If you missed the beginning of the series you might want to go back and catch up.
Start from the beginning in the Intro Article here.
If you have not read article 1, you can read that here.
Hell is an odd term. You can go to almost any bar in the country and hear someone chant it. Yet a few years ago, Bernie Sanders condemned a presidential appointee for just believing it and claimed that people who believed in Hell should lose the privilege of working for the government.
In ancient times, man was simply concerned with survival. When we hear about the word Hell, we forget about its Latin roots and how Hell was a pagan term that was simply synonymous with death. In other words, Hell was death, and everything in the afterlife was the gloomy darkness of death. No one could ever move from mortality into immortality to obtain eternal life. That was the case even in the ancient epic tale of Gilgamesh, a myth of a hero who was a son of a deity. The hero Gilgamesh according to the story was half-divine yet could never reach the heavens and obtain everlasting life.
An ancient Sumerian king list identifies Gilgamesh as an early ruler of the city of Uruk, and claims that Gilgamesh was a demigod. According to legend, Gilgamesh was the son of the goddess Ninsun.
In the pagan religion, sacrifice is still generally accepted as both a need and a given value. But the pagans did not believe that quality sacrifices were acceptable enough to grant eternal value. When we think about it, all animals are mortal. So how would animals contain within themselves eternal value?
But in Christianity, there is an immortal sacrifice offered. In the Christian point of view, Heaven is not simply “the dwelling place of the gods.”
Now, before we go any further, we must recognize the objection to Hell. Atheists and other secularists typically extend the rejection of Hell with their arguments concerning the Problem of Evil. How could God be a “Good God” if He is the same God condemning people to Hell eternally suffering His wrath? Well, before Christians scatter for a defense, we have to stop ourselves and ask, “Does the secularist ever deal with this issue of what is morally wrong with suffering and physical death?”
When the secularist deals with the issue of suffering and death, the answer is typically that death is natural and all these things happen by fate. It is so incomprehensible that, sometimes, they will curse the God they do not believe exists. If death is part of reality, then it should not feel so unnatural. If suffering is a simple aspect of evolution, there is nothing for us to complain about; but yet, bitterness finds its way into our lives one way or another. Ignoring pain and suffering can not ultimately prevail because pain and suffering are real entities.
One thing we can learn from the social justice warriors, Black Lives Matter, and Antifa movements is that secular justice cannot satisfy the soul.
The wrath of the past can only be explained by the wrath in the heart. Why do we need justice unless there was some reality of justice even though that is not upon the Earth? Let's give the devil his due! Calamity itself has a design. There is an intelligence and a plot. Mass murderers, terrorists, and dictators are all evil and are only known because they are clever individuals who accomplish great destruction. In a world with spirituality, the devil has a following, and, yet oddly enough, he is not blamed by the non-Christians of the world, and many people deny he is real, according to the polls. The father of lies is not interested in being a beacon of truth. If the Satanist religion does not encourage faith in the devil, then the devil may work through a different name, such as “the god of this world” or even his favorite name, “I.”
If we had a universal entry to Heaven, then Heaven would be evil. But if it were not a place of freedom, it would not be paradise either. So heaven must be the place for those souls who have been redeemed.
We are corrupt in our ways: we cannot follow God’s law on our own. So, the only solution is salvation through the work of Christ, recognizing His death, burial, and resurrection. Think of John 3.
As a preacher, my personal viewpoint is that Hell is the punishment for the wicked, and so, we know that those wicked against us will be punished. Let me speak some points as a preacher of the Bible.
According to Matthew 25:34-41, people were not created just to burn in Hell: Hell was not created for that
According to 2nd Peter 3:9, John 1:7, and John 3:15-17, God does not will anyone to perish
According to Colossians 1:20 and John 5:25, Christ reconciled the world and, as a result, has a resurrection for everyone
According to John 5:29 and 1st Corinthians 15:42, the immortal resurrection has extended damnation to eternity
In alignment with Revelation 20:10-15, denying Christ is a reason we do not receive salvation, but it is not the reason we are being condemned: we are condemned by breaking God's laws, but we are only saved by God's grace and love through Jesus.
Note on Epic of Gilgamesh:
TheSerapeum. “The Tomb of Gilgamesh, Nimrod, Osiris, and Apollo.” https://theserapeum.com/the-tomb-of-gilgamesh-nimrod-osiris-apollo/
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