The Doctrine of Hell is Being Lost (Part 1)

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Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is

Mike Abendroth, and I'd like to talk to you today about the subject of hell, the subject of hell.

It wasn't that long ago I did a show called Raising Hell, R -A -I -N -G, taken from the so -called professor of theology at Messiah College.

I remember when I first got to New England and people said, oh yeah, we send our kid to Messiah College.

I was always wondering about the school, and I probably should do a little more research about the school, but if that is indicative of the beliefs of the school, then

I would wonder why would any Christian send their kids there, because the whole article,

I wish I remembered her name. You can go back to the old show and find it out, or type in Huffington Post, Raising Hell.

The whole premise is this, that you have to look at the New Testament and other verses that talk about the eternal nature of hell and how it's a place of punishment for eternity, and you have to interpret those in light of the

God of love, in light of the God of love, and so those are appalling hermeneutics and astonishing thoughts, and basically, hell isn't really popular.

Although it is real and it is true and it is talked about by Jesus a lot, it doesn't seem like it's a very popular topic, and why are we surprised if death is a topic that is avoided?

Well, hell is certainly soon to follow. If you see people today, they can't even hardly say the word dead.

It's passed on, passed away, no longer with us, pushing up the daisies, kick the bucket, bitten the dust, given up the ghost, cashed in his chips, checked out, conked out, but death is real, and part of the fear of death is the reality of meeting

God, and for those who have had their sins forgiven based on their great

Savior Christ Jesus' finished work, death, burial, resurrection, and their belief in that, for them, fear of death shouldn't be so fearful, but for those who have no

Savior, who have to pay for their own sins, it is no wonder they are so afraid of death.

If you look at cults, the examples that I'm going to give now, most cults don't believe in some kind of eternal hell.

Lots of them don't even believe in eternal heaven, but hell isn't a big subject for cults either.

Christian science, founded by the spiritist Mary Baker, Eddie Glover Patterson Fry, depending on which husband she had, heaven and hell are states of thought, not places.

People experience their own heaven or hell right here on earth. That's what she said.

A lot of these are taken right from John Ankerberg and John Weldon in the book called

In Facts on Life After Death. Edgar Cayce, he was a

New Ager, and he said that the destiny of the soul, as of all creation, is to become one with the

Creator. So you can't have any souls that are damned, souls that are in eternal hell, if they all have to be one with the

Creator. How about sun, young, moon? Unification Church, the

Moonies, I don't hear much about the Moonies anymore. God will not desert any person eternally.

By some means, they will be restored. So whether I guess that is Judas, Hitler, Goliath, or anybody else,

Stalin, Mormonism, we know that Joseph Smith falls along the same lines, quote, the false doctrine that the punishment to be visited upon erring souls is endless, but it is but a doctrine of unauthorized and erring sectarians at once unscriptural, unreasoning, and revolting.

So I do think it actually is revolting. To think about eternal punishment. Although it's more than revolting, we all know that it's just, and we'll get to that pretty soon.

Today we're talking about hell. Hell is real, even though it's not very popular.

Jehovah's Witnesses, Charles Taze Russell, her founder, the founder, the teaching about a fiery hell can rightly be designated as a teaching of demons.

So I guess Jesus taught this demonic doctrine. Let's go on.

This is interesting to me, looking at Weldon and Ankerberg's book, where these quotes come from.

You can go to the original sources if you'd like. The Church of New Jerusalem.

This is not a very popular religion, but I just like to say the name. It's Swedenborgianism.

And so this almost sounds like that when I had an upset stomach,

I needed to take some acid, some antacid, because I needed to take some acid. I'll never forget the day

I went to the Rolling Stones concert. I think it was in 1981. Boulder, Colorado, stadium with my mother.

My mom decided to go with me. And they made an announcement. I think Living Color was the first band, then

George Thorogood, then the Rolling Stones. And in between Thorogood and the Rolling Stones, the public address announcer at Boulder Stadium in Colorado said, there's some acid, some brown -tabbed acid that is not good, and people are hallucinating too much on the acid that's brown -tabbed.

Please don't buy that. But there I am sitting with my mother. But antacid, when

I have Swedenborgianism, I usually take about three tums. Sometimes my

Swedenborgianism is so bad, I take a couple Prilosecs. Plain label, of course.

I'm on a budget. Swedenborgianism was founded by Spiritus Emanuel Swedenborg, and he said, quote,

God does not condemn anyone to hell, end quote. Well, if you have an upset stomach when you've got

Swedenborgianism, maybe you have a headache when you've got Ekenkar. Sometimes my mind is full of Ekenkar.

Actually, that's a New Age religion, and it was founded by Twitchell and Gross. There is no death, and that there is no eternal hell.

So when you talk about hell isn't very popular, whether it's the Messiah College theology professor,

Dr. So -and -so, or whether it's Ekenkar teachers, or anyone else, typically you'll see the cults say there's no hell, and that's a fascinating thing to me because if I was gonna put a cult together,

I'd probably try to operate on fear. How do you get people to do things? Well, fear is one, greed is another.

Greed motivates people, fear motivates people. Open sex, that probably motivates people.

Celestial sex, polygamy on earth, that'll motivate people. But it seems odd to me on one human, from the human perspective, that cults usually say hell isn't forever, and it isn't real.

But on the other side of the coin, it makes all the sense in the world because if the

Bible teaches something, substitutionary atonement, the cults have to deny it.

If the Bible teaches there's an eternal hell, even though it could be useful in their promotion of faith in their system, oh, believe what we believe, or you're going to hell, they don't do it because they wanna teach the opposite of Christianity.

And that is quite insightful in my book. So right now we're talking about hell and how most cults don't believe in hell.

Hell's not very popular. The Lucius Trust and Arcane School slash

Full Moon Meditation Groups. No comments there. New Age Spiritist Alice Bailey, the fear of death is based upon old erroneous teaching as to heaven and hell like it's real.

The Love Family, number nine. We have 13 total, we're up to number nine. Love Family's also called the

Children of God. This is not Kevin Love Family, the center for UCLA, and now I don't know who he plays for, the

Minnesota Timberwolves probably. This is not the Love Family there. This is the Children of God founded by David Berg, and he says the

Lake of Fire is where the wicked go. Well, he's closer than most others to get purged from their sins to let them eventually come out.

Unbelievers don't like the doctrine of hell. Cults can't believe in the doctrine of hell.

Number 10, Rauschikrushianism, Rauschikrushianism. I had an abscess once and I thought that was the

Latin word for that abscess, but I could have been under versed, so I'm not quite sure. This is an occult system.

Quote, the eternal damnation of those who are not saved does not mean destruction nor endless torture.

The Christian religion did not originally contain any dogmas about hell. Well, that person sounds like they're in the emergent church, or they're liberal, or that sounds like that could be

Brian McLaren, but that is Rauschikrushianism. How about Unitarian Universalists?

It seems safe to say that no Unitarian Universalist believes in a resurrection of the body, a literal heaven or hell, or any kind of eternal punishment.

Well, that would be true because it's an emaciated, effeminate distortion of real

Christianity. Number 12, I don't know if you like the show. I think it's quite fascinating.

And since it's my show, we just keep going. If you like the show, write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com.

If you don't like the show, write us anyway. That's all right. I'm a big boy. I got my name out in public, the public airwaves, and most of the time we get good reviews.

Some we don't. What can I say? Number 12, the Theosophical Society, God Wisdom Society, and the medium

Helen Blavatsky. Remember that name? If you're old enough, you remember

Helena Blavatsky. Let me try it one last time.

First, I messed up her first name, then I messed up her last name. Helena P. Blavatsky.

That almost rhymes. That sounds like something else. I had a cramp in my calf right next to my

Helena Blavatsky. Oh, man.

I think one of the patriots tore their ACL, which is also known as the

Blavatsky. We positively refuse to accept the belief in eternal reward or eternal punishment.

Death is not a cause for fear. And then lastly, we've got the

Ramtha spirit medium speaker, J .S. Knight. Remember J .S. Knight? God has never judged you or anyone.

No, there is no hell and there's no devil. Lily and other spirits channeled through the medium

Ruth Montgomery argue that there is no such thing as death and God punishes no man.

All these listed from Weldon and Ankerberg, compiled in a book to hell and back by Maurice Rawlings, M .D.,

Nelson Publications, page 81 to 83. Well, I don't know if this is shocking.

I don't know if this is interesting to you. It's quite fascinating to me.

We in the society don't like the doctrine of hell. We use hell now as some kind of swear word or we'll say something like, you know, with George Patton, he was hell on wheels.

If there's total chaos involved, all hell is broke loose. So -and -so's hell to live with.

Somebody says, you know, I went through hell. We miss him like hell.

Things are hot as hell. You can go down to the store or the Greendale Mall or other places and you can get salsa and it is to purgatory and back and to hell and back, those kind of things.

Evangelical seminary students surveyed. This is from Ashamed of the Gospel by MacArthur, Crossway Books, page 65.

Nearly half, 46 % that is, felt preaching about hell to unbelievers is in poor taste.

I mean, isn't that fascinating? It's in poor taste. And you know that old guy, Jonathan Edwards, sinners in the hands of an angry

God, eternal repribution for the lost people. Look at the caricaturization of Edwards and look at how he preached and talked.

Three out of every 10, according to MacArthur and this survey of seminary students, three out of every 10, now this is seminary students, who would say that they were born again, surveyed people.

They believe that good people go to heaven when they die, even if they've never trusted Christ. Can you believe it?

Isn't there a few Bible verses for that? There's no one good. How about Matthew 5 .48?

You've got to be perfect. How are you gonna be perfect with your faith? How are you gonna be perfect with your sinful righteousness and paying for your own sin?

No, you need to be forgiven on one hand. You need Christ's righteousness credited to your account on the other hand, and you need

Jesus to be raised from the dead. MacArthur goes on to say, one, quoting this evangelical seminary student survey, one in every 10 evangelicals say that they believe the concept of sin is outmoded.

Well, hell's not gonna stick around very long if sin is on the way out. And these days with sin reclassified as a disease, as some kind of allergy, as some kind of lack of self -esteem, as some kind of syndrome, as something that you need a pill for, no wonder hell is not very popular.

R .A. Torrey said, if you in any way abate the doctrine of hell, it will abate your zeal.

And that's what's happening today. When hell is not really believed to be eternal and to be horrible, you lose your evangelical zeal.

Let's face it. We don't want our loved ones to go to hell, do we? Therefore, one of the reasons you evangelize is so they don't go to hell.

You evangelize for the glory of God and it exalts Christ Jesus as you speak well of him.

It is a honoring thing to God when people believe in the gospel. There's all kinds of reasons, but one reason is, of the many, because you don't want your loved ones to go be punished for their own sins that they have justly deserved, especially when there's a gracious Savior who forgives sinful people when they lay down their weapons and trust in him.

A .W. Tozer said the vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions.

That's how unbelievers have viewed this. I used to smoke opium and I know what opium does and it just relaxes and it just makes your mind kind of pickled and all your problems are gone.

You just think everything's quite dandy, quite fine, quite wonderful, but it doesn't change reality and you can't get away from yourself and the eternal verities about the holy

God and how he pours out wrath on sinful people in hell forever when they won't bow and kiss the son and honor his son, the one in whom he's well -pleased.

I think this kind of thought of hell being not true is an opiate for Christians, too, and you miss out on the holiness of God and the justice of God and the righteousness of God.

Of course he's the God of love, but you don't interpret these things like the Messiah College professor. Oh, we have to look at God only as a

God of love, therefore let's see hell in light of a God of love. Well, that's a good way to do it.

If you want to get rid of hell, the problem is it's good in your own eyes. It's not good in God's eyes because God is a

God of holiness. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. So I don't think preaching hell's in bad taste.

I don't think preaching hell is in poor taste. I think if you're evangelizing, you want to say something about hell.

And if you're a Christian and you're not going to hell, it should elicit in you praise and thanksgiving.

Say, well, it's politically incorrect. Who cares? You really mean to tell me you care about being politically incorrect as a

Christian? Well, I'll be like a theological dinosaur. I'll be some kind of spiritual troglodyte.

Well, it's about time you suffer for your faith. That's what I say. And if you're not willing to hate father, mother, brother, sister, mother, wife, anybody else, and even your own life, then you can't be

Christ's disciple. For me and my pulpit and this microphone,

I prefer to honor the Lord. And if you're troubled with this, that I believe there's a real hell, and if you won't submit to Jesus Christ and his lordship and believe with a saving faith unto

Christ Jesus, the risen savior who has been the Passover lamb slain, then

I guess you do have to write me. But one day you'll die, and without Christ, you are going straight to hell, forever.

J .C. Ryle said, let others hold their peace about hell if they will. I dare not do so.

I see it plainly in scripture, and I must speak of it. I fear that thousands are on the broad road that leads to it, and I would feign arouse them to a sense of peril before them.

What would you say of the man who saw his neighbor's house in danger of being burned down, and never raised the cry, fire?

Call it bad taste, Ryle said, if you like to speak of hell. Call it charity to make things pleasant and speak smoothly and soothe men with the constant lullaby of peace.

From such notions of taste and charity may I ever be delivered. My notion of charity is to warn men plainly of their danger.

My notion of taste is to declare all the counsel of God. And here's what Ryle says, and here's the advice

I want to give you today. If I never spoke of hell, I should think

I had kept something back that was profitable, and should look on myself as an accomplice of the devil.

End quote. Is all scripture inspired? Is all scripture God -breathed?

Is all scripture profitable for teaching? The answer should be 2 Timothy 3 .16.

Yes, it's profitable for teaching, reproof for correction, for training in righteousness.

You don't do anybody any good by not talking about hell and warning them from the wrath to come.

I'm reading Pilgrim's Progress to my children after dinnertime, and he knew something bad was going to happen, and that city was going to be destroyed, and he knew he had a burden on his back.

That's a good thing to know, a great thing to know. Don't shrink from the topic of everlasting punishment when

Jesus taught it, John taught it, Paul taught it,

Peter taught it. Hell is essential. Al Mohler wrote a great article, and you should just pull it up on the internet, go to Google and type in Al Mohler, air conditioning hell, how liberalism happens.

And here's what he says. Considering hell and its related doctrines, Congregationalist pastor

Washington Gladden declared, to teach such a doctrine as this about God is to inflict upon religion a terrible injury and to subvert the very foundations of morality.

Mohler, though hell had been a fixture of Christian theology since the

New Testament, it became an odium theologium, a doctrine considered repugnant.

That's exactly right. Mohler says in his article, Air Conditioning Hell, novelist David Lodge dated the final demise of hell to the decades of the 1960s.

Lodge said, at some point in the 1960s, hell disappeared. No one could say for certain when this happened.

First it was there, then it wasn't. University of Chicago historian

Martin Marty saw the transition as simple and by the time it actually occurred, hardly observed.

Hell disappeared. No one noticed, he asserted. Well, this is liberalism at its worst.

This is liberalism at its worst. And Mohler goes on to say, how do you slide into liberalism?

First, you don't mention a certain doctrine. Then you revise it and retain it in reduced form.

Isn't that insightful? Revise and retain in reduced form. And then you make it a point of ridicule.

A point of ridicule. That's what you do. You dismiss it in terms of, you know, oh, whatever about hell, whatever that means and whatever it is, just like Robert Shuler says.

And then lastly, if you want to get rid of hell, you don't mention it, you reduce it, you ridicule it, and then you reformulate it in order to remove its intellectual and moral offensiveness.

That's what you do. John Wynnum says, unending torment speaks to me of sadism, not justice.

Well, we're at No Compromise Radio Ministry and I haven't got to the Bible necessarily today on what the

Bible teaches, what Jesus teaches about hell. But I don't want to air condition hell and I don't want to do anything except to be faithful to the full body, the full corpus of Scripture.

And if other people don't want to talk about it, we will. Why? Because it's good for you to know what the

Bible says about every and all subjects. And we want to make sure at No Compromise Radio that we teach the

Scriptures and Scriptures are not vague about the terrible, eternal nature of hell.

And if you are not born again, you're going there. And if you make your last breath just before R .C.

Sproul's on you're going straight to hell. So you need to repent, you need to turn, you need to turn or burn, as Spurgeon said, and trust in Jesus Christ, the sin bearer, who died for sinners like you.

Believe in Him, turn to Him, trust the risen Savior. That's what you need to do. Lord, have mercy upon me, the sinner.

Save me from the wrath to come. This is No Compromise Radio ministry. God bless you. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 10 .15 and in the evening at six. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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