DO YOU BELIEVE IN HELL?

DO YOU BELIEVE IN HELL?

Matt. 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Without much thought, many Christians would say that they believe in hell. The problem becomes apparent when you start bringing hell into the real world where all of us live. Suddenly, many will show themselves as closet universalists, not understanding the just and the justifier thing. Christ died to save sinners, that is obvious. The problem is you have to recognize your sinfulness before you can receive His mercy. Hell is where all mankind is heading without the intervention of God that comes with repentance and the gift of salvation. Hell has been a hot topic (excuse the pun) for a long time. Jonathan Edwards received much criticism about his sermon, “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God”. People don’t want to admit they are sinners and their version of God is not ever angry. Here is a short excerpt from Edward’s famous sermon.

“There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell’s wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor anything to take hold of: there is nothing between you and hell but the air; ’tis only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up. You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of hell, but don’t see the hand of God in it, but look at other things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life, and the means you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it. Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider’s web would have to stop a falling rock.”

The most powerful evangelism tool The Lord has ever given us at Victory Fellowship is the production “Beyond the Grave”. What started as a weekend production for the youth at our church has taken on a life of its own. It still going on fourteen years after the initial production. Over 300,000 have seen it and over 65,000 have made decisions for Christ. What has been the key to its longevity. To me it has to do with the fact that inside of all of us we know that heaven and hell are very real. When people are confronted with the possibility that they could experience eternal hell fire, the results are staggering.