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Introduction Surprise! Many people don’t believe in hell.
Skeptics: e.g., Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell. Religionists: Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, Christadelphians, WWCG, etc. Lord’s church: Edward Fudge, F. LaGard Smith, Homer Hailey, etc.
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Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard
Mark 9:43-48
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Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
Hell is real If heaven is real, so is hell. If hell is a myth, so is heaven! Matt. 25:46 Have you seriously contemplated the reality of hell? Or, are you “whistling’ past the graveyard”?! Matt. 10:28; 7:13-14 Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
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Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
Hell is terrible Some believe the biblical descriptions of hell are overstated. Hell from the Greek word gehenna : Valley used by apostate Jews for child sacrifice: 2 Chr. 28:3; 33:6 Came to be Jerusalem’s garbage dump: 2 Kgs. 23:10-14 To say the biblical descriptions of hell are overstated is blasphemous! 11 of 13 times hell is used, Jesus uses it! Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
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Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
Hell is terrible The horrific nature of hell seen by three of its aspects: Origin of the Greek word gehenna : child sacrifice, dead and putrefying bodies, etc.: 2 Chr. 28:3 Described as a “lake of fire” : Rev. 20:10, 14, 15; 21:8 Other descriptors of hell: (A)“a furnace of fire” (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43); (B) “a flaming fire” (2 Thess. 1:7-10); (C) “baptism of fire” (Matt. 3:11-12); (D) “unquenchable fire” (Mk. 9:43-48). Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
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Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
Hell is terrible Is it any wonder hell is characterized by: “weeping” “wailing” “gnashing of teeth” Matthew 8:12; 13:50; 25:30 How can the burning never stop and our bodies not be consumed? All raised from the dead will be given new, immortal, incorruptible bodies: Jn. 5:28-29; Acts 24:15; 1 Cor. 15:22, 52-53 All will be given “bodies” suited to the environment of eternity (heaven or hell): Phil. 3:20:21; 1 Jn. 3:2; 1 Cor. 15:35-43 This great truth helps us understand passages like Matthew 10:28 Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
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Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
Hell is eternal Hell would be bad enough if it lasted only seconds, but it lasts F-O-R-E-V-E-R! Jesus equates “hell fire” with “everlasting fire” : Matt. 18:8-9 Jesus contrasts “everlasting punishment” with “eternal life” : Matt. 25:31-46; Rom. 16:26; Heb. 9:14; 2 Pet. 1:11; Rev. 1:18 Both “everlasting” and “eternal” from the same Greek word: oinios ; both mean exactly the same thing! Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
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Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
Hell is eternal The apocalypse: Hell is as long as heaven! Rev. 14:10b-11 Recall Mk. 9:43-48: “the fire that shall never be quenched—’Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” The fire is “not quenched” ; it is perpetual! “not quenched” (asbestos) closest synonym is ainios, eternal, everlasting! (Arndt & Gingrich) Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
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Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
Hell is eternal Quibble: the wicked are “destroyed” (i.e., annihi-lated) in hell: Matt. 10:28 “to destroy” is from Greek apollumi : sometimes translated “perish,” “lose,” and “lost.” Not one single instance in NT where apollumi used to mean annihilation in its strictest sense. Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
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Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
Hell is eternal Consider appollumi in the following passages: Parable of the “lost sheep”: Lk. 15:3-10 Prodigal son: Lk. 15:11-32 Wineskins Matt. 9:17 The lost: Lk. 19:10 The perishing: 2 Cor. 4:3 Those “destroyed” will “go into perdition” and be “tormented day and night forever and ever” : Rev. 17:8, 11; 20:10 Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
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Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
Hell is eternal Respected Greek scholars: Matt. 10:28 Vine: “The idea is not extinction but ruin, loss, not of being, but of well-being.” Robertson: “Destroy here is not annihilation, but eternal punishment in Gehenna.” TDNT: “destroy…definitive destruction, not merely in the sense of extinction of physical existence, but rather of an eternal plunge into Hell.” Thayer: “to devote or give over to eternal misery.” Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
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Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
Conclusion You will spend eternity somewhere? Only two choices: heaven or hell. The overwhelming majority will be in hell: Matt. 7:13-14 That’s not what God or Jesus wants for you: Ezek. 33:11; 2 Tim. 2:4; Jn. 3:16; Lk. 19:10 Make no mistake: Judgment is coming! Acts 17:30-31; 2 Pet. 3:9-11; 2 Thess. 1:7-9; Matt. 25:31-46 Are you ready NOW? 2 Cor. 6:2 Whistlin' Past the Graveyard
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