H E double hockey sticks

Hell is a Joke (to the world)

Devil and pitchfork

movies depict Satan as ruling in Hell and delivering out the punishment.

Hades- Greek God of the dead and ruler of the underworld.

Party in Hell.

So let's have a party and tell 'em I'm home They'll be wailing and will lay as well And the devil will be dealing The cards as they lay So let's have a party in hell

So let's have a party and tell 'em I'm home They'll be Janice and Jimi as well And Rick James will bring all the cocaine you want So let's have a party in hell

Hard Topic

Christian Living Some months ago, R. C. Sproul was asked which doctrine he struggles with most. He replied: “Hell.”

It’s comforting to know a theological giant like Sproul still wrestles with something I’ve struggled with my whole Christian life.

The doctrine of hell is uncomfortable for most of us. However, our understanding of hell shapes our view of the gospel, God’s holiness, and our depravity. If we don’t accept the reality of hell, we won’t rightly understand the glory of the gospel.

Hell, then, is an eternity before the righteous, ever-burning wrath of God, a suffering torment from which there is no escape and no relief. Understanding this is crucial to our drive to appreciate the work of Christ and to preach His gospel. R C Sproul

That’s Tough.

How will I enjoy Heaven if people I know and love are suffering eternally in Hell?

Kind, “good” , moral people that do good for others, feed the poor, give gifts to the needy. Spending an eternity in torment seems unfair, unjust.

An 18 year old living in abject poverty in the favela (slum) outside Rio de Janeiro having nothing but pain in suffering in this life, visited by an American missionary who was there for a week and gone. He Hears about Jesus, but can’t wrap his head around it. Then he is killed by the gangs trying to defend his little sister.

Eternal, never ending suffering for that boy doesn’t sit well with even the most Calvinistic Christian.

We are going to study the Doctrine of Hell. At the end of this series, you will probably still have questions. I hope you question your own concepts and what you have been taught to believe about Hell.

How many of you thought that Jesus changed Paul’s name from Saul to Paul on the road to Damascus? I heard a Bible believing preacher on the radio the other day say, “God changed Saul into Paul.” No, he didn’t. “Saul, who was also called Paul.” Now he changed a dead man walking into a living child of God.

So I hope you will taken an open mind approach and allow the Word of God, be the Word of God.

Before you question my sanity or my motives.

Hell is real. It is a place reserved for judgement. What I hope to give you is this: That you can believe in a loving and just God. God is not cruel. God cannot be cruel.

And some of what we believe about Hell sound cruel.

Baptist Faith and Message:

10.

God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.

I will not challenge this statement, only your understanding in this statement.

Where to start?

Old Testament and Jewish understanding of Hell.

Malachi 4:1–6 NASB95

1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.” 2 “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. 3 “You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the Lord of hosts. 4 “Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel. 5 “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. 6 “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”

Psalm 37:10 NASB95

10 Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there.

Psalm 92:7 NASB95

7 That when the wicked sprouted up like grass And all who did iniquity flourished, It was only that they might be destroyed forevermore.

Sheol The place where the dead reside.

Underworld.

Jewish belief.

I would propose that the question of this sermon, “Is there a heaven or hell in Judaism?” is not a Jewish question.  It is a Christian question, posed to Jews, or posed about Jews, to see how we compare with the Christian view of the afterlife, which contains a clear view of heaven and hell.  Truth be told, most Jews never think about this question and really don’t care.

1-              We don’t go straight to hell.  All those who have died, Jewish and non-Jewish, wait for a final messianic kingdom, resurrection of the dead who were good in life.

2-              We receive immediate Judgment and get an express train to Gehinnom, a Jewish equivalent of hell or the Olam Habah, the Jewish equivalent of heaven.

3-              Spend twelve months to decomposes and atone in Gehinnom, during which you do not burn in the fires of Abraham if your loved ones say Kaddish. Clearly this belief was a way to get loved ones to say Kaddish. No person is said to be so bad as to need the full twelve months, which is why traditional Jews only say Kaddish for eleven months, but we say it for twelve.  Our Kaddish is not based on a fiery detention center.

4-              Dead is dead. There is no afterlife.

To understand the teaching of Jesus, you must understand the starting point. What the Bible says is true and accurate. It is also applicable to use in our everyday lives. But is wasn’t spoken directly to us. It was spoken to a people with their own preconceptions and understanding of the world. If you don’t know where they start, you arrive at the place that you are supposed to be.

Directions: left, right etc.

James 1:5–6 NASB95

5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

HOUR GLASS