When Preachers Bury Hell: The Attack Upon Literal Judgment Fire After Death – KAU#182

IN THIS ISSUE
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-WHEN PREACHERS BURY HELL: THE ATTACK UPON LITERAL JUDGMENT FIRE AFTER DEATH

-WORLDLY DISTRACTIONS: TESTIMONY FROM A CHRISTIAN COLLEGE STUDENT

-VISIT http://www.kingdombaptist.org .
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WHEN PREACHERS BURY HELL: THE ATTACK UPON LITERAL JUDGMENT FIRE AFTER DEATH

“Three in ten adults (31%) see hell as an actual location: ‘a place of physical torment where people may be sent.’ (1996)” (Barna Research)

In the late 19th century, the radical feminists (Elizabeth Cady Stanton, etc.), the Unitarians (William Henry Channing, etc.), the Theosophists (P. Blavatsky, etc.), the Psychologists (William James, etc.), the New Thought preachers (Ursula Gestefeld, etc.), the Spiritualists (Arthur Conan Doyle), the Infidels (Colonel Robert Ingersoll, etc.), the Higher Critics, the Universalists, the Annihilationists, and the so-called Scientists (following after Darwin) ALL launched a vigorous attack upon the fear of God, Hell, the eternal Lake of Fire, and every trace of doctrine which proclaimed a LITERAL, fiery punishment for anyone after death. As men such as Govett and Pember were restoring premillennial, literal interpretation to new heights among Baptists, Plymouth Brethren, etc., (teaching that not only would the wicked suffer eternally in literal fire, but that many unrepentant Christians themselves may temporarily come into contact with the literal, consuming fire of God’s anger at the Judgment Seat of Christ), it was only natural that the Devil would THEN strategically choose to launch his neutralizing attack upon the whole foundation of God’s literal, judgment fires. As premillennial, literal interpretation concerning the Judgment Seat of Christ then began to abundantly blossom in the early 20th century (see the historical documentation in my book, “The Rod: Will God Spare It?”), the clamorous cries of the Devil’s mob strived to convince the majority of people in the world that, “All is well, there is no Hell.” Many preachers began to believe the lie that Hell-fire preaching would “psychologically” damage people. The noble cry among early 20th century accountability preachers (Panton, Craig, Neighbour, Tilney, Poynder, Nee, etc.) was obviously too feeble. Christian preachers ignored or mocked their own warnings, and watered-down Hell to be seen of men as “educated” and “progressive.” Since they were too afraid to openly proclaim the doctrine that LOST SINNERS would meet with literal fire, they were not about to bear the harder yoke of preaching temporary, literal judgment to Christians. Therefore, the 20th century would be known as the century when Christian preachers BURIED HELL! They would not preach it to lost sinners. And those who did preach it often NEUTRALIZED it by teaching that the judgment fire is FIGURATIVE and parabolic.

If Christians may neutralize their own warnings by pretending that they are only FIGURATIVE, they will obviously then have a difficult time convincing people that the warnings to lost sinners must be interpreted LITERALLY. But let us put aside this debate (at least in this article) concerning the severity of judgment that Christians may temporarily experience after death. I want to deal with the foundational argument of whether or not the judgment fires of Hell and the Lake of Fire are literal or figurative for sinners. When a lost sinner dies, does he go to a figurative Hell, or a literal one? Is he then tormented in figurative fire, or literal fire? In spite of the consensus reached by even the “conservative scholars” today, I must once again go against the pack concerning Hell-fire. I assure the reader, on the authority of the Word of God, that Hell and its fires are LITERAL; they are not metaphorical in any sense.

Let us take a closer look at this historical attack upon literal Hell-fire (at least in modern ages). About the time that the King James Bible was being translated, Christopher Marlow (an atheist and epicure) wrote a play based upon his interpretation of the Faust legend. In this play, he hinted at the fact that Hell is figurative:

“Faustus: Where are you damned?
Mephistopheles: In hell
Faustus: How comes it then that thou art out of hell?
Mephistopheles: Why THIS IS HELL, nor am I out of it. Think’st thou that I, who saw the face of God, And tasted the eternal joys of heaven, Am not tormented with ten thousand hells, In being deprived of everlasting bliss?”
(Christopher Marlow, “The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus,” 1604, the play)

This interpretation of Hell would later serve as the main device to neutralize God’s warnings. Infidels (for obvious reasons) rebelled against the whole doctrine of Hell. Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) wrote:

“There is one serious defect to my mind in Christ’s moral character, and that is that He believed in hell…..I really do not think that a person with a proper degree of kindliness in his nature would have put fears and terrors of that sort into the world…I must say that I think all this doctrine, that hell-fire is a punishment for sin, is a doctrine of cruelty.” (Russell, “Why I am Not a Christian”)

The (so-called) Jehovah’s Witness cult would arise out of the late 19th century, Satanically inspired assault on the fear of God. They would ride the new wave of figurative interpretation concerning Hell:

“The fire of the parable, by which the punishment (destruction) is to be accomplished, will not be literal fire…Fire here, as elsewhere, symbolizes destruction…” (“Zion’s Watchtower,” January, 1910)

Before long, almost every denomination and popular preacher would likewise SPIRITUALIZE Hell and the Lake of Fire to one degree or another. A literal judgment fire was no longer fashionable to a world raised on jazz music, rock music, evolution, feminism, spare-the-rod-pop-psychology, secular-humanistic-public-education, and higher criticism:

Church of England:
“…hell is a state of nothingness, the church said. The church said it was concerned that people were terrified into becoming believers and consequently suffered ‘searing psychological scars’…Those who fail the test are annihilated. Hell is described as the final ‘choosing of that which is opposed to God so completely and so absolutely that the only end is nonbeing.’” (National & International Religion Report, Jan. 22, 1996)

Roman Catholicism:
“Hell ‘is not a ‘place’ but a ‘state,’ a person’s ‘state of being,’ in which a person suffers from the deprivation of God,” declared La Civilta Cattolica, an influential Jesuit magazine based in Rome and closely tied to the Vatican, in a long editorial in July…Within days of the editorial’s publication, Pope John Paul II struck a similar note, telling visiting pilgrims that ‘more than a physical place, Hell is the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy.’…That the subject has been out of view reflects the cultural change within the church since the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960′s and new biblical research by Catholic scholars. After the council, fire and brimstone preaching declined as a new emphasis was placed on God’s love rather than God’s wrath, said Sister Elizabeth Johnson, a professor of theology at Fordham…The HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism, a large 1995 publication edited by several theologians under the direction of the Rev. Richard P. McBrien of Notre Dame, defines Hell as ‘the eternal loss of God’ and bluntly warns that biblical images of infernal torments are not to be taken literally but instead symbolize suffering ‘inherent in the state of sin.’…Among mainline Protestants, talk of Hell is as rare these days as it is among Catholics…”
(“New York Times,” September 18th, 1999, Gustav Niebuhr)

Martin Luther King, Jr.:
“I do not believe in hell as a place of a literal burning fire.”
(“Ebony Magazine,” January 1961)

Billy Graham:
“I think that hell essentially is separation from God forever. And that is the worst hell that I can think of….I think the fire that is mentioned in the Bible is a burning thirst for God that can never be quenched…” (“Orlando Sentinel,” April 10, 1983)

Robert Schuller:
“‘Sin is any act or thought that robs myself or another human being of his or her self-esteem.’ And what is ‘hell’? It is the loss of pride that naturally follows separation from God the ultimate and unfailing source of our soul’s sense of self-respect….A person is in hell when he has lost his self-esteem. can you imagine any condition more tragic…?”
(Robert Schuller, “Self-Esteem: The New Reformation,” Key-Word Books, 1982)

To understand how confusing and deceptive things have now progressed in regard to thris subject, one only has to read the modern books that are published in order to supposedly DEFEND the traditional view of Hell! The seeking student walks into a Christian bookstore or seminary library in search of resources that contend against the modern attack upon Hell and its fires. The most popular, modern books, written to supposedly contend against the apostasy concerning Hell-fire, after scores of pages and material, end up actually being the PRIME PROMOTERS of the FIGURATIVE view of Hell!:

John Blanchard:
“There are places in Scripture where a literal fire seems possible, but others where a symbolic meaning seems to be the only true one. The right approach must be to interpret the first in the light of the second….Virtually every interpreter agrees that when Jesus spoke of hell’s ‘worm’ he was using a metaphor; it would be strange if in the same breath he should speak of ‘fire’ and not be doing the same thing.”
(John Blanchard, “Whatever Happened to Hell,” Foreword by J.I. Packer, 1993)

Blanchard errs on this point, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. Furthermore, this is certainly a very weak argument due to recent “worm” discoveries:

“Mysterious Ice Worms Discovered… – Scientists diving by submarine amid the oil fields of the Gulf of Mexico have discovered vast colonies of previously unknown worms burrowing into a great mound of methane-rich ice erupting from the sea floor….From scalding hot springs to rocks deep underground, evidence has emerged in recent years that living organisms can flourish almost anywhere on Earth….”
(“San Francisco Chronicle,” July 30, 1997)

These scientists do not know how true their statement really is. Living organisms (i.e. worms!) are also deep WITHIN the earth. If there are worms that can live in ice and organisms that can live it HOT springs, you better believe (especially when Jesus confirms it) that there are “worms” that can live in HELL! Notice again:

“Lurking around the steaming chimneys that form in the deep-sea hydrothermal vents off the west coast of Mexico are small tube worms that may be the most heat-tolerant species on Earth. Craig Cary, UD marine biologist, is collecting and characterizing these 4-inch-long Pompeii worms, whose very tolerance to hot and cold extremes may make them valuable to the chemical and pharmaceutical industries…In addition, the Pompeii worm lives within the broadest temperature range-from 10 degrees to 80 degrees C-of any organism on the planet, Cary says. (On the Celsius temperature scale, 0 degrees C represents the freezing point of water and 100 degrees C is the boiling point.).”
(University of Delaware Office of Public Relations, “The Messenger,” Vol. 5, No. 2/1996, “Where the warm worms are.”)

O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken (Luke 24:25)!

Notice some other, modern “defenses” of the Biblical doctrine of Hell, that are really only propaganda for the FIGURATIVE VIEW:

Robert A. Peterson:
“The New Testament also uses fire IMAGERY to depict hell….What does hell-fire SIGNIFY?…the fire signifies terrible pain…The use of fire imagery in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus confirms our conclusion….Plainly, fire here speaks of the ‘agony’….Should we understand the fires of hell as literal flames? The answer is no….I stand with the majority of contemporary conservative scholars in understanding the biblical imagery of hell metaphorically rather than literally….See the impressive list compiled by William V. Crockett.”
(Robert A. Peterson, “Hell On Trial,” Foreword by John Macarthur, 1995)

William V. Crockett:
“The Bible does not support a literal view of a burning abyss. Hellfire and brimstone are not literal depictions of Hells furnishings, but figurative expressions warning the wicked of impending doom.” (William Crockett, “Four Views on Hell,” 1992)

The cults are quick to applaud the figurative view of modern “conservative” scholarship:

Seventh-Day Adventists:
“Credit must be given to the proponents of the metaphorical view of hell for pointing out that the images used in the Bible to describe hell, such as fire, darkness, voracious maggots, sulphur, and gnashing of teeth are metaphors and not actual descriptions of fact.” (Seventh-Day Adventist, Samuele Bacchiocchi, “Immortality or Resurrection”)

There is nothing in Luke 16 that states that the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus is a PARABLE. The notes of the Authorized Version do not list it as a parable. Jesus can just as easily use true, historical events as He can use parables. Furthermore, the parabolic language that Jesus teaches with NEVER uses anything for a symbol or figure of something else that does not have an existence in nature or reality:

Parable: “A fable or allegorical relation or representation of something REAL in life or nature, from which a moral is drawn for instruction.” (Web. 1828)

Based on the language of the Gospels, this definition, at least in regard to the parabolic language Jesus uses, is absolutely correct. In any and every parable that the Lord uses, everything really exists in reality and nature, exactly as described. Vineyards exist, husbandmen exist, fig trees exist, sheep exist, shepherds exist, doors exist, gates exist, coins exist, candles exist, brooms exist, women exist, barns exist, seeds exist, thorns exist, the sun exists, rocks exist, the blind exist, ditches exist, wine exists, leaves exist, towers exist, winepresses exist, pennies exist, fields exist, fish exist, pearls exist, the sea exists, and rich men exist, beggars exist, angels exist, Abraham exists, and HELL EXISTS AND HELL-FIRE EXISTS! Therefore, even if it could be proven that the story in Luke 16 is a parable (it is not), it would only then prove that Hell really exists, exactly as stated. Notice how the J.W.’s attempt to argue contrary to this fact:

“The great difficulty with many in reading this Scripture [Luke 16] is that, though they regard it as a parable, they reason on it and draw conclusions from it as though it were a literal statement….In a parable the thing said is never the thing meant….When he said ‘wheat,’ he meant ‘children of the kingdom.’” (“The Bible On Hell,” International Bible Students Association, 1921)

The J.W.’s and their mystical interpretation is refuted. Not only can they NOT prove that Luke 16 is a parable, but even if it is, Jesus only uses real things as symbols. Hell is therefore real.

In Matthew 13, Jesus teaches the key to all future interpretation of His parables. In each of these parables, whatever the JUDGMENT is in the parable, it remains in the interpretation. “Burning” means “burning,” “casting” means “casting,” and “fire” means “fire.” This is how Jesus interprets these parables for us. Furthermore, it is absurd to take the LITERAL INTERPRETATION of a symbol or figure, and then turn that interpretation into another figure! People often do this in the Book of Revelation. In Revelation 17, the “woman” is the “figure.” A “city” (17:18) is the interpretation of the figure. Why then would anyone then wonder what the CITY stands for? To do so is rebellion against the angel (and ultimately the Holy Ghost) who gives the interpretation. Jesus speaks of Hell many times in non-parabolic contexts. However, even in parables, Matthew 13 shows that the actual judgments in the figures are carried over into the literal interpretation. And finally, when Jesus gives the interpretation, to then make the interpretation a figure is to rebel against Scripture and reason.

But people argue, “How can a non-physical spirit or a soul burn in a literal fire? Isn’t this figurative?” No, the flame is literal and real. Fire obviously has even more power and greater properties deep in hell than it has on the surface of earth. And the fire on earth can burn hot! Some lava cores of volcanoes can melt hardened steel in ten seconds. Many scholars today are not arguing logically. Because something may be more hotter and more powerful in Hell than it is on the surface of earth does not mean that the fire is metaphorical! By what logic does possessing greater properties make something figurative? A baby cannot perform the work of a grown man. Does this mean that a grown man is only the figure of a child?

Finally, these “conservative scholars,” if anything, are arguing backwards. If something is figurative, it is not the fires of Hell and the future Lake of Fire. It is the fires of earth which are only “patterns” (Hebrews 9:23-24) of the TRUE consuming fires which pour forth from God’s mouth and breath and light Tophet!

And who said that a soul cannot be burned with super-hot fire? God can make it burn. The soul of the rich man was being tormented in fire. He was not simply burning with desire. While he may have felt the pain of remorse, and the pain of the absence of God, and the pain of worry about his family members, he also felt the pain of LITERAL FIRE. And although he had multiple unfulfilled desires – one, main, literal, unfulfilled desire was for some water on his tongue! So we must avoid getting overly philosophical and sophisticated with the God’s warnings. The Sadducees denied a literal resurrection. And they had many absurd hypothetical arguments they used to mock the resurrection. Jesus answered them:

Matthew 22:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

That is how we answer. If God says a soul burns with Hell fire, we should say, “Yes Lord.” We should not start cutting up Hell and teaching that God does not mean literal fire, or that He ONLY means burning with desire, etc.

WORLDLY DISTRACTIONS: TESTIMONY FROM A CHRISTIAN COLLEGE STUDENT

“Hi, my name is David and I am presently a first year student in Religion & Theology. I live on campus with a number of other guys and wanted to address an issue that has troubled me ever since I have been here. But first, I’ll just give a brief testimony of where I stand in my lifestyle for Christ and why. How often has Joey F. brought up the subject of worldly living among Christians? Yes, I am speaking of TV and movies in particular. Regularly, Joey reminds us of the effects of TV and movies on our lives. I am one of the few who have abandoned the entertainment industry of TV and movies for the sake of Christ. I did not abandon it because I thought it was corrupting me, but merely because it was a hindrance to my Bible reading and prayer time. I found that every time I wanted to read my Bible or pray, I had to limit my time in order to watch my TV shows. Therefore, with this out of the way, I had more time on my hands for God. However, at this time, I began to realize the influence that the media had previously had on me. When I abandoned TV and movies, I found that my relationship with Christ drastically grew. What I had come to realize is how powerful the allurement of TV and movies had been in my life . . . and, well, their undeniable corrupting effects on me as a Christian. People often do not realize the effect something has on their lives until they abandon it. Here are a few facts I have received from a theologian who specializes in pop-culture. The statistics can be found at Barna Research Online:

-Born-again adults spend an average of seven times more hours each week watching television than they do participating in spiritual pursuits such as Bible reading, prayer, and worship
-Born-again adults spend roughly twice as much money on entertainment as they donate to their church
-Born-again adults spend more time surfing the Net than thy do conversing with God in prayer
-There is no significant statistical difference between Christians and society as a whole [on these matters?]

But, I do not need to belabor this point any further; instead, I want to bring up another issue concerning the entertainment industry that has struck me hard ever since I have moved to campus life; it is the stimulating joy of violent video games played among the young men. To watch these Christians play their 3-D, first-person, realistic shoot ‘n’ kill games vexes my spirit. It’s violent, and it bears no good fruit. But the common reply that I hear is ‘Don’t worry, I can discern those things that could affect my faith,’ or ‘It’s just a game . . . it’s only for fun.’ Just about anything is said to preserve the indulgence. Ninety-five per cent of rooms here contain either an Xbox, or Playstation, or Nintendo. If not, then the students still have their computers. But when they’re tired of their games, they go back to movies and TV. The other day, we had Songs of Praise (chapel) here in college, but to my surprise, two-thirds of the chapel was empty because no one wanted to miss the next episode of ‘Survivor.’ Some common things that I’ve noticed among most Christians here are these: they all play video games, watch TV and movies, stay up until 2 a.m., listen to ‘Christian’ heavy metal\punk music, like to prank people at night, listen to secular music over Christian music, seek to be popular and known among their brethren, but avoid-gently and subtly-the low-class. I relate these as easily observable facts, not as a way to feel good about myself by bashing others. I love these people and wish for them to be good witness’s of Christ. One thing I must say is that I am distraught by this emerging generation.

Colossians 3:2: ‘Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.’”

(David, monium2@hotmail.com)
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