Don’t Go to Hell

One of the most common things that people say when they are angry or want to insult someone is “go to hell”.  A friend of mine uses expressions like “That was funny as hell.” As we will see in this week’s blog... there is nothing funny about hell. Jesus paid a terrible price to give us a free pass out of hell. Why would anyone turn down such a free gift?

What if There is a Hell?

By Richard (Dick) Innes, Acts International

Hell!

Not a popular topic by any stretch of the imagination. And these days it isn’t a popular or politically correct topic to preach, write or talk about as if it were a reality. For many, hell is a place they hope doesn’t exist and if it does, they don’t expect to go there. For others, hell is a figment of the imagination from outdated folklore, or a place to curse people to whom you don’t like. Many believe that death ends all.

Think of natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina that caused the city of New Orleans to be hopelessly flooded so that thousands were stranded and many lost their lives. How unthinkable it would have been had the city known about the impending disaster and not warned the people to evacuate the city. How tragic it was for those who could have left but failed to heed the repeated warning. How much greater the tragedy not to let people know about the warning that God’s Word has clearly given for all to flee from the wrath of hell to come.

C.S. Lewis wrote:

“There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than Hell … but it has the full support of Scripture and specifically of Jesus’ very own words.” In fact, Jesus talked more about hell than he did about heaven. He said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”¹

The Bible describes hell as a place of utter darkness … also as a lake of fire that burns day and night forever.

Whether this is literal or figurative I do not know. What we do know is that Jesus described hell as a place of eternal torment. It is a place that was prepared for the devil and his fallen angels/demons—a place to where those who have never received forgiveness for their sins will be banned forever.

It’s not that God sends us to hell but that we send ourselves there when we don’t heed God’s warning and receive his forgiveness for all our sins and his gift of eternal life.

Eugene P. Harder shared how, In his book entitled To Hell and Back, Cardiologist Maurice Rawlings recounts the startling near-death experience of a patient taking a cardio stress test on a treadmill.

“The patient became breathless and began to sweat profusely. The monitor showed a dangerous rapid heartbeat. This was followed by a long pause in the beat and then by a flat line. Charlie’s heart had stopped, his eyes rolled up in his head and he fell.

“One of the nurses breathed ‘the kiss of life into Charlie’s lungs.’ Another nurse started the IV but the heart would not beat properly. A temporary pacemaker was needed. Whenever Dr. Rawlings stopped pushing Charlie’s chest to adjust the pacemaker, his heart would stop. Charlie’s eyes would roll up and he would turn blue.

“This time when Charlie’s heart re-started he was screaming the words, ‘I’m in hell! I’m in hell!’ Hallucinations, Dr. Rawlings thought. Most victims scream, ‘take your big hands off me, you’re breaking my ribs.’

“But Charlie was saying the opposite: ‘Don’t stop! Don’t stop. Every time you let go I’m back in hell!’

“When conscious, Charlie begged the Doctor to pray for him. Dr. Rawlings said, ‘I felt downright insulted. In fact, I told him to shut up. I said I was a doctor, not a minister and not a psychiatrist. The nurses looked at me as if to say, “Do something!’”

“So I composed this make-believe prayer to keep Charlie off my back. ‘Jesus Christ is the Son of God, keep me out of hell. If I live, I’m on the hook. I’m yours. Say it Charlie!’

“Charlie said the prayer and then a very strange thing happened that changed both the Doctor’s and Charlie’s lives. Dr. Rawlings said, ‘A religious conversion experience took place. I had never witnessed one before. Charlie was no longer the wild-eyed, screaming, combative lunatic who had been fighting me for his life. He was relaxed and calm and cooperative.”

“‘It frightened me. I was shaken by the events. Not only had that make-believe prayer saved Charlie McKaig, but it got me too. It was a conviction that to this day I cannot explain. Since then, Charlie has outlived three permanent pacemakers. It’s difficult to believe that my simple prayer opened the road to both Charlie’s and my own salvation.’

“Dr. Rawlings [not a crackpot by any means] was a specialist in cardiovascular diseases at the Diagnostic Center and area hospitals of Chattanooga. He served in both the Army and the Navy and became chief of cardiology at the 97th General Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany. He was the personal physician at the Pentagon for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which included Generals Marshall, Bradley, Patton, and Dwight Eisenhower. In civilian life Dr. Rawlings was appointed to the National Teaching Faculty of the American Heart Association, specializing in teaching methods for the retrieval of patients from sudden death.”²

A study of near-death cases by Dr. Rawlings was also reported in Omni magazine. “It is no longer unusual to hear about people who have almost died who speak of seeing a bright light, lush green meadows, rows of smiling relatives and experiencing a deep sense of peace. However, Dr. Rawlings obtained additional information from his patients by interviewing them immediately following resuscitation while they were very much in touch with their experience.

“Dr. Rawlings says that nearly fifty percent of the 300 people that he has interviewed have reported lakes of fire, devil-like figures and other sights reflecting the darkness of hell. Rawlings says that these people later change their story because they don’t want to admit where they’ve been, not even to their families. ‘Just listening to these patients has changed my whole life,' claims Dr. Rawlings. ’there is a life after death, and if I don’t know where I’m going, it’s not safe to die.’³

Of one thing we can be certain and that is that death happens to us all as nobody gets out of this place alive.

Life can be dreadfully uncertain. A friend’s husband was on his motorbike when a dog ran out at him. Trying to dodge the dog he fell from his bike and was killed. Last month another friend’s 49-year-old wife died of cancer. Last week a long-term friend of my wife’s died suddenly of a heart attack. Two months ago my oldest sister died. I wrote today to another friend whose husband died suddenly in his sleep. He was in his early to mid-40s.

How foolish it is to make all sorts of preparation for this life but none for the next. Time and again God has warned us in his word that there is a heaven for all who have accepted God’s forgiveness and a hell for all who haven’t. As Jesus said, “This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”⁴ And, “If anyone’s name was not found written in [God’s] book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”⁵

As God warned ancient Israel, his word also applies to us today: “Prepare to meet your God.”⁶ God’s Word also reminds us that, “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.”⁷Also, God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”⁸

It’s not God’s will that anyone should go to hell—whatever and wherever it may be. We know that heaven is where God is so we can be certain that hell is where God—the author of all love and life—isn’t. He has given his Son, Jesus, to die on the cross in our place to pay the penalty for all our sins so we can be freely forgiven and delivered from hell. So whatever you do don’t neglect God’s warning regarding the terrible doom of hell for all who have never accepted Jesus as their Savior, and God’s forgiveness and gift of eternal life.

Accepting Jesus as your Savior and God’s forgiveness is God’s “passport into heaven.” Whatever you do don’t leave earth without it. And don’t leave it until it is too late to “apply for it.” You can receive your “passport for heaven” today by accepting God’s invitation to come to him by confessing your sins and accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.

For assistance to do this click here.

1. Matthew 10:28, (NIV). 2. Eugene P. Harder, "Positive Praying for People in Danger Pastor," Sermon, April 20, 1996. New Hope Community Church, www.newhope.bc.ca. 3. Aaron Burgess. “Winning the Lost," Sermon, SermonCentral.com, http://tinyurl.com/7n4xn. 4. Matthew 13:49-50, (NIV). 5. Revelation 20:15, (NIV). 6. Amos 4:12, (NIV). 7. Hebrews 9:27, (NKJV). 8. 2 Peter 3:9, (NKJV).

“To Hell and Back”

by Dr. Maurice Rawlings

This is a very compelling video by a medical doctor (not a minister or a theologian) that covers examples of medical crises in which individuals experienced hell and lived to tell about it.  It runs just under 1½ hours.  Enjoy it.

Receiving Forgiveness

by JesusLover Judy

Father, You are my source of love, forgiveness and acceptance. All other sources have left me emotionally wounded and confused. I built my walls of self-protection, turned my back on You and the spring of living water; I dug my own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. I repent of my transgressions. In the name of Jesus, I ask You to cleanse me and take away my guilt. Jesus, I drink from the living water; I believe on You, and out of my innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. Amen.

For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of living waters, and they have hewn for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns which cannot hold water.

Jeremiah 2:13 [AMP]

³⁷Now on the final and most important day of the Feast, Jesus stood, and He cried in a loud voice, If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink!
³⁸He who believes in Me [who cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me] as the Scripture has said, From his innermost being shall flow [continuously] springs and rivers of living water.
³⁹But He was speaking here of the Spirit, Whom those who believed (trusted, had faith) in Him were afterward to receive. For the [Holy] Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified (raised to honor).

John 7:37-39 [AMP]

²Wash me thoroughly [and repeatedly] from my iniquity and guilt and cleanse me and make me wholly pure from my sin!
⁷Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean [ceremonially]; wash me, and I shall [in reality] be whiter than snow.

Psalm 51:2, 7 [AMP]

Father, in the name of Jesus, I am blessed. I am happy because You gave me a fresh start; my slate’s wiped clean. I count myself blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied)—You are holding nothing against me and You’re not holding anything back from me. When I confessed my sin, my guilt dissolved, my sin disappeared. In the Name of Jesus I thank You!

¹BLESSED (HAPPY, fortunate, to be envied) is he who has forgiveness of his transgression continually exercised upon him, whose sin is covered.
²Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
³When I kept silence [before I confessed], my bones wasted away through my groaning all the day long.
⁴For day and night Your hand [of displeasure] was heavy upon me; my moisture was turned into the drought of summer. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
⁵I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord [continually unfolding the past till all is told]--then You [instantly] forgave me the guilt and iniquity of my sin. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
⁶For this [forgiveness] let everyone who is godly pray--pray to You in a time when You may be found; surely when the great waters [of trial] overflow, they shall not reach [the spirit in] him.

Psalm 32:1-6 [AMP]

⁷Blessed and happy and to be envied are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered up and completely buried.
⁸Blessed and happy and to be envied is the person of whose sin the Lord will take no account nor reckon it against him.

Romans 4:7-8 [AMP]

Powerhouse Podcasts

Below are two of our Seven Minutes of Wisdom podcasts on the subject of heaven and hell.  If you would like to give them a listen, use the audio controls below:

Listen to our Podcast “Heaven and Hell”:




Listen to our Podcast “Hell and Heaven”:

Don’t Go to Hell

We have discussed in the previous blog about people using their mouths in inappropriate ways. And one of the most common things that people say when they are angry or want to insult someone is “go to hell”.

A friend of mine uses expressions like “That was funny as hell.” As we will see in this week’s blog... there is nothing funny about hell. Jesus paid a terrible price to give us a free pass out of hell. Why would anyone turn down such a free gift?

What if There is a Hell?

By Richard (Dick) Innes, Acts International

Hell!

Not a popular topic by any stretch of the imagination. And these days it isn’t a popular or politically correct topic to preach, write or talk about as if it were a reality. For many, hell is a place they hope doesn’t exist and if it does, they don’t expect to go there. For others, hell is a figment of the imagination from outdated folklore, or a place to curse people to whom you don’t like. Many believe that death ends all.

Think of natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina that caused the city of New Orleans to be hopelessly flooded so that thousands were stranded and many lost their lives. How unthinkable it would have been had the city known about the impending disaster and not warned the people to evacuate the city. How tragic it was for those who could have left but failed to heed the repeated warning. How much greater the tragedy not to let people know about the warning that God’s Word has clearly given for all to flee from the wrath of hell to come.

C.S. Lewis wrote:

“There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than Hell … but it has the full support of Scripture and specifically of Jesus’ very own words.” In fact, Jesus talked more about hell than he did about heaven. He said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”¹

The Bible describes hell as a place of utter darkness … also as a lake of fire that burns day and night forever.

Whether this is literal or figurative I do not know. What we do know is that Jesus described hell as a place of eternal torment. It is a place that was prepared for the devil and his fallen angels/demons—a place to where those who have never received forgiveness for their sins will be banned forever.

It’s not that God sends us to hell but that we send ourselves there when we don’t heed God’s warning and receive his forgiveness for all our sins and his gift of eternal life.

Eugene P. Harder shared how, In his book entitled To Hell and Back, Cardiologist Maurice Rawlings recounts the startling near-death experience of a patient taking a cardio stress test on a treadmill.

“The patient became breathless and began to sweat profusely. The monitor showed a dangerous rapid heartbeat. This was followed by a long pause in the beat and then by a flat line. Charlie’s heart had stopped, his eyes rolled up in his head and he fell.

“One of the nurses breathed ‘the kiss of life into Charlie’s lungs.’ Another nurse started the IV but the heart would not beat properly. A temporary pacemaker was needed. Whenever Dr. Rawlings stopped pushing Charlie’s chest to adjust the pacemaker, his heart would stop. Charlie’s eyes would roll up and he would turn blue.

“This time when Charlie’s heart re-started he was screaming the words, ‘I’m in hell! I’m in hell!’ Hallucinations, Dr. Rawlings thought. Most victims scream, ‘take your big hands off me, you’re breaking my ribs.’

“But Charlie was saying the opposite: ‘Don’t stop! Don’t stop. Every time you let go I’m back in hell!’

“When conscious, Charlie begged the Doctor to pray for him. Dr. Rawlings said, ‘I felt downright insulted. In fact, I told him to shut up. I said I was a doctor, not a minister and not a psychiatrist. The nurses looked at me as if to say, “Do something!’”

“So I composed this make-believe prayer to keep Charlie off my back. ‘Jesus Christ is the Son of God, keep me out of hell. If I live, I’m on the hook. I’m yours. Say it Charlie!’

“Charlie said the prayer and then a very strange thing happened that changed both the Doctor’s and Charlie’s lives. Dr. Rawlings said, ‘A religious conversion experience took place. I had never witnessed one before. Charlie was no longer the wild-eyed, screaming, combative lunatic who had been fighting me for his life. He was relaxed and calm and cooperative.”

“‘It frightened me. I was shaken by the events. Not only had that make-believe prayer saved Charlie McKaig, but it got me too. It was a conviction that to this day I cannot explain. Since then, Charlie has outlived three permanent pacemakers. It’s difficult to believe that my simple prayer opened the road to both Charlie’s and my own salvation.’

“Dr. Rawlings [not a crackpot by any means] was a specialist in cardiovascular diseases at the Diagnostic Center and area hospitals of Chattanooga. He served in both the Army and the Navy and became chief of cardiology at the 97th General Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany. He was the personal physician at the Pentagon for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which included Generals Marshall, Bradley, Patton, and Dwight Eisenhower. In civilian life Dr. Rawlings was appointed to the National Teaching Faculty of the American Heart Association, specializing in teaching methods for the retrieval of patients from sudden death.”²

A study of near-death cases by Dr. Rawlings was also reported in Omni magazine. “It is no longer unusual to hear about people who have almost died who speak of seeing a bright light, lush green meadows, rows of smiling relatives and experiencing a deep sense of peace. However, Dr. Rawlings obtained additional information from his patients by interviewing them immediately following resuscitation while they were very much in touch with their experience.

“Dr. Rawlings says that nearly fifty percent of the 300 people that he has interviewed have reported lakes of fire, devil-like figures and other sights reflecting the darkness of hell. Rawlings says that these people later change their story because they don’t want to admit where they’ve been, not even to their families. ‘Just listening to these patients has changed my whole life,' claims Dr. Rawlings. ’there is a life after death, and if I don’t know where I’m going, it’s not safe to die.’³

Of one thing we can be certain and that is that death happens to us all as nobody gets out of this place alive.

Life can be dreadfully uncertain. A friend’s husband was on his motorbike when a dog ran out at him. Trying to dodge the dog he fell from his bike and was killed. Last month another friend’s 49-year-old wife died of cancer. Last week a long-term friend of my wife’s died suddenly of a heart attack. Two months ago my oldest sister died. I wrote today to another friend whose husband died suddenly in his sleep. He was in his early to mid-40s.

How foolish it is to make all sorts of preparation for this life but none for the next. Time and again God has warned us in his word that there is a heaven for all who have accepted God’s forgiveness and a hell for all who haven’t. As Jesus said, “This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”⁴ And, “If anyone’s name was not found written in [God’s] book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”⁵

As God warned ancient Israel, his word also applies to us today: “Prepare to meet your God.”⁶ God’s Word also reminds us that, “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.”⁷Also, God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”⁸

It’s not God’s will that anyone should go to hell—whatever and wherever it may be. We know that heaven is where God is so we can be certain that hell is where God—the author of all love and life—isn’t. He has given his Son, Jesus, to die on the cross in our place to pay the penalty for all our sins so we can be freely forgiven and delivered from hell. So whatever you do don’t neglect God’s warning regarding the terrible doom of hell for all who have never accepted Jesus as their Savior, and God’s forgiveness and gift of eternal life.

Accepting Jesus as your Savior and God’s forgiveness is God’s “passport into heaven.” Whatever you do don’t leave earth without it. And don’t leave it until it is too late to “apply for it.” You can receive your “passport for heaven” today by accepting God’s invitation to come to him by confessing your sins and accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.

For assistance to do this click here.

1. Matthew 10:28, (NIV). 2. Eugene P. Harder, "Positive Praying for People in Danger Pastor," Sermon, April 20, 1996. New Hope Community Church, www.newhope.bc.ca. 3. Aaron Burgess. “Winning the Lost," Sermon, SermonCentral.com, http://tinyurl.com/7n4xn. 4. Matthew 13:49-50, (NIV). 5. Revelation 20:15, (NIV). 6. Amos 4:12, (NIV). 7. Hebrews 9:27, (NKJV). 8. 2 Peter 3:9, (NKJV).

Dr. Maurice Rawlings “To Hell and Back”

This is a very compelling video by a medical doctor (not a minister or a theologian) that covers examples of medical crises in which individuals experienced hell and lived to tell about it.  It runs just under 1½ hours.  Enjoy it.

Powerhouse Podcasts

Below are two of our Seven Minutes of Wisdom podcasts on the subject of heaven and hell.  If you would like to give them a listen, use the audio controls below:

Listen to our Podcast “Heaven and Hell”:




Listen to our Podcast “Hell and Heaven”:

Life is Short

How many of the following people have you heard of?

How many of their names will you recognize?

How many of their stories will surprise you?

John Lennon

Some years before, during his interview with an American Magazine, he said:

“Christianity will end, it will disappear. I do not have to argue about that. I am certain. Jesus was ok, but his subjects were too simple, today we are more famous than Him.”

Lennon, after saying that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, was shot and killed by an assassin.

Tancredo Neves
(President of Brazil)

During the Presidential campaign, he said if he got 500,000 votes from his party, not even God would remove him from Presidency. Sure he got the votes, but he got sick a day before being made President, then he died.

Cazuza
(Bi-sexual Brazilian composer, singer and poet)

During a show in Caneco ( Rio de Janeiro ), whilst smoking his cigarette, he puffed out some smoke into the air and said: "God, that's for you." He died at the age of 32 of AIDS in a horrible manner.

Thomas Andrews
(The Man Who Built the Titanic)

After the construction of the Titanic, a reporter asked him how safe the Titanic would be. With an ironic tone he said: “Not even God can sink it” The result: I think you all know what happened to the Titanic.

Marilyn Monroe

She was visited by Billy Graham during a presentation of a show. He said the Spirit of God had sent him to preach to her. After hearing what the Preacher had to say, she said: “I don't need your Jesus.” A week later, she was found dead in her apartment.

Bon Scott

The ex-vocalist of the AC/DC. On one of his 1979 songs he sang: “Don't stop me, I'm going down all the way, down the highway to hell.” On the 19^th of February 1980, Bon Scott was found dead, he had been choked by his own vomit.

Campinas (2005)

In Campinas, Brazil a group of friends, drunk, went to pick up a friend. The mother accompanied her to the car and was so worried about the drunkenness of her friends and she said to the daughter - holding her hand, who was already seated in the car: “MY DAUGHTER, GO WITH GOD AND MAY HE PROTECT YOU.” She responded: “ONLY IF HE (GOD) TRAVELS IN THE TRUNK, CAUSE INSIDE HERE IT'S ALREADY FULL.” Hours later, news came by that they had been involved in a fatal accident, everyone had died, the car could not be recognized what type of car it had been, but surprisingly, the trunk was intact. The police said there was no way the trunk could have remained intact. To their surprise, inside the trunk was a crate of eggs, none were broken.

Christine Hewitt

A Jamaican Journalist and entertainer, said the Bible (Word of God) was the worst book ever written, in June 2006 she was found burnt beyond recognition in her motor vehicle.

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Many more important people have forgotten that there is no other name that was given so much authority as the name of Jesus.

Many have died, but only Jesus died and rose again, and He is still alive. Jesus died to pay the price for your sins.

You can pay the price yourself... or accept what He did for you and receive eternal life.

It is your choice.

Eternal Fire Insurance

Have you heard the latest? There are people complaining that Hollywood is anti-athiest because of movies that suggest that there really is a God. And people wonder why the Bible says that God laughs (see Psalm 2:4 and Psalm 37:13). These people are a living example of what it means to be blinded... to walk in darkness.

People who are in darkness laugh at the idea of eternal punishment. Many in the atheist camp argue over the existence of any afterlife. Those of us who have accepted the word of God, however, know the truth. We deserve eternal punishment but have been saved by God’s mercy and love. Having received this wonderful gift, we have a mission to show people that without Christ they are without hope. We are called to (with humility and love) point them toward Jesus Christ as their only way of escape.

I was reading a Christian blog around the time that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was executed for his crimes against the Iraqi people. The writer seemed to be celebrating and rejoicing over the thought of Saddam suffering in the agonies of hellfire. This was not the first time that I have heard a Christian gleefully speaking about another person’s demise. Many Christian friends used to chuckle over some person “busting hell wide open.”

I don’t feel comfortable with that mindset. The idea of anyone burning in hell is not anything that I can imagine rejoicing over. It is a terrible thing for a soul to be eternally lost.

It is a fearful (formidable and terrible) thing to incur the divine penalties and be cast into the hands of the living God!

Hebrews 10:31 (Amplified Bible)

The Bible tells us that the soul that sins (without receiving the mercy of God) shall surely die (see Ezekiel 18). Many religions lay out a complex set of rules and regulations for achieving a righteous state. Some have people go to convents or monasteries where they are told to shun the simple pleasures of life. Others insist that followers take whips and flagellate themselves... even to the point of drawing blood. Still others create a complex set of rules to follow in the deceptive belief that these will save them. Even some who call themselves Christian believe that their salvation hinges on their adherence to a strict set of rules and regulations.

The bottom line is that there is salvation in none other than the name of Jesus Christ, God’s precious Son who died a sacrificial death and rose from the dead to give us hope of eternal redemption.

Or, as some hip Christians put it during the 1970’s, Eternal Fire Insurance.

Okay, so the work that Jesus did is more than an insurance policy to protect us from disaster. More accurately, it is blessed assurance that God loves us and was willing to pay the ultimate price to bring us back to Himself.

I used to hear the “old folks” saying that there is a hell to shun and a heaven to attain (or words to that effect). However, it is not by works that we escape damnation. It is through the blood that Jesus shed on the cross. It is through God’s loving kindness and tender mercies to provide a way of escape. And the good news is that it is absolutely free for anyone who will simply receive it.

Once we have received salvation, we have a desire to live a life that is pleasing to God. The problem, however, is that while our spirits are reborn, our human nature remains. Jesus gave us the solution for this dilemma:

And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].

Luke 9:23 (Amplified Bible)

Every day, we have to die. We are commanded to put our carnal nature to death. It ain’t easy... but the rewards are vast.

A Letter from Hell

Some of you may have seen the Chick Tract called The Letter with a similar theme to the video below:

What If There Is a Hell?

Note: This article comes from Acts International

Hell! Not a popular topic by any stretch of the imagination. And these days it isn’t a popular or politically correct topic to preach, write or talk about as if it were a reality. For many, hell is a place they hope doesn’t exist and if it does, they don’t expect to go there. For others, hell is a figment of the imagination from outdated folklore, or a place to curse people to whom you don’t like. Many believe that death ends all.

Think of natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina that caused the city of New Orleans to be hopelessly flooded so that thousands were stranded and many lost their lives. How unthinkable it would have been had the city known about the impending disaster and not warned the people to evacuate the city. How tragic it was for those who could have left but failed to heed the repeated warning. How much greater the tragedy not to let people know about the warning that God’s Word has clearly given for all to flee from the wrath of hell to come.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than Hell … but it has the full support of Scripture and specifically of Jesus’ very own words.” In fact, Jesus talked more about hell than he did about heaven. He said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”¹

The Bible describes hell as a place of utter darkness … also as a lake of fire that burns day and night forever. Whether this is literal or figurative I do not know. What we do know is that Jesus described hell as a place of eternal torment. It is a place that was prepared for the devil and his fallen angels/demons—a place to where those who have never received forgiveness for their sins will be banned forever. It’s not that God sends us to hell but that we send ourselves there when we don’t heed God’s warning and receive his forgiveness for all our sins and his gift of eternal life.

Eugene P. Harder shared how, “In his book titled, To Hell and Back, Cardiologist Maurice Rawlings recounts the startling near-death experience of a patient taking a cardio stress test on a treadmill.

“The patient became breathless and began to sweat profusely. The monitor showed a dangerous rapid heartbeat. This was followed by a long pause in the beat and then by a flat line. Charlie’s heart had stopped, his eyes rolled up in his head and he fell.

“One of the nurses breathed ‘the kiss of life into Charlie’s lungs.’ Another nurse started the IV but the heart would not beat properly. A temporary pacemaker was needed. Whenever Dr. Rawlings stopped pushing Charlie’s chest to adjust the pacemaker, his heart would stop. Charlie’s eyes would roll up and he would turn blue.

“This time when Charlie’s heart re-started he was screaming the words, ‘I’m in hell! I’m in hell!’ Hallucinations, Dr. Rawlings thought. Most victims scream, ‘take your big hands off me, you’re breaking my ribs.’

“But Charlie was saying the opposite: ‘Don’t stop! Don’t stop. Every time you let go I’m back in hell!’

“When conscious, Charlie begged the Doctor to pray for him. Dr. Rawlings said, ‘I felt downright insulted. In fact, I told him to shut up. I said I was a doctor, not a minister and not a psychiatrist. The nurses looked at me as if to say, “Do something!’”

“So I composed this make-believe prayer to keep Charlie off my back. ‘Jesus Christ is the Son of God, keep me out of hell. If I live, I’m on the hook. I’m yours. Say it Charlie!’

“Charlie said the prayer and then a very strange thing happened that changed both the Doctor’s and Charlie’s lives. Dr. Rawlings said, ‘A religious conversion experience took place. I had never witnessed one before. Charlie was no longer the wild-eyed, screaming, combative lunatic who had been fighting me for his life. He was relaxed and calm and cooperative. “

“‘It frightened me. I was shaken by the events. Not only had that make-believe prayer saved Charlie McKaig, but it got me too. It was a conviction that to this day I cannot explain. Since then, Charlie has outlived three permanent pacemakers. It’s difficult to believe that my simple prayer opened the road to both Charlie’s and my own salvation.’

“Dr. Rawlings [not a crackpot by any means] was a specialist in cardiovascular diseases at the Diagnostic Center and area hospitals of Chattanooga. He served in both the Army and the Navy and became chief of cardiology at the 97th General Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany. He was the personal physician at the Pentagon for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which included Generals Marshall, Bradley, Patton, and Dwight Eisenhower. In civilian life Dr. Rawlings was appointed to the National Teaching Faculty of the American Heart Association, specializing in teaching methods for the retrieval of patients from sudden death.”²

A study of near-death cases by Dr. Rawlings was also reported in Omni magazine. “It is no longer unusual to hear about people who have almost died who speak of seeing a bright light, lush green meadows, rows of smiling relatives and experiencing a deep sense of peace. However, Dr. Rawlings obtained additional information from his patients by interviewing them immediately following resuscitation while they were very much in touch with their experience.

“Dr. Rawlings says that nearly fifty percent of the 300 people that he has interviewed have reported lakes of fire, devil-like figures and other sights reflecting the darkness of hell. Rawlings says that these people later change their story because they don’t want to admit where they’ve been, not even to their families. ‘Just listening to these patients has changed my whole life,' claims Dr. Rawlings. ’there is a life after death, and if I don’t know where I’m going, it’s not safe to die.’³

Of one thing we can be certain and that is that death happens to us all as nobody gets out of this place alive. Life can be dreadfully uncertain. A friend’s husband was on his motorbike when a dog ran out at him. Trying to dodge the dog he fell from his bike and was killed. Last month another friend’s 49-year-old wife died of cancer. Last week a long-term friend of my wife’s died suddenly of a heart attack. Two months ago my oldest sister died. I wrote today to another friend whose husband died suddenly in his sleep. He was in his early to mid-40s.

How foolish it is to make all sorts of preparation for this life but none for the next. Time and again God has warned us in his word that there is a heaven for all who have accepted God’s forgiveness and a hell for all who haven’t. As Jesus said, “This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”⁴ And, “If anyone’s name was not found written in [God’s] book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”⁵

As God warned ancient Israel, his word also applies to us today: “Prepare to meet your God.”⁶ God’s Word also reminds us that, “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.”⁷Also, God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”⁸

It’s not God’s will that anyone should go to hell—whatever and wherever it may be. We know that heaven is where God is so we can be certain that hell is where God—the author of all love and life—isn’t. He has given his Son, Jesus, to die on the cross in our place to pay the penalty for all our sins so we can be freely forgiven and delivered from hell. So whatever you do don’t neglect God’s warning regarding the terrible doom of hell for all who have never accepted Jesus as their Savior, and God’s forgiveness and gift of eternal life.

Accepting Jesus as your Savior and God’s forgiveness is God’s “passport into heaven.” Whatever you do don’t leave earth without it. And don’t leave it until it is too late to “apply for it.” You can receive your “passport for heaven” today by accepting God’s invitation to come to him by confessing your sins and accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. For assistance to do this click here.

1. Matthew 10:28, (NIV). 2. Eugene P. Harder, "Positive Praying for People in Danger Pastor," Sermon, April 20, 1996. New Hope Community Church, www.newhope.bc.ca. 3. Aaron Burgess. “Winning the Lost," Sermon, SermonCentral.com, http://tinyurl.com/7n4xn. 4. Matthew 13:49-50, (NIV). 5. Revelation 20:15, (NIV). 6. Amos 4:12, (NIV). 7. Hebrews 9:27, (NKJV). 8. 2 Peter 3:9, (NKJV).

By Richard (Dick) Innes

The Supreme Sacrifice

Men are sinners by nature. There is no cure by human means for the maladies of the soul; then it “must” be that the Son of Man comes down from heaven to be lifted up, that is sacrificed on the altar of the cross, that men may be cured of the sin sickness of their nature.

While speaking with Nicodemus Jesus gives us a likeness to the work of His death on the cross by referring to an event that happened to the children of Israel while in the wilderness.

He states,

“And as Moses lifted the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life.”
(John 3:14-15 NAS)

The following is an account of the event in the wilderness He refers to:

“Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey. And the people spoke against God and Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.’ And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. So the people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and you; intercede with the LORD, that He may remove the serpents from us.’ And Moses interceded for the people. Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he shall live.’ And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.”
(Numbers 21:4-9)

There is something very unique in the metaphor that our Lord is using here. The crafted “fiery serpent” mounted on the end of a standard is symbolic of the thing that had caused their impending death now being dead. Thus it is written that among the Israelites, the brazen serpent was considered a type of the resurrection, as though through looking upon it, by the command of God, the dying lived; therefore he is effectively raised from the dead.

This is the message to Nicodemus and to those who would read this account: Men are dying because of sin, as the serpent was raised up, so shall the Christ be lifted up: as they who were stung by the fiery serpents were restored by looking up to the brazen serpent, in the same manner men who are sin sick and dying are healed and effectively raised from the dead, by looking up to and believing in Christ crucified; thus His death becomes, to such men, resurrection life.

While Christ was on the cross “He (God the Father) made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2^nd Corinthians 5:21 NAS).

While on the cross Jesus became “sin in the flesh” in order that He might put to death the sinful flesh of all who believe upon Him. Because He became sin in the flesh the curse and the wrath of the Father that was due sinful man was poured out upon Him. He defeated Satan and restored all that he had taken from man; for those who confess their sins, repent and “look upon him” and believe---that is to say, have faith in Him.

Jesus came to save men from the sufferings of a never-ending decomposition and destruction of their souls in the eternal state of existence known as death. At His trial Jesus was accused, beaten and mocked and on the cross He became a curse that He might bear the curse for all mankind. Yet, during the time of his ordeal, He never denied who He was; but He never defended, or denied the things of which the Sanhedrin and others accused Him (1^st Peter 2:22-23). If He was to take on the sins of mankind, he could not declare His innocense. In this way He took on mankind’s sins, although He himself never sinned (2^nd Corinthians 5:21; 1^st Peter 2:24; Galatians 1:4).

At the time of His sufferings, because of the presence of sin, God the Father withdrew His life giving Spirit from Him. At this point in time God had given His Son as a sacrifice for man’s sins (John 3:16).

“And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ Which is translated, ‘My God, My God why hast Thou forsaken Me?’”
(Mark 15:34)

Our Lord was now separated from the Father in the likeness of sinful Adam; His soul was in the state of spiritual death as His body also suffered the penalty of sin.

“When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!!’ And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit.”
(John 19:30)

Christ proclaimed His part of the covenant of faith finished, He had run the coarse, He had kept the faith; the completion of the covenant was now in the hands of His Heavenly Father. His soul had now departed into death and His body was left lifeless as God’s wrath continued upon His soul.

Isaiah prophesied of this part of the covenant saying,

“But the Lord (God the Father) was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring (the church), He will prolong His days (raise Him from the dead), and the pleasure of the Lord (God) will prosper in His hand.”
(Isaiah 53:10)

Because Jesus became sin on our behalf, He was counted among the transgressors -- signified by His crucifixion between two thieves (Isaiah 53:12). Then it must be also that in our stead He suffers the penalty of death that was ultimately due us.

Some do not believe that our Lord suffered beyond the cross. But just think, if the “rich man” is suffering punishment in the state of death or hell (Luke 16:19-31) and Jesus did not go and suffer with him then God is not a just God. But God is a just God and Jesus did suffer the punishment of hell on our behalf. The innocent for the guilty, such as typed by the release of a robber named Barabbas, while Jesus is held and ultimately caused to suffer the guilty went free (Matthew 27:16-26).

The following is Scriptural evidence that Jesus suffered such a fate as death and hell on man’s behalf.

“Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered Him, saying, ‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.’ But He answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth’.”
(Matthew 12:38-40 NAS)

As Jesus refers to Jonah he speaks of him as a prophet and saying, “for just as,” meaning, in the same manner as; and then continues, saying, “so shall the Son of Man be---.” Therefore I believe that Jesus was saying that He would suffer “three days and three nights” in a like manner as Jonah suffered. Reading the book of Jonah we learn Jonah was very tormented and he cried out as a prophet saying,

“----I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.”
(Jonah 2:2 KJV)

Therefore, Jonah being a prophet spoke prophetic utterances concerning the sufferings of the Christ.

The word “heart” used throughout the Holy Scriptures and applied here in verse forty, usually referred to the inner most parts of the subject. The tomb in which the body of Jesus was laid was virtually on the surface of the earth, thus it must be that His soul was in the “heart of the earth” just as Jesus stated.

The Apostle Paul writes,

“But the righteousness based on faith speaks thus, Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down), or ‘who will descend into the abyss? (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead)’.”
(Romans 10:7 NAS)

Now we know Christ is not presently in hell, but why would the Apostle even mention descending “into the abyss” if our Lord had not, at some time, been there? Thus I believe Jesus was in the abyss, signified by Jesus as the “heart of the earth,” that is to say, the bottomless pit or the chaotic deep.”

Luke gives further evidence in recording the Acts of the Apostles, he writes of Peter as he speaks thus,

“Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.”
(Acts 2:22-32 KJV)

Again God spoke of His covenant with His Son through Isaiah the prophet saying,

“I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you. And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations. To open blind eyes. To bring out prisoners from the dungeon. And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.”
(Isaiah 42:5-7)

The Apostle Peter also tells us that Jesus preached to the spirits in prison (1^st Peter 3:19) that,

“they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.”
(1^st Peter 4:6)

The Apostle Paul writes,

“(Now this expression, “He ascended,“ what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things).”
(Ephesians 4:9-10 NAS)

Now how could Jesus preach to spirits in prison except that he descend into the lower parts of the earth and enter by way of death into the prison of death?? There, while imprisoned by death, God saw the toilsome labor of His soul and was satisfied that the law of sin and death had been fulfilled and that man’s sin debt had been paid in full for all who believe (Isaiah 53:11). At this time, I believe that because of our Lord’s faith, God reached into the pits of hell and by His Holy Spirit reversed the process of eternal death by restoring eternal life to His Son and He “became the first born of the dead” (Colossians 1:18) or the first to be born-again, that He might have first place in everything and be the head and “corner stone” of His church.

Thus it is written,

“When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, ---”
(Ephesians 4:8ff)

And even “many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many” (Matthew 27:52-53 NAS).

Here the Apostle Paul explains,

“He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.”
(Romans 4:25 NASU)

Now justification is the act of payment in full that vindicates, makes blameless, removes or dissolves debt and guilt; God is the just and the justifier for those who have faith. The merciful free gift of His Son as the sacrificial offering for man’s sins is the fact that justifies for all who believe; for Christ is the propitiation (satisfaction) for man’s sins (see Romans 3:19-26). Justification through Christ Jesus is God’s declaration that the demands of His law of sin and death have been fulfilled in the righteous act of His Son. Therefore, justification brings forgiveness of sins and purification for those who believe.

The Scripture teaches that God’s grace is received through faith. It is because of God’s love for man that He has mercy. And because of His great mercy He sends His Holy Spirit speaking the word of God convicting man of sin. Those who hear His word concerning sin---and the salvation He has provided through His Son and responds with confession, repentance and obedience---He ministers the favor of salvation by the same Spirit.

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
(Romans 5:8)

Thus grace is the sweet expression of God’s love, ministered by His Holy Spirit, through generous acts of favor toward those who believe.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”
(Ephesians 2:4-5).

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”
(Ephesians 2:8)

Christ is God’s ultimate expression of love, mercy and grace.

He is justification; in Him is regeneration and sanctification.

He is the believer’s Garden of Eden, a place of delight, and the open door to God’s presence.

In Him the cherubim, the flaming sword and the veil of sinful flesh are removed (Genesis 3:24).

And also in Him the believer has free access to the Holy Sprit of God (Acts 2:38).

In Him the sacrament of eating of the word of God and drinking of His Spirit from the Tree of Life is restored.

In Him the covenant of faith between God and man is re-established and in Him is eternal life.

He is the believer’s Sabbath; in Him is rest and peace for the soul.

He is the Word of God that lights our path to the Father; thus He is way, the truth and the life.

He is the supreme sacrifice that paid our sin debt; there is no other Savior for man’s soul.

James C Sanford