======================================================================== HELL AND EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT by Carl G. Johnson ======================================================================== Johnson's theological study of the biblical doctrine of hell and eternal punishment, clarifying what Scripture teaches about the emotional and physical state of the damned, including the meaning of weeping and gnashing of teeth as descriptions of hell's reality. Chapters: 18 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 0. Hell and Everlasting Punishment 1. Part 1: Abiding Wrath 2. Part 2: Blackness of Darkness Forever 3. Part 3: Crying 4. Part 4: Damnation 5. Part 5: Everlasting Punishment 6. Part 6: Filthiness 7. Part 7: Gloom 8. Part 8: Hopelessness 9. Part 9: Indignation 10. Part 10: Judgement 11. Part 11: Keeping 12. Part 12: Lake Of Fire 13. Part 13: Memory 14. Part 14: No Rest 15. Part 15: Oblivion 16. Part 16: Pain 17. Part 17: Quandry ======================================================================== CHAPTER 0: HELL AND EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT ======================================================================== ======================================================================== CHAPTER 1: PART 1: ABIDING WRATH ======================================================================== "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth no the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36). This verse says that the wrath of God abides on the sinner right now and if he dies unsaved God's wrath will abide on him forever. "But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God; But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath." (Romans 2:5,8). "Let this awful word Wrath, settle into the conscience of every soul; for God hath spoken it!" And every Preacher, and every prophet of God has warned of it: Enoch, Noah, Moses, the Psalmists, Isaiah, John the Bapist with his 'flee from the wrath to come;' the Apostles - from Romans to Revelation; and the great Preachers and Evangelists of the Christian centuries, - the men who have won souls - the Reformers, the Puritans, the Wesleys, Whitefields, Edwardses, Finneys, Spurgeons, Moodys, - all have told of man's guilt and danger, of the coming judgment, and of the wrath of God upon the impenitent and unbelieving." -William R. Newell "There are the black clouds of God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God, for the present, stays His rough wind. Otherwise it would come with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you would be like the chaff of the summer threshing floor. The wrath of Godis like great waters that are damned for the present. They increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given. The longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose... And consider here more paticularly whose wrath it is. It is the wrath of an infinite God... It is the fierceness of His wrath that you are exposed to. Thus we read of 'the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.' (Revelation 19:15). The words are exceedingly terrible, if only it had been said, 'the wrath of God', the wrod would have implied that which is infinitly dreadful. But it is said, 'the fierceness and wrath of God'. The fury of God! The fierceness of Jehovah! Oh, how dreadful that be! It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it for all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite, horrible misery... How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in danger of this great wrath and infinite misery! But this is the dismal case of every soul that has not been born again. however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. Oh, that you would consider it, whether you are young or old! Therefore, let everyone that is out of Christ now awake and flee fromt he wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over every unregenerate sinner." -Jonathan Edwards Hearing such solemn admonitions about the reality of an abiding wrath must make us stop and consider how we are living our lives, the soul that God has given us to be accountable for. How short is time, how long is eternity! May we do violence to our normal thinking and actions and place our thoughts firmly on these eternal subjects that will be life to us if we allow them to be. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 2: PART 2: BLACKNESS OF DARKNESS FOREVER ======================================================================== "Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever." (Jude 13). God says in 1 Samuel 2:9: "the wicked shall be silent in darkness." They will be so stunned and dumbfounded with the condition in which they find thmeselves that they will be speechless. Psalm 49:19 says, "they shall never see light." Peter speaks concerning the wicked: "to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever." (2 Peter 2:17). Think of a place without the sun, moon, stars: without an electric light, lamp light, or candlelight but forever darkness. Think also of people being like "wandering stars," going round and round stumbling in the darkness, totally alone, forever and ever. Groping blindly for anything and finding nothing. This is the reservation of the wicked. Thinking of this is so awful the mind cannot dwell upon it very long. Jesus spoke of those who "loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19), and since they hate the light and do not come into the light, they get darkness forever. Jesus also spoke of those who "shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 8:12). "The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungoldy has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions." -A.W. Tozer "The most dreadful torment of the lost, in fact that which constitutes their state of torment, will be this coming to themselves, when too late for repentance." -H. Alford The true light is shining right now, may God help us all come to it before the day is spent. "You and I can never imagine all the depths of hell. Shut out from us by a black veil of darkness, we cannot tell the horrors of that dismal dungeon of lost souls. Happily, the wailings of the damned have never startled us, for a thousand tempests were but a maiden’s whisper, compared with one wail of a damned spirit. It is not possible for us to see the tortures of those souls who dwell eternally within an anguish that knows no alleviation. These eyes would become sightless balls of darkness, if they were permitted for an instant to look into that ghastly shrine of torment. Hell is horrible, for we may say of it, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the horrors which God hath prepared for them that hate him." -C.H. Spurgeon "We have underestimated the total war to which the devil has committed his horde of demons and men alike? Is it not true that cataracts have formed over our eyes (maybe with watching too much T.V.) so that we have completely misjudged the horror of that eternal hell to which at this moment millions of souls are marching? Does such a picture stir your soul and stab your conscience? Are you sleeping at the price of another's peril? Recently, when a hunting dog ferreted into a pile of rocks and was trapped, men fought with cold, rain, and fatigue for two days and nights to find the entombed dog. Are not men more than dogs? Will men be entombed in hell forever because you were playing instead of praying?" -Leonard Ravenhill ======================================================================== CHAPTER 3: PART 3: CRYING ======================================================================== Hell and Everlasting Punishment Part 3: Crying "there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out." (Luke 13:28). It was said of the rich man in Hell "he cried" (Luke 16:24). Imagine the times you have cried, lamented and weeped over sins and small problems in this life. Imagine that contrasted to an eternal seperation with God, an eternal punishment! Hell is a reality that we must not ignore, it would be better to weep over sin now before sin becomes death and swallows you up. John Bunyan wrote an article concerning this crying entitled "A Sigh from Hell": He was laughing, jesting, jeering, drinking, mocking, swearing, cursing, prating, persecuting the godly in his prosperity, among his filthy companions. But now the case is otherwise, now he is in another frame, now his proud, stout, currish carriage is come down; "And he cried." The laughter of the ungodly will not last always, but will be sure to end in a cry: "The triumphing of the wicked is short." (Job 20:5). Consider, you must have a change either here or in Hell. If you be not new creatures, regenerate persons, and newborn babes, in this world, before you go hence, your note will be changed, your conditions will be changed; for if you come into Hell, you must cry... O what an alteration will there be among the ungodly when they go out of this world! It may be a fortnight, or a month before their departure, they were light, stout, surly, drinking themselves drunk, slighting God's people, mocking at goodness, and delighting in sin, following the world, seeking after riches, faring deliciously, keeping company with the wickedest; but now they are dropped down into Hell, they cry. Little while ago they were painting their faces, feeding their lusts, following their whores, robbing thir neibours, telling their lies, following plays and sports, to pass away the time; but now they are in Hell, they do cry. It may be last year they heard some good sermons, were invited to recieve Heaven, were told their sins should be pardoned if they closed in with Jesus; but, refusing His proffers, and slighting the grace that was once tendered, they are now in Hell, and do cry. Before, they had so much time, they thought that they could not tell how to spend it, unless it were in hunting and whoring, in dancing and playing, and spending whole hours, yea days, yea weeks, in the lusts of the flesh; but when they depart into another place, they begin to lift up their eyes in Hell, and consider their miserable and irrecoverable condition, they cry. O! consider, I say, consider betimes, and put not off the tenders of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, lest you lift up your eyes in Hell, and cry for anguish of spirit. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 4: PART 4: DAMNATION ======================================================================== Hell and Everlasting Punishment Part 4: Damnation "But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation." (Mark 3:29). Jesus asked the question, "how can you escape the damnation of hell?" (Matthew 23:33). "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." (Mark 16:16). "And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." (John 5:29). Paul spoke of those who refused the truth and were not saved and said of them: "That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Thessalonians 2:12). Here are the testimonies of people when they came to die, who realized they were damned: TALLEYRAND PERIGORD: "I am suffering the pangs of the damned." SIR THOMAS SCOTT: "Until this moment I believed that there was neither a God nor a hell. Now I know and feel there are both and I am doomed to perdition by the just judgement of the Almighty." THOMAS PAINE: "I would give worlds, if I had them, if the 'Age of Reason' had never been published. O Lord, help me! Christ, help me! Stay with me! It is hell to be left alone!" FRANCIS NEWPORT: "That there is a God, I know, because I continually fell the effects of His wrath; that there is a hell, I am equally certain, having recieved an earnest of my inheritance there already in my breast. I have despised my Maker and denied my Redeemer; I have joined myself to the atheist and profane, and continued this course under many convictions, till my iniquity was ripe for vengeance and the just judgement of God. How idle is it to bid the fire not burn when fuel is administered, and to command the seas to be smooth in the midst of a storm! Such is my case; and what are the comforts of my friends? Whither am I going? Damned and lost forever. God has become my enemy and there is none able to save me. Oh, insufferable pangs of hell and damnation!" VOLTAIRE: "I am abandoned by God and man! I shall go to hell! O Christ! O Jesus Christ! CHARLES IX, KING OF FRANCE: "What blood, what evil counsels have I followed! I am lost; I see it well!" HOBBES: "I say again, if I had the whole world to dispose of, I would give it to live one day. I am about to take a leap in the dark!" GIBBON: "All is now lost, finally, irrecoverably lost, All is dark and doubtful!" QUEEN ELIZABETH: "All my possessions but for a moment of time!" SIR THOMAS SMITH: "It is lamentable that men consider not for what end they are born into the world till they are ready to go out of it." NAPOLEON BONAPARTE: "I died before my time, and my body will be given back to the earth to become food for the worms. Such is the fate of him who has been called the great Napoleon. What an abyss lies between my deep misery and the eternal kingdom of Christ!" ======================================================================== CHAPTER 5: PART 5: EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT ======================================================================== Hell and Everlasting Punishment Part 5: Everlasting Punishment "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." (Matthew 25:46). William Elbert Munsey wrote of the everlasting punishment of the wicked: "The eternal punishment of the wicked, the eternal happiness of the righteous, and the eternity of God, as far as Revelation is concerned, form the same building. The Univeralist has placed his shoulders against the basement pillars, and if he succeeds the whole structure falls; but he and his co-laborers may toil and sweat, and leave their bones to molder away in the cellars, but God lives on, the righteous shout on, and the damned groan on- throughout all eternity- O Eternity! The meaning of such a word in its connection with the future punishment of the wicked is dreadful- O Eternity! Its signifigance is as high and wide and deep and grand as God is. He fills it, and it fills Him, and all the worlds, and all the men, and all the demons, and all the angels, but perform their parts in its awful shadow." IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH: "Corrupters of families will not inherit the kingdom of God. And if they who do these things according to the flesh suffer death, how much more if a man corrupt by evil teaching the faith of God for the sake of which Jesus Christ was crucified? A man become so foul will depart into unquenchable fire: and so will anyone who listens to him" (Letter to the Ephesians 16:1–2 [A.D. 110]) - CLEMENT: "If we do the will of Christ, we shall obtain rest; but if not, if we neglect his commandments, nothing will rescue us from eternal punishment" (Second Clement 5:5 [A.D. 150]). JUSTIN MARTYR: "[Jesus] shall come from the heavens in glory with his angelic host, when he shall raise the bodies of all the men who ever lived. Then he will clothe the worthy in immortality; but the wicked, clothed in eternal sensibility, he will commit to the eternal fire, along with the evil demons" (First Apology 52 [A.D. 151]). POLYCARP: "Fixing their minds on the grace of Christ, [the martyrs] despised worldly tortures and purchased eternal life with but a single hour. To them, the fire of their cruel torturers was cold. They kept before their eyes their escape from the eternal and unquenchable fire" (Martyrdom of Polycarp 2:3 [A.D. 155]). IRENAEUS: "The penalty increases for those who do not believe the Word of God and despise his coming. . . . [I]t is not merely temporal, but eternal. To whomsoever the Lord shall say, ‘Depart from me, accursed ones, into the everlasting fire,’ they will be damned forever" (ibid., 4:28:2). TERTULLIAN: "After the present age is ended he will judge his worshipers for a reward of eternal life and the godless for a fire equally perpetual and unending" (Apology 18:3 [A.D. 197]). HIPPOLYTUS: "Standing before [Christ’s] judgment, all of them, men, angels, and demons, crying out in one voice, shall say: ‘Just is your judgment!’ And the righteousness of that cry will be apparent in the recompense made to each. To those who have done well, everlasting enjoyment shall be given; while to the lovers of evil shall be given eternal punishment. The unquenchable and unending fire awaits these latter, and a certain fiery worm which does not die and which does not waste the body but continually bursts forth from the body with unceasing pain. No sleep will give them rest; no night will soothe them; no death will deliver them from punishment; no appeal of interceding friends will profit them" (Against the Greeks 3 [A.D. 212]). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 6: PART 6: FILTHINESS ======================================================================== Hell and Everlasting Punishment Part 6: Filthiness "He that is unjust, let him bu unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still." (Revelation 22:11). God looked down from Heaven to see if there were any that understood and here is what He saw: "Thy are all gone aside, they are all together beocome filthy: there is none that doeth good, no not one." (Psalm 14:2,3). Job speaks of a man and asks, "How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?" (Job 15:16), and Isaiah says of man, "But we are as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags." (Isaiah 64:6). People are said to be filthy in this life and if they die unsaved they go to a place of filthiness forever. Here are some of the filthy people who will be in hell: "But the fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." (Revelation 21:8). "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not decieved: neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulteres, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 6:9,10). What a list of companions of those who go to Hell: people who are fearful, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters, liars, fornicators, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners. J. Wilbur Chapman tells of an unsaved girl who had a Christian father. Once the two were riding the train together. The father stepped out of the car for a moment, and the girl was surrounded by young men who were using profanity, and taking God's name in vain, using all sorts of vulgarity. It shocked her to hear what they had to say, to hear them blaspheme the Name of God. When her father returned to the coach, she said, "Father, let's get out of here immediately." They went into another car and sat down, and the girl leaned her head on the father's shoulder and began to weep and said, "Oh, Father, how vulgar and profane they were. I just couldn't stand it another minute. I am so glad to get out of there." The father said, "Daughter, do you realize that is the kind of people you are going to spend eternity with." She said, "Oh, my Father, tell me once more how to be saved, and I will trust the Lord Jesus. I don't want to go to Hell. I don't want to be in Hell with that kind of people." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 7: PART 7: GLOOM ======================================================================== Hell and Everlasting Punishment Part 7: Gloom The word "gloom" means "a partial or total darkness; a dark place; an atmosphere or despondency." Nahum speaks of the goodness of the Lord to those who trust Him, but then He says of those who do not trust Him, "darkness shall pursue his [God's] enemies." (Nahum 1:7-8). God, in speaking of the wicked says, "Wherefore their ways shall be unti them as slippery ways in the darkness; they shall be driven on and fall therein" (Jeremiah 23:12). Solomon wrote, "For there shall be no reward to the evil man; the candle of the wicked shall be put out" (Proverbs 24:20). God warns: "Hear ye, and give ear; be no proud: for the LORD hath spoken. Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness" (Jeremiah 13:15,16). Someone has written of the gloom of a lost soul: LOST IN ETERNITY'S GLOOM O, what an awful word! Lost souls. Can you get a faint idea of the measureless depth of meaning in the two small words? What oceans of tears! What overwhelming bursts of wailing and gnashing of teeth! What eternities of despair! Irredeemably lost! No chance for light to shine out on their devil-begirt, furnace-heated, pall-shrouded, downward, outward, hellward pathway. Lost to happiness and hope. Lost to God and the redeemed! Lost to heaven and hope. Lost, and no hope of ever being found. Not one dim, distant hope of ever being anything but more hopelessly, ruinously, despairingly, lost, during all the eternities to come. From woe to more woe; misery to worse misery; ever always lost! Lost because they would be lost. Lost, while their bosom friend was found. Lost, while Jesus was seeking them, and found them lost; but they would not be found. They might have been found, but would not. They gained the world and lost their souls. They gained the shadow and lost the substance; gained the briers and lost the flowers; gained famine and lost plently; gained foes and lost a Friend; gained eternal damnation and lost eternal life. Lost amid outer darkness! Lost in the smooe of torment! Lost in the lake of fire and brimstone! Lost amid the howlings of myriads of tormenting devils, the shrieks of the damned, and horrible tempest, the thousand thunders! Lost! Lost!! Lost!!! The bells of eternity are tolling the requuiem. Time warned you. The Bible warned you. The Judgement and providences of God warn you. The Spirit warned you. Shall you and your loved ones be lost? Decide now while Jesus calls, or you are lost. Lost to earth's pleasures that once thy soul won. Lost earth's fond friendship to sorrow alone, Lost amid ruined hopes ever undone, Lost! the enchantment is o'er. Lost where the billows of torment e'er roll; Lost where God's wrath flame envelops the soul; Lost where no gleam of hope comes to console, Lost in eternity's gloom. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 8: PART 8: HOPELESSNESS ======================================================================== Hell and Everlasting Punishment Part 8: Hopelessness The Bible says, "When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of the unjust men perisheth" (Proverbs 11:7), and "the hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish" (Proverbs 10:28). Another verse that says almost the same thing is Proverbs 14:32: "The wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the righteous hath hope in his death." Paul writes of the unsaved: "That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." (Ephesians 2:12). Dante has written over the portal of Hell: "Relinquish all hope, ye who enter here." Dr. L.R. Scarborough writes of a man who died without hope. In a sermon he tells the story: DYING WITHOUT HOPE In my pastorate at Abilene years ago in a great revival whihc I was holding in my church, I went as my custom was to see the people. I went to the office and invited the proprietor who had just come to the town to make our church his church home. He was a big, fine-looking man. He looked me in the face and said, "Are you the pastor of that church?" I said, "I am;" and for two or three minutes I stood and heard him swear and curse preachers and churches and Christians. Then he walked back into the private room of his hotel. During that meeting God led back from twenty-seven years of backsliding, led there by this wicked man, his wife. I led to Christ his son, who now, thank God, is preaching the gospel in California. I led to Christ his daughter who is a student in our Training School at Fort Worth. When the meeting was over, one day my telephone rang. That wife at the other end of the line said, "Come." I went to that hotel. I went into that family room. There stood the weeping wife and the sorrowing children. There lay that big strong man on his bed breathing his last. He had been suddenly taken with an incurable disease. His lips moved and his wife said, "Put your ear to his lips and hear what he says, "I am sorry I did. A thousand times his dying words have rung in my soul- "Dying without hope; dying without God; dying without Christ- hopeless, hopeless!" for twenty-five times, I guess, his strength enabled him to say it; and then he went out into eternity. I want to tell you while you're living, God says you are without Christ and without hope if you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Saviour. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 9: PART 9: INDIGNATION ======================================================================== Hell and Everlasting Punishment Part 9: Indignation God's Word clearly states: "But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile" (Romans 2:8,9). "But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation" (Jeremiah 10:10). "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever recieveth the mark of his name" (Revelation 14:10,11). This indignation is another for God's wrath, of which we have already written, and here God says that those who experience His indignation "shall be tormented with fire and brimstone... and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever." AN ALARM TO THE UNCONVERTED Joseph Alleine, a much-used preacher of years ago, spoke to the uncoverted and warned them: "Now you can put off the evil day, and laugh and be merry, and forget the terror of the Lord. But how will you hold out, or hold up, when God casts you into a 'bed of torments' (Revelation 2:22); and makes you to 'lie down in sorrow' (Isaiah 1:11); when roarings and blasphemies shall be your only music, and the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into a cup of His indignation, shall be your only drink (Revelation 14:10)? In a word, when the smoke of your torment shall ascend for ever and ever, and you shall have no rest day or night, no rest in your conscience, no rest in your bones; but you shall be an execration, an anstonishment, and a curse and a reproach, for evermore (Jeremiah 42:18). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 10: PART 10: JUDGEMENT ======================================================================== Hell and Everlasting Punishment Part 10: Judgement God has made it clear in His Word many times that a time of judgement is coming: "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth: and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment" (Ecclesiastes 11:9). "For God shall bring every work into judgement, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil" (Ecclesiastes 12:14). "Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whome he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead" (Acts 17:31). "And as it appointed unto men once to die, but after this the jugement" (Hebrews 9:27). When the sentance is passed upon the unsaved at the great white throne judgement, all of them will be cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15). The Bible speaks of "eternal judgement" (Hebrews 6:2) and Hell is God's place of eternal judgement against sin. The national anthem of hell is "I Did It My Way." -Peter Kreeft "Now, how reasonable is it to suppose, that God, when he shall come and put an end to the present state of mankind, will in an open, public manner, the whole world being present, rectify all these disorders! And that he will bring all things to a trial by a general judgment, in order that those who have been oppressed may be delivered; that the righteous cause may be pleaded and vindicated, and wickedness, which has been approved, honored, and rewarded, may receive its due disgrace and punishment; that the proceedings of kings and earthly judges may be inquired into by him, whose eyes are as a flame of fire; and that the public actions of men may be publicly examined and recompensed according to their desert! How agreeable is it to divine wisdom thus to order things, and how worthy of the supreme governor of the world!" -Jonathan Edwards "If God has appointed a day to judge the world, let us judge and condemn ourselves for our sins. This we must do, if we would not be judged and condemned for them on that day. If we would escape condemnation, we must see that we justly may be condemned. We must be so sensible of our vileness and guilt, as to see that we deserve all that condemnation and punishment which are threatened. And that we are in the hands of God, who is the sovereign disposer of us, and will do with us as seemeth to himself good. Let us therefore often reflect on our sins, confess them before God, condemn and abhor ourselves, be truly humbled, and repent in dust and ashes." -Jonathan Edwards "What fools are they who, for a drop of pleasure, drink a sea of wrath." -Thomas Watson ======================================================================== CHAPTER 11: PART 11: KEEPING ======================================================================== Hell and Everlasting Punishment Part 11: Keeping Hell is a place of keeping- where the wicked will be kept for all eternity. Dr. Harry Ironside spoke of this place of imprisonment: "Hell is God's well-ordered prison house; the lake of fire is His penitentiary." Evangelist Fred Barlow commented on Hell as a place of unescapble doom: "Criminals behind the bars, sentanced for life and even for execution, live in hope that they may be paroled, escape, get to freedom someday, someway. But Hell is not a penitentiary from which a person can ever escape or ever hope of release. For God does not consign a soul to Hell to make him penitent for sin and to rehabilitate him for heavenly society someday. God sends a sinner to hell to punish him for committing the unrepentable, unforgivable sin- the final and eternal rejection of Christ." HYMAN J. APPLEMAN: "Should you make your abode in hell, you will see the burning faces, the glazed eyes, the tortured hands of fellow prisoners of damnation. You will reconize, God forbid, husband, wife, father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, friend, neighbor, that you could aas easioly have taken to heaven as dragged down to hell. Oh, that awful mass of weeping, wailing humanity that inhabits hell! They, too, cry one heaven-searching cry to God, but, alas, too late. All cry that endless refrain, 'Forever! Forever! Forever!' Beyond God forever! Beyond Christ forever! Beyond the Spirit forever! Beyond the Bible forever! Beyond the Gospel forever! Beyond the cross forever! Beyond the blood forever! Beyond tears forever! Beyond repentance forever! Beyond faith forever! Beyond confession forever! Beyond time forever! Beyond eternity forever! Forever! Forever! Forever!" BELGIC CONFESSION (1561): "The consideration of the judgement is justly terrible and dreadful to the wicked and ungodly... who shall be convicted by the testimony of their own consciences, and being immortal, shall be tormented in that everlasting fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels." "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath resevered in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement seat of the great day." (Jude 6) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 12: PART 12: LAKE OF FIRE ======================================================================== Five times in the Bible t he lake of fire is mentioned: Revelation 19:20; 20:10; 20:14; 20:15; 21:8. "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:14). Professor C. T. Schwarze, of New York University, member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, on a radio broadcast conducted by Erling C. Olsen over station WMCA, New York City, stated that, according to Matthew 25:41: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels," the fire is already in existence. He said that the Greek word translated "prepared" in this verse is hetoimazo, which means "already prepared," or "now ready." Robert L. Summer speaks of real fire in Hell: "Do not misunderstand me, there is a real Hell or real fire which makes sinners grit their teeth for pain, cry out for water, and beg for mercy! Jude 7 says, "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Since it was real fire and real brimstone which destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah- and that was just a sample of Hell- we can expect real fire and real brimstone in the eternal land of the lost." John Holliday in his message, "Final Judgement and Eternal Hell," also spoke of fire: "Any effort to soften the Bible doctrine of hell by making the fire figurative is utterly futile. According to Jesus, both body and soul are involved in the miseries of hell (Matthew 10:28) and from His unveilings of the remorse and retribution to be endured, the flames that sear the soul are more terrible than the fires that scorch the body." Dr John R. Rice in his excellent sermon "Is there Literal Physical Fire in Hell?", concluded: "I think I know why Paul went about weeping, 'night and day with tears' (Acts 20:31), when he so believed in a literal Hell of eternal fire and torment! I beg of you who read this, become consumed with the passion to save people from Hell! We may be fundamental in our heads, but most of us are partly infidels in our hearts, for we have no real conception of the wickedness of sin, and we have no real conception of the marvel of God's love and His infinite grace expressed at Calvary! Most of us have no sense of the awfulness of sin and the certain, horrible doom of Christ-rejecting sinners! Oh, brother, let us win souls while we may to keep them from the lake of fire, that awful place burning with brimstone, prepared for the Devil and his angels!" "The Hell of the Bible is horrible beyond description, and the hypotheses of this hour cannot exceed it. Its miseries are as far beyond description as the joys of heaven are. Be it better or worse, oh let us not go there!" -Munsey ======================================================================== CHAPTER 13: PART 13: MEMORY ======================================================================== Hell is a place of memory. The rich man in Hell was told by Abraham, "Son, remember" (Luke 16:25). In commenting on the rich man in Hell, Dr. G. Beauchamp Vick, pastor of Temple Baptist Church, wrote: "Oh, my friends, memory has been called the storehouse of the soul. What did Abraham tell him to remember? The things that happened in his lifetime. 'Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and thou are tormented.' 'Son, remember'. Yes, the memory that you will retain in Hell will be one of the awful horrors of that eternal inferno. Remember the good things, the good opportunities which you enjoyed in your lifetime. Those wasted opportunities of years gone by. 'Son, remember' how God let you be born in the land of open Bibles; in a land of open churches, in a land where the Gospel was just as near you as the radio or television dial in your living room, if you wanted to hear it. 'Son, remember' how a fellow by the name of Beauchamp Vick spoke to you week after week warning you to flee from the wrath of God to come. How he repeatedly told you of the horrors of an eternal hell for every soul that rejects Christ. Remember every church service you attended. Remember God has sent preachers of all kinds your way, yet you said 'no' to it all. Remember every Gospel message which God let you hear, and yet you said 'no' to it all. Remember every personal worker who pled with you to recieve the Lord Jesus Christ and repent of your sins, but you said 'no' to it all. Remember every prayer of a godly Christian mother. Remember every prayer of all your friends which you ignored. Yes, my friends, some of you will remember every invitation hymn which you rejected. You will remember every Gospel invitation to which you said, 'no' You will remember time after time when you sat as the claims of Jesus Christ were being pressed hom upon your soul and you hardened your heart, you stiffened your neck and you said, 'no' to it all. 'Son, remember, that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likwise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou are tormented.' "Hell is full of good meanings and wishings." -George Herbert "The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions." -A.W. Tozer ======================================================================== CHAPTER 14: PART 14: NO REST ======================================================================== "And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosover recieveth the mark of his name." (Revelation 14:11). The Bible says that those who are unsaved have no rest in this life: "But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked" (Isaiah 57:20,21). Those dying in their sins will have no rest throughout eternity. Jesus promises: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). Those who do not come to Jesus and recieve Him as Saviour and Lord will be restless in life and in eternity. "Are you throwing away your life and eternal soul in reckless abandon? There is a hell, a real hell reserved for all who have never made Jesus Christ Saviour. There is a heaven of glory fro those who have put their trust in Him and been born into God's family." -Oswald J. Smith "THERE IS NOT GOSPEL PREACHED IN HELL. Christ did not die for the damned... had no respect to that world... to those in this state... any more than to the devil. No means of grace Means of grace not accommodated to that state. No manner of provision made in any respect for their relief. No aid. Preaching of the Word don’t reach them. The prayers of saints, of godly friends, don’t reach them." -Jonathan Edwards "Hell is paved with good intentions." -Boswell "That's the greatest torture souls feel in hell, In hell, that they must live, and cannot die." -John Webster ======================================================================== CHAPTER 15: PART 15: OBLIVION ======================================================================== Oblivion means the "state of being blotted out from the memory; a being forgotten." Many times I have been asked the question: "How can anyone be happy in Haven when some of his loved ones are in Hell?" The Bible teaches that "the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance" (Psalm 112:6), but it also teaches that those who go to Hell will be forgotten by their loved ones in Heaven. "Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned. The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree" (Job 24:19,20). Notice, a verse 20 says of the wicked: "The womb [the mother] shall forget him [the sinner]... he shall be no more remembered." The lost sinner in Hell will be completely forgotten by those who are in Heaven- they will be blotted out from the memory. "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God" (Psalm 9:17). Those who have forgotten God will be forgotten by those who are with Him. B.H. CARROLL: He warned stubborn unbelievers: "You just as certain for Hell as if you were there today." ROBERT MURRAY M'CHEYNE: In his last message before he died, preached on the afternoon of March 12, 1843, in St. Peter's, he said: "Brethren, there is a hell. It was God's plan that there should be vessels of wrath as well as vessel's of mercy... O do not dream! All will not be saved." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 16: PART 16: PAIN ======================================================================== Four times in the story of the rich man in Hell we are told of the torment he suffered: "And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments...; I am tormented in this flame... thou are tormented... this place of torment" (Luke 16:23-25,28). In Revelation 14:11 we read, "And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever..." People in Hell will have no respite from pain- it will be day and night forever and ever. Here people who suffer pain can get relieft through drugs and sleep. There will be no end to their pain of body and soul. R.A. Torrey said, "Friends, hell is the hospital of the incurables of the universe, where men exist in awful and perpetual pain." "There will be no one in Hell to whisper, 'I love you'. There will be no one to care, no one to bear, no one to share your eternal heartache and heartbreak." -Fred Barlow JOHN CALVIN: John Calvin refers to Hell as "this gulf of perdition" and declares that "no description can equal the severity of the Divine vengeance on the reprobate, their anguish and torment are figuratively represented under corporal images; as darkness, weeping, and gnashing of teeth, unextinguishable fire, a worm incessantly gnawing the heart." HEIDELBERG CATECHISM (1563): "His (God's) justice requires that sin, which is commited against the most high majesty of God, be also punished with extreme, that is with everlasting punishment of body and soul." WILLIAM W. ORR: "Hell will be terror, without one mitigating feature. Pain, without the slightest chance of alleviation, will be unbearable. the flaming torment will be so severe that one will beg piteously for a drop of water to cool his tongue. Suffering of the body will be so terrible that the sinner will grind his teeth in agony. Coupled with this will be anguish of spirit in the realization that Hell could have been avoided. Conscience will stab and nag and acuse forever. Perhaps the doomed sinner will recall the day he rejected the call of the Spirit for the last time." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 17: PART 17: QUANDRY ======================================================================== Quandry means "a state of difficulty, perplexity, uncertainity, or hesitation; a predicament." Surely, Hell will be all of this, and more. "The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" (Isaiah 33:14). Here God speaks of those who "dwell with the devouring fire... with everlasting burnings." "One of the horrors of hell is the undying memory of a misspent life." -Anonymous Someone has written as if he were in Hell and of his quandry: "I have told you, my friend, how continuously I am the prey of memories, but how much so- to what extent, I mean- you little guess. That deeds of iniquity and particular sins should assail me, tormenting the soul as with fire, is natural. But this is not all. There are other things, counted for little in the world, which cling to conscience with terrible vividness. Every little falsehood and unjust dealing, every word of deceit and breach of fealty, every evil example and want of kindness,- thy are all, all present now, piercing the heart as with daggers of regret. I thought so little of these things in life, that I scarcely stopped to consider them; they seemed buried on the spot, every year adding its own share to the mouldering heap. They have risen now and stand about me, I see them and I tremble. And further, apart from the evil done, it is the good left undone, the opportunities wasted, which stand around me with pitiless scourge, and their name is legion! Thus everything, you see, both what I have done and left undone, comes to life here in this place of woe,- thakes shape, I ought to say,- rising in accusation against me. I try to escape, but they are about me everywhere, those shapes of terror. Let me conjure you then, brothers and sisters, listen to the voice of your heart while yet it is day! Listen, I say, and obey, lest the bitterness of repentance overtake you with the night, when no man can work! Ah, let no opportunity for doing of good escape you, for it will rise against you when nothing is left but to wail in anguish" "Abandon all hope, you who enter here!" -Dante ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/hell-and-everlasting-punishment/ ========================================================================