Heaven And Hell - For Real Series

Brutal, sadistic people deserve to burn in hell for all eternity.

And most every culture has some understanding of that.

· Buddhists believe in 7 "hot hells" which await the evildoers - each flanked by 4 torture chambers that include a fiery pit and a quagmire.

· Tibetan Buddhists also speak of eight cold hells and certain "Frontier" hells for those guilty of lesser sins.

· Hindus believe in 21 hells – which are temporary abodes where their bad karma (the evil one commits during a lifetime) is burned away.

· Jainism (an offshoot of Hinduism) believes in 8.4 million hells where humans are punished for their sins. Those guilty of unpardonable sins are kept in a bottomless abyss forever. (U.S. News & World Report 3/25/91 p. 64)

Most everyone believes at least SOMEBODY ought to go to hell - as long as it’s not them

But there are others who don’t like the concept of an eternal punishment… at all.

ILLUS: There’s a preacher named Rob Bell that created a stir when he wrote a book rejecting hell

In a video promoting his book Bell asked,

· "Will billions and billions of people burn forever in hell?

· And if that’s the case, how do you become one of the few? ...

· What kind of God is that, that we would need to be rescued from this God?

· How could that God ever be good? How could that ever be good news?"

And the book description on the publisher’s web page reads,

"Rob Bell ... argu(es) that a loving God would never sentence human souls to eternal suffering."

Rob Bell is a very convincing speaker, but I’ve seen enough of his teaching to know that he starts with his feelings: what HE thinks is right, what HE thinks ought to be, what HE thinks is reasonable… and THEN he tends to force Scripture to bow before his wisdom.

Good preachers don’t do that.

Good preachers don’t start with what THEY think is true, they start with what the Bible SAYS is true.

Good preachers believe the Scriptures are God’s Word and that God doesn’t have to bow before them. God doesn’t even have to explain Himself to them.

He’s God… they’re not… and that’s the way it’s going to be all day long.

A good preacher knows that and bows before God and His Word.

But Rob Bell has never really been a “good preacher”.

Let’s take for example is accusation:

How could that God (who condemns people to eternal punishment) ever be good?

How could that ever be good news?"

ILLUS: Well, let’s ask the question a different way:

Let’s say a man has been convicted of rape, child molestation, and murder.

He’s a cold-blooded killer… an evil man who took pleasure in the pain he inflicted.

Now enters the judge.

He has the ability to lock this animal up for all eternity.

But he doesn’t do that… Instead, he fines him and sets him free.

Would you call such a judge “good?”

Would you ever call such a decree “good news?”

Psalm 7:11 declares “God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day.”

In fact, Jesus taught that one of the Spirit’s jobs was to confront people with God’s judgment

“When (the Spirit) comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment” John 16:8