Hell is for Real
“Hell is for real.” When was the last time you heard someone say that? When was the last time you heard some money or power hungry televangelist teach that soul-searing truth (2 Ptr. 2:1-3; Acts 20:30)?
A smile won’t get you to heaven. Seek the truth.
Some number of years ago a book came out about a little boy’s supposed experience of dying and going to heaven for a few minutes (said experience itself later publicly confessed to be fraudulent), proclaiming that ‘heaven was for real!’ Now, of course we already knew that based on much better and more reliable testimony because God in the flesh – Jesus Christ Himself – very clearly and plainly told us so (Jn. 14:1-3 and etc.). But my point is, why isn’t there a popular, best-selling, and well-known book out there proclaiming that ‘hell is for real?’ The reasons should be obvious: Because the thought of eternally ongoing punishment in the flames of eternal hell make most people extremely uncomfortable (And why not? The Bible says that it is ‘the many,’ or the majority of people who will choose the easy way that leads there – Matt. 7:13-14). Because Satan continues to do everything in his nasty and deceptive power to keep unsaved people so preoccupied with the things of this world that they have neither the time nor the interest to truly explore the horrors awaiting them there (2 Cor. 4:3-4; 1 Jn. 2:15-17; Rev. 14:9-11). Because few want to face the fact that hell is every bit as real as heaven. In fact, many have pointed out that Jesus actually talked and taught more about hell than He did about heaven! So why don’t we do the same, as those who claim to be following in His footsteps?
This fact is, that people who are totally oblivious to the fact – folks that neither know nor understand – that they are sick and soon going to die without proper medical treatment have no reason to seek help from a physician. Likewise, those who are kept totally in the dark about the horrors of hell that await all sinners who have not received God’s grace and forgiveness through their faith, repentance, and gospel obedience (Acts 2:38-41; 2 Thess. 1:7-10), will typically find little reason to take us, or the salvation we offer, very seriously (if at all), as long as they have no idea of what it is they need to be saved FROM.
Let us make sure, as those who claim to be following in Jesus’ footsteps to heaven, that we too, make sure that people know the hellish reality of their eventual eternity that they desperately need to be saved FROM, before trying to teach them that they need to be saved at all. Otherwise, if they feel they are fine as they are, why would they listen?