Erasing Hell

Scripture

13Have mercy on me, O Lord! Consider my trouble from those who hate me, You who lift me up from the gates of death, 14That I may tell of all Your praise In the gates of the daughter of Zion. I will rejoice in Your salvation. 15The nations have sunk down in the pit which they made; In the net which they hid, their own foot is caught. 16The Lord is known by the judgment He executes; The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Meditation.  Psalm 9:13-16

Observation

For David it was clear there are two real gates to two real cities in two real kingdoms and he lives in the ever present reality of both Hell and Heaven. It’s not a contradiction for his faith to speak to speak of God as both judge to the wicked and refuge for the righteous in the same breath: “8He shall judge the world in righteousness, And He shall administer judgment for the peoples in uprightness. 9The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, A refuge in times of trouble.” The warning and the hope are both part of the Good News. See John the Baptist sermon for more on this, “His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Mt. 3:12) For some reason we think the “Good News to the people” should not mention Hell.  Yet now, more than ever, we need to understand that the Good News involves “such warnings”.  An extreme example would be:  “Here’s the Good News,  if you pull this red tab when you jump from the plane you will land safely on the ground.  The warning I must give you is that if you don’t pull the red tab you will be broken into a million little pieces when you hit the ground.  Either way the ground is coming at you fast and it’s up to you how you want to meet it.”  This may seem obvious, but far too often the Good News of the 21st Century does not include the warning.  We must make it clear that whether you believe in the power of the red tab or not all of us make a choice on how we will respond.  The question every person should be asking is which gate will I be walking through, which threshing pile will I end up in?  Our eternal residence will be determined by whether or not we repent of our sins or we repeat our sins. You see, Jesus never has sent anyone to Hell. It was created for the Devil and his demons. We can send ourselves there by refusing His salvation.

Application

It’s Tax Day and therefore seems a rather appropriate day to talk about the debt Jesus paid to save us from eternal damnation.  It turns out Hell is a real place and is a real part of telling others about the Good News.  We have had a such pendulum swing from the “hell-fire and brimstone preaching” of old to the “Jesus is your best friend” preaching of late that we pretty much skip right over these passages of Scripture.  Believe me, I get it.  There are some whacked out preachers that enjoy scaring people into Heaven by dangling them over Hell.  Yet, I can’t skip over the warning of Hell taught in scripture or I’m not truly presenting the Good News. Francis Chan writes in his book, “Erasing Hell”, “In my desire to distance myself from sadistic Christians who revel in the idea of wrath and punishment, I may have crossed a line. Refusing to teach a passage of Scripture is just as wrong as abusing it.  I really believe it's time for some of us to stop apologizing for God and start apologizing to Him for being embarrassed by the ways He has chosen to reveal Himself.” Chan goes on to write, “It's incredibly arrogant to pick and choose which incomprehensible truths we embrace. No one wants to ditch God's plan of redemption, even though it doesn't make sense to us. Neither should we erase God's revealed plan of punishment because it doesn't sit well with us. As soon as we do this, we are putting God's actions in submission to our own reasoning, which is a ridiculous thing for the clay to do.”  Luke writes later in his Gospel that Jesus says, Therefore, “be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man” (Lk. 21:36).  Jesus came the first time to save, but He’s coming the second time to judge the world of sin, righteousness and judgment.  As it says in John 16:8-11, let’s allow the conviction of the Holy Spirit to sift and refine us through repentance now, so that when Jesus returns, we are gathered into His barn rather than burning in the “never-ending fire” John the Baptist described.  The Good News about Hell is that we don’t have to go there.  That’s why Jesus came, died, and rose again!  That’s why He sent the Holy Spirit lead us in His ways.

Prayer

I’m pulling the red tab on my parachute.  I’m seeking to live a life that is quick to repent.  I don’t want to wait for the sifting at the end of the age, I want to invite the sifting process of repentance now.  I’ll start by repenting for “playing it safe” when it comes to presenting the whole Gospel.  By pretending the flames of Hell aren’t as hot as they once were I’m not doing anyone any good.  I’ve just finished reading Revelation and the Hell described there is not a place I want anyone to end up in.  Thank You Jesus that I don’t have to share old news or bad news, but Good News that You have came to bring salvation to all who will repent and believe.  Holy Spirit, I invite Your work of conviction in sin, righteousness and judgement so that I will be ready for Christ’s return!