The execution
of Timothy McVeigh on June 11, 2001 stirred up an unusually high interest in
the afterlife and hell. For example, my next door neighbor came over recently
and asked me if I thought that Mr. McVeigh was in hell. I responded that I
feared that he was, based on comments reportedly made by him shortly before his
execution. My neighbor went on to comment that if anyone deserved hell, it was
Timothy McVeigh. I responded that he was quite correct in saying that Mr.
McVeigh deserved to go to hell, but I rather shocked him when I added that in
actuality we all deserve to go to hell. That opened the door for me to
go through the gospel with my neighbor once again. My neighbor believes in hell
but does not yet grasp the vast scope of those who are deserving of it, namely,
the whole human race (Rom. 5:12-21; 6:23; Heb. 9:27,28).
What Did Timothy McVeigh
Believe About Hell?
Here are
Timothy McVeigh’s own thoughts about hell, as reported in The Baltimore Sun
on June 10, 2001:“McVeigh insisted that he has no fear of his execution. An
agnostic, he said he will ‘improvise, adapt, and overcome’ if it turns out that
there is an afterlife. ‘If I am going to hell,’ he wrote, ‘I’m gonna have a lot
of company.’” Timothy McVeigh wasn’t sure about the existence of hell, but
assumed that he wouldn’t make out too badly if there was a hell. It is a fairly
common notion—at least wishful thinking—that one will have lots of company in
hell and that hell will be a rather pleasant place, perhaps even a scene where
people can satisfy all of their fleshly lusts without worrying about being
arrested or made to feel guilty by a fundamentalist Christian.
What Do Others Believe
About Hell?
Letters to the
editor concerning Timothy McVeigh’s execution were no more enlightened, as
exemplified by this one in The Baltimore Sun:“I truly believe that the
worst punishment for someone such as Timothy McVeigh would have been a sentence
of solitary confinement with no contact with the outside world…. Dying is
only a needle stick to sleep—some punishment!” This letter is typical of the
belief of many people that hell (or heaven) is what people make of their lives
here on earth, and that there is nothing further beyond death.
While searching
the Internet for other ideas people have about hell, I found a web site devoted
to trying to prove in great detail, in a very scholarly—but misguided—way, that
the notion of eternal judgment in the lake of fire is not found in Scripture
and that everyone will end up in heaven.
What Does the Bible Say
About
Hell and Eternal Judgment?
“He shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:whose fan is in His
hand, and He will throughly purge his floor, and gather His wheat into the
garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt. 3:11,12).
“Enter in at
the strait gate:for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to
destruction, and many there be who go in thereat; because strait is the gate
and narrow is the way that leads unto life, and few there be that find it”
(Matt. 7:13,14).
“Many shall
come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and
Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast
out into outer darkness:there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt.
8:11,12; Luke 13:28).
“Fear not those
who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who
is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28).
“And His
disciples came unto Him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of
the field. He answered and said unto them … As therefore the tares are
gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. The
Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His
kingdom all things that offend, and those who do iniquity; and shall cast them
into a furnace of fire:there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matt.
13:36-42).
“And when the
king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who had not on a wedding
garment; and he said unto him, Friend, how do you come in here not having a
wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants,
Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness;
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 22:11-13).
“His lord
answered and said unto him, … Cast the unprofitable servant into outer
darkness:there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 25:26-30).
“Then shall the
King say unto those on His right hand, Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…. Then shall He
say also unto those on the left hand, Depart from Me, you cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels…. And these shall go
away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal” (Matt.
25:32-46).
“If your hand
offend you, cut it off…. And if your foot offend you, cut it off…. And if
your eye offend you, pluck it out:it is better for you to enter into the
kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire:
where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:43-48; also
Matt. 5:29,30; 18:8,9).
“There was a
certain rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared
sumptuously every day; and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, who was
laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that
fell from the rich man’s table:moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into
Abraham’s bosom; the rich man also died and was buried. And in hell he lifted
up his eyes, being in torments, and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his
bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send
Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for
I am tormented in this flame” (Luke 16:19-24).
“He who
believes on the Son has everlasting life; and he who believes not the Son shall
not see life, but the wrath of God abides on Him” (John 3:36).
“Marvel not at
this:for the hour is coming in the which all who are in the graves shall hear
His voice, and shall come forth; those who have done good, unto the
resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, unto the resurrection of
damnation” (John 5:28,29).
“God … will
render to every man according to his deeds:to those who by patient continuance
in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality—eternal life; but unto
those who are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—
indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish” (Rom. 2:5-9).
“Don’t you know
that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived:
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers
of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9,10;
Gal. 5:19-21).
“No
whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater has any
inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God…. Because of these things
comes the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience” (Eph. 5:5,6).
“The Lord Jesus
shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking
vengeance on those who know not God, and who obey not the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ:who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the
presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power” (2 Thess. 1:7-9).
“Whosoever
hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life
abiding in him” (1 John 3:14).
“If any man
worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead or in his
hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out
without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with
fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of
the Lamb:and the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever:and they
have no rest day nor night who worship the beast and his image and whosoever
receives the mark of his name” (Rev. 14:9-11).
“And the beast
was taken, and with him the false prophet who wrought miracles before him, with
which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast, and those who
worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning
with brimstone” (Rev. 19:20).
“And the devil
who 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” (Rev. 20:10).
“Death and hell
were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was
not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev.
20:14,15).
“But the
fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and
sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake that
burns with fire and brimstone:which is the second death” (Rev. 21:8).
What an
extensive, powerful testimony is given to us in the Scriptures concerning the
horrors of eternal judgment for those who reject God’s way of salvation through
the sufferings, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ for our sins!
I have heard people accuse the Apostle Paul of promoting “those awful teachings
about hell-fire.” A man who did not believe in hell wrote to me that he lived
by the words of a loving Jesus rather than by His revenge-loving
misinterpreters. But if we look carefully at the references to hell and eternal
judgment of the wicked given above, what do we find? Out of a total of 25
references, 13 are to words spoken directly by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
and five more are from the Book that calls itself “the Revelation of Jesus
Christ”! (Rev. 1:1,2,5). Only five are from Paul’s epistles.
What Do YOU Believe About
Hell?
Let me now
address the readers of Words of Truth, most of whom, doubtless are true
believers in Christ and students of the Word of God:Do you—and do I—really
believe in hell? No doubt we hold Biblically correct doctrines concerning hell.
But do we really believe that hell is terrible, hell is eternal, and
thousands of people around us are doomed to spend eternity there? Have we ever
had an insight into what it would be like to spend eternity in the
blackness of darkness, completely separated from all one’s friends (contrary to
the beliefs of Timothy McVeigh and thousands others), separated from God, and
from all light and all love?
It is rather
ironic that the sects that claim that there is no hell (for example, the
Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Mormons, and the Seventh-Day Adventists) are extremely
active in evangelism, while many people who hold all the right doctrines seem
content to let men and women go on to hell, since they make little or no effort
to change the course of the unconverted.
We must have
compassion on the lost. Where are the “weeping prophets” or “weeping preachers”
or “prayer warriors” for whom the thought of men and women in hell is so
terrible that they will cry to God for the souls of the lost? Let us confess
and judge our complacency. Let us pray for power to overcome inertia, fear,
self-indulgence, and whatever else is holding us back from telling to all we
can their frightful danger.
If we really
believe in hell, let us act as if we believed. Proper doctrine without love,
compassion, and action is a cold, useless thing, as offensive to God as to the
world.