The Curse: WTH?

A couple of months ago while I was in Colorado I logged onto my Facebook account and had a good laugh. While I was in Colorado enjoying the warm spring-like weather and low humidity, my friends back in Georgia were caught in an ice storm and even an earthquake and aftershocks. Yes, things got pretty crazy. I can honestly say that there are no DOUBTS in my mind about making a move back to Colorado.

Although I enjoyed the irony of me being warm and comfortable in Colorado and my friends being cold and miserable in Georgia, I was disturbed by the comments many of them posted on Facebook: “It’s cold as Hell”, “All Hell is breaking loose in the South?”, “Who ticked mother nature off, she’s mad as Hell?” As I sat in my hotel room reading the posts, I had a sinking feeling in my heart. We really don’t get it, most people have no idea how bad and miserable Hell is. And that is what this Easter blog will be about, Hell.

SERIOUSLY?

I’m sure many of you are thinking, “It’s just a figure of speech.” Let me be LOUD AND CLEAR, no it’s not! Hell is a very real place, just like heaven. However, as I’ve stated before we really don’t take heaven serious either! Our language and figures of speech reveal much about our hearts (Matthew 15:18), this is why I’m terrified when I hear Christians say things like, “OMG!” Do they not take God SERIOUSLY? I think somebody hit the CRAY BUTTON.

Not only did the early disciples and Jesus take God seriously enough to die for Him. The Master and His students took the subject of Hell or Hades very seriously because they knew that it is every bit as real and eternal as heaven. In our finite minds we think of Hell as something like getting stranded on a desert isle for a little while. Or perhaps you may feel that the recent climate change is a picture of Hell, we could only wish.

Now that WINTER is over and spring has arrived, many Southerners believe it gets hot as Hell. Perhaps this is why Charlie Daniels sang, “THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA.” We do this, because we know it’s a place no one wants to ever be, perhaps this is why I’ve often said, “I feel like I’m in Hell when I come back to Georgia.” Now I understand better, Georgia isn’t a photograph of Hell, not even with all of the painful memories here. Most of us can’t imagine how bad or hot Hell will really be. Hell is so much more than just being uncomfortable.

In his new book Jesus In the 9 to 5 Dennis Hensley writes, “The worker lifted his hand to his face, then smiled. ‘Much obliged. It hurt like h–‘ ‘No,’ Jesus quickly interrupted. ‘it didn’t. But I know it was uncomfortable. Wear your protective eye wear from now on.” Again, Hell isn’t like being stuck in Hell’s Kitchen cooking with Gordon Ramsay for an hour—it’s for the rest of eternity—that’s pretty serious. Perhaps we believe that if we survive trials in this life, Hell won’t be so bad —what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger! However, being strong in this life doesn’t mean you escape God’s judgment.

JUDGEMENT?

It’s an eternal place of judgment originally created for God’s once greatest creation, the bright morning star—Lucifer (a.k.a. Satan) and his rebellious followers. It’s a place where the wicked go when God gets sick of it all. Most people think of hell being at the center of the earth. Temperatures there can reach 11,000°F—which makes Georgia, Death Valley, California and ARGENTINA seem like a winter wonderland. We can’t start a fire hot enough in our lives to compare to the horror of Hell. It’s highly possible that the earth’s core is radioactive.

With that in mind, we can understand how human bodies can remain in hell and never burn up, yet be ON FIRE. It’s like a microwave that heats up every ounce of moisture to cook you for all eternity. Definitely a place of eternal torment like Jesus described in His parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31). Here we see that the rich man is in agony while in hell and he cries out to Abraham in heaven for help, he requests one drop of water to quench his thirst.

This implies that the man has a body and is not just a spirit or soul that is in hell, it’s not some spiritual NEVERLAND. Abraham replies that there is a great chasm between heaven and Hell, it’s deeper than the deepest ocean and no one can cross back over this barrier, there’s no lighthouse in Hell. This was part of God casting the devil and his demons out of heaven for good.

If Hell was originally created for Satan and his demons, then we can safely say that Hell was originally good for the universe, until the curse and sin resulted in the human race being condemned to hell. Mark Galli explains in his book God Wins, “The idea of God as ‘Judge of all the earth’ appears early in the Bible (Genesis 18:25). God ‘will judge the world with justice and rule the nations with fairness’ (Psalm 9:8). His judgment includes both punishment for the wicked and reward for the faithful (Isaiah 61:8).”

Hence, the importance of the good news—you can’t justify how good heaven is without explaining how bad hell is. In a recent episode of Grey’s Anatomy, a Christian character was confronted by her pro-choice mother-n-law about Hell. The Christian character replied that it’s not up to her to decide who is going to Hell. The majority believes that Christians should keep the peace and make everyone feel good. AFTER ALL, God is a God of love, a God who gives us all we want. Please hear my heart, if you really love somebody, you’ll tell them the truth and not just blow smoke in their face, that’s not how to save a life.

The truth is we’re all BORN BAD with a sin nature and if left just the way we are, we’re destined for Hell. Even if we give it ALL WE GOT, we can’t earn our way to Heaven. As the curse continues to wreak havoc on this world, everyone has high hopes of going to heaven. Recently, one of the major networks launched a new series about life after death and the possibility of second chances. Without Jesus and the good news, billions of people will be CAUGHT DREAMING in hell for all eternity Rev. Billy Graham once stated, "When we are called before God and His throne of judgment, it will be too late to reverse our decision. It is during our lifetime here on earth that we decide our eternal destiny." We don’t get to start over after death, but Christiansaren’t going to die.

This is why the fleeting moments of pleasure in this life aren’t worth the eternal consequences of hell. This is why the apostle Paul warned the church of Corinth that “It is better to marry than to burn (1 Corinthians 7:9).” If you’ve ever had someone tell you, “I BURN FOR YOU,” you know how tempting the momentary pleasure can be—while sex is a good thing within the confines of marriage, outside of marriage it burns everything in its path like a raging fire—another consequence of the curse.

The poet Alexander Pope wisely wrote, “Pleasure is our greatest evil or our greatest good.” As I close his blog, I hope you can see the importance of the Easter season, when Jesus conquered death and rose from the grave overcoming Hell in the process, what SACRED LOVE it is, it’s amazing grace that we’ve been redeemed and have become the UNDEFEATED. The world has never known love like this.

Although Jesus bearing the cross and the curse was bad and painful for Him, it became a blessing for all who would believe and follow Him—that’s the only DIFFERENCE MAKER between the church and the world. C. S. Lewis notes in his book The Great Divorce, “If we insist on keeping Hell (or even Earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell.”