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If
there be a Hell, a place of confinement, a Prison for the
incorrigibly wicked, it does not matter what the nature
of it is, the fact is... It is a Place of Torment. Even
in the most humane conditions, a Prison is still a Prison,
and it is horrible even to contemplate.
Hell
is the Jail where the wicked are locked up when under indictment
until the court sits and their sentences are passed on them;
then they go into what is called in the Book of Revelation
as The Lake of Fire, the Gehenna of the New Testament. The
Lake of Fire is the Federal Prison of Eternity; Hell is
just the county Jail. No one has yet been put into the Lake
of Fire.
The
wicked angels and wicked men are both locked up today in
Hell, awaiting the resurrection of the wicked and the judgment,
after which they go to the Federal Prison. Heaven is not
the permanent abode of the Believers; it is merely a tentative
place to which the disembodied spirit goes to await the
return of the Lord Jesus Christ and the First resurrection
when the believer will receive his immortal body. He is
then ready to enter the New Heaven and the New Earth, where
he will dwell in an immortal, physical body with his Loved
ones throughout Eternity.
When
the Sinner (One who has not accepted Jesus Christ as Savior
& Lord) dies today, he, in his spiritual form, Goes
to Hell to remain there until the Second Resurrection when
his old body will be raised full of Sin, Disease, and Corruption.
He will enter that body again and stand in it before the
Great White Throne of God. God is the Judge. Then the dreaded
sentence will be passed according to the Court's findings,
and he will be sent away with the Devil, the False Prophet,
and the Fallen Angels into the Federal Prison of eternity.
The Reason for Hell and the Lake of Fire is apparent for
every thinking person.
Man
is an Eternal Being. He belongs to the same class as God.
If he dies a criminal, then he enters eternity as an eternal
criminal. Logically, as it is on earth, there is an eternal
prison, the criminals must be segregated. If they were permitted
to roam indiscriminately throughout eternity, they would
demoralize the New Heaven and the New Earth.
We
have Jails, State Prisons, and Federal Prisons for the criminals
who break the laws of man. Who can raise a protest against
God if he has a prison in which are incarcerated the men
who have violated the Laws of Heaven, and who are eternal
criminals.
We
may believe in a literal Lake of Fire and Brimstone or that
the term is only used to illustrate the torture and misery
of confinement and separation from God. The Fact is: to
be Locked up in a federal Prison away from your loved ones
with the loss of freedom and with a consciousness that all
your mortal days will be spent behind walls, knowing that
Gods Great big out-of- doors is forever closed to you. That
no longer can you go where you wish or come when you please,
that you have lost the power of volition and of action and
that a guard with a gun walks up and down the concrete corridor
before your steel barred doors in a uniform that becomes
hateful to you, is Hell enough for any man. If this is to
Last throughout eternity, then God help me, I want no part
of it. I don't need the fumes of sulfur, nor the creeping,
biting, burning worms of hell described in the scriptures.
To
be shut up with the wicked throughout eternity, to be associated
with blasphemers and murderers, with the whoremongers, Homosexuals,
the Liars, the thief and Prostitutes of all ages, never
to see a pure face again, never to hear a baby's prattle,
never to hear hymn of praise or folk songs, or songs of
Love, to hear nothing but Bitter, Hideous, blasphemy, the
gnawing of the tongue, the gnashing of teeth, the biting
agony of the eternal confinement is all that is necessary
to make it Hell for me. As for me, let me escape it, never
let me be in any danger of it.
In
Isaiah 66:24, it speaks of Hell as a place where the "Fire
is not quenched, and the worm shall not die, an abhorrence
to all Flesh". According to Matthew 25:41,46 it is
the home of the cursed, the eternal fire, which was prepared
for the Devil and the rebellious angels. Now it has become
the Jail and the Home for the wicked Human; it is called
the Place of eternal Punishment or constraint; a place out
of which no Pardon has yet gone or ever can go; no pardon
can reach them, horrible as it may seem.
In
2 Peter 2:4, it is called the Pit or Prisons of Punishment,
and in Revelation 9:1-2, it is a place of sulfuric fumes,
the home of demons; but in Luke 16:19-31 Jesus gives a picture
of Hell that only he could give.
THIS
IS NOT A PARABLE..... IT IS NOT PLACED AMONG THE PARABLES.
He says "A certain Rich Man;" He is quoting history,
and He gives a description of Hell and of Torment, of conscious
intelligible torment that surpasses Dante in his Inferno,
or Milton in his Paradise Lost.
During
the Old Testament times the underworld was divided in Two
- One side for the Righteous and the other for the wicked
people and there was a great gulf fixed between them, so
that no-one could cross over. Jesus continues: "There
was a certain Rich Man, and he was clothed in purple and
fine Linen, fairing sumptuously every day; and a certain
beggar named Lazarus was Laid at his gate, full of sores,
and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the
rich mans table, even the dogs came and licked his sores.
And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and that he was
carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich
man also died and was buried. And in Hades he lifted up
his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham sitting 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 tips of his fingers
in water, and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this
flame."
"But
Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst
thy good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things,
but now here he is comforted, and thou art in anguish."
"And besides this , between us and you there is a great
gulf fixed, that they who would pass from hench to you may
not be able, and that none may cross from thence to us.
"And
he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest
send him (Lazarus) to my fathers house; for I have 5 brothers;
that he may testify unto them, lest they also come to this
place of torment."
But
Abraham said "They have Moses and the Prophets; Let
them hear them" "And he said, Nay, father Abraham,
but if one go from the dead, they will repent." "And
he said unto them, If they hear not Moses and the Prophets
neither will they be persuaded, if one rise from the Dead.
This
story is purely a Jewish story. There is no Paradise today,
but there is still the Hell. Paradise was emptied and all
the inhabitants taken to Heaven.
The
rich man went to Hell, because he had broken the fundamental
principles of the Mosaic Law: He did not Love his neighbor
as Himself. The whole Law was summed up in this "Thou
shalt Love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and thy
neighbor as thyself." This he had broken and was paying
the penalty for it.
Notice
some significant facts about the man that went to Hell.
"And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment."
Notice that he has all the faculties of the Soul. Man is
not a physical being, he is primarily a spirit that has
a Soul and Lives in a body, The physical Body is just the
earth suit needed to survive on the earth while you are
here. His tongue was burning in the intense heat, "For
I am in anguish in this flame."
Whether
we want to insist that this is purely figurative language
or not, is besides the question. The fact is, that Jesus
declared that this man was in torment in the flames. If
the Flame was simply a burning conscience, then give me
Literal Fire.
"Son,
remember;" the Man remembered. Memory Lives on in Hell.
Two things will haunt a person in Hell. 1) the sins that
he has committed against God and man; and 2) that he had
an opportunity to escape it, but he resolutely preferred
Hell to Heaven. Hell is a place of anguish, with a great
gulf fixed so that there is no passing over from one to
the other.
There
is no Second probation here. The man who is guilty enough
to be sent to Hell, is guilty enough to stay in hell. Now
to the most pathetic things of all: He said "Will you
not send Lazarus up to the Earth? I have 5 brothers there,
lest they also come into this place of torment." What
a hopeless request ! What a preacher someone would make
fresh from the agonies from Hell, But men would not listen
to his message. Some of the most intelligent people that
we have in this country believe that they can keep the subject
of heaven and hell and the sufferings of Christ from their
minds, or stay away from places where they hear it preached,
that they will escape the responsibility of knowledge and
that in itself will prove their salvation from Hell. A Dangerous
way to Think, and could not possibly be more wrong!! But
the answer came "They have Moses and the Prophets,
let them hear them" "Nay father Abraham, but if
one go from here up there, him they will listen to."
But did they? Jesus went from Hell's dark dungeons and awful
fiery sufferings up to the earth and gave his testimony,
but have Men heeded it?
No,
Mankind ridicule it today.
It's
EASY on Tangledwire!
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