Eight Facts on Hell Intro: Not preaching 12:4-­‐7 – instead defining the term Turn your bibles to Lk 12:4-­‐7. But we are not going to study this passage. This is the passage I was going to preach out of today, but I am not. In the passage Jesus uses a term to emphatically motivate his disciples. The term is supposed to be carrying all the weight of the passage. The term is supposed to be the motivating factor for his disciples in this case to obey what he is commanding them to do. Therefore a right understanding of the term is absolutely vital to a right application of the passage. If we don’t understand the term, or even if we only partially understand the term, we will not be swayed to do what Jesus is calling us to do in Lk 12:4-­‐7. So we are not yet studying Lk 12:4-­‐7. We will do that next week. Because next week we will hopefully have a better understanding of the motivational term Jesus uses here. What is that term? It is the word Hell. Lk 12:4–5-­‐ “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. 5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Eight Facts This morning I want to begin looking at Eight Facts on Hell. Let’s pray and then begin. 1. It is a much-­‐disputed subject Dispute between and within religion The first fact is an obvious one. Hell is a much debated, highly combustible (no pun intended) topic of discussion. Not only is there dispute on Hell between the religious and the secular, but there is also dispute between different religions, and there is dispute within religions as well – notwithstanding Christianity. The two main areas of disagreement regarding Hell are 1) its existence and 2) its duration. 1) Doesn’t Exist Many simply deny the existence of Hell. They find the notion so repulsive, that they dowse the flames of hell from their theological framework. Buddhism, New Age, Hinduism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and many average Joe and Janes on the street deny the literal existence of Hell. They are either what we would call Universalists who believe that everyone goes to Heaven, Annihilationists who believe that death simply snuffs us out of existence, or reincarnationists who believe that based upon Karma we come back as a higher or lower life form, or they believe that we are all on a path toward become God and that Hell does not exist, only Earthly life and a future divine existence. 2) Duration The other camp of dispute regarding Hell is regarding its duration. There are some Annihilationists who believe in Hell but that after a time a person’s sin is burned up and they are destroyed out of existence. Hell, in their theology, is not eternal. There are some universalists who believe in Hell but that eventually everyone there will submit to the love of God and go to heaven. Hell for them is not eternal. Those are the two camps where most of the fighting takes place about the reality of Hell. Grudem -­‐ The doctrine of eternal conscious punishment…tends to be one of the first doctrines given up by people who are moving away from a commitment to the Bible as absolutely truthful […]. Among liberal theologians who do not accept the absolute truthfulness of the Bible, there is probably no one today who believes in the doctrine of eternal conscious punishment. (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology) Trans: What voice does the Bible have in this ongoing debate? That brings us to fact #2 2. Jesus, the Prophets, and Apostles all tell us it exists Occurrences of Hell, Hades, Sheol Jesus believed in Hell. Contrary to the idealized Jesus of many people, he believed and taught unflinchingly about Hell and its horrors. The Old Testament prophets and writers believed in Hell, and the New Testament writers believed in Hell. The word Hell and its related words such as Hades and Sheol appear in the Bible 88 times (Hell =14; Hades=9; Sheol/the grave=65). Jesus is predominant in the debate Of the 23 New Testament occurrences of Hell and Hades, the one talking about it is Jesus 16 out of 23 times. Jesus weigh in heavily on the debate, and actually is the reason the debate even exists. The debate exists because He was so clear and adamant about the reality and eternality of Hell. And we want to hear Him So because we are seekers of the truth not matter how difficult it is to hear, and not matter what our own predispositions are, we want to hear what Jesus and the Bible have to say about this issue. …Right? 3. It’s terms and timeline can be confusing Terminology = 4 words One of the things that makes it a bit difficult in coming to a biblical understanding of Hell is the terminology. The biblical nomenclature used for what we call “hell” is diverse. There are 4 different words in the Biblical languages that our various English translations render into the word hell. In the Old Testament Hebrew we have the word Sheol, and in the New Testament Greek we have the words Gehenna, hades, and tararos (shows up only once). With four words used in different contexts, it makes is a bit difficult to come to an understanding of what the bible teaches on Hell. Hard, but certainly not impossible! Let’s look briefly at three of the prominent words Sheol The Old Testament word Sheol depending on your translation is translated sheol or grave. It literally means depths or the grave. It is a general term for death in the Old Testament. Nu 16:30 tells us that Sheol is for the people who have “despised” the Lord. Ho 13:14-­‐ 14 Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from Death? O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes. Ps 9:17-­‐ 17 The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations that forget God. Summary of Sheol In most of its uses it is a place where the unrighteous dead go. But it is also used generally to refer to where all the old testament people went when they died. However, Old Testament saints were said to go to either heaven or paradise. So Sheol is a place of death. It is the grave. Everybody dies and thus in some sense goes down to Sheol. But those who placed their faith in God were rescued from the grave and went to paradise Where did Elijah go? -­‐ 2 Kings 2:11 -­‐ 11 As they were going along and talking, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire which separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven. Where did Jesus tell the Thief on the cross he would go? -­‐ Luke 23:43 -­‐ And He said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise." Gehenna The word Gehenna is a name for a literal place. It shows up 12 times in the NT and is translated as hell. Mt 18:9– And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. 10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. Lk 12:5-­‐ But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! It comes from the Hebrew ge-­‐hinnom which means valley of Hinnom. This was a dreadful place known to all who ever came near Jerusalem. It was the site of pagan worship to Molech where child sacrifice took place. Both Ahaz and Manasseh burned their own sons to Molech in this valley just outside Jerusalem (2 Chron 28:3; 33:6; 2 Kings 16:3). It is the place where corpses and trash were thrown to be burned. Josiah declared the place to be unclean (2 Ki 23:10). It was a notorious and horrid place of burning trash, shouldering corpses, scarred memories of child sacrifice, that came to symbolize for the people the very judgment of God. When Jesus talked about hell, this was the picture he used. Hades Hades was the common Greek term for the dead. It is kind of like the Greek counterpart for Sheol. It is a general reference to the place people go when they die. Mt 11:23-­‐ And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. Lk 16:22–23-­‐ The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. Since Christ’s resurrection, those who are his by faith are taken into His presence when they die. Those who are not his, go to Hades. Lk 23:43-­‐ And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” 2 Co 5:8-­‐ 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. Php 1:21-­‐ 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Summary & Timing This brings us to a summary of sorts. Sheol, Gehnna, and Hades are basically interchangeable terms that are used in the Bible to refer to a place where the unrighteous dead go. The unsaved dead does not go to heaven / paradise, they go to Hell. Hell is pictured by the words Sheol and Hades which refer to the grave or the dead, and by Gehenna which refers to a place of torment and judgment. If an unsaved person dies today, they go to hell / hades / sheol / Gehenna. They are, however, not in their permanent locale. There is one more verse I want us to see which speaks to a timing iussue. Hell is not the final destination, for hell is going to be placed somewhere else. Hell, the grave, the place for people who have rejected salvation in God, has a destination. We find it in the chilling passage in Rev 20. Re 20:11–15-­‐ 11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Now we can come to a place of looking at how the bible describes Hell. We have understood it’s terms, now let’s look at the context around those terms as to how hell is depicted by Jesus. The next 4 facts will be descriptions of Hell. 4. It is a place of confinement and punishment Prison allusions Mt 22:13 -­‐ Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 2 Pe 2:9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, These are allusions to prison. More specifically, these are allusions to first century prisons! Prisons today are bad enough, but you do get cable TV, occasional entertainment, education, rehabilitation, exercise, showers, and three meals a day. These references to Hell are meant to conjure up pictures of being in a prison where you are treated with great punishment, almost like an animal. 2 Th 1:8 -­‐ …in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, Hell is confinement. Hell is imprisonment. Hell is incarceration at its worst imaginable measurement. 5. It’s inhabitants are conscious Many have wishfully thought and taught that Hell is a metaphorical place where the unsaved go but do not suffer for they are not conscious of what is happening. Yes, they are cast of God’s presence, but they are then snuffed out of existence and annihilated or somehow turned into a non-­‐sentient being. They feel the emotional pain of shame and contempt (abhorrence, loathing) Da 12:2-­‐ And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Jesus’ picture of the rich man in Hell -­‐ Lk 16:22–28-­‐ The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ Awareness, pain, wanting relief, wanting a message to go to the living… Hell is a place of confinement for the conscious. And they feel it. 6. It is eternal Contra the universalist and the annihilationist, Jesus unequivocally and with great clarity tells us that Hell lasts forever. Mt 25:45–46-­‐ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Eternal = eternal Here it is clear. Some would say that eternal here is not to be taken literally, but in a figurative sense in terms of how the sin has offended God, but it really does not mean “forever”. The major problems with this interpretation are that eternal actually does mean eternal literally, and the word is also used in the same sentence with eternal life so if eternal punishment is limited, then so is eternal life! Speaking of the sufferings here in Mk 9, we see that they are seen as unending. Mk 9:47–48-­‐ And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ Worm + Fire = Here again we recall the picture of Gehenna – the trash and corpse heap. There the fire keeps burning and the maggots keeps eating the flesh and trash. It is a putrid and never ending place. Hell is an imprisonment where the prisoner is totally conscious and will never ever be released. 7. It is a place of multiple agonies As has already been touched upon, Hell is a place of multiple agonies. I will highlight five that Jesus warns us about. A fourfold description of the agony 1) Darkness Mt 8:11–12-­‐ I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness… Jud 6-­‐ 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— A place without light. A place of total lonely, gloomy darkness. 2) Burning Mt 13:41–42-­‐ The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-­‐breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace…. Mk 9:48-­‐ ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ Rev 20:14–15-­‐ Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Intense physical pain of burning is associated with Hell. Lonely burning torturous confinement. 3) Weeping and Gnashing teeth – emotional torture Mt 8:11–12… 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Lk 13:28-­‐ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. They see the ones they are separated from and it causes massive emotional trauma. From sadness to the kind of rage that causes them to gnash their own teeth. Physical and emotional pain in lonely, gloomy darkness. 4) Hopeless Abandonment On top of all this is the realization that there is no hope. The soul is abandoned to hell. Heb 6:2-­‐ and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. God will never be there to bring comfort. He will never show up for relief. It is punishment with no hope of sympathy or reprieve. Absolute total hopeless lonely forsaken abandonment. This was the great torture of Jesus on the Cross.. being forsaken by God. Mt 27:46-­‐ 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 8. It is supposed to motivate and be included in evangelism The teaching of Hell is hard and scary and harsh and repulsive. And it is supposed to be. In part this is to motivate people to be saved and to motivate us to evangelize them. Charles Spurgeon once advised fellow-­‐preachers, “Shun all views of future punishment that would make it appear less terrible.” Every second someone dies and goes to this place that we have been talking about. We have the message that can save them from it. Jesus saves from Hell! Pascal said “Between Heaven and Hell is only this life, which is the most fragile thing in the world” Heb 2:3-­‐ 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, Eze 33:11-­‐ 11 Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? 2 Pe 3:9-­‐ 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.