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Doug Batchelor: From the beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible, it talks about two destinations, two destinies: the saved and the lost. We talked about Christ and the devil, good and evil, light and darkness. Jesus said, "If you're not with me, you're against me." There are two roads, there are two faiths. You want to be on the winning team, am I right? Now I don't want you to hyper focus on the losing team, but we need to understand because not understanding this affects what you believe about the reward and the rewarder, and that's why this subject is such an important subject in our study tonight.
You know, I always like to begin with an amazing fact. A couple of years ago, Karen and I, with some friends from the Amazing Facts board, we went to Italy, and we visited the city of Pompeii. It was my second time; first time I went, I was 16 years old. I was living on a sailboat in the Mediterranean, and they've done a lot more excavation, I've found, since then. You probably have heard the story about the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, that they're at the base of Mount Vesuvius, a massive volcano in the background. And even from 62 A.D. they started noticing that the ground would occasionally rumble, and they'd have these earthquakes, and they seemed to be having signs that there was some growing activity and swelling on the mountain. For the next 17 years, the signs continued to mount and increase, but the people in these cities, they didn't seem to worry too much about it.
Now, Pompeii and Herculaneum, Pompeii in particular, they were something like the Las Vegas of the Roman Empire. In fact, a lot of the soldiers would go there after they served their term for R&R. It was something of a reward. And so during this 17 years of time, the volcano tremors increased, some of the--even springs dried up. They knew there was a lot of seismic activity, but life went on day after day, people were just pre-absorbed in their fun, their hedonism, pursuit of pleasure, and then the whole thing blew. In 79 A.D. there was a massive eruption that buried both of the cities in ash and pumice, and some that were not killed right away, were killed by the pyroclastic cloud of superheated gasses that came rolling down the mountain like a tsunami, and they were scorched alive the first time they inhaled it.
Well, years later, about 1748, 1,600 years later, they did some excavations, and they started to find the ruins buried under all of this ash. And they noticed that they kept running into these cavities in the ash, and someone said, "You know, there was probably something there." And so, they poured the "Plaster of Paris" into these cavities and they found the grizzly truth, that these were the hollowed out spaces where people had been. Their bodies had decomposed other than the bones, and they were able to see people all around the city, thousands had died in the very positions, in their final writhing deaths, that the disaster caught them.
It makes us think about another terrible destruction that came that the Bible speaks of. By the way, just a little side note you may want to think about. Jerusalem had been destroyed by the armies of Titus in 70 B.C. I heard one historian say that hypothetically based on the time that they served, many of the soldiers that were involved in the destruction of Jerusalem could have been vacationing at Pompeii when the city was destroyed. Well, Bible kind of compares this to the destruction of the wicked. And we're going to go find out what do the people on the streets have to say about this subject of hell and the punishment of the law. So let's roll that right now.
Male: I think the purpose of hell is just to let people know that there's negative repercussions for things that you do in this world, whether you get punished for it right away, like it is coming later on. So, like, it's a belief system within yourself to be like, "Okay, I'm doing something wrong. Nobody could see me, but there's a thing coming later on in the future that will punish me. So let me," you know, "watch myself and know that God's watching me and," you know, "live a good life."
Female: To scare people away from doing bad things.
Male: The absence of God is hell, and that can be here, that can be the afterlife, it can be anywhere.
Female: In Christianity specifically, I would say it's just, I think there's a lot of fear mongering around it, but I think it's also just, I think it's really supposed to be like a place without God. I don't think there's a--I think a lot of the talk about it is not exactly what the book says, you know?
Male: To ensure that you make decisions that are going to be, that are not going to negatively impact the people around you.
Female: Hell represents a very hot place from my religious background.
Male: A place for non-believers that, you know, you go after you die if you like, have not done enough good deeds within your lifetime.
Male: I think it's a place where like the most evil and wretched people go.
Male: In the Bible it describes hell as, like, a place where non-followers of Christ go.
Female: I believe hell is a place where all the bad people go in the end.
Male: I feel like we're living in hell. I feel like this is hell right here and heaven is like a place you'll be at peace.
Female: I don't believe in hell.
Male: According to the Word of God, there's a lake of fire, it's eternal.
Male: I think that hell doesn't exist.
Male: I think hell is everlasting. Depends on how you spend your life here.
Male: I don't think hell is just straight fire. There might be some fire in there, but I don't feel like it's like that. But there is some type of torture there for sure.
Male: I think hell is definitely a place.
Male: Oh yeah, spiritually, yes, it's on fire. I wouldn't want to go there.
Male: Yes, this is a place of fire where you suffer all for eternity.
Female: I feel like what hell truly is, is your own perspective of your own reality of life.
Doug: Well, that's interesting. You know, I actually found that in the answers from the people on the street, there's a little more unity on this subject than some of the others. You know it's interesting, is virtually every religion in the world believes that there is some kind of reward. Even those that believe in reincarnation think if you live a bad life, you're going to come back as, you know, something else, a crocodile or who knows. But you live a good life, there's a reward. And almost all religions understand that there are consequences for the way that you choose to live your life. But where do we get our answers? Interviewing people on the street or is the Word of God the final arbiter? We're going to find out what does the Bible say on this subject. There's a lot of misunderstandings on the subject of hell.
First of all, question number one, we're going to go using our question answer method. You've got your lessons. This is lesson number five. What two cities mentioned in the Bible that are sort of infamous, are given as an example of the destruction of the wicked? You can read in 2 Peter 2, verse 6, and don't forget, you can call out the answers there in the light blue color with me. "And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, [God] condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly." So if we want to know what is going to happen to the wicked, God said, "Well, what you saw happen to Sodom and Gomorrah, they were burnt, they were burnt up." And you can read here in Jude chapter 1, verse 7, "Sodom and Gomorrah, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Eternal fire meaning that the results of the fire are eternal.
You're looking at just a Google Earth map there that shows an area where archaeologists believe approximately that Sodom was. Now, in case you don't know, the Bible describes this if you go to Genesis chapter 19, it tells us that Lot and Abraham were related. Lot was the nephew of Abraham, and they had so many cattle, the shepherds were fighting, and they needed to separate to keep peace in the family. And Lot cast his eyes towards Sodom because it was watered like the garden of God. It was like the Garden of Eden. It was lush, it was tropical. There was an abundance of vegetation for the animals. And he thought, "You know, I think my flocks will really grow down there and things will really prosper." And his wife said, "You know, they got really good malls in Sodom," and who knows? But anyway, they moved down there.
But the Bible goes on to say that was not a wise decision because the men of Sodom were sinners before the Lord exceedingly. Now some people are shocked to find out that the Bible says, before God punished Sodom and Gomorrah, God saved Sodom and Gomorrah. Did you know that before their great judgment day came, five kings from the north, led by an Assyrian named Chedorlaomer, they had a confederacy. They came down and they attacked the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, and four of the other cities of the plain. And they conquered them, and they carried them all away captive, and Lot and his family were carried away in the destruction. It was a judgment to get their attention, to turn them to repentance because God wants everyone to be saved.
And Abraham came together with some of the other mighty sheikhs, and they went, and they delivered them. They got their soldiers, you know, Abraham had an army of 300 men, over 300. And they delivered them, they conquered these other kings, and they rescued all the people from Sodom and Gomorrah. They had been saved. And God was hoping they'd change their ways, but they didn't. They went back to the old ways and got even worse. And it got so bad that even when God sent angels to rescue Lot and his family from Sodom, that the people in the city wanted to abuse the angels. And finally God said, "Flee lest you be consumed, flee from the wrath to come." And he said, "Don't even look back." And the angels took Lot and his daughters and his wife by the hand, and basically had to pull them out of the city. And then God reigned upon Sodom and Gomorrah fire and brimstone out of heaven. Abraham could look from the mountains of Hebron towards the plain of Sodom, by the way, it's the lowest place on the planet, did you know that? 1,300 feet below sea level, the Jordan Valley. And it says the smoke of the place went up like a furnace.
Karen and I, you probably just heard in the news a few weeks ago, we had a fire up near Orville, California. And Karen and I were coming down the road and we could see it from a distance and it looked like a nuclear explosion. This campfire was so big, big mushroom cloud. And God destroyed these cities of the plain with fire from before the Lord. And the Bible tells us that God is going to ultimately make a new heaven and new earth, but I want to show you something. I'm going to bring Karen out here. I want something a little unique that I want to demonstrate.
People think that you got the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and that it's just, it's a myth or it's a fairy tale to try and teach a lesson. So, I've got, we were just down in Masada, or maybe three years ago, down in the Jordan Valley. And in the area where Sodom and Gomorrah are believed to be, the hills are full of ash, and in the ash, they've got these sulfur balls that are embedded. It's the only place in the world that they know of where you can find this. The mountains are embedded with these sulfur balls. I'm going to get over here, maybe we'll get this on the camera. You let me know if you get this focused in. Oh, see, look at that. It took off already. I just touched it for a second with a lighter. I don't know if you can see that bubbling and smoking. These are sulfur balls that are embedded in, y'all see the smoke? I just snapped it for a second and it took right off. You don't want to be in sulfur and brimstone. I'll let you go put that out dear, before the fire department shows up, don't put it on the phone. The reason I go through that is to tell you, this is not a myth. It really happened, this was real destruction. There are consequences for sin according to the Bible. Can you say amen?
Question number two--people on the front row probably smell rotten eggs right now. When will the wicked be destroyed in hellfire? Answer, it says, "The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and how to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of JUDGMENT." Now, when we talk about the subject of hellfire, there are a couple of extremes. One group is going to say there's really no such thing. That it's just there to scare. Matter of fact, one of the people on the street said, "Oh yeah, hell it's just there to scare people, and it doesn't exist at all." Some people say then, that it burns forever and ever and they've got this picture of people burning in hell. And they say they're in molten fire and brimstone, and they're burning and it never stops and they have no relief, how long? Forever and ever.
Now, I don't know friends if you can comprehend that, what it would be like. I don't know how many of you remember a few years ago when the US was battling with ISIS. A Jordanian fighter was shot down, a young pilot. He was actually the son of someone else I believe that was in the military. And he thought he was being involved in the negotiation for a prisoner swap, but in reality, they brought him out, they videotaped him, and they took him out in the desert and they put him in a cage, a metal cage, no way to escape. They doused him with gasoline or some incendiary fluid, and with their video rolling, they threw a match in and set them on fire. And then they broadcast this. They put it up on the internet and showed what they were doing to this pilot, and it took several minutes for him in tremendous agony to die. And his father was shown that. Now you and I, we hear that and it just, I can see the expressions on your face, it's horrific.
Here's a question, do you believe that our Heavenly Father would take the objects of His creation that were made in His image, that are born with some natural propensity to sin, and if we do not manage to overcome, He says, "If you don't love me, I'm going to burn you. But I'm not just going to burn you, I'm going to burn you forever." You know, the Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible does teach there's a hell, just like there was Sodom and Gomorrah, they were punished. The Bible teaches the wicked are burnt in hell. Now here's the question, when does that happen? What did we just read? It says, "The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve," you ever reserve a table at a restaurant? That means you'll hold it until you get there, right?
So, if God is reserving the wicked for the day of judgment, how many people are burning in hell right now? Is the judgment day passed or is it future? It's pretty clear. Jesus said the judgment day, the last day He calls it, the judgment day is in the future. People are not burning in hell before the judgment day. And does everybody burn forever? Doesn't the Bible say there are varying degrees of rewards? If there are varying degrees of rewards, how fair would it be if some teenager that, you know, they misbehaved, they live the wrong kind of life, and they die lost, and they're going to burn as long as Stalin and Hitler? That one didn't seem very just. I wanted to just stir up your pure minds and have you think, and we're going to give you a scripture for everything we say.
Now I know there's some difficult verses, we're going to answer them all. We're not afraid of any scriptures, amen? When are they judged? "The word that I have spoken will judge him," in when? "The LAST DAY." Let's talk about the day of the Lord, the judgment day. And again, Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 13, talking about the separating the wheat and the tares, and it says, in the end of the world, the angels will go forth, they will gather the weed, the tares in bundles and burn them. When does it happen? "At the END of this AGE. The Son of Man will send out His angels. They will gather together those who practice lawlessness and cast them into a furnace of fire." Now, is it pretty clear from the teachings of Jesus that there is a punishment? What do you think, yes? Is it pretty clear from the teaching of Jesus that there is going to be fire involved in that? Yes, absolutely.
Number three, if the wicked who have died are not in hell yet, where are they? Are they in limbo? Are they in purgatory? Are they in, you know, some medium place? Abraham's bosom, some say, what does the Bible say? Jesus said, John 5, 28 and 29, "The hour is coming." When he says he's coming, does that mean past or future? "The hour is coming in which all that are," where are they? "In the graves will hear His voice and come forth...those that have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."
Do you know the Bible teaches there are two resurrections. The Bible tells us there is a resurrection of the just, the dead in Christ rise first, that's up. If you've got a first resurrection, what does that mean? Somewhere you got a, what? A second, first is a sequential word. No sense saying first if there's nothing else. Says there's a first resurrection, and the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are finished. This is Revelation chapter 20.
So, if the dead in Christ are first, who are the rest of the dead? Those out of Christ, the lost. Jesus said they are where? In their graves. Now that is so important, because there are some people that believe they have loved ones that have died lost, they believe that they are down right now burning in, you know, people believe that hell's got a torture chamber down there somewhere, and there are people who are burning.
I remember going through the line in a supermarket and I saw one of these tabloid magazines. They got pretty outrageous coverage. You have to laugh sometimes. And it said, "Well drillers in Siberia go too deep, demons escape." And they say they've actually drilled into hell and the demons are escaping. And I suppose there's some people who believe that. But that's not what the Bible teaches. They're in their graves, again, another verse for you. Job 21, verse 30 and 32. "The wicked are reserved for the day of doom...he will be brought to the," where? "The grave, and a vigil kept over the tomb." It says they're in their graves, they're in the tomb, they're brought to their graves, they're waiting for the judgment day.
You know, I believe there are folks that have been driven to the point of insanity thinking that someone they love died and while they walk the earth, these people are writhing and screaming and shrieking in the flames. I was listening years ago to a Christian radio station. And the people would call in Bible questions. And the Bible questions were all across the board. I mean, the station had some good music and they'd read the Bible, the good things, but when this guy came on and started answering questions, I had real issues with him. And I remember hearing one time a mother called, and you could tell from the cracking in her voice that she was obviously in a lot of grief. And she said, "Brother so and so," talking to the pastor, the host of the program. She said, "My son died a few days ago instantly in a car accident. He made no profession of believing in God. He was living an ungodly life, and I've just got to know, is he burning in hell right now?"
Well first he tried to skirt the question. She said, "No, no, I'm just telling you that if there's any evidence at all that a person was lost, he just cursed God and lived a wicked life, and he ran into a tree and died instantly. Is he burning in hell?" And finally, after trying to evade a direct answer, he said, "Well, you know, according to the Bible, if he died without Christ, then next stop without passing go is he's in hell, in hellfire." And how long will he be there? Forever, now, have you ever thought about how forever, how long that is? That means that if a person dies and they are burning in hell--you ever burn yourself for a minute? A person dies and they're in hell, that means a million years from now, you try to swim to the surface and call out for help, and God says, "You still haven't begun." You never reach the beginning. You never stop feeling the agony and the misery and the shrieking, intense, burning pain forever, and ever, and ever for the sins of one lifetime. How long is 80, 90 years compared to eternity? It's nonexistent. To burn a person forever, and ever, and ever, and ever, for this minuscule life, please explain the justice. And when you ask some pastors that say, "Well, you know, who are we, we don't understand how bad sin is, and He's God and that's the punishment."
Now, let me get you to think about something, friends, be honest. How many of you would admit that as humans, all sin and fall short of the glory of God? Bible says all, we've all sinned. We all kind of have a natural bent to sin, and to then torture a person through eternity that you've created, you ostensibly love, and you are a just God, forever and ever, for the sins of a very brief life, does that make sense? It's not biblical, I'm going to show you from the Bible, amen? First of all, nobody's burning yet.
Number 4, what are the only two choices for all people? That's why this is an important subject. The Bible says, Jesus said, "For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not," do what? "perish but have everlasting"--what are the two choices? Life or perish? Perish means you cease to exist. When you go to the market and you buy things that are perishable, that means you better get them in the refrigerator or eat them quickly, because they're going to perish. They do not last. What did God say to Adam and Eve? If you eat the forbidden fruit, you will surely die.
There are two choices, friends, you've got life or death. Death is the absence of life. God did not say you've got eternal life in heaven or eternal life burning, isn't that right? Moses, before he died, he stood before the children of Israel. He said, I set before you this day two options: life, good, blessing; death, evil, cursing. Choose life, everybody can choose life. But the devil, who--remember what we learned about the devil? He wants to misrepresent God.
Doug: Friends, I hope you've been blessed by today's message, but really the reason we do this is so that people might know Christ. You know, information is not going to save us, it's a relationship with Jesus, the one who died on the cross for your sins. You must personally accept him, and that's the most important thing and why we do these programs. If you've not asked him into your heart before, then I'd encourage you to do it right now. His arms are open wide. Just come to him as you are and ask him.
Doug: Hi friends, I trust you're being blessed by what you're watching. If you want to be doubly blessed, then you're going to want to get the "Prophecy Odyssey" study guides that go along with these presentations. There's 15 study guides. They're beautifully illustrated, and they will greatly enhance your Bible comprehension. So, if you'd like to get them, simply follow the instructions that you see on the screen. You will be glad you did.
Doug: If you'd like to learn the whole truth about the subject of what happens to the wicked at the end of time, you're going to want to get "Hell-Fire: A Twisted Truth Untangled." It's going to show you the eye-opening truth about hell and the grave. To get your copy, simply follow the instructions on the screen and we will send it to you absolutely free.
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Doug: What you've seen just now is only part one in this presentation. Make sure and join us for part two in our next broadcast for some of the most important points on this topic, and to complete the corresponding study guides. Until then, God bless.
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