by Chris Hasse
The purpose of Bible doctrine (instruction) is to reveal God in His dealings with man. In Christ’s day, people were continually “astonished” at His doctrine. And that’s exactly what happened to me. Through a study of Bible prophecy, and through the alarming evidence that the Personality behind the ancient words of scripture could read my mind, understand my intentions, my affections, and my emotions, I became convicted that the Bible was of divine, and not human, origin. I now have a burning desire to know what He is really like.
What the Bible reveals about our Heavenly Father, especially through its teaching about hell, demonstrates His most wonderful love and provision for us. The Bible teaches that people who sin will die. It also teaches that all people everywhere have sinned. So then, are we all doomed to death?
We are all destined to undergo the stopping of the heart, the returning to dust. But that death is nothing but a sleep. It is a result of sin, but it is not the death of the wicked, who will suffer the second death which will burn them up in hellfire. But they will not go on burning eternally. The Bible doesn’t teach that. If the wicked lived eternally, being tortured in hell, they would be immortal, which means they would live forever. The Bible plainly teaches that God “…only hath immortality.” 1Timothy 6:16. So then, unless we are “one” with God, having Christ in us, “the hope of glory,” we face the second death. The teaching that sinners are immortal in hell originated with Satan, who said to Eve, “Ye shall not surely die.” The Bible is clear when it teaches that the wicked will be obliterated. They will suffer “destruction” (Job 21:30); they will perish (Psalm 37:20); they will “burn” up (Malachi 4:1); they will “consume away” (Psalm 37:20); and “fire shall devour them” (Psalm 21:9). All these references make it clear that the wicked are destroyed. They do not live forever in misery.
So, when and how will this hellfire be kindled? “So shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man…shall cast them into a furnace of fire.” Matthew 13″40-42. That’s pretty clear. Hellfire, which comes at the end of this world, will consume sinners and will be done burning when the fuel with which it is fueled is all used up. When my husband burns a brush pile, the fire goes out when he quits adding brush and finally the last little bits of charred wood release their final BTU. There is nothing more to burn. No one quenched the fire. No one stopped its smoke from going up. It stopped burning because there was nothing more to burn. How big and hot will hellfire be? “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 2 Peter 3:10. Death, suffering, illness, torture, loneliness, greed, and senility will never again torment us. I say “us.” I want to be in that group who has chosen eternal life, don’t you?
Currently, God is bearing with evil to expose it. He is being proven, through our terrible experiment with sin, to be the only choice for those who love life. He is continually and with great compassion forgiving those who repent, those who acknowledge their need of a Saviour. “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die…?” Ezekiel 33: 11. We are all wicked, we have all sinned, but through the working of His spirit, God has given every person the privilege, the miracle, of being “born again.” This is what happens when we turn from our sin to Christ, our Saviour. God’s purpose in hellfire is to make the world safe for all His children. Eternal hell would perpetuate sin. It is a man-made doctrine which has never profited any man. Ministers, alarmed, ask, “If I don’t preach an eternally burning hell, why would people choose to stop sinning?”
We can plainly see that fear of burning hellfire, in which sinners are tormented eternally, does not help people chose God. No one will be saved because he feared hell. We are saved because we believed in the loving mercy of our Heavenly Father in providing the life of His precious Son as a remedy for us. This is astonishingly good news!
Columnist Chris Hasse can be contacted by e-mail at: hassechris@yahoo.com.
