Don't be scared by the title or the length of this article. Jesus spoke often about hell so we must think about it and absorb its horendous truth.
"How Willingly Do People Go to Hell?
Does Anyone Standing by the Lake of Fire Jump In?
October 29, 2009By John Piper
Read this article on our website.
C.S. Lewis is one of the top 5 dead people who have shaped the way I see and respond to the world. But he is not a reliable guide on a number of important theological matters. Hell is one of them. His stress is relentlessly that people are not “sent” to hell but become their own hell. His emphasis is that we should think of “a bad man’s perdition not as a sentence imposed on him but as the mere fact of being what he is.” (For all the relevant quotes, see Martindale and Root, The Quotable Lewis, 288-295.)
This inclines him to say, “All that are in hell choose it.” And this leads some who follow Lewis in this emphasis to say things like, “All God does in the end with people is give them what they most want.”
I come from the words of Jesus to this way of talking and find myself in a different world of discourse and sentiment. I think it is misleading to say that hell is giving people what they most want. I’m not saying you can’t find a meaning for that statement that’s true, perhaps in Romans 1:24-28. I’m saying that it’s not a meaning that most people would give to it in light of what hell really is. I’m saying that the way Lewis deals with hell and the way Jesus deals with it are very different. And we would do well to follow Jesus.
The misery of hell will be so great that no one will want to be there. They will be weeping and gnashing their teeth (Matthew 8:12). Between their sobs, they will not speak the words, “I want this.” They will not be able to say amid the flames of the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14), “I want this.” “The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night” (Revelation 14:11). No one wants this.
When there are only two choices, and you choose against one, it does not mean that you want the other, if you are ignorant of the outcome of both. Unbelieving people know neither God nor hell. This ignorance is not innocent. Apart from regenerating grace, all people “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18).
The person who rejects God does not know the real horrors of hell. This may be because he does not believe hell exists, or it may be because he convinces himself that it would be tolerably preferable to heaven.
But whatever he believes or does not believe, when he chooses against God, he is wrong about God and about hell. He is not, at that point, preferring the real hell over the real God. He is blind to both. He does not perceive the true glories of God, and he does not perceive the true horrors of hell.
So when a person chooses against God and, therefore, de facto chooses hell—or when he jokes about preferring hell with his friends over heaven with boring religious people—he does not know what he is doing. What he rejects is not the real heaven (nobody will be boring in heaven), and what he “wants” is not the real hell, but the tolerable hell of his imagination.
When he dies, he will be shocked beyond words. The miseries are so great he would do anything in his power to escape. That it is not in his power to repent does not mean he wants to be there. Esau wept bitterly that he could not repent (Hebrew 12:17). The hell he was entering into he found to be totally miserable, and he wanted out. The meaning of hell is the scream: “I hate this, and I want out.”
What sinners want is not hell but sin. That hell is the inevitable consequence of unforgiven sin does not make the consequence desirable. It is not what people want—certainly not what they “most want.” Wanting sin is no more equal to wanting hell than wanting chocolate is equal to wanting obesity. Or wanting cigarettes is equal to wanting cancer.
Beneath this misleading emphasis on hell being what people “most want” is the notion that God does not “send” people to hell. But this is simply unbiblical. God certainly does send people to hell. He does pass sentence, and he executes it. Indeed, worse than that. God does not just “send,” he “throws.” “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown (Greek eblethe) into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15; cf. Mark 9:47; Matthew 13:42; 25:30).
The reason the Bible speaks of people being “thrown” into hell is that no one will willingly go there, once they see what it really is. No one standing on the shore of the lake of fire jumps in. They do not choose it, and they will not want it. They have chosen sin. They have wanted sin. They do not want the punishment. When they come to the shore of this fiery lake, they must be thrown in.
When someone says that no one is in hell who doesn’t want to be there, they give the false impression that hell is within the limits of what humans can tolerate. It inevitably gives the impression that hell is less horrible than Jesus says it is.
We should ask: How did Jesus expect his audience to think and feel about the way he spoke of hell? The words he chose were not chosen to soften the horror by being accommodating to cultural sensibilities. He spoke of a “fiery furnace” (Matthew 13:42), and “weeping and gnashing teeth” (Luke 13:28), and “outer darkness” (Matthew 25:30), and “their worm [that] does not die” (Mark 9:48), and “eternal punishment” (Matthew 25:46), and “unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43), and being “cut in pieces” (Matthew 24:51).
These words are chosen to portray hell as an eternal, conscious experience that no one would or could ever “want” if they knew what they were choosing. Therefore, if someone is going to emphasize that people freely “choose” hell, or that no one is there who doesn’t “want” to be there, surely he should make every effort to clarify that, when they get there, they will not want this.
Surely the pattern of Jesus—who used blazing words to blast the hell-bent blindness out of everyone— should be followed. Surely, we will grope for words that show no one, no one, no one will want to be in hell when they experience what it really is. Surely everyone who desires to save people from hell will not mainly stress that it is “wantable” or “chooseable,” but that it is horrible beyond description—weeping, gnashing teeth, darkness, worm-eaten, fiery, furnace-like, dismembering, eternal, punishment, “an abhorrence to all flesh” (Isaiah 66:24).
I thank God, as a hell-deserving sinner, for Jesus Christ my Savior, who became a curse for me and suffered hellish pain that he might deliver me from the wrath to come. While there is time, he will do that for anyone who turns from sin and treasures him and his work above all.
Trembling before such realities, and trusting Jesus"
Pastor John Piper
Showing posts with label heaven. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heaven. Show all posts
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
A Heavenly Perspective
What is "a heavenly perspective"? Is it living life with your head in the clouds? Is it living life with your mind so preoccupied with the afterlife that you don't engage in this world? Most people probably think of the old saying, "he's so heavenly minded that he's no earthly good". Well maybe that is how some people are...but that's not the biblical teaching about having a heavenly perspective!
According to scripture we are to have a heavenly perspective and that is described in various ways throughout the Bible. We are told to "look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always" (1Chronicles 16:11), to sing to Him, glory in Him, seek Him, look to Him, remember Him (Ps 105). We are told to "set your minds on things above, not on earthly things" (Col 3:2). I could go on but the point is clear. The Bible COMMANDS that we have a heavenly perspective. So does that mean that we are to disengage our minds from this world and forget about earthly things? I believe the answer is no...but my opinion means little. What does scripture teach?
The 1st Chronicles passage above helps us see the proper relationship between having a heavenly perspective and an earthly engagement when we realize that it is set in the context of David establishing His rule over the nation of Israel. David was bringing the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem and associating himself with Yahweh as his (David's) rule over the consolidated kingdom was taking shape. In no way did David or anyone else take the exhortation to look to the Lord and to seek His face to mean do not engage in their earthly duties and tasks. In fact, a large part of the context of that passage is an exhortation to thank God for what He was doing and had done IN THE EARTH for the glory of His name.
The Psalms passage referenced above is similar. We are told to give thanks and call on Him, sing to Him, sing praise to Him, glory in His name, seek Him and rejoice in Him, seek His face, remember His wonders. Wow! With all that focus on God maybe there is no time for earthly tasks! On the contrary. The entire context of that Psalm is "His wonderful acts" (vs 2) and "the wonders He has done" (vs5) ...in the earthly lives of His people! It is from encountering the living God in the midst of our very earthly lives that we are brought to a place of joyful worship. We rejoice and worship Him and focus on Him because of His greatness and glory as revealed in our earthly context. Then, when others around us see these things and our response of praise and joy, they will see God for the infinitely valuable treasure that He is. By that we "make known among the nations what He has done" (vs 1) which is another very "earthly" task.
In Colossians 3 we see maybe the ultimate biblical explanation of this issue. Paul tells his readers to set their hearts AND minds not on things below on the earth but on heaven where Christ is - i.e. focus on Christ and His glory (vs 1-2). He even goes so far to say, "put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature" (vs 5). But later in the passage we see how he defines that focus and what putting to death things of our earthly nature means. He says to, "put off your old self with its practices and...put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator" (vs 9-11). Then in vs 12-13 he describes a LIFE STYLE that is very "earthly focused" but in the image of its creator Christ. In other words, living with a heavenly perspective is living our earthly life in a way that reflects positively on Christ and exalts His name as people observe our way of life. Paul goes on to get very specific about our earthly relationships between husband and wife, child and parent, slave and master and how they will be affected by living with our hearts and minds set on Christ.
To conclude then, having a heavenly perspective is NOT disengaging from the world but rather engaging the world with a wholehearted focus on and love toward the One who created the world. This single minded focus and wholehearted love toward Christ will then guide, shape, define, and transform all your earthly relationships in such a way that others will see His beauty and glory, and the nations will hear of His wonders!
According to scripture we are to have a heavenly perspective and that is described in various ways throughout the Bible. We are told to "look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always" (1Chronicles 16:11), to sing to Him, glory in Him, seek Him, look to Him, remember Him (Ps 105). We are told to "set your minds on things above, not on earthly things" (Col 3:2). I could go on but the point is clear. The Bible COMMANDS that we have a heavenly perspective. So does that mean that we are to disengage our minds from this world and forget about earthly things? I believe the answer is no...but my opinion means little. What does scripture teach?
The 1st Chronicles passage above helps us see the proper relationship between having a heavenly perspective and an earthly engagement when we realize that it is set in the context of David establishing His rule over the nation of Israel. David was bringing the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem and associating himself with Yahweh as his (David's) rule over the consolidated kingdom was taking shape. In no way did David or anyone else take the exhortation to look to the Lord and to seek His face to mean do not engage in their earthly duties and tasks. In fact, a large part of the context of that passage is an exhortation to thank God for what He was doing and had done IN THE EARTH for the glory of His name.
The Psalms passage referenced above is similar. We are told to give thanks and call on Him, sing to Him, sing praise to Him, glory in His name, seek Him and rejoice in Him, seek His face, remember His wonders. Wow! With all that focus on God maybe there is no time for earthly tasks! On the contrary. The entire context of that Psalm is "His wonderful acts" (vs 2) and "the wonders He has done" (vs5) ...in the earthly lives of His people! It is from encountering the living God in the midst of our very earthly lives that we are brought to a place of joyful worship. We rejoice and worship Him and focus on Him because of His greatness and glory as revealed in our earthly context. Then, when others around us see these things and our response of praise and joy, they will see God for the infinitely valuable treasure that He is. By that we "make known among the nations what He has done" (vs 1) which is another very "earthly" task.
In Colossians 3 we see maybe the ultimate biblical explanation of this issue. Paul tells his readers to set their hearts AND minds not on things below on the earth but on heaven where Christ is - i.e. focus on Christ and His glory (vs 1-2). He even goes so far to say, "put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature" (vs 5). But later in the passage we see how he defines that focus and what putting to death things of our earthly nature means. He says to, "put off your old self with its practices and...put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator" (vs 9-11). Then in vs 12-13 he describes a LIFE STYLE that is very "earthly focused" but in the image of its creator Christ. In other words, living with a heavenly perspective is living our earthly life in a way that reflects positively on Christ and exalts His name as people observe our way of life. Paul goes on to get very specific about our earthly relationships between husband and wife, child and parent, slave and master and how they will be affected by living with our hearts and minds set on Christ.
To conclude then, having a heavenly perspective is NOT disengaging from the world but rather engaging the world with a wholehearted focus on and love toward the One who created the world. This single minded focus and wholehearted love toward Christ will then guide, shape, define, and transform all your earthly relationships in such a way that others will see His beauty and glory, and the nations will hear of His wonders!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Why Heaven?
When listening or reading certain treatments of the topic of heaven one could get the impression that heaven's joy is its streets of gold, pearly gates, beautiful angelic music, and reunion with friends and family. But this would be a subtle and tragic mistake. The Bible does paint an awe inspiring picture of heaven but leaves no doubt that the joy of Heaven is God Himself! The throne of God and the Lamb (Jesus) is the centerpiece and focal point of heaven (Rev 22:1-4). The point of heaven is that God will be there in the midst of His people, He is the gift, the reward, the treasure that we are to enjoy for eternity (Rev 21)! All the other benefits of heaven find their significance in that God Himself is in the midst of His people (Rev 22).
So this has tremendous implications for what it means to be a Christian and "heaven bound". The essential element to being a Christian is having been transformed from not loving and treasuring God to loving and treasuring God above all else! This is done through a sovereign work of God's grace to change our hearts from hard and rebellious to soft and submissive toward God (Ezekiel 11:19-20). Christians are ones who have been changed from hating His word and ways to loving His word and ways. Unless our hearts are in concert with the Apostle Paul's in longing for Christ's presence we have no reason to assume we will occupy the heaven in which Christ is the main attraction (2 Timothy 4:8).
Do you claim to be a Christian? Then test your claim by asking yourself this question, "why do I want to go to heaven"? If the answer isn't, "because Jesus is there!" you have reason to be very worried. Fall on your knees and cry out to God. Ask for a new heart of tender affection for Christ. Ask for a love for God and His kingdom, His ways and word. Ask Him to bring you to heaven...so that you can be with the lover of your soul, Jesus Christ!
So this has tremendous implications for what it means to be a Christian and "heaven bound". The essential element to being a Christian is having been transformed from not loving and treasuring God to loving and treasuring God above all else! This is done through a sovereign work of God's grace to change our hearts from hard and rebellious to soft and submissive toward God (Ezekiel 11:19-20). Christians are ones who have been changed from hating His word and ways to loving His word and ways. Unless our hearts are in concert with the Apostle Paul's in longing for Christ's presence we have no reason to assume we will occupy the heaven in which Christ is the main attraction (2 Timothy 4:8).
Do you claim to be a Christian? Then test your claim by asking yourself this question, "why do I want to go to heaven"? If the answer isn't, "because Jesus is there!" you have reason to be very worried. Fall on your knees and cry out to God. Ask for a new heart of tender affection for Christ. Ask for a love for God and His kingdom, His ways and word. Ask Him to bring you to heaven...so that you can be with the lover of your soul, Jesus Christ!
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