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OH, HELL!

OR

FOREVER IS A  LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG,

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG

TIME TO BURN  !!!

by John Roy Bohlen & John 5:30

FOREVER IS A LOOOOOOONG, LOOOOOONG TIME TO BURN!

A  LOVING  RESPONSE

This morning, in my reading through the Bible, I read from Leviticus 24, in which a man is executed for cursing Yahweh in anger.   The record would indicate that, though the man was executed by his peers, that his death sentence was given by God.  Seems rather strong don't you think?  I think so.  I also think that Ananias and Sister Saffy were also treated a little roughly, and “if I were God”, I would have cut Moses some slack, when he struck the rock.  I would have given Lot's wife a second chance, and those who offered strange fire and the man who touched the ark in the middle of the glory time.  But, I am not God. 

AN INTERESTING OBSERVATION

It is interesting to me, that the most vile and hateful letters have come to me from people who want Hell to not be so hot, yet the most loving people I know believe that Hell lasts for a long, long time.

These loving ones, are working to do their best to stop people from going there.  The Hell ain’t hot camp are doing nothing to keep people from going there.  Yet a major accusation from these “Ultimate Wreck” crowd is that those who believe in hell are cruel and sadistically gleeful about Hell’s heat.

If I were God, I would save everyone.  Before this is over you will probably accuse me in your mind's eye of gleefully contemplating the idea of Hell.  But, to set the record straight, I believe that Hell hurts, and I do not want you or anyone else to hurt.  Not Ananias, not Saffy, nor anyone.  I am 66 years old now, and the older I get, the more compassionate I become about killing even little bugs.  I found in my bath tub, here on the farm, a spider and a grand-daddy longlegs.  So, (this story has a happy ending), I gently took some toilet tissue, wrapped the spider in one section and the grand daddy in the other, and gently put them outside, where they lived happily ever after.  The above story is true.  Yet I must confess that I still swat mosquitoes, if they are going to raise angry welts on my wife.  I may not say “to Hell with them”, but, swat them, I will.  Most people who do not believe that God would not send people to Hell, have not read the Old Testament to any extent, or they would see God as He is, as One Who punishes people, Old Testament and New Testament, and as One Who punishes people severely.

I want to assure you that I have really really looked at many arguments in favour of things like: “doing away with Hell”,  “lessening the temperature of Hell”, and of “shortening the time of Hell”.  And, I must say, the idea of turning down the heat, and of cutting loose the inhabitants thereof “on good behavior” sounds very appealing.  I want to also assure you that I wish no ill for you, and that, even if my time were entirely wasted in writing this, that I still love you and that I still respect you, (even if that love and respect were to make no difference to you, or to God).

I tell people that if Hell were an unavoidable prospect even for them, that they should still serve and love God with a fervent intensity, simply because He deserves our love and service.  You will agree with me that too many serve Him for the good they can receive and the bad they can avoid, but it makes no difference to me, because God has long since brought me to the place where my motivation for serving and loving Him is for love's dear sake alone, and, of course, because He is worthy.  I do not serve God to avoid Hell, but because God is worthy.  Yet, Hell is real, and must be avoided at all costs.

Back to Leviticus 24:  Just suppose that I disagree with God in His verdict, His decision about Ananias, the people I mentioned that I would do differently, and nearly a zillion other examples of human fly-swatting that God so obviously did. Tell me: will my disagreement with God about these zillion things change even one thing in a zillion? ?

About the validity of the King James:  I am presently reading through a Bible called “The Word: The Bible in 26 Translations”.  This Bible actually draws from 38 translations!  I have carefully read through all of the New Testament, and now, I have carefully completed the Old.  In addition to these 38 translations, I have read through, or in, a considerable number of others.  Tell me, are they all wrong???  Hasn't God been great enough or loving enough to present me with even ONE half-way reliable record???

Well, suppose He has - now I have in my hand a translation I can trust - But let me ask you a question, a loving question, - Here's the question: 

Suppose that I run across something in this new but reliable translation with which I disagree?  Suppose I run across a situation that I believe shows God in a bad light, from my perspective.   Suppose God does something with which I disagree.  Either I think that God should have been more mean, or maybe I think that He should have been less mean.

Tell me, and I ask this in love - Am I going to change the mind of God, or the meaning of the Scriptures by my disagreement???   By having a nervous, or emotional, or spiritual breakdown, can I use this as leverage to change God's mind or the true meaning of Scripture???   I have been angry with God before, many times, and disappointed - but I never once changed God's thinking or the meaning of Scripture by my petulance, my humanistic reasoning or my disagreement.

I once heard David Hulse say that “Hell exists because we THINK it does”!!!  “Sin exists because we think it does”!!!  If  this christian science stuff is true, then Hell exists - because I think it does.  If some one shows me or tells me of a phony translation that has changed their bible to say that “Hell does not exist, and it is not hot, and, besides, it does not last very long!  So there.”  does this mean that Hell no longer exists?

If a humanist, or a devil-inspired human being comes along and tells me that God is a loser, is not very powerful, not very loving if He sends or allows people to go to Hell for very long, does this somehow magically turn down the thermostat or reduce the time required for purgatory???

Let me propose an old idea:  Let's spend as much money as possible to get as many people as possible to think and vote as hard as possible, and if we can spend enough long enough to get people to wish enough - that this will somehow make Hell disappear, or not last as long or not be as hot.  If we can get enough people to go on strike, or backslide, or breakdown, or feel sad - that this will somehow magically reduce Hell's length or Hell's temperature or Hell's reality?

Does it come down to this: that if one person believes that, there is a personal devil and hell, that he would thereby invent the “old order christian idea of Hell”, simply by believing it is so???

If I were the devil, I would try to convince people that Hell is not hot, that Hell does not exist, that Hell does not last very long.

I notice a basic inconsistency in the “Hell ain’t hot” camp.  They like to mess around with the word “eternal” and make it “age abiding” or temporary, for Hell, but leave it as eternal for the idea of heaven.  Convenient, but Hellish.  (Heaven exists, by the way, because I wish it to be so, and I wish to go there, so I will!!  I wish it to last a long time, so it will!  Is this true?)  This self interpretation of Scripture to their own convenience is common among this “wish-it-weren’t-so-hot” group.  Scripture twisting for convenience is a common characteristic of heretics.

The most militant anti-hell person I know used to be a lovely, loving born-again, Spirit-filled pastor.  He prayed for years for his father to be saved.  He watched his father get old and sick and then pass out into a Christ-less eternity.  He could not bear the thought of his dear old dad, hurting and contorting and screaming and burning in Hell.  So, to take some of the heat and pain away from his father, he tried to turn down Hell’s thermostat, by twisting and “re-interpreting” the Bible, and trying to shorten the length of time his father would have to spend in Hell.  At first he was able to ease his mind, by trying to persuade himself and others that Hell would not last very long.  The next step for this pastor was to become angry with a God and a Bible and a religion that would allow his dad to go to hell in the first place.  Today, this ex-pastor is a militant enemy of Christ and Christians.

Another acquaintance of ours had a nervous break-down over the thought of Hell’s heat.  The only way he could get peace of mind was to talk himself and others into believing that Hell really isn’t all that bad, does not last all that long, is not really that real, does not hurt all that much.  Simply by wishing, he thought he could help.  If someone is in danger of dying in a house fire, the way to really help them is by rescuing them from the fire, not in hypnotizing himself or in telling the victim to believe that the fire is really not that hot or does not really hurt that much, or really does not do that much damage - - - .