JESUS CHRIST WAS THE GREATEST PREACHER ON HELL who ever lived. He spoke of its nightmarish reality more than any other person in Holy Canon. He even brought it up more than He thought to mention his own hometown of heaven. And should the words of our Master be believed, total darkness and unquenchable fire is humanities promised destination. To this Spurgeon said: “It is a very remarkable fact that no inspired preacher of whom we have any record ever uttered such terrible words concerning the destiny of the lost as our Lord Jesus Christ.” If Jesus is correct, and I take Him at His literal Word, we are all going to “hell in a hand basket”; that is, should each of us avoid our dutiful responsibilities in so much as rejecting His freely offered pardon of saving grace—and I stand by it.

We turn now to the lukewarm Christian (the streets and highways—even the alleyways—of western civilization are paraded with them); the sleeping spiritual-type who claims his god is a deity of “love.” Such divinity is inspired, I am told, from his reading of the Bible, and therefore could never be the sort who sends the good of humanity to Hell. He has exhibited the delusional behavior of throwing his caution to the wind. That—or he doesn’t believe the very words of our Master, nor does he give weight to the cross; perhaps even to his own peril. Said Spurgeon:

“Think lightly of hell and you will think lightly of the cross. Think little of the sufferings of lost souls, and you will soon think little of the Savior who delivers them.”

Remind the lukewarm Christian that it is Jesus Himself who introduced us to it—hell, that is. The Prophets thought not to warn us. Jesus did. According to His own Testimony, hell is a place of conscious and eternal torment (Matthew 25:46). It is a furnace of fire inhabited with flesh-eating worms (Mark 9:48), which will destroy both physical bodies and souls (Matthew 10:28), and is immeasurable in its indescribable spiritual agony and unending physical pain (see Luke 16:23-28). It will be the angels of heaven who personally collect the unrighteous and cast them into the lake of fire (Matthew 13:50), originally intended and prepared for Satan and his rebellious angels (Matthew 25:41), where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, having seen Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God (Matthew 13:50). The Apostle John would later add, “the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever and they have no rest day and night (Revelation 14:11).”

So ghastly were His descriptions of hell that a man cried out to Him, “Lord, are there few that be saved?” Jesus spake unto him with all severity, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able (Luke 13:24).”

It is a factual statement however that God wishes none to perish. The lukewarm Christian at least understands this concept partially right. God sent His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God doesn’t wish for anyone to enter hell. Each man goes to hell by his own good and free will because he doesn’t want to own up to that fact that he’s a sinner—nor do anything about it. Is it not so difficult to comprehend Jesus, wishing that none should perish, standing before the threshold of hell hoping to hold back the floodgates? Unfortunately, Satan also stands at the threshold of hell. And he will have us dance upon it as though the other side of the door is heaven.  It is as Charles Spurgeon quipped: sinners will defiantly leap even over the very body of our Creator so that they perish with His arms about their knees. But that is the unfortunate nature of free will. Perhaps this is why our Master implored of us: If thy hand or thy foot or they eye causes you to sin, “cut it off” or “pluck it out.” It is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God a cripple than to have two hands, two feet, or two eyes cast into hell fire, “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”

I had a lukewarm Christian mock me only recently for believing it. He quipped, “You actually believe Jesus was being literal about this?”

Indeed I do.

If only the Christian’s prayer—every appeal of the true believer—were as Spurgeon himself prayed, “God save us from living in comfort while sinners are sinking into hell!”

This is the terrible reality before us. Hell is a place prepared for the unrighteous. The man who has been cast into hell will be available by his own free will to continue his ambitious pursuits of the very lusts which kept him at a disobedience distance from God in life. He also has been resurrected into an eternal body, but one which is intended as a tool to serve his own self-seeking purposes. He has become an instrument of unrighteousness. To this effect CS Lewis wrote,

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’”

That damned soul has been handed over to his every addiction and desire. He is finally free to feel his way through the utter physical and spiritual darkness, void of a single spark of light, among the fleshly fiery ocean of his fellow transgressors; to grope and to fondle; to become the aggressor or become the recipient of aggression. His lusts will rage and will never be satisfied. There will be nothing stopping him from his own misery this time. No light from the kingdom of God to hamper his hatred of God. He will never again be bothered to repent of his wicked deeds. Enlightenment is his pursuit. He has been shown the temple of the reprobate mind—a kingdom of humanist thinking which may openly blaspheme God as its very motto. This is why the Apostle Paul warned us: “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming (Colossians 3:5-6).”

Yes, it is true. There will be many “truthers” in hell, whose rallying cry among his fellow citizens is that they “wake-up” to the deeper esoteric reality of themselves—always for an eternity, they shall commit to the perpetual self-saving works-based act of “waking up.” Indeed, hell is the greatest tragedy in the history of humanity. And just think, all of this could have been avoided with the simplest and most important of truths.

Jesus said:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life (John 5:24).”