Why don’t we hear of Hell anymore? Why don’t preachers warn of Hell fires as Jesus did (Matthew 5:22,29,30; Matthew 10:28; Matthew 25:41,46; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:23-28)? The answer is found in the following statement, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
In these last days there has been a falling away from the faith (Luke 18:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:3), and a number of minsters, rather than risk losing lucrative positions, have well-nigh ceased to proclaim that everlasting punishment awaits the individual who rejects Jesus as Lord of his life. Nevertheless, it is still true that “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:16).
If there were not a Hell in which the sinner will have to spend a hideous eternity, Jesus would not have needed to come to earth to die for fallen man in order that those who repent, believe that He bore our sins, and shift the burden of guilt to Him (thus escaping the penalty which otherwise will be exacted by a just God) might have everlasting life.
Many people think that if they are fairly respectable and have lived in an upright manner that they will go to Heaven. Nothing is farther from the truth. The Bible says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). At a terrible cost, Jesus suffered and died for all humanity because He knew that Hell awaits those whose sins are not forgiven. Anyone who says there is no Hell is trampling Christ’s blood under foot. Before Jesus was born, the sins of those who looked forward to His first coming were rolled ahead; and, at death, these Old Testament saints went to Paradise in the lower parts of the earth, while the lost were consigned to Hades. After His death, Jesus visited this region and took the spirits of the righteous to Heaven, because He had completely atoned for their transgressions. Now, those who die go either to Heaven or Hell, depending upon whether or not they believe that Jesus rose from the grave as Lord and Saviour of mankind.
What would you think of a mother who took the labels off bottles of poison and placed them within easy reach of her children? However, many preachers who are responsible for the spiritual welfare of God’s children have removed the warning signs from false teachings, and are allowing their congregations to imbibe freely of the devil’s deadly notions, one of the most dangerous of which is the suggestion that Hell does not exist.
In earlier days, ministers were true to their trust. Jonathan Edwards, the eminent Puritan preacher, is noted, in particular, for his sermon entitled, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” When this message was delivered, many of the members of his congregation began to weep in such distress at the realization of their lost condition that the missionary had to ask for silence so that he might continue. He told the people that the wrath of God is everlasting. “You must suffer it to all eternity: there will be no end to this exquisite, horrible misery. When you look forward you shall see a long forever, a boundless duration before you … You will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all; you … must wear out … millions and millions of ages in wrestling and conflicting with this merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains, so that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! It is inexpressible and inconceivable: for ‘who knows the power of God’s anger?”‘
Dear friend, if you have not yet made sure that you will escape this frightful fate by asking Jesus to forgive your sins, and to accept you into the family of God, I plead with you to fall upon your knees this very moment and cry to Him, “Oh, Lord, I believe you died for me and rose again from the dead to give me eternal life, and I believe that you have borne all of my sins. Save me now, and keep me during the remainder of my earthly journey and through all the ages to come. Amen.”
Offer this prayer from your heart and He will give you a new spiritual birth so that you will pass from death unto life, and will know that Heaven (not Hell with its terrors) will be your eternal abode.