Hell is Forever

 Tuesday - December 29, 2020

“And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name." -Revelation 14:11

                We notice the very clear statement here that hell is eternal or “forever and ever.” Some misguided authors have recently laid hold of the concept that the unrighteous are annihilated, but there is no way to claim that position without ignoring this and many other Scriptures. On the other side, other recent authors have claimed that people in hell will somehow gain freedom after they spend enough time there, but this concept is also unsupported by Scripture. This verse is not recorded to scare people, but to serve as a crystal clear warning, to all people, to avoid this very real place where those who reject God’s free gift of salvation, by grace through faith, will be punished. He gives this strong warning because, as the Apostle Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:9, God’s desire is that none would “perish but that all should come to repentance.”

Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll was an American Civil War veteran and a vocal atheist. He gave many lectures on the illegitimacy of the Gospel and religion. In one lecture he gave on hell, he said that he would “prove conclusively that hell was a wild dream of some scheming theologians who invented it to terrify gullible people.” As he began his lecture, a man stood in the audience and said, “Make it strong, Bob. There’s a lot of us poor fellows depending on you. If you are wrong, we are all lost. So be sure you prove it clear and plain.” No matter how gifted the orator or how eloquent their words, no amount of passionate denial can reverse God’s certain word. He has spoken, in love, as plainly of hell for those who refuse to surrender to Him, as He has promised eternity with Him for those who would.

                                                                                                                                                                -Ed Rea

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