May 3, 2019

Turn back by Gary Rose



Warnings: we see them practically every day; bad weather, congestion on the highways, food recalls and side effects of prescription medicines and perhaps hundreds of others over the years. Do we listen? Do we even care? Some do and that makes it all worthwhile. The Bible is replete with warnings, just peruse the Old Testament Prophets like Isaiah and you will see how many times ancient Israel was warned to turn back to God. There are quite a number in the New Testament as well; this one is in the Gospel of Matthew...

Matthew 3 ( World English Bible )
Mat 3:1, In those days, John the Baptizer came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying,
Mat 3:2, ”Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”
Mat 3:3, For this is he who was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.” *
Mat 3:4, Now John himself wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.
Mat 3:5, Then people from Jerusalem, all of Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him.
Mat 3:6, They were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
Mat 3:7, But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Mat 3:8, Therefore bring forth fruit worthy of repentance! *
Mat 3:9, Don’t think to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
Mat 3:10, ”Even now the axe lies at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t bring forth good fruit is cut down, and cast into the fire.
Mat 3:11, I indeed baptize you in water for repentance, but he who comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.
Mat 3:12, His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.”   Emphasis added


Now, if you pay attention to the road sign above, you may avoid an accident or damage to yourself or your car, but if you don’t listen to John’s message about Jesus, you just may be in store for something far worse. Are you listening yet? Time to turn from sin and to Jesus for all the help you will ever need!

Bible Reading May 3-5 by Gary Rose


Bible Reading May 3-5

World  English  Bible


May 3
Deuteronomy 21, 22

Deu 21:1 If one be found slain in the land which Yahweh your God gives you to possess it, lying in the field, and it isn't known who has struck him;
Deu 21:2 then your elders and your judges shall come forth, and they shall measure to the cities which are around him who is slain:
Deu 21:3 and it shall be, that the city which is nearest to the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn't been worked with, and which has not drawn in the yoke;
Deu 21:4 and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley.
Deu 21:5 The priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them Yahweh your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in the name of Yahweh; and according to their word shall every controversy and every stroke be.
Deu 21:6 All the elders of that city, who are nearest to the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley;
Deu 21:7 and they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.
Deu 21:8 Forgive, Yahweh, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don't allow innocent blood to remain in the midst of your people Israel. The blood shall be forgiven them.
Deu 21:9 So you shall put away the innocent blood from the midst of you, when you shall do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh.
Deu 21:10 When you go forth to battle against your enemies, and Yahweh your God delivers them into your hands, and you carry them away captive,
Deu 21:11 and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you have a desire to her, and would take her to you as wife;
Deu 21:12 then you shall bring her home to your house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
Deu 21:13 and she shall put the clothing of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that you shall go in to her, and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
Deu 21:14 It shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she will; but you shall not sell her at all for money, you shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her.
Deu 21:15 If a man have two wives, the one beloved, and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers who was hated;
Deu 21:16 then it shall be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not make the son of the beloved the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn:
Deu 21:17 but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he has; for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.
Deu 21:18 If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and, though they chasten him, will not listen to them;
Deu 21:19 then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place;
Deu 21:20 and they shall tell the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.
Deu 21:21 All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.
Deu 21:22 If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and you hang him on a tree;
Deu 21:23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God; that you don't defile your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.

Deu 22:1 You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep go astray, and hide yourself from them: you shall surely bring them again to your brother.
Deu 22:2 If your brother isn't near to you, or if you don't know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother seek after it, and you shall restore it to him.
Deu 22:3 So you shall do with his donkey; and so you shall do with his garment; and so you shall do with every lost thing of your brother's, which he has lost, and you have found: you may not hide yourself.
Deu 22:4 You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down by the way, and hide yourself from them: you shall surely help him to lift them up again.
Deu 22:5 A woman shall not wear men's clothing, neither shall a man put on women's clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh your God.
Deu 22:6 If a bird's nest chance to be before you in the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the hen sitting on the young, or on the eggs, you shall not take the hen with the young:
Deu 22:7 you shall surely let the hen go, but the young you may take to yourself; that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days.
Deu 22:8 When you build a new house, then you shall make a battlement for your roof, that you don't bring blood on your house, if any man fall from there.
Deu 22:9 You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole fruit be forfeited, the seed which you have sown, and the increase of the vineyard.
Deu 22:10 You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.
Deu 22:11 You shall not wear a mixed stuff, wool and linen together.
Deu 22:12 You shall make yourselves fringes on the four borders of your cloak, with which you cover yourself.
Deu 22:13 If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, and hates her,
Deu 22:14 and accuses her of shameful things, and brings up an evil name on her, and says, I took this woman, and when I came near to her, I didn't find in her the tokens of virginity;
Deu 22:15 then shall the father of the young lady, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the young lady's virginity to the elders of the city in the gate;
Deu 22:16 and the young lady's father shall tell the elders, I gave my daughter to this man to wife, and he hates her;
Deu 22:17 and behold, he has accused her of shameful things, saying, I didn't find in your daughter the tokens of virginity; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. They shall spread the garment before the elders of the city.
Deu 22:18 The elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him;
Deu 22:19 and they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver, and give them to the father of the young lady, because he has brought up an evil name on a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.
Deu 22:20 But if this thing be true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young lady;
Deu 22:21 then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father's house: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.
Deu 22:22 If a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both of them die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman: so you shall put away the evil from Israel.
Deu 22:23 If there is a young lady who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her;
Deu 22:24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones; the lady, because she didn't cry, being in the city; and the man, because he has humbled his neighbor's wife: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.
Deu 22:25 But if the man find the lady who is pledged to be married in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her; then the man only who lay with her shall die:
Deu 22:26 but to the lady you shall do nothing; there is in the lady no sin worthy of death: for as when a man rises against his neighbor, and kills him, even so is this matter;
Deu 22:27 for he found her in the field, the pledged to be married lady cried, and there was none to save her.
Deu 22:28 If a man find a lady who is a virgin, who is not pledged to be married, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found;
Deu 22:29 then the man who lay with her shall give to the lady's father fiftyshekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has humbled her; he may not put her away all his days.
Deu 22:30 A man shall not take his father's wife, and shall not uncover his father's skirt.

May 4
Deuteronomy 23, 24

Deu 23:1 He who is wounded in the stones, or has his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh.
Deu 23:2 A bastard shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation shall none of his enter into the assembly of Yahweh.
Deu 23:3 An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation shall none belonging to them enter into the assembly of Yahweh forever:
Deu 23:4 because they didn't meet you with bread and with water in the way, when you came forth out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.
Deu 23:5 Nevertheless Yahweh your God wouldn't listen to Balaam; but Yahweh your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because Yahweh your God loved you.
Deu 23:6 You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever.
Deu 23:7 You shall not abhor an Edomite; for he is your brother: you shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you lived as a foreigner in his land.
Deu 23:8 The children of the third generation who are born to them shall enter into the assembly of Yahweh.
Deu 23:9 When you go forth in camp against your enemies, then you shall keep yourselves from every evil thing.
Deu 23:10 If there is among you any man who is not clean by reason of that which happens him by night, then shall he go outside of the camp. He shall not come within the camp:
Deu 23:11 but it shall be, when evening comes on, he shall bathe himself in water; and when the sun is down, he shall come within the camp.
Deu 23:12 You shall have a place also outside of the camp, where you shall go forth abroad:
Deu 23:13 and you shall have a paddle among your weapons; and it shall be, when you sit down abroad, you shall dig therewith, and shall turn back and cover that which comes from you:
Deu 23:14 for Yahweh your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you, and to give up your enemies before you; therefore your camp shall be holy, that he may not see an unclean thing in you, and turn away from you.
Deu 23:15 You shall not deliver to his master a servant who is escaped from his master to you:
Deu 23:16 he shall dwell with you, in the midst of you, in the place which he shall choose within one of your gates, where it pleases him best: you shall not oppress him.
Deu 23:17 There shall be no prostitute of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
Deu 23:18 You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute, or the wages of a dog, into the house of Yahweh your God for any vow: for even both these are an abomination to Yahweh your God.
Deu 23:19 You shall not lend on interest to your brother; interest of money, interest of food, interest of anything that is lent on interest:
Deu 23:20 to a foreigner you may lend on interest; but to your brother you shall not lend on interest, that Yahweh your God may bless you in all that you put your hand to, in the land where you go in to possess it.
Deu 23:21 When you shall vow a vow to Yahweh your God, you shall not be slack to pay it: for Yahweh your God will surely require it of you; and it would be sin in you.
Deu 23:22 But if you shall forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in you.
Deu 23:23 That which is gone out of your lips you shall observe and do; according as you have vowed to Yahweh your God, a freewill offering, which you have promised with your mouth.
Deu 23:24 When you come into your neighbor's vineyard, then you may eat of grapes your fill at your own pleasure; but you shall not put any in your vessel.
Deu 23:25 When you come into your neighbor's standing grain, then you may pluck the ears with your hand; but you shall not move a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain.

Deu 24:1 When a man takes a wife, and marries her, then it shall be, if she find no favor in his eyes, because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.
Deu 24:2 When she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife.
Deu 24:3 If the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, who took her to be his wife;
Deu 24:4 her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before Yahweh: and you shall not cause the land to sin, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.
Deu 24:5 When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out in the army, neither shall he be assigned any business: he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer his wife whom he has taken.
Deu 24:6 No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone to pledge; for he takes a man's life to pledge.
Deu 24:7 If a man be found stealing any of his brothers of the children of Israel, and he deal with him as a slave, or sell him; then that thief shall die: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.
Deu 24:8 Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that you observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you: as I commanded them, so you shall observe to do.
Deu 24:9 Remember what Yahweh your God did to Miriam, by the way as you came forth out of Egypt.
Deu 24:10 When you do lend your neighbor any manner of loan, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge.
Deu 24:11 You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you do lend shall bring forth the pledge outside to you.
Deu 24:12 If he be a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge;
Deu 24:13 you shall surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his garment, and bless you: and it shall be righteousness to you before Yahweh your God.
Deu 24:14 You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he be of your brothers, or of your foreigners who are in your land within your gates:
Deu 24:15 in his day you shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor, and sets his heart on it: lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you.
Deu 24:16 The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.
Deu 24:17 You shall not wrest the justice due to the foreigner, or to the fatherless, nor take the widow's clothing to pledge;
Deu 24:18 but you shall remember that you were a bondservant in Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you there: therefore I command you to do this thing.
Deu 24:19 When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgot a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Deu 24:20 When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.
Deu 24:21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it after yourselves: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.
Deu 24:22 You shall remember that you were a bondservant in the land of Egypt: therefore I command you to do this thing.

May 5
Deuteronomy 25, 26

Deu 25:1 If there be a controversy between men, and they come to judgment, and the judges judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked;
Deu 25:2 and it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his wickedness, by number.
Deu 25:3 Forty stripes he may give him, he shall not exceed; lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then your brother should seem vile to you.
Deu 25:4 You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain.
Deu 25:5 If brothers dwell together, and one of them die, and have no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside to a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in to her, and take her to him as wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.
Deu 25:6 It shall be, that the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, that his name not be blotted out of Israel.
Deu 25:7 If the man doesn't want to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuses to raise up to his brother a name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.
Deu 25:8 Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak to him: and if he stand, and say, I don't want to take her;
Deu 25:9 then his brother's wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face; and she shall answer and say, So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.
Deu 25:10 His name shall be called in Israel, The house of him who has his shoe untied.
Deu 25:11 When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draws near to deliver her husband out of the hand of him who strikes him, and puts forth her hand, and takes him by the secrets;
Deu 25:12 then you shall cut off her hand, your eye shall have no pity.
Deu 25:13 You shall not have in your bag diverse weights, a great and a small.
Deu 25:14 You shall not have in your house diverse measures, a great and a small.
Deu 25:15 You shall have a perfect and just weight. You shall have a perfect and just measure, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
Deu 25:16 For all who do such things, even all who do unrighteously, are an abomination to Yahweh your God.
Deu 25:17 Remember what Amalek did to you by the way as you came forth out of Egypt;
Deu 25:18 how he met you by the way, and struck the hindmost of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he didn't fear God.
Deu 25:19 Therefore it shall be, when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky; you shall not forget.

Deu 26:1 It shall be, when you are come in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, and possess it, and dwell therein,
Deu 26:2 that you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you shall bring in from your land that Yahweh your God gives you; and you shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there.
Deu 26:3 You shall come to the priest who shall be in those days, and tell him, I profess this day to Yahweh your God, that I am come to the land which Yahweh swore to our fathers to give us.
Deu 26:4 The priest shall take the basket out of your hand, and set it down before the altar of Yahweh your God.
Deu 26:5 You shall answer and say before Yahweh your God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father; and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there, few in number; and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous.
Deu 26:6 The Egyptians dealt ill with us, and afflicted us, and laid on us hard bondage:
Deu 26:7 and we cried to Yahweh, the God of our fathers, and Yahweh heard our voice, and saw our affliction, and our toil, and our oppression;
Deu 26:8 and Yahweh brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terror, and with signs, and with wonders;
Deu 26:9 and he has brought us into this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Deu 26:10 Now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, Yahweh, have given me. You shall set it down before Yahweh your God, and worship before Yahweh your God.
Deu 26:11 You shall rejoice in all the good which Yahweh your God has given to you, and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the foreigner who is in the midst of you.
Deu 26:12 When you have made an end of tithing all the tithe of your increase in the third year, which is the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within your gates, and be filled.
Deu 26:13 You shall say before Yahweh your God, I have put away the holy things out of my house, and also have given them to the Levite, and to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all your commandment which you have commanded me: I have not transgressed any of your commandments, neither have I forgotten them:
Deu 26:14 I have not eaten of it in my mourning, neither have I put away of it, being unclean, nor given of it for the dead: I have listened to the voice of Yahweh my God; I have done according to all that you have commanded me.
Deu 26:15 Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel, and the ground which you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Deu 26:16 This day Yahweh your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances: you shall therefore keep and do them with all your heart, and with all your soul.
Deu 26:17 You have declared Yahweh this day to be your God, and that you would walk in his ways, and keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his ordinances, and listen to his voice:
Deu 26:18 and Yahweh has declared you this day to be a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you should keep all his commandments;
Deu 26:19 and to make you high above all nations that he has made, in praise, and in name, and in honor; and that you may be a holy people to Yahweh your God, as he has spoken.

May 3

Luke 18

Luk 18:1 He also spoke a parable to them that they must always pray, and not give up,
Luk 18:2 saying, "There was a judge in a certain city who didn't fear God, and didn't respect man.
Luk 18:3 A widow was in that city, and she often came to him, saying, 'Defend me from my adversary!'
Luk 18:4 He wouldn't for a while, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God, nor respect man,
Luk 18:5 yet because this widow bothers me, I will defend her, or else she will wear me out by her continual coming.' "
Luk 18:6 The Lord said, "Listen to what the unrighteous judge says.
Luk 18:7 Won't God avenge his chosen ones, who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them?
Luk 18:8 I tell you that he will avenge them quickly. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
Luk 18:9 He spoke also this parable to certain people who were convinced of their own righteousness, and who despised all others.
Luk 18:10 "Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector.
Luk 18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: 'God, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortioners, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
Luk 18:12 I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.'
Luk 18:13 But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn't even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'
Luk 18:14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Luk 18:15 They were also bringing their babies to him, that he might touch them. But when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.
Luk 18:16 Jesus summoned them, saying, "Allow the little children to come to me, and don't hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
Luk 18:17 Most certainly, I tell you, whoever doesn't receive the Kingdom of God like a little child, he will in no way enter into it."
Luk 18:18 A certain ruler asked him, saying, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
Luk 18:19 Jesus asked him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good, except one-God.
Luk 18:20 You know the commandments: 'Don't commit adultery,' 'Don't murder,' 'Don't steal,' 'Don't give false testimony,' 'Honor your father and your mother.' "
Luk 18:21 He said, "I have observed all these things from my youth up."
Luk 18:22 When Jesus heard these things, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have, and distribute it to the poor. You will have treasure in heaven. Come, follow me."
Luk 18:23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was very rich.
Luk 18:24 Jesus, seeing that he became very sad, said, "How hard it is for those who have riches to enter into the Kingdom of God!
Luk 18:25 For it is easier for a camel to enter in through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God."
Luk 18:26 Those who heard it said, "Then who can be saved?"
Luk 18:27 But he said, "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God."
Luk 18:28 Peter said, "Look, we have left everything, and followed you."
Luk 18:29 He said to them, "Most certainly I tell you, there is no one who has left house, or wife, or brothers, or parents, or children, for the Kingdom of God's sake,
Luk 18:30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the world to come, eternal life."
Luk 18:31 He took the twelve aside, and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all the things that are written through the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be completed.
Luk 18:32 For he will be delivered up to the Gentiles, will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit on.
Luk 18:33 They will scourge and kill him. On the third day, he will rise again."
Luk 18:34 They understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they didn't understand the things that were said.
Luk 18:35 It happened, as he came near Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the road, begging.
Luk 18:36 Hearing a multitude going by, he asked what this meant.
Luk 18:37 They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by.
Luk 18:38 He cried out, "Jesus, you son of David, have mercy on me!"
Luk 18:39 Those who led the way rebuked him, that he should be quiet; but he cried out all the more, "You son of David, have mercy on me!"
Luk 18:40 Standing still, Jesus commanded him to be brought to him. When he had come near, he asked him,
Luk 18:41 "What do you want me to do?" He said, "Lord, that I may see again."
Luk 18:42 Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight. Your faith has healed you."
Luk 18:43 Immediately he received his sight, and followed him, glorifying God. All the people, when they saw it, praised God.

May 4, 5
Luke 19

Luk 19:1 He entered and was passing through Jericho.
Luk 19:2 There was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.
Luk 19:3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, and couldn't because of the crowd, because he was short.
Luk 19:4 He ran on ahead, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way.
Luk 19:5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him, and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house."
Luk 19:6 He hurried, came down, and received him joyfully.
Luk 19:7 When they saw it, they all murmured, saying, "He has gone in to lodge with a man who is a sinner."
Luk 19:8 Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much."
Luk 19:9 Jesus said to him, "Today, salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham.
Luk 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost."
Luk 19:11 As they heard these things, he went on and told a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the Kingdom of God would be revealed immediately.
Luk 19:12 He said therefore, "A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.
Luk 19:13 He called ten servants of his, and gave them ten mina coins, and told them, 'Conduct business until I come.'
Luk 19:14 But his citizens hated him, and sent an envoy after him, saying, 'We don't want this man to reign over us.'
Luk 19:15 "It happened when he had come back again, having received the kingdom, that he commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by conducting business.
Luk 19:16 The first came before him, saying, 'Lord, your mina has made ten more minas.'
Luk 19:17 "He said to him, 'Well done, you good servant! Because you were found faithful with very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.'
Luk 19:18 "The second came, saying, 'Your mina, Lord, has made five minas.'
Luk 19:19 "So he said to him, 'And you are to be over five cities.'
Luk 19:20 Another came, saying, 'Lord, behold, your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief,
Luk 19:21 for I feared you, because you are an exacting man. You take up that which you didn't lay down, and reap that which you didn't sow.'
Luk 19:22 "He said to him, 'Out of your own mouth will I judge you, you wicked servant! You knew that I am an exacting man, taking up that which I didn't lay down, and reaping that which I didn't sow.
Luk 19:23 Then why didn't you deposit my money in the bank, and at my coming, I might have earned interest on it?'
Luk 19:24 He said to those who stood by, 'Take the mina away from him, and give it to him who has the ten minas.'
Luk 19:25 "They said to him, 'Lord, he has ten minas!'
Luk 19:26 'For I tell you that to everyone who has, will more be given; but from him who doesn't have, even that which he has will be taken away from him.
Luk 19:27 But bring those enemies of mine who didn't want me to reign over them here, and kill them before me.' "
Luk 19:28 Having said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
Luk 19:29 It happened, when he drew near to Bethsphage and Bethany, at the mountain that is called Olivet, he sent two of his disciples,
Luk 19:30 saying, "Go your way into the village on the other side, in which, as you enter, you will find a colt tied, whereon no man ever yet sat. Untie it, and bring it.
Luk 19:31 If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' say to him: 'The Lord needs it.' "
Luk 19:32 Those who were sent went away, and found things just as he had told them.
Luk 19:33 As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, "Why are you untying the colt?"
Luk 19:34 They said, "The Lord needs it."
Luk 19:35 They brought it to Jesus. They threw their cloaks on the colt, and set Jesus on them.
Luk 19:36 As he went, they spread their cloaks in the way.
Luk 19:37 As he was now getting near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works which they had seen,
Luk 19:38 saying, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!"
Luk 19:39 Some of the Pharisees from the multitude said to him, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"
Luk 19:40 He answered them, "I tell you that if these were silent, the stones would cry out."
Luk 19:41 When he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it,
Luk 19:42 saying, "If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes.
Luk 19:43 For the days will come on you, when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side,
Luk 19:44 and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn't know the time of your visitation."
Luk 19:45 He entered into the temple, and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it,
Luk 19:46 saying to them, "It is written, 'My house is a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of robbers'!"
Luk 19:47 He was teaching daily in the temple, but the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among the people sought to destroy him.
Luk 19:48 They couldn't find what they might do, for all the people hung on to every word that he said.

DID JESUS BELIEVE IN HELL? By Dub McClish

http://www.oldpaths.com/Archive/McClish/Henry/WardenJr/1938/DID-JESUS-BELIEVE-IN-HELL.html


DID JESUS BELIEVE IN HELL?


By Dub McClish

Introduction
Hell has fallen on hard times. The most frequent reference to it nowadays is as a term of cursing, swearing, or intensification of expression. Others use it in a weak attempt at levity: “I want to go to Hell; after all, that’s where all my friends will be.” Many moderns have tried to take the murky-gray road of claiming—simultaneously—to believe in the existence of Hell, but professing to know of no one who does anything sufficiently evil to go there. Increasing numbers who profess their belief in Christ are openly denying its existence. The outright denial of Hell to any great degree, and its companion, loss of belief in Hell, are phenomena of relatively recent times.1

A Brief History of the Deconstruction of Hell

For sixteen centuries the doctrine of eternal punishment of the wicked at the hands of a just God was a matter of certain conviction almost universally throughout Christendom. In fact, this was the prevailing view even in the intertestamental period which preceded Christ and His doctrine: “Everlasting punishment of the wicked was and always will be the orthodox theory. It was held by the Jews at the time of Christ, with the exception of the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection” (Schaff, 2:606-07). The only significant voice among the ancients who dissented from the orthodox view of Hell was Origen (A.D. third century), later condemned (rightly, in this case) by two ecumenical councils for his heresy. However, with the arrival of the Renaissance, man’s emphasis shifted from theo-centric to anthropo-centric. Humanism, with man at its center as the be-all, do-all, and end-all, began to displace God. The farther man moved himself up, the farther he pushed God down. Man became so valuable and so precious, even to the “theistic” humanist, that he could not abide the thought of eternal punishment or retribution, or of a sin serious enough to warrant it.
From the sixteenth century on, God’s judgment was a constant target for attack by humanists both within and outside the church. Hell and humanism didn’t mix; they can’t mix and never will mix. It just won’t do to have highly exalted man experiencing the torments of hell eternally. First, it is presumed that the precious creature couldn’t possibly do anything bad enough to warrant such punishment. And even more significantly, the humanists are convinced that God could not bear the eternal loss of even one of these marvelous man-creatures (Braun, 35–36).
Certain radical infidel theologians have become outspoken deniers of Hell and have influenced many other clerics. A good example of such blasphemy is from the pen of the late John A.T. Robinson, a Bishop of the Church of England. As long ago as 1949 he wrote:
Christ, in Origen’s old words, remains on the Cross as long as one sinner remains in hell. That is not speculation; it is a statement grounded in the very necessity of God’s nature. In a universe of love, there can be no heaven which tolerates a chamber of horrors, no hell for any which does not at the same time make it hell for God. He cannot endure that—for that would be the final mockery of His nature—and He will not (“Universalism…,” 155).
Eighteen years later he wrote as though the destruction of Hell was a fait accompli: “There are still a few who would like to bring back hell, as some want to bring back birching and hanging. They are usually the same types who wish to purge Britain of horror comics, sex, and violence” (But That…, p. 69).
Another of Robinson’s ilk was Emil Brunner, a Swiss theologian, who averred in 1954 that
…the revealed will of God and the plan for the world which He discloses, a plan of universal salvation, of gathering all things into Christ. We hear not one word in the Bible of a dual plan, a plan of salvation and its polar opposite. The will of God has but one point, it is unambiguous and positive. It has one aim, not two (182).
Obviously, Brunner read the Sacred Text through liberal corrupted spectacles. Aside from the insistent Biblical theme of judgment against and eternal punishment for impenitent transgressors of God’s will, the very existence of a plan of salvation necessarily implies “its polar opposite”—damnation. The will of God is “unambiguous and positive” all right, but about the existence (rather than non-existence) of a final Judgment and of eternal retribution for sin in a place called “Hell.”
As often occurs, those once considered radicals have gradually become almost mainstream, and the abnormal has increasingly become “normal.” Denominational theological seminaries have for a century or more been filled with professors who are rank liberals and modernists, most of whom have no stomach for (among other things) anything unpleasant, “negative,” or foreboding regarding religion, their handling of the Bible, and their concept of God and His Son. The Bible to them is an antique plaything, a mere curiosity to be treated with no more respect than the works of Shakespeare. This posture, their default position, all but categorically ignores Divine Justice and its necessary implication—Divinely administered eternal punishment for unforgiven sin.
These schools have turned out tens of thousands of unbelieving ecclesiastics who have spewed out their message of unbelief week after week in denominational pulpits across the land (why should we wonder that so few of our fellow-citizens now respect the Bible as the Word of God and that general morality continues to plummet?). At the heart of their theology is an over- (and pseudo-) emphasis on the love, grace, mercy, kindness, and longsuffering of God. Their lopsided, perverted message drastically de-emphasizes (when it mentions them at all) the balancing traits of God’s justice, law, wrath against sin, and the corollary implication of these verities—Hell as retribution for impenitent sinners. Seminaries—and the pulpits they have staffed—have so watered down the general Biblical “orthodoxy” of centuries that even so-called “evangelical” churches (including the big “community” churches) nowadays are freely accepting such things as divorce and remarriage for any cause, recreational sex, social drinking, and even homosexual behavior as compatible with a “Christian lifestyle” and the hope of Heaven.
Such Modernism was bad enough, but it inevitably led to the even deadlier philosophy of Postmodernism, which eschews facts and evidence, allowing each man’s feelings/opinions to determine “truth” (at least for him). In turn, even more recently, Postmodernism has spawned the “Emerging Church” ideology, which, while still claiming to be a “Christian” movement, is hardly more than a new version of Universalism, holding out hope to Hindus, Muslims, and you name it. (Informed readers understand that, by definition, Universalism demands the denial of eternal punishment for sinful men in its advocacy of their universal salvation.) While the Emerging Churchapproach is the growing rage in current theology, few schemes could be more anti-Biblical or anti-Christian.
The Humanism produced by the Renaissance has spawned at least five distinct schools of Hell-denial:
1.   Universalism—Hell could not exist as an eternal state because God is too loving and benevolent to allow anyone to suffer forever in such a place. Therefore, all will be saved regardless of belief or behavior.
2.   Annihilationism/Extinctionism—The wicked cease to exist at death (or soon following the Judgment, after a brief period of torment).
3.   Atheistic Humanism—Mankind is the ultimate form of life. Since God does not exist, moral absolutes, accountability, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell do not exist.
4.   Liberalism/Modernism—While Hell may exist, no sin is bad enough nor sinner wicked enough to deserve it (a “lite” version of Universalism).
5.   New Ageism—Lack of or low self-esteem is the root of all human problems. The Biblical worldview is responsible for this failure. To the New Ager, “acknowledging oneself as a sinner destroys a human being. His solution to this is simply to define sin out of existence and declare man sinless” (Michaelsen, 289). This tactic, of course, also defines Hell out of existence. One can see some common threads between Postmodernism, Emerging Churchism, and New Ageism.

 

No-Hell Advocates “Among Us”

Among those still claiming membership in the church of Christ, I am aware of only one who has gone on record in modern times as a full-fledged Universalist: Richard Beck, Professor and Psychology Department Chairman at Abilene Christian University, blatantly lays out his convictions on his blog (Experimental Theology). (Are any still in denial about the utter apostasy of this institution?)
However, a few (but apparently growing number) have imbibed its first cousin— the annihilation/extinction dogma—in recent years. The “pioneer” in this respect is Edward Fudge, an elder in the historically apostate Bering Drive Church of Christ in Houston, Texas. In a 1982 “ten-pound” tome, The Fire that Consumes, he argues that God will punish the wicked only temporarily following the Judgment, after which they will be subject to “total, everlasting extinction” (425, 435–36). John Clayton, who has circulated widely among the Lord’s people, lecturing on apologetics for more than three decades (in spite of his being repeatedly exposed as a “theistic evolutionist),” has excitedly endorsed Fudge’s book (20). Al Pickering, who gained moderate notoriety among brethren in the 1970s with his “Sharpening the Sword” Seminars, is an ardent advocate of the Fudge contention (Jackson, “Changing Attitudes,” 66). He has since made total shipwreck of the faith and works among various denominations, but principally Independent Christian Churches, in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, area.
F. LaGard Smith (at one time a “Scholar in Residence” at Lipscomb University, but currently a “Visiting Professor” at Faulkner University’s Jones School of Law) first voiced his denial of eternal punishment at the 1988 Pepperdine University Lectures (Jackson, “Eternal Punishment”). In 2003, he (as did Fudge) devoted a book to the subject (After Life). The late Homer Hailey, longtime teacher at Florida College, advocated his extinction views in a booklet published in 2003 after his death in 2000 (God’s Judgements…[sic]).
Jimmy Allen, long-time Bible teacher/professor at Harding University, is perhaps best remembered by thousands of brethren for his sermon, “What Is Hell Like?” and for the tract by the same title. His message on the subject was powerful and Biblical throughout. However, he could/would not preach that message today and has admitted that he has not preached on this subject at all for twenty-five years. He published his autobiography in 2004, in which he includes a chapter on “Changing Views.” In it, he wrote,
There are some things I have said in the past that I can no longer repeat. It is the question of whether punishment is endless or not that plagues me. I am not a Universalist. Nor do I believe an unprepared person is annihilated at death or in the resurrection (220–21).
A few others, not so well known, have also joined the “no-Hell” chorus, led by those just mentioned.
Moreover, the number of brethren is already many and is ever increasing, who, in their loose and latitudinarian approach to grace, baptism, the identity of the church, fellowship, worship, the nature of God, and Biblical authority in general are de facto—if not de jure— Universalists and annihilationists. By this I mean that these brethren will hardly identify any doctrine as heresy or any practice as sinful (e.g., allowing that at the Judgment God will make “exceptions” to His plan of salvation to save unbaptized “believers”). These folk will not oppose or expose any teacher or preacher as false or his/her doctrine as damnable, regardless of how foreign or contrary to Gospel Truth it may be. Furthermore, they do not want anyone else to oppose or expose them. They wittingly embrace in their fellowship those who are not in fellowship with God and shun those of us who dare call them to account. They have found ways of contorting the Scriptures and redefining ordinary words so as to grant approval to adulterers and drunkards and to heretics of every stripe and hue.
Shall we surrender the existence of Hell to the infidels, the skeptics, and the liberals?
Without question, the denial or at least the mitigation of Hell is very appealing. If we are guided by human lust and selfish indulgence alone, who could not be attracted to the doctrine that eliminates consequential sin, ultimate accountability for behavior, a code of conduct imposed by a Supreme Being/Creator, and final, inescapable, horrible retribution for rebellion against the Creator’s law? Undeniably, multiplied millions, in one way or another, have dismissed the reality of Hell.

 

What Did Jesus Say About Hell?

Did Jesus believe in the existence of an eternal, punitive Hell? If He did, the crucial issue concerning belief in Hell becomes the even larger issue—belief in Christ Himself!
In the face of all of the denials of Hell, there still remains the stubborn, nagging, undeniable fact that Jesus had much to say about Hell and eternal punishment. In fact, He said much more about Hell than he did about Heaven. When correctly perceived, every warning about the Judgment, every condemnation of evil, every encouragement to righteousness, and every declaration about sin has the concept of eternal damnation behind it and embedded in it. Otherwise, they are meaningless, empty words. Moreover, Jesus’ earthly sojourn and the purpose of His coming were unnecessary apart from the fact that “all have sinned” and “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 3:23; 6:23). Indeed, setting aside the plain teaching of Jesus about Hell for the moment, the coming of the Christ from Heaven to earth and the sacrifice of Himself upon the cross for our sins are the ultimate arguments for the reality of Hell. Now, let us survey the teaching of Jesus about Hell.

 

MAN HAS AN EVER-LIVING SOUL

For Hell to exist for human beings they must survive physical death; in other words, they must have/be a soul that does not perish at death. Jesus taught unequivocally that man is more than flesh and blood: “And be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mat. 10:28; cf. 16:26

THERE IS A REALM IN THE WORLD OF SPIRITS CALLED “HELL”

Jesus clearly referred to Hell in Matthew 10:28, quoted above, in such a way as to declare its reality. He threatened “the hell of fire” for those who pronounce, thou fool, upon their fellows (Mat. 5:22). He referred to Hell as a real entity, a place into which bodies would be “cast down” as retribution for sin (vv. 29–30). One who causes another to sin will be cast into “the hell of fire” (18:9). The Lord referred to Hell as the final abode of the wicked no fewer than eleven times.
What is Hell, as referred to by Jesus? What did He mean by the term and what is its origin? Note first that the King James Version often reads Hell when, in fact, Hades is the correct term (transliterated from the Grk., hades, meaning “unseen,” referring to the unseen realm of the dead, i.e., departed spirits; e.g., Mat. 16:18; Acts 2:27; et al.). Our English word, Hell, correctly translates gehenna, which appears twelve times in the Greek New Testament (as earlier mentioned, eleven of which the Lord employed, James using the remaining one).
Gehenna derived from the Hebrew term, Ge-Hinnom, literally, the Valley of Hinnom (also referred to as “the valley of the Sons of Hinnom”), a valley Jerusalem overlooks to its south, first mentioned in Nehemiah 11:30. Historically, it was the site where idolatrous Jews burned their children in homage to the pagan god Molech (2 Chr. 28:3; 33:6). Josiah, the righteous restorer king of Judah, five centuries before Christ, abolished this atrocity, and the valley thenceforth became a place of abomination and abhorrence—indeed the dump ground for the city where fire perpetually smoldered. As early as the second century B.C., uninspired Jewish literature used gehenna as a figure to refer to final, eternal punishment of sinners. The Son of God applied this word in the very same way, using the name of the literal valley to refer to the place of ultimate and eternal abomination and abhorrence beyond the Judgment.

 

HELL IS AWFUL AND DREADFUL BEYOND IMAGINATION

1.   Jesus attached the original imagery of the fires of Molech worship in Gehenna to eternal Hell as a place of fire. He twice called it “the hell of fire” (Mat. 5:22; 18:9). He twice referred to it as “the furnace of fire” into which the evilwill be cast after the Judgment (13:42, 50). He twice called it a place of “unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43, 47–48). We correctly identify the Hell the Lord thus describes with “the lake of fire and brimstone” and “the lake of fire” into which the devil, the beast, the false prophet, and all those persons not named in the book of life were cast for eternal torment (Rev. 20:10, 15; 21:8). John appropriately called it a “baptism” (dipping, plunging, overwhelming) in unquenchable fire (Mat. 3:11–12).
2.   Additionally, the Lord intensified His description by labeling it as a place “where their worm dieth not” (Mark. 9:47–48). The depiction is one of maggots eating living flesh. Though obviously figurative language (neither fleshor literal maggots will be in the realm of spirits), the figure graphically portrays terrible agony and pain.
3.   Jesus described Hell as a place where those cast would be “destroyed” (Mat. 10:28). The annihilationists/extinctionists all but camp on this passage, asserting that it supports their contention that destroyed equals annihilated. However, even the simplest Greek word study proves otherwise. Destroyed translates apollumi, found in numerous passages in which annihilation cannot possibly be its meaning. For example, it is rendered “burst” (Mat. 9:17), “lost” (Luke 15:4–9), and “perish” (v. 17). Neither these nor numerous other such passages can bear the idea of annihilation or non-existence as the meaning of apollumi. Joseph Henry Thayer, the renowned Greek authority, was a Unitarian who did not believe in eternal punishment, yet his knowledge of the meaning of apollumi (and his honesty) forced him to define this word as “to be delivered up to eternal misery” (36). Robert Morey, in his book, Death and the Afterlife, concluded:
In every instance where the word apollumi is found in the New Testament, something other than annihilation is being described. Indeed, there isn’t a single instance in the New Testament where apollumi means annihilation in the strict meaning of the word (90).
The idea of being “destroyed” in Hell is that one will suffer utter, irreclaimable loss, and he will do so forever. Jesus also used the noun form of this word in reference to Hell (i.e., destruction, Mat. 7:13).
4.   Jesus referred to Hell as a place of “eternal punishment” (Mat. 25:46). The word rendered “punishment” (kolasis) means torment, torture, suffering, chastisement (cf. Luke 16:23, 28; Rev. 14:10–11). Jesus repeatedly described the severity of the suffering of those in Hell as productive of “the weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mat. 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30).
5.   The Hell which Jesus believed in and described is a place of separation from God, Christ, and the redeemed—banishment from the presence of God and from Heaven, His abode. The lost are “cast into hell” (Mat. 5:29). Jesus will say, “Depart from me” to the lost at the Judgment (7:23). Hell is a place of “outer darkness” (8:12, et al.). At the Judgment He will say to impenitent sinners, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire . . .” (25:41). The wicked will be “cast forth without” relative to the eternal kingdom of God (Luke 13:28). Similarly, Paul wrote that the lost will be banished eternally “from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 The. 1:9). Just as evil men are those now “having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12), if they do not repent they will find themselves hopeless and without God in the eternal realm (Rev. 22:15).
6.   The Lord teaches that Hell is a place where one will be inescapably confined with Satan and all of the evil men and women of all time. While the fire of Hell was “prepared for the devil and his angels,” at the Judgment, the lost will be consigned to the same place (Mat. 25:41). John echoed this same doctrine (Rev. 20:10, 15; 21:8). Imagine being imprisoned forever with the most evil men and women of all time with no relief or hope of escape!

 

HELL IS EVERLASTING, ETERNAL, FOREVER

Jesus not only teaches the reality of Hell, but the eternality of it. However long Heaven lasts, so long lasts Hell. To conclude His description of the Final Judgment, He said, “and these shall go away into eternal punishment:but the righteous into eternal life” (Mat. 25:46, ASV).
The no-Hell heresy made a much earlier appearance among the Lord’s people than in recent years, as noted above. In 1846, Jesse B. Ferguson, a brilliant, eloquent, and influential young preacher, moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Some six years thereafter, he began teaching various errors that led to his complete abandonment of the faith. Among these errors was his denial that the wicked will be punished after death and the Judgment (West,264). Various godly men withstood this grievous error and reclaimed as many as possible who fell prey to it. Among brethren, Ben Franklin was one of the most widely known and respected preachers and writers of that era, and the following statement from him exemplifies the vigor with which faithful men withstood Ferguson’s error and its influence. Note his comments on the Lord’s words in Matthew 25:46, directly addressing Ferguson’s heresy:
Everlasting and eternal [KJV] are from the same [word] in the original. “Everlasting punishment,” and not everlasting annihilation, nor everlasting extinction of being, nor everlasting non-existence, is what the Lord threatens…. At the same time the righteous enter into “life eternal,” the wicked “go away into everlasting punishment.”…The same word used by the Lord, in the same sentence to express the duration of the life of the saints is used to express the duration of the punishment of the wicked. It is as likely that the life of the saints shall terminate, as that the punishment of the wicked shall cease. There is no word in any language that more certainly expresses unlimited duration than this word, aionion. It is used to express the duration of the life of the saints, the praises of God, and even the existence of God…(279).
As Franklin did in the nineteenth century, so must we forcefully expose, oppose, and refute this damnable doctrine in the twenty-first century.
The fire of Hell is “unquenchable” fire (Mat. 3:12; Mark 9:43, 48). The “eternal fire” Jesus mentioned in Matthew 18:8, he identifies as the “hell of fire” in verse 9. Paul continued this thought by describing the damnation of those who “know not God, and . . . obey not the gospel” as “eternal destruction” (2 The. 1:8–9). John wrote that the lake of fire and brimstone is characterized by torment “day and night for ever and ever” (Rev. 20:10). No one can believe the words of Jesus and believe in the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory or any other concept of temporary, much less of non-existent punishment in the realm of spirits! One who claims to believe in Jesus’ doctrine concerning Heaven, while denying His doctrine concerning Hell is not only inconsistent. He is intellectually dishonest.

 

JESUS TELLS US THE POPULACE OF HELL

1.   Self-righteous, pride-filled, egotistic persons who deprecate others as lower and less worthy than themselves: “But I say unto you, that every one who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of the hell of fire” (Mat. 5:22).
2.   Those who are unwilling to sacrifice whatever causes them to sin or keeps them from serving God (vv. 27–30).
3.   Those who confess Christ, but will not obey God, even though they claim to work by the authority of Christ:
Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out demons, and by thy name do many mighty works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (7:21–23).
4.   Those who reject the messengers, and the message, of Christ (10:14–15).
5.   Those who persist in unbelief in the face of overwhelming evidence of the authenticity of the Christ (11:20–24).
6.   False teachers and their followers (15:13–14).
7.   Those who are hypocrites, who profess one thing and practice another (23:13–36).
8.   The wicked, careless, neglectful, wasteful, murmuring, blaspheming, lazy persons, as depicted in various parables (Mat. 24:45–25:30; Luke 19:12–27).
9.   Those who are selfish, stingy, cold, unkind, uncompassionate, and unsympathetic (Mat. 25:41–46).
Other inspired writers also define the populace of Hell: Paul listed the full gamut of wickedness, evil, immorality, worldliness, and unrighteousness, which constitute the gratifications of the “lusts of the flesh,” and said that those who thus behave (whether Christians or alien sinners) are Hell-bound (Rom 1:18–32; 1 Cor. 6:9–11; Gal. 5:19–21). He also mentioned as future residents of Hell the “lawless one,” those who receive not the love of the Truth, those who make “shipwreck concerning the faith,” those who succumb to the deceitfulness of riches, and those who are heretics or factious (2 The. 2:4–12; 1 Tim. 1:19–20; 6:9–10; Tit. 3:10–11).
Peter identified brethren who are false teachers, who themselves are overtaken by evil and who entice others to follow their wicked doctrines and practices, as those who will be lost in Hell (2 Pet. 2:1–22).
John consigned not only Satan, the beast, and the false prophet to Hell, but also all men who had followed them in wickedness, evil, and immorality of all sorts and whose names are therefore not written in the book of life (Rev. 19:20; 20:10, 15; 21:8; 22:15).
Jude averred that God’s Divine Judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah was typical of the “punishment of eternal fire” that the impenitent and ungodly will suffer at the final Judgment (v.7). Surely, he who says his pleasure in fleshly lusts in this earthly life is worth being confined to eternal Hell knows not what he says!

 

Conclusion

There you have it, straight from the mouth of the Only Begotten of the Father, Jesus the Christ, and from His inspired men. After quoting several passages in which the Lord set forth the doctrine of Hell as a place of eternal punishment for the ungodly, Jon Braun queried and observed:
Does any question remain as to whether or not Jesus declared the eternal punishment of the wicked? All the authority of the almighty God is present in the Words He spoke about hell. Jesus had more to say about hell than any other speaker or writer in the Bible. If He was mistaken in what He said, then the almighty, eternal, and everlasting God was mistaken. And that is not the case. Indeed, if it comes to a disagreement: “Let God be true and every man a liar.” . . . What more could Jesus have said? There is absolutely no way the clear impact of His words can be brushed aside, and the assertion made that there is no eternal doom for the ungodly, unless of course, we join the critics who arbitrarily determine that Jesus didn’t really say these things at all. . . . Those who maintain Jesus did not utter these severe sayings about hell are like gamblers playing a game they will surely lose. . . . Jesus, the One who is coming again to judge the living and the dead, expressed Himself clearly and without room for doubt about it. The rest of the New Testament writers followed His lead to the letter. Retribution for the ungodly is eternal, without end (146, 163).
Men must make their choice between the annihilationists, the liberal theologians, the Humanists, the Universalists, the New Agers, the Emergers, and all other “no-Hell” advocates on the one hand and the Son of God on the other. None can be taken seriously, therefore, who question and/or deny that He taught the reality of Hell as a place of eternal punishment for the wicked. Those who reject His teaching also thereby reject Him as the Son of God and the Savior of mankind (John 12:48).
Johanna Michaelsen, after quoting from various New Agers and their totally subjective denials of the existence of the devil, sin, and Hell, drew the following incisive conclusion:
If hell is not a literal reality then Jesus was indeed a fool for going to the cross: The whole reason He did so was in order to save us from that place of eternal torment and separation from God. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24) (299).
Heaven and Hell stand or fall together—in reality and in duration. If Heaven is real and eternal, so is Hell. If Hell is denied, so must Heaven be. They are both as real as the God Who made us and Who gave us the inspired revelation concerning Himself, His Son, and their marvelous plan of salvation. In His great mercy this same God has warned us of Satan, sin, the Judgment, and Hell. God sent His Son into our world in the flesh that we might have a road through otherwise impassable territory to Heaven and to God (John 1:1–2, 14; 3:16; Phi. 2:5–8).
Jesus, the Christ of God, is Himself that road and the only road that leads to God and Heaven (John 14:6). If we walk on that narrow, admittedly difficult way, it leads to life (Mat. 7:14). If we reject the Christ and His way, we have chosen the road (which actually includes countless other roads of human innovation and invention) that leads ultimately to Hell (v. 13). Jesus’ own simple summary of entering that road to Heaven is as follows: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned” (Mark 16:16).
The picture of Hell in the words of Jesus is so frighteningly, horribly, terribly unimaginable that He boldly challenges all men to make whatever sacrifice is necessary to escape its horrors (Mat. 5:29–30; 6:19–25, 33; 8:18–22; 10:28, 37–38; 13:44–45; 16:24–26; 19:21–22; et al). Surely, this is the course of wisdom! God’s faithful people must be ever vigilant against those who seek to fasten the no-Hell doctrinal innovation upon the church.

Endnote

For this article I borrowed heavily from a MS I wrote in 1992, “What Jesus Says About Hell.” Said MS appeared as a chapter in Whatever Happened to Heaven and Hell? Ed. Terry M. Hightower (San Antonio, TX: Shenandoah Church of Christ, 1993). This book is no longer in print.

Works Cited

Allen, Jimmy. Fire in My Bones An Autobiography of Jimmy Allen. Searcy, AR: Self-published, 2004.
Beck, Richard. “Why I am a Universalist.” Experimental Theologyhttp://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2006/11/why-i-am-universalist-summing-up-and.html.
Braun, Jon. E. Whatever Happened to Hell? Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Pub., 1979. Brunner, Emil. Eternal Hope. Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press, 1954.
Clayton, John N. Does God Exist? September/October, 1990.
Franklin, Benjamin. A Book of Gems. Ed. J.A. Headington and Joseph Franklin: Nashville, TN: Gospel Advocate Co., 1960.
Fudge, Edward. The Fire That Consumes. Houston, TX: Providential Press, 1982.
Hailey, Homer. God’s Judgements [sic& Punishments [sic]. Las Vegas, NV: Nevada Pub., 2003.
Jackson, Wayne. “The Doctrine of Eternal Punishment.” Christian Courier. https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/95-the-doctrine-of-eternal-punishment
Jackson, Wayne. “Changing Attitudes Toward Hell.” Whatever Happened to Heaven and Hell? Ed. Terry M. Hightower. San Antonio, TX: Shenandoah Church of Christ, 1993.
Michaelsen, Johanna. Like Lambs to the Slaughter. Eugene, OR: Harvest House Pub., 1989. Morey, Robert A. Death and the Afterlife. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Pub., 1984.
Robinson, John A.T. But That I Can’t Believe. New York, NY: The New American Library, 1967. Robinson, John A.T. “Universalism—Is It Heretical? Scottish Journal of Theology (June 1949). Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1973. Smith, F. LaGard. After Life. Nashville, TN: Cotswold Pub., 2003.
Thayer, Joseph Henry. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1957.
West, Earl Irvin. The Search for the Ancient Order. Nashville, TN: Gospel Advocate Co., 1949.
[NOTE: I wrote this MS for the 38th Annual Bellview Lectures, hosted by the Bellview Church of Christ, Pensacola, FL, June 7–11, 2013. I delivered a digest of it orally and it was published in the lectureship book, Innovations (ed., Michael Hatcher, Pensacola, FL: Bellview Church of Christ)].

Published in The Old Paths Archive
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