Pardon me for a minute, I'm climbing onto my soapbox... Okay, ready... If I see one more church marquee make light of Hell I'm going to lose it. Right now, two churches within five minutes of my home have such "cute" little messages up. One says this (or pretty close)... "The cheapest fire escape is the Bible." The other says this... "Fire protection plan available here."
Both of those messages are unsound on so many different levels I don't even know where to start. So let me just make this observation... Hell is not a joke! It is a place where "the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched." It is a place of which Jesus said it would be better to have our hand and foot cut off, and our eye gouged out, than to go there. Most of the people we deal with on a daily basis will spend eternity there apart from God. Is it really that funny?
I recently heard a well-known pastor in our area say that he believes there is a "creeping universalism" (the belief that everyone goes to Heaven) among the people in our churches. We say we believe in Hell, but do we really believe God will allow that sweet secretary in our office, or that good ol' boy down the road who's never harmed a flea, to go there? If we did, wouldn't we tell them about Jesus? If we did, wouldn't we think twice before making light of their fate?
Both of those messages are unsound on so many different levels I don't even know where to start. So let me just make this observation... Hell is not a joke! It is a place where "the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched." It is a place of which Jesus said it would be better to have our hand and foot cut off, and our eye gouged out, than to go there. Most of the people we deal with on a daily basis will spend eternity there apart from God. Is it really that funny?
I recently heard a well-known pastor in our area say that he believes there is a "creeping universalism" (the belief that everyone goes to Heaven) among the people in our churches. We say we believe in Hell, but do we really believe God will allow that sweet secretary in our office, or that good ol' boy down the road who's never harmed a flea, to go there? If we did, wouldn't we tell them about Jesus? If we did, wouldn't we think twice before making light of their fate?
