There is No
Hell
A part of The Fate of
the Unbeliever
by Pastor Mike Stine
Intro
Second Chance
No Hell
Annihilation
Heaven for All
Eternal Torment
Many do not
believe in life after death, whether it is heaven or hell.
These are often the same people who deny the
existence of God. However,
the doctrine has found its way into some churches.
British philosopher Bertrand Russell was a champion
of this view. He
was an agnostic, not a Christian.
He
writes about Christ and his position on hell: “I really do not think that a person with a proper degree of kindliness
in his nature would have put fears and terrors of that sort
into the world.” He
later speaks of the cruelty of teaching about hell and
disregards its existence basically because a loving God
wouldn’t have created hell.
There
are many who regard hell as story, or something told to kids
to scare them into acting properly, much like “Be good or
Santa Clause won’t bring you any gifts.”
Some
Christians disregard hell as being unreal because its images
are too horrific. Any
reference to hell must simply be a metaphor for something
else.
To
ignore the existence of hell, for whatever reason, requires
a person to ignore numerous verses concerning hell and its
nature or depiction. To
begin to pick and choose verses from the Bible and throw out
ones a person doesn’t like is extremely dangerous.
Assuming
a literal interpretation of the Bible, there is much to be
said about hell. Even
if one takes an extremely metaphorical view of these
passages, they are still left with the issue.
They can disbelieve the depictions of hell, but it is
still spoken as a real place – just as real as heaven is.
To take heaven as literal and hell as figurative
would be quite foolish.
Here
are some of the Biblical references to hell:
Matthew
5:22
“But anyone who
says ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of
hell.”
Matthew
16:18
“And I tell you
that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”
Revelation
1:18
“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.”
And
the book of Isaiah ends with this unsettling verse- 66:24
“And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of
those who rebelled against me; their worm will not die, nor
will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to
all mankind.”
For
those non-Christians who deny the existence of an afterlife,
they only are lying to themselves.
Ecclesiastes
3:11
says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.
He has set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they
cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
Eternity is in our hearts; anyone who denies its
existence denies their hearts.
Next Section -
Hell is Annihilation
To top of
page |
