Apologetics Session 32 - The Doctrine of Hell

We wouldn't just gain knowledge tonight, Father, but we would draw closer to you. And Father, that you would use whatever your spirit would teach us tonight to help others, to understand the gravity of sin and the punishment thereof, the tremendous price that was paid for us on the cross of Calvary.

Just so many things interwoven here, Father, but I do pray it also gives us a heart to reach the lost, Lord, those who don't know Jesus. We thank you for these things, Lord, in your name.

Amen. Amen.

So we know Brother Matthew is on travel, so we don't see him in the room tonight, but I'm glad you guys are all here. So tonight's the ever-uplifting topic of eternal punishments. So it is a doctrine we need to understand, and I am going to really try to move through this.

I have 17 pages here. There's no way we can get through that. So I'm gonna try to cover lightly several things leading up to these big three questions here. Annihilation, purgatory, or eternal punishment.

Which one does the Bible teach? So I have a little introduction here. We don't need to go into that. The first thing is we need to understand that death brings all this on. Sin has brought death into the world, and because there is death, there is a separation that happens.

Men were created as body, soul, and spirit, but when death occurs, physical death, there's a separation. There's a separation of the body and of the soul. The soul goes somewhere, and the body goes into the grave or into the dirt, unless you've been eaten by a shark.

So, and we get this concept of the soul departing from the body. Can someone turn to Genesis 35, 18? And Mike, I'll ask you to turn to Psalm 16, verses nine and 10. So Mike would be second. And do you have that, John?

What's that? You're getting there?

Genesis 35?

35, yeah.

Genesis 35, 18. This is when Rebekah, or excuse me, Rachel, is going to be given birth to Benjamin. And there's a statement made about what's going on with her, because she doesn't survive this birth.

Right? Yeah.

It came about as her soul was departing before she died, that she named him Ben-Hunai, but his father called him Benjamin.

So her soul departing, and this is a thing we understand, that death, there's a departing of the soul from the body. And if you've seen a loved one pass, or you've seen even a dog pass or something, there's a soulish nature that even the animals have, that there's something that isn't there anymore.

Yes, the physical body shut down, but that which really made that person who that person was isn't there anymore. Mike, could you read Psalm 16?

Psalm 16, nine and 10. And therefore my heart is glad,.

And my whole being rejoices.

My flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to shale, or let your holy one see corruption.

So there again, we see the soul goes somewhere, and the body goes somewhere. The body goes to the grave, but the soul in this case goes to shield. King David was talking about himself, but this was also a Messianic prophecy.

Psalm 16 is quoted many, many times in the New Testament, because it talks about Jesus being the one whose body did not undergo decay, and his soul was not abandoned to she-hole. And we have that concept in the Old Testament of this place called she-hole, where the unseen dead would go, where the souls of the unseen dead would go.

It was sometimes she-hole, what do you actually mean, the physical grave, and some other things. I have a lot of notes on she-hole in here, but I'm not going to go through that tonight. The main part about this first part is just that there's a body and a soul that we all possess, and when death comes, there's a separation of that.

But is that the end of what happens now to the body and the soul? We want to know what's going on now. Where do these two parts of the human existence go? Well, for many verses in the scriptures, we understand that judgment is going to come.

There will be a judgment for every person. We know that God is a righteous judge, and we know the Bible speaks of the Lord judging the actions of men and rendering to them the consequences of their sin and their actions, sometimes for good or sometimes for evil, obviously.

And on the earthly sense, there's judgments that God continuously does, because there's rebellion, there's sin, and he will take action, and he will take corrective measures at times. And we think of Cain, in particular, that after he had sinned by killing his brother, that God had rendered a curse upon him, that he was going to wander throughout the earth, and then Cain was very upset about the judgment that God passed, and obviously it was a righteous judgment.

We also think of things like the deportation of Israel. Over there, sin, both the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom, one by Assyria and one by Babylon. They were judged in an earthly sense. But in this document in particular, we're going to talk about the final judgment of every person.

This judgment is the judgment of their individual soul and where their individual existence is going to end up for all eternity. And we understand this from many verses in the Bible, but let's read, since I have it up here, we can just read this here.

Dave, can you just read Hebrews 9 .27?

Sure, and insomuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment.

Okay, dying once and then the judgment comes. And Romans 2 .5 says, but because of the stubbornness and unrepentant of your heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

That's a future judgment. That's a judgment after death. That's a judgment at the last day, the final judgment.

Yeah, he doesn't give us any opportunity to argue with him.

Well, we have plenty of opportunity to submit to him, but as far as arguing our case before the Lord, the books will be opened and there will be righteousness and justice, but the books are going to tell the story of where we should be going.

And for those who do not have Jesus as their savior, that judgment is going to be fair, but it's going to be something very difficult to imagine. And that's what we're going to talk about going forward here.

Now, we have some questions about this judgment that's going to come. Who will the judge be? Some places say God the Father, some places say God the Son. And I think Acts 17 says it as much as well as anyone, any of the verses in the scripture.

So, Phil, could you read this? Acts 17, 30 through 31 here.

Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to all men that all everywhere should repent because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished a proof to all men by raising him from the dead.

So, who is this man who has been appointed?

Jesus.

Jesus, the one who's raised from the dead. But God the Father has appointed Jesus. So, in some places you'll see God the Father being judged, some places you'll see Jesus being the judge. I can't think of a better judge than anyone could have, but a righteous, holy, impartial judge as God Almighty.

Now, I don't want to get into the time of the judgment too much. When the judgments are going to happen. But there is some, specifically the believer. When I put this together, it was hard to not talk about heaven and hard to not talk about what happens to the believer after we die.

But I am going to try to avoid that right now because I know how much material is here and I want to have some lively discussion at the end. So, the child of God, I'm going to put that on hold. You'll get this, you know, we'll release this to you later.

For the unbeliever, interesting verse in John 3, 18. Could you read that for us, Jim?

Sure.

He who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Okay, and I say here, the unbeliever is sent to a place called Hades or Sheol. Sheol's the Old Testament name, Hades the New Testament name, same place. And Hades seems to have two compartments, but the description in Luke chapter 16 of those who went to Hades or Sheol, those who believed in the Lord were in a nice place, a place of bliss and peace.

And those who were not believers in the Lord were in a place of torment and writhing in pain. And you think, well, wait a second, hold on. You said the judgment was coming. The judgment doesn't happen necessarily when a person dies immediately.

That doesn't seem right. It almost seems like you're prejudged before you get a chance to tell your case. That's what Russell was just saying. But I think what we need to keep in mind is as Paul Little says this, says the purpose of the final judgment will not be to ascertain the quality of an individual's character, but more to disclose his character and assign to him the eternal place corresponding to what he is because of his trust or lack of trust in God.

And we do need to remember, God does not need to accumulate more information than he already has when a person dies. He knows the end from the beginning. In God's wisdom, he holds the final judgment or sentence to the end.

The final judgment will put an end to wickedness and all evil doing. The final judgment will close the books on those who rebelled against the Lord. And in so doing, God will be glorified. So there's a holding place where those who have died are gonna go.

She-Hole or Hades. And they're waiting there. They're waiting there to be judged. Now, what is the judgment gonna be based upon? This is good to know. Let's, I think these are partial verses, so let's look these verses up.

Bob, could you look up Romans 2 .6? And then, gosh, I can't think of your name right now. What's the matter with me?

You're off the ball, aren't you?

I am.

Read Matthew 12, it's 36. Oh my gosh.

You get to name him now.

I know, he's gonna kill me. And Richie, can you read Romans 2 .16? Yeah, I wanted to call you Jacob because I was so messed up.

I was like, Jacob, Jacob, Jacob.

No, it's Ron Jacobs. That's my last name.

I know.

I was messing up. Okay, go ahead. Okay, Romans 2 .6. God, quote, will repay each person according to what they have done. Okay, according to what they have done. And Ron, could you read to us Matthew 12 .36?

But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for in the day of judgment. So every careless word men say, speak. And Richie, how about Romans 2 .16?

On the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Jesus Christ.

So the secrets of men would be the thoughts, the intents of the heart, those things which nobody knows except God himself.

Except God.

So men are gonna be judged upon their deeds, their words, and their thoughts. They all have to align with the righteousness of God perfectly or we're gonna be found guilty, which means basically we are all guilty before a holy God.

Now, I'm not covering in this section per se about the believers and how we have been made pure in Jesus Christ and that he paid a penalty for all of these things, but it is in here. It's just that we're not going through that.

But thank God for that. If we had to stand before God, what would you say, Bob? I would keep you on the path. I was gonna ask a question. Yeah, go ahead. Ask any questions along the way because I'm gonna blow through a lot of this.

In the passage I read, it was interesting that they use quotes in this passage. God, quote, will repay each person according to what they have done, end quote. Oh, it's probably an Old Testament reference that I didn't go back and check.

Unless I'm familiar with that.

Yeah.

So the question is, we know judgment's coming. And this is really an internal knowledge. I mean, all men have the concept that they're gonna give an account one day for their actions and their deeds. This is something that's ingrained within us.

And we're not necessarily covering right now what's gonna happen if a person believes in the Lord. But what happens if a person is found guilty.

Before the Lord?

What happens to that person? That's the big question we're gonna try to answer today. And it's very sobering. This was a hard study to go through. Because you don't like the answer. But we're gonna go through it because the Bible teaches it.

And Jesus mentioned this many, many, many times.

So, hi.

This is another section I'm gonna blow over. How do you like that? I'm really moving, right? There's some Old Testament concepts that we really should understand to get into all this. Sheol's part of it.

We kind of mentioned that already. Not gonna talk about Sheol right now, but there's some links here, there's some things there. The Valley of Topheth, which is also the Valley of Hinnom. That I do wanna talk about for just a second.

Because that is a valley that was in the Old Testament. And some really nasty things happened in that valley. And the idea of the Valley of Topheth carries through to the New Testament. In particular, how Jesus used the word he used for hell.

Now, what happened in the Valley of Topheth? Richie probably knows off the top of his head. But it's a valley right outside of Jerusalem. A lot of child sacrifice.

Yes.

It never stopped burning.

Yeah.

Evil practices of child sacrifices in this valley took place from pagan people, pagan religions. But also from a couple of Israeli kings. Ahaz and Manasseh did the same thing by making their sons pass through the fire.

This was an abomination to the Lord. And he says so in Jeremiah 7, 31 -30. I'll read this. They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom. That's where we get the Valley of Hinnom.

To burn their sons and their daughters in the fire. Which I did not command and it did not come into my mind. Therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no longer be called the Valley of Topheth or the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.

For they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place. This place was a symbol of wickedness and burning and judgment. And the word itself, Topheth, means hearth or cooking pit. In the valley, as I said, it came with a picture of continual burning.

Isaiah 30 -33 also mentions the hearth, that word, Topheth, with judgment. And in the fourth and third century BC, we see this valley associated with punishment in the Book of Enoch. In addition, the Talmud, there's the Jewish writings, they also, they certainly know about the Old Testament, they know it all.

The Talmud says that those who do evil will end up in this place, this place of fire and burning. So this place has an ominous reputation. The reason I'm bringing it up here is because eventually, Hinnom, the Valley of Hinnom, is gonna be translated in the New Testament as Gehenna.

That is our word for hell in the New Testament. Jesus uses that word when he's speaking of hell. He used it 11 times in the New Testament. There's only one other time it's used, and that's in the Book of James, when it says our tongues are set on fire of hell.

But this is an important concept. So Gehenna, that's where this comes from, this concept in the Old Testament of this wicked, wicked practice and place. And there's some links here. Resurrection was certainly a concept in the Old Testament, both of those to everlasting life, but others to disgrace and everlasting content.

But we're not gonna talk about that right now, per se. Drew, will you send these notes out?

This is a lot of good info.

Yeah, yeah, we will. So this is what I wanted to get to, really. The big question is like, okay, we know that the departed souls of men are going to be judged one day. How does that happen? Where are we gonna go?

How's this gonna all end up? And we're talking about those who don't believe tonight. We'll summarize at the end, because we wanna remember the good news of Jesus Christ and how he has set all those free who believe in him.

But let's talk about annihilation for a second. This is a belief that a lot of people have, and they try to use the Bible to fortify their claims. But let's see what the Bible says, and let's see what the annihilation actually means.

So annihilation is the belief that a one-time judgment of the wicked result in a second death. After this judgment, a person ceases to exist. They have no more substance nor any consciousness. They are no more.

But the Bible speaks of an eternal punishment, which we're gonna examine in a later section. But let's look at some of the key verses that annihilists cling to. This is one in Psalm 37, 10. It says, yet for a little while, and the wicked person will be no more.

And you will carefully look for his place, but he will not be there. If you took this out of context, that sounds a lot like, hey, that's exactly what we're talking about. But unfortunately, the verse applies to earthly blessings and earthly situations.

It's talking about who is going to receive God's blessing, not necessarily where we're going to go in the afterlife. So it's not talking about people ceasing to exist. It's talking about people who are not going to get the blessings of God, that they won't be there anymore.

So that's not a proof text for that doctrine. There's a couple more, though. Matthew 3, 12. This is John the Baptist speaking, and he says that when Messiah comes, he's going to gather his wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Now, if we're a farmer and we knew gathering the wheat, that's like collecting it. It's going to be in our barns. It's going to be with us. That certainly sounds like, you know, the Lord's going to bring us into his presence, into heaven.

But burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Chaff is that very flammable substance that if you light a match to it, it just goes poof, and it'll go away, right? It would just light up and then go away.

But the key here is he uses the term unquenchable fire. So why do you need to say unquenchable fire in this verse? It sounds like they're going to get burned up and go away, but why would the fire continue to be fueled and why would the fire continue to come?

And, you know, there's many verses in the Old Testament that say that the fire and smoke will continue forever and ever. And the fuel for that fire is continually burning. And we see many times in the book of Revelation that's also the case.

So the verse in itself would not be a proof text for that doctrinal position. Some people would hold to it. They would say that's a proof. But this is the big one right here, really. This is the one everyone rests on.

And we all know this verse. Ron, or Tim, can you read that from there? Matthew 10, 28.

And do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Okay, so the resurrection is gonna happen. Even the unbelievers are gonna be reunited with their bodies. So the soul and the body are gonna come back together for the judgment. But the key word is there to destroy both in hell.

And the Annihilists wanna say, destroy means, well, okay, there are no more. They're not gonna exist anymore. But there's a problem with that. They would like to think, and quite honestly, we would like to think this too.

I mean, if it really comes down to it, we would probably like this to be the case. But the Bible doesn't teach it. They think that there's gonna be a quick temporal incineration, and then they are no more.

So their suffering and pain would be over with. But is this true? What does the Bible say? Okay, well, we're gonna get into the Greek a little bit. Here's our word. Jim, or Richie can pronounce it for us.

Apollume.

It means to destroy, die, lose, mar, or perish. It doesn't mean cease to exist. So how do we understand this word? Well, we're gonna see it in other contexts. Matthew 26, 61 says, and said, this man, oops, this man stated, I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.

And Jesus was talking about his body, and eventually his body's gonna be resurrected. Well, his body wasn't annihilated. His body was killed. It was marred more than any person, the scriptures say. But it didn't cease to exist.

It went into the tomb, and then, of course, three days he rose again. But it didn't cease to exist. First Corinthians 119 says, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.

Again, this destroy the wisdom of the wise. It's not like that the wisdom of the wise isn't still there. They're still trying to prove their points. They're still trying to get their points across. But the idea is their wisdom has been ruined.

It has been marred. It doesn't hold up anymore. It's still there, but it doesn't hold the purpose for what they think it did.

It's been nullified.

Yeah.

So, and then here's one that Jesus said, Luke 5, 37, and no one puts new wine into old wine skins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined.

That's our word, apollumai. And we know that the skins didn't just disappear and evaporate. Their original purpose has been marred, and now they can no longer be used for their original purpose. But in all these cases, it wasn't a situation where these things disappeared or never were anymore.

It's that they have been ruined or marred, their original purpose. And that's the same thing that happens with a person's soul. Their original purpose is fellowship with God. Their original purpose is to be with the Lord for all eternity.

But because of sin, this isn't going to happen, so their soul is going to be in a place which is marred, which is destruction in some sense, meaning that the original purpose is no longer there anymore.

And praise God, I just put down here that Jesus's body did not stay that way. He rose from the dead. But you know what? The Annihilists aren't so easily convinced because they have very good logical arguments.

Biblical arguments, I don't think they have very much to stand on at all. But logical arguments appeal to our human mind. The first argument, which kind of we already covered here, but there's many biblical references to destruction of the wicked, and there are many other examples.

But again, in these cases, it's not that they are no longer existing after they're destroyed. So it's the same argument as we just talked about. But argument two is a little more interesting. Argument two, the apparent inconsistency of eternal conscious punishment with the love of God.

How does this marry up? How can we say a God of love will allow someone to be punished forever and ever and ever? How does that work? Well, I'm borrowing from Wayne Grudem's book here. You didn't lend me that, but somebody else did, so I'm thankful for that.

But Grudem points out an inconsistency with God's, that if there is an inconsistency with God's love and eternal punishment, then there would be the same inconsistency with God's love and any sort of divine punishment.

So why then wouldn't it be appropriate for God to extend the punishment for an unending period of time? Love and justice are not contradictory. In fact, a loving God will not allow evil to go unpunished.

And we all sense that as just as a natural thing. When we see something bad happen, we see something evil happen, we say, man, that guy needs to get it. And that's just a natural thing that is ingrained within us.

And sometimes we don't have the right conscience about that kind of thing, but we understand there should be judgment and that the wicked shouldn't really be allowed to get away with things without suffering and punishment for it.

So the argument that a loving God would not allow conscious suffering via an immediate annihilation, not even for a brief time, would bring up the question, if the wicked did not suffer at all, would that constitute justice?

That's the question. So I think that's the answer that we need. But again, the annihilists will hold to these things. So there may be brothers out there that really believe this. So I don't think they have the biblical grounds to stand on it, but we're just going over time.

Yeah, and God's love can never be above his holiness. His holiness is his sovereignty. So that's the reason why we have Jesus Christ.

That's a good point.

It can never happen.

God's not only a loving God, he's a holy God.

He's holy.

So he can never

He's all those at the same time. He does it all perfectly. Now, argument three is very interesting too, because he'll say then, okay, well, and our hearts would say this too, really. This is the arguments we think in our hearts, at least I would.

The apparent injustice involved in the disproportion between a sin committed in time and punishment that it goes on forever. Well, wait a second. A person maybe lives 30 years, 50 years, 70 years, 80 years, whatever they are.

How can that balance of justice be right if there was only that short period of time? And there's a man that grew in quotes called David Kingdon. He says that sin against the creator is a heinous to a degree utterly beyond our sin-warped imaginations can conceive of.

Who, meaning us, would have the temerities to suggest to God what the punishment should be. Meaning we're putting ourselves in the place of God, saying you're not fair, God. But I think we're gonna borrow from our friend, R .C. Sproul, here to see what he said about sins against an eternal holy God to get a perspective of what the punishment maybe should be.

Should be able to do this.

If not, I'll flip it like Matt did the other day.

And this is R .C. Sproul when he's older now. He's on oxygen. So this is maybe one of the last times in a public setting.

The concept of eternal damnation is postulated on the basis that the crime that is committed by transitory human creatures is a crime against one who is infinite in his perfection. And in fact, I'm saying that there is a ontological cosmic impossibility for justice ever to prevail even in hell because eternity is not long enough to satisfy the heinousness of the crime that I have committed against my creator and against my God who is infinitely perfect in every way.

And so that my guilt remains eternal. And again, it's not enough. That's the big problem is how can an eternal punishment in hell be enough to balance the scales of justice?

Very interesting perspective. We don't normally think that way. But when we're measuring who we're sinning against, a loving, especially what he's done for us, everything he's done, we just choose to rebel against him.

Praise God for his grace to us and hopefully many, many more that maybe even seen this video tonight that they realize how loving God is. And he doesn't want, as a matter of fact, I didn't bring these verses up anywhere, but how does God feel about the death of the wicked?

Says he has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. And what does he say about his desire for all he wants all to come to repentance and the knowledge of the truth. And he did so improve so by sending his only son to die for us.

This is not a mean God trying to send people to an eternal punishment of suffering. This is a loving God who would like to rescue all those who have rebellious hearts and are willing to surrender to him.

Now we have a fourth argument from the annihilists. And this is an interesting one too. It says the fact that the continuing presence of evil creatures in God's universe will eternally mar the perfection of a universe that God created to reflect his glory.

Meaning if he allows hell somewhere in his universe still, we don't know where it is, right? But there's some little corner of evil that's happening. And it's like all the rest of the universe maybe is beautiful, but this one evil, ugly place still exists.

That doesn't make sense that that could possibly be a perfect universe, a perfect creation of God. And the answer to that, which is interesting, and you can buy it or you can not buy it, says we must realize that when evil remains unpunished, does that detract from God's glory in the universe?

Meaning that if God just let it slide, say, well, you know, I'm not gonna punish those who have committed sins against me. We must also realize that when God punishes evil and triumphs over it, the glory of his justice, righteousness, and power to triumph over all opposition will also be seen.

So there is a different way of looking at that. It's an interesting question, but I think the issue with all of these logical arguments, which I think are very good arguments about why is this the way it is, is answered by the scripture because the scriptures really are the ones that shows us that eternal punishment is what is going to happen and the way God has set this up, not because it pleased him to do so, but because in his justice, that is the appropriate way to handle it.

So the next one is purgatory. And I gotta tell you, folks, this one gets my back up a little bit. And I'll tell you why. The Annihilists, not so much. Both brothers who might be thinking that, I don't think the scriptures support it, but this one in particular bothers me.

I'm gonna read some of what the Catholic Church is their official doctrinal position on this. So the catechism of the Catholic Church defines purgatory as a purification. And some of us might not know all this.

Maybe some are from Catholic background or whatnot. So as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven, which is experienced by those who die in God's grace and fellowship, but are still imperfectly purified.

It notes that this final purification of the elect is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. So it's saying, well, you're not going to get into this purgatory place if you're a semi-believer, if you're a believer, like you need to be cleaned up a little bit before you go to heaven.

But if you're a non-believer, you're gonna be punished. So maybe some of us didn't even know that.

I don't know.

You're stealing some of my thunder for church history, but I can tell you in this particular part, because it gets my back up too, it was used as a political weapon within these towns with indulgences.

And they were, especially in Germany and in Rome. Yeah, there's a backstory with all that of how they fleeced people because of purgatory. They made people pay for it. And later we'll go even further.

I have a little bit of a different issue with it, but I'm sure you have the same issue.

Of course, purgatory is not found in the Bible. The word is only found in the Apocrypha.

No, and that's the next point, really. They say the purification is necessary because the teachers script that we must be perfect in heaven. Oh, okay. That's great, but the Lord Jesus makes us perfect.

It's not this purgatory. So purgatory is not in the Bible. It is in 2 Maccabees. And if you look at 2 Maccabees, I didn't quote the verse here, but it does definitely mention a situation like purgatory would be.

This made up doctrine. But the problem is we've already gone through and discussed in earlier lessons why we reject the Apocrypha. Because it was not part of the canon of the New Testament or the Old Testament.

And it was not accepted by the Jewish people who were given control of it.

The apostles referred to it.

No, it has a lot of problems and it is not scripture. So if that is what you're basing your faith and trust in, it's really sinking sand. There's nothing there. There's a couple of Bible verses that they try to point to.

I'm not gonna go over these really right now, but here's the verse and then here's the answer kind of thing. But the basic issue and the problem here is that this doctrine says that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is not sufficient.

That's the problem. And I can feel my blood pressure change just a little bit, like when I even said that. So Jesus is insufficient to cleanse sins. It's insufficient to purify those who have faith in him.

This is blasphemy against the Lord.

It is blasphemy.

Jesus died once for all, with no other sacrifices ever to be made. And that includes your own suffering. This doctrine ignores many things. And it's not really even a true doctrine, but I'm calling it that.