The average man believes in hell, but thinks few people go there and nobody knows much about it. The Bible is the only authority on the subject, and no one can know anything about it, aside from the Bible.
When we consider Christ's statement that unless a man loves Him more than "father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26) and reflect that probably not one professed Christian in a hundred has reached either this standard or the other one which He set in the same chapter , that "any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33), it should make us willing to consider carefully what is to become of the 9,999 out of every 10,000 of Earth's population that do not meet these conditions.
Well all know that "The wicked shall be turned into hell, And all the nations that forget God" (Ps 9:17); but how many of us know that they will be returned there; that the passage, correctly translated reads, "The wicked shall return to (hell), all the nations that forget God" - showing that there are nations which go into hell once, come out of hell, learn of God, forget Him and are returned there.
We all know (Judges 11) that Korah went to hell, but how many of us know that he was accompanied to this place by his house, with all his household and all the goods that belonged to him? - Numbers 16:32,33.
We all know know that the Sodomites went to hell (Gen 19), but how many know that they were accompanied by the city in which they lived and that there are other cities there? - Matt 11:23.
We may all suppose that many heathen warriors of long ago went to hell, but how many of us know that they took with them their weapons of war, and that their swords are there now, under their heads, with what is left of their bones? - Ezek 32:27.
We may understand that the wealthy go to hell, but how many of us know that in the same place are sheep, gray hairs, worms, dust, tress and water? - Ps 49:14; Gen 44:31; Job 17:13-16; Ezek 31:16.
We all know that bad men go to hell, but how many of us know that the men of faith, Jacob and Hezekiah, fully expected to go there, and that faithful Job prayed to go there? - Gen 37:35; Job 14:13.
We may all wish to keep out of hell, but how many of us know that David said there is not a man that liveth that shall deliver his soul from its power and that Solomon says thou goest there, whosoever thou art? - Ps 49:10; Eccl 9:10.
We may think that those who go to hell go there to stay forever, but how many of us know that Samuel said "The Lord killeth and maketh alive; He bringeth down to hell and bringeth up" out of hell, and that David said God has the same power to aid those in hell that He has to bless those in heaven? - 1 Sam 2:6; Ps 139:8.
We may think that those who go into hell never come out, and that there is no record that any have come out, yet there are at least two persons in history who have been in hell and come out of hell. One is Jonah, who prayed in hell and was delivered from hell (Jonah 2:2), and the other is Christ, whose soul went to hell, but "His soul was not left in hell," for God raised him up out of it. (Acts 2:31) And when Christ came out of hell He brought with Him "The keys of hell" and now has the power and the right to let all it's captives free. - Rev 1:18.
We may suppose that hell is to last forever, but the Prophet speaks of it's coming destruction, and John the Revelator says that it is to be made to "deliver up the dead" which are in it, and it, itself is to be destroyed. - Hosea 13:14; Rev 20:13.
The last passage cited affords the explanation of the whole subject, for in the margin opposite Rev 20:13 the translators have explained that the word "hell" means "grave". Reversely, in the margin opposite 1 Cor 15:55, the translators have explained that "grave" means "hell". The terms are interchangeable and the meaning is the same. In every place in this article in which the citations appear in italic type, the translators have rendered Sheol or Hades by "grave" or "pit" instead of "hell".
No comments:
Post a Comment