I was reading in Luke today of the moments after Jesus was taken by the Chief Priests and soldiers.
To read the words they said to him.
If these same people never came to Christ for salvation later, when they died, oh the horrors they now have been living with for centuries.
Their actions and words against Jesus.
Slapped Him.
Mocking Him.
Beating Him.
Whipping Him.
In a sense it reminds me of various Kings who died in the Old Testament that did evil in the sight of God. Who died horrible deaths to awaken in Hades to even more of the pain that they left behind here on Earth. One intentionally set his house on fire while he was still in it to avoid capture. That burning kept on after his death, according to the words of Jesus describing Hell.
Hell is not some place to celebrate anything. It isn't some party center of the afterlife. Nobody's drinking it up with endless beer, liquor or sexual fantasy. Nobody's laughing there. Everyone there, regardless of anger towards God or not knows exactly why they are there. In the pain and torment they endure.
They rejected Jesus. They refused to acknowledge their need for a Savior.
Hell is a very real place.
The torment is very real.
Deciding to come to Christ or to reject Him is in your hands. Nobody else's.
People indeed will rage against believers in Christ Jesus until the Plan of God reaches its conclusion. But they can never send any Christian to Hell. All who die in Christ Jesus find themselves immediately in Heaven. The death of a believer in Jesus is really a defeat for Satan.
The horrors of this world are not even close to an endless torment of a soul that cannot know decay or destruction of the body. Nobody in Hell has a body that ever will be torn apart or be destroyed again in any way. The torment they endure is of the soul. They have no peace, there is neither night or day there. The anguish is continually happening.
Yet that too is not the worst to come.
The worst to come is at the Final Judgment Seat of Christ. They will indeed be resurrected and are given a new body. Then are cast into the Lake of Fire. The pain and torment that they had been experiencing will get a whole lot worse.
There's a very high price to pay for rejecting Jesus. Before they are cast into the Lake of Fire every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. They WILL admit what is right and true.
This indeed is a heavy truth to read about. You my Dear Reader must choose while it is yet today in your life. You. I can't choose for you. There is no Purgatory to go to that someone here can influence God to move you into Heaven. That's a lie of Satan.
Jesus came to seek and save you.
He loved you enough to go through the worst that Satan could physically do to Him, to die and raise again from the dead 3 days later.
His love for you spans the Universe. He gave all of that up to make it possible for you to spend eternity with Him.
You only have this time you have been given in this physical world to choose.
Once it's over, it's over.
Most people the world over knows what John 3:16 says. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
To perish is to be banished from God's presence for eternity paying yourself the penalty for your own sin.
The wages of sin is death, as it reads in Romans. Death apart from God, by God's definition and direction since Cain killed Able, has been a place of tremendous torment in a place called Hell.
Two died on crosses with Jesus. One asked Jesus to remember him when He comes again. Jesus told him that he would be with Him in Paradise. The other never said a word. Both were there. One was in Paradise and the other on the other side of it, in torment. Seeing full well what he turned down. Hades and Paradise used to be in the same place. Paradise was where believers awaited Jesus to come and take with Him at His ascension to Heaven after being crucified. For 3 days Jesus was with all who were waiting for Him. Those who had died who had rejected Him during His earthly ministry now saw Him as He was. Saw and knew too little too late that their fate was sealed. Crying out as the rich man had done to Jesus to have mercy on them. Crying to Jesus for help. All being told by Jesus that they had their chance and what they chose is what they will live with.
My friend please don't choose to reject Him. Please don't choose to ignore the importance of knowing that you are saved in Christ Jesus or not. Please don't consider it foolish. Millions of people per hour are waking up in Hell. Satan himself won't go to Hell because he knows that place is a judgment from God. Satan has no throne there.
Please think about it. Please consider your ways. If you reject Jesus in this life those horrors await you. What you enjoyed in this life will be but a vapor compared to the pain and sorrow that awaits you.
Admit you are in need of a Savior.
Admit that you need your sins forgiven by Jesus.
Ask Him to save you and to come into your life to be your Savior and Lord and you too shall be saved.
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