The
Place called
HELL
By
Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.
The
Place Called Hell
I'm
reading tonight from the Gospel according to St.
Luke, the 16th chapter, beginning to read at
verse 19 as follows in Jesus' name.:
Luke
16:19-31
"There was a certain rich
man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen
and fared sumptuously every day.
And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus,
which was laid at his gate full of sores. And
desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell
from the rich man's table: moreover, the dogs
came and licked his sores.
And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and
was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.
The rich man also died, and was buried:
And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in
torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and
Lazarus in his bosom.
And he cried, and said, Father Abraham, have
mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip
the tip of his finger in water, and cool my
tongue: for I am in anguish in this flame.
But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy
lifetime receiveth thy good things, and like
wise Lazarus evil things: but now he is
comforted, and thou art tormented.
And besides all this, between us and you there
is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would
pass from hence to you, cannot; neither can they
pass to us, that would come from thence.
Then he said, I pray thee therefore, Father,
that thou wouldest send him to my father's
house: For I have five brethren; that he may
testify unto them, lest they also come into this
place of torment.
Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the
prophets; let them hear them. And he said,
Nay, Father Abraham: but if one went unto them
from the dead, they will repent. And he
said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the
prophets, neither will they be persuaded though
one rose from the dead.
IS
THERE A PLACE CALLED HELL?
I
wish to speak tonight on the subject entitled
"THE PLACE CALLED HELL". Some people have said that this account in
Luke's gospel is in fact a parable. But
that is not true. Because in the parables that
Jesus Christ used, proper names were never
given.
And
yet the Bible tells us that there was a certain
beggar named Lazarus. There was a certain
rich man, not just a rich man, but a certain
rich man, which was clothed in purple and linen,
and he fared sumptuously every day.....and there
was a certain beggar, this wasn't a parable,
there was a certain beggar, and his name was
Lazarus.
In
all of the 29 or 30 parables that Jesus shared, not ONE time was a proper name used.
Parables never contained proper names.
The
Bible tells us there is a place called HELL.
And it describes it absolutely perfectly, to a
T. The man said, I don't want my brothers
to come to this place, this terrible place, this
place of torments.
Now
a parable
is an allegorical representation of something
that is real, in nature, in human affairs, from
which a moral is drawn. A parable is
something in real life. It is a
representation of something real, from the real
life which draws or shows you a certain
moral, and its a fictitious account. It is
something that isn't real, but is taken from
something in real life.
The
word that Jesus Christ used here for HELL, is
the word Gehenna.
This is a Greek word that means 'the
place of departed spirits'.
It
is taken from the word Hinnom, or Valley
of Hinnom. The word Hinnom
means ' wailing', the actual meaning of the word
is
'
wailing'.
The Valley of Hinnom, Jerusalem
The
Valley of Hinnom was a very narrow valley, that
lay south and west of Jerusalem, and Jesus used
it as a type of eternal punishment.
The
Valley of Hinnom burned day and night. A real
place, lying south and west of the city of
Jerusalem, a narrow valley. In Old Testament times, it was
used for sacrifice. They sacrificed animals
there. And when they sacrificed the
animals, there would be constant bleating
and constant howling of these animals.
This
is why Jesus Christ said in the gospels, that
there shall be 'wailing and gnashing of teeth'.
For in the Valley of Hinnom, in the Old
Testament times, there was constant sacrifice,
with animals being slaughtered.
If
you were near a place where
many animals were slaughtered, a
constant wailing sound would come from that
place. And Jesus drew upon that. He
pointed to the Valley of Hinnom when he spoke
about Hell. Gehenna, taken from the word Hinnom,
which means 'wailing'. And there
shall be 'wailing and gnashing of teeth'.
(weeping and wailing.)
In
New Testament times, Gehenna was a place where
garbage was burned. And the garbage burned
day and night. The Valley of Hinnom became the garbage dump
of Jerusalem.
Whenever
you went by the Valley of Hinnom you would see
the fire and smoke, and when Jesus Christ spoke
about Lazarus and the rich man - even if it had been a parable, which it
wasn't - it was a true story. Even if it had been a parable, what better
illustration could Jesus have used of Hell,
than by pointing to the Valley of Hinnom saying
that this is what its is going to be like.
Even
if these Scriptures (Luke
16:19-31)
were a parable, which we have proven they were
not, it still points to eternal suffering.
The
garbage dump in Jerusalem never went out, year
after year after year. In the time of
Jesus' earthly Ministry it was used as a
dump. This was a place of
wailing, where the fire was constantly stoked and the flames
leaped in the air, with the smoke rising continually. And Jesus
Christ spoke of this again and again through
the Bible.
Now,
in this comprehensive study I wish to share with you some
powerful truths
concerning Hell. The place that is called
Hell.
First,
I wish to say that Death is a sure thing. Should Christ tarry, death is sure.
Every person will die one
day should Christ tarry. People
are wondering, "What will happen to
me? Where will I go when this life is
over?"
I
preached a message some time ago entitled, WHAT
IS MAN? Where did we come from? What are
we doing here? Where are we going when we die?
These are the 3 questions that people ask, Who
am I? Where did I come from? What is my true
identity? What am I doing here, and where
am I going when its all over?
In
Daniel
12:8 Daniel
spoke and said, "And
I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my
Lord, what shall be the end of these
things?"
There
must be millions of people today who wonder:
What
is going to be the end of me? What will happen
and where will I go
when I die?
YOUR
SPIRIT WILL NEVER DIE! My
dear friend, you are eternal. You are
triune, as well as eternal. You are
spirit, soul or mind and body. And when you die
YOUR SPIRIT WILL NEVER DIE. Your
spirit will live on and on...and you will,
therefore, never
die.
You are
eternal, as God is eternal. He of course, is
from eternity to eternity - with no beginning
and no end, whereas we are created beings with
an eternal spirit within! Your
body will go back to the dust of the earth, but
your spirit will stand before God for judgment.
The Bible says,
"And as it is appointed unto men once to
die, but after this the judgment:" (Hebrews
9:27).
WHAT
WILL HAPPEN ON JUDGMENT DAY?
There
is a Heaven and there is a Hell, and I'm going
to prove it! What's
going to happen at the judgment? Where do
we go from there? What will happen after
the judgment? I want you to know that
there is a Heaven and there is a Hell. And I'm
going to prove it here.
ONE
DAY YOU WILL DIE AND YOU WILL STAND BEFORE GOD
FOR JUDGMENT! That
it exactly right, one
day you will die and you will stand before
God for judgment! But, what a joy it will
be to die as a believer, with faith in
Christ. St. Paul said, "For me to
live is Christ but to die is gain."
Again he said in 2
Corinthians 5:8,
"We
are confident, I say, and willing rather to be
absent from the body, and to be present with the
Lord."
What
did he
mean
when he
stated: "TO BE ABSENT FROM THE BODY IS TO BE PRESENT WITH
THE LORD." He
was saying: I
would sooner be with the Lord, but for your
sakes I
will remain here.
There's no fear to the
Christian in death. Death has no terror,
death has no fear for the Christian. The
Psalmist said, "Yea, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil. For thou art with me."
Even
in death there will be absolutely no fear.
We can walk through the valley of the shadow of
death and His hand will be upon us. We as
Christians can know that everything is all
right. We will fear no evil, he will bring
us through. We will pass through the
waters of death, should Christ tarry, and we
will NOT be alone. The Holy Spirit will be with
us and we will not be afraid. He
shall bring us through and we will see our
Master face to face!
Face
to face will I behold him,
far beyond that glorious sky,
face to face will I behold him,
I shall see him, by and by.
Face
to face will I behold him
far beyond that starry sky
Face to face in all his glory,
I shall see him, by and by.
The
sad thing is that the Christian Church is being
corrupted and St. Paul warned in Acts 20:29, "For
I know this, that after my departing shall
grievous wolves enter in among you, sparing not the flock."
2
Timothy 3:13, "But
evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse,
deceiving, and being deceived."
2 Peter 2:1,
"But there were false prophets also among
the people, even as there shall be false
teachers among you, who privily (secretly) shall
bring in damnable heresies, even denying the
Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves
swift destruction."
THE
BIBLE SAYS THERE WILL BE FALSE TEACHERS AND
FALSE PROPHETS
There
shall be false teachers and false prophets, and
I have said it again and again, if you want to
draw a great crowd you just need to declare some
great, far out thing and everyone will come.
Men
are falling into gross error, and one of the
grossest errors you can find is the error when
they say, THERE IS NO HELL. They say there
is no hell, but they want to believe everything
about heaven. Yes, they all believe they are
going to heaven.
|
CURRENT TEACHING
OF THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESS WATCH TOWER SOCIETY
The
Society teaches that Hell is the grave, that man
experiences ANNIHILATION [he ceases to exist]
there. It is not a place of everlasting
punishment. The New World Translation translates
the word SHEOL as grave, pit and hell
|
What the Bible Says about HELL
And Related Terms:
1. Sheol:
| In
the Old Testament it usually means place
of the departed spirits |
Psalms
16:10 |
2. Hades:
| Usually
means place of the departed spirits in
NT |
Acts
2:27 |
3. Tartarus:
| The
deepest abyss of Hades prepared for the
Devil and his angels |
Mattjew
25:41-46 |
4. Grave [QUEBER In Hebrew]:
| "he
was buried in the grave of his
father" |
2Sa
17:23 |
NOTE: SHEOL and HADES
occasionally can be translated
"grave" but not always. QUEBER
always means "grave" where the body
goes. Sheol, Hades, and Queber are not used
interchangeably.
When
the Jehovah's Witnesses were only small in
number they believed that they were the only
ones who would inhabit Heaven. They
misinterpreted the Scripture about the 144,000 in heaven,
thinking that that is going to be the total
population entering that holy City.
Now,
that they have many more members than 144,000,
they had to change their doctrine to say that
the rest of them have to live
on the earth for eternity! They can't back track on
that one because the first 144,00 might not like
it. They says there is NO hell but they
say there is a heaven.
Did you know that
in the Holy Scriptures, for every verse that
speaks about Heaven in the New Testament there
are 10 verses that speak about hell? These are the
absolute facts.
THE
WORD HELL IS USED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 162 TIMES!
Did
you know that 162 times in the New Testament the
word HELL is used? And Jesus used the word
Hell 22 times.
If you think that Jesus only
spoke about Heaven you could learn a thing or
two from the Bible. 162 times the word
Hell is used in New Testament. 70% of
ministers polled in the USA some years ago, said
they didn't believe in Hell.
Let
me read from Revelation 20:13,
"And the sea gave up the dead which were in
it, and death and hell delivered up the dead
which were in them, and they were judged every
man according to their works. And death
and hell were cast into the lake of fire, this
is the second death."
THE
BIBLE SPEAKS OF THE SECOND DEATH!
Jehovah's
Witnesses call the Triune
God the three - headed God. They ridicule
the Trinity and make Jesus
Christ inferior to the Father. In their lack of
spiritual understanding, they try to understand
the eternal God and define Him in human
terms!
How
ridiculous that puny man thinks he can
understand Deity when he cannot understand
himself. That is a colossal error! You cannot
seek to understand the incomprehensible God by
equating the Omnipotent, Omniscient,
Eternal, Omnipresent God by defining Him
in human terms as though He were another
human!!!
The
Bible says in Philippians chapter 2, that Jesus Christ was in the form of
God. And that He thought it not wrong to be equal with God, yet
He made himself no reputation and came down
to earth and wrapped Himself in human flesh, so
He could die for
our sins.
God
the Father has given Jesus Christ great glory! God has
honored him and exalted him and given him a name
which is above every name, that at the name of
Jesus, every knee should bow, and every tongue
confess that Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father.
Yet,
the
Jehovah's Witness say that Jesus was Michael the
archangel. They will try to persuade you
that there is no hell. There are other cults
that will do the same.
The
Jehovah's Witnesses will come to you and they
will say, "Did you know there are two
Greek words, Hades and Gehenna, both of
them are translated in the English language as
hell. But really, these two words mean
"the grave."
I
am going to refute their error right now and you
will know without a doubt that the TRUTH is
found in God's word and the Jehovah's Witnesses
and other cults are in error. The
Jehovah's Witnesses also will tell you that the
Hebrew word, Sheol, means the grave.
They
claim that the two Greek words Gehenna, Hades
and the Hebrew word Sheol all mean 'the grave'.
And when you die, that's it, there is no hell.
But let me share with you some truths, some
facts that prove thhe Jehovah's Witnesses have
deliberately twisted the original Greek.
I
have a letter in my files, from the only living
Greek professor and scholar, whom the
Jehovah's Witnesses quote in their New
World translation of the Bible. He is the
only professor whom the Jehovah's Witness quote,
that is still alive. All the others they quote have died.
But
this man, this eminent scholar, whom they quote,
has written a letter refuting the Jehovah's
Witnesses, and he says they have deliberately
twisted his writings when they translated the
Bible from the Greek using his translations, in
the New World translations. He has said
they have lied.
There
is nothing worse in theology than a man who
deliberately twists the meaning of the word, to
prove something that he wants it to prove.
Let
us be intellectually honest - let us be totally
and completely honest. Let us us take what
the Bible says in the original Greek and the
original Hebrew and let us believe it. Let
us NOT twist it to prove a set of doctrines.
Here
are some facts and some figures. There are
two Hebrew words. The one is Queber which
means 'the grave." There is another
Hebrew word, Sheol, and it is 'the place of
departed spirits.' In the Hebrew, these
two Hebrew words deal with death and hell.
As you study the Old Testament scriptures you
will find these two Hebrew words play a great
part. There are five great facts that I
want to share with regards to these words:
FACT
1 - As you study the of Old Testament
scriptures, you will find that these two Hebrew
words, Queber and Sheol play a great part.
You will prove that the body never
goes to SHEOL (which the Jehovah's Witnesses
translate 'the grave') but the body goes to
QUEBER - this is recorded 37 times in the Old
Testament. This is recorded 37 times
proving the QUEBER is 'the grave' and SHEOL is
the place where departed spirits go after the
spirit leaves the body.
FACT
2 - SHEOL is never upon the face of
the earth, but QUEBER is located on the earth.
We find this fact recorded 32 times in the Old
Testament, proving that QUEBER is the grave and
SHEOL is the place where the spirit goes after
it leaves the body.
FACT
3 - . Man never puts another man into SHEOL,
but 33 times we find a man burying, or putting
another man, in QUEBER. This proves that a
man can dig a grave and put another man into it,
but he cannot never put the soul or spirit of a
man in SHEOL.
FACT
4 - Man never digs or makes a SHEOL,
but he makes a QUEBER (we find this recorded 6
times in the Old Testament). This proves
that a man can make a grave but he cannot make a
place for the soul or the spirit,. Man can
make a place for the body, he can dig and
excavate and bury a man in the ground, QUEBER,
but he cannot put a man into SHEOL, the place
where the soul goes.
FACT
5 - A man never speaks of a man touching
SHEOL, but he touches a QUEBER (a grave) 6 times
in the Old Testament. This proves that a
man can touch a casket or a grave, but he cannot
touch SHEOL - the place where the spirit goes.
These
are FIVE GREAT TRUTHS.
Jesus
preached on Hell 22 times. James preached
on Hell once and St. Peter preached on Hell
once. The Greek from which we get the
English versions that were translated out of the
Greek. We have now covered the Hebrew and
I have shared with you five great truths that
prove from the Old Testament, from the Hebrew
the word QUEBER - which is 'the grave' and the
word SHEOL - where the spirit goes. The
body goes to QUEBER and the soul or spirit goes
to SHEOL.
In
the Greek, we find the 2 words, HADES & GEHENNA,
which are two places. First let me explain
what these two words mean: We will begin
with the word HADES. Let me explain with
an illustration of Hades:
HADES:
Hell is a prison, isn't it.
When
a man is caught committing a crime, he would be
apprehended and be put into the local jail. This
criminal would be held at the local jail until
trial, until he was judged. The criminal would
go to trial and the court would pass sentence
and then he would be sent to the
penitentiary.
HADES
is like the local jail. If you were to die
tonight unconverted, without accepting Jesus
Christ as your personal Saviour, you would go to
Hades.
The
word Hell comes from the Greek word Hades.
In the English translation for the word Hell, we
find both the word Hades and the word Gehenna,
but we are looking now at the original Greek to
find out what these 2 words mean and which word
that is translating Hell means Gehenna and which
one means Hades.
If
you were to die tonight as a sinner, immediately
your soul would go down into a place called
Hades. You would wait for the Great White
Throne Judgment, and you would be judged.
And then you would be sent to the penitentiary
forever, a place called Gehenna, the lake of
fire, where you would remain, forever and ever.
Now
both of these places are places of suffering.
The Bible says the rich man found himself in
Hades, in hell, and he was in pain, he was in
torment. But he had not yet been cast into
the eternal fires, with the judgment of God and
the sentence passed upon him. There is no
one in Gehenna today.
Gehenna
is the lake of fire, the final death, the final
hell, the final penitentiary. But right
now, today, there are millions of souls in
Hades, suffering the torments of the doomed,
waiting for the judgment and for their sentence
to be passed.
Let
me read it to you from Revelation
20:11, "And
I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on
it from whose the face the earth and
the heaven fled away, and there was found no
place for them. And I saw the dead small
and great stand before God, and the books were
opened, and another book was opened which was
the Book of Life.
THIS
IS THE JUDGMENT. And the dead were judged
out of those things which were written in
the books according to their works. And
the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and
death and hell delivered up the dead which were
in them, and they were judged every man
according to their works. And death and hell
were cast into the lake of fire.
This
IS THE SECOND DEATH. And whosoever was found not
written in THE BOOK OF LIFE was cast into the
lake of fire.
Now
here we find something very beautiful, I mean,
the truth is beautiful. The facts are
terrible, Hell is awful, but the truth really
grips your heart.
Here
it says that DEATH is 'THE GRAVE' and HELL
is 'HADES'. They were both cast into the lake of
fire. Death and Hell cast into the lake of
fire.
So
we have 'the grave' - that is Death, we have
Hell 'that is Hades' were both cast into Gehenna
(or the lake of fire), after the Judgment. The
body then, which is in the grave, the spirit
which is in hell are reunited to stand trial.
The spirit, soul and body will be reunited, that
person will stand before God.
The
spirit will rejoin the body, the spirit and the
body will be joined together. Spirit and Body,
let me just qualify this, Spirit which is in
Hades, joining together with the body which is
in the grave, and the person standing there to
trial at the Great White Throne Judgment, being
judged and sent into eternal fires. It
says Death and Hell were cast into the lake of
fire, this is the Second Death. That's Gehenna.
I
want to warn you, this is what will happen to
you if you don't repent. If you do not
turn to God, your destination will be Gehenna -
the penitentiary of the doomed forever.
After the Great White Throne Judgment, you will
be tried and sentenced, to be placed in torment
forever.
Let
me go over this a bit more fully. Let us
turn to (1
Timothy 4:13) , "But
I would not have you to be ignorant brethren
concerning them which are asleep, that ye shall
not, even as others that have no hope. For
if we believe that Jesus died and rose again,
even so them also that sleep in Jesus, will God
bring with him." "For this we
say unto you by the word of the Lord that we
which are alive and remain unto the coming of
the Lord shall not prevent them which are
asleep, for the Lord himself shall descend from
Heaven with a shout, with a voice of the
archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead
in Christ shall rise first, then we which are
alive and remain shall be caught up together
with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the
air and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
LISTEN
CAREFULLY - When Jesus Christ comes again, he
will bring with him all the redeemed, from all
ages, he'll bring the saved dead, he will bring
the spirits from those who died before.
The Bible says he will bring them with him.
Jesus
Christ will descend from Heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the Archangel. Christ
will come. He will wait in the air.
With him will be all the souls of the redeemed
who have died with faith in Christ.
As
he waits in the air, their spirits will enter
the earth. The graves will be opened, the
dead will come alive, and they will enter their
new bodies and rise to meet him. We which
are alive and remain shall be caught up to join
them in the air, and so shall we ever be with
the Lord.
We
shall enjoy the blessings of God in heaven, in a
body, we shall be in a body, a resurrected,
glorified body, we shall enjoy the blessings of
heaven forever. We shall have a new body
that will never die.
But
by the same token, and the same truth covers the
unsaved. The unsaved will die, without
Christ, who are now waiting in Hades. They
will be called out of Hades, their bodies shall
be resurrected and they will enter their bodies,
and they will stand trial in a resurrected body
that will never die.
They
will spend eternity forever and suffer in
their body as well as their spirit. This
is why Jesus said there shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth.
People
laugh at this and say, How can a spirit gnash
his teeth? There will be more than a
spirit. Your body shall come back from the
earth, from the dust, your body shall be
resurrected. Sinner, you shall be raised
in the second Resurrection.
JESUS
USED THE WORD HADES ELEVEN TIMES IN THE BIBLE
Jesus
used the word Hades 11 times in the Bible..
Lets look deeper into some of the instances
where Jesus used the word Hades. In Matthew
11:23, "And thou Capernum, which are
exalted on the heaven, shall be brought down to
hell. (to hades). From the mighty works which
were done in thee, have been done in Sodom, and
remain until this day.
Matthew
16:18, "And
I say also unto thee, that thou art teacher, and
upon this rock I will build my Church and the
gates of Hades shall not prevail against
it."
Luke
10:15, "And
thou Capernum, which are exalted in heaven,
shall be thrust down to Hades."
Luke
16:23,
"And in Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being
in torment, seeing Abraham afar off and Lazarus
in his bosom.
He
was not in the grave now. The Jehovah's
Witnesses say that hell means the grave.
How can you be in torment in the grave?
You can't be in torments in the grave. If
you are dead, you are dead, you feel nothing.
The Bible says the dead no nothing. And
yet it says he was in torments. It wasn't
in the grave, it was in Hades.
Acts
2:27, "Because
thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades."
Not my body in Hades, his body was in the tomb,
but his SOUL was in Hades, proving that Hell is
NOT the grave."
Acts
2:31, "He
seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of
Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades.
Neither did his flesh see corruption."
1
Corinthians 5:15, "Oh Hades, where is
thy sting?"
Oh
grave, where is thy victory. You see,
there is no sting because nothing can harm the
child of God. Nothing can harm your spirit
or your body. Our body may die and they may bury
it, but it will come alive as well.
The
Jehovah's Witnesses say the grave is a quiet,
peaceful thing, that the word Hell really means
the grave, that it is quiet and that its
peaceful. They say that everyone is going
to be annihilated and there is going to be no
hell, just a peaceful rest in the grave.
And only The Jehovah Witnesses, of course, will
enjoy heaven and upon the earth. The rest
of us will be in a peaceful grave and this hell
is a peaceful place - its the grave.
But
yet Jesus used the Valley of Hinnom to describe
Hell. Gehenna. Why? Hell is a
peaceful place wouldn't Jesus just point to a
casket and say, "That's what it is going to
be like." Why didn't Jesus point to a
dead man being buried and say, "That's it,
that is hell."
When
Jesus talked about Hell, he pointed to the
Valley of Hinnom, where the fire never went out.
The Valley of Hinnom where they burned garbage
and refuse day and night, where you could see
the flames rising there outside of Jerusalem.
The Valley of Hinnom, where there was wailing in
the Old Testament times, when they used
sacrifices of animals. When there was
wailing and terrible commotion. And Jesus
said, "There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth." He said, "The worm
will die not and the fire will not be
quenched."
That
proves to me that its not a very quiet and
peaceful place.
In
Matthew
5:29-30, the Bible says, "And
if the right eye offend thee, pluck it out.
And cast it from thee. For it is
profitable for thee that one of thy members
should perish and not that thy whole body should
be cast into hell. And if thy right hand
offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee.
For it is profitable for thee that one of thy
members should perish and not that thy whole
body should be cast into Hell."
Matthew
10:28, "And
fear not, them which kill the body, but are not
able to kill the soul, but rather fear him that
is able to kill both soul and body in
Hell."
If
we are going to using the teachings of the
Jehovah's Witnesses on this, we'd say, well
don't be afraid of the one who can kill your
body but be afraid of the one who can bury you
in the grave. Well I don't care who buries
me if I die before Jesus comes. Who buries
you doesn't make the difference.
But
Jesus said FEAR the one who casts your soul into
hell. Don't fear the one who can kill your
body, but fear the one who can cast both soul
and body into Hell. But the Jehovah's
Witnesses say that Hell is the grave. So
don't fear the one who can kill you, fear the
one who can put you in the grave. Fear the
undertaker. Oh how twisted the Jehovah's
beliefs are. Thank God for the truth we
have uncovered here.
In
Matthew 5:22, "But
I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his
brother without a cause, will be in danger of
the judgment, and whosoever shall say to his
brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the
council, but whosever shall say, Thou fool,
shall be in danger of hell fire (Gehenna)."
If
I was a Jehovah Witness I'd have to read this
scripture as, whosoever shall say to his brother
Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but
whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in
danger of 'grave' fire. What kind of fire
do you find in the grave? Its hell fire
the Bible is talking about, Gehenna fire.
When
you take this doctrine the Jehovah Witnesses
have, where you say that hell means 'the grave',
you would read the above scripture and think
that Jesus must be a nut. You could say,
"Well, don't be afraid of the one who kills
you, but be afraid of the one who buries
you."
Matthew
18:9, "And
if thy eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast if
from thee, for it is better thee to enter into
life with one eye rather than having two eyes to
be cast into hell fire (Gehenna)."
Matthew
23:15, "Woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for
ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte;
and when he is made, ye make him two-fold more
the child of hell than yourselves."
Matthew
23:33, "Ye
serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye
escape the damnation of hell?" What
kind of damnation is there is the grave?
Mark
9:43-48, "And
if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is
better for thee to enter into life maimed, than
having two hands to get into hell, into the fire
that never shall be quenched." Where
their worm dieth not and the fire is not
quenched."
WHAT
KIND OF FIRE IN IS THE GRAVE?
Mark
9:45-46, "And
if thy foot offend thee, cut if off: it is
better for thee to enter halt into life, than
having two feet to be cast into hell, into the
fire that never shall be quenched: Where
their worm dieth not, and the fire in not
quenched."
All
of the ancient translators, said that the word
"worm" meant the memory. The
MEMORY never dies. Where your memory will
never die, where you will remember all the
opportunities you had to be saved, when you will
remember this message, when you will remember
reading these words, when you will remember the
Gospel, when you will remember the alter call...
When you shall REMEMBER, when the memory dieth
not.
If
hell is a peaceful, quiet place, and it is a
grave, what is the fire doing down there, what
is the memory doing down there?
Luke
12:5, "But
I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear
him, which after he hath killed, hath power to
cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear
him."
James
3:16,
"For where envying and strife is, there is
confusion and every evil work."
He
talks about the tongue being a fire of hell.
2 Peter 2:4 talks about the fallen angels being
cast into darkness, and that word is Tartarus, a
special place for the angels.
Very
quickly I am going to wind up this message.
Let me read Matthew 7:13, "Enter
ye into the straight gate, for wide is the gate
and broad is the way that leadeth to
destruction, and many there be that go in there
at."
IF
DESTRUCTION IS THE GRAVE, THEN WHY DOESN'T IT
SAY, AND ALL GO IN THERE AT. Why
many? Because some of us are saved,
Hallelujah! We are not going to that way
of destruction.
Matthew
13:40, "As
therefore the ters are gathered and burned in
fire, so shall it be in the end of the
world."
If
at the end of the world, people are just going
to be put in the grave, why does it talk about
the wicked being burned up? Un-quenching
fire...un-quenching fire that you can't stop.
Not once over, not a poof - and 60 seconds and
you are gone. But the fire will be
un-quenching.
Now
did Jesus really mean these words? Of course he
did.
Matthew
13:50, "And
shall cast them into the furnace of fire, and
there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.:
Matthew
25:41,
"Then shall he say also unto them on the
left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his
angels."
Oh
they say, so that's its, the fire is
everlasting, but not the torment. Well
read on Matthew 25:46, "These
the wicked shall go into everlasting
punishment.'
The
everlasting fire is the everlasting punishment
that it speaks of in Matthew 25:40, "And
the wicked shall be cast into Hell. Then
shall he say also unto them on his left hand,
Depart from me ye cursed, into everlasting fire,
prepared for the Devil and His angels, and these
shall go away into everlasting punishment, but
the righteous into life eternal."
It
does not mention Hell. The word Hell is
not used, but what is everlasting punishment?
What is everlasting torment? What is
everlasting fire?
Mark
16:16, "He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,
but he that believeth not shall be damned."
To
go the the grave, does that mean to be damned?
OF COURSE NOT. To be damned means to be
cast into Hell.
John
3:36, "He
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life,
and He that believeth not on the Son shall not
see life. But the wrath of God abideth on
Him."
THE
WRATH OF GOD ABIDES
The
wrath of God abides, it abides - it doesn't just
stay there.
John
5:28, "Marvel
not at this, for the hour is coming in the
which, that are that are in the grave shall hear
His voice, and they shall come forth."
Some to everlasting shame and contempt, some to
eternal life."
How
many of you are glad that there are answers in
the Book - the Bible? How many of you are
glad that the Atheists don't have the last word?
The Jehovah's Witnesses don't have the final
say. The modernists who say there is no
Hell have no leg to stand upon. Because
when we go back to the original Greek and
Hebrew, the Greek in the New Testament and the
Hebrew in the Old Testament, I promise
you, the Holy Scriptures will have the Final
say!.
We
preach the truth, then we see the
demonstrations, when the demons come screaming
out. We see the truth when the sick are
healed and lost souls are saved.
Praise
the Lord. I am going to close this message
and I want to say that if you die in your sin,
they'll take your body down to the undertaker
and they put you in the ground. Your loved
ones will weep and cry over you, and they will
cover you up with 6 feet of earth. But
your spirit will go to stand before
God.
If
you are a sinner, your soul would go down into
Hades. During the time of the Old
Testament, the righteous went into one
compartment of Hades called Paradise, and the
wicked went into the other compartment of Hades
which was the place of the damned.
And
the rich man, who died in his sins, in torment,
in Hades (Hell), looked over to Paradise, and
there was a gulf between them. And he
shall Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, being
comforted. And when Jesus Christ died, he
descended into the lower parts of the earth,
into Hell, how long he was in the regions of
Hades, of the damned, I do not know.
But Jesus crossed over into the righteous
compartment called Paradise, the first day,
because he said to the thief of the cross,
"This day shall thou be with me in
Paradise."
Jesus
went down there and after 3 days, he tore loose
the bars and opened the door of the righteous
compartment, and took the souls that had died
with faith in the coming Messiah, because they
had never seen Christ, he took them with Him,
and arose from the dead with them. That
part of Hades was then closed. Then Jesus
Christ arose from dead, and He said to Mary,
"Touch me not until I have ascended."
Jesus
took his blood which He had said which didn't
die, and he carried that blood into the Holy of
Holies and presented it to the Father.
When Jesus Christ arose, some graves were open,
and righteous men, who were dead, walked about
in Jerusalem.
Jesus
took the souls of the righteous dead, and He
swept into Glory. And now, when a
Christian dies, he doesn't go down, into
Paradise, in the heart of the earth, but he goes
right up into Heaven in the presence of Jesus.
For
to be absent from the body, is to be present
with the Lord. If you were to die tonight,
Christian, you would go immediately into the
presence of God. IMMEDIATELY INTO HEAVEN.
But if you were a sinner, you would go down into
Hades and you would wait in the place of the
doomed. You would wait in the city jail, or the
place of the doomed called Hades, waiting and
suffering in agony and remorse, your spirit
would be bound in prison until the White Throne
Judgment.
Your
body would then be raised in the Second
Resurrection. Your spirit would enter your
body, and you will stand before God to be
judged. Then you will be sent to the final
penitentiary, the final prison called Gahenna -
to be doomed forever - - lost without hope
throughout the eons of eternity.
But
there is an opportunity for you today. You
can be saved. Jesus died for your soul.
Jesus died to save you. Jesus came to seek and
to save the lost. He shed His blood so you
wouldn't have to go to that penitentiary - so
you wouldn't have to go to that final prison.
So you can be saved for time and eternity.
That's why Jesus Christ paid the price.
That's why Jesus Christ shed His blood.
That's why Jesus came.
The Bible says,
"For God so loved the world, that whosoever
believeth in Him, shall not perish, but have
everlasting life." Jesus said,
"I am come to seek and to save that which
was lost." He invited, "Come unto me all ye that labor are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest."
Bow
your head and close your eyes. I wonder
how many there are in this service tonight, or
reading these words, who say, Brother Solbrekken,
Pastor, Man of God, I NEED PRAYER!
I don't
ever want to die and go to hell. I don't
ever want to be lost, I don't ever want to
perish, I don't ever want to go to the place of
the doomed.
I want to be saved tonight. I
want Jesus Christ to come into my heart today.
I want Jesus to save me and set me free. I
need your prayers - please PRAY FOR ME.
You say, I'm a sinner, but I don't want to be
lost.
Then,
will you lift your hand for my prayer.
How many will raise your hand and say, PRAY FOR
ME. I WANT TO BE SAVED, I WANT GOD TO
FORGIVE ME. I WANT JESUS TO COME INTO MY HEART
AND INTO MY LIFE. I DON'T WANT TO GO TO
HELL - I WANT GOD TO SAVE ME.
Fall to your knees
right now and pray to Almighty God for his mercy
and grace. Let Jesus Christ wash away your
sins and save your soul. Amen.
