Posted by
Virginia Daddy on Friday, July 18, 2008 11:57:23 AM
Its real, fire and brimstone. No one should kid themselves into thinking they are not. Fire and brimstone exist now, and will forever. And some, most even, people will be thrown into a lake of fire and gnash their teeth forever and ever.
This is a pretty terrifying thought, and I hate to admit it as truth, but it is truth. I could list a number of Biblical passages to show it, but we all know it is in the Bible. And some now wish to deny that it truly speaks about what is really there.
This is a dangerous thing to do, for we are given due warning about what will come if we deny Jesus and his death on the cross and subsequent resurection from this very real death. If we deny what Jesus did and rest outside of him, we ourselves will be trapped in it forever. Jesus provided the way out of death, and unless we follow him, we will not have a way out of it.
Luke 16 presents this as clearly as any other part of the Bible, I think. The rich man condemns Lazarus, but when both are physically dead, the rich man can only plea to Lazarus and the saints to free him. They are powerless to do so, as there is no way over the abyss.
Hell, friends, is a very real place, and God will send many there come the appropriate time. There will be no second chances to repent once our life physically ends. Our souls will live on, and we will be reunited with out bodies, but the destination of our souls is determined now, in this time and in this present life.
I talk much of love, and feel that we ought to live our lives in love. Talk of fire and brimstone is in a sense a departure from love, but in another, it is the epitome of it. For those who do not warn others of the impending doom and eternal torment they face are not showing true love, because they hide the truth. Churches that only focus on the goodness and love of Christ do themselves and their congregations a disservice.
Believers ought not live in fear, as in Christ we are freed from eternal damnation, but for those who do not believe, while God loves you and wants you to return, he is not above reproach and detests your rejection of what he did for you. For that choice, he will rain fire and brimstone on your head for eternity.
This is truth.