The material is arranged under the following broad headings:

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• • Was Jesus Exaggerating?

    One of the commonest arguments against the idea that Jesus was really serious about the possibility of hell is to point out that Jewish rabbis would frequently illustrate and emphasize a point by deliberately using extreme, hypothetical examples that were not meant to be taken literally. Jesus also sometimes did this to make certain points more memorable. So the issue we need to resolve is what key points Jesus is making about the severity of God’s final judgments against evil. Seen from that viewpoint, it becomes clear that Jesus’ primary message is that to face God’s condemnation is a fate worse than death — to be avoided at all costs!

    However, on examining the actual words that Jesus uses to describe God’s punishments, it can be observed that his emphasis is more upon the inescapable mental agony of the condemned than their physical pain. To that extent it is possible to argue that the more gruesome interpretations of such passages owe more to the exaggerations of later expositors than Jesus himself.

  • What Do We Know So Far?

    Before moving on to consider the teaching on this subject elsewhere in the New Testament, it would be helpful to summarize what we can definitely say on the basis of Jesus’ own teaching.

    • We will be repaid for our deeds — good or bad
    • The standard looks impossibly high
    • Most will be ‘destroyed’?
    • Jesus is the Only Way
    • Conversion possible even at death’s door
    • Jesus is going away
    • Jesus will return as King
    • He will return as Judge

     

    But the question that should really concern us is, “How do I know if I am a real Christian?“

  • The Struggle to Understand

    We have now considered Jesus’ teachings, to see if his words have been translated correctly, and what allowances may reasonably be made for deliberate exaggeration on Jesus’ part or misunderstanding on ours. But what really terrifies us is the possibility of a punishment that will never end.

    But Jesus has clearly warned us that there is an eternal fire, “prepared for the Devil and His angels” into which all those He rejects will be thrown. And he tells us that it will be a place of bitter, conscious regret. But does that suffering last forever? According to Revelation 14:9-11 it can. But the only class of humans for whom eternal suffering is explicitly declared are those who have knowingly chosen to align their wills with ‘the beast’ against God.

    But it seems that some kind of residue will always remain, as a permanent memorial to the awful destructiveness of evil and the tragic waste of lives that Jesus had suffered to save.

Read on …