You've Been Lied to About Hell
15 Nov 2024 · 46 min
In this episode of the John Bevere Podcast, host John Bevere and his son Arden examine the doctrine of hell, arguing that mainstream culture and many churches have propagated a comforting but false view of eternity. They begin by asserting that Jesus spoke about hell more often than heaven in the Gospels, emphasizing the narrow gate to life versus the wide road to destruction. The conversation moves through a detailed biblical survey—citing Matthew 7, 2 Peter, Jude, Luke 16, Luke 12, Revelation 20, and others—to demonstrate that hell is a literal, eternal place of darkness, fire, and torment prepared originally for Satan and his demons, not for humanity. They warn that false teachers, who blend truth with error, lure unstable believers away from the narrow path, and they liken their influence to dangerous reefs that can ship‑wreck a church. Historical examples such as Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” the First Great Awakening, Charles Finney’s factory revival, and the recent Asbury Revival are presented as movements sparked by a vivid preaching of hell. Personal anecdotes—including near‑death experience testimonies, a 19th‑century criminal’s reaction to a preacher, and the author’s own youthful encounter with a cinematic depiction of hell—illustrate the terror and urgency of the message. The hosts stress that repentance, an eternal perspective, and a love‑driven evangelistic urgency are essential to avoid the “blackest darkness” reserved for false teachers and unrepentant souls. The episode concludes with a call to listeners to examine their own lives, repent, and share the gospel, promising that Jesus came to save, not condemn, and that anyone who truly believes can escape the lake of fire.
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Hell was discussed by Jesus in the four Gospels, 70 references. He talked about hell more than he talked about heaven. Now, Jesus is love walking in the flesh. Why would he do that? What's the biggest lie we see in Hollywood? We have people talk about it at all the funerals. He's in a better place. She's in a better place. Not according to what Jesus just said. These people are doomed to the blackest darkness. That's where this show is going today. Hell. Is there a real hell? Is it figurative? Is this the hell that we're experiencing on Earth, or is it an actual place? The very first thing we need to understand is that— Hey everybody, we'll get back to the episode in just a moment, but first I want to thank the patrons who make this podcast possible. I may be the one you hear, but as the Apostle Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians, the unseen parts of the body are just as important, if not more important, than the ones we see. Your support behind the scenes is critical to sharing these messages, so thank you. If this podcast has strengthened you and you're not a patron yet, we'd love for you to join the team. Your monthly contribution will help us reach more people with timeless truth, plus, you get some great insider perks, including private Q&As with me, as well as other exclusive content. To become a patron, just click the link in the show description or go to johnbevere.com/patron. Now let's get back to the show. Hey everybody, welcome to the John Bevere Podcast. I'm joined today by my son, Arden Bevere. Arden, we have something huge to talk about today, and nobody, nobody, nobody needs to be missing this because it's something we don't hear about much at all today. But here's what I want to talk about. You ready?
I'm ready.
What is the biggest lie that has been embraced by the majority of the public about eternity? What's the biggest lie about eternity? And that's what we got to talk about today, and it's important that we talk about it.
Yeah, I mean, I'm curious because obviously even with eternity, is— I think eternity is a topic when I've heard it about it, I have heard outside of you, maybe one or two preachers talk about it, like have an entire message that they talk about eternity. And I think it's interesting because obviously that's where we're all headed. Why do we not talk about it? And I think that leaves a lot of room for misconceptions or lies that maybe you believe that you just don't know there actually is truth behind it.
Talking about 2 Peter, we're walking through the book of 2 Peter. We're in chapter 2. We've been there a while. And we know that chapter 2 is talking about false teachers. And the main thing we need to understand is that false teachers slither their way in amongst God's people. Paul the Apostle said, I warned you day and night for 3 years with tears that men would come in, slither in, and bring messages that would corrupt. And then also from among yourselves, men would give messages that would corrupt. Now, God gets really, really upset when people he loves get corrupted, okay? So you don't want to be one of those who are corrupting, because Jesus said, hey, it's better, better for you that a millstone's hung around your neck and you get walked the plank, you know, like, like they did on, uh, some of the movies, Pirates of the Caribbean, and you go into the depths of the sea and be drowned than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. Now, you cause people to stumble by, by number one, number first and foremost way, by the way we live. Number two, by what we teach. And remember, false doctrine can be 95% truth but 5% error, just like rat poisoning is 95% cornmeal but only 5% arsenic. Yeah. And so that's what we're addressing today. We want people to understand the seriousness of this.
Yeah. Well, not only what you just said there is One is the words that they say, but then the way that they live. And I think that's something that's true. And that's something that goes even beyond just people of the ministers of the gospel is we as Christians, we can't take on this identity and say that we're Christians, but then continue to allow ourselves as our life, because our life is oftentimes the only Bible that people will read. So we can't say we're Christians and then going about and doing all these things because Obviously, when you have an eternal perspective, it changes the way you live. It changes the way you see things in your life, and your actions have a lot more purpose behind it.
But now wait a minute. If it changes the way you live and it changes the way you see things, but you've embraced a lie that's not even true about eternity, which is the biggest lie, and the majority of the people have embraced this lie, now you're not going to live different. So this is why I'm so passionate about today.. And I'm so, so like, I mean, I'm praying this morning. I'm like, God, please, please give me your heart to deliver this. Please not only give us your word but your heart, because we want people to hear the, the loving heart of God in what we're sharing today. So I'm going to open it up with, not with 2 Peter, but we're going to open it up with Jesus's words. These words are in red out of Matthew 7:13-14. He said, go in through the narrow gate. So get an image, everybody, of a narrow gate, because the gate to hell— this is actually his words— the gate to hell is wide, and the road that leads to it is easy, and there are many. And I go, wait a minute, there are many who travel it. The word many is the Greek word polis, Okay, it sounds like our English word police. It's polis, which means many, much of number, quantity, and amount. Okay, there are many who travel it. But now listen to the next statement. But the gate to life, and this is eternal life, is narrow. Think about the narrow gate again. The gate to life is narrow, and the way that leads to it is hard. There's no mixing words here with Jesus, okay? And there are few people who try, who find it. There are few people who find it. Now, the word few is oligos. That's the Greek word which means of quantity or amount. It means little. All right, what's the biggest lie? The biggest lie is, we see it in Hollywood, we have people talk about it at all the funerals, he's in a better place, she's in a better place. Not according to what Jesus just said. He said the road to hell is wide and the gate's wide and many, which means many in number compared to the other, are going there. So when we see all the movies that say, oh, you know, I think about the Gladiator and, and all these other things. And I'm not saying people aren't saved. I'm not being the judge. I am never, ever, ever the judge. But Hollywood depicts this image of, okay, they're resting in peace, they're in a better place. But is that really true?
Okay. And can I say something that I picked up as you were reading is it says the road that leads to it is easy. And I think about this is it's not necessarily that you look at someone who's continuing on down sin path and that their life is getting easier and easier. It's this going back to what 2 Peter was talking about in the first chapter, the disciplines. It's living a life without these disciplines that we are called to do. It's easy to go to hell in terms of what he's saying.
It's easy.
Whoa, whoa. No, sorry, that might be too bad.
Can I just capture what you just said? Yeah. You just said the most profound statement. It's easy to go to hell. Yeah. And it's difficult, it's hard to find life. Okay, now let that, that right there just changes everybody's paradigm. That is a powerful statement you just made. So why, why are we talking about this? Let's go to 2 Peter so we can kind of set it up. Peter says in verse 12, these false teachers are a disgrace and a stain among you, not outside of you, they're among you. We are told over and over again, they worm their way in, they creep in unnoticed, okay? They delight in deception even as they eat with you in your fellowship meals. This was like a small group having a fellowship meal, right? Yeah, that's exactly what these are. So don't let that bother you, all right? Their desire for sin is never satisfied. They're driven by their lust. They're driven by the sin nature of their flesh. Yeah, okay. Now listen to this. They lure. Now think about a lure. When we go fishing, what do we do?
We cast it out, right?
We tie a lure on our string, we kind of cast it out, and what are we hoping? It's going to draw the fish in, right? So they lure unstable. Unstable. What creates instability? Not being founded in the Lordship of Jesus and spending time in the word of God.
Yeah, because, because I do think this is something that we need to talk about because sometimes people think about eternity and they hear, well, the road to hell is easy and they're like, oh man, am I heading there? And that causes a great fear to them. But I like that he says specifically they lure unstable. He's making a difference between the people who are sought after Christ said, I gave, I made that decision. I gave my life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and people who are like, I mean, Christianity is nice. I kind of haven't fully given the lordship of my life to God. I still really love what the world offers. I still love partaking in those things.
That's unstable.
That's unstable.
So if you're unstable, the goal of today's show is to make you stable.
And if you're stable, it's to reinforce your stability and give you a better picture of eternity. Yes. Because we're not talking about it enough and you want to know where you're heading. You want to know some of these things. We want to talk about this because you want to live a life that is completely filled with purpose. Correct. If you live a life that you've talked to us so many times about this, living a life that is utterly focused in on eternity, you live with a different perspective. You do things that you wouldn't normally do if you were living based off of just an 80-year mindset. And so we want to see people who are stable, have that identity, have that understanding, and really chase towards that.
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It's not going to sustain you.
It's not going to sustain you. Carried about by winds, late autumn trees without fruit. Now listen, this is the statement: twice dead. We will address this in one of the next three commentaries. So I want everybody to remember, twice dead. Literally, Jude says these people are twice dead. You say, how in the world can you be twice dead? We're actually going to explain this in one of the next three podcasts whenever we get to it. Pulled up by the roots, for they bear no fruit and have been pulled up by the roots. They are like wild waves of the sea churning up foam to their shameful deeds. They are like wandering stars doomed forever to the blackness, but to the blackest darkness. All right, so we're going to talk about darkness. Hell. Is there real hell? Is it figurative? Is this the hell that we're experiencing on earth, or is it an actual place? Scripture makes it abundantly clear that it is a real place, and it is more real than the earth we're on right now, okay? Because it is where people are going to spend eternity. And any person that I know that has experienced the touch of it and then was brought back to life said their senses were more real, more alive in the sense of more sensitive in hell than they are on this earth. We'll get to that. Hell is described as darkness and fire in scripture. You say, now wait a minute, that sounds like it contradicts. God is light, and when you take God completely out of the picture, you have utter darkness. So I believe there is a fire that is absolutely black and utter darkness because there is no light outside of God. 3 things I see in scripture, okay, that are so clear: God is love, God is life, God is light. So you remove God from the situation, you have no love, you have no light, and you have no life. So this earth is actually the closest thing to heaven that unbelievers will ever experience. And this earth is also the closest thing to the reality of hell that people will ever experience if they are believers. Okay? Because in this earth, we've still got love, we still got life, we still got light. In hell, there's no love, no light, no life. Now, in listening to Billy Graham talk about this yesterday in 1983, I loved what he said. He said, no preacher should ever talk about hell without tears, without a broken heart. I literally have been kept awake at night thinking about this. And it—
go ahead. Not from a scared point, right? No.
From a thinking, how can we reach more people?
Yes. I remember having a conversation with my friend who was far away, walked away from God, and I had this conversation and I would, every single time I interacted with him, I would tell him about Jesus. And I would just be like, where are you at with things? And it got to the point where he was like, I'm honestly a little exhausted. He said, every time we have a conversation, you bring this up. And I said, well, do you understand that if I really believe what I say and really believe where I think you are going, how much would I have to hate you to not take every single opportunity that I had with you to be able to share with you the good news so that you do not end up there?. And he really took a step back and he's like, huh, like that, that means something. And I remember I heard an atheist had that similar conversation and he walked away from that conversation and someone was like, does that annoy you when he does that? He's like, no, because they believe I'm doomed to eternal damnation. And if he does not say those things to me, he's not actually believing what he's saying.
He doesn't care about my soul. He doesn't love me. You know, in the 1800s, there was a notorious criminal in England on his way to the gallows, and he was gonna be hung. And one of the very orthodox ministers was walking behind him to the gallows, reading scriptures, and one of the scriptures was on hell. And the criminal turned around, looked at him, and said, "If I really believed that, I would crawl on my hands and knees across broken glass across the country of England to tell somebody to avoid it." So in other words, that preacher's words had no convicting power. And that man who was going to the gallows turned around and mocked him.
Can I ask you this? Because I think then people have experiences with the teachers that will stand on, you know, streetsides and then they'll just yell at people saying, you're going to hell, you're going to hell, repent.
What's absent with that? Love. What? Love. You just said it. That's why I loved what Billy Graham said when I was listening to him at lunch yesterday. You should be doing it in tears. Paul said, "I warned you day and night for 3 years with tears, with tears." And I will tell you, I have literally laid in bed at night thinking, God, please give us the ability to reach more people because the very first thing we need to understand, and I will get to it in a minute, is that God didn't create hell for human beings. We'll get to it in a minute. Now, I wanna say this. Hell was discussed by Jesus in the four gospels, 70 references. He talked about hell more than he talked about heaven. Now, Jesus is love walking in the flesh. Why would he do that? Because he loves us so much, he wants to warn us. More than telling us about the bliss of heaven, he felt it was more important to warn us because we must remember God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it. He sent his Son into the world to save it. And this is what we're going to get into in just a moment. So on our part, it's actually foolish, it's unwise to avoid talking about it, yet we're not hearing about it in the Western church. And I actually came under conviction while preparing. I have written about it in Driven by Eternity, but I have not preached about it as much as I believe I should. And I think there's been a change in my heart to say, John Bevere, you cannot, you cannot avoid talking about this because we live in a culture today of it's the cancel culture, it's all of this, and it's like, tell me what I wanna hear. Ruffle my feathers. And you know what? I realize I've tried to stay accurate with truth, but I realize that sometimes that can— you get so bombarded with that cancel culture stuff and all of this, don't, don't, you know, don't do that. Don't tell me what I don't want to hear, that it can actually—
it can affect you. Yeah. You have to continue to keep recalibrating.
Yes, you do. And so I think about Jonathan Edwards. What is his most famous, famous, famous sermon ever. I mean, it's still studied today by theologians in seminaries, was Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Now you say, wait a minute, I thought God is love, how can he be angry? There is a day of wrath, and the Bible talks about the day of wrath more than it talks about a lot of things, okay? And what is it? It's a righteous wrath. And I can— you and I got to talk about this and amplify it. How can a God of love have wrath. It's very, very simple. Wrath is a result of injustice that will destroy the people he loves. And we will explain this, okay? But Jonathan Edwards preached this sermon on July 8th, 1741, in, in the city of Enfield, Connecticut. They say this one sermon was actually the spark that God used to ignite the First Great Awakening. Now, there are two great awakenings that we talk about. One, this First Great Awakening, in which all of America came to repentance and literally came to hear the message of repentance, and so many Americans turned to God. It was because of this man's sermon on hell.
Yeah, and he preached out of Deuteronomy 32 35, which says what? Vengeance is mine and retribution. In due time, their foot will stumble, for the day of their disaster is near and the impending things are hastening upon them. So that's what sparked— that's the verse that sparked this revival.
People started crying out in repentance.
Well, and then there's people that— I don't know if you saw this, but there's people in that meeting that were crying out that it would stop. And they were like, we can't take this. The fear of God came upon them. And they said, we can't take this because they were uncomfortable with their sin that they were sitting in.
It's really sobering when you stop and think about it.
Yeah, I have this written out. It says the Spirit of God broke into the meetings and then many people came under conviction. Some cried out in fear. A minister sitting on the platform pulled the preachers in and said, Mr. Edward, Mr. Edward, it is not God also a God of mercy? And Edward had to stop preaching and wait for the congregation to be quiet. He concluded the sermon and led them into prayer. And then what the accounts say is that these people came up to him afterwards and they said that they came up, they said those who remained afterwards, to talk to the preacher were not necessarily upset or afraid. In fact, people were so impressed with the cheerfulness and pleasantness of the expression on others' faces. So they're crying out like, stop, stop. It's hitting me.
He stops. But what's the fruit? Cheerfulness. Refreshing. Peter makes it so clear. That repentance leads to refreshing in the presence of God. If you look at every major move of God that has begun in America or anywhere in the world, it starts with repentance. And you know, Charles Finney would walk into a factory and a woman made a snide remark about him and the fear of God came in the factory. 3,000 employees ended up stop working. The owner shut it down. Almost, I think it was everyone gave their lives to Jesus, including the owner. I mean, it started a revival and I believe if I'm not mistaken, it was in Rochester, New York.
Let's talk recently, just really quick. Yes, the Asbury Revival.
Asbury Revival. I thought of the same thing. I'm glad you said it.
If you go listen to the sermon that was preached that started that, it was on repentance.
On repentance. Yeah. Right. Repentance is, God, your wisdom is accurate. My wisdom has been foolish. I am forsaking my wisdom. I'm embracing yours. That's repentance. Okay, number 1, I've already said it and I wanna give scripture for it. Hell was not created for mankind. Matthew 25:41-46 says, then the King will turn to those on the left. Who are the people on the left? They were the people that saw people hungry, they didn't feed them, didn't visit them in jail, didn't clothe them when they were naked, right? Didn't visit them when they were sick. He says, away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire.
Fire.
It's not a temporary fire. It's not a fire that devours and then it's done. It's an eternal fire. Now listen to this: prepared for the devil and his demons. So God originally prepared hell for the devil because the devil said, I want— you know, basically, in essence, because of his pride, said, I want nothing to do with you, God, and wants nothing to do with God. So God says, all right, I'm going to give you a place that is completely void of my presence. That is completely void of me. And this will be a place of torment.
Can I— that's a great illustration. I actually have never heard you say that, is that that's what happened. Like, that was the creation of hell, understanding it's for the demons and Satan, but that God gave them a place completely void of his presence because they rejected him. He said they rejected their desires, so he gave them a place That is what hell is. I think some people are like, well, why would God create hell like this damnation place that's burning with fire and all these things? No, he just removed himself from this place and sent the demons there. I heard a pastor recently, he said, I got on a plane, this lady asked me what I do. And he said, oh, I'm a pastor. And she was like, ah, I can't. She said, I can't serve a God who sends people to hell. And he's like, yeah, me too. And she was like, What? What do you mean? He said, God didn't create hell for people. God came, Jesus came to save people from hell. And I think that's oftentimes the common misconception that we have. And that has kept people sometimes from serving God because they're like, well, how could a God who says he is love send people to hell?
He doesn't. He gives them what they ask for. We want to be away from you. We've chosen that. And these now, but this is interesting. And these will go away to everlasting punishment. But the righteous into eternal life. Now notice he puts the word punishment in everlasting. I think the greatest punishment is the memory of what we could have had. The memory that I could have lived with the Creator of the universe, who is pure love, pure joy, pure peace, because they're going to see Him at the judgment seat. Yes, they're going to see His wrath, but they're going to realize what they walked away from. Their minds will no longer be blinded in that incident. I believe one of the greatest torments in hell, two of the greatest torments in hell, number one, the memory of what I've lost, okay, they'll never lose that, what I could have had. Number two, it will be the lust that I gave into while I was here that still burns in me, yet it can't be satisfied. In other words, I want heroin, I'm a junkie, I want drugs, I'm a junkie, but yet that lust burns harder than it's ever burned even in our natural physical body, but there's no satisfaction to it in hell. And a lot of people think that's what creates the flames of fire is lust is talked a lot about, about a burning desire, it burns, okay? But it's interesting that Jesus does say everlasting punishment. If you listen to Mark 9:48, Jesus said, "There in hell, the worms," in other translations say the maggots, "that eat them," the people, never die, and the fire that burns them is never put out. Now, maggots are what eat dead bodies, and I have studied this. If maggots don't get flesh to eat within 3 days, they're done. They no longer are maggots, and maggots eventually become flies. We know that, okay? But yeah, that's why you don't want to eat a fly. So in other words, maggots have to be able to feed on flesh to stay maggots. Now he makes the specific statement, the fire is never quenched. Never, never means never. And the maggots, or the worms that eat them, never die. Now I know a woman who Jesus took her into hell. She said, John, I had to sleep For 2 months, every single night I had to sleep with the lights on in my house. She said, there are no words to describe the torture, the torment of that place. She said, but the thing I noticed that there were literally worms eating the flesh of the people. And I'm gonna show you that you've got flesh, you've got senses in hell because Jesus himself tells us. He gives us a real account of somebody who goes to hell, and I'm gonna read this. This is Luke 16:19-31. Jesus said, "There was a certain rich man." Now, let's stop right there. This is not a parable, because never before in a story, a parable, did Jesus say, "A certain rich man." Secondly, he gives a specific name of the other person and calls him Lazarus. And thirdly, he gives a very specific name to Abraham. So this is not a parable. This is an actual account that Jesus is saying, I'm giving you a window into where many are going so that you will not fall into that trap. Jesus said, there was a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine linen, who lived each day in luxury. At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, who was covered with sores. As Lazarus laid there, longing for the scraps from the rich man's table, the dogs would come and lick his open sores. So the big sin here is not the fact that the rich man had money, it was the fact that he saw the man in need and ignored him and did nothing for him. So finally, the poor man died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. Another translation says his side. Now, this was the holding place for the Old Testament saints. Before Jesus came and paid the price, shed his blood on the mercy seat of God, and opened up the gates of heaven so that the Old Testament saints could come in. Okay. Abraham's bosom. Abraham's bosom is not a place of torment, but it is a place that is not in heaven. Okay.
Can I ask you? Yes. My guess is obviously that's kind of where the concept of purgatory came from.
I would think so. But yet it's wrong to say there's a purgatory because Jesus said he led captivity captive. So captivity is, is another word that was referred to Abraham's bosom when he led the saints out. And you know what's interesting? He led captivity captive. He did away with that. And when he was raised from the dead, you remember those people that were in the graves? The Old Testament saints came and appeared to people. That was because he hadn't yet gone to the Father. Remember he said to Mary, don't touch me, I haven't gone to the Father and put my blood on the mercy seat yet. Once he put his blood on the mercy seat of God, the tabernacle of God in heaven, Then all of a sudden, all those people that came out of the graves were able to go in. So there was a time period they couldn't go in. Yeah, they were kind of in between, right? Yeah, it's crazy when you think about it, right? But Matthew makes it clear. So the rich man also died and was buried, and he, the rich man, went to the place of the dead. There in torment— I'm going to highlight the word torment. Other translations use these words: great pain, agony, and here's the big one, anguish. So he is in agony, anguish, great pain, torment. He is not having a party in this place. He saw Abraham in the far distance. So now he has the facility to be able to see. We see his eyes. The rich man shouted. He has the ability to speak. Father Abraham, have some pity. He's desiring pity, but he's not getting it. "Send Lazarus over here to dip his finger in water and cool my tongue." So there's your sense of, right, heat and cool and everything else. Your senses are intact. And he's got a tongue, which means he's got a body of some form. He can see, he can hear, he wants to be touched, he wants his tongue to be touched. He's got some form of a body, okay? I'm not saying it's a physical body, but it's some form of a body with faculties of senses. He said, I am in anguish in these flames. All right, so I'm gonna just read from my notes. People in hell can recognize, number one, they can recognize, they have memory, right? They are very much human beings. They still have their reasoning facilities, their emotions, their will, their physical features, and their senses. But Abraham said to him, son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted and Lazarus had nothing. 'Here being comforted and you are in anguish. And besides, there is a great gulf or chasm separating us. No one can cross over to you from here,' which means people are gonna want relief in hell, but they're not gonna get it. 'And no one can cross over to us from where you're at.' So hell, we must remember, is a place of no escape forever. No one will ever come from the outside to bring any relief or comfort. It's so important that I emphasize that. Then the rich man said, please, Father Abraham, at least send him to my father's home, for I have 5 brothers and I want him to warn them so they don't end up in this place of torment. You've heard the statement misery loves company. It's not true here. Think about it. People think they're gonna have parties in hell. They think, I'm gonna have a nonstop party in hell. If that's true, he would want his 5 brothers with him, which tells us this, there is no companionship, there's no fellowship in hell, which means you're in total isolation. You're totally alone. Otherwise, he'd want his brothers there because having his brothers there would bring comfort to him. He doesn't want his brothers to end up there, which means there's no benefit to him by his brothers coming there. There's no companionship, no fellowship, okay? So it's utter loneliness. But Abraham said, Moses and the prophets have warned them. Your brothers can read what they wrote. The rich man replied, no, Father Abraham, but if someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God. But Abraham said, if they won't listen to Moses and the prophets, they won't be persuaded even if some rise from the dead. I'm going to tell you something really interesting. I have done an extensive amount of study on near-death experiences. Do you know what I've learned in my study of near-death experiences? So many doctors who didn't believe there was a God ended up getting saved because of the— because of what they witnessed of their patients that were in cardiac arrest or something else going to hell and coming back. Okay, now One of the doctors who ended up getting saved said, I've seen this so much, I wanna start doing a study on it. So he started interviewing patients usually 2 weeks, 3 weeks after the incident occurred. And on the table, they're screaming, please, please get me outta here. I can't handle this. This is horrible. Doctor, save me. They're screaming on the table in between the times when they're being resuscitated. The doctor interviews them 3 weeks later and they totally forget it. They have no memory of it. There's a doctor that actually reported, he said like over 70%, I think it was, that was the figure, it was high, have no recollection. And the doctor will look at him and say, but you were screaming, get me out of here, please pray for me, doctor. And they go, what are you talking about? So, Isn't this interesting? If they won't listen to the word of God, they're not gonna listen to a supernatural experience. I remember when I was a young man, I was a really good sinner, Arden. I wasn't like you. I was pretty good sinner, okay? That was my nature and I did it well. My dad takes me to the movie Charlton Heston, "The Ten Commandments." Oh my gosh, in that movie, you gotta remember, we didn't have, the CG capabilities we got today. In that movie, I will never forget hell opening up and swallowing Dathan and his followers alive. And that image on that screen, I left that place repenting like crazy. And you know what? My life was changed for one week. And one week later, I'm back to living the same way I was living. Because why? I didn't have the grace of God yet that changed my nature. I still was a sinner. And as soon as that memory— that memory was gone quick. And I thought, I will never ever sin again. I will try my best to never sin again. I was so repentant, but yet I wasn't changed. So what Moses is saying is true. It takes the word of God to change a human being. All right, now let me just say this. Hell is the holding place until the final judgment. Then comes what the Bible calls the Lake of Fire. This is Revelation 20:11. And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God's throne, and the books were open. Now listen to the word books, plural. Including the Book of Life. So there's all these books, and then there's this big book called the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to by, by what they had done as recorded in the books, which tells me that there are books for each of our lives being recorded of all the things we do in this life— our motives, our intentions, our words, our deeds, everything. Everything's being recorded because we're going to be judged by our deeds that were recorded in these books. So as recorded in the books, hell, death, and the grave gave up the dead. Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire. And in verse 10 of chapter 20, it says, there they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever. There are some people that think that people get annihilated in hell. In other words, they're done. They cease to exist. It's not true. We're eternal beings. We were created in God's image. We will live forever and ever and ever. The question is, will we live united with God in utter bliss, peace, joy, and creativity in building galaxies? Or are we going to exist in total darkness, total absence of love, total torment in the lake of fire, which is actually a dark lake, I believe with all my heart. In Revelation 21:8, we read, "But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars, their fate is the fiery lake of burning sulfur." Sulfur is one sense of smell that your sense, your sense of smell can't get used to. Yeah, it's interesting. It's the only one.
Yeah, it doesn't just go away. I mean, when you're saying all this, Dad, it's just, it's sobering because you don't hear these things talked about, as we said in the beginning, and you're hearing all this stuff and, and hearing that you're going from hell to a lake of fire, what it is, the internal torment. It's just like, it's hard to hear that. And it's hard to think that there is like, I understand what you're saying if you're staying awake and crying out for this, because this is, this is so sobering. And I know I've read these scriptures, I've gone through it, but just hearing about it again, it's just, man, us as Christians, we can't take things for granted. We can't allow people just to continue to keep going this way. Without seeing something change.
Can I add another perspective? Mm-hmm. Okay, God made a decision. He said, I'm gonna give people free wills. Yeah. I will not violate their will. If they don't want me, I can't force myself on them, because if I do, then they'll bring their sin nature into my eternal kingdom, and I can't have that. Okay, so this is how important it is to God. Our Creator actually says, I'm going to take on a body, so we can't even imagine what he left. Left. Can't even imagine. People in heaven can know what he left. We can't. We can only imagine. He comes in knowing that he's going to be despised. He's going to be rejected. He's going to be lied about. He's going to be mocked. He's going to be insulted. He's going to be spit on. They're going to blindfold him, punch him. They're going to shove thorns in his head. They're going to whip him 40 lashes. And by the time they're done with him, when they get him to the cross and nail nails into his hands, he's going to allow them to put nails in his hands. He won't even look like a human being any longer. Okay, our Creator says, this is this serious, hell, which was created for devil and his angels. I'm gonna come endure all of this so that the people I love, which is the world, for God so loved the world, I don't care who you are, what you've done, what you've done, listen to me, I don't care if you're in witchcraft, I don't care if you're a Satanist, there's still time for you to repent. Because your Creator, listen, Satan never did anything for you. I know I'm talking to a Satanist right now. He never did anything for you, nothing. Oh, he gives me what I want. What you want is actually what is killing you. Here's your Creator who comes and goes through all this suffering because He loves you so deeply. He doesn't want you to end up in that place that was prepared for Satan. So you choose, choose now. I've seen so many witches, so many warlocks come into the kingdom of God. I'm telling you, I'm talking to you right now. You're not in this too deep. Don't you ever let that excuse go through your head. I'm in it too deep. I've gone too far. I don't care if you've killed, if you've murdered your children through abortion. I don't care what you've done, how sexually perverted you've been. I don't care if you tried to change your gender, which God created the male and female, not man. So man can't change gender. Listen, I don't care what you've done. You know deep inside your Creator loves you, and this is it. He loves you, and he loves you so much he went through all of this so you would never You do not have to go to this place. Please, all you have to do is say right now, Jesus, I repent. I have done— I have been so silly. I have been so ignorant, so stupid. Please forgive me. And Jesus, I receive you into my life. Change me now. And I receive you as my Lord and my master. I'm no longer living for myself. I'm going to live for you because you love me and you gave yourself for me. Man, I just feel like somebody Wow, I feel this so strong right now. Yes, that's the presence of God that's on you right now. Yes, that's it. Okay, just enjoy that as we continue this, okay? Because we got to continue this. We've got a few more things to talk about. Man, Arden, something's happening right now in so many people, and it's so wonderful. Okay, now we got to go back to what Peter said. I know this seems so anticlimactic now, but I wanna finish this for those who are mature in the faith and they wanna understand this. Jude and Peter said the blackness, the blackest darkness is reserved for these false teachers. Okay, yikes.
Which Job talks about this, or God tells Job about it.
Yeah, he does.
He said, do you know where darkness resides? Which was, he was talking about black matter basically in the darkest place. Yeah, so it's talked about multiple times.
Jesus tells a parable in Luke 12. He said, if the master returns and finds that servant— I want you to listen to the word servant, not heathen, not outsider— servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. I will tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all that he owns. Wow, what a reward for the people that give their lives to Jesus Christ. Verse 45, but what if that servant thinks, my master won't be back for a while, and he begins to beat other servants, partying and getting drunk? So here's a guy who's living for himself. This is the false teachers. The master will return unannounced and unexpected, and he will cut the servant, not the heathen, the servant, in pieces. Remember, these people went off the right road. They wandered off like Balaam wandered off, right? He will cut the servant into pieces and banish him with the unfaithful. Verse 47, and a servant who knows what the master wants, but isn't prepared and doesn't carry out those instructions, now listen to this, Arden, will be severely punished. But someone who does not know, this would be the total, heathen, that somebody didn't share with them the good news of the gospel. This will be the person that, even though God reveals himself, because the Bible says there's every human being on this planet is without excuse because God reveals himself in the creation, his glory is revealed in the heavens, okay? But, but someone who does not know and then does something wrong will be punished only lightly. So you can see two different levels. One's being severely punished, one's being lightly punished, okay? The blackest darkness is a more severe punishment. How do I know this? Because in Luke 20:47, Jesus says about the false teachers of his day, verse 47, these will receive greater condemnation. So there's levels, there's levels obviously of the lake of fire and hell. Matthew 23:15, for you travel— this is what he said to the false teachers— for you travel land and sea to win one convert. And when he is one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you yourselves. So we can see these false teachers, what they're doing is they're actually influencing people to even become more degraded, depraved in their sin than even they are because of what they're communicating. That's really, really sobering. So in conclusion, False teachers will end up getting the worst punishment of hell and the lake of fire because they knew the master's will, but they chose to live a life that caused others pain and suffering, and they misled the little ones. What do I mean by misled the little ones? Jesus said to his disciples, things that make people fall into sin are bound to happen, but how terrible for the one who makes them happen. It would be better for him that a large millstone stone were tied around his neck and he were thrown into the depth of the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. So watch what you do. Not watch what you teach only, watch what you do. This is very sobering, but here's the great news. Any human being listening to us right now can escape this place of judgment, and Jesus paid a very high price so that you could escape, you could spend eternity with your Creator. He didn't come to condemn us, He came to save us. And so I just wanna leave it at that. I know many of you prayed just a minute ago. Let us know, let us know, reach out to us and tell us how you gave your life to Jesus 'cause we wanna rejoice with you, we wanna welcome you into the family of God. We love you. Until next time, we're gonna continue 2 Peter chapter 2 'cause it's even gonna get more interesting in the next couple. We will see you then.