Of Sin and Hell

Sin and hell have this in common: they are both terrible things. However, they are terrible in different ways. Sin is terrible because it is rebellion against God. Hell is terrible because it highlights how awful that rebellion is. Without hell, we would not understand the grievous treason that it is to shake our collective fist in the face of the Almighty God.

In my series of posts on the doctrine of hell, I have tried to demonstrate that hell is a real place, and that it is a just place. The horror of hell lies not in the mere fact of its existence, but in the fact that it must and should exist. If there is to be any sort of cosmic justice, then we must have a place where iniquity is punished to the proper degree. Hell is that place.

Dear reader, if you are not in Christ Jesus you are most certainly going to hell when you die. Everyone not found in Christ Jesus at the great day of God's judgment will forever suffer in that place where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched. Your life is even now precarious. You could perish this very day and your soul would be required of you. It does not matter what you think of me, or of your justness, or of your wisdom, or of your own righteousness, you will certainly perish if you are not found in Christ. Your sins will weigh you down. You will not stand before God guiltless. You will surely die in your sins, if not for Jesus Christ. "Almost every natural man that hears of hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it," says Jonathan Edwards. He is certainly correct.

You must, if you have any vestige of conscience, admit that you are a lawbreaker. You have sinned, and your sin will damn you. The reason you have sinned is because you have a corrupted heart. Your own sin has flung open the doors for your own death and damnation. No other witness will be required but your own deeds. Your stolen pleasures, your lusts, your lies, and your thieving will bear witness against you. Every thought of your heart will be laid bear; every action will be examined; every word you spoke will be judged.

A converted soul will see that sin is heinous and should never exist and that hell is just and must exist. The fleshly, self-flatterer will say to themselves that sin is not really that bad and that hell is heinous. The regenerated, born-again soul will see it in the reverse. If you are a Christian, then you know this is true. This is precisely why you cling to Christ in the first place. He is the only one who can save you from your sin. We have a Savior who is come to save us from our sin. He isn't come first to save us from hell. A converted soul will first realize that they must have deliverance from sin. A converted soul will see the truth of their rebellion and see that they need a Savior from sin.

If you are reading this and do not agree, know that I have written this in hopes that you will be awakened to the danger that you are now in. If you are reading this and do agree, then it is my hope that you might be awakened to the danger of those souls around you. Their only hope is Christ Jesus. Pray for their awakening, and pray that you might be bold enough to speak the truth to them in love.

Of the Fall of Man

We believe that man was created in holiness, under the law of his Maker (1); but by voluntary transgression fell from that holy and happy state (2); in consequence of which all mankind are now sinners (3), not by constraint, but choice (4); being by nature utterly void of that holiness required by the law of God, positively inclined to evil; and therefore under just condemnation to eternal ruin (5), without defense or excuse(6).

This is the third article of the 1833/53 New Hampshire Baptist Confession. This article, if embraced by the world, would be sufficient to change the world. I cannot think of another religion that teaches that man is totaly depraved, or as the confession puts it "all mankind are now sinners, not by constraint, but choice; being by nature utterly void of that holiness required by the law of God, positively inclined to evil."

If such is the very basic nature of mankind, then something much more radical than self-esteem, self-help, or personal examination is called for. What we must have is a Savior, or we we will certainly be held "under just condemnation to eternal ruin, without defense or excuse."

The Doctrine of Hell, Part 2

In yesterday's part one on the doctrine of hell, I pointed out that the Bible teaches that hell is a place, that hell is a place where justice is meted out, and that hell is a place that God Himself created. Hell is a good place, though it is quite terrible. It is good because hell is a just place. Hell is where sin is punished exactly as it ought to be punished. The failure to understand that hell is a place where justice prevails is, perhaps, one of the primary reasons we shirk the doctrine of hell altogether.

Though we are all sinful and selfish beings, we all have an innate sense that there is something called "justice." We may, and often do, disagree as to what justice might look like, but we have a keen sense of "fair" and "unfair." This is why the idea that a loving God would not send anyone to hell simply falls flat on its face, even in a cursory examination. We understand that crimes deserve punishment. If an infamous criminal came before a judge, and the judge said, "I'm going to let you go because I am too loving to punish the guilty." We would immediately protest. The families of the victim of the criminal would be especially upset. How could God get away with being less just than a human judge?

So then, I do not think that the idea that a loving God would not send anyone to hell is really a very serious argument at all. It could be that this objection really comes from the idea that hell is too harsh for the crimes committed. This, in my opinion, is a much better objection. How can God punish for eternity something done in a finite time? Also, how can God punish someone in hell simply for failing to believe that God exists and/or that Jesus Christ is the Messiah? Do people really deserve an eternity of agony for not capitulating to God? And if they do, doesn't this make God some sort of tyrant unfit to be worshipped or served?

These are excellent questions, and these questions are why feathers get ruffled by the idea that Ghandi might be in the same hell as Hitler. Christians ought to take time to work through these questions for the sake of their own sanity, and for the sake of those who would sincerely like to know how we could believe such a thing. The Bible teaches, quite clearly, that if Ghandi died a Christ-rejector then he does go into the same hell as a Christ-rejecting Hitler. How can this be just?

First, we have to recognize that rejecting Jesus of Nazareth is not the same as rebuffing the friendship of just any other person. Jesus is the Messiah, the perfect representative of God on earth, for in Christ "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" (Colossians 2:9). God is not like our neighbor. Here is a partial description of what God is like from the Westminster Catechism:

God hath all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of himself; and is alone in and unto himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which he hath made, not deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting his own glory, in by, unto, and upon them: he is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom, are all things.

Follow this simple logic. God is the fountain of all being. God is good. Therefore, all the good that we enjoy comes from the fountain of God's being. Let me break down what that means for us.

Because God is the fountain of all the good we enjoy, we are experiencing a gift from God when we love, kiss, eat, sleep, hug our family members, hold our spouse, and play with our children. Every happy thought, every joyful tear, these are all little drops of pleasure that had their source in the mind of God. When we reject Jesus Christ, and by rejecting Christ we reject God, we are rejecting the source of all of those things that are good. We are trying, in our rebellion, to get at the streams of joy without having to love the fountain from which they flow. This is pure folly and the root of all evil. What this does to us is it demonstrates that we are, in this condition, unfit for good things because we do not love the most wonderful thing of all: God Himself. Secondly, this folly cuts us off from enjoying the good things of life as we should.

Here is how rejecting God sullies the joys that we do have. Imagine a clear mountain stream. As it flows, it is crystal clear, it is cold, and it is refreshing. It will even remain liquid below freezing temperatures because it is moving. For some strange reason, we decide we love the water but hate the stream. So, we dam off a little section for ourself. The water is stilled. We play in it, but we soon find it is muddied. If we leave it alone, it freezes. As it sits alone, it also begins to stagnate. It is no longer refreshing, clear, or safe to drink. So what do we do? We curse the stream and blame it for our lousy water.

Hell may be described as a place where people go who hate God. There, they are cut off from the stream of God's goodness. Hell is a place where all of God's favor is withdrawn, even the muddy pools of our own making. God is the source and rightful owner of even the waters we muddy. For the rejection of Christ, God has decreed that we are to be cut off from the fountains of His goodness. So then, hell is partially the agony of remembering the sweet taste of stolen waters that we are no longer allowed to enjoy, and it is partially the consuming hatred of the Being who refuses to share this water on our terms.

This is why Ghandi, if he died in rebellion to Christ, goes to the same hell as Hitler. Ghandi enjoyed his muddied version of peace and equality, but if He did not love the Prince of Peace, then he cannot keep it. Hitler loved authority. But if he died not loving the Sovereign God, then he cannot keep it.

Do we still worry about Ghandi? We shouldn't if we believe in a just God. God will give Ghandi exactly what he deserves, and so it will be with Hitler. The punishment will be neither too great nor too little. It will be perfect justice. All who look on the punishment of hell will marvel. They will marvel at the folly that put people there, and they will marvel at the justice meted out in that place.

On the last post in this series, I will look at why the outright denial of hell belittles the salvation found in Jesus Christ the Lord.

On the Doctrine of Hell, Part 1

Recently, there has been a great imbroglio on the internet over the doctrine of hell. I do not wish to get into the specifics of that particular brouhaha in this post. However, there are a few things that need to be said regarding our understanding of eternal punishment and of the reality of hell. Christians need to understand this doctrine if they are to understand themselves, their neighbors, and most of all, the glory of God manifested in the death of Jesus of Nazareth.

It is not unusual for Christians to be uncomfortable with the idea of hell. The idea of neighbors and family being in eternal torment is not an easy thing to stomach. We would rather talk about heaven. Or, we would rather talk about the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins on the cross. But there is a disconnect in our speech and thought if we speak of "heaven" or being "saved" if we do never think about hell. What is the alternative to heaven? And what, exactly, are we being "saved" from?

First, we ought to think about hell as a place. Though we might be shy about it, Jesus certainly wasn't. Jesus spoke of hell as a place "where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:48). The book of Revelation describes it as a place where "the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name" (Rev. 14:11). When you compare the Revelation passage to the passages in the Old Testament which teach that burnt offerings are a pleasing aroma to the Lord, you have a very difficult teaching about the purpose of this place called hell.

Secondly, one ought to consider how hell even came into existence in the first place. The catechism we teach our children here has these questions and answers:

Question #1: Who made you? Answer: God made me.
Question #2: What else did God make? God made all things.

If God made all things, then it is certain that God made hell. Satan is not the ruler of hell. He is not there with a pitchfork dunking the wicked in pots of boiling oil. Hell is a place where Satan himself will be tormented for his crimes. Hell is a place that Satan dreads. God created hell as a place where perfect justice would be meted out to all those who hate Him and His decrees. So then, hell is not a bad place. It is a terrible place. It is an awful place. It is even a horrific place. But it is not a bad place. It is a place where we will behold, for the first time, true justice.

It has been said that hell was only created for Satan and his angels, and I think due to the misapplication of this verse: "Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matthew 25:41). The problem with this understanding is that God never does anything as an afterthought. He didn't suddenly come to the realization, "Oh my! There sure are a lot of human beings who hate me as bad as Satan does. What shall I do with them? Oh yes, I'll put them into hell with the devil then. What a great idea!" Rather, the meaning here is that rebellious people go to hell with Satan and his angels because they are like Satan and his angels.

Finally, it is my understanding of Scripture that hell will not be uniform for everyone. Jesus said, "The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows" (Luke 12:47-48). I take this to mean that hell will be a more wretched experience for some than others. I confess that I do not understand how that will be, but I trust that it is the truth. Every being in hell will have a different experience of that place, but all there will be as miserable as they can be. Conversely, I believe that there will be different experiences of heaven as well, but that all will be happy.

In the next post on the doctrine of hell, I will write about why an orthodox understanding of hell helps us to understand the grace of the forgiveness of sins through the slaughter of God's Son. Really, there are no more epic topics which we, as human beings, may discuss. I hope that you will give me the chance to explain the Biblical teachings on these things.

Just a Reminder

As I read my Bible today, I was reminded of the great necessity for believers to warn others to flee from the wrath that is to come. Won't you use your influence today to bear witness of the great escape that God has provided for us in Jesus Christ? Will you pray that God will grant you an opportunity to share and the boldness to do so when the opportunity presents itself?

This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those whodo not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. (1 Thess. 1:5-10).

The Truth about "Joe India"

Once upon a time, I wrote a post about whether or not people who never hear the gospel, read the gospel, or in some way find out about the gospel, go to hell. I answered that yes, they perish without hope. Of all the posts I've written, I have gotten more 'late' comments on it than any other. Mostly, people are opposed to my answer because they believe it to be unjust. I want to challenge that notion.

I have a character that I call "Joe India" or "Joe Africa" or "Joe Brazil". It doesn't matter where he's from, the thing about the guy is that he has never come into contact with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I tell people that "Joe" will certainly perish in his sin and go to everlasting torment. I do not relish this thought in the least, and I have invested time and money and prayers to see to it that as many hear the gospel as possible. But is it unfair that such a person should go to hell without a 'chance' at being saved?

Here's why it is just: Joe India is a sinner who hates God. There's the problem. Joe India does not 'deserve' a 'chance' to be saved. If he did deserve a chance to be saved, then the gospel would not be grace: it would be something that God owed Joe India. He does not owe anyone anything, and therefore it is perfectly just to allow a pagan to die in his trespass.

I know that people who object to this often point out that my stance seems to make God out to be cruel or unjust. I do not believe that God is either cruel or unjust. I believe that He is merciful and compassionate. I submit that my position does not make God cruel or unjust, but it is the only position that can make Him both merciful and just at the same time.

Most evangelicals will agree that sinners deserve hell. Indeed, most will agree that everyone on earth deserves hell. If they did not truly deserve hell, then there is no need for them to have a savior in Jesus Christ. Yet, many of these same folks will irrationally argue that it is unfair for someone to perish who has not heard the gospel. It cannot be both just and unjust for someone to go to hell at the same time. Therefore, if Joe India deserves hell, never hears the gospel, and perishes in his sin, then he will certainly go to hell as he deserves. This establishes that God is just.

How does it establish His mercy? It establishes His mercy because I, for one, am not going to the hell that I deserve. I did hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, and by God's grace, I believed it. I should have gone to hell, and I did not deserve the opportunity to repent. Yet God, in His mercy, allowed me to both hear and believe the gospel. He did not allow this privilege to Joe India. That does not make God unjust or cruel. It makes Him just towards Joe India and merciful toward me. He did have a degree of mercy on Joe India by allowing him to live life as a God-hater, but God did not extend to Him the same sort of mercy that He did to me. God was not obligated to do that.

Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth

I have always imagined that when the Bible described the "wailing and gnashing of teeth" of those cast away from the presence of God in the judgment that this was an expression of physical pain, sort of like when a linebacker pulls a hamstring (cf. Matt. 13:42, 50). But I was stunned to find the same word for "gnashing" used in Acts 7:54. The scene is the martyrdom of Stephen. The word of God says that after his testimony that "when they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth."

The context here is that they utterly despised Stephen and were enraged at the words which he spoke; his words were words of condemnation to them. I wonder now if that wailing and gnashing signifies something more than more pain at the torment they are enduring. I believe that it also signifies their continuing hatred of God, especially because they have been righteously judged for their sins.

It is incredible to imagine that after seeing the glory of God in Christ, and even after hearing a just and holy verdict, that those who are sentenced will feel, instead of remorse, even greater hate towards God. But I believe that this is entirely possible, and I believe that apart from the grace of God, such enmity is the natural response of the fallen heart. This makes the miracle of the newbirth and the staggering change that it brings in the human character all the more marvelous.

What say you? Do you believe that when the wicked are judged that they will be repentant, or that they will become even more recalcitrant than before? Will the gnashing of teeth be out of pain only, or will they gnash their teeth at the Sovereign God the way they did at His martyr Stephen?