Why is the Doctrine of Hell important?

havoc — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:05:34 +0000

Tim Keller, of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, tells us about The Importance of Hell:
1. It is important because Jesus taught about it more than all other Biblical authors put together.
2. It is important because it shows how infinitely dependent we are on God for everything.
3. It is important because it unveils the seriousness and danger of living life for yourself.
4. The doctrine of hell is important because it is the only way to know how much Jesus loved us and how much he did for us.

Facing the Truth - July 8, 2009

Dan — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:36:51 +0000

What is wrong with a society that would rather foster a lie, than admit they were wrong? Don't you just hate it? But, do you do it too?
For some reason we, as a society, have come to the conclusion than it is better to be right than correct! Let me explain, I am a teacher of the Scriptures. That is my Spiritual gift and I enjoy doing it - it makes me happy. One of the things I have had to do is beat up my EGO because I was wrong about some of the teachings I accepted before I learned how to read the Bible with understanding.
When I came to realize what the Scripture said about Baptism, Communion, the Holy Spirit and the nature of God (there are a few others I do not remember) I was walking around with this attitude that I understood the scripture but I was wrong. I understood what I had learned, but not exactly what the scripture SAID in some cases.
Some call it the Down Spiral of Biblical Teaching.
It goes something like this:
- God is love. (TRUE)
- God loves sinners. (TRUE)
- God loves me, even though I am a sinner. (TRUE)
- Since God loves me the sinner, He would not send me to Hell, because He loves me. (OPINION)
- If He loves me, a sinner, then surely He loves the Buddhist, Hindus and Oklahomans so God wouldn't send them to Hell because of the way they believe or what they teach.
- Since He wouldn't condemn them then anyway is an okay way to get to heaven.
- There are some churches that preach that sinners are going to Hell because they are so narrow minded.
- God must hate the church because they do not teach universal love!!
This may happen to one person in one life time or it may spread through to a couple of generations. It starts with a basic truth then warps into an opinion that is easy to live with. This all ends in a conclusion that is comfortable and requires no work or commitment on the person’s part.
This is the same kind of mind set that brings us situation ethics, harmless entertainment, and convicted pedophiles getting kiddie shows on cable.
When these individuals are confronted in a loving way by a teacher of the Gospel about their incorrect doctrine - they are the first to get on their high horse (as my dear old Hillbilly Momma used to say) and start an attack on the teacher. All of a sudden the teacher is a bad guy because they tried to push their belief on someone else and they have the Bible wrong or they are closed minded about the other's opinion. It then gets much worse!
The truth of the matter is some very smart people have formed some very wrong opinions about the Scripture and even though you show them what is wrong, from the scriptures, they refuse to accept what the Scriptures say. Why do they do this?
They are too proud to admit their mistake. They would, in the end, rather go to Hell than admit they do not have it figured out. They are unable to wrap their finite mind around an Infinite God so they chop God up to fit in their box and call what's left "your opinion".
What can we do for these individuals? Pray. The Holy Spirit needs to break them down so they will listen. That's what happened to me. God set me in the middle of the most lovingist Pentecostals you would ever want to meet and helped me see myself and the way I judged others. Then some of us started looking at some Scriptures. They were eager to share "their" Scriptures with me but didn't want to look at "mine". The Holy Spirit lead me in a 2 year search for Him. I studied the Scripture about the Holy Spirit and found out that not only my Charismaniac friends were wrong but so was I. A hard pill to swallow...
As I continued to study the Scriptures with my new guide, I saw the true meaning in a lot of the things I was taught. Most of what I learned was good theology, the rest was crap.
Since that time I have been slandered by a lot of nice people; condemned by a lot of smart people for my lack of flexibility. Me...I am just facing the truth!

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Okay I will admit that I liked Michael Jackson's music. I have an MJ video I pull out every once in a while and watch. He was in my opinion a great singer, dancer and overall great showman. I felt sorry for him when he was accused of sexual battery and abuse on minor boys. As a milieu therapist for 20 years I learned to not only feel compassion for the victim but also the accused. I liked what Brooke Shields had to say about "the boy" in MJ "the man". However, with all the money, fame and acclaim he still came across as a pretty sad kind of guy.
In a way, I am glad that the circus is over for him.
They say he was not a true believer. I am sad for that.

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AS SOUTHERN STATES SEE IT:
Tennessee - The owner of a golf course was confused about paying an invoice, so he decided to ask his secretary for some mathematical help. He called her into his office and said, "You graduated from the University of Tennessee and I need some help. If I were to give you $20,000, minus 14%, how much would you take off?"
The secretary thought a moment, and then replied, "Everything but my earrings."

Kentucky - A group of Kentucky friends went deer hunting and paired off in twos for the day. That night, one of the hunters returned alone, staggering under the weight of an eight-point buck. "Where's Henry?" the others asked.
"Henry had a stroke of some kind. He's a couple of miles back up the trail," the successful hunter replied.
"You left Henry laying out there and carried the deer back?" they inquired.
"A tough call," nodded the hunter "But I figured no one is going to steal Henry!"

Louisiana - A senior at LSU was overheard saying... "When the end of the world comes, I hope to be in Louisiana." When asked why, he replied he'd rather be in Louisiana because everything happens in Louisiana 20 years later than in the rest of the civilized world.

Georgia - A Georgia State trooper pulled over a pickup on I-75. The trooper asked, "Got any I. D.?"
The driver replied, "Bout whut?"

North Carolina - A man in North Carolina had a flat tire, pulled off on the side of the road, and proceeded to put a bouquet of flowers in front of the car and one behind it.
Then he got back in the car to wait. A passerby studied the scene as he drove by and was so curious he turned around and went back. He asked the fellow what the problem was. The man replied, "I have a flat tire." The passerby asked, "But what's with the flowers?"
The man responded, "When you break down they tell you to put flares in the front and flares in the back. Hey, it don't make sense to me neither."

South Carolina - "You can say what you want about the South, but I ain't never heard of anyone retiring to the North!

"to hell and back"

havoc — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 21:35:57 +0000

CNN Breaking News:
-- David Evans, one of the three men exonerated today when the final charges in the Duke lacrosse sex case were dropped, said they went "to hell and back" and he hoped changes to the legal system would be made as a result of their case.

Just got that in my inbox. Then, I got to thinking about it....

It seems that Mr. Evans has a considerable underestimation of 'hell.' Not to be too harsh on Mr. Evans, but it seems to me that we have used that term, 'to hell and back' with such abandon that it has really lost it's meaning.

I suppose that returning Confederate Soldiers immediately following the American Civil War were probably justified in using the hyperbolic (extreme exaggeration) term. I suspect that they used it with the understanding that they were unable to adequately put words to the horror of their experiences, but knowing that a true "hell and back" tour would have been unimaginably worse than their own experience.

On the flip side, it seems to me that the more mature in Christ a person is, in my experience, the more likely they are to use expressions typified by, "that was pretty bad," or "that was ugly" to express an experience of the same level of physical, psychological and emotional discomfort that Mr. Evans termed "to hell and back."

Funny how Christian maturity works that way....