Early on in my ministry, I served as a youth pastor. That early ministry was exciting and the response of teens I ministered to was equally exciting. Whenever I saw a young person respond to the Gospel it just made my day, my week, frankly, it drove me into a deep love for the Gospel and the riches of the grace of God in Christ (Ephesians 3:8). It was the glorious Gospel of grace that stood in contrast to the consequences of hell. For God is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24; Hebrews 12:29).
One day I received a phone call from a young teen and he asked if he could set up an appointment with me “to get saved.” I thought to myself, I could walk him through the Gospel right here on the phone, but instead, I made the appointment. We met the next day and in the course of our conversation, I asked him what motivated him to want to receive Christ. He looked at me and said, “ I read Revelation 20 and I don’t want to go there.” He then opened his Bible a read verses 11-15.
Revelation 20:11-15 (ESV) 11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
This young man understood the plain and simple message of that part of Scripture. Hell is real and it’s a consuming fire, a creation of God, that punishes throughout all eternity.
Of course, hell is something most people don’t want to think about. For some, they are unaware it exists or they push it to the back of their minds and refuse to believe that they would fall under the righteous judgment of God. The thought of hell is so abhorrent to them that they rationalize that God is a God of love and wouldn’t send anyone to hell, except, Hitler and their other favorite demons. For the most part, the general public is myopic concerning the nature of God. They only imagine a god of love who is non-condemning and will not judge the sin of men.
They are happily unaware of the nature and attributes of God and that God “is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). It is His perfect holiness, His eternal justice, and His absolute righteous that brings His eternal judgment and wrath upon men (John 3:36; Romans 1:18; Ephesians 5:6; Revelation 6:17) and that is just too much for most people to accept or contemplate. They have created a god after their own likeness and imagination (cf. Ezekiel 16:17; Isa 45:20; Jeremiah 10).
When the reporting came out that the Pope had denied hell, the Roman Catholic Church responded through the Catholic News Agency (CNA) with its official position by referring to the Catholic Catechism on the reality of hell. Their answer went something like this; “don’t worry, the reporter got it all wrong. Here’s our position….” We were still left with the unanswered question, what exactly did the Pope say.
And when you do just a little bit of digging you see that even while the RCC, while having an official position on hell it is clearly weak on nature of hell or whether anyone is in hell.
“Theology has no complete answer as to how, or even whether, anyone might be damned forever. Many Theologians, and ordinary people as well, feel that no one is damned; they cannot conceive of a person choosing with full knowledge and deliberation to be cut off from God forever. They question how one with only limited knowledge can make an eternal, limitless choice. Or, put it another way, how can a finite being, in a finite lifetime, merit infinite punishment? ….There is also an ongoing view among some Catholic theologians that even the damned will be saved at the end of the world (universalism) – that only this is compatible with God’s revelation of himself as compassionate and forgiving and one who urges us always to forgive.”[1]
Also interesting, and telling, in their official position is the lack of sighting any Scripture on hell, of which there is an abundance. But that should not be surprising as even among Evangelicals who hold to the sole authority of the Scriptures, we tend to be weak on hell, especially in our proclamation of the Gospel and we tend to avoid the Scriptures concerning hell.
It has been said that Jesus Himself, spoke more about hell than He did of heaven. And there is a good reason for this. It not only exposes the absolute evil of sin before a holy God but also the full character of God as holy (Leviticus 11:14-15; Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8), righteous (Isaiah 42:21; 45:21; Zechariah 9:9; Romans 3:24-26, just (Psalm 9:7), merciful (Luke 6:36 and loving (John 3;16; 1 John 3:16) and judges in righteous judgment (Deuteronomy 16:18; Psalm 9:4; Roman 2:1,5; cf 2 Thessalonians 1:5). Hell also, by contrast, exposes the grace of God. Because of the consequences of hell, God is revealed as a God of Grace (unmerited favor).
Hell is the righteous and just response of God to a fallen race that is in rebellion against God (Romans 3:9-23; Ephesians 2:1-3). It is the necessary and just response to sin which is an infinite offense to the character of His infinite holiness and purity.
It is also perfectly understandable that mankind doesn’t understand the nature of the offense. Man is finite and fallen and views the nature of God from an imperfect and defective viewpoint, his own fallenness. The default position is that God will weigh the bad against the good and things should be just fine since we view ourselves as naturally good in clear opposition to the clear teaching of the Scriptures (Isaiah 64:6). Again, the viewpoint of man is corrupt on two points. He does not see his sin as “all that bad,” and he doesn’t have a correct view of the nature and attributes of God. This is why ALL false religions are a system of works of some kind or other, and in contrast, in Christianity we fall at the feet of Christ, helpless, looking outside of ourselves to the person and finished work of Christ in grace and mercy. Man rejects hell because he doesn’t understand those two points which find their foundation in the nature and character of God. This also is why many who profess Christ are weak on the doctrine of hell and/or are timid about the subject when I come to the Gospel. A.W.Tozer has said; “The Christian is strong or weak depending on how closely he has cultivated the knowledge of God.”[2] And that is revealed in the Word of God.
The writer of Hebrews was correct in warning his readers;
Hebrews 12:25 (ESV) 25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.
Hebrews 12:28-29 (ESV) 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire. (Deuteronomy 4:24)
-Michael Holtzinger
[1] Anthony Wilhelm, “Christ Among Us,” Sixth Edition, Harper One, An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, 1996, pg.351 (This book carries the official imprimatur seal of the RCC, in other words, this book reflects the official teachings of the RCC.)
[2] A.W. Tozer, “A 365 -Day Devotional,” January 13
Helpful Resources:
Three Spiritual Classics in One Volume: The Knowledge of the Holy, The Pursuit of God, and God’s Pursuit of Man By A.W. Tozer
The Attributes of God By: Arthur Pink