There is this really strange notion that exists in Christendom that God in Christ will somehow accept nice people into His heavenly mansions, even though they don't profess any saving faith in Christ's atoning blood! As C.H. Spurgeon used to preach; "The one great sin is unbelief, they are condemned already, because they have not believed in the sacrifice of God's only begotten Son."
It is written;
The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now He commandeth all men everywhere to repent: Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead. Acts 17:30-31.
God has emphasized that He is talking about every man, woman and child alive (all men, everywhere), now as to those without the intellectual capacity to understand the Gospel message, we leave them entirely to His jurisdiction, for it is vain to speculate; Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Gen. 18:25. Recently, a friend of my wife's was very upset because her minister preached on hell one Sunday morning, to the point that the preacher's wife apologized to her afterwards for upsetting her! Now, this begs the question; why would the minister's wife apologize for him preaching the truth? Sadly, I can only believe it is because he doesn't believe what he is preaching! I think there are a lot of what we may call "clockwork preachers", that is, they preach on topics in God's written word, because they are in there, and of course it is right to do so. Sometimes in a congregation very few hearts are pricked (Acts 2:37), if any at all, they just sit there and it all just goes over their heads, as it were. Now, this is where it all starts, folk need to be pricked in their hearts on the question of repentance. The narrative reads; Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? (my emphasis) what did they hear? they heard that they had crucified the Son of God! and of course, Peter duly commanded them to repent! Granted, these men were those that the Saviour asked the Father to forgive; for they know not what they do. Luke 23:34, nevertheless, the siren call of repentance goes out to every person; For the promise is unto you , and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Acts 2:39. However, it is written that many are called, but few are chosen. Matt. 22:14, and to those who respond, let us give dilligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fail. 2 Pet. 1:10.
Although the lady in question who was upset regarding the biblical truth of eternal damnation, is a professing Christian, it is my belief that because she has an unbelieving daughter, and dotes on her, she is troubled that such a one's eternal destiny will be in hell. But, of course, there is still time for her to be pricked in her heart and repent. Now, it is only natural for a parent to love their child, but as believers we should take especial notice of our Saviour's words in Matt. 10:37; He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. This admonition is brought out more fully by our Lord in His discourse with a lawyer; Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thy shalt love thy neigbour as thyself. Matt. 22:36-39. We cannot give God what He requires of us, unless we love Him more than our fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters. For, to do so is idolatry; it is written in the Decalogue that Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Ex. 20:3; therefore to love any person more than God, is a flagrant denial of this first Commandment!
Now, I for one don't like the fact that hell is a real place where unrepentant sinners will spend eternity, nevertheless, it matters not what I like, or dislike, but what saith the Scriptures? I find it simply incredulous that many deny the reality of the existence of hell (Heb; Sheol, Gk; Hades), yet such they do. The Saviour spoke more on eternal damnation than eternal bliss, and to quote all the Scriptures here would double the size of this posting! What is this but a severe case of myopia? Some say that hell has an end, that it is not eternal, if this be so, then what of eternal bliss?
Our Lord mentions the fire that shall never be quenched five times in Mark 9.43-48! Now if God tells us something once, we should sit up and take notice, but, five times?
It is impossible to placate people regarding the Scriptural teaching of the permanent abode of the lost, nor should we attempt to, if I were to say to one such; "Have no fear! no! Jesus didn't really mean what He was saying, those words were really only directed to those nasty Jewish Pharisee types!" I should be none other than a hell deserving liar myself.
And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (Gk. unto the ages of the ages) Rev. 20:10.
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