Participants: Chris Holland
Series Code: IIWC
Program Code: IIWC201329
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00:11 >>Announcer: It has stood the test of time.
00:14 God's book, The Bible 00:18 Still relevant in today's complex world 00:24 It Is Written 00:26 Sharing messages of hope around the world! 00:40 >>Chris: Salmon Arm, British Columbia is a beautiful city in 00:44 the southern interior portion of the province. It is nestled on 00:48 the shores of Shuswap Lake with a stunning view of Mt. Bastion. 00:53 It is a tourist destination in the summer. The many beaches and recreational activities 00:58 are an attraction to many. It is truly a gem of a place. In 1998, 01:06 however, you wouldn't have wanted to find yourself in Salmon Arm. 1998 was one of the 01:12 warmest and longest summers recorded in Canada. In that 01:18 summer of 1998 the Fly Hills near Salmon Arm were ignited by natural causes in the 01:23 drought like weather. The fire quickly became unmanageable and 01:29 began moving toward Salmon Arm. The dense forest with plenty of 01:34 fuel to burn gave a path for the flames toward the city. Despite efforts by the Ministry of 01:42 forests and the local firefighters - the flames couldn't be controlled. 01:46 Many watched their own homes, their life work go up in flames. 01:53 Others watched and wondered when the disaster would finally stop. When it was all said 02:01 and done 10 million dollars had been spent to extinguish the 02:07 blaze. Over 6000 hectares were burned, over 40 buildings destroyed and more than 02:13 7000 people had to be evacuated. 02:18 Those burning flames of forest fires are almost impossible to 02:24 imagine the heat and destructive power. Flames like those seem to 02:32 conjure up apocalyptic type images. Vivid images of burning landscape The book of 02:44 Revelation tries to paint a vivid picture of those apocalyptic flames in 02:50 Revelation 14:10-11, speaking of those who follow and worship the 02:58 antichrist, 03:25 A little later in the book of Revelation, John further 03:29 emphasizes that picture by speaking of the destruction of 03:44 spiritual Babylon, Those burning forests of Salmon Arm give us a stunning preview of the 03:49 final fire, which will destroy the earth. And in asking the 03:56 question Is Heaven for Real? We now turn and ask is hell for real? And just as millions 04:04 prayed and hoped that the flames of Salmon arm would stop, what 04:09 about the fires of hell? What does it mean that the smoke ascends forever and ever? Is the 04:15 final destruction of the wicked timeless ongoing inferno of 04:23 pain? To get a true picture, we open the Bible to study what it 04:28 has to say about hell? As we have studying over the past weeks, there is no doubt that 04:33 heaven is very real place that each one of us wants to be a part of. It is a place 04:37 that Jesus has prepared for us and it is a place, which He has 04:43 made every provision for us to be there. But what about those who choose not to go 04:49 to heaven? Through their actions, thoughts, and deeds - 04:55 what about those who don't want to be in heaven. Will they burn in torment forever and ever? 05:03 We already know that they are not experiencing any pain right 05:08 now. In the previous weeks we have studied and seen that they are not anywhere right now 05:12 but sleeping in the grave. But what happens once Jesus comes 05:20 again? Last week, we studied that when Jesus comes, the righteous, those who are 05:24 ready for the return of Jesus are made incorruptible - 05:28 perfect. Those that are dead are resurrected and given a new body, those alive are 05:33 changed in an instant and we join Jesus in heaven for 1000 05:37 years or the millennium. If you have missed any of the series, Is Heaven for Real? - You 05:44 can go to our website to find the archives, w ww.itiswrittencanada.ca 05:49 or to our youtube channel, www.youtube.com/IIWCanada there 05:58 you will find the archives of this series along with many more materials to help you in 06:02 your spiritual walk. The wicked who were dead will simply stay 06:10 dead, except for a select group - Revelation 1:7 tells us, 06:35 That select group are those directly responsible for the 06:41 death of Christ - they will be resurrected to see the folly of their mistakes and ways. This is 06:47 especially in light of the fact that they had been given so many 06:50 opportunities to see and recognize who Jesus was. The wicked alive will be 06:57 slain by the brightness of His coming and then all of the dead 07:03 remain on the earth and Satan is bound here by the chains of circumstance for 1000 07:07 years so he can contemplate the results of his rebellion. 07:14 Then what happens next? As the New Jerusalem descends from heaven to the earth 07:21 the wicked are all raised. The Bible then tells us what happens 07:27 in Revelation 20:7-10, 08:10 The clear picture of hell is not some place out there in space. 08:16 The lake of fire is on this earth. And Satan and the wicked are destroyed in it. This 08:23 is called, in the Bible, the second death. Not somewhere out 08:30 there, but the lake of fire will happen on this earth. 08:36 Now I must hit pause here for just a moment. Friends, we are 08:40 about to discover an amazing picture of God. Many have pictured God as this great 08:45 tormenter who is out to get you. The picture of God, that has 08:51 been painted by the church, is that God is waiting for you to make that one mistake, so zap 09:01 He can get you. This picture has been painted not by the Bible 09:08 but by things such as Dante's Inferno, Greek mythology and 09:16 Egyptian false religion. This is not the picture that the Bible paints at all. In fact, 09:23 why is there even a hell fire? Matthew 25:41 makes it absolutely clear why 09:36 hell fire even exists, 09:53 My dear friends, hell fire was prepared for the devil and his 10:07 angels - it was never intended for any human to be there. It was created to take care of 10:13 the author of sin - Satan. God could not destroy Satan 10:21 immediately - by doing so He would have risked a universe that served Him out of fear 10:27 rather than love. But the Lord allowed Satan to run his full 10:34 course so beings everywhere could see the sinfulness of sin and horrible nature of the 10:39 devil's rebellion. So why is it that human's will be there. Because the lake of 10:47 fire is intended to end once and for all, sin, rebellion and 10:54 Satan. Humans will end up in the lake of fire because they have 10:58 so attached themselves to their sin and are so unwilling to let it go that they are 11:03 burned up with their sin. How is that hell-fire works then. 11:11 Hell-fire is a one time event that destroys sin, suffering, pain, the Devil and his 11:18 angels along with the wicked who cling to their sin - never to 11:23 exist ever again. The consequence is permanent. The Bible doesn't describe some 11:34 ever-burning place of torment where we will be able to see or 11:38 hear the agony of the wicked. In fact, quite the opposite. Revelation 21 describes 11:46 the new heaven and new earth, in Revelation 21:1-4, 12:31 No sectioned off corner for an ever-burning hell. Just the 12:42 wonderful promise of a new heavens and a new earth. No death, do dying, no pain, no 12:53 sorrow, no separation. Everything is made new. So how is it that you could have an 12:59 ever-burning hell where people agonize in pain in the same 13:11 perfect place? Friends, the reality is you cannot. The fire of Salmon Arm consumed 13:18 anything in its path. If you look at before and after pictures of a forest 13:25 fire - it is truly astonishing - nothing is left - nothing. Could 13:32 it be that the fire of Salmon Arm might serve as a lesson on 13:41 the lake of fire of Revelation? 13:47 What happens to those who are thrown into a lake of fire? How 13:51 long will they survive? Typically the bigger the fire, the quicker the burn? If you 13:58 want to torture someone for a long time you need a very small 14:03 flame, not a great lake of fire. Could the Bible be trying to tell us something by 14:08 calling this lake of fire the second death? We need to allow 14:15 the Bible to speak for itself on the subject of hell. Listen to what it says in Malachi 14:22 4:1, 14:47 Malachi describes hellfire; did you notice that it didn't speak 14:51 of people being eternally roasted on the hell spit? No, it says that they were 14:59 turned to stubble and they are burned up. The scripture is very 15:07 clear here that, number one, hell is in the future and the wicked will be burned 15:13 on that day. It is not going on now in some central hotspot of 15:18 the earth or the universe. Secondly, the wicked will be consumed, turned to 15:25 ashes burned up completely. This is the consistent teaching of 15:35 scripture on the subject, Psalm 21:9 states, 15:55 The fire devours them. Isaiah 47:14 is also clear, 16:16 Stubble is the remnant of the fire; there is no ongoing 16:27 burning here. Psalm 37:20 goes on to say, 16:47 So the Bible says the wicked will perish, they will be turned 16:53 to stubble, but why does Revelation speak of the smoke of their torment going up 17:00 forever and ever? Is it possible that other verses might help us 17:07 understand the subject more clearly? Here is one example, Hebrews 9:12 says this, 17:27 And Hebrews 6:2 speaks of "eternal judgment" Now Jesus 17:34 died once for our sins. His great act of redemption took place at a specific time and 17:40 place. In addition the final judgment is specific time. Neither of these goes on 17:45 forever and ever into eternity but the results are permanent. 17:52 The results have everlasting consequences. And it is the same 17:59 way with hell fire. It has permanent and everlasting 18:08 consequences. The book of Jude is even more explicit in explaining this idea to 18:12 us. Jude, it is only one chapter, 7, 18:38 Sodom and Gomorrah are an example. What are they an example of? They are an 18:45 example of what the destiny of the wicked will be. The clear 18:50 testimony of scripture is that Sodom and Gomorrah experienced the vengeance of eternal 18:57 fire. Eternal fire. Now let me ask you a question - have you 19:04 seen on the news or read in a magazine or newspaper, seen a video on the internet of some 19:11 city in the locality of the Dead sea that is now continually 19:17 burning never to be extinguished? Of course not, no such thing is going on. In fact 19:23 that Bible tells us in 2 Peter 2:6, 19:45 Friends, Jude says that Sodom and Gomorrah are an example of 19:51 eternal fire; Peter said they were turned to ashes. Then Peter goes on to say that 19:59 Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction and being turned to ashes is an 20:06 example to the ungodly or wicked. Friends the Bible is consistent throughout 20:14 and rejects Greek philosophy and mythology and its ever-raging 20:21 inferno. The Bible is consistently clear hell fire is 20:30 eternal from the standpoint that its consequences are permanent 20:36 or everlasting and everything thrown into the lake of fire will be turned to stubble or 20:41 ashes. Paul is also clear on this subject, in Philippians 21:07 3:19, The end of the wicked is not ever burning cycle of death. 21:12 No, it is destruction. Literally in the Greek to cease to exist 21:22 or be annihilated. The Bible is consistent in what happens to Satan and the wicked. It is the 21:28 same picture over and over again. The wicked will simply 21:35 cease to exist as in the lake of fire they are consumed fully. Malachi 4:3 further 21:44 emphasizes this point, 21:55 The scripture is clear. Romans 6:23 says that wages of sin is 22:03 death. This is the second death - permanent separation from God because you no longer 22:11 exist. Jesus himself said in Matthew 10:28, 22:36 Destruction. This is what the lake of fire brings. Total and 22:41 utter destruction - to exist never again. 22:49 Many of the texts that seem to allude to a place of everlasting 22:53 ongoing continual punishment are merely metaphors to describe the 22:59 permanent nature of hell fire. Jesus on one occasion even used a parable to illustrate 23:05 this reality. Mark 9:43-44 is one such passage, 23:35 Many people today point to this as evidence of an eternally 23:40 burning hell. However, is that really what it means? Jesus is quoting a passage in 23:46 Isaiah. There the prophet speaks of the fate of the wicked and 23:53 uses those phrases: "Their worm does not die" and "their fire is not quenched" But what 23:59 is Isaiah referring to? Here is what precedes those two phrases 24:06 in Isaiah 66:24, 24:19 What is Isaiah talking about here? Friends, he is talking 24:24 about dead people. And while a bit morbid, this is a picture of 24:28 worms, of maggots consuming a dead body. The picture is of a corpse being totally consumed, 24:34 totally destroyed. And then what about "their fire is not 24:40 quenched." Friends what does it mean to have an unquenchable fire? It is a fire that 24:45 cannot be put out. The prophet Jeremiah uses the same metaphor 24:50 in describing the destruction of Jerusalem in Jeremiah 17:27, 25:08 Jerusalem experienced unquenchable fire - let me ask 25:13 you - is Jerusalem still on fire today? Eventually this prophecy 25:17 was fulfilled and Jerusalem was burned and it was burned to the ground. Its destruction 25:23 was permanent and unquenchable - the fire couldn't be put out 25:28 until it had destroyed everything. 25:32 Friends, we have spent a lot of time talking about hell. And 25:36 there are a few unanswered questions. We will deal with many of those questions on next 25:40 week's program. Friends, God is going to every length possible 25:48 to save you. You don't need to worry about hell fire, because 25:51 it wasn't even designed for you. It is the destiny of the devil and his angels. The open 25:58 arms of Jesus is the destiny He has for you. Are you willing to 26:04 let go of your sin, are you willing to give it all to Jesus. Let's pray and give 26:11 it all to Jesus. Oh heavenly Father, we come to you and we 26:16 give all of our sin to you. Change us, transform us, and make us ready for when your Son 26:22 Jesus comes again, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. 26:44 Today's program may have stretched you a little bit in 26:47 your biblical understanding. I would like to offer to you today a special edition of Signs 26:53 of the Times which delves into these texts even more deeply and 26:58 helps you to understand the character of the loving God that we serve. To get today's 27:04 offer, here's the information that you need. 28:08 Friends, the love of God is so complete. He wants to save you; 28:14 He wants to save me. He doesn't want us to have any part in the lake of fire. He wants us 28:21 to give our hearts and lives to Him completely. I hope you 28:25 enjoyed today's program. I invite you to join us again next week. Until then, remember, it 28:31 is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every 28:36 word that proceeds from the mouth of God." 28:41 $$$$$$ |
Revised 2014-12-17