HELLFIRE
Why do we preach so much on HellFire?
IF preaching of this place of torment is not good, than Jesus failed. He preached more on hellfire than grace, mercy and God’s love combined.
Jesus talked about hell more than any other person in the Bible. In Luke 16, he describes a great chasm over which “none may cross from there to us.” In Matthew 25, Jesus tells of a time when people will be separated into two groups, one entering into his presence, the other banished to “eternal fire.”
Jesus doesn’t only reference hell, he describes it in great detail. He says it is a place of eternal torment (Luke 16:23), of unquenchable fire (Mark 9:43), where the worm does not die (Mark 9:48), where people will gnash their teeth in anguish and regret (Matt. 13:42), and from which there is no return, even to warn loved ones (Luke 16:19–31). He calls hell a place of “outer darkness” (Matt. 25:30), comparing it to “Gehenna” (Matt. 10:28), which was a trash dump outside the walls of Jerusalem where rubbish was burned and maggots abounded. Jesus talks about hell more than he talks about heaven, and describes it more vividly. There’s no denying that Jesus knew, believed, and warned about the absolute reality of hell.
Even the demons understood this place of suffering when they asked Him several times in the gospels “And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?”
Matthew 8:29
They recognized He was the Son of God and there will be a time for torment.
Many argue that He used that in parables, so they were just stories. IF so, then heaven is just a story because our Lord used parables to describe heaven.
Let’s look at one example of this fiery judgement found in Luke 16 where the word “parable” is never used, in fact Jesus gave an actual name, no story time here.
Within Luke 16 we find a rich man “in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame”
….NOT a parable and note, he saw, so he has vision, he cried for mercy and would just be happy for a drop of water and he was tormented….so pain is involved.
Jesus continued that he sees Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Abraham denied him saying “remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us”
Then the rich man begged saying “thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment”
The rich man being in agony asks to send Lazarus to his family and WARN them of this place of torment. His message would not be ‘God loves you’ ‘Jesus loves you’ but that place of torment.
Abraham replied to that request saying “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead”
Men of God have been warned them and if they do not believe this judgment no one can persuade them.
NOTES: This was NOT a parable, this rich man in flames, could see, could talk, could feel pain and even considered his family. One in hell does not just disintegrate into fire.
You need to understand what fire does…..remember those people on 911 that jumped 85 stories to their death from those burning towers? The worked to break those windows, which were close to bullet proof being that high and they jumped knowing they would die when they hit the cement. And that made sense rather than one more minute in that fire.
Those poor souls could not take 30 minutes and this place of torment that the Bible warns is eternal.
Make you’re your preaching includes hellfire or you are not preaching the FULL gospel nor giving the FULL character of God. Here is a video I did while in Hawaii on hellfire and the Lake of fire.