WHERE SINNERS SPEND ETERNITY

Theme: “Sinners who do not receive Jesus Christ will be consciously tormented forever in the lake of fire that is the second death.  We do not consider it a contradiction of this point to believe that if an unborn child or a child too young to understand the concept of sin dies, he will be saved without having explicitly received Jesus Christ.”

Revelation 20:14-15:
Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.  This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

This is a sobering verse!  We have already established that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no man comes to the Father except by Him (John 14:6). In this lesson we will expound on what exactly happens to the sinner who dies without having received Jesus Christ.

Just as the church world talks about an eternity in heaven, it talks about an eternity in hell.  Both statements are fine for general conversation, but neither is theologically accurate. The unbeliever will head straight to hell when he dies, but the day will come, as shown above, that even hell will be thrown into the lake of fire which is the second death. Technically, the final “un-resting” place for the unbeliever is the lake of fire which is the second death.  He has some bad company there:

Revelation 20:10:
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.

The devil is not in hell today.  He does not have a throne in hell with a big D on it from which he orders demons around.  These images make amusing Christian videos but are not based on the Bible. He is not reigning in a fire with a pitchfork in his hand while eating deviled eggs, deviled ham and devil’s food cake. The devil is on the earth!  Why would he hang out somewhere that is only a source of eternal torment for him day and night?  The devil does not own hell.  He did not create hell. He does not want to go there even though he knows he will be sent there. God created hell as a place of torment for the devil and his angels!

Matthew 25:41:
Depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Here is where the devil is in this age:

Job 1:7:
And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?”  So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”

This exact verse is repeated in Job 2:2.

1 Peter 5:8: Be sober, be vigilant; because the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

For the unbeliever, eternal torment begins as soon as he dies.

Luke 16:23-28:
And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Then 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.” But Abraham said, “Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented.  And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass form here to you cannot, nor can those from here pass to us.” Then he said, “I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.”

Jesus warmed about the awfulness of hell:

Mark 9:43-48:
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched – where “Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.  It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched – where “Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.”  And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire – where “Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.”

Jesus does not teach that Hell is a place where you can party with your friends, smoke, drink and carouse, etc.. (The only smoking will be from your fire that isn’t quenched!) There’s nothing to do in Hell other than suffer.  It’s completely boring and completely miserable, and it never ends. Aren’t you glad Jesus shed His blood so that you don’t have to go to such an awful place that was created for torturing the devil forever?

A pastor at a church I attended a long time ago expressed his opinion, probably shared by many whose Bible scholarship is substandard, that God is loving, so He could never throw anyone into hell for eternity, and that therefore, the people in hell are just consumed after a while and just cease to exist.  But this waters down the Bible! There is never a mention in Scripture of any spirit being ceasing to exist! Also, this contradicts what the Bible does say on the subject:

2 Thessalonians 1:8-9:
…in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power…

Also, above, if you believed this preacher, you would conclude that for some people, the fire would be quenched after a while (after they burn up), but this is not true according to Jesus. Your fire is never quenched if you are an unbeliever!

There is no “second chance” for people in hell.  They never get another chance to repent and receive the Lord Jesus Christ. There is nothing to look ahead to but more boring, excruciating everlasting torment. Aren’t you glad Jesus went there in your place so that you’ll never have to see such a place?

There is one brief time when the sinner will be brought out of what we would now call hell.  That is so that he can appear before the great white throne of God to be sentenced to eternity in the lake of fire which is the second death.

Revelation 20:11-15:
Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.  And there was found no place for them.  And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.  And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things that were written in the books.  The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them.  And they were judged, each one according to his works.  Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.  And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

Please note that the believer is not judged for his sins at the Great White Throne Judgment.  The only thing that matters to the believer is that his name is written in the Book of Life. Your sins are washed away and forgotten, so there is no way they could ever be brought up again at the Great White Throne Judgement.  God is not going to embarrass you in front of the universe by putting your sins on public display. The sinner is judged for his works, because it is his works that condemn him to spend eternity in the lake of fire that is the second death.

There is a separate judgement for the believer’s works. This is known in Scripture as the Judgement Seat of Christ, sometines called the “bema seat” in the church world.  This judgement does not decide whether or not you are admitted into heaven, because that has already been decided because of your name being in the Book of Life.  At this judgement, your works are tested.  The good works survive and the bad ones are burned up.

Romans 14:10-12:
…For we must all stand before the judgement seat of Christ.  For it is written:  “As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.

1 Corinthians 3:12-15:
Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.  If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

Knowing that the sinner spends eternity suffering consciously in the lake of fire, we now come to the question about what happens to aborted babies, stillborn babies, babies who die before they can ever talk or understand, and imbeciles who grow physically but still cannot comprehend what sin is.  Do they spend eternity in hell? Many churches believe so and teach so. A woman suffers the trauma of a miscarriage, and the preacher compounds the misery by saying, “That child is now in hell because he never received Jesus Christ.”  How could he have received Christ?

We know that simply not having an opportunity to hear the gospel, in and of itself, does not excuse anyone from hell, because the sinner who has never heard the gospel in a far-off land is still accountable for that fact that those who seek find, and he could have sought God, and God would have made the means available for him to hear the gospel.

So we cannot use “no opportunity” by itself as a reason to believe that the classes of people above escape hell.

However, there is something else to consider that does not apply to the sinner in the far-off land.  A person is accountable for sin when he understands what sin is. Until that time, a person’s spirit is still “alive” to God.  We can see this in Paul’s explanation of how sin killed him:

Romans 7:7-11:
What shall we say then?  Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law.  For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, taking its opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all kinds of evil desire.  For apart from the law sin was dead.  I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.  For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.

This seems to indicate that Paul was spiritually alive until he understood was sin was, at which point he died spiritually. This must be the case if sin killed him.  You can’t kill someone who’s already dead!  Paul had to know what sin was before he could be held accountable for it.

The concept that you are born spiritually dead and on your way to hell is sometimes called the doctrine of “original sin”.  Supporters of this usually quote of Psalm 51:5:  “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” However, this does not prove (to me, anyway) that David was in sin and iniquity when he was born; to me this indicates that his mother was in sin and iniquity (like everyone else) when he was born.

There was a concept even if Jesus’ day that an unborn child could commit sin.  But Jesus never said that an unborn child had sinned.

John 9:2-3:
And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned…”

Jesus was not claiming that the boy or the father lived sinless lives; the issue was whether sin before the child was born resulted in his blindness. The answer was no. Obviously, someone believed that an unborn child could sin, but Jesus said nothing to lend credence to that belief.

So in short, Scripture seems to teach that a person is spiritually alive until he can understand what sin is.  This would exclude unborn babies, stillborn babies, young children and the severely retarded.

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