I have drafted only a few thoughts regarding the following
subject matter. I prefer to share encouraging
messages that uplift the spirit rather than such an alarming topic. But without the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth, how can a person know the fullness of God’s love and the
reasons He gave His Son to die on a cross for the sins of mankind?
There is no doubt in my mind that God loves humanity. To give one’s child to save heathens and
sinners like me exceeds comprehension, but God first loved us before we loved
him and paid the ultimate price for sin through the brutal death of Jesus.
I believe most everyone has heard the word ‘hell’ spoken sometime in
their life; and no doubt they understand that it is a place to avoid. Old time preachers use to preach sermons of hell-fire and brimstone to their parishioners, because of the obvious; hell is an
awful place of torment.
It seems that with this present generation of preachers, fewer messages
center on this dreadful place. I hear
message after message about God’s love, which is certainly needed and received, but messages on hell should not be ignored even though they make
the hearer uncomfortable.
No-one has visited hell to know just how hot it is or if it even
exists. I believe that it is searing
hot; a place of endless suffering. It
exists because the Bible tells me that it does.
I do not have to jump off a ten story building to experience the sudden
stop at the bottom to prove that death is real.
I need not go into outer space to grasp the meaning of weightlessness
when I can read about it in science books.
I do not have to sail across the ocean, like Columbus , to prove that the world is round
and not flat.
The Bible is the inerrant Word of God.
He has protected its integrity through the millenniums for our perusal
and the ingesting of truth. It is the
will and testament of God to all mankind, because He desires that no man
perish, but that all would come unto repentance.
God wants to save us from the punishment of hell, which is the sentence
for unbelievers that reject God’s Son.
Jesus is the only means of salvation.
Jehovah God instructed honorable men of high moral values and
godly principles to pen His words on scrolls as the Holy Spirit breathed upon
each of them.
The Bible is for our spiritual gain and edification, which gives
insight about redemption and that it is free to everyone and not earned by anyone's works, lest they boast in themselves. Salvation is the gift from God through Jesus. We need
only to accept God’s Word as truth and receive Jesus Christ as Lord, and we
will be saved.
People are sometimes narrow-minded and quick to say that the Bible is a book
of fairy tales and full of errors. These
people have not met the God that I know.
In that He created the heavens and earth and all that dwell on earth, don’t you think He is omnipotent enough to protect His Word from
err? I do! I believe the Bible is God's Word to you and me. Its content is for those desiring
truth and willing to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ unto salvation.
People everywhere are pushing their agenda to nullify the Bible as divinely inspired, because it causes them to see themselves as they really are;
lost without a Savior. The Bible reveals the evilness in those that scoff at its truth. They do not want to perceive for a moment
that its content might be correct, so they refuse to accept any of
it as being valid for today's needs. The mere thought of going to hell is
more than they are willing to admit could happen.
Believers that abide in the teachings of the Bible and testify of its
truth are seen by unbelievers as heretics, (those that hold beliefs opposed to
them). For this reason they removed
Bibles and prayer out of public schools and took down the 10 Commandments from
walls in courtrooms and city offices. A
Christian in the military can now be court-martialed if they share their faith
with any man or woman in uniform.
But the above efforts to stifle truth and any other negative attempts to
do likewise cannot cancel out the truth of God’s Word. Though they burn the Bible, it still does not
remove or negate the punishment for such acts of rebellion against Christians
or sinning against God. Hell is
still a real place where sinners will spend eternity without God’s presence.
Though hell is the punishment that God created for Satan and his
angels, because of their rebellion in heaven; if any person goes there, they
enter uninvited; doing so because of their own choices and sinful
lifestyle. They have rejected the only
escape from such a place—Jesus. There is
no other name under heaven whereby we can be saved.
I am not referring to hell as being the ultimate punishment in the
title of this writing, which in itself is most devastating, but I believe the
ultimate punishment is the total absence of God’s Spirit. Never to feel His loving kindness or the
tenderness of ongoing efforts to woo a person to Jesus, even in their sinful
state, is beyond my intellectual capacity to grasp. I cannot imagine what it would be like to not feel the Lord,
because the Holy Spirit not only strove with me when I was away from God,
but in my every day walk as a Christian He is with me.
Evidenced in Bible scriptures are the last moments before Jesus died on
the cross. He not only endured a
manipulated trial with false accusers giving false testimony against Him, but
He suffered the scourging of His body, large nails driven through His hands and feet,
and the rejection of those around Him.
But when God the Father turned His back on Jesus, this abandonment was more than He could bear.
Jesus cried out with a loud voice!
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
(Matthew 27:46), “And about the
ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama
sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me’ ”
The heart of Jesus melted within Him during the crucifixion, but when
God turned away from Him, I believe that this was the moment that Jesus became
sin; taking upon Himself the sins of the world; every sin from the smallest of
white lies to murder in the first degree; especially the sins of those that
crucified Him. While hanging there He
said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
I believe that Jesus suffered the sting of death that the Bible says is
sin. Could it be that He died the death
of a sinner; lost, without hope, and feeling what they feel when they
pass? Perhaps the Father had to turn away from
His Son, because God cannot look upon sin. He is holy and all that is good; the total
opposite of unrighteousness.
When a person accepts Jesus as their Savior, God the Father sees them
as perfect, because of the blood that Jesus shed on the cross. His blood makes every forgiven sinner pure
as the driven snow. No longer does God
see the blackness of a sinful heart, because He sees each individual through
the blood of His perfect Son. We become
a new creation through Christ the Lord.
Old things pass away and all things become new, because the blood cleanses us from sin.
Born again Believers are children of the Father in heaven and need not
worry about the ultimate punishment of separation. God will never leave or forsake them, but
will always be in their presence throughout eternity.
Written by,
Papa Boyd
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