When you think of hell, maybe an evil, red Satan with horns and a pitchfork comes to mind. This little guy supposedly scares little children with his evil laugh and lives in a dark pit of fire. Critics see this depiction as the Church’s view of post-mortem punishment, which leads us to wonder: what do we believe?
While on earth, Jesus transformed the society’s perception of everyday life. He brought a deep love that led Him to die on the cross, and after three days in a tomb, He miraculously came back to life. This resurrection brings eternal salvation and covers every sin. We know this for a fact, since the Bible clearly outlines this progression (John 19:1-20). But what did Jesus save us from?
The answer: hell, or eternal separation from God. Several passages support the existence of such a place, one of which being Matthew 25:31-46. Jesus explains that after His second coming He will separate the nations. To those that ministered to Him in His need, He will accept into “the kingdom prepared for [them] from the foundation for the world,” but all others will be thrown into the “everlasting fire prepared for the devil and all of his angels” (Matthew 25:34,41, NKJV). Later, Jesus reaffirms this fact by stating, “and these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46, NKJV). You might wonder what constitutes the wicked versus the righteous. One of several definitions of the Hebrew word for wicked is “guilty of sin (against God or man)."* If that’s the case, all of us are wicked, but God made “Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21, NKJV). Jesus puts a strong emphasis on the separation of the righteous from the evil. In essence, all followers of Satan will follow him straight into eternal punishment, for "God is light and in Him is no darkness" (1 John 1:5, NKJV). In the New Jerusalem, God will reign as such a bright light, that Revelation tells us, “the city [will have] no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God [will illuminate] it. The Lamb is the light.” It later mentions, “But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life” (Revelation 21:23,27, NKJV). Therefore, those who reject God will pay eternal punishment for their sins.
God is the light, and His truth illuminates the straight and narrow path to salvation. The moment we accept His truth, our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and we begin our journey towards an eternity spent with our Saviour. But what do we believe about hell? In a nutshell, “the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psalms 9:17, NKJV). No, Satan is probably not red with horns and a pitchfork, but he exists and willingly leads any gullible follower into a life of eternal punishment and misery. While this truth may be difficult to swallow, it should produce within us two positive actions: first, we praise God for His saving grace, and secondly, we urgently proclaim the redemptive message of God's sacrifice.
*http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H7563&t=NKJV
