Prophecy Countdown _ The Good News About Hell _ Doug Batchelor

Good evening, friends, welcome again to Prophecy Countdown. I want

to welcome those here in person, thank you for coming

out tonight. Also want to greet our friends joining us

across the country and around the world. Thank you for

being a part of this Bible study, this in depth

Prophecy Seminar.

Now, as we do every night, we tell you about

a free offer.

I hope all of those of you are watching and

here as well, you're taken advantage of the free offer tonight.

A very important subject and a fascinating magazine talking about

that subject, the Bible Truth about Hell. That is the

magazine that we're going to be going through and if

you'd like to receive that as free, all you have

to do is text the word truth twenty five to

the number four zero five four four again, that is

truth twenty five to four zero five four to four.

Or you can scan the QR code that you see

on your screen. It's easy. Just scan that and then

you'll be able to put in your info and you

you'll be able to download a free copy of this

read it, and then you can share it with somebody else.

We also want to tell those who are watching in

the Fort Worth Dallas area, the various host sites that

we have. If you're watching somewhere in the area, we

want to encourage you to visit one of the host sites.

They've got some wonderful gifts, part of our studies, some

additional resources for those in person, and I hope you'll

do so. If you want to find a site near you,

it's easy. Just go to the website Prophecy countdownevent dot org.

That's Prophecycountdown event dot org and you will be able

to find put in your zip code. You'll be able

to see all of the various host sites, and then

just show up there for one of the meetings.

You'll be blessed when you go.

Also want to tell those who are watching, we are

translating these programs live into fifteen different languages. If you'd

like to learn more about that, just go to the

website Prophecycountdown dot tv and you can click on the

language that you want and you'll be able to watch

the program in your language. Well, we have a theme

song that we like to sing from night to night,

and you know how it goes. We're gonna invite you

to stand here and friends. I hope you're gonna join

us as we sing together. Beautiful, beautiful. Let's sing this together, friends, beautiful, beautiful.

Esus is beautiful, and Esus snakes beautiful things carefully touching me.

Carefully pushing.

Couza my just see Jesus, beautiful things up.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Let's sings. Punch is water.

And the things of earth and the.

Strange lead in the light of His Lordy grace.

Amen.

While you are standing, we are going to have our

opening prayer this evening. We have Pastor Elton who will

be leading us in prayer. Let's bow our heads.

Let's pread together. Father in Heaven. We are grateful that

we can come here tonight to study more about your word.

Thank your Father for bringing us here safely. Thank your

Father for our audience. That is what they're watching from

all over the world. And we pray Father that tonight

your holy Spirit will guide us once again to the

truth of your word. Father. Bless Pastor Doug. Use him

Father once again made the words that he will speak,

Father will be powerful words coming from from heaven. And

may your presence and your spirit be around us here tonight.

Thank you for Jesus, Thank you for the sacrifice He

made on the cross for us. Bless us, Lord and

forgive our scenes. In the name of your son Jesus.

We pray, Amen and Amen.

Please be seated. We've been so blessed with the music

from night to night. We really appreciate our musicians, Jackie

and Ryan. They're going to be bringing us a beautiful music.

Glidehim entitled near to God.

Geeask keep me name.

The cross theirs uh brayd just fat.

Free to all UK link stream.

It flows from cow Prize by.

The cross.

In the Cross. In my long read to the band,

some soul shell find.

Rest beyond the the cross.

H trimbling soul.

Love and bir see f.

Be the bride and bing sal.

Sin his bes a.

To be a fing the broad in the Magno read.

To Maan, some soul shell fin rest beon lowy.

The cross.

I'll watch had way old patrous stinging.

Read the goldland strand tres meon lowry.

Wooing the cross, blas be man, my ran.

Some soul shall find rest, be.

The my.

Some soul shall find.

Its rast be.

The the.

Man.

Thank you beautiful, Thanks so much, Ryan and Jackie.

We'll pass it.

Doug.

We're going to do Bible questions again.

But we want to let you know if you're maybe

new and you haven't seen how to post a question.

It's easy. There is a QR code. We're going to

put it up on the screen for our friends who

are watching. You can actually just take out your cell phone,

scan that QR code right on your computer or TV

however you're watching, and you can post your Bible question.

So there's the QR code those here.

You can just pull out your camera and you can

take a picture of that or scan that and then.

Post the question.

We've got some great questions that are coming in, hundreds

of questions on a variety of interesting Bible topics. Will

pass it, Doug, I think we ready you kind of

primed to pump on this one. Last night you said,

somebody write in this question. So the question is what

is the age of accountability?

I don't know.

The age of accountability means at what point is a

child old enough where they are accountable for their decisions

that will determine their eternal destiny. The reason I say

I don't know is because I think it varies from

one child to the other based on what they understand

the Bible says sin is knowing to do good and

not doing it, and anything that is not of faith

is sin. So sin is connected with your knowledge and understanding. Now,

as a rule of thumb, Jesus was twelve years old

when he first went up to the temple. You know

what a young child is beginning to go from being

a child through puberty into adulthood. Their comprehension increases, they

understand the demands of the Gospel. When parents come with

their children and say they'd like to get baptized, I

usually ask do they have their own relationship with the Lord.

The criteria for baptism is you need to be able

to believe, to have a commitment to Jesus, to understand

the consequences, to make that decision, to be willing to

obey his teachings. And so when they reached that point

where they've got their own relationship with Jesus, I heard

one pastor put it this way. If they're old enough

to be lost, they're old enough to be saved. And

so when they come to the point where they know

the difference between right and wrong and they understand the Gospel,

that would be the age of accountability. Girls sometimes it's

sinner than boys, and it's somewhere probably between the age

of nine and thirteen. Jews they bar mitzvah at thirteen.

It used to be twelve. So that's just the rule

of thumb, all right.

Next question that we have, that's when came in.

Is it a sin to buy a lottery ticket for

yourself or maybe as a gift for somebody else?

Well, I believe in gambling is a sin. You know,

the Bible says hasten not to be rich. An inheritance

hastily gotten will be lost. And the idea that you

would want to anything you can get addicted to. Some

people have an addiction to gambling, and so why would

a Christian want to do something even if you're not addicted,

that might be a stumbling block for somebody else. I

know people because you know, we're in California. We're right

near Reno and Vegas, and we know people that have

mortgaged their homes and run up their credit cards because

they can't stop gambling. And now it's not just in Vegas.

I don't know in Texas if you have Indian casinos,

but around California, in other states they've got Indian casinos

are basically gambling holes. And you know, I, ultimately a

Christian is a follower of Christ. I can't picture Jesus

buying a lottery ticket. And then I'll hear people say,

but what if I pay tithe on the women's will

that be okay?

All right?

Next question that we have, at what point does each

person appear before God in the judgment?

Well, there's really re phases to the judgment. There's some

aspect of judgment that happens before Jesus comes. You might

call it the pre advent judgment. You already knew that

because the Bible tells us when he comes, he's dispensing rewards.

So the Lord knows who's saved and lost when he comes.

Then you have a judgment that takes place during the millennium,

and we have a lesson coming on Revelation twenty where

we live and reign with Christ and the books are open,

but the saved are saved in the lost for loss.

But then there's a great White Throne judgment, and that's

at the end of the one thousand years, when the

New Jerusalem comes down and all the nations are gathered

before the Lord, and every king need will bow, that

is at the end of the one thousand years all right.

Is the Holy Spirit a distinct person or simply the

Spirit of God?

Well, the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit is

a person. Jesus explains, the Holy Spirit has all the

characteristics of personhood. Jesus said, when he the Spirit of Truth,

is come, he will guide you into all truth. And

the Book of Accidents says the Holy Spirit told them this,

or told them that you read at the baptism of Jesus. God,

the Father is in heaven because he speaks and says,

this is my beloved son.

God.

The Son is in the water. God. The Spirit comes

down in the form of a dove. The Holy Spirit

is without question, the hardest person of the Godhead for

us to visualize, because he's ethereal. It's a spirit, and

you know, sometimes he appears tongues of fire. At Pentecost,

Jesus compares the Holy Spirit to wind. He compares it

to water, and he is compared to a dove, meaning peace.

And so the Holy Spirit is a person. You find

him at creation. The Spirit of God moved upon the

face of waters, and you find him at the end

of the Bible in Revelation when it says the Spirit

and the bride says come. So granted, the Holy Spirit

is a mysterious person of the Godhead. But the Bible says,

grieve not the Holy Spirit. It doesn't say grieve not Jesus,

grieve not the Father. Grieve not the Holy Spirit. You

don't grieve an electrical force. You grieve a person. It

means sadden. So he has personhood. And we believe the

Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead.

And in the Great Commission passadeg Jesus said, go baptize

in the name of the Father, the name of the Son,

and the name of the Holy Spirit.

He's given a distinct category.

There you okay.

Next question that we have, it's I heard that when

Jesus comes back, he will stand upon the Mount of Olives.

Is this correct? Yes.

Zachariah chapter fourteen pictures Jesus, and it's interesting that the

last place Jesus' feet touch when he's on the Mount

of Olives near Bethany. While the disciples watched, he ascended

to heaven. And the Bible says he will come in

like manner as we have seen him go. At the

end of the one thousand years, he comes down to earth.

His feet touched the mount of Olives, and it causes

this magnificent earthquake that creates a great valley, a plane,

and it is in that plane that the New Jerusalem

settles down. So, yes, his feet do literally come down

and touch them out of Olives. But that's at the

end of the one thousand years, when he comes in glory.

The Bible says, the Lord will descend from heaven with

a shout, the voice of the archangel, the trump of God,

and we will be caught up to meet him where

in the air, So his feet don't touch the ground

at that point. So we are caught up to meet

him when he comes next, and he will send his

angels to gather together his elect from the four corners

of the earth. They are gathered up, the living are

given glorified bodies, the dead are raised, and so his

feet don't touch the ground. Then it's at the end

of the one thousand years the New Jerusalem comes down,

and after this great battle with God, and may God

we'll talk about later, he creates a new Heaven and

a new Earth.

All right, next wish that we have will there be

true prophets on the earth before Jesus comes.

Well, yes, the gift of prophecy is one of the

gifts of the Church. And you have prophets in the

Bible all the way from the time you can say,

from the time of Adam. Certainly Noah was a prophet.

He foretold the coming of the flood Enoch. Before Noah prophesied.

It says in the Book of Jude you have prophets

after the Old Testament, you have prophets in the New Testament.

Paul says prophecy is one of the gifts of the spirit,

and in Joel chapter two it says it will come

to pass in the last days. I will pour out

my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your

daughters will prophesy. Yeah. So God has not subtracted any

of the gifts of the spirit from the Church. The

Lord God will do nothing, but he reveals his secret

to the prophets. And that's written by amos So. And

of course Jesus was a prophet too. So I believe

the gifts of the spirit, including the gift of prophecy,

last prophecy in the Old Testament. Behold, I send you

Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible Day of

the Lord. That's talking about the day of the Lord,

not just John the Baptist coming in the spirit and

power of Elijah. So yes, there will be prophets right

up to the end.

All right, one more thought, Yeah.

These things have come to me. Before God ever does

anything significant in history, he sends a prophet. He sent

a prophet before the flood. His name was He sent

a prophet before the Exodus. His name was Moses. He

sent a prophet before the destruction of Babylon, several Isaiah, Jeremiah,

And he sent a prophet to introduce Jesus first coming.

What was his name, John the Baptist. Would it make

sense that God would suddenly not send a prophet for

the climax event of the Church's history. Of course, the

gift of prophecy will be there.

Okay. Who is Michael the Archangel?

Okay? I you know, I sometimes hesitate to answer this

question because there's always someone that will misunderstand. Michael is

a phrase that means who is as God, angel is

Angelos is messenger. The phrase Michael the Archangel, it's talking

about who is as God the greatest or the highest

an ark was the highest stone in a Roman arch archaeos,

the chief messenger who is as God. Michael the archangel

is a term typically to describe Jesus prior to his coming.

He is not Jesus, is not an angel like a

chair or sayeraph Juss is the eternal son of God.

But it's one of the titles. Now let me prove it.

The Lord himself will descend from heaven. For Thessalonians chapter four,

the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout,

with the voice of the archangel. You read in the

Book of Jude verse nine, Michael comes to resurrect Moses,

who is the resurrection and the life Jesus. In Daniel

chapter twelve, it says, and at that time Michael will

stand up the great prince that stands for the children

of thy people. Doesn't call him an angel. There he

is the king of kings. He is the Prince of princes,

who is the one who stands in our behalf as

our representative, that is Christ. And when we believe it

was Michael, the general of the Lord's army appears to Joshua,

and Joshua goes down to worship him. He says to Joshua,

take your shoes off your feet. The place where you

stand is holy ground. Michael is being told that Joshua

is being told to worship him, and so we only

worship God. That's one of the commandments. So Michael, when

he appears in the Old Testament, it's called Christophany. It's

where Christ appears prior to the incarnation. He often uses

the term Michael. And so we're not saying Jesus is

an angel, it's just Michael. The archangel is one of

the terms. And you look at the Old Bible scholars

like John gil Adam Clark, Matthew Henry, they all recognize this,

that Christ is our Michael. Oh one more, don't use drugs.

You'll have flashbacks too. These theasings come to me. Revelation

chapter twelve. There was a war in heaven. Michael and

his angels fought with the dragon. Now is the dragon

a symbolic name for who the devil? Then it would

stand the reason Michael is a symbolic name for the

chief of righteousness, which is Christ.

Okay, yeah, just to maybe add one quick thing you

mentioned Revelation twelve. Notice Michael has angels The word archangel

also could be understood as the commander of the angels,

the one in charge of the angel Michaels.

Jesus is in charge of the angels.

All right, next question, Please explain this verse in First Peter,

chapter three, verse nineteen, where it talks about Jesus preaching

to spirits that are in prison.

That's First Peter three nineteen.

Yeah, all right, let me go ahead and I'll read this.

Let me see what kind of time we got here, so.

You should finish up on this one pasted it. I

we'll see First Peter three nineteen. Yeah.

I'm getting there. I just I know where it is, honest,

it's in the First Peter.

Here we go.

Let me read this to you. One Peter three, verse nineteen,

one more page. All right, For Christ suffered, I'll start

with verse eighteen. For Christ also suffered once for sins,

the just, for the unjust, that he might bring us

to God, being put to death in the flesh, but

made alive by the spirit. Now the subject is the

spirit that made Christ alive, by whom by which spirit

he Jesus went and preached to the spirits, small s,

people who were in prison, who formerly were disobedient when

once the divine long suffering waited in the days of

Noah while the art was being prepared, that is in

which few souls eight were saved. Okay, he's basically saying,

it is the same spirit that rose Jesus from the

dead that preach to people in spirit spiritual bondage to

the devil back in the days of Noah. And it's

referring to the verse that you'll find in Genesis chapter six.

I think it's verse three. My spirit will not always

strive with man. His days will be one hundred and

twenty years. Peter's just saying, the same spirit that rose

Jesus is the same spirit that pled with the people

in prison by sin back in the days of Noah.

Jesus did not go down to some special purgatory and

preach to people who died during the days of Noah

to give them a second chance. The Bible says it

is appointed on demand once to die. After that the

judgment you do not get a second chance after you die.

Is that clear?

Amen?

Okay, all right, passaday, We've got time for another one.

Are they people in heaven right now? And who are they?

Well, I don't know. All their names. But I know

Enoch is there. Enoch walked with God, and he was

not for God took him. And you can read that

Elijah went to heaven. Second King's chapter two in a

fiery chariot, Moses was resurrected. You read in Jude verse nine.

In Mark chapter nine, it says Moses and Elijah appeared

to Jesus on the mount of Transfiguration. And at the

resurrection of Christ many of the saints that slept in

Jerusalem Matthew twenty seven were raised. So there are some

in heaven, but the universal resurrection happens at the second

coming for the righteous, at the end of the one

thousand years for the wicked.

All right, and again we want to remind you please

submit your Bible questions. It's eas We're going to put

the QR code up on the.

Screen and there it is. Just scan it with your phone.

That's pretty easy.

It's an app that we use and it takes you

right to it. You can just type in your Bible question.

You can see the other questions that have already been posted,

and you can vote on the questions kind of move

them up the list. Are we going to try and

answer as many questions as we can. Our music is

going to be brought to us this evening.

Give me Jesus.

E the moarning, when I rise e the morning, when

I rise therming, when I.

Give me cheese Jesus midnight? Who was my crost tark

midnight was my cry.

Tark rent, who was my cry?

Cheesesus, cheesesus, Give me cheese.

Us, you me.

Rist world, Keep me cheepsid.

Jem about the break of da.

Just about the break of time, just about the break of.

Keefty cheepsis, keep me cheap, said says, give me cheezesus.

You may.

This man, this world, you may all this world, but kee.

Me jeez.

Agree.

So you can do so by just simply going to

prophecycountdown dot TV. That's less number five and it's entitled

The Good News about Hell. You don't always think that

there's good news associated with hell, but understanding what the

Bible says on this topic is very important. A lot

of people have been discouraged in their Christian faith when

they think about God being a god of love and

burning people forever in hell. What does the Bible teach

on that subject. So that's going to be the study

this evening again. Hope you have your lessons you can

fill it along as we go through our study.

Welcome friends once again to Prophesy Countdown. And I'm very

excited about tonight's presentation. And I want to thank you

folks locally here in Crawley, Texas for coming night after night.

It really does my heart good just to see you

real bodies. I do better teaching if I see people

and I can see your expressions, I know if I'm

getting through. I kind of miss Karen not being here.

She usually sits on the front row and gives me

signals while I preach. You know, she does things like

or she'll do or she'll do. No, she really does.

She usually is up there and she's giving me signals,

so I mess her. But hopefully she's going to be

joining us at the end of the week, and we

look forward to both Karen and Ruth Ross, pastor Ross's wife,

going to come out and join us for the series.

Thank you for coming. Thank you those who are watching

on AFTV, on three ABN, and on the internet, all

of you that are tuning in. Tonight's subject is very

close to my heart. Maybe I should begin with this

story to explain why. Years ago, I'm talking like fifty

years ago, I was living in the hills in a cabin.

This is not when I lived in the cave. It's

another time. And I had a radio and the only thing,

no television. All I could get was one Christian radio station.

And on this Christian radio station, a gentleman would come

on once a night and he would answer Bible questions

and I would listen, and some were good answers, and

some I know my Bible, and I thought, oh, that's wrong.

And I remember at one point a college student called

in and she said, brother, i'd like to believe in God.

I'd like to believe the Bible. I'd like to believe Jesus.

But the idea of that God would take these creatures

he's created and plunge them down into Hell and burn

them for all eternity for the sins of one brief lifetime,

I can't see any lovers justice and that. And he said, well,

who are we to question God? And that's what the

Bible says, so we need to take And she hung up.

And then the next call, a lady called, and he

could tell from her voice it was quivering, and she said, brother,

I want you to give me a straight answer. She said,

my son died this last week. He did not profess

to be a Christian. He drank, he was an atheist,

and he ran into a tree and died instantly. Is

he burning in hell right now? And the host of

the program did his best to try to evade a

direct answer. And he's beating around the bush. She said, no, no, no, Look,

I'm telling you that he made no profession of God,

he had turned his back on God and he died.

Is he in hell? And he basically said, well, there's

only two options, and he would be among the loss.

And she said, so he's burning in hell. Well that's

what the Bible teaches. And how long is he going

to burn? Forever? And you could hear the lady choke

as she hung up the phone. Well, I got so excited.

I had no telephone back then, there are no cell phones.

I got in my car and I drove twelve miles

to a friend's house that had a phone, and I

called this national radio program, praying I would get through.

And it's all over the country, so the odds of

getting through were just like one to a million. First

time I called busy signal. Second time I called, I

got through it said please stay on the line. You're

in the queue, And all of a sudden, the host

comes on, Welcome to our program, and what is your question?

I said, brother, I believe the Bible teaches that there

is a hell, but that God is going to consume

the wicked in hell. The Bible says that they are

burnt up, they're devoured, they perish, that God is not

going to torture them for all eternity, that people get

varying rewards. And I began to give him all the scripts.

And then there was a radio nearby, and I can

notice that he had turned my volume off, so people

weren't hearing what I was saying. And he gave some

traditional verses, and then he turned my volume back up,

and I gave some more scripture answers, and then he

cut it off and he would not take any more

questions for the rest of the program because he was

trying to unravel the verses that I gave him. And

on my way home, I was praying. I said, Lord,

I wish someday I could have a radio program where

I could tell people what the Bible really says. Well,

praise the Lord. About thirty years ago, God gave us

a radio program and Pastor Ross and I answered Bible

questions every night around the country and around the world.

And this subject is a very important subject to me.

Tonight we're talking about the good News about Hell. I

know that sounds like an oxymorn, but the reason I

say it like that is there are two extremes on

this subject. And if you do not understand this subject,

it makes it difficult for you to love God or

even understand the justice of God. It is extremely important.

Now there are two ultimate rewards, saved or lost. Jesus said,

you're with me or you're against me. There's no Switzerland

in this battle. There's no neutral territory. And it's not

that we want to spend a lot of time talking

about where the laws they're going to be. It's just

that we need to understand it because it says something

about God and his justice. And so we're going to

go through these Bible lessons tonight, this study tonight, and

I'm going to give you scripture. Friends, and I turned

away from God when I was young. I went to

two or three Christian and Jewish schools growing up I

went to fourteen schools, and I went to two Catholic schools,

two Jewish schools, two military schools. I went to the

same military school as Donald Trump, New York Military Academy,

or I didn't. That's not a political statement. We didn't

know each other, and I had no choice of just

the fact I thought i'd share with you. But the

reason I mentioned it is because we were required to

go to services every week. My mother was Jewish. So

one week I'd go to the Jewish services, which strangely enough,

we're on Sunday. Another week I'd go to the Catholic services,

and then I'd go to the Protestant services. So I

had kind of a mixed up idea of God. But

they all basically said, if you're good, you go to Heaven.

If you're bad, you go to Hell and you burn

forever and ever and ever. And I said, God's a sadist.

I said, I don't want to serve that God. And

I turned my back on God. And you'd be surprised

how many people Charles Darwin, Robert Ingersoll, Karl Marx not

understanding this subject is why they turn from God. But

if they only knew what the Bible really said. Now

here's the two extremes. One extreme says God is love

and there is no hell. Everyone's going to be saved.

The other extreme says that if you're lost, you die,

and you immediately go to hell before the judgment, and

you begin to burn, and you burn and burn and burn,

and a million years later you have not yet begun

to burn, and you are burning through all eternity. And

it doesn't matter if you were Adolf Hitler or thirteen

years old and committed suicide. You're gonna burn the same

amount of time. And to me, that was mind blowing.

It just didn't seem like there's any justice. And when

I finally started reading what the Bible said, it was

extremely liberating. So friends, don't rush out until you hear

the evidence. You owe it to yourself to find out.

What does the Bible say in this subject? What is

the good news? All right? Question number one? That's not

a question. Actually, I'm going to start with an amazing fact.

A couple of times I've been to the city of Pompeii.

Pompeii was a thriving Roman city at the base of

Mount Vesuvius, very prominent volcanic mountain, and even as early

as sixty two AD, they had rumblings and earthquakes. People

knew that that mountain might blow. They knew the volcano

was that's Vulcan was one of the Greek gods. And

the springs were drying up, and every now and then

smoke was burping from the top of the mountain, and

hot springs would suddenly appear. They had all the signs

that things were swelling and something was going to give,

but the people waited for seventeen years and didn't do anything.

And then finally in seventy nine eighty there was a

magnificent eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and the towns of Pompeii

and Herculeum were shaken and much of it was destroyed.

Thousands died, and those that were not buried by the

ash superheated material came down the mountain and many were

burnt alive and then later buried. And some of the

ancient historians, like Pliny wrote about the destruction of Pompey.

I'd been there, and when they started to excavate it

in seventeen forty eight, they discovered they were running into

these cavities in the ash and one of the French

archaeologists got the idea. He said, let's pour some plaster

of Paris in there and find out what this is.

And they filled these cavities with plaster of Paris, let

it dry, and then he chipped it away and they

found out it was the forms of people and animals

that had been killed and buried in the eruption, frozen

in time for almost two thousand years. And as they

cleared away the debris, they basically saw what was Roman

life like back in seventy nine eighty. A little amazing fact,

the Roman soldiers that destroyed Jerusalem in seventy a d.

It is believed Pompeii was basically Las Vegas back then.

You can tell from the murals on the wall. And

matter of fact, when I went on a tour with

the amazing Facts bored through Pompei a couple of years ago,

we basically had to say, do not take us to

this section of the city because it is so blatant

of scene. And they thought we'd be very interested in that,

and now let's skip that, let's just go over here.

But it was like the Las Vegas back then, and

some of the Roman soldiers that had been involved in

destroying and burning Jerusalem in the temple were vacationing in

Pompeii when the city blew. And you wonder if that

was some form of divine justice. And I don't know that,

but I think it's interesting. And so they found all

these forms of people that died in this massive eruption,

and it makes you think about the story in the Bible.

Now we go to question number one. What two cities

are given as an example of the destruction of the wicked?

What does the Bible say? Turning this is tewod Peter two,

verse six, turning the cities of Why don't you they're

the answers on the screen?

What are they?

Sodom and Gomra into ashes? They were condemned to destruction,

making them an example to the those who afterward would

live ungodly? Did God reign fire in brimstone on those cities?

They were burned, they were punished, They were an example

of what is going to happen to the ungodly at

the end. Don't forget that Sodom and Gomora are set forth.

This is Jude another book, Jude chapter one, verse seven.

Sodom and Gomorrah are set forth as an example suffering

the vengeance of what eternal fire? Now here's the question.

You've got a picture of Sodom Gomor right there. It's said,

down at the south end of the Dead Sea, are

they still burning? But even in Jude's day they weren't

still burning. Be calls it eternal fire? Why eternal fire?

Because the results of the fire that burned them was eternal.

Those cities were never rebuilt. In fact, I forgot to

bring it with me, But a friend that has done

some archaeology in the area. You can dig into the

hills where ancient Sodom used to be, and you see

there's a picture of it. They've got these sulfur balls

that are there, and I've got several of them, and

there's nowhere else in the world you find this sulver

balls that fell from the sky. They landed in the

ash and they were extinguished on impact. Some of them

were burning when they fell. So when the Bible says

he rained fire and brimstone, brimston is sulfur on them,

it literally happened, and there is literal archaeological evidence of it.

I usually bring a piece to the meeting. I set

in a fire that came right from that territory, and

everyone gets to smell the rotten eggs in the auditorium.

It becomes very visceral, you might say, But the story

of Sodom Goamorro is not a myth. There's no question.

This is the lowest place on earth. Did you know

that that whole valley sank and it is one of

the hottest places, about fourteen hundred feet below sea level.

Revelation twenty one, verse two through eight. Sodom and gomor

were permanently destroyed, and you can read about what's going

to happen to the wicked At the end of time,

Lot was rescued from the city. At the last minute,

Jesus said, as it was in the days of Lot,

so will it be in the days when the Son

of Man is revealed. I think it was Billy Graham

or his wife Ruth Graham, that said, either God is

going to apologize to Solomon Camorra, or we're in for trouble. Now,

what do people out there in the world think about

the concept of hell? Is it real? How long will

it burn? Look carefully at the questions you're going to

see on the bottom of the screen. But we're going

to go to the man on the street and the

woman on the street find out what does our culture

think about this idea of hell. They're all over the map.

Probably a dark place after you pass on.

That's where people end up if they don't want to

be with God. And that's the purpose of hell.

So hears of hell is too.

It's meant for the devil and as angels and as

to get tooth.

Sent have anything that's evil or or everyone that someday

you will end up in hell. And if you're forgiven,

here's a chance you can make it to heaven. I

would believe hell is a place that we will be

tortured for eternity.

Of course there's language of you know, fire and eternal

darkness and stuff like that. But is it literal or

is it metaphorical?

I'm not sure.

But what I do know is hell is a place

of eternal separation from God.

People I guess who had the chance to like follow

God's way, people who have the knowledge of salvation and

all that and still choose to be sinners, then I

guess that's just the place where they stay for eternity.

It seems reasonable to think that the devil and demons

will be there for eternity.

I think hell is eternal.

Oh, hell could be eternal if you don't accept God

as your savior.

I don't think how is eternal.

I believe it's temporary because it'll allow you to repent

and to do better. I mean, there are some people

out there who maybe possibly deserve an eternal hell, but

I feel like those individuals are few and far between.

I don't think anybody deserves to suffer for all eternity.

So I would like to think and hope that it

would be more of a like a temporary, like a

symbolic metaphor kind of thing.

I'm not sure, but I think whatever the case is,

we're going to be there forever.

Wow. I think one thing we're sure of after listening

to this is that people don't know what they believe?

Do they?

So where are we going to get our answers about

the truth about the punishment of the wicked? Where do

we go? Jesus said, thy word is truth. We're going

to go to the word of God and the teachings

of Jesus. Let's find out what it says here. Question

number two, when will the wicked be destroyed in hell fire.

First of all, the Bible is very clear. There is

a help, there is a punishment for the wicked. You

can't if you believe the Bible. Jesus made it very clear.

When does it happen? Let's find out the Lord two

Peter two, verse nine. The Lord knows how to deliver

the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust

under punishment for the day of judgment, there being what reserved.

They're not there yet. Has the judgment day taken place yet?

Why would you take a person, put them in hell,

pull them out and say, yes, sir, you're guilty. Put

them back in again. So people aren't being thrown into

the lake of fire until after the judgment. God is

just and again John twelve. These are the words of Jesus.

The word that I have spoken him will judge him

when in the last day sometimes known is the day

of the Lord, the great Judgment Day Matthew thirteen, verse

forty two through forty two. So it will be at

the when the end of this age, the Son of

Man will send out his angels, and they will gather

out those who practice lawlessness and cast them into a

furnace of fire. Those who practice what lawlessness we talk

about the law the other night. They're the ones the

lawless are going to the lake of fire. But when

at the end of the age nobody is burning in hell?

Now the judgment has not happened yet. Here's where the

confusion comes in. If you die lost, you have no

consciousness of time. Your next conscious thought is the resurrection

before God's throne, judgment and punishment. So as far as

you're concerned, it's not very long between death and punishment.

But we live in time, right, and it hasn't happened yet.

So for those of us who are alive nobody, you

don't have to worry about your life. Love of ones

who died loss that are down there burning in hell. Now,

this is the great judgment day has not happened. You

can look on the grave where it says rip rest

in peace, good or bad. They're sleeping until that great

judgment day comes. Now. For a person that dies saved,

their next conscious thought is the presence of the Lord, right,

But the Bible says the Lord will descend from heaven

with a shout the voice of the archangel, then the

dead in Christ will rise for them. It's instant. You

can be happy for them, but it hasn't happened yet,

because we live in time. Okay, hope that makes sense.

Number Three, If the wicked who have died are not

in hell yet, where are they? Let the Bible give

us the answer. The hour is coming in which all

who are where in the graves will hear his voice

and come forth those that have done good, the resurrection

of life, those that have done evil, the resurrection of condemnation.

Two resurrections you find in the Bible. Dead in Christ

rise first. Is what it says in First Thessalonians chapter four.

The rest of the dead lived, not again till the

thousand years is finished. That's Revelation chapter twenty, and so

you get two separate resurrections. He says, the hour is

coming when those who are in the graves where are

they now? They're in their graves. They'll hear his voice

and come forth the wicked. Now, this is Job twenty one,

verse thirty. The wicked are reserved for the day of doom.

Yet he'll be brought to the grave, and he will

kept vigil, and vigil is kept over the tomb. He's

in the grave, he's in the tomb. They have no

consciousness of time. What's the only two choices for all people? Answer,

whoever believes He, whoever believes in him should not what perish,

but have so who gets every lasting life? The believers

of the unbelievers? The believers. But you know, there's a

lot of people out there that teach unbelievers get everlasting life.

It's just in the fire. Jesus said, everlasting life is

only given to believers. And they'll say, but wait, God,

everybody is immortal. You've got an immortal soul. The Bible

says God, and God only has immortality. And when the

Lord descends, then this mortal puts on immortality. So we

sinners die. The penalty for sin is death. What does

it say the wages for sin is death? The gift

of God is eternal life. In Jesus Christ, our Lord,

What was the first lie that the devil ever told?

In the Garden of Eden, God said, if you eat

the forbidden fruit, you'll do what you will die. Now,

he just didn't say that. He said you will surely die.

And the devil said, you will not surely die. You'll

either live forever in heaven or you'll live forever in

flaming torment. But that's that's not what the Bible teaches.

Number five, What will happen to the wicked in hell fire? Answer?

A little while? This is Psalm thirty seven, verse ten

and verse twenty. A little while and the wicked shall

be how much? No more the wicked will perish. That's

what Jesus said into smoke, they will vanish away. You

know what other words can God give us when he

says no more perish, vanish, way, devoured, gone dead? I

mean the terminology in the Bible. I don't know what

God could say that he didn't say. Now, there are

some difficult passages, but we're going to look at them all,

and we invite you to ask questions, and you're free

to disagree. We hope no one will be disagreeable, but

we welcome your questions because we want Bible answers.

Amen.

A lot of dear people are confused about this. The

day is coming Malachi, last book in the Old Testament,

last chapter. The day is coming burning like an oven,

and all how many, all who do wickedly will be stubble,

and the day that is coming will burn them up.

The wicked are burned up, they are devoured, They're consumed,

They're no more. They perish. You will trample the wicked,

for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet.

Did they sound conscious at that point? Psalm twenty one,

verse eight. Your hand will find all your enemies. Your

right hand will find those who hate you. You shall

make them as a fiery oven in the time of

your anger. The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath,

and the fire will devour them. Now that's an extra one.

It didn't have an answer in it, but we just

threw that in for free number six. Where will hell

fire be located? In Crowley, Texas? It's going to be

on the earth. Where will hell fire be located? The

elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and

the works that are in it will be burned up.

And you can read again in Revelation twenty verse nine.

They the wicked went upon the breadth of the earth,

thing they surrounded the camp of the saints, the beloved city,

and fire came down from God out of heaven and

devoured them. You have the picture. At the end of

the one thousand years, the new Jerusalem comes down from

God out of heaven. All the saved are in the city,

All the good angels are there. You know, Jesus is

I will separate the goats from the sheep. There's a

day when we will all be together again. And he'll say,

to the sheep on the right hand, enter into the

joy of the Lord. I was hungry and you fed me.

I was thirsty. You gave me drink. I was naked

and you clothed me. I was sick or in prison,

and you visited me. And he'll say to the wicked,

depart you Christ into everlasting fire prepared for the devil

and his angels. This is, by the way, Matthew twenty

five thirty one. For I was hungry and you didn't

feed me. I was thirsty, you didn't give me drink.

I was sick and you didn't this. I was a stranger,

you didn't take me in. I was naked and you

didn't flow of me. And Thys say, Lord, when did

we see you in any of these conditions? And not, Minister,

He'll say, inasmuch as he did it not to the

least of one of these, my brethren, you did it

not to me. So there's a moment when everybody's gathered.

All Satan and the wicked angels and the lost are

on the outside, all the righteous and the good angels

are on the inside. And the Bible says, the devil

will see this is his last chance, and he will

rally Gog and Magog. That's a term. It's not the

Russian and the Chinese. Gog and Magog were Old Testament

enemies of God's people. All the names in Revelation are symbolic.

I just said something profound. You shouldn't forget. All the

proper names in Revelation are symbolic. Revelation talks about Jezebel. Well,

she's dead and gone. It's spiritual Jezabel. It talks about Balem.

It's not literal Balem. Balem is dead and gone. It's

talking about these spiritual enemies, Gog and Magog. You'll read

about in Ezekiel thirty eight thirty seven. These are enemies

of God's people. All the wicked who've ever lived come forth.

Satan rallies them against the city of God. Fire comes

down from God out of heaven and devours him. It's

on the earth and then on the ashes of this

purified planet. Everybody is punished according to what they deserve.

You realize they're varying punishments, Jesus said, does that make sense?

Christ said, He that knew his master's will and did

not do it is beaten with many stripes. He that

did not know his master's will and did not do

it is beaten with few stripes. To whom much is given,

much is required. Every man is rewarded according to his works.

If everybody burns forever in hell, they all get the

same reward. There are varying degrees of intensity and varying

degrees of time that people are going to be punished.

And who do you think is going to get it

the worst? Hell is prepared for Satan and his angel

Jesus said, But if we choose to follow Satan and

his angels, we share their reward. So there's only two rewards.

But everybody is going to ultimately be burnt up. They

are devoured, they're consumed, they perish. God does not give

eternal life to the lost. God is not going to

forever have a torture chamber in the universe. How could

you enjoy heaven knowing God would have to erase all

natural affection from your heart. If someone you love is

lost and you're supposed to enjoy heaven. Why they're still

burning out there somewhere. But it's after the thousand years.

God wipes away all tears from their eyes and there's

no more pain. What did the Bible say? No more pain?

So this is what the Bible teaches about. There is

a hell. I got my Baptist friends. They said, Pastor Doug,

you don't believe in hell. I said, I believe in hell,

and my hell is hotter than your hell. Your hell

just frickases them for a barbecue, I said, Mine burns

them up. Says they get burned according to what they deserve,

and they are consumed. The Bible says, they are devoured.

They are turned to ashes, root and branch.

Amen.

We could do not get immortalized. They are destroyed, the

Bible says. So where does hellburn all over the earth?

There?

I remember, I'll tell you a quick story. You gotta

watch my clock. So Karen and I have a place

up in the hills. We've had for like forty five years.

Bought it years ago. It's up in the woods in

Mendocino County, and in August twenty nineteen, I was standing

on the front porch with a friend and we saw

lightning hit across the valley up in the mountains of

the Mendocino foresh and then we saw a little wisp

of smoke. Said, oh, oh, lightning fire just started. And

I think, well, they'll get that and they'll put it out.

Two days later, I'm driving from our cabin to where

I passor a church in Sacramento. I drive across the

mountains at night by myself in my Toyota pickup truck.

And as I'm going through the woods, dirt wrote roads,

like sixty miles of dirt roads. It's a long way.

I'm driving through the woods, I know pretty well. All

of a sudden I see a city and I think

there's no city out here, but I see the glow

of city lights and I come around the hill and

the mountain's on fire. Now I'm three quarters of the

way down to where the paved road is, and I'm

thinking I don't want to turn around, so I try

to drive through, which is probably really dumb, so don't

tell me. I know, but I wanted to get I thought, oh, man,

I don't want to turn around, so I start driving through,

and pretty soon it's not just the fire is burning

on one side of the road. Now the fire is

burning on both sides of the road, and pretty soon

smoke starts to obscure in my headlights, so I can't see.

And I'm thinking that if a tree falls behind me,

I can't turn around. And I of all the ways

that i'd like to die. I don't know if you

ever thought about this, but I don't want to be

eaten by sharp and I'd rather not burn to death.

I want to die like Moses, where you're one hundred

and twenty years old, you climb a mountain, your eye

is still clear, your natural force is not abated, and

then God puts you to sleep. That's how I'd prefer

to go. And then I get a text from some

friends that live in our house. They say, Doug, in

case you've run into the fire, don't turn around because

there's been another lightning strike. The road is closed on

the way back to Kovolo. So now I got fire

burning on both sides of me, and I'm up by myself.

There's nobody there fighting the fire. Well, I'll tell you what, friends.

I was praying, and then I went to my GPS,

which is hopeless in the mountains, because it started leading

me down logging roads where there's a big tree in

the middle of the road and there's no road, and

it would say recalculating, and I was praying. I finally

found like three hours of back roads to get out

of the mountain, but I was seriously thinking I might

burn to death out here. And you heard some people

did burn to death in those fires in California. But

some of you remember twenty fifteen, and if you've got

sensitive viewers, you may want to direct their attention somewhere else.

There was a Jordanian pilot for the Royal Jordanian Air Force,

actually the son of one of the leaders there. He

was shot down ISS put him in an iron cage.

He thought maybe he was going to be ransom to release,

but instead he was led to an iron cage. They

locked him in, they doused him with gasoline, and then

they set him on fire and they recorded it. Some

of you remember that.

Now.

When you think about that, you're probably thinking, what kind

of a fiend would do that? But what do many

Christians believe about God? They think that God is going

to take these creatures. He loved so much he died

to save them. And if they don't obey him, or

they're too weak to obey him, He's going to put

them in some sulfur in brimstone and they are going

to burn and writhe and shriek and moan year after year,

and a thousand years later they swim to the serface,

burning and screaming, and God says, you haven't even begun,

because you're going to burn forever. You know how long

forever is. I got a letter from a sixteen year

old one time. She said, Pastor Doug, I just need

to tell you that I have lived in horror. I've

been a Christian all my life. I went to church,

but I've never felt good enough. I've had trouble loving God.

And I was so afraid I was going to die

and go burn forever in hell. And then I saw

your program what I'm teaching you now, she said, I

finally realize that God is just and I can love

him and I can sleep at night. And it just

made me so happy that people would learn this truth. Yes,

there is punishment and it's serious, but the idea that

God is a satis who's going to torture people through eternity,

that he's worse than isis. He's gonna cane killed one

person and he lived, you know, more than five thousand

years ago, and you're telling me that he's gonna burn

longer than Adolf Hitler that killed six million. There's no

justice in this. This has come up through medieval theology

and misunderstanding a few scriptures. A right, let's keep going.

Number seven. Will the devil be in charge of Hell?

You know, we all see these pictures. And I should

have said this the other night. When you picture the devil,

you know, we usually picture he's got the horns, and

he's got the go tee, and he's got I grew

a go tee once, and Karen said shave it off

because back then my hair was a little darker. And

she said, you look like a sinister minister. So that

wasn't a good look. By the way, some people are

asking passer Doug, what's different Your mustache has gone. I've

had a mustache for forty five years. But Karen and

I went scuba diving about a month ago and my

mask was leaking, and so I shaved off my mustache

so I could see better while we were diving, and

I noticed she was kissing me more so, Hey, that's

easy anyway. So the devil's got a beard, you know,

and he's got red le atards, and he's got goat feet,

and he's got bat wings. And we've got these pictures

of the devil that he's some you know, grotesque monster. No,

the Bible says he was a beautiful angel. He wants

us to think that's what he's like. And then there's

this idea that he's in charge of hell. You know

where that comes from Greek mythology. It's about the god

Pluto of Hades. It isn't in the Bible anywhere. Could

you trust the devil to be fair in punishing people?

And then he's got the pitchfork to make sure everybody

barbecues evenly, I guess right. So that's not in the Bible.

That's whole mythology. The Bible says the devil is going

to be cast into Hell and destroyed there. God says,

I'll bring forth the fire from the midst of thee,

and it will devour thee, and I will bring thee

to ashes in the earth. In the sight of them

that behold thee, you will be a terror, and never

will you be any more. That's a quote from Ezekiel

chapter twenty eight. Satan is going to be burnt, and

he'll be burnt up, and he'll burn longer than anyone else.

The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake

of fire in brimstone. Can you say, man, Satan, even

the devil believes what I'm teaching, because it says in

Revelation twelve, he's come down with great rap because he

knows his time is short. They are kept in everlasting

chains waiting for those days of judgment. Number eight. Will

the fires of hell ever go out? Answer? It says

in Isaiah forty seven fourteen. It shall not be a

cold to be warmed by, nor a fire to sit before.

Malachi four, verse three, you shall trample the wicked. They

shall be ashes under the soles of your feet. In

the day that I do this, as the Lord of hosts,

They're going to be destroyed. God's plan is to isolate

sin and destroy it, not to perpetuate it. He wants

to purify the universe from sin and sinners. The devil

will not be immortalized. He's going to be destroyed and

never will he be anymore that's found. God says, behold,

I make all things new. How much is made new?

All things are new? Number nine. But doesn't the biblical

phrase unquenchable fire? Doesn't it say that it does? Let's

read it. Doesn't it indicate that hell fire will never

go out? What does unquenchable mean? Let's read it. This

is Matthew chapter three, verse twelve. He will thoroughly clean

out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn,

but he will burn up the note burn up means

burn up. He'll burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

What does quench mean? Quench means to extinguish. This fire

cannot be extinguished. If you were to try to put

water on it, it would be like gas. It is

an unquenchable fire. It burns until it does its thorough

work of burning something up. There's nothing left root or branch.

Let me prove it to you from the Bible. Read

with me now, Jeremiah chapter seventeen, twenty seven. Let the

Bible interpret itself. Jeremiah, the prophet is talking about the

destruction that's going to come from the Babylonians because of

their sin. If they do not repent, here's the warning.

But if you will not heed me to hallow the

Sabbath day, such as not carrying a burden when you

enter the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then

I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it

will devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it will not

be quenched. He warns them. If you don't repent, the

Babylonians will come and burn the city with unquenchable fire.

No one will be there to put it out. What happened?

Was it quenched? Yes? I mean was it burnt?

Yes?

Nebu Kennezar came. They did not. He burnt the city.

He burnt the gates. You can read that in Nehemiah.

With an unquenchable fire. Is it still burning today? No? Unquenchable.

This means the word quenches a verb. It means extinguished.

You can't be extinguished. It's gonna burn until it's burnt up.

That's all that means. What about the phrase number ten?

Doesn't the phrase eternal fire mean unending? Let the Bible

translate itself now, by the way, friends, when you look

at the two views, everlasting punishment, everlasting torment, or what

you would call annihilation. That there is judgment, there is punishment,

lake of fire, but they are ultimately burnt up and

no trace of them left. The evidence on this side

is a mountain. The evidence on this side is a

mole hill. All you've got to do is look at

a handful of small verses that are difficult to understand,

and then you're going to say all the evidence is

over here, and they'll be very clear. I think it

makes it easier to understand that God is a loving

God and a just God. Amen. What does it mean

when it talks about this eternal fire? Sodom and Gomorrah

are set forth as an example suffering the vengeance of

what kind of fire? Eternal fire? Here's the question, are

they still burning? I've got a plexiglass podium here. Plexiglass

is flammable. If I were to throw this into a

furnace and it was burnt up, it is burnt with

the eternal fire, because this particular podium would never exist again.

The result of the fire is eternal.

See.

God is very merciful. God can resurrect the dead, He

can reassemble your atoms and make you over again. But

for the wicked, are they going to get resurrected? Or

is it called the second death for which there is

no resurrection? So it is an eternal fire that burns

it is that clear? Sa Amen okay number eleven. When

Revelation twenty, verse ten states that the wicked are tormented

forever and ever, doesn't that indicate of this one place

where it says this in Revelation twenty, Never build a

doctrine on one verse? What does it mean when it

says they are tormented forever and ever? That comes from

the Greek word meaning eon. Have you ever said I

haven't seen them in eons? That means it's an unspecified

period of time. It means out of sight as far

as you can see, They're gone forever and ever is

what it's saying. Here's an example. Jonah is swallowed by

a whale, a great fish. He says his own words, Jonah,

chapter two, verse six, He is in the belly of

the whale forever. But how long does chapter one, verse

seventeen say he was actually there? The Lord prepared a

great fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah was in the belly

of the fish three days and three nights. Now, how

many of you have ever said, well, it's been forever

since I've seen them. Was it really forever? Are you

just using it as what you call hyperbole. Hyperbole means

you overstate something to emphasize a point. You say, lunch

is an hour late, I am starving. Well, you're probably

not starving. You're probably already overfed. But you're saying you're

starving to say I'm really hungry. That's called hyperbole. When

Paul says the Gospel has been preached to every creature,

I think most scholars will agree. There were Inca Indians,

and there were Aborigines in Australia and people in Africa

they still had not heard. Paul is using hyperbole to

see the Gospel's gone everywhere. So don't use a statement

of hyperbole literally in the Bible, Okay. And so Jonah says,

did it feel like forever? For Jonah? Three days and

three nights you're surrounded by soush She in the digestive

system of a whale. I mean that'd be terrible, probably

full life forever. What about Hannah? You know, good Hannah.

She dedicated little Samuel to the service of God. She

brought him to Eli, and it says she said to

her husband Elkena, I'm not going to go up yet.

She says, not until the child is waned. Then I

will take him that he may appear before the Lord

and remain there forever. Well, is Samuel's still there today

serving in the temple? Or did forever mean until he died?

For the rest of his life? That's what it meant.

And so sometimes you'll find the expression forever and it

simply means for the rest of your life. Okay, that's

another example. Exodus twenty one. It uses the term forever,

and there's fifty times in the Bible forever is used,

just talking about until the end of a person's life.

There was a ceremony that a servant could go through

if a servant was set free after seven years he

loved his master, but he didn't want to leave his master.

They go through a ritual where his ear would be

nailed to the door of his master's house and then says,

and he will serve his master forever. Well, is he

still serving him today? Or didn't mean for the rest

of his life? So the term is often used that way.

Don't take one verse and build a doctrine out of it.

Number twelve, This, to me is what you call a

slam dunk verse. What about the soul? Some people say, well, yeah,

the body, clear enough, it's destroyed, turns the ashes devoured,

but the soul burns forever. What did Jesus say? Jesus said,

do not fear those who kill the body but cannot

kill the soul. Rather fear him who is able to

destroy soul and body in hell. So what happens in hell?

Soul and body destroyed the words of our savior. If

that's clear, savement. If you want to know what happens,

he says, you're punished according to what you works and

soul and body or destroyed in hell they perish. Number thirteen.

For whom will hell fire be kindled? Does God want

anyone to go to hell? No, it says, depart from me,

you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and

his angels. God doesn't want anyone to be lost. The

Bible says, the Lord wants us to be saved. Number

question fourteen. How does the Bible refer to God's destruction

of the wicked? It says, here for the Lord will

be angry that he might do his awesome work and

bring to pass his act, his unusual act. The Bible

tells us and tewod Peter three, the Lord is not

willing that any should perish, but that all should come

to repentance. He is desperate to save, as Jesus gave

his life to save us from sin and suffering. Now,

Christians may suffer sometimes suffering is part of our discipline.

But he certainly doesn't want you to suffer eternally. And

if you do not accept the suffering that Jesus experience.

By the way, sorry, I interrupted myself. I do that sometimes,

Karen tells me, I've got add But if the penalty

for sin is everlasting torment, did Jesus pay the penalty

on the cross for our sin? Yes? Is he still

hanging there today? Now? He suffered and he died because

the penalty for sin is suffering and death. It's not

just death, it's suffering according to what you deserve, and death. Right,

Jesus paid the penalty for our sin. You know. I'll

tell you a quick story. So I told you I

used to live in Texas. I was driving with the

family one night Christmas Eve from Lubbock, Texas to Dickens, Texas,

where I actually held my The first evangelistic meeting was

in Texas. I was in my twenties. I'm driving a

little Mazda GLC and I see on the side of

the road there's this great big Cadillac, Buick or something.

Big car hood is up and they're obviously having trouble.

They're out in the middle of nowhere. You know, there's

big stretches in Texas, a whole lot of nothing. And

this is West Texas. And so I pulled over. I

used to do mechanic work, and I said, what seems

to be the problem. He said, well, you know, the

headlights started going dim and then it just the car

just stopped. And I said, well, it sounds like your

batteries bad and your alternator brushes are not charging anymore.

And I tried to jump it in won't keep running,

which meant the alternator was not firing the plugs. You

men know what I'm talking about. So I said, to

tell you what I don't live. I live about ten

miles away. Said let's tow your car to our house.

It was a pastor and his wife and two girls.

I said, let's tow your car to my house, which

was really a funny scene. A little Mazda GLC towing

with a rope this big Buick ten miles down the road.

We weren't going too fast. Told him to the house.

It was Christmas Eve, and I said, look, I actually

know an auto parts guy. I can talk to him

and get some brushes and repair your alternator tomorrow. You're

welcome to spend the night. So he said, we really

appreciate it. We were going to see family for Christmas

and if we could get it running and be there

tom all, they'd be great. So they spent the night

with us, and I could not help talking to him.

I said, so are your pastor. I'm a pastor, yeah,

I said, well, I wasn't a pastor yet, but I

was Bible teacher. And I said, I said, can I

talk to you about something? He's a Baptist pastor. Yeah,

I said, you know this subject of hell. I said,

that really troubled me. Said, when I was first baptized,

I was baptized Baptist. My father was raised Baptist, though

he turned into an atheist. And I gave him the

study that I just presented to you, and I could

see he was kind of looking down and squirming, and

his wife was on the edge of her seat. He

was really listening, and his girls were listening. And he

said to me, Pastor, I've seen these scriptures before and

they are rather troubling. But if I told my congregation

what you're telling me now, they wouldn't come to church.

I said, what are you saying? He said, Well, if

they didn't think there's an never burning hell, they wouldn't

come to church. I said, brother, you telling me that

they're coming to church because they're looking for fire insurance.

They're coming to church because they're afraid if they don't

come to church, Jesus is going to burn them forever

and ever. I said, the hell I believe in is

hot enough to put a little fear in anybody. I said,

but God is a god of love. And that told

me there's a lot of people out there. I've had

pastors and people that have heard this presentation. They've come

to me and said, Doug, don't tell anyone, but I

believe like you. It's almost like they're afraid you're denying

the Bible if you say you don't believe in an

ever burning torment. But this is what Jesus taught. And

how much easier is it to love a God, that

isaful God, that is a just God. Where is the

justice in taking these How many people sin?

Ah?

So would you admit we're born with a propensity to sin.

To take these creatures that you created with a natural

propensity to sin, and they do not get the victory

through Christ. And you say you either love me or

I'm gonna burn you forever and ever. Now, what woman

is going to love a man that comes and proposes

that way? Please love me or I'm gonna beat you forever?

Would you? I mean, isn't that what's happening here? God says,

love me, or you're gonna have to just I want

to pay for your sin. But if you don't accept

my payment, you're gonna pay for your own. And if

you sin for seventy years, you're gonna have seventy years

of payment. He who sins much little payment. God is just.

The Bible says, the Lord is not willing and he

should perish as I live. Says the Lord. I have

no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He does

not even have pleasure in the death of the wicked,

how much less the eternal torment, but that the wicked

should turn from his evil way and live. If you

don't turn, it says, why will you die? The salvation

story is a life and death story. It's eternal life

or eternal separation from God. Darkness and death. That's what

it's all about. Friends, There's only two roads. When I

lived up in the mountains in the cave, I didn't

really tell you my testimony. I usually don't first night,

or people lose all confidence. But I used to be

a thief. I used drugs and drank. I got into

all kinds of trouble and I ran away from home.

I moved up into the mountains into a cave when

I was like sixteen years old. I left home early.

I went to fourteen schools and I only completed the

ninth grade. I didn't get my ged and went back

to college right down the road here. But so I'm

living up in the mountains in a cave and one

day a cat shows up. Now, I would go days

without seeing it when I was a hermit, So finding

a cat up there was amazing. I mean, it wasn't

a mountain lion. It was a domestic cat way up

in the mountains, so I called him a stranger. And

it was great having this cat up there because at

night he'd get done hunting and he'd come over, and

why I'm sleeping in my sleeping bag on the cold

desert nights. He'd come and he'd take his paw and

he'd pushed my face in this paw, and I would

that was the signal. He'd push my face, I would

lift up my sleeping bag. He would go down to

the bottom of my sleeping bag where my feet are,

and he'd go down there and he'd purr, and it

was like a footwarmer. And not how he could stand

the smell, I don't know, but he liked to go

down there and sleep where my feet were in this cave.

But you know, cats are different from dogs. Dogs are

going to heaven. Cats, I'm not so sure. Because you know,

if a dog catches a mouth, one gulp, it's gone,

and he's smiling, wagging his tail, and that's all there

is to it. But if a cat catches a mouse,

he wants to play with his food, and they like,

they catch his live mouse and they will bat it

around and torment it, and I was in my cave

one night and I was cooking my dinner and stranger

caught a kangaroo rat and they're kind of cute, you know,

they get long tails and they hop, and he caught

this kangaroo rat, and you know, he's doing the natural thing,

so I let him do his thing. He's having his dinner,

I'm having mine. So he would play with the mouse

a little bit, and he'd let go of it, and

the thing would try and hop away, and he'd pounce

on it again, and he'd injure just enough where he

knew it couldn't get very far, and then he kind

of let it go and say, I dare you to

try and get away, and they would. He pounce on

it again, and I felt so sorry for this little creature,

you know, and nobody here really likes watching. And the cat,

you know, slowly kill a mouse. How many of you

seen this before, you know what I'm talking about. And

then at one point he let the thing go and

it was so dazed. At this point, it went and

gave one desperate hop and it hopped right in the

middle of the coals of my fire. Listened to the

collective gasp coming from the audience for a rat. It

broke my heart that a little thing. There's nothing I

could do. I just looked and it writhed and squeaked

for just a moment or two, and it troubled me

so much. It bothered stranger too, because he didn't plan

on cooking his dinner that night, but just to see

this little creature suffer. You are trouble by hearing about

a rat burning for a few seconds. Are you more

loving than God? Are you more just than God? If

you would not do that too a rat, then how

can we think the loving God of the universe would

send his son to save us? Are he is going

to torment friends? This came from the dark ages. The

Church used it to manipulate people through fear. It is

not what the Bible teaches. You got two options, life

or death. God told Adam and Eve. You disobey, you

will surely die. Matter of fact, translation says in dying,

you will die. We got two options, life or death.

That are said before us. Destroying people is so foreign

to God's ways, hell Fire has called his unusual act.

Even the loss will admit that God's only desire was

to save them. Number fifteen, after sin and sinners are destroyed.

What will Jesus do for his people? Nevertheless, we, according

to his promise, look for a new heavens, what a

new earth wherein dwells righteousness and revelation twenty one verse

for the Bible ends by promting us, promising us God

will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There'll be

no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be

no more pain, not a little more, not just no

more in the city. But there's gonna be a torture

chamber with millions or billions of people burning somewhere in

the cosmos through eternity. God is not that kind of God.

He's going to create. He says, I make all things new.

Can you say amen? Once I understood the truth during

this subject, it changed my whole picture of God as

a God of love. Up until then, I just had

a hard time loving a God that said love me,

I'm going to burn you. Once I understood that there's

justice and he's a just God. He's a loving God,

and he loves us so much to save us from

hell fire, he said, I will go through the pain

of your health fire for you. On the cross, Jesus

experience your health so that you don't have to. He

loves you that much for us to turn that down

breaks his heart. Number sixteen Will the sin problem ever

rise again? Answer affliction Nam the Book of Nam one

verse nine. Affliction will not rise up the second time.

When we see how much sin hurt God and what

had costs God, we don't have to worry about it

ever happening again. I create a new heavens and a

new Earth, and the former will not be remembered or

come into mind. We won't even be thinking about it.

We're not going to be surrounded by people writhing in

the flames through eternity. There's all old things are passed away.

Their suffering is over. There is no more pain, no

more tears, all things new. Sin, pain tears, death gone,

new chapter, new universe, new heaven, new Earth. God makes

all things new. Number seventeen. What penetrating question does the

Book of Job ask about man compared to his maker?

You find this in the Book of Job. It says

in Job four seventeen, can mortal man be more righteous

than God? Are we more merciful than God? I bet

there's nobody here that would take your worst enemy and

want to see them suffer in flaming, scorching, burning fire

and brimstone. Have you ever burnt your finger? I remember

reading a short story about Mickey Mantle when I was

a kid. He was in a barn and he grabbed

a kerosene lamp by the lid, not realizing how hot

it would be, And before he realized what he had done,

he had picked it up, and he knew if he

let go, the whole barn would catch on fire. And

he had to hang on to it for another three

seconds while he put it safely down, and it scarred

his hands. And I thought about how hard that would be.

God doesn't want us to experience that He loves us

too much. How many of you think you could love

a God like that? Loving Lord, give us this faith

and this love and this trust in your son that

you are loving God, and make us new. Help us

accept the sacrifice in Jesus' name.

Amen.

When is our next study? Tomorrow?

Night?

A voice from the Jordan. Don't miss it, friends, We

look forward to each one of you being here. God

bless you have a good night, and we hope you'll

come again and bring your friends. Thank you very much,