Hell: Part 2

Welcome, Recap, Prayer, Intro

Welcome- Good Morning Church! It is good to be back with you this morning! How is everyone doing this morning? I am excited to continue our mini series on Hell! I don’t think anyones been this excited about hell in a long time!

Recap- We began this series 3 weeks ago we began this journey together by looking at Genesis. Does anyone remember what We learned?

God made everything Good (What did He made man out of?) Spirit and Dirt

Adam and Eve had a choice in the garden to live by God’s definition of Good and Evil or choose their own way

Adam and Eve chose to define G+E on their terms. Sin entered in causing brokenness in relationship and separation. Left the garden and cut off from the tree of life.

Prayer: Heavanly Father as we gather in the name of Christ, may the same Spirit that brought life to this world be in our midst. God as we learn and grow together today may you give us wisdom. May we renew our minds and hearts this morning!

Introduction:

This morning we are going to talk about Hell. We are going to talk about Hell as a literal and real place. Throughout the Bible and Jesus’ teaching their are many images and metaphors used to describe Hell. (note on images and metaphors).

Now I must admit I have always hated talking about Hell for several reasons.

My own decision to follow Jesus had nothing to do with where I was going after I died. Literally, when I decided to follow Jesus it was to find rescue in this life not the next. Unfortunately, this has not been the case for many Christians today.

Second reason I have hated talking about hell is most Christians I grew up with seemed obsessed with Heaven and Hell. Frankly, if we are honest with ourselves Hell is uncomfortable topic with images and concepts that are downright disturbing. Without a doubt we all have seen a image, painting, or movie depicting hell that was terrifying.

Third, Hell has been used to terrify and manipulate the emotions of millions into converting to a religion centered around avoiding Hell and Punishment instead of faith centered around Jesus. Maybe you share some of these feelings.

I have studied this topic for several weeks now and I can say with confidence that I rather enjoy talking about it. My hope is that we will be able to leave today with a better biblical understanding and at least begin engage in conversation with others about Hell. Today we are going to enter into conversation about Hell and see how the bible is truly a living document with plenty of discussion, imagery, and metaphor on this topic. This morning I want each of us to be students of the Word. I want everyone to take notes write down questions, ask questions (stop me if you need to), use your bibles! Lean in as we learn together!!!!

Hell: Three Major Perspectives

Background: Everyone on the same page

Biblical Picture of How every human goes through life

Life

Death - Judgement either immediately or later.

Final Judgement (the day God sets things right!) Judgement is necessary in the 20th century more humans killed other humans than ever before.

Life after Judgment- Eternity- this is where we will focus.

Key Terms we have to understand (Slides)

Sheol - Hebrew word for the grave, the place for the dead, all go here

Gehenna- the burning trash heap outside of Jerusalem, aka Ge Hinnom (Hebrew name for valley)

Hades: greek word for underworld, (Greek God of underworld)

Transition: Today we are going to look at 3 Major views of Life after the Final Judgement

Traditionalist View (Eternal Conscious Torment)

Main Idea: This is the traditional view of hell that is held by most protestant Christians today. It is the view that after the final judgement the wicked will be cast into a place of eternal punishment and suffering.

Key Word: Punishment - That is the word we will see in verses that describe Hell. In this view, Hell is an eternal life of Loss. Justice is retributive.

Key Verses:

Matthew 25:41-44- (slide) The key thing that traditionalists note here is that the wicked, will go to “unending fire” and “eternal punishment”. The righteous will go to “eternal life”.

Daniel 12:2 - (slide) Key words used here are “eternal life” and eternal disgrace- but disgrace is not defined here

Isa 66:24- (slide) - here we see an image of bodies with worms and fire that never die - the ECT view would say that those two things point to eternal punishment.

Rev 14:9-11- (Slide)- “They will be tormented with burning sulfur, the smoke of their painful suffering goes up forever and there is no rest day or night” Here you have one of the clearest images of the eternal suffering of those who worship the beast.

Rev 20:10, 14-15 (slide) - “first you have the beast and the false prophet that are thrown into the lake of fire and “there painful suffering will be inflicted on them day and night forever”

This is not meant to be a exhaustive list but a list of verses Traditionalists use to support Hell as Eternal Concious Torment.

Questions: People who struggle with this view ask the following questions/concerns

How could a Good and Loving God allow or event torture people forever?

Concern: This view assumes inherent immortality of the soul it views the soul as a rock that cannot be destroyed, however the bible tells us otherwise,

Only God is Immortal 1 Tim 6:16

When we read Genesis- the tree of Life kept adam and eve immortal

In revelation: the tree of Life is also their in chapter 21- once again offering eternal life.

(Pause Here) Do we have any questions about this view or anything that needs clarified?

Conditionalist/ Annihilationalist View

Main Idea: The wicked will be judged and will be punished, but the punishment is brief and all consuming.

For them our soul is like paper, once cast into the fire it goes poof!

They believe in conditional immortality that without God’s sustaining life the wicked will simply be annihilated. In other words, Hell is an eternal loss of life or utter death.

Key word: Perish, not punish.

Key Verses:

John 3:16 (slide)- “notice how it says , “perish” not punish eternally, the alternative to eternal life here is perish, which means what? according to dictionary means suffering death

Romans 6:23 (Slide) - For the wages of sin is death- the conditionalists argue, what if death here means death? what if death doesnt mean eternal living suffering, but eternal death.

In the OT, the most frequent consequence for the wicked is complete and utter destruction there are over 50 different descriptions of the destruction of the wicked in the OT.

Isa 1:28 - Isa talks about sinners and the wicked perishing. Dying not eternally suffering

Matthew 10:28- Jesus is saying be afraid of God who can completely destroy you. The conditionalists would say here, “What if destroy actually meant destroy?” (

destroy means to completely obliterate something)

1 John 5:12- pretty self explainitory- no Jesus, no life. These words are really final.

To not have life is be dead. What made adam alive was God in Gen 3

Rev 20:11-15 - Here we see the lake of fire that we saw the beast and false prophets thrown into- then those that dont have eternal life are thrown in here and it is called what? second death. The conditonalists, “what if second death was simply that!”

The second death would be final afterter resurection and judgement there is not a third chance at life.

Questions and Concerns:

Many hear this view and object, “Thats not what I learned when I grew up or that doesnt line up with what the historic view of the church,

in fact there is plenty of evidence of early century Christians that believed this!

Further, what if what we have been taught about hell comes more from pop culture and other culture than the bible?

The idea of the human soul being imortal does not come from the church or bible, but Plato’s thoughts on the soul.

Another big objection and one I had myself, “What about Justice or what will motivate people to follow Jesus?

To both I say, if your view of Justice depends on the eternal torment of others maybe its you that has to rethink justice and if hell is your reasoning for people to follow Jesus, we have the wrong motivation.

(Pause Here) Do we have any questions about this view or anything that needs clarified?

Restorationist/Universalist View

Main Point: God desires that all would be saved and that none would perish (2 Peter 3:9) God has the power to save everyone, so one day he will.

Variations of this view include: Those that did not have a chance to be introduced to Jesus or were introduced to a false version of the Christ (Bad theology or practice) will come face to face with God and experience the fullness of His love. At that point, they will have the same choice as adam and Eve: to remain in that love or recject it.

Key Word: Hell Purifies- The fires of hell, burn off all the sin and wickedness and purifies us.

Key Verses: Biblical support for this is not as strong as the other views, its still there.

Isa 45:22-23- “all you ends of the earth”

John 6:51- “cite the life of the world refers to the whole world”

Jn 12:32- “Jesus will draw everyone to himself”

Phil 2:9-11- “at the name of Jesus” - everyone will confess- if you look at the greek the word for at is actually EN which is almost always translated in. So it would be in the name of Jesus, - Paul tells us that, whoever is in Christ and confesses him as Lord will be saved. Universalists argue, “This is not a picture of Jesus’ name declared and people in Hell be forced to their knees and grunt that he is Lord.

Questions/Objections

Opponents of this view have asked, “what about the role of love and choice?” if God will save everyone it isnt a choice to follow Him.

Again this view has the least, Biblical support, but is still considered within the realm of orthodox.

(Pause Here) Do we have any questions about this view or anything that needs clarified?

At this point: if we dont have any further questions, I want you to go home write them down and email them or call me later this week with them and I will spend some time addressing questions next week as we wrap up!

if you dont have questions you werent listening too well.

What do we do with all of this? Why do these views matter?

This gives us different perspectives within Christian thoughts to consider when it comes to hell.

Hope: maybe Justice wont be an eternal cycle of power domination, where one being dominates another and causes suffering

Freedom: to grow in what it means to actually follow Jesus instead of focusing on fearing consequences.

Why isnt the Bible clear on the issue? Why doesnt Jesus just settle it?

In John 21, Jesus tells peter how he will die, and peter says , What about John? Jesus responds, follow me.

In the parable of the wheat and weeds, Jesus teaches its not for us to sort out who will go where, but He will do that.

In these views there is space for constructive conversation with non-believers and atheists. We will address more on that when we wrap up next week.

Benediction:

The Lord bless you, and [a]keep you;

25 The Lord cause His face to shine on you, And be gracious to you;

26 The Lord lift up His face to you, And give you peace.’