“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
We’ve been addressing the topic of death for five weeks, I appreciated Erwin Lutzer book, “One Minutes After you Die”. Although it is unpopular the Bible speaks of hell. I must also.
The tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic has been captured graphically 85 years later in the movie by the same title. This luxury ship, sinking on its first voyage, flies in the face of mankind who said it was impossible for this ship to sink. With that confidence there were not enough spots in lifeboats to save the people when it struck an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland.
What has been documented in stories, books, and movies, was how some knew about its danger when it hit the iceberg in 1912. The officers didn’t want to upset the passengers so they delayed warning them. Dancing and laughter continued in the face of destruction and doom. Many more lives could have been saved if they properly filled the lifeboats and those not full would have gone back to get those in the water, but fear and panic gripped some of the survivors. It is still awesome to think of the 2200 passengers 1500 people died around 700 saved. The lifeboats could have gotten about 500 more but didn’t. Many were unprepared.
We have modern day examples of people warned of coming weather disasters and some ignore those warnings and die.
What about the seriousness of God’s warning? The Bible has proved the fulfillment of prophecies so far that the likelihood of eternal destruction is 100% accurate. God has also provided, by the death of His own Son, our “lifeboat” for salvation from Hell. Many refuse to believe it because the thought of such destruction is so horrible; they do not want to think about it. The logic of that amazes me. Because something so horrible is repulsive, therefore don’t tell people about it?
It is vital to inform people God has provided for people a way to be saved from hell. Yet many, like those on the Titanic, keep it to themselves so as not to upset the people until it is too late.
We can choose to believe what Jesus says will happen or chose to not believe it, but it doesn’t change anything.
We will address this week what the Bible says about hell.
