Chapter Eight

Hell

FLIGHT Twenty-one was late from Indianapolis on its way to Chicago. Anxiously peering out the window from time to time to see what progress we were making, I suddenly realized that we were nearing Gary. Suddenly the overcast sky seemed to be illuminated by a thousand fires. It seemed as if the earth was spouting forth huge flames many feet into the air.

   The man sitting next to me smiled and said, "It looks like hell, doesn't it?" Without thinking, I hastily agreed. Later, fixed very comfortably in the corner of a limousine on its way from the airport to the Chicago Loop, I began to think about the recent incident. What is the nature of hell? Is hell a myth or a fantasy? Did it originate in the imagination of the ancients? Must it haunt us through life with a dread fear of death and its consequences?

   These and a thousand other questions concerning the future dwelling place of the soul are frequent and natural inquiries among young people. In my travels I have met hundreds of young people with these same questions — even Christian young people!

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   In our recent British campaigns, Cliff Barrows and I were in the city of Reading, England. I was about half-way through my sermon to the capacity crowd of young people when suddenly a man stood in the rear and shouted at the top of his lungs, "I protest. This man is preaching heresy to our young people." I suddenly realized that I had casually mentioned eternal punishment in the course of my address.

   While a student at Wheaton College I was privileged to serve as pastor of the Wheaton Gospel Tabernacle, attended largely by students and faculty. Some of the zealous students on the campus had been trying to win to Christ some of the unbelieving servicemen stationed in that area for specialized training during the war. It seemed as if we were against a brick wall, as only a few responded to our methods of approach. One day the co-captain of the football team said to me excitedly that twenty of the servicemen had promised to attend my church next Sunday if would preach on the subject of hell. Quickly I agreed, and with the help of Dr. Howard Cleveland, Wheaton's professor of theology, I prepared an address. With curious expressions on their faces and neglect in their hearts, eighteen of those fellows filed in on Sunday night. When the appeal was made, eight responded to receive Christ as personal Saviour.

   Some time ago it was my privilege to preach in a very large and "important" church. In the morning service I preached on the miracles of Christ. Everyone seemed to be thrilled and many spoke kindly. Being led of the Spirit, I presented a message on eternal punishment in the evening service. After the message the people filed out and no one present ventured to shake my hand. The pastor came to me later and said that I had preached on the most unpopular subject that a person could preach on in his church and that I would probably never be invited back again.

   During the course of a great city-wide campaign in Manchester, England,

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I presented this message again. One of the leaders came to see me and said, "This is the first time I have heard a message on this subject since R.A. Torrey was here years ago." He said, "I don't think you made too many friends because you preached it."

   Most people like to hear about the love of God and glories of heaven, but there is no sermon subject more unpopular for a young preacher than the subject of eternal punishment. There is no subject that will cause more controversy, misunderstanding and debate than this topic. However, if we are true to the Word of God, we must deal in some way with this subject. It has a prominent part in Scripture. The Bible says more about hell than about heaven. Because truth is unpopular does not mean that it should not be proclaimed.

   Since there are many questions in the minds of young people wherever I go, I find it necessary to deal continually with this subject in the light of Scripture.

   Daniel must have had similar difficulties when he said, "O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?" (Daniel 12:8). What is the end, the final testing, of the individual? Does he end at death, or does he enter into another state of being? Under what conditions of happiness or woe does he exist there? What is the end, the final aim, of the great whole?

   Certainly we cannot tell young people not to ask these questions. They will ask them and they must ask them! I find, in conversations with young people, that they are seeking reality and are examining eagerly every scrap of fact or trace of evidence which indicates an answer. They try from the experiences of the past and the knowledge of the present to deduce what the future will be. They peer as far as they can into the unseen, and when knowledge fails, they weave pictures from their hopes. The truth concerning hell is probably the hardest of all the teachings of Christianity for youth to receive. If we ask

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the reason, we receive various answers. Some tell us that to hear about hell makes them feel guilty and that their consciences tell them that unless they repent and return to God, awful doom awaits them. I have had people tell me, "You should never mention hell to young people because it strikes horror to their hearts!"

   A young university student in Newcastle, England, told me that teaching concerning hell was repulsive to him. A young woman in Belfast, Ireland, said that future anguish seemed incompatible with the fatherly love of God.

   Many seminaries are teaching young ministerial aspirants to avoid this controversial subject. They are also teaching young students that fear is not a legitimate motive to use in winning men to Christ. Yet we cannot avoid a question that is in the minds of thousand of people and plays a prominent part in the Word of God. There must be no cowardliness in proclaiming the doctrine of future retribution, however awful its presentation may be.

I. OBJECTIONS

   There are three primary teachings concerning the doctrine of hell that are finding widespread acceptance among university and college young people today.

   A. Universalism

      This teaching finds its modern exponents in such men as Dr. Samuel Cox. They summarize their view in a sentence: "Through the power of redemption there will result the general restoration of all human souls."

   Perhaps Tennyson had this in mind when he said, "The wish that of the living whole no life may fail beyond the grave." This view is held by the author of the Concordant Version, whose very purpose was to propagate this view of eternal punishment. This theory is pure speculation and has absolutely no scriptural background. In other words, they say that sometime, somewhere, everyone will

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be saved. They maintain that Dillinger, Hitler and Mussolini will go to the same place as Wesley and Moody. Cox and his followers believe that the word "eternal" or "everlasting" does not mean "forever." However, the same word which speaks of eternal punishment is used also in describing the length of reward to those in Christ.

   Dr. William Evans says, "Fairness demands that we make the joy of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked both qualify as they are the same Greek word, are the same duration."

   Eternal punishment will last as long as the joy of the righteous. Further, the Scriptures present the punishment of the wicked not only as eternal but, as the Revised Version puts it, "unto the ages of the ages." Here is the picture of ages tumbling upon ages in eternal succession: "And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever" (Rev. 19:3). "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever" (Rev. 20:10). "And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name" (Rev. 14:11).

   B. Annihilation

       Russellism, Millennial-Dawnism, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Watch Tower and Tract Society (their name changes so often that I am not sure what the latest is!) maintain that the wicked shall be absolutely destroyed and put out of existence at death. In other words, the moment you die, you cease to exist. Stress is laid upon passages dealing with destruction and consuming fire: "The text most strongly urged as teaching the annihilation theory if rightly interpreted will be seen to refer to the removal of the earth and not to future retribution" (Evans).

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   For example, those who teach annihilation quote as a supporting text Psalm 37:20: "But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away." This Psalm was written for the encouragement of Israel and against her enemies and their power on the earth. This earthly power shall be utterly destroyed and shall be of no more account than the smoke of a burnt sacrifice. The great truth taught in this verse is that the earth is the habitation of the saint and that the wicked shall have no part in it. Yet our friends who advocate annihilation blindly take texts out of their context and build entire philosophies and doctrines around them. Many young people untaught in the Word are led astray by these zealous but blind missionaries of heresy.

   C. Future Probation

      In my early teens I listened frequently to sermons on this subject. Once I heard a prominent preacher say that after several thousands of years of suffering the wicked would have a second opportunity for salvation. This sounded good to me. I could live as I liked here and if I rejected salvation I would still have another chance! But as I study the Word of God carefully I do not find one verse of Scripture that even hints or indicates that there will be a second chance after death. God's Word strongly declares, "Now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation." The Bible indicates that the moment your heart stops ticking and your last breath has gone, your last opportunity of salvation has gone also.

II. THE CERTAINTY OF PUNISHMENT

   A. The Bible says so.

      "I am tormented in this flame" (Luke 16:24). "Whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire" (Matthew 5:22).

   "The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they

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shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 13:41-42).

   "So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 13:49-50).

   Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matthew 25:41).

   "And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go to hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9: 43-44).

   "But he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire" (Matthew 3:12).

   "In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power" (2 Thess. 1:8).

   "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night" (Rev. 14:10-11).

   "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:14-15).

   "But the fearful, the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and

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idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death" (Rev. 21:8).

   There are scores of additional Scripture verses we could quote, but there is one in particular that I want you to notice.

   A young man said to me some time ago, "My religion is the Sermon on the Mount. I don't believe in Hell." In Matthew 5:29 and 30 we read that as Jesus was in the midst of His Sermon on the Mount He said, "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell."

   Yes! the New Testament is full of teaching concerning hell. Jesus, Paul, John and Peter spoke concerning it. If you accept any part of the Word of God, you must accept the fact that there is a place of punishment for those who reject God's plan of salvation.

   B. All peoples have believed in it.

      Throughout my college days I emphasized the subject of scientific anthropology. We studied the history, the culture, the physical characteristics and the religions of peoples the world over. We did not find one group of people who did not believe that somehow, somewhere, they would pay for their sins and errors against their God. Innate in the heart and mind of man is the belief that when he breaks the moral laws of the universe he must suffer. I make bold to say further that man believes innately that after death there will be some form of punishment for the wicked, wayward life he led in his sojourn here.

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   C. Human experience teaches it.

      Some years ago while helping in a Brush Arbor meeting in South Georgia I was called upon to visit a sick man. One evening I talked to him about the importance of life and death. With a half sneer he rejected God's plan. At two o'clock in the morning his family heard a scream from his room. They rushed in and found him writhing in dreadful pain as his life was slipping away. Suddenly, with his face in a contortion of agony, he shouted with all his remaining strength, "Lost! Lost! Lost!"

   It is said that Voltaire, the French atheist, said as he lay on his deathbed, "I am taking a fearful leap into the dark."

   In England I was told of a man who rejected Christ throughout the fifty-two years of his life. Hardened and obstinate he continued in his rejection until one day he was stricken with a heart attack. Before losing consciousness, he cried, "I can feel the flames of hell-fire."

   These are not deathbed scenes which we can ignore and shun because they are repulsive to our thinking. These are actual experiences that take place every day when men die outside of God. They play their part in life and go on their way without giving thought to spiritual matters, but when they come to die they are terrified.

   Several years ago I came to know one of the finest young couples I have ever met. Deeply consecrated and wishing to fulfill God's plan for their lives, they had set the sails of their lives toward South America. The trackless, malaria-infested jungles of the Upper Amazon held no horror for them. Both of them beamed with the radiance of in inward joy which a person outside of Christ cannot know, understand or explain.

   Suddenly this young woman was stricken with a dreadful disease. The doctor announced that she couldn't last an hour. Several friends were in the room. Her young husband was tremblingly holding her hand. Suddenly she sat

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up in bed. Her face glowed like the noonday sun; her sky blue eyes sparkled like diamonds. She exclaimed in a loud voice, "Walter! Walter! He is wonderful, He is wonderful — more wonderful than I ever dreamed." And she was gone.

   I shall never forget when the old grocer in my home town passed away. He gripped his wife's hand and said, "Listen to the music. It sounds like a thousand choirs. It is the angelic chorus welcoming me home." Then he went to be present with Christ.

   Near his eighty-third birthday, Dr. Harris Gregg, one of the greatest and most beloved Bible expositors America has ever known, summoned his family. He had been ill with pneumonia. He read the Bible, then, propped up in bed, began to pray. Suddenly, with the glory of salvation on his face, he said, "Father, I commend my spirit to Thee." Then he was gone. "To be absent from the body" is "to be present with the Lord."

   These experiences teach us that there is something beyond the grave, that those who live godly lives in Christ Jesus are going to a different place than those who live their own lives in their own way and leave God completely out.

III. WHAT IS THE NATURE OF HELL?

   There are several words used in the Bible which are translated in the Authorized Version as "hell." The Hebrew word sheol is used thirty-one times in the Old Testament and means the "unseen state." Often the words "sorrow," "pains" and "destruction" are used in connection with the term.

   In the New Testament we find three Greek words translated "hell." The first is hades, used ten times. Its meaning is virtually the same as sheol, the "unseen world." Judgment and suffering are usually connected with it, for example, in Luke 16:23, where the rich man is described

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as being in great torments in hades. The word tartarus is used only once, in 2 Peter 2:4, where Peter says the disobedient angels were cast out to tartarus. The idea expressed here indicates a place of judgment, such as a prison. Finally, the word gehenna is used eleven times, ten times by Christ, and once by James. The term means "The Valley of Hinnom," which was a place outside the city of Jerusalem where rubbish and debris were burned continually. One could see the smoke rising at any hour of the day. Thus Jesus used what is common knowledge among the people to illustrate a great spiritual truth. Notice that the thought of burning is often associated with hell.

   Wherever I go, on both sides of the Atlantic, hundreds of young people have asked, "Does the Bible teach that there is a real fire in hell?" Today in evangelical circles two primary views are held concerning this: The first maintains that the Bible uses symbolic language when it speaks of fire in hell. Those that hold this view use such Scripture passages as James 3:5-6: "Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell."

   They say, "Surely James doesn't mean that every time one's tongue slanders another person a literal flame is kindled in one's mouth." They say that the fire to which the apostle refers is, of course, far worse than simple combustion. It is the fire which destroys men's character, for example, malice, hatred, jealousy, strife.

   Using the story of the rich man and Lazarus, those that hold to this view show that the rich man was tormented in flame while he was a disembodied spirit. "How can this be?" they ask. The flame again is a symbol.

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   There are others who believe equally strongly that there is literal fire in hell. They say that in the Old Testament, God many times uses fire as a means of punishment for sin. They say that fire is a proper symbol of the wrath of God and is so used throughout the Bible. In Genesis 19:24 we read that God rained fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah.

   Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, were destroyed by fire because of their sin.

   In Numbers 11:1-2 we read of God's punishment by fire of the rebels of the entire nation of Israel.

   We read in the seventh chapter of Joshua that Achan was stoned and then burned by fire as a punishment for sin. Second Kings 1:10-12 tells us that Elijah asked God to let fire come down from heaven and consume a group of soldiers, and there came down fire from heaven and consumed them.

   Revelation tells us that fire is frequently used as a means of punishment.

   Throughout the Old Testament the burnt offerings and the animal sacrifices pictured by fire the wrath of God upon sin. Two things stand out in our minds as we read God's Word as it speaks of these sacrifices: the blood and the fire. Those that hold to this view refer to the scores of Scripture passages which use the word "fire" in connection with the punishment for sin and hell.

   Whether there is really literal fire in hell or not, all these are descriptions of God's hatred for sin and they portray a Bible truth.

   Certainly hell is not less real, but more so. Hell will be a place where the flames of lust and passion and hatred will burn throughout eternity. It will be a place where the darkness of man's sin will be unrelieved by the brightness of His presence.

   If there is no fire in hell, then God is using symbolical language to indicate something far worse. Certainly no words in any language of the world can describe the awfulness

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and the horribleness of spending age after age without God, without hope, without light, where the fire is never quenched and the worm dieth not.

   Let's consider the Bible's description of hell. Let's find out how God's Holy Word describes this awful place:

1. Rev. 20:15 — The lake of fire

2. Psalm 11:6 — A horrible tempest

3. Psalm 18:5 — A place of sorrows

4. Matthew 13:42 — A place of wailing

5. Matthew 8:12 — A place of weeping

6. Matthew 13:41-42 — A furnace of fire

7. Luke 16:23 — A place of torment

8. Rev. 20:11-12 — A place of filthiness

9. Rev. 16:11 — A place of cursing

10. Matthew 8:12 — A place of outer darkness

11. Rev. 14:11 — A place of unrest

12. Luke 16:27 — A place where people pray

13. Luke 16:24 — A place where people scream for mercy

14. Matthew 25:46 — A place of everlasting punishment

15. Matthew 25:41 — A place prepared for the devil and his angels

16. Luke 16:24 — A place where one begs for a drop of water

17. Isaiah 33:11 — A place where one's breath is a living flame

18. Luke 16:24 — A place where one is tormented with fire

19. Rev. 21:8 — A place where one is tormented with brimstone

20. Luke 16:25 — A place of memory

   We need not add to or take away from this description.

   Among those Christians to whom hell means little, Calvary means less. There is less emphasis on redemption by the blood of Christ. There is less teaching about sin, and very little warning of judgment.

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   General Booth once said, "If I could take every candidate for the Salvation Army and let him see hell for five minutes, that would be all the schooling he would need." On the other hand, there have been scores who have left the Word and followed their vain and wild imaginations. The Word is enough.

IV. WHO IS GOING THERE?

   Inquiring young people have asked me in a score of inquiry rooms, "How can a God of love send anyone to hell?" This is an honest question that arises often in the minds of thinking youth. My answer to this question is that God will never send anyone to hell. If you go to hell, it will be because of your own deliberate choice. Hell was never prepared for man but for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). If you choose to follow Satan you will follow him to his ultimate destiny, but you will do it in spite of all that God has done to stop you. He sent His prophets. He gave you His Word. He has given you a faithful pastor and the prayers of a godly mother. He sent His only Son. The Holy Spirit is constantly warning you. What more can a God of love do? You are a free moral agent! God did not create you as a machine to be compelled to love Him! You can choose either to obey or to disobey Him. You have the power of free choice. Never forget that God is a God of love. Only those who reject or neglect Christ will be in hell. No man will go to hell because he lived an immoral life. Men go to hell because they reject God's plan of salvation in Christ. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life: but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36).

   The only way to salvation is acceptance of Christ as Saviour. The only way to hell is rejection of Christ. In no other is there salvation, for "neither is there any other name under heaven that is given among men whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

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   Just as heaven is prepared for those that accept Him, so hell is prepared for those who reject Him.

   Get the picture? Two worlds are swinging in space throughout eternity. One is the world of the saved — paradise; salvation; glory; splendor; brilliant and dazzling beyond human comprehension or description; a place of joy and laughter, with gates of pearl, walls of jasper, palaces of ivory, streets of transparent gold, a river of life. The dwellers — who? All those who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, those who have accepted Christ as Saviour, whether they be Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians or no church members at all, the redeemed of all ages who by faith accepted Christ!

   The other world is the world of the damned. In that world through time without end, eternity, there will be weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. There is no love there because men by rejecting Christ have slain their own power ever again to feel His presence. Hell will be a place of tormenting memories.

   My friend, you must make a choice. Life is but a vapor; it is but a weaver's shuttle; it is but a tale that is told; it will soon be over. What you do with Christ here and now decides where you shall spend eternity.

   During the Middle Ages there was a court fool who could make the lord of the manor laugh more than any other clown. One day his master called him in and said, "Fool, you are the greatest fool I ever met. Take this staff and keep it until you meet a greater fool than thyself. Then pass it on to that greater fool."

   Years passed, and one day the fool heard that his master was sick. He went to see him. "What is the matter, master?" he asked. "I am going on a long journey," was the reply. "Where are you going?" inquired the fool. "I don't know,"

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was the faint sigh. "How long will you be gone?" questioned the fool.

   "I shall never return."

   "Have you made any preparations for the journey?"

   "No."

   "You mean to tell me that you are taking a long journey from which you will never return, and you have made no preparations for the trip?"

   "I guess that is it."

   "O master, take this staff, for thou are a greater fool than myself."

   Young man, young woman, father, mother — a heart attack, an atomic bomb, an automobile crash, a hotel fire, and perhaps you will start your long journey. Have you made preparation? Are you certain that you know where you are going? "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Romans 10:9)

Table of Contents for Calling Youth To Christ by Billy Graham