Fire And Brimstone

Some people, exercising wishful thinking, figure that unbelievers will be annihilated, they¡¦ll cease to exist, and thus be relieved from everlasting torment. Yet over and over again the Bible describes hell as a place of conscious, eternal punishment.

B. The Symbolism of Hell

In 1979 I went with the 519th MP Bn to an FTX at Fort A.P. Hill, south of Washington, D.C. One night we were awakened by the sound of sirens. We jumped on the back of deuce-n-halfs and raced through the woods to a scene out of Dante¡¦s Inferno. We were in the middle of a forest fire. We beat back the flames, and no one was injured. As I labored, surrounded by fire, I thought that If I ever preached a sermon on hell, I had the perfect illustration! Several years later I was assigned to the burn ward at Brooke Army Medical Center and saw some horrible sights. Yet the reality of hell is surely greater than what I experienced at Ft AP Hill and Ft Sam Houston.

Billy Graham was once asked if the ¡§flames¡¨ of hell mentioned in the Bible should be taken literally. He responded by pointing out that whenever the Bible uses figurative language, the reality is always greater, more intense than the symbol. So if the ¡§fire¡¨ of hell is symbolic, it represents something far worse. Fire is also used in Scripture to represent God¡¦s character and the impact of human speech. The point is that symbols correspond to reality.

One of the more unpleasant images of hell is in Mark 9:48, ¡§where their worm does not die.¡¨ Jesus pulls an unpleasant image from the closing words of Isaiah¡¦s prophecy (66:24), of a corpse being eaten by worms through eternity as a graphic way of describing unending death. My research indicates that nearly all scholars agree that, just as this ¡§worm that never dies¡¨ is a symbol of everlasting death, so the fire also represents the judgment of God.

C. The Way to Hell

When I was in college I worked as a volunteer at a Christian Servicemen¡¦s Center, near Ft Jackson, SC. Since our focus was evangelism, we had on hand a lot of religious literature. One day a Gospel tract caught my eye. The title in bold letters read: ¡§HOW TO GET TO HELL¡¨. I opened the tract and inside it was blank. The point was, no preparation is necessary to qualify for hell. Because of our sinful human condition, none of us are fit for heaven. People are lost, and the mission of Jesus cannot be defined without bringing up the lost condition of humankind.

I¡¦ve heard it said, ¡§The road to hell is thick with taxicabs¡¨. There are many enticements to turn from Jesus, the Way, to our own way. Jesus noted that the path leading to destruction is wide. The one principle of hell is: ¡§I am on my own¡¨. The essence of sin is living independent of God, and so hell is a place where people find themselves completely independent, free from the blessings of God¡¦s presence. Sin is a lifetime of saying to God, ¡§leave me alone.¡¨ Hell is God finally saying, ¡§Alright, you have your wish.¡¨ The works of hell are self-will, self-trust, self-reliance and self-exaltation. Whereas heaven is made up of ¡§whosoever will¡¨, hell is a place of ¡§whosoever won¡¦t¡¨. Hell is a place of choice. People send themselves to hell by allowing pride to reject what God offers. We cannot be neutral--we either accept the life Jesus offers or we refuse it. We either embrace Jesus or turn our backs on Him. There is no neutrality.