Dove Award for Christian Website Design
Please contact us for our affordable advertisement rates today.
Please enable your Active X controls or add our website to your Trusted Zone to display picture.
Listed in the Top 100 Christian Websites
© 2003 WHATAGOD. All Rights Reserved
What STRENGTH, what PASSION, what LOVE... WHAT A MIGHTY GOD we serve!
Help Desk (Q&A)
You'll find many Q&A on various topics found here. Our hope is to help you find Godly answers to questions that may be of interest to you! You can submit your own Q&A by sending us an email to preacherslink@whatagod.com
E-mail
Please enable your Active X controls or add our website to your Trusted Zone to display picture.
Help Desk (Q&A)
What is hell?
What is Hell? I can tell you this; it is more than a dirty word. Hell is a real place just as heaven is a real place. In fact, what makes Hell so terrible is the fact that heaven is so wonderful. Why do people die and go to hell? Because they choose to do so! Hell is not just a place that the "conservatives" speak of. No, it is much more than a fabrication in one's imagination. Hell is a place where there will be punishment and suffering that will last for an eternity.
How long is an eternity? As I used to explain eternity to the Sunday School kids; eternity is for ever, and ever, and ever, and then always one more day.
Luke 16:19-31 records some very forewarning words of Jesus. He gives us some insight as to what hell is like. I want to point out that there are certain Bible interpreters that will tell you this passage is no more than one of Jesus' many parables. I disagree with that assessment simply because Jesus used a name of a real person - Lazarus, a poor man. There is also a second unnamed man in this passage. Notice that Jesus did not say "hell is like"; rather He said "there was a certain rich man" and then He described this man's circumstances.
This passage shows us that being rich will not keep anyone out of hell. This is not to insinuate that if one is poor he has any guarantees. The only guarantees we have are provided through the security of Jesus as our Savior and His sacrificial death in our stead.
Jesus tells that both men died and just as there was a marked difference in their lives on earth, there was a difference for them in eternity. Lazarus, the poor man, was safe and secure in Abraham's bosom (a resting-place for the Old Testament saints while waiting for Jesus to take them to heaven). The rich man was not so fortunate. The Bible tells us that he lifted up his eyes, "being in torments". Note that he was not a recipient of a single torment, the word is plural. He was in torments.
What kinds of torment is this?
They are torments of eternal existence. One can not escape the torment of the flame (v24). Neither can one escape the memory of things from the past. The condemned will remember the good things he had (v25) and he will especially remember those opportunities he missed to turn to Jesus as he looks up and sees others in comfort (v23). And finally, the lost will be tormented with the knowledge that there is a "great gulf" between the lost and the saved that can never be crossed (v26). Verse 26 stresses the permanence of this condition.
continued...
How long is an eternity? As I used to explain eternity to the Sunday School kids; eternity is for ever, and ever, and ever, and then always one more day.
Luke 16:19-31 records some very forewarning words of Jesus. He gives us some insight as to what hell is like. I want to point out that there are certain Bible interpreters that will tell you this passage is no more than one of Jesus' many parables. I disagree with that assessment simply because Jesus used a name of a real person - Lazarus, a poor man. There is also a second unnamed man in this passage. Notice that Jesus did not say "hell is like"; rather He said "there was a certain rich man" and then He described this man's circumstances.
This passage shows us that being rich will not keep anyone out of hell. This is not to insinuate that if one is poor he has any guarantees. The only guarantees we have are provided through the security of Jesus as our Savior and His sacrificial death in our stead.
Jesus tells that both men died and just as there was a marked difference in their lives on earth, there was a difference for them in eternity. Lazarus, the poor man, was safe and secure in Abraham's bosom (a resting-place for the Old Testament saints while waiting for Jesus to take them to heaven). The rich man was not so fortunate. The Bible tells us that he lifted up his eyes, "being in torments". Note that he was not a recipient of a single torment, the word is plural. He was in torments.
What kinds of torment is this?
They are torments of eternal existence. One can not escape the torment of the flame (v24). Neither can one escape the memory of things from the past. The condemned will remember the good things he had (v25) and he will especially remember those opportunities he missed to turn to Jesus as he looks up and sees others in comfort (v23). And finally, the lost will be tormented with the knowledge that there is a "great gulf" between the lost and the saved that can never be crossed (v26). Verse 26 stresses the permanence of this condition.
continued...