Sermon Tone Analysis

What on Earth has happened to hell?

We live in a day when cults and false religions—many of them with a thin veneer of Christianity—have firmly planted their heresies in the soul of America.

Almost all of these false religions all have one thing in common: They preach and teach that there is no hell.

Ganer Ted Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God—no hell; Jehovah’s False Witnesses—no hell; the Mormon Church—no hell; the Unification Church—no hell; Mary Baker Eddy’s Church of Christian Scientists—no hell; Eastern Mysticism and the New Age Movement and all their various manifestations teach that there is no such thing as hell; the Humanists teach that there is no hell (nor heaven).

The Universalists say it doesn’t matter because everyone eventually gets into Heaven anyway and that hell was invented by the church to keep people in line.

What on earth has happened to hell?

The Doctrine of Hell has fallen on hard times.

The latest research from Barna Associates shows that only 32% of adults see hell as, "an actual place of torment and suffering where people's souls go after death."

Couple that with the rapid decline of biblical literacy in American life, and within a generation hell will simply cease to exist ... at least in the minds of Americans.

Even notable Christian leaders question the existence of a literal hell.

In 1999, Pope John Paul II caused a stir among the faithful—Catholic and non-Catholic—when he released an encyclical stating that /“hell is the definitive rejection of God.”/

He further wrote that /“ ... care should be taken to interpret correctly the images of hell in Sacred Scripture, and that hell is the ultimate consequence of sin itself ... Rather than [being] a place, hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy."/

Even the venerable Billy Graham has softened his views on the literalness of hell.

In any number of interviews dating back to at least 1995, Graham has said that he can no longer, in good conscience preach about a literal, burning hell.

He feels that hell is /more of a separation from God than a literal place/.

He says that /“hellfire and brimstone preaching” was good for the ‘40's and ‘50's but no longer good for the new millennium.”/

I think Bruce Shelley, professor of Church History at the Denver Theological Seminary, best explains why hell has fallen on hard times: /“It’s just too negative.

Churches are under enormous pressure to be consumer-oriented ... “/ And let’s face it, in an era where many churches are trying to be appealing to a thoroughly secular culture, preaching on hell just ain’t gonna pack ‘em in.

This evening, let me take you through what our text has to say about hell.

!

I. HELL BECKONS THE UNRIGHTEOUS v. 9

* /“Sheol beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come; it rouses the shades to greet you, all who were leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones all who were kings of the nations.”/

(Isaiah 14:9, ESV)

* /"Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: It stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; It hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.”/

(Isaiah 14:9, KJV)

#.

Isaiah pictures the remnant of the Israelites who have returned from their Babylonian captivity as taunting the King of Babylon

#. in spite of the destruction to comes on the nation of Israel for their disobedience, God will again have compassion on them

#.

once again He will choose Israel to be His people, as He had done at Mount Sinai

#. but woe unto Babylon and especially the King of Babylon

#. vv.

3-21 record a song—or more literally—a taunt that will be sung by people freed from the fear of the king of Babylon

#. on the earth there is /quiet and rest/ because the /oppressor has ceased/ (Isa.

14:7)

#. but the peoples of the earth cannot remain quiet long, and soon they into singing because Babylon, the empire that /struck the peoples in wrath with unceasing blows/, that /ruled the nations in anger/ and with /unrelenting persecution/ (Isa.

14:6) has fallen and her king is dead

#. but in hell a different kind of celebration is going on

#. in hell the demons and current residents gleefully welcome hell’s newest arrival

#. in v. 9, Isaiah paints a picture of hell beckoning and anticipating the Babylonian King’s arrival where his sinful pride will be judged by God

* ILLUS.

One of the common themes for paintings and frescoes during the Renaissancewas the Second Coming of Christ.

The most famous rendition of that event is Michelangelo’s Judgement of Christ, painted on the back wall of the Sistine chapel.

Invariably such art work shows the demons of hell beckoning sinners to their fate and gleefully escorting them to their destiny.

* ILLUS.

The fate of Aza McKeys is an example of Sheol’s gleeful beckoning of sinners.

Aza McKeys was the prosecuting attorney for Los Angeles County in California.

Over the years, he was responsible for sending hundreds of men to Alcatraz Prison.

But then the day came when Aza McKeys, himself, was caught committing a felony.

He was tried and convicted and sentenced to serve his time at Alcatraz.

When the inmates heard that the former Los Angeles County Prosecutor was coming to Alcatraz as an inmate, like the denizens of hell, they rose up to meet him at his coming.

They hounded him, they threatened him, they harassed him, they harangued him, they tormented him until he finally lost his mind.

#.

Isaiah writes that hell from beneath is moved to greet thee at thy coming

#.

hell is real and it beckons to all unbelievers

#. of the certainty of this coming judgment for unrepentant sinners there is no doubt

* /“The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:”/ (2 Peter 2:9, KJV)

* /“Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth.

Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes.

But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.”/

(Ecclesiastes 11:9, ESV)

* /“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,”/ (Hebrews 9:27, ESV)

#. it will be impossible for the sinner to evade it

#. in condemning the Pharisees, Jesus told them: /“How can ye escape the damnation of hell?”/ (Matt.

23:33)

#. resistance, individually or collectively, will be futile

* /“Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished: But the seed of the righteous shall be delivered.”/

(Proverbs 11:21, KJV)

!! A. HELL IS A PLACE FOR THE UNRIGHTEOUS DEAD

#. hell in the Old Testament is not as clearly defined as it is in the New Testament

#. throughout much of Hebrew history, Sheol was often seen as the place of the dead for both the righteous and the unrighteous, and, in the majority of cases, the New International Version simply translates it as /“the grave"/

#. of the 67 times the word appears in the Old Testament, the KJV translates it as /hell/ thirty-one times and the rest as either /the grave/ or /the pit/

#. many modern translations don’t even /translate/ the word, but merely /transliterate/ it and render it as /Sheol/

#. the Greek word hades of the New Testament has the same scope of meaning as sheol of the Old Testament

#. when Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, they used the word Hades to translate the Hebrew word Sheol

#. whether Sheol or Hades, they word represented the place with dismay and foreboding

#. but in many Old Testament texts, such as Isaiah 14:9-11, we catch a glimpse of an evolving belief that Sheol is the place of the unrighteous dead

#.

Sheol is the destiny of all those who end their lives in impenitence

#. the righteous had a different expectation

#. though the Old Testament does not speak with the clarity of the New Testament on the death of the righteous, it does speak in a complementary fashion

* ILLUS.

One commentator referred to the Old Testament’s teaching on heaven as a room richly furnished but dimly lit.

#. many Old Testament figures expected that after death they would remain in fellowship with God

#.

King David in his Psalms clearly presents this idea

#. in Psalm 16:10-11 he writes, /“For You will not abandon me to Sheol; ... in your right had are eternal pleasures.”/

#. in Psalm 23:6 he writes, /"Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.”/

#. in Psalm 21:8-9 he writes: /“Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies; your right hand will seize your foes.

At the time of your appearing you will make them like a fiery furnace.

In his wrath the LORD will swallow them up, and his fire will consume them.”/

#. one of the best references to a clearer distinction between separate realms for the unrighteous and the righteous is found in the prophet Daniel

* /“And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”/

(Daniel 12:2, ESV)

#. another notable passage that likely contributes to Christian imagery of hell is Isaiah 66:24, which also refers to the end times

* /“From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the LORD.

“And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me.

For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

”/ (Isaiah 66:23–24, ESV)

!! B. HELL IS A PLACE OF UNRELENTING TORMENT

#. during the intertestimate period—that era from the close of the OT and the beginning of NT times, clearer distinctions were made between the final destinies of the righteous and the unrighteous.

#. the idea of separate divisions within Sheol for the righteous and the unrighteous was developed

#.

we catch a glimpse of this in Luke 16 where two men die

#. one is a poor man named Lazarus—when he dies he is carried by the angels to Abraham’s side

#. the other is a rich man—who, when he dies he wakes up in hades where he is tormented

#. this is one of the strongest indications we have that by the New Testament era Sheol and Hades were seen as eternal abodes for the unrighteous—what we would call Hell

#.

Jesus gives us a much more precise picture of hell in his use of the word Gehenna

#.

Jesus used the word six or seven times and in every instance it is translated as hell