Headed to Hell?

Years ago, my wife and I often went to San Diego Padres baseball games.  I remember heading to Taco Bell before the game with our friend Josh Jordan and heading to our seats to watch Ken Caminiti, Tony Gwyn, Greg Vaughn, and Trevor Hoffman play ball.  If the Padres were winning in the ninth inning and the game was close, Trevor Hoffman would make his way slowly to the mound as AC/DC's song "Hell's Bells" blared at full volume, the crowd erupting at the first bell toll.  When the "Q" was full, the stadium was rocking!  As exciting as it was to have Trevor close out a game, I found the lyrics everyone sang with happy faces disconcerting:  "...You're only young but you're gonna die.  I won't take no prisoners won't spare no lives, nobody's putting up a fight.  I got my bell. I'm gonna take you to hell. I'm gonna get ya, satan get ya!  Hells Bells!"  Speaking for myself, I don't want to go to hell, no matter how cool AC/DC makes it sound.  It is no place any person should go, but it is the place of unspeakable horror and torment every human being is heading.

In Mark chapter 9, three times Jesus repeated for emphasis this description of hell:  "...where their worm dies not, and their fire is not quenched."  Hell is described in scripture as a place of torment in outer darkness where there is screaming and gnashing of teeth, a place created for Satan and his angels to be eternally punished for their rebellion.  When Adam sinned, sin and consequently death passed to all men.  The fruit of sin in this world is sorrow, pain, sickness, fear, crying, and death.  Have you ever experienced these things personally?  Then you can know for certain your life has been personally infected by sin:  sin passed down from Adam perpetuated for generations, as well as sins you have committed.  All die because all have sinned.  Those horrible consequences are just a foretaste of what is to come if you die in your sins.  A sin is anything we say, think, or do that is contrary to God's perfect, righteous standard.  The righteous wages earned for a single transgression is death - not just the death of the body, but the eternal torment and destruction of the soul in hell.

God is not only a just God, but a gracious one.  Because He loves mankind created in His image, He made a way for us to be saved from His wrath to come and hell.  Not only that, but He has made a way through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us to go to heaven!  Revelation 21:4-5 reads, "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." ⁵ Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful."  God will one day destroy all hell, Death, and sinners in the Lake of Fire.  He will create a new heavens and a new earth which God will rule in righteousness.  Sin and all the symptoms of it - death, sorrow, and crying - will be wiped clean.  It will be heaven because God will be there, and we will be with Him forever in glorified bodies like that of our risen Saviour, Jesus Christ.

In our natural condition, we are all heading to hell.  It is a place of conscious, eternal torment separated from God.  Revelation 21:8 warns, "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."  God does not want anyone to go to hell and perish.  It is not his will for anyone even to die!  Yet so great is His love for us, that He sent His Son to die to be a Saviour for all who will repent and believe.  You may be headed to hell, but you can choose life through Christ!  Satan is a liar, thief, and murderer from the beginning.  Don't believe his lie that hell doesn't exist and if it does it is a party worth dying for.  In the past decade there have been many concerts in crowded clubs that used the wrong pyrotechnics and led to many deaths.  Those were no laughing matter.  No one danced in the flames, singing to the music.  The people screamed as they trampled each other to death in the choking smoke.  There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth, even ripping out of hair in sorrow!  What regret, heartache, and nightmares!  Such is the result of sin:  it allures and tantalises but kills in the end.

Sin brings death.  Choose life.  Jesus freely offers His for yours.