The death of the godless
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the godless.
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Ken Paynter |
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Warren Paynter |
By the sweat of your brow you will
eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for
dust you are and to dust you will return. (Gen 3:19)
Why, you do not even know what will
happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little
while and then vanishes. (James 4:14)
Once the game is over, the king and
the pawn go back into the same box. (Italian Proverb)
Inscribed
on a tombstone in a cemetery in
“REMEMBER MAN, AS YOU WALK BY
AS YOU ARE NOW, SO ONCE WAS I,
AS I AM NOW, SO SHALL YOU BE,
REMEMBER THIS AND FOLLOW ME.”
To which
someone replied by writing on the tombstone:
“TO FOLLOW YOU I’LL NOT CONSENT,
UNTIL I KNOW WHICH WAY YOU WENT.” [1]
Toward the
end of the 19th century, Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel awoke one
morning to read his own obituary in the local newspaper: “Alfred Nobel, the
inventor of dynamite, who died yesterday, devised a way for more people to be
killed in a war than ever before, and he died a very rich man.” There was only
one problem, Alfred Nobel had not died. Actually, it was his older brother who
had died, but a newspaper reporter had somehow gotten it wrong. Regardless of
how it happened, the account had a profound effect on Alfred Nobel. He decided
he wanted to be known for something other than developing the means to kill
people efficiently and for amassing a fortune in the process. So he initiated
the Nobel Peace Prize, the award for scientists and writers who foster peace.
Nobel said, “Every man ought to have the chance to correct his epitaph in
midstream and write a new one.” [2]
There was a
rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every
day.
At his gate
was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what
fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
The time
came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The
rich man also died and was buried.
In hell
(Hades), where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with
Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and
send Lazarus to dip the tip of his
finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
But Abraham
replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things,
while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in
agony.’
‘And
besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that
those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from
there to us.’
He
answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I
have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this
place of torment.’
Abraham
replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
‘No, father
Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will
repent.’
He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not
be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’
Some who
are uncomfortable with the message of this story will say that it is a parable.
However:
Jesus never used names (like
“Lazarus”) in parables.
Parables teach a spiritual truth by
means of using an earthly truth e.g. Jesus would communicate spiritual
principles by using stories that people could relate to about shepherds,
farmers, fishermen, masters & servants etc. This is clearly not a story
about a physical earthly event that anybody could relate to.
So Jesus is
teaching us that hell is a place where there is consciousness (i.e. no ‘soul
sleep’ or annihilation)
Jesus
taught that the rich man:
Could see – he saw Abraham &
Lazarus
Could speak – he called out to
Abraham
Could hear - heard Abraham’s reply
Could feel – he was in agony
Certainly then could smell (if all
his other senses were present)
He could
remember. He recognized Lazarus and remembered that he had a father and
brothers.
Luke 16:27-28 He answered, ‘… send
Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers.
Abraham
also appealed to his memory of a misspent life.
Luke 7:25 But Abraham replied, ‘Son,
remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus
received bad things…’
THE MEMORY
WILL BE THERE FOR ETERNITY. REMEMBERING ALL THE LOST OPPORTUNITIES WILL ADD TO
THE SUFFERING.
He could
reason – he wanted to warn his brothers.
Luke 16:27-28 He answered, ‘Then I
beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers.
Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
Abraham made it clear that we need
to heed the Law and the Prophets (i.e. the Bible) if we don’t wish to have a
similar fate.
Luke 16:29-31 Abraham replied, ‘They
have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they
will repent.’
He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not
be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’
Interestingly
we see the truth of what Abraham said in the life of another man called
Lazarus. He was allowed to come back from the dead and the chief priests (i.e.
the Sadducees who didn’t believe in the resurrection) were not swayed to change
their beliefs – rather they wanted to kill both him and Jesus.
John 12:9-11 Meanwhile a large crowd
of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but
also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests
made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were
going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him.
SO WHAT
DOES THE BIBLE TEACH ABOUT HELL?
Luke 16:23-28 In hell, where he was
in torment… ‘I am in agony in this fire… Let him warn them, so that they will
not also come to this place of torment.’
Legion shouted to Jesus: “What do
you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before the
appointed time?” (Matt 8:29)
THE TARES:
They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. (Matt 13:42)
THE MAN WITHOUT WEDDING GARMENTS: Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him
hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Matt 22:13)
THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT: He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites,
where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matt 24:51)
THE WICKED LAZY SERVANT: And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there
will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matt 25:30)
2 Thess 1:9-10 They will be punished
with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and
from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy
people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed.
Luke 16:24 So he called to him,
‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger
in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
Mark 9:43-48 If your hand causes you
to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two
hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out… It is better for you to
enter the
Rev 9:2 When he opened the Abyss,
smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were
darkened by the smoke from the Abyss.
Rev 20:10 And the devil, who
deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur…
Matt 25:30 And throw that worthless
servant outside, into the darkness…
2 Pet 2:17 These men are springs
without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for
them.
SO HELL IS
There is no
second chance to change your mind about serving God after you die.
Luke 19:26 ‘And besides all this,
between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go
from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
Rev 20:14 Then death and Hades were
thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.
Heb 9:27 Just as man is destined to
die once, and after that to face judgment…
Matt 25:41-46 Then he will say to
those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels.’ …Then they will go away to eternal
punishment…
Mark 9:43 … hell, where the fire
never goes out.
Jude 7 They serve as an example of
those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
Rev 20:10 And the devil, who
deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and
the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for
ever and ever.
Rev 14:11 And the smoke of their
torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who
worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his
name.
Daniel 12:2 Multitudes who sleep in
the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and
everlasting contempt.
2 Thess 1:9 They will be punished
with everlasting destruction…
Luke 12:4-5 I tell you, my friends,
do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But
I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the
body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.
Heb 10:26-31 If we deliberately keep
on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for
sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire
that will consume the enemies of God… For we know him who said, “It is mine to
avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a
dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
John 3:36 … whoever rejects the Son
will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.
We all now
that the Bible says that:
1 John 4:16 God is love…
But it also
says that:
2 Thess 1:6-8 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and
give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when
the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful
angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of
our Lord Jesus.
Jude 14-15 Enoch, the seventh from
Adam, prophesied about these men: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon
thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of
all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh
words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
Chuck
Colson says, “In a sense, the concept of hell gives meaning to our lives. It
tells us that the moral choices we make day by day have eternal significance,
that our behavior has consequences lasting to eternity, that God Himself takes
our choices seriously. The doctrine of hell is not just some dusty theological
holdover from the Middle Ages. It has significant social consequences. Without
a conviction of ultimate justice, people’s sense of moral obligation dissolves,
and social bonds are broken.”
Rev 20:11-15 Then I saw a great
white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence,
and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing
before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the
book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded
in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades
gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to
what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The
lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the
book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Prov 11:21 Be sure of this: The
wicked will not go unpunished…
Isaiah 13:11 I will punish the world
for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of
the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless.
John 5:28-29 Do not be amazed at
this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice
and come out - those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have
done evil will rise to be condemned.
2 Pet 2:4-9 For if God did not spare
angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy
dungeons to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he
brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of
righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them
an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; … if this is so, then the
Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for
the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.
Luke 8:30-31 Jesus asked him, “What
is your name?”
“Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him. And they begged
him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.
Matt 25:41 “Then he will say to
those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels.
Isaiah 14:12-15 How art thou fallen
from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the
ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I
will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will
sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will
ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou
shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. (KJV)
Rev 20:10 And the devil, who
deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and
the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for
ever and ever.
Luke 12:16-21 And he told them this
parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to
himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said,
‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and
there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have
plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be
merry.”’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded
from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
“This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not
rich toward God.”
The rich man in Luke 16 lived in
luxury but was unconcerned about the starving beggar at his gate.
Matt 25:41-46 “Then he will say to
those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing
to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and
you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was
sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a
stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the
least of these, you did not do for me.’
“Then they will go away to eternal
punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Matt 5:27-29 “You have heard that it
was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a
woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right
eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to
lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”
Jude 7 In a similar way,
Rev 21:8 But … the sexually immoral…
their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
Isaiah
5:11-14 Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong
drink, Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them! Their
banquets are accompanied by lyre and harp, by tambourine and flute, and by
wine; But they do not pay attention to the deeds of the LORD, Nor do they
consider the work of His hands… Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and
opened its mouth without measure; And Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her
din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it. (NASB)
Rev 21:8 But the cowardly, the
unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice
magic arts, the idolaters and all liars - their place will be in the fiery lake
of burning sulfur. This is the second death.
Of the New
Jerusalem, John writes:
Rev 21:15 Outside are the dogs,
those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the
idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
Rev 21:27 Nothing impure will ever
enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only
those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Matt 18:5-9 “And whoever welcomes a
little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of
these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have
a large
millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.“Woe
to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must
come, but woe to the man through whom they come! If your hand or your foot
causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter
life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into
eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it
away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and
be thrown into the fire of hell.
Matt 23:29-33 “Woe to you, teachers
of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and
decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days
of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood
of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves that you are the
descendants of those who murdered the
prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers! You
snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?”
Heb 10:26-29 If we deliberately keep
on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for
sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire
that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died
without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more
severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of
God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant
that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?
Matt 10:28-33 Do not be afraid of
those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One
who can destroy both soul and body in hell… “Whoever acknowledges me before
men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever
disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.
Matt 24:48-51 “But suppose that
servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’
and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with
drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not
expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign
him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth.”
Matt 5:21-22 “But I tell you that
anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone
who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who
says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.”
Mark 16:15-16 He said to them, “Go
into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes
and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
Rev 21:8 But … the unbelieving…
their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
Matt 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says
to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the
will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord,
Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and
perform many miracles?’
Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
James 2:19 You believe that there is
one God. Good! Even the demons believe that - and shudder.
Matt 22:11-13 But when the king came
in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding
clothes.
‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man
was speechless.
Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside,
into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
ARE YOU
PREPARED FOR ETERNITY?
Matt 25:41 Then he will say to those
on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels.’
Cesare
Borgia was the illegitimate son of the notorious Pope Alexander VI and his
mistress. He is believed by some to have murdered his brother Giovanni. He was
feared by his own father and murdered those who stood in his way. His dying
words were: “I have taken care of everything in the course of my life, only not
for death, and now I have to die completely unprepared.” [3]
Some 15
years before his death, Mohandas K. Gandhi wrote: “I must tell you in all
humility that Hinduism, as I know it, entirely satisfies my soul, fills my
whole being, and I find a solace in the Bhagavad and Upanishads.” Just before
his death, Gandhi wrote: “My days are numbered. I am not likely to live very
long—perhaps a year or a little more. For the first time in fifty years I find
myself in the slough of despond. All about me is darkness; I am praying for
light.” [4]
Adoniram
Judson grew up in a conservative Congregational pastor’s home but went to
It bothered
him to think that the man may not be prepared to die. All night long He
wondered about himself and had terrible thoughts of his own death. How would he
face this enemy that his own father would welcome as the doorway to God? His
philosophy offered no answers beyond this earthly life. But then he felt
ashamed of himself - what would his deist friend, Jacob Eames, think of his
silly thoughts of God?
Upon
leaving the next morning he asked if the man was better. “He is dead,” said the
innkeeper. Struck with the finality he asked, “Do you know who he was?”
“Oh yes.” came the reply, “Young man from the college in
That
reality sent Adoniram’s mind reeling and he wondered about the eternal destiny
for such a man. Suddenly, he realized that his father’s God was true: The
beliefs of Jacob Eames were empty and had failed him at his greatest hour.
Adoniram was converted and later went to
Shortly
before Adoniram Judson died he said: “I am not tired of my work, neither am I
tired of the world; yet, when Christ calls me home, I shall go with the
gladness of a boy bounding away from his school.” [8]
Napoleon
Bonaparte, the French emperor who brought death to millions to satisfy his
selfish plans: “I die before my time, and my body will be given back to the
earth. Such is the fate of him who has been called the great Napoleon. What an
abyss between my deep misery and the eternal
Charles IX
(1550–1574) was the young French king who, urged on by his mother (Catherine de
Medici), gave the order for the massacre of the Huguenots, in which 30,000 to
100,000 Protestants were slaughtered.
Charles IX
did not long survive the Massacre… emotionally, his moods now swung from coarse
boasting about the extremity of the Massacre, to claims that the screams of the
murdered Huguenots kept ringing in his ears. Frantically he blamed his mother:
“Who but you is the cause of all of this? God’s blood, you are the cause of it
all!” The Queen-mother responded by declaring she had a lunatic for a son. The
strain following the Massacres weakened his body to the point where, by spring
of 1574, the hoarse coughing turned bloody and the hemorrhages grew more
violent. He became bedridden and delusional. “What blood shed! What murders! he
cried to his nurse. What evil council I have followed! O my God, forgive me...
I am lost! I am lost!” [10]
Sir Francis
Newport (1619-1708) was the head of an English infidel club. [11]
On his deathbed, he wailed in anguish: “Oh, that I could lie for a thousand
years upon the fire that is never quenched, to purchase the favor of God and be
united to Him again. But it is a fruitless wish. Millions and millions of years
will bring me no nearer the end of my torments than one poor hour. Oh,
eternity, eternity forever and forever! Oh, the insufferable pangs of Hell!”
Thomas
Carlyle was expected by his parents to become a preacher, but while at the
“My sufferings are intolerable: I have in me a hundred years of life, but not a
moment’s courage. Give me more laudanum (i.e. Opium), that I may not think of
eternity!” [15]
In a
Newsweek interview with Svetlana Stalin, the daughter of Josef Stalin, she told
of her father’s death: “My father died a difficult and terrible death… God
grants an easy death only to the just… At what seemed the very last moment he
suddenly opened his eyes and cast a glance over everyone in the room. It was a
terrible glance, insane or perhaps angry… His left hand was raised, as though
he were pointing to something above and bringing down a curse on us all. The
gesture was full of menace… The next moment he was dead.” [18]
His
deathbed words were: “If I had the whole world, I would give anything to live
one day. I shall be glad to find a hole to creep out of the world at. I am
about to take a fearful leap in the dark!” [19]
On his
deathbed Ingersoll is reputed to have cried, “Oh God, if there be a God, save
my soul if I have a soul.” [20]
When
Colonel Ingersoll died, in the summer of 1899, and his family were overwhelmed
with grief, the Young Women’s Christian Conference was in session at
Moody
continued: “How different from that of a believer in Christ ! For him not only
is the present life filled with the peace of God, but the future is bright with
hope. He knows that for him death is only the exchanging of a shifting tent for
an enduring mansion. How much Colonel Ingersoll’s sorrowing wife and daughters
need our prayers, as they stand by the still body of their loved one, if they
really believe the hopeless doctrine he taught!” [22]
AN ATHEIST
IS TO BE PITIED WHEN HE FACES DEATH BECAUSE –
IF HIS WORLDVIEW IS CORRECT, HE
FACES OBLIVION
AND IF HE IS MISTAKEN, HE FACES THE
FATE OF THE DAMNED.
God was
magnified again in his marvelous triumph over death, but what we call death had
absolutely no terrors for him. He calmly looked death in the face and said,
“Earth is receding. Heaven is opening. God is calling me. Is this death? It
isn’t bad at all. It is sweet. No pain. No valley. I have been within the
gates! It is beautiful. It is glorious. Do not call me back. God is calling
me.” [24]
For four
hours Mr. Moody faced death without a tremor. Nay, he rejoiced in it and
welcomed it… Later he said, “This is glorious. This is my coronation day, I
have long looked forward to it.” … It is the testimony of those who were
privileged to stand around that bed, that his last four hours took all the
sting and terror out of death, and that the room was transformed from the place
of mourning to the chamber of triumph.” [25]
NO-ONE EVER
REPENTED OF BEING A CHRISTIAN ON HIS DEATHBED.
“Lord, do not hold this sin against
them.” (Acts 7:59-60)
And to
Jesus he said:
“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
For to me, to live is Christ, and to
die is gain. (Phil 1:21)
Death has been swallowed up in
victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? (1 Cor
15:54-55)
For I am already being poured out
like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought
the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is
in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who
have longed for his appearing. (2 Tim 4:6-8)
2 Pet 3:9 The Lord is not slow in
keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not
wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
So if God
wishes all to be saved, why will many perish?
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is
death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God’s gift
of salvation is free, but you have the choice to accept it or not. Jesus said:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his
one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have
eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned,
but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not
believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:16-18)
Daryl E.
Witmer [31]
says, “The Bible says that God prepared hell for the devil and his demonic
cohorts (Matthew 25:41), that He is “...not wishing for any [person] to perish
but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9), and that He has done everything
possible to save us from that terrible, terrible place. Yet in the end God will
not violate or overrule the deliberate choice of those who consciously and
willfully turn away from Him.”
C.S. Lewis [32]
wrote, “I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful,
rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside. All that
are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell.”
Jesus
Christ, the Son of God said, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but
whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”
(John 3:36)
[5] SOURCES: https://www.nationalministries.org, https://www.wholesomewords.org, https://www.desiringgod.org
[6] SOURCES: “The Life Of Adoniram
Judson” by Courtney Anderson, https://www.nationalministries.org,
https://www.wholesomewords.org, https://www.desiringgod.org
[7] Ibid
[8]
[10] Wikipedia
[12] Wikipedia
[14] Wikipedia
[16] Wikipedia
[18] Ibid
[21] “The life of Dwight L. Moody”: by
William Revell Moody (1900)
[22] Ibid
[23] Source:
https://www.wholesomewords.org
[24] “The life & work of Dwight
Lyman Moody” by the J. Wilbur Chapman
[26] A libertine is one devoid of any
restraints, especially one who ignores or even spurns accepted morals, and
forms of behaviour sanctioned by the larger society.
[27] Bawdry or ribaldry is humorous
entertainment that ranges from bordering on indelicacy to gross indecency.
[28] Wikipedia
[30] https://www.thewordteaches.com
[31] Daryl E. Witmer founded AIIA in
1991. He presently also serves as associate pastor of the
[32] C. S Lewis (1898–1963) was a
British novelist, academic and Christian apologist. He is known for his books,
especially “The Screwtape Letters”, “The Chronicles of Narnia” and “Mere
Christianity”. Former atheist Lewis was a close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien, and
both authors were leading figures in the English faculty at
The books that make up “The Chronicles of Narnia” have sold the most and
have been popularized on stage, in TV, in radio, and in cinema.