Dismiss Hell and You Dismiss Jesus
01/25/10 10:32 AM
“Hell is a real place and real people really do go there.”
I made that statement in yesterday’s message on Jonah 3, emphasizing the fact that God’s forgiveness through Christ is a ‘limited time offer’ – that we do do not have forever to turn to Him.
While I didn’t receive any push back from any of you at CC, I realize that the topic of hell isn’t a very popular doctrine today. In fact, there are a number of places where, if you were to announce ahead of time that you were going to be teaching on the doctrine of hell, you could probably plan to meet in a phone booth. That would provide ample space for the amount of people who would be interested in coming.
But regardless of whether it’s popular or not, the fact remains: Hell is a real place and real people really do go there.
Randy Alcorn tackled the subject in a recent blog post, pointing out that Jesus spoke more about Hell than anyone else in all of Scripture. . . and that if you dismiss hell, then you dismiss Jesus.
Now obviously, the good news is nobody HAS to go!
I’ll never forget the story told about Vice President Calvin Coolidge, when he was presiding over the Senate. After one particularly bitter debate on the floor, one Senator angrily told another to, “Go straight to hell!”
The offended Senator complained to Coolidge as the presiding officer, and Cal looked up from the book he had been leafing through while listening to the debate. “I’ve been looking through the rule book,” he said. “You don’t have to go.”
That’s the absolute truth – nobody has to go. Jesus died in our place on the cross, making peace through His blood, so that we could experience forgiveness. Want to hear it straight from Him? Look here.
Now if you know that, and have experienced that, praise God! But along with being thankful, I hope you’re also intentional. If we Christians truly believe everything the Scriptures teach about hell, then we are we doing about it?
The following clip has been circulating around the web for quite some time, but even if you’ve seen it, it’s worth a second look. Penn Gillette is not a Christian evangelist – far from it. But his words in this clip are haunting: “How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible, and not tell them that?”
I made that statement in yesterday’s message on Jonah 3, emphasizing the fact that God’s forgiveness through Christ is a ‘limited time offer’ – that we do do not have forever to turn to Him.
While I didn’t receive any push back from any of you at CC, I realize that the topic of hell isn’t a very popular doctrine today. In fact, there are a number of places where, if you were to announce ahead of time that you were going to be teaching on the doctrine of hell, you could probably plan to meet in a phone booth. That would provide ample space for the amount of people who would be interested in coming.
But regardless of whether it’s popular or not, the fact remains: Hell is a real place and real people really do go there.
Randy Alcorn tackled the subject in a recent blog post, pointing out that Jesus spoke more about Hell than anyone else in all of Scripture. . . and that if you dismiss hell, then you dismiss Jesus.
Now obviously, the good news is nobody HAS to go!
I’ll never forget the story told about Vice President Calvin Coolidge, when he was presiding over the Senate. After one particularly bitter debate on the floor, one Senator angrily told another to, “Go straight to hell!”
The offended Senator complained to Coolidge as the presiding officer, and Cal looked up from the book he had been leafing through while listening to the debate. “I’ve been looking through the rule book,” he said. “You don’t have to go.”
That’s the absolute truth – nobody has to go. Jesus died in our place on the cross, making peace through His blood, so that we could experience forgiveness. Want to hear it straight from Him? Look here.
Now if you know that, and have experienced that, praise God! But along with being thankful, I hope you’re also intentional. If we Christians truly believe everything the Scriptures teach about hell, then we are we doing about it?
The following clip has been circulating around the web for quite some time, but even if you’ve seen it, it’s worth a second look. Penn Gillette is not a Christian evangelist – far from it. But his words in this clip are haunting: “How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible, and not tell them that?”
