Hell, and the God of Love

Hell, and the God of Love

(“The Fires of Hell”)

 

December 3, 2022

Larry R Evans

 

As we read the Bible, God is sharing His story with us.  No doubt we are part of it, but we need to let God tell the whole story. When we do, the parts of the puzzle come together. Many of our questions when seen from this perspective are answered including the questions about hell.  There are at least four parts to the story:  creation, (2) the fall, (3) redemption, and (4) restoration. When we leave out any of the story’s parts, we develop a distorted picture of God.  Today, many forget the “bookends” to God’s story. The bookends are the creation and the restoration of creation.  With them gone or deemphasized it’s hard to understand God and his plan for us. This is important for our study today because the “biblical” subject of hell is part of God’s 4-part plan.

 

Ellen White captures this truth when she wrote The Conflict of Ages Series. The series is composed of five volumes that follow the Biblical history of the world, with a special focus on the conflict between Christ and Satan. The series essentially covers the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Volume 1, Patriarchs and Prophets, begins with the words, “God is love” and Volume 5, The Great Controversy, closes earth’s history with “God is love.”

 

It is important that each subject of the Bible be seen as it relates to these four parts of God’s story.  Today’s study is about hell and hence the reason I’ve entitled this lesson, “Hell, and the God of Love.” 

 

The Dangerous Detour

 

The first lie told was by Satan when he told Eve, “You will surely not die (Gen. 3:4).”  Generations later it was Hitler who supposedly said that it is easier to make people believe a big lie than a little one.  Satan’s single lie to Eve set in place an interruption and distortion of God’s story. It plays out today in many ways.

 

The Bible itself is clear as we find in Ecclesiastes 9:10,

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead,where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

The book, The Great Controversy makes a critical historical observation.

Upon the fundamental error of natural immortality rests the doctrine of consciousness in death—a doctrine, like eternal torment, opposed to the teachings of the Scriptures, to the dictates of reason, and to our feelings of humanity. – The Great Controversy, 545.

We saw this deception played out during the Reformation.

On December 19, 1513 Pope Leo X issued a Bull against those who were denying the immortality of the soul.Martin Luther called the Pope’s declaration as among “those monstrous opinions to be found in the Roman dunghill of decretals.” William Tyndale, called the Father of the English Bible, said the pope had joined the doctrine of Christ and the “fleshly doctrine of philosophers together.” Tyndale and then later an associate of his were burned at the stake because they rejected the idea of the immortality of the soul. 

 

Protestant pastors did not follow Luther’s and Tyndale’s lead. Consider an excerpt from a respected minister who got off track on the subject of Hell.  The minister’s name was Jonathan Edwards who preached the sermon in April 1739.  Speaking of Hell’s fire:

. . . consider how dreadful despair will be in such torment. How dismal will it be, when you are under these racking torments, to know assuredly that you never, never shall be delivered from them. To have no hope: when you shall wish that you might be turned into nothing, but shall have no hope of it; when you shall wish that you might be turned into a toad or a serpent, but shall have no hope of it; when you would rejoice if you might but have any relief; after you shall have endured these torments millions of ages, but shall have no hope of it. . . . Your souls, which shall have been agitated with the wrath of God all this while, will still exist to bear more wrath. Your bodies, which shall have been burning all this while in these glowing flames, shall not have been consumed, but will remain to roast through eternity, which will not have been at all shortened by what shall have been past.  (The Eternity of Hell's Fire, by Jonathan Edwards,  [1703-1758])

 

Challenging Bible Texts

Immortal “Worms”

 

Some Bible texts can pose important questions. Take for example Mark 9:48, 

It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where

‘the worms that eat them do not die,

and the fire is not quenched.’

Everyone will be salted with fire.

These verses read by themselves could sound like there is a hell where torment continues without end.  Are these worms or maggots eating on the wicked who suffer eternal torment?  What is Jesus saying?

 

Jesus had been speaking about the accountability of causing others to sin.  To cause a “little child” (v.37), a new believer, to lose faith is a serious and accountable action. He mentions three internal examples that can lead any of us away from faith: the hand, the foot and they eye.  In other words, what you do , where you go, and what you see can lead you and even others away from righteousness. Jesus brings this down to two different paths: a path that leads to the kingdom of God and a path that leads to hell.  Hell is another word for Gehenna which refers to the valley of Hinnom. It was outside Jerusalem and was well known as the place where people were once offered as human sacrifices to the false god Moloch.  The reformation of King Josiah declared the valley of Hinnom an unclean place (1 kings 23:10).

 

Nothing is said in the passage about eternal punishment. To get the full impact we should note that the phrase is taken from Isaiah 66:24.

And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”

The last two chapters of Isaiah bring to a close the outline of the pilgrimage of God’s people.  Will they continue to be punished by the Lord? The answer is found in chapters 65 and 66. He does this with 5 answers:

1.     God is righteous. (Isa. 65:1-16)

2.    The Lord will create new heavens and a new earth (Isa. 65:17-25)

3.    The Lord recognizes there will be true worshippers (Isa. 66:1-4)

4.    The Lord will vindicate Zion—His people (Isaiah 66:5-13)

5.    There is a final judgment—a time of ultimate accountability (Isaiah 66:14-24)

 

Note how God is telling the story.  Questions may sometimes seem long in coming, but Isaiah promises they will be answered!  With the reference to Isaiah’s worms and the fire that is not quenched, we can see that God has a planned progressive response.  

 

The worm that would not die and the fire that would not be quenched refer to what would happen to the dead bodies of those who have rebelled against God.  The scene portrays a battlefield with God’s enemies dead on the ground. The bodies not consumed by fire are decomposed by worms. There is no reference to any alleged soul escaping and being sent to a place we call hell. The emphasis is about the bodies being consumed completely not being tortured. Here and in other places “the Bible is referring to all eternity—not as process, but as of result.” Questions on Doctrine, Annotated Edition, p.417.

The LORD of Heaven’s Armies says, “The day of judgment is coming, burning like a furnace. On that day the arrogant and the wicked will be burned up like straw. They will be consumed—roots, branches, and all.—Malachi 4:1

And what is the point? The fate of the corpses confirms that the apostates would permanently perish (see 26:14). They will not participate in the new earth and new heavens that the Lord will create for His people.  God is part of the restoration.  Hell is the elimination of that which was blocking the fulfillment of His plan—the plan whose beginning was described in Genesis 1.  In the first two chapters of the Bible it was God creating man in His image. The very last words of the last book of the Bible we see how God and His people are able to be victorious! “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.” (Rev. 22:21)

 

Isaiah and John bring the drama of the ages to a close. For the faithless there is a sobering portrayal of judgment. Their end is assured.  Sin and cruelty will be no more. For the faithful, there is a glorious picture of rich reward.  

He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” – Revelation 21:4

“As surely as my new heavens and earth will remain, so will you always be my people, with a name that will never disappear,” says the LORD. --  Isaiah 66:22 (NLT)

 

“Purgatory as a Preparation Time”

“The Roman Catholic Church has developed a doctrine in which it is held that all who die at peace with the church, but who are not perfect, must undergo penal and purify9ing suffering in an intermediate realm known as purgatory.” (Loraine Boettner in Roman Catholicism, p.218)

The Roman church believes that baptism removes all previous guilt so if a person were to die immediately after baptism he would go directly to heaven. All other believers, except Christian martyrs, must go to purgatory to pay the penalty for sins committed after baptism.

 

The doctrine of purgatory rests on the assumption that while God forgives sin, His justice nevertheless demands that the sinner must suffer the full punishment due to him for his sin before he will be allowed to enter heaven.

 

The “good news” according to this line of reasoning is that the period of suffering in purgatory can be shortened by gifts of money, prayers by the priest, and masses, which gifts, prayers, and masses can be provided by the person before death or by relatives and friends after death. For Catholics, saints are persons in heaven who lived heroically virtuous lives, offered their lives for others, were martyred for the faith, and are worthy of imitation. These saints obtain graces and blessings for others and can add their prayers in heaven to those offered by Christians

 

We do not question the sincerity of individuals who adopt such practices. No doubt, many financial sacrifices, and gifts of time and energy are given. These are not biblical beliefs.  The saddest part of any spiritual deception is the depreciation of God’s mercy.  Notice Paul’s comment to Titus.

When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. –Titus 3:4,5

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. – John 3:16,17

 

These same individuals do not believe they are praying to images but rather to the spirit that is represented by them. This was the same answer given by the Israelites when they worshipped the golden calf in the wilderness; for after making the idol they said: “These are thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt” (Ex. 32:4). They did not intend their worship to terminate on the image. They were worshipping their gods using an image, or idol, a likeness that they thought appropriately represented their gods. 

 

We referred earlier to the statement that said,

Upon the fundamental error of natural immortality rests the doctrine of consciousness in death—a doctrine, like eternal torment, opposed to the teachings of the Scriptures, to the dictates of reason, and to our feelings of humanity. – The Great Controversy, 545.

It is from this fundamental error that the teaching of purgatory comes. Clearly, the gospel denounces this.

And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people.—Hebrews 9:27,28

The person who sins is the one who will die. The child will not be punished for the parent’s sins, and the parent will not be punished for the child’s sins. Righteous people will be rewarded for their own righteous behavior, and wicked people will be punished for their own wickedness.—Ezekiel 18:20-22

 

Reflections

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.—John 3:16-18

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.—John 3:36

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 6:23