The Only Provision Under Heaven

June 11

“The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever,” Revelation 20:10.

Some people are of the firm opinion that there is no hell. They have no difficulty in subscribing to the notion of heaven where all good people will go but they cannot abide the notion of eternal punishment being meted out to those who fall short of God’s high mark.

Actually, from the Biblical vantage point, they are wrong on both counts, so the unifying factor regarding the above mentioned individuals is that they are essentially illiterate of scriptural truth.

Verses like Revelation 20:10, quoted above and others that promise heaven, such as Jesus’ words in Luke 23:43, “…today you shall be with Me in Paradise,” confirm the existence of both of these places.

Argumentation against hell may be quite persuasive to the human ear; after all, many of us know deep in our hearts that our sins demand that we be separated from a Holy God and most of us require little persuasion that we fall far short of the perfection that is a defining aspect of Heaven, so we prefer to believe that hell is a figment of a mistaken imagination.

If we think all serious seekers deserve the reward of heaven, we should reflect for a moment on just how discomfiting the Christian idea of Heaven would be to unbelievers. The terrorist, for example, who dies while blowing up defenseless people in a church could hardly be expected to welcome the notion of living forever in an idyllic paradise where angels play harps and saints discover the mysteries of the ages.

To him, the prospect of eternal harmony would be tantamount to excruciating punishment rather than to eternal reward! It is only the person who sees himself as a sinner saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8) who can cherish the promise of eternal life at the feet of the Savior.

All others prefer the prospects afforded by differing religious ideologies, such as the one that assures those who fail to please the deity that they shall have recurring opportunities to live better lives and to rise or fall on the basis of their own performance in a given life.

Certainly anyone who subscribes to the notion that destroying innocent human life is a path to great reward would be most disappointed if that reward did not include eternal virgins and limitless libation.

The only conclusion we can reach is that hell exists for those who do not receive Christ as Savior and Lord and long for His Heaven, the place where worship of the Holy God abounds forever.

What that hell entails must be left in the hands of the One who has supplied its only escape through salvation in Jesus Christ. Unless we want to discover its existence by our presence there, we must accept the “unspeakable gift” of II Corinthians 9:15, for that priceless eternal treasure is the only provision under heaven that prevents our going there.