Hell's Crucial Role in Christian Theology: A Gospel Grit Inquiry

Can the belief in hell truly ignite our desire to save souls? Join me, Taylor Windham, in a profound exploration of hell's realities and its pivotal role in Christian theology. This episode of Gospel Grit peels back the layers of misunderstanding surrounding this most formidable of topics. We venture through Scripture's stark depictions, from the weeping and gnashing of teeth in Matthew 13 to the rich man's torment in Luke 16, revealing hell not as a medieval scare tactic but as a cornerstone of Divine justice. As we unpack the implications of eternal separation from God, we grasp more deeply the urgency of our mission to share the life-saving message of the gospel.

Venturing into the sobering teachings of Jesus, we confront the uncomfortable truth that the path away from God leads to a place of unquenchable fire, as stated in Matthew 7. This episode doesn't shy away from tackling views that stray from orthodox belief—materialism, annihilationism, universalism—and why they fall short in light of scriptural evidence. Hell's existence underlines the gravity of our choices and emboldens our understanding of salvation as deliverance from sin and eternal despair. Reflecting upon our inherent purpose to glorify and serve the Creator, we are reminded that the stakes are high, not just in this life, but for eternity. Stay tuned for more Gospel Grit, where we continue to wrestle with the truths of Christianity, seeking to honor God with every difficult question we dare to ask.

If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe, follow, share the episode, like, or check us out in YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtvAv52Ldvfjf4CgYhYTZig

As always, thank you for watching Gospel Grit, where we seek to apply the Word of God, to the people of God, to the glory of God.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

All right, welcome to Gospel Grit. As always, I'm Taylor Windham. As you can tell from the thumbnail and the title of this video, this is a very serious subject video. This is a very serious subject. The concept of hell has been brought up to me recently and it gets brought up to me pretty often. I'm sure that you have heard many, many things, no matter what background or environment you come from, I'm sure that you're aware of the concept of hell. I've got four basic things I want to address and we're going to try to keep this short. I know I say that again, it's become a running joke, but I am going to try to keep this short. Basically, I've broken this down into four things I want to address. So the reality of hell, what we get wrong about hell, um, number three, objections to the doctrine, the biblical doctrine of hell, uh, as well as what believing in hell does for us, how it helps us, how it aids us in our theology and our relationship to God. So, um, the first place to start is while. None of this do we take joy from, because the reality of hell, as spoken of in the Bible in Matthew 13, luke, 16, many different places, over and over and over is undeniable. It is not something we rejoice in, and my hopes in making this video is that simply talking about this in a real and understandable way will help you guys wrestle with this because it probably does need to be wrestled with as well as the fact that it will help you hopefully greatly evangelize and put a fire underneath you and in your soul for lost people, and that we are not somehow separate from their plight as Christians. We all once walked, as we talked about in a recent video. We all once walked in their shoes. So let's just get right into it. We're going to try to apply the word of God to the people of God for the glory of God. I wrote, hell is the most austere reality, and what I mean by austere is it's the most stark and jolting reality that can potentially be thought of in the human mind. So let's talk about what makes it so unique compared to other doctrines and what makes it so terrible and terrifying.

Speaker 1: 2:46

How does the Bible describe hell? It uses different language in different books, including all four of the Gospels, primarily the Synoptic Gospels, matthew, mark and Luke. It describes it as outer darkness. Jesus uses the term Gehenna, which was a giant trash dump at his time in his day Outer darkness, where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth and the flames are never quenched and the worm never dies. This concept is a cosmic trash pile or heap. It's a dump right. Hell would be the place where the refuse of the universe goes to stay. So weeping and gnashing of teeth, fire. Jesus calls it multiple times in the Synoptic Gospels the fiery furnace again, think sort of like Daniel, daniel's friends in the lion's den in the book of Daniel Uh, and also, more importantly, of course, the fiery furnace that Nebuchadnezzar is trying to throw them in. So it's not just a place of fear, but it's also a place of intense fire and heat, but no one ever is burned up. The torturing, torture and suffering never ends.

Speaker 1: 4:06

Um, the big question and again, some of these could have their own videos but why does hell exist at all? And the simple reason that hell exists is that the people who reject God, the people who refuse His Lordship and His Savior-ship if you want to use that term of Christ, that they will not bow the knee and they never fully and finally repent, turn from their sins and believe on and into the Lord, jesus Christ, for salvation and Lordship. They absolutely need somewhere to go. The people who reject the gospel have no business being with the Lord forever. They hate Him, remember, and because they are enemies of his in a very real sense, he hates them as well. So they need somewhere to go. On a very surface level, hell exists because the people who refuse to be in heaven need somewhere to go. Why is hell eternal?

Speaker 1: 5:02

A lot could be said about this, but hell is eternal simply because the amount of sin that we commit is not why we go to hell eternally. It's who we have sinned against. So if I commit one sin against you and you are a finite being made in the image of God, of course, just like me, but that I sin against you, I have committed a finite sin against a finite person. But if I commit a sin against God which all sin ultimately is against God and in direct defiance to Him and His glory and worship that he has owed and deserved, then by doing so I am also ensuring the fact that I have violated the crown rights of the most valuable being in all of existence that ever could exist in all possible worlds, and that's God himself. So I've committed an infinite crime, particularly of worshiping myself, or not giving him his due glory in some various format of sin because he, in my opinion, was deemed not worthy, and that is a crime of high treason because he is an infinitely valuable and infinite being in nature. Again, I could go on forever about these, but let's just keep going.

Speaker 1: 6:25

Why is it good that hell exists? So that question why is it good that hell exists? I know many Christians want to shirk the doctrine of hell and they want to avoid it at all costs, in whatever ways possible. But my question is this if hell did not exist and we'll get to this at the end of the video if hell did not exist, we would have all kinds of theological conundrums, not the least of which impugning the nature and character of God. The fact that hell exists is good because it means justice will be served, and no matter what you think about that justice or on what side of that justice you are on, it is good that justice is served and it is good that God is just. And so the concept of hell existing, while it may not be good in and of itself as far as hell is not good, it is good that hell exists. Hell serves a purpose. Jesus said that hell was made for the devil and his angels. That's a direct quote from Jesus. So it's good that hell exists because God has a plan for it and everything that he does is good that he does it, regardless of how we feel about it.

Speaker 1: 7:36

What does the existence of hell say about God? I kind of touched on this a second ago. It says that he's just. It says that he really is holy. It says that no sins will go unpunished. They will either be punished by Christ on your behalf or they will be punished by you for all of eternity. Christ suffered in your place for six hours one Friday on a cross. Or you spend all of eternity trying to pay off a debt, an infinite debt committed against an infinitely valuable and worthy being, all of eternity trying to pay off something you never could pay off, or Christ paid the penalty for you for six hours on the tree on Good Friday about 2,000 years ago. That really is the question before us, ladies and gentlemen, what it says about God is that he is absolutely just. What it also says about God is that he's absolutely forgiving, loving, gracious and merciful, because of the cross. So you can't understand hell without the cross. Okay, I'll leave that there.

Speaker 1: 8:37

What does it say about sin? It says that sin is absolutely damning. It says that sin absolutely will kill you, the soul, that sins shall surely die. The reality of hell tells me in technicolor that not only is hell real and God is truly just and he's truly holy, but also that when I sin, I deserve death, and I deserve it a million billion, infinitely times over, because sin really is that bad. It also tells me I'm not necessarily distinct from my sin. I and my sin, in a very real sense, are one. It's a symbiotic relationship. What does it say about salvation? It says that to be saved is salvation not just from a spiritual reality of the bondage of sin, but ultimately from a physical and spiritual unification of reality in what we call hell.

Speaker 1: 9:28

So again, we'll go to the next one. How does it change how we see the world? Well, that's a fantastic question. Um, it changes how we see the world, because I realize time is precious and I don't have a lot of it. I realized that people really are dying every second and going into the broad, down the broad path, through the broad gate, into the broad mouth of destruction, every second of every day, and the gospel truly is their only hope.

Speaker 1: 9:55

You can call me a fundamentalist, you can call me an evangelical or Protestant or whatever term you would like to use, but ultimately, the only question that matters is do you know Christ and, more importantly, does he know you and are you going to abide with him forever? So number two, hell. A few things we get wrong about hell Misconceptions. Okay, again, this is a large overview. What we get wrong about hell the first place to start was what I wrote down is that we believe hell is for bad people. We have convinced ourselves that hell is just for people who deserve to be there. The problem is, we all deserve to be there, so there is no such thing as a good person.

Speaker 1: 10:37

Jesus, of course, said why do you call me good? To the rich young ruler, no one is good, but God alone. The implicit implication. I guess. If you want to use that double there, it would be if I'm good, it's because I'm God, and if I'm not good, it's because I'm God, and if I'm not good it's not, it's because I'm not God. So I'm either good because I'm God, or I'm God because I'm good, or I'm not, and if I'm not, I'm just like you. And why are you coming to me to ask me the question?

Speaker 1: 11:03

So hell is not for bad people.

Speaker 1: 11:05

Hell is for people. Hell is for every sinner born in Adam. Right, deservedly, rightfully, has a reserved spot, theoretically at least, in hell. So hell is not for bad people. It's for people made in God's image but who fell in Adam. And you have a spot there, friend sinner. If you don't turn to Christ, if you haven't turned to Christ, there is a spot waiting for you, unfortunately, there.

Speaker 1: 11:38

The second thing we get wrong about hell is we believe hell is separation from God. God is the judge of the earth. God is the righteous king and ruler over all things, including hell. God made hell. The devil did not make hell. He will be a prisoner there, just like the rest of his angels and all the sinners who refuse to come to Christ for salvation. So hell is not separation from God. He is the king of hell, just like he's the king of heaven, and that's actually worse than being separated from him. The third reason is we believe fire, darkness, worms are the only punishment you find there. And again, that's not true. Hell just makes you more of what you already were on earth, just like heaven and the glorification that takes place makes you more of who you already were in Christ on earth. There is far worse things in hell than simply darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth, being alone, smoke filling your nostrils, suffering in flame but never burning up, worms, lack of thirst being quenched. It's far more than that.

Speaker 1: 12:40

Fourth one is we believe that hell is a temporal sin. It's not eternal. Most of us ultimately think sometime in the future we're going to get out of hell and that's going to be our saving grace. That is not at all true. The Bible makes very clear that that's not the case and we'll talk about that on objections here in a second, a little more. Last one, as far as what I wrote down, things we get wrong about hell is that we believe almost no one goes there. The Bible makes very clear from Matthew 7, 13 and 14 that broad is the path that leads to destruction, and many there be that find it. And the narrow path is narrow path with a narrow gate that leads to life, and few there be that find it. So, again, the Bible is contradictory to these views. Now, as far as objections, you know some of these. You may even believe some of these if you're not careful. And if this is you, let me urge you, please, please, please, for the sake of your own soul and for the people you talk to and witness about when it comes to hell, and them not going there by believing in Christ, please change your view to a biblical view.

Speaker 1: 13:45

We believe in the lie of materialism when it comes to hell, which is that all that matters is matter. Right, matter is all that matters, and there is no life after death which goes back to. You know the atheistic, nihilistic worldview we believe in, and it is so influenced us even in the church, that not only are we materialistic, but we also have a big problem when it comes to thinking eternally and life beyond this life, life beyond the grave, this life, life beyond the grave. The second lie is what we call annihilationism, and annihilationism is that at some point subsequent to our death, around the final judgment or even later, that everyone will be wiped off the face of the map. Who has fallen asleep outside of Christ, meaning that anyone who is a sinner apart from Christ and was not saved will just be utterly destroyed and vaporized by the breath of God's mouth, or whatever it is they believe. They believe this is a good middle ground or compromise between eternal suffering and universalism, which is the next one. So the lie of universalism is number three, and universalism basically states that everyone at some point, whether it's now or later, will go to heaven and there will be no people who will be fully and finally lost in hell. Universalism is the opposite of the true biblical view, which is that we all actually deserve hell and most of us will unfortunately end up going there. That's the arrival spot, the final destination for most of the humans who have ever lived on this planet.

Speaker 1: 15:26

According to Jesus in Matthew 7 and plenty other times, remember, jesus talked seven times or so more about hell than he did heaven. I want to make sure that you guys are aware that Jesus very much believes in hell, and so for you to deny the existence of hell and I'm talking about the eternal state, the lake of fire would be in direct opposition to the biblical teaching laid out by Jesus and the apostles. So it's not up for debate. It's very important to be clear on that. So we've got the lie of materialism, annihilationism, we've got the lie of universalism and, lastly, good works, right Chances are.

Speaker 1: 16:03

Nine out of every 10 people on this planet believes one of these four lies about hell that either it doesn't exist, that they are going to be saved, even if they don't come to Christ, by being annihilated, so they don't suffer forever, that everyone ends up going to heaven eventually universalism or, lastly, that they'll be saved by good works and I probably would argue, the greatest majority of people that fall into one of these four heretical categories would be good works. I mean, that's all religion ever, so there's a good chance of that Now. Last category would be this hell and what it does for us by believing in it. While it's the most dreadful and horrible doctrine that we don't celebrate, we also, again, like I said at the beginning, understand that God has a good purpose for all that he does and all he creates, and so he created hell. So there it's, it's. Hell is not good, but it is good that hell exists, okay.

Speaker 1: 17:02

So by believing in hell, it means what happens here actually matters, and you don't get away with anything. You get away with nothing here. Every work, every hollow word, everything you've ever done, thought or said will be recorded, is being recorded, and you will be judged for it. Outside of Christ and inside of Christ, we will also be judged by a different judgment. Christ and inside of Christ, we will also be judged by a different judgment, but we're speaking specifically about people who don't know Christ, and it means that God is watching and justice will be served. Whether you get your justice hot and fresh in a court here, or you get it in the afterlife, or you get it both, there is going to be no such thing as escape when it comes to the afterlife in hell. So everything we do here matters, both positively and negatively.

Speaker 1: 17:53

It also means that God really is holy and just. I said this earlier. It means he really is holy and just and all will be made right in the universe. And this is what Revelation is about. This is what a lot of the New Testament is about, a lot of what Isaiah and the Psalms are about, daniel, on and on and on.

Speaker 1: 18:12

We see this theme all throughout the Old and New Testament that Christ is coming back, whether the rebels on this planet want it or not. And when he does come back, he will make everything right, everything will be put new and everything will be ordained and, in perfect harmony and unison with his decretive, will exactly what he desires to occur and happen. So I want to make sure that you understand that, that everything is going to be made right and hell points to that ultimate reality. Third, it means salvation really is being saved from sin, being saved from sin, being saved from yourself, being saved from hell and, ultimately, being saved from God himself.

Speaker 1: 18:54

Okay, and I think that's really important, god is the just and the justifier. He's the judge, he's the one who also justifies people, if you have not done so, ladies and gentlemen, but he also is the one who is pouring out the white, hot wrath of his justified holiness upon people who rebelled against him, not only in actions, words and thoughts, but also by rejecting his son, excuse me. So he is going to make everything right, and hell is a part of the process of him putting everything right in the universe. Once again, it also means that God does cast out people who refuse to do what they were created for. Jesus compared it to a dump for a reason A dump is a place you go where all the stuff inside is thrown out because it's trash. That's where you take the trash, and God's going to take broken humanity according to Romans 3, and throw the ones who stopped doing what they were created to do glorify and worship Him and throw them into the wastebend of eternity. Okay, so comment below.

Speaker 1: 20:00

Share this video. I love you guys. Thank you for joining me. This one's a lot shorter. Thanks for joining me on this channel, where we hopefully applied the word of God to the people of God, for the glory of God. See you guys, next Monday on episode 17. It's going to be about Christ alone. Looking forward to that, and I'll see you all then.