Smoky Mountain Reflections #162
Hell is a
bad place, and we would not want even our worst enemies to spend eternity in a
state of eternal torment. There is no mistake that it is a real place; God’s
word is clear. There are twenty words in Hebrew that directly or indirectly
mention the place of eternal torment, and there are forty Greek words that do
the same. In most reliable English translations, the word hell appears 50
times. If you count the other words brought forward into English that mean “hell”
or “a hell”; places like: Sheol, Hades, Hinom, and Gehenna, there are over 100
other occurrences. Suffice it to say that hell is real, it is where all sinners
deserve to go, and we are all sinners. “What a bleak reflection for this month
pastor, why so much talk of hell?”
We find ourselves
in a society in which the bulk of the population seems to be on a fast track to
hell. This is very sad news that should
motivate us to get out of our comfort zone and share what Christ did to free
all mankind from being destined for hell. Most people who reject Christ fit in
two main groups; those who reject Christ because they do not believe that he
exists, and those who reject Christ because they because what they know of Him
is incorrect. You cannot argue anyone into the faith, however, you can speak
the truth in love so that the Holy Spirit can gather and enlighten those who
live in darkness. I would like to offer two friendly conversation starters to
present the Gospel to these two groups of unbelievers.
First
if you do not believe that Christ exists, what do you with all the evidence and
witness to the fact that he does? By all historical standards the man named
Jesus that is described in the Gospel accounts did exist. We have thousands of
copies of manuscripts, some only decades away from the events themselves. By
all ancient textual standards it is agreed that the Gospels are reliable
witnesses to the events of His life. So the question really is, if you do not
believe that Jesus is who he claimed to be….what do you do with the empty tomb?
This should start an interesting conversation allowing you to share the Gospel,
and answer or offer to get answers to any questions of faith they might
have.
The
second group often rejects Christ because of those who claim to be Christians
but represent Him poorly. Now at some level, we are all guilty of this. We have
all said or done things that have reflected poorly on our savior. The first and
best thing to do here is to admit to our misinformed neighbor that no matter
how hard we try, we are sinners; all Christians are sinners who misrepresent
their savior. Then we can ask them not to blame Christ for the weakness of His
followers. Yes, Christianity has a long history of misrepresenting Jesus. The
Crusades and the Inquisition are classic examples; even though the Crusaders
and Inquisitors invoked Christ’s name in their actions that does not mean that
they were following His will and guidance or His clear word. So if you want to
know who Christ is and what He came to do, read His word; start with the Gospel
of John, then go to a good biblical church; one that follows biblical
principles no matter how unpopular they may be. Go there so God can feed your
faith in word and sacrament.
So
to wrap this up I give you a simple analogy; I hold in each of my hands a
tablet; one is an aspirin and the other is cyanide. While both are tablets, one
will alleviate aches and pains, and the other will kill you. It is a good idea
for us to tell people about the benefits of a medication like aspirin. In the
same way, it is not just a good idea, but we are called as Christians to tell our neighbor about the benefits of the
Gospel. It is an equally good idea to warn people about the dangers of cyanide.
It does not matter if people do not like hearing about how bad cyanide is, it
is the loving thing to do to warn them against its deleterious effects. In the
same way, just because people do not like hearing about hell and our sin which gets
us there, the loving thing to do is to tell our neighbor that sin is a real
thing, defined for us in scripture, making us all worthy only of an eternity in
hell. Because we do not want anyone to go there, we explain how our sinful
nature condemns us and Christ paid the price for our sins because he wants all
people to spend eternity in a much better place; the new heavens and new earth.
We know this because He tells us so, and a word count on heaven shows he liked
talking about heaven more than hell. The word “heaven” appears in scripture
over 650 times! So as we speak the truth in love, we should not shy away from
the truth about where we deserve to spend eternity, but we should spend more
time telling people where God wants
us to spend eternity, and how Christ death and resurrection makes that possible!
Praying that you have a heavenly
month,
In Christ,
Pastor Portier
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