Blue Collar Biblical Scholar

The source behind this post is from Dave Hintz’ sermon preached at the Ironmen’s Conference on January 26th of 2019 (You can listen to it here). This is a concentrated version, but he points out early in his message that judgement is the drive for many of the other doctrines. It drives the need for propitiation and so many more. Judgement is important if we are going to see the deep need we have of grace as well. He asks, “if you spent 60 seconds in Hell what would change about your life?” The Apostle John writes,

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Revelations 20:11-15 NIV

Today, we have a type of “functional unitarianism.” We deny Hell except for the Hell that perhaps we “make for ourselves.” Many might ask,

“Is there anyone you love who is in Hell?”

“Don’t you wish you could get your grandad out of Hell if you could?”

“Does that mean that you love your granddad more than God loves him?”

Others question how Christians can concoct such a vindictive God who punishes people in everlasting torment? It sounds more like Satan than God. Many people today think that some people “go through Hell” but not “to Hell.” Some people, like Hitlar, are bad enough to go to Hell, but perhaps certain sympathetic theologians might also add to this post-mortem salvation. Such people pretend that those who go to Hell eventually go to Heaven after they pay a price.

This flies in the face of Romans 10 which stresses the importance of hearing the Gospel:

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Romans 10:14-15 NIV

Other people adopt annihilationism. Or we often look at it compassionately as we feel deeply enough for people that we don’t want them to go to hell. So maybe we just overlook it as if it doesn’t exist. Yet the Sermon on the Mount teaches that if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out because it is better that than to go to Hell. This is not to say that we should literally mutilate ourselves, but that we should take it that seriously.

What does the Bible teach about Hell?

Hell is not something that we have invented. Jesus didn’t make it up to make people behave. Hell is the final abode of the damned. It is a lake of fire where all resurrected unbelievers will go to endure God’s wrath for the rest of eternity. Jesus says in the following verses:

But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. – Matt. 8:12 NIV

His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. – Matt. 3:12 NIV

and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. – Matt. 13:50 NIV

Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. – Matt. 25:46 NIV

 Arguments for us to make peace with the doctrine of Hell

1. The purpose of justice is to restore rightness

The Bible often shows justice is based on the Lex Talionis which iterates this by saying “an eye for an eye.” But yet there are things done in history that themselves demand more than any punishment could repay. Think again of Hitler, who killed masses and then killed himself. Was that it? Was that the justice that such a person received? Surely there is justice in the afterlife.

2. The one sinned against determines the severity of the punishment.

Consider the following illustration: Someone goes on a camping trip and pulls the legs off a grasshopper. You might think that is a little weird or even wrong, but no one is going to send such a person to prison because they abused an insect. Even if someone committed the same crime against a frog, you might be grossed out, but that is not a crime in itself. Maybe we are getting a little sadistic, but it would be far different if someone took that to the extent of a puppy or (Heaven forbid) a baby.

Instantly, people would call him a psychopath and criminally insane, even many of us would say so just for the puppy! They might recommend the death penalty in the case of the child! Yet it is the exact same crime but with different victims. The fact of the matter is that the worth and the value of the victim itself determines the severity with which we view the crime. The grasshopper didn’t matter so the crime was not seen as deserving of retribution, but the child!?

Hell is a real place that shows the severity of the fact that our crime is against the holy, perfect, and immeasurably good Heavenly Father. And God does in fact hold back the fullness of our depravity. He Himself knows what we are capable of apart from circumstances that He uses to prevent us. 

Here is a question, do you realize that people in Hell still sin and that they have no interest in repentance? And God teaches us about Hell in order to warn us about rejecting the gospel. Heb. 10:31 says that it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Don’t change your view of God’s wrath. Change yourself in light of who God is. 

Hell also teaches us the severity of sin. It highlights His righteous wrath. It should also make us bow to Jesus who died to expend God’s righteous wrath. Jesus bore the full extent of God’s wrath so that we could enjoy the mercy and the love of God for all eternity. 

Here is a question: Would you tolerate porn if you spent 60 seconds in Hell? Would you tolerate marginal Christianity, anger, lack of prayer, what would be the most compassionate use of your time? How would you regard the work of Jesus on the cross? 

Is it any wonder that Satan doesn’t want you to think about Hell? He wants you to be a functional universalist. We need to have an eternal perspective on the lost. And this is also in fact the real danger that we as saints have been saved from that makes us thankful and grateful for God who, through Jesus, also gives us His Spirit to convict us and help us. The Christian life is a serious thing. We need to have soberness as to our condition and especially the condition of those who are lost.