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"Fire!" Photo by Max Kukurudziak on Unsplash |
A question on a Bible study email I received this week was, "Is hell a real place?" My immediate thought was "YES! I don't want to find out for sure!" I believe hell is a real place but that it can be avoided. However, it is a choice for everyone to make. I cannot make it for you nor can anyone else. Each and every human on planet earth makes their decision before they die. Since none of us know when we will die, we should make that decision sooner than later.
A discussion about death is often the very last topic on anyone's list to chat about with their friends or family. I remember when my mother passed away many years ago, it was difficult for my father. Though we had had the discussion about death many years before, a few items such as a cemetery plot and headstone hadn't been arranged. Most other details had been. My father grieved her passing quite a bit because he lost his companion, my mother, of some 49 years. They were inseparable and loved each other immensely. Dad knew he would see her again in heaven one of these days. My mother became a Christian at an early age and lived a Christian life.
A few years later, my father passed away. I remember grieving my loss. However, it wasn't as bad as it could have been because I knew my father was in heaven. He lived a devout Christian life and served God through many ministries and other ways over the years. I know I will see him and my mother again as they are in heaven.
I remember when I was younger being taught by my parents, grandparents, Pastors, and Sunday School teachers throughout life about heaven and hell. It was a topic often brought up in sermons especially during the early years of my life. I decided that I wasn't interested in dying one day and going to hell because I wasn't going to become a Christian. I became one because I believed in God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible. As the Bible mentions hell, or hades, quite often in many passages such as these:
“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” - Revelation 21:8
The Book of Life is where your name is written when you are forgiven by God for your sins and become a Christian. What is hell? Eternal and forever separated from God for those who do not repent. It has been described as an awful horrible place by many Bible scholars.
As time has gone on, I've noticed that many churches and ministries do not share or speak about hell. They have gone to a feel-good Gospel to appease those who do not want to hear or to tickle the ears of those they do not want to offend. It's a shame because heaven and hell are real places.
I know for me now, or even when I was a young kid, I do not want to be eternally separated from God.
Hell is for those who do not know God. To learn more about God, Jesus, and the Bible, please visit Peace With God.