by William W. Orr, A.B., M.A., Th.B., D.D.. Pastor and Teacher.
From the beginning of time, the devil's diabolical strategy has been to cause men either to deny the existence of hell entirely or to minimize its horrors. His success in propagating these lies is only too apparent. Some individuals have a strong subconscious feeling that hell is really not too bad. Others facetiously declare that there will be plenty of company there, believing that the same type of friends with whom one associated on earth will be with him in the life beyond. Many deceive themselves and imagine that hell will be only temporary or purgative. Others rely upon complete annihilation. The Bible negates all of these philosophies.
The Scriptures planly teach the absolute certainty of hell at the end of a Christless life. Along with the affirmation of never-ending bliss for the Christian are the corresponding warning of never-ending torment for the unsaved (Mark 9:42-48; Rev. 20:11-15).
Hell was never made for the sons of men but rather for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41). Its tortures were designed for his evil creature who led in a rebellion against the almighty God and who has been mainly respionsibile for the floods of sin and unrighteousness which have brought sorrow, crime, heartaches, and death to the entire world.
The idea that there is to be a "warm" fellowship of sinner in hell has no Biblical basis whatsoever. As far as we can comprehend God's Word, the sentence is to solitary confinement. The only companion of the occupant of hell will be the sinner's memory. He will continuously remember that he never needed to come to that place of torment, that God gave him countless opportunities to escape this torture through faith in Christ.
The purgatory ideas was borrowed from pagan literature. To the heathen sin was real, conceived as being against God. They know no way to rid themselves of sin in order to enjoy the bliss of heaven. Seeking to end this unresolved problem, men rejected the revelation of God and worked out their eternal destiny on a merit and punishment basis. But the Bible also flatly desires this idea (Rom. 3:19, 20).
No one receives a second opportunity to be saved (Heb. 9:27). Annihilation, cessation of being and personality, appears to be a likely answer to an unbeliever, but this also is a false hope. There is no answer at all but suffering in hell, and that is unspeakable, horrible, and beyond the imagination of man.
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