I’m going to start the New Year off with a subject that, in my opinion, has been avoided of late. The subject of Hell. The place, and it is a place, the purpose, the problem, and the person.
When I say, of late, I mean that for the past few years I’ve noticed a Heavenly Gospel, which is good, as there is a Heaven also, but it seems to me that the subject of Hell has been left out of the conversation (sermons) in the last few years.
It is only appropriate to discuss Hell because when we speak of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, His whole reason for coming to Earth was to save humanity from Death and Hell.
So, let’s start with “the place.” It is a place of eternal suffering. When you die, you either go to Heaven or Hell, there is no “in between” or limbo, as is thought in some religions. You live, you die. It seems trite or disrespectful, but it is the truth. Hell is described in the Bible as “a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth…” Among other descriptive words found in scripture, it is a horrible place, separated from the God who created us.
There is a purpose for Hell. It was created by God for the Devil and his angels. As time has no limits with God, before the Man was on Earth, the angels rebelled and Lucifer, God’s favorite angel decided he could be God and was remanded to Hell. That he has some power before the end times is not for me to speculate, however, when the end of the world as we know it happens, and it will happen, the Devil and his followers will be cast “into the Lake of Fire” for eternity.