A Few Thoughts About Hell
Modern views
B1 Restored Church of God:
C1
The most common image of people “roasting in hell” pictures a God
willing to burn people for all eternity without ever totally burning
them up. Apart from what the scriptures teach, ask yourself, what kind
of God is capable of this? Modern “human rights activists” recognize the
terrible evil of torture—even in its temporary forms. Would the loving
God of the Bible design an everlasting torture chamber? If so, He would
have to witness—for the rest of eternity—the suffering of those that He had condemned to such a “hell.”
C2 We might also ask: How enjoyable could salvation be for the saved if they were forced
to watch their children or parents—and other loved ones—screaming in
pain and agony for the rest of time? Do you see the absurdity of this
idea? Yet millions upon millions come to this conclusion when they
accept the beliefs surrounding the popular concept of hell. (Source)
B2 The Seventh Day Adventist believes in conditional mortality, but they are not very specific about it on their official web site.
C1 Statement on Evangelical Conditionalism
D1 Conditionalism is the view that life is the Creator’s provisional gift to all, which will ultimately be granted forever to the saved and revoked forever from the unsaved.
D2 Evangelical conditionalists believe that the saved in Christ will receive glory, honor and immortality, being raised with an incorruptible body to inherit eternal life (Romans 2:7).
D3 The unsaved will be raised in shame and dishonor, to face God and receive the just condemnation for their sins. When the penalty is carried out, they will be permanently excluded from eternal life by means of a final death, implicating the whole person in a destruction of human life and being (Matthew 10:28).
C2 Ideas Rob Bell and other modern books and authors.
Confessions
B1 Athanasian Creed:
39.He ascended into heaven, He sits on the right hand of the Father, God, Almighty;
40.From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
41.At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies;
42.and shall give account of their own works.
43.And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.
44.This is the catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved.
B2 Arminian Confession of 1621:
"And finally, punishment, especially eternal, is unjustly and cruelly inflicted on him as disobedient by whom this obedience was not performed solely through the absence of that irresistible and truly necessary
grace, who really is not disobedient. "We cannot here state how
everywhere in the Scriptures it is affirmed of some, that they resisted
the Holy Spirit, that they judged, or rather made themselves unworthy of
eternal life(h), that they made void the counsel of God concerning
themselves; that they would not hear, come, obey, that they closed their
ears and hardened their hearts, etc.
B3 Belgic Confession:
The evil ones will be convicted by the witness of their own consciences, and shall be made immortal—but only to be tormented in the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
B4 Westminster Confession of Faith:
Q. 29. What
are the punishments of sin in the world to come? A. The punishments of
sin in the world to come, are everlasting separation from the
comfortable presence of God, and most grievous torments in soul and body, without intermission, in hell-fire forever.
B5 Wesleyan Core Beliefs:
22.
Destiny 250. We believe that the Scriptures clearly teach that there is
a conscious personal existence after death. The final destiny of each
person is determined by God's grace and that person's response, evidenced
inevitably by a moral character which results from that individual's
personal and volitional choices and not from any arbitrary decree of
God. Heaven with its eternal glory and the blessedness of Christ's
presence is the final abode
of those who choose the salvation which God provides through Jesus
Christ, but hell with its everlasting misery and separation from God is
the final abode of those who neglect this great salvation.
Scripture
B1 Old Testament
C1 God is eternal and so is His rule:
D1 Isaiah 40:28 NRSV Have
you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the
Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his
understanding is unsearchable.
D2 Psalms 10:16 NRSV The LORD is king forever and ever; the nations shall perish from his land.
C2 Life and contempt are eternal states: Daniel 12:2 NRSV Many
of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to
everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
B2 New Testament
C1 Doing good is defined by God. It is only believing and trusting in Jesus Christ. No human is good except God the Son. John 5:28-29 NRSV Do
not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in
their graves will hear his voice 29 and will come out—those who have
done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to
the resurrection of condemnation.
C2 Jude 1:7 NRSV Likewise,
Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which, in the same
manner as they, indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural
lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
C3 Revelation 20:10 & 15 NRSV And
the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and
sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be
tormented day and night forever and ever... 15 ...and anyone whose name
was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of
fire.
C4 Matthew 25:41 NRSV Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;
B3 The Scriptures are clear to anyone who can read.
A Few Thoughts About Hell
Hell, torment, everlasting
