Ascetic X
Well-Known Member
It troubles me greatly to imagine a single soul trapped in hell forever, tormented by their conscience and their dismal memory of evil deeds, with no possibility of relief or escape.
Total darkness. Absolute despair. No light at the end of the tunnel. Apart from the God of love forever. Either alone or accompanied by demons, murderers, sorcerers, witches, liars, gluttons, adulterers, cheaters, perverts, insane individuals, warmongers, and haters of Christ.
No serenity or satisfaction. No expectation of being set free sometime. No hope. No consolation. No future pardon. No looking forward to a better day or eventual happiness.
It’s hard to even imagine an inescapable eternal hell.
Old time pastors and evangelists preached hell fire and brimstone rather frequently and forcefully. Sometimes people fainted, wept profusely, or groaned loudly at hearing about hell. Nowadays, it is rare to hear a sermon about damnation.
I don’t think we should try to scare people into getting saved. But our friends and neighbors should confront the two eternal destinations and realize where they will be going. We should be frank and not avoid the topic. We must explain it with gentle tenderness and broken hearts for the lost.
In life, we generally are able to get out of bad situations.
We usually can solve the problems that confront us, whether we face sickness, injury, loss of a job, lack of education, breaking up with a romantic partner, feeling too cold, being hungry, etc.
In worse case scenarios, we can at least reconcile ourselves to poverty or the limitations of disabilities and bad choices. We find some sort of happiness and peace in our circumstances. We have friends, family, therapists who can encourage us and maybe make us feel better.
But eternal hell is an unsolvable problem. There are no comforters. No one coming to rescue them. No way to be clever, resourceful, and break free. Once a soul lands there, nothing can get them out. To me, this is really terrifying.
It is also difficult to imagine what heaven will be like. What a wonderful alternative!
How horrible to trade the temporary, fast vanishing enjoyments of the flesh for an eternity in heaven!
The lost souls are damned because they heard the gospel and mocked it, rejected it, argued against it. They laughed at those who took the Bible seriously. Or they were respectful, but trusted a false religion.
Those who got involved with a pseudo-Christian cult, or followed a seemingly saved heretic, and thought they were headed for heaven are in my opinion more to be pitied than others. How awful to think you are born again, but are deceived!
Those who bought into a libertine version of Christianity will be shocked on the fearful day of judgment.
They thought they had a ticket to heaven in their back pocket, so now let’s party and have some fun!
They read their Bibles, prayed, listened to Christian music, attended church, maybe even served as a worship leader, Sunday school teacher, or pastor.
But they also desired acceptance by their unsaved peers.
They did not want to be considered too religious. They went along with the crowd and pursued various pleasures of the flesh, lusts and cravings and addictions, thinking they deserved to be happy, and were miserably misled due to the subtle deceitfulness of sin.
Or those who thought that by doing good works, holding to a religious creed, giving mere mental assent to the teachings of Christ, and partaking of sacraments was the way to get to heaven.
When they die, they will suddenly and shamefully realize they made a huge mistake.
Since they followed a false spirituality, or deliberately developed their souls to be incompatible with heaven, and rejected God, God has to honor that decision.
When we feel shy or incompetent to share our faith and explain the gospel, we should keep foremost in mind the two permanent destinations for every soul.
Let us sometimes ponder the two eternal destinations. Let this devout contemplation drive our gratefulness to Jesus and ignite our evangelical zeal.
Total darkness. Absolute despair. No light at the end of the tunnel. Apart from the God of love forever. Either alone or accompanied by demons, murderers, sorcerers, witches, liars, gluttons, adulterers, cheaters, perverts, insane individuals, warmongers, and haters of Christ.
No serenity or satisfaction. No expectation of being set free sometime. No hope. No consolation. No future pardon. No looking forward to a better day or eventual happiness.
It’s hard to even imagine an inescapable eternal hell.
Old time pastors and evangelists preached hell fire and brimstone rather frequently and forcefully. Sometimes people fainted, wept profusely, or groaned loudly at hearing about hell. Nowadays, it is rare to hear a sermon about damnation.
I don’t think we should try to scare people into getting saved. But our friends and neighbors should confront the two eternal destinations and realize where they will be going. We should be frank and not avoid the topic. We must explain it with gentle tenderness and broken hearts for the lost.
In life, we generally are able to get out of bad situations.
We usually can solve the problems that confront us, whether we face sickness, injury, loss of a job, lack of education, breaking up with a romantic partner, feeling too cold, being hungry, etc.
In worse case scenarios, we can at least reconcile ourselves to poverty or the limitations of disabilities and bad choices. We find some sort of happiness and peace in our circumstances. We have friends, family, therapists who can encourage us and maybe make us feel better.
But eternal hell is an unsolvable problem. There are no comforters. No one coming to rescue them. No way to be clever, resourceful, and break free. Once a soul lands there, nothing can get them out. To me, this is really terrifying.
It is also difficult to imagine what heaven will be like. What a wonderful alternative!
How horrible to trade the temporary, fast vanishing enjoyments of the flesh for an eternity in heaven!
The lost souls are damned because they heard the gospel and mocked it, rejected it, argued against it. They laughed at those who took the Bible seriously. Or they were respectful, but trusted a false religion.
Those who got involved with a pseudo-Christian cult, or followed a seemingly saved heretic, and thought they were headed for heaven are in my opinion more to be pitied than others. How awful to think you are born again, but are deceived!
Those who bought into a libertine version of Christianity will be shocked on the fearful day of judgment.
They thought they had a ticket to heaven in their back pocket, so now let’s party and have some fun!
They read their Bibles, prayed, listened to Christian music, attended church, maybe even served as a worship leader, Sunday school teacher, or pastor.
But they also desired acceptance by their unsaved peers.
They did not want to be considered too religious. They went along with the crowd and pursued various pleasures of the flesh, lusts and cravings and addictions, thinking they deserved to be happy, and were miserably misled due to the subtle deceitfulness of sin.
Or those who thought that by doing good works, holding to a religious creed, giving mere mental assent to the teachings of Christ, and partaking of sacraments was the way to get to heaven.
When they die, they will suddenly and shamefully realize they made a huge mistake.
Since they followed a false spirituality, or deliberately developed their souls to be incompatible with heaven, and rejected God, God has to honor that decision.
When we feel shy or incompetent to share our faith and explain the gospel, we should keep foremost in mind the two permanent destinations for every soul.
Let us sometimes ponder the two eternal destinations. Let this devout contemplation drive our gratefulness to Jesus and ignite our evangelical zeal.