"Is
Hell for Real?" By Lorne and Rita Silverstein
Web: www.JesusChristIsLord.ca
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John Sandford says,
"Right on, Lorne and Rita!"
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 John
Sandford:
"Right on, Lorne
and Rita. I have long known that without sufficient fear of the hereafter, we are
missing one of the most powerful checks in our conscience and behavior. The fear
can be of the positive and be just as powerful; that is, I can not stand to think
of grieving my Lord when He presents me before the Father. I want Him, for His sake,
to be filled with joy and pride as He confesses me before the angels and His Father.
I don't want Him to have to hang His head and say, "Well, here's John; he received
Me so he's here, but I can't say much for his behavior." So, love for Him checks
both my impulses to evil, and failure to do the good. That sense of heaven and hell
serves as a constant check on all I do.
"I often grieve
for people who seem to have no awareness of how what they do here affects what happens
there. Our sight has more and more been conscripted to the here and now, as though
that were all that matters. Eternity is always upon my heart; the more so the closer
I become in age (now 75) to walking into His world beyond the grave. Keep up the
good work, Lorne and Rita. God bless."
Yours in His Love,
John Loren Sandford
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December 12, 2004
Greetings to all,
I don't like to talk about hell or even think about it -- but rather focus solely
on the Lord and how wonderful Jesus is. As well, we know that it is the loving-kindness
of the Lord that draws people to repentance.
However, the reality is that when Jesus walked this earth, he preached and taught
about hell and eternal judgment all the time. In fact, Jesus talked more about hell
in the Bible than heaven!
I feel that we are entering a season when evil is trying to raise its head in new
and unusual ways.
Consequently, I sense a prompting of the Lord to begin to reach out to the lost
in love -- "tough love if necessary'' -- to begin sharing about hell and the consequences
of sin. Here is my story...for your interest, discernment, and prayer.
Lorne Silverstein
Edmonton, Alberta
lorneandrita@shaw.ca
www.JesusChristIsLord.ca
IN THE BEGINNING...
The journey into "is hell for real, and if so why is it rarely taught today?" began
about a year ago. At that time the Lord started to walk me through different revelations
of eternal punishment.
I read, besides the Bible, different articles
for and against the reality of hell. The articles that did not believe in eternal
punishment generally made the statement: "How could a good and loving God send anyone
to hell?"
So I was tossed to and fro for a few weeks on the reality and significance of hell.
More importantly, should eternal punishment be preached and taught, or just the
mercy, grace and love of God be given? Also, I was puzzled as to why we hear so
little teaching about this place of eternal judgment, especially from the pulpit.
WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?
One night, a divine thought came to me: "What would Jesus do?" or more closely,
"What would Jesus teach?" Especially since this is New Testament teaching and in
the dispensation of grace.
So, I reasoned that if the topic of hell
and eternal punishment were important to Jesus, when I opened the books of the gospels,
Jesus should refer to this topic frequently. Conversely, if it wasn’t important
to Him, then I would only find a few references. This was my test and sort of fleece.
So I opened the book of Matthew and began my test. The results proved to be very
enlightening and almost shocking. Not only did Jesus mention hell and eternal punishment
often -- about fifteen times -- but even John the Baptist refers to it twice within
a short paragraph.
Here are some of the scriptures in the book of Matthew:
Matt. 3:10 "...and thrown into the fire."
Matt. 3:12 "...with unquenchable
fire."
Matt. 5:30 "...than for your whole body to go into hell."
Matt. 7:19 "...thrown into the fire."
Matt. 8:12 "...will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Matt. 10:28 "Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body
in hell."
Matt. 13:40 "...burned in the fire..."
Matt. 13:24 "...into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing
of teeth."
Matt. 13:50 "...and throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping
and gnashing of teeth."
Matt. 18:8 "...be thrown into eternal fire."
Matt. 18:9 "...and be thrown into the fire of hell."
Matt. 22:13 "...and throw him outside, into the darkness,
where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
The next scripture quote happens after the seven woes declared by Jesus in Matthew
23.
I reasoned that if hell was real and important to Jesus, he would likely mention
it here, and he does in Matthew 23:33, where He states...
Matt. 23:33 "You snakes! You brood of vipers!
How will you escape being condemned to hell?"
Matt. 24:51 "...and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will
be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Matt. 25:30 "...into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth."
Matt. 25:41 "...depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared
for the devil and his angels."
Matt. 25:46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment..."
To emphasize this point even further, Jesus, in the great commission in Matthew
28:19, states:
"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Ghost, and teaching them
to obey everything I have commanded you."
"Everything" includes many of His commands which talk about
eternal judgment and which were to direct us away from hell.
The subject of hell and eternal punishment, as you can see, was very important to
Jesus and He needed to teach on it frequently. In fact, if you do a study on the
complete teachings of Jesus, He talked more about hell than He did on heaven. The
"bad news" of hell is part of the revelation of the "good news" of the gospel.
THE CHURCH NEEDS TO BE REAL TO BE RELEVANT
I sense the Lord saying that a new reality needs to come into the church and the
teaching on hell is part of this reality. They will know the truth and the truth
will set them free. People need to hear the truth spoken in love.
I’m not a church statistician, but I believe
that there is a close correlation between the loss of teaching on hell and eternal
punishment, both in and out of the church, and the rise of immorality in North America
over the last few decades. People in the world believe that they can keep on sinning
and that there is no final judgment or eternal punishment.
THE FEAR OF THE LORD
Psalm 33:8 says, "Let all the earth fear the Lord; let
all the people of the world revere Him." This is an eternal truth which
we don’t see yet fulfilled upon this earth.
I believe that a major reason why there
is so little fear of the Lord is, once again, that they don’t believe in hell and
eternal punishment. Why fear a God who has "no teeth"? Surely "God is love," but
Matthew 10:28 says, "Rather, be afraid of the One who can
destroy both soul and body in hell."
When people start to be taught again the
truth about eternal judgment, then, I believe, more of the fear of the Lord will
come back to the land.
LOVE SPEAKS
No one likes to talk about hell, and we are not looking to scare someone into salvation,
but it is love that speaks to someone when he or she is going in a wrong direction,
especially a fatal one. If your son or daughter were about to get into a car which
had faulty steering that could lead to death would you not warn him or her?
We need to present the revelation of eternal punishment both in and out of the church
in a loving and informative way so people know the gravity of not accepting Jesus
as their Savior and Lord and the consequences of their choice.
The "bad news" points to the "good news,"
and the world must know again that without Jesus, they will be judged for their
sins now or in eternity.
We need to follow in the footsteps of Jesus
and let the Spirit of Christ through us present the gospel and the revelation of
hell in a loving, relevant way to this generation. Love speaks.
New Website
At Every Home for Jesus we felt led to prepare a new website, "Is Hell for
Real?" at www.TheLakeofFire.com (The
lake of fire is part of God’s plan, and in it will be thrown death and hell and
anyone whose name is not found written in the book of life [Rev. 20].)
This website gives Biblical truths about
hell and eternal punishment, in addition to experiences of people who have died
and gone to hell and then been resuscitated, as recorded in the books by Maurice
Rawlings M.D. The good news and a message of salvation are also presented.
We will be using this website as an outreach tool to present truth and to reach
the lost. Feel free to point people to this new website
www.TheLakeofFire.com, as we labor together
to bring in the precious harvest of souls.
by Lorne & Rita Silverstein, Coordinators
Every Home For Jesus
Edmonton, Alberta
lorneandrita@shaw.ca
www.JesusChristIsLord.ca
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