First Baptist Church: Sermon

by Pastor Glenn Layne

February 16, 2003
(Daniel 12:2)

Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.

Eternity Makes All the Difference: Part 2
The Great Denial: Hell

Two Resurrections

Many suppose that if there is indeed life after death that it is somehow less real than this life. The afterlife, they reason, is only a shadow of this life. Like Dickens' A Christmas Carol-or the movie Ghost-the evil may be consigned to be spirits walking among us, atoning for the misdeeds of life. On the other hand, the good rise to become like Clarence in It's a Wonderful Life: a kindly angel working his way to earn his wings.

What is often lost in these fictional notions of life after this life is the insistence of God's word that eternal life will be in a very real sense realer, truer, and stronger than this life. This is the realm of shadows, not heaven and not hell. This is the life that gently whispers of another realm.

Part of that is the Bible's insistence that all human beings will be resurrected from the dead-that all persons will experience the reunion of body and spirit. We see it here taught for the very first time in the Bible, in the Old Testament book of Daniel 12:2:

Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.

The multitudes-the billions of people who have ever lived (and over half of all the people who have ever lived are alive today!) whose bodies are either buried or ashes scattered or lost at sea or whatever, will "awake." For some people it will be a good morning:
"some to everlasting life"; for other a terrible, horrible morning: "others to shame and everlasting contempt."

It is a certainty: all will rise. Jesus says the same thing in John 5:28-29:

28"Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his [that is, Jesus' own] voice 29and come out--those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned."

This is guaranteed: all will be resurrected. But that's not necessarily good news.

By the way, who speaks more about the dark side of eternity-of hell-than anyone else does? Moses? Jeremiah? Maybe Paul-people seem to think he was always in a bad mood. Nope. Jesus speaks more about hell than anyone else does. The one who comes from eternity is the definitive eternity expert of the Bible.

Yes, all are raised, but then there occurs what C.S. Lewis called (in a book of the same title) The Great Divorce. That which is attached to God and His ways is swept up in glory; that which is of the world, that person that neglects or rejects God is swept out of His presence, and that exclusion we call hell.

There are actually a number of terms used to describe the dwelling of the dead without God-now and in the future.

Sheol (Hebrew): the grave, the realm of the dead

The first is the Hebrew word from the Old Testament, Sheol. The basic meaning of the word is simply the grave. In that sense, all persons, when they die, enter Sheol. As time went on, Sheol became the generic term for the realm of life after death-like the English word "afterlife."

But as God's revelation expanded, Sheol was seen as too dismal a term to describe the joy of being "in the house of the Lord forever." Increasingly, in the later portions of the Old Testament, Sheol is the realm of the evil dead.

Hades (Greek): a kind of holding cell of the unrighteous until the resurrection (Rev. 20:13; Rev. 1:18, Matthew 16:18. Often used in the same way as Sheol).

The NT Greek word that's closest to Sheol is Hades. But now, in the NT, Hades always, always, has a negative connotation. At best it means death; at the worst, it is described as a kind of temporary holding cell for the unrighteous dead. In Revelation 20:13, we are told that at the end of this age,

The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.

So Hades is temporary; it's not the final destination of the lost.

Rev. 1:18 tells us that Jesus, not the devil, holds the keys of Hades:

I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

It's a great myth that Satan is the ruler of Hades (or Hell). Jesus is the Ruler of all. That leads us to the least common word that's sometimes translated "hell": Tartarus.

Tartarus (Greek): the prison of the evil angels (2 Peter 2:4)

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell [Tartarus], putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment…

This word, used only a few times in the NT, always describes the terrible spiritual prison-like state of fallen angels.

Gehenna (Greek, but derived from Hebrew) (Matthew 10:28)

Finally, there's Gehenna. This is a Greek word, but it's derived from Hebrew. As a matter of fact, it has a very odd history. It comes from the Hebrew words meaning "The Valley of Hinnom." That's the steep little valley on the south side of the city of Jerusalem. It's a place long associated with evil things-at times child sacrifices were made there. In the book of Jeremiah, it's the place of divine judgement.

In Jesus' day, this valley was a smoky, smoldering garbage dump. Much of the imagery of hell is derived from the idea of a festering garbage dump. It's an earthly approximation of spiritual reality of a soul eternally apart from God. In Matthew 10:28, Jesus warns:

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

The great denial:

Tracking attitudes about heaven and hell is interesting. According to a 1995 survey:
USA: 86% believe in heaven, 71% in hell
Germany: 19%, 7%
UK: 54%, 29%
Ireland: 87%, 53%
Israel: 43%, 39% (1995 statistics)

Consistently, more people believe in heaven than hell. Another survey (here in the US) went on to ask people, "And where do you think you'll end up?" Only 7% thought they were candidates for hell.

There is a great denial about hell in popular opinion, then. Lots of folks don't believe in it, and only a tiny portion of people worry about ending up there.

But God's word says a large portion of humankind will indeed be in hell forever. God also has a great denial. Jesus says that at the judgement, many, upon being told they have no place in heaven will weakly protest-to no avail. God gives them the great denial-denial of entry into the presence of a holy God.

In Matthew 25:41, Jesus says:

"Then he will say to those on his left, `Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels."

What is hell like?

Let's get a picture of what hell is like. It's not a pleasant subject, but it would be unfaithful to God to turn away from the plain teaching of God's word because the subject is unpleasant or unpopular. I see eight undeniable characteristics of hell:

1. A place of pain (Matthew 13:49-50; Revelation 20:15)

Matthew 13:49-50

49This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Rev. 20:15

If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

The pain of fire is one we can all relate to. Are the flames of hell literal? No, because fire is of this world, and produces light. Hell, as we'll see, is a place of darkness. In truth, the pains of hell are worse than anything a flame can do here. It is the pain of absolute separation from God.

2. A place of weeping (Luke 13:28)

28"There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out."

3. A place of wailing (Matthew 13:42)

"They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

A different word for weeping is used here-from a simply cry to crying out in agony.

4. A place of gnashing of teeth (Luke 13:28)

"There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out."

In the Bible, gnashing of teeth denotes anger as well as pain or remorse.

Get rid of all notions of people simply being uncomfortable in hell. One thing I've heard people say is "Sure I'll go to hell, but all my buddies will be there too. We'll play poker on the coals." Yes, but you won't see them. It's utterly dark. You'd be seized with nothing but anguish and sorry and anger. You are racked with pain. It is hell, after all.

5. A place of darkness (Matthew 8:12)

"But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Did I say it was dark? Ever go on a cave tour, and have the guide turn off the light so you can experience true darkness? Well, it's darker than that.

6. A place without surfaces (a "bottomless pit") Revelation 20:1-2

1And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. 2He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.

An "abyss" is a bottomless pit. Hell is an abyss. Let put all these elements so far together and get a feel for the place:

You are utterly alone. Your resurrection body is racked with pain so you cry out-sometimes with a whimper, sometimes with a full- bodied wail of pain. You are angry-at yourself? At God? At that co-worker you never shared God's love with you?

In addition, you are confused. There is no sense of up and down-no sense of place, because your resurrection body is in an eternal free fall. Your sense of isolation is magnified by the darkness. You cry out and never hear another voice. You can feel no ground or floor beneath you, no wall, nothing except this ceaseless, searing pain. This is hell.

7. A place of regrets-too late (Luke 16:22-24)

22"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In hell [Hades], where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24So he called to him, `Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'

Now this is just in "Hades", the holding cell for the dead without God. This is before the resurrection of the body. But the rich man already regrets his situation. How much more will hell be an eternity of regret.

Why then bother to raise the dead-all the dead, as Daniel tells us, as Jesus tells us? I am convinced that one of the functions of that judgement is to show conclusively that God's judgements are right and true. Strange as it sounds, I am convinced that every person in hell will be convinced that God's judgement was correct and that they are exactly where they deserve to be. I am convinced that no one will be dragged away from God's throne yelling, "It's not fair! I appeal to a higher court!"

8. A place of unending torment (Revelation 14:11)

"And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name."

Finally, hell goes on forever. Some in recent years have revived the teaching that hell is temporary, leading to the destruction of the soul. I have carefully examined this teaching, and have to reject it on Biblical and theological grounds. Hell and heaven are often paired as destinies in the Bible-and are parallel in their eternity. Hell never ends.

Is God just in sending people to hell?

But is it right? Is God right to do such a thing-to send people to such a place? Does that mean that God is some kind of sick sadist, like a kid who burns ants with a magnifying glass on a cosmic scale?

Let's get this straight. God may carry out the judgement, but in a real sense we send ourselves to hell. When I was a graduate assistance at Ohio University, I had a class (Issue in State and Local Government, as I recall) where one student came up to me and asked me how he was doing. I checked the records and had to tell him that his F was so low, he'd have to get 110% of the answers on the final right just to pass-that in plain terms, he'd already flunked. It was tough, because I really like the kid. "You'd give me an F?" he asked. "No," I answered. "I won't give you an F; you earned it all by yourself!" And so, don't blame God for hell; we send ourselves there-all by ourselves!

I am confident that God does what's right. In Genesis 18:25, Abraham asks the rhetorical question, "Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Of course he will.

The questions remaining for us are:

How seriously do we take sin? Hell makes perfect sense if you take to heart the Bible's teaching on holiness-the holiness of God, and the holiness needed to be in His presence.

How seriously do we take eternity? Again, are we so wrapped up in the right now that we can't see this? Christian people, listen: you have friends that just won't have happy lives and marriages and just won't be kind of maladjusted through life. They are cut off from God's holiness and are hell-bound.

The good news about hell…

But there is good news about hell. No one you know-yourself included-has to go there. For God so love the world that He gave His One and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish (that is, end up in hell), but have eternal life. Jesus is the Rescuer. He took your portion of hell on the cross so you-and your friends-don't have to take it at all!

But you must believe in Him. Not believe "about" Him-but in Him as your only spiritual hope-the only way to be made right with God-to get His holiness as a gift-and thus know that you'll be with Him forever-not apart from Him in the blackness of hell.

That's a message to grab on to-and to share-isn't it?