his angels, eternal beings who currently war against God, persecute His saints, and attempt to rob us of our holiness. Perhaps for eternal beings, Hell is eternal torture?

 

No Dogs or People "Go to Heaven"

I have made a life-long study of ancient prophecy, poetry, history and literature (specifically the 66 books of the Bible), and, though I’ve never had a “near-death experience” (The closest I’ve come is being knocked unconscious, coming-to as a Dr. stuck a long hypodermic in my nose, and thinking that dying might not be a bad alternative.), I have some semi-firm opinions about the afterlife.

First of all, no one is "going to Heaven.” According to the book of Revelation, the Devil and his angels have a dark place reserved for them away from God, and evil doers will suffer eternal destruction, but believers will inhabit a “new earth.”

That image is comforting. A new earth, prepared specifically as a home for the sanctified human race, could be very much like the Garden of Eden, which, after all, God prepared as a perfect environment for a man and a woman. Adam and Eve had work to do, ruled over the earth and worshiped by walking and talking with God.

Most of what the Bible says about the end of time and eternity is in the book of Revelation. Our typical descriptions of “Heaven”: pearly gates, streets of gold, etc., are actually the prophet John’s vision of the “New Jerusalem” (Christ's purified church) which will “come down from Heaven” to the earth. The heaven of the Bible, full of worshiping angels and indescribably foreign experiences is the realm where God dwells, now.

In eternity, God will be with his people.

Revelation 21: 1-4
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”