No one wants to talk about it. I can see why. It’s a real conversation stopper.
Ages ago pastors were known to give their “Hell, Fire, and Damnation” sermons on a regular basis. They wanted their listeners to remember what lay at the end of rejecting God.
But somewhere along the line that message went out of vogue. I guess it just wasn’t drawing in the crowds like a good rock concert style worship service or a Kumbaya sermon would.
Yes, God’s love for us is first and foremost. He loved “the world” so much that He gave His only Son to die for us, to take all our sins, and pay our price. Jesus allowed himself to be separated from God for the first and only time in all of eternity in order to pay that price as God can have nothing to do with sin—He is pure. He is Holy. Jesus rose from the dead so that we would know—for a fact—that we would rise one day as well. He did all of this out of His perfect love so that none would perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
But that perishing doesn’t mean a cessation of existence. If it did, then there would be nothing to fear. No, there is eternity for all of us—with God (John 14:1-3)—or without God.
This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:49-50).
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels….Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” (Matthew 25:41-46).
. . . hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched—where Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:43-44).
Yes, the world will know we are Christians by our love. What better way to love on someone than to let them know that the
train they are in is on a track with a huge gorge ahead and no bridge to cross it. To stay on that train is certain death.
Eternity is a given. Where you spend it is not.
Ages ago pastors were known to give their “Hell, Fire, and Damnation” sermons on a regular basis. They wanted their listeners to remember what lay at the end of rejecting God.
But somewhere along the line that message went out of vogue. I guess it just wasn’t drawing in the crowds like a good rock concert style worship service or a Kumbaya sermon would.
Yes, God’s love for us is first and foremost. He loved “the world” so much that He gave His only Son to die for us, to take all our sins, and pay our price. Jesus allowed himself to be separated from God for the first and only time in all of eternity in order to pay that price as God can have nothing to do with sin—He is pure. He is Holy. Jesus rose from the dead so that we would know—for a fact—that we would rise one day as well. He did all of this out of His perfect love so that none would perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
But that perishing doesn’t mean a cessation of existence. If it did, then there would be nothing to fear. No, there is eternity for all of us—with God (John 14:1-3)—or without God.
This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:49-50).
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels….Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” (Matthew 25:41-46).
. . . hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched—where Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:43-44).
Yes, the world will know we are Christians by our love. What better way to love on someone than to let them know that the
train they are in is on a track with a huge gorge ahead and no bridge to cross it. To stay on that train is certain death.
Eternity is a given. Where you spend it is not.
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