There are a lot of myths in Christendom. There is, for instance, the myth that Joseph was old when he married Mary. That only exists because of two previous myths that 1) Mary was sinless and 2) she was a perpetual virgin. Neither of those exist in Scripture. Nor does Joseph's age. There are a lot of myths around the single topic of Hell. One is that it is Satan's kingdom. Not according to the Bible (Matt 25:41; Rev 20:10). That's the last place he wants to go and, apparently it will be. Another is that Satan and his demons will torment humans there. Not true. They will be tormented along with humans. And, of course, there are other myths about Hell.
Perhaps the most popular myth about Hell is that it doesn't exist. There are those who are just as sure of that as they are that there is no God. There are self-proclaimed Christians that believe that, too. Some are pretty sure that Hell was an invention of the early church. They told stories of blasphemers hanging by their tongues over a lake of fire (from the noncanonical Apocalypse of Peter) and a fiery purgatory and such. They painted those pictures and made up stories like Dante's Inferno. Myth ... pure myth. Of course, there is a problem with that idea. The origin of all that flame and fire was not the early church; it was, in fact, Jesus. You remember Jesus, the friend of sinners? He's the one that gave us descriptions like "furnace of fire" (Matt 13:50), "where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:48), and, "It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire" (Matt 18:9). It was Jesus who gave us the story of Lazarus and the rich man, where the rich man was "tormented in this flame" (Luke 16:24). In fact, Jesus spoke more of Hell than anyone else in Scripture and more than He spoke of Heaven. "But," they assure us, "He would never send anyone there." Well, you might think that, but it was Jesus who told those who claimed to know Him but didn't, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness" (Matt 7:23).
If you think that voice back there comforting you -- "You surely won't be sent to anyplace like that!" -- sounds reliable and safe, remember the words of the serpent in the garden: "You will not surely die!" (Gen 3:4). Sounds the same, doesn't it? It didn't turn out well for Eve then, and "I don't believe in Hell" won't make it go away now. Jesus spoke often of Hell because He often gave the remedy -- "Repent" (Matt 3:2; Matt 4:17; Luke 13:3-5). He is the remedy (John 3:16). But it requires compliance -- repent and believe. So you can believe the myth that there is no Hell with the fair certainty that you'll discover there really is (since it comes from the lips of Jesus), or you can repent and believe and avoid it entirely. Your call.
3 comments:
It is a shame that so many Christians downplay or deny Hell.
...or that a "perfectly just and loving God" would consign anyone to it. Somehow one can be deserving of eternal reward (no one is), yet not be deserving of eternal punishment (everyone is).
It's interesting to me where people seem to get this idea that God is all loving, when they reject the only religion that teaches it. Historically, deities were vengeful and capricious, even Chrisitians today seem to think the image of God in the Old Testament is mean, even though the Old Testament ABOUNDS with His patient love. But people will wholesale deny the validity of Christianity, but steal the one thing they "like" from it, ignoring the history of world religions.
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