Amazing Facts

Doug Batchelor: Tonight we're talking about the good news about hell. I know that sounds like an oxymoron. But the reason I say it like that is there are two extremes on this subject. If you do not understand this subject, it makes it difficult for you to love God or even understand the justice of God.

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. You burn and burn and burn. A million years later, you haven't even begun to burn. You are burning through all eternity.

To me, that was mind-blowing. It just didn't seem like there's any justice. When I finally started reading what the Bible says, 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 on this subject.

Hell is prepared for Satan and his angels, Jesus said. But if we choose to follow Satan and his angels, we share their reward. There are 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 loved is lost and you're supposed to enjoy heaven while they're still burning out there somewhere? 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.

This is what the Bible teaches about: there is a hell. I've got my Baptist friends. They say, "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 fricassees them for a barbecue. Mine burns them up." They are 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? The wicked do not get immortalized; they are destroyed, the Bible says.

Some of you remember 2015. 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. ISIS put him in an iron cage. He thought maybe he was going to be ransomed or released. 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. When you think about that, you're probably thinking what kind of a fiend would do that?

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 and brimstone. They're going to burn and writhe and shriek and moan year after year. A thousand years later, they swim to the surface burning and screaming and God says, "You haven't even begun, because you're going to burn forever." Do you know how long forever is?

I got a letter from a 16-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. Then I saw your program, what I'm teaching you now. I finally realized that God is just and I can love Him and I can sleep at night."

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 sadist who's going to torture people through eternity—that He's worse than ISIS. Cain killed one person and he lived more than 5,000 years ago and you're telling me that he's going to burn longer than Adolf Hitler that killed 6 million? There's no justice in this. This has come up through medieval theology and misunderstanding a few scriptures.

All right, let's keep going. Number seven: will the devil be in charge of hell? We all see these pictures, and I should have said this the other night. When you picture the devil, we usually picture he's got the horns, and he's got the goatee, and he's got bat wings. We've got these pictures of the devil that he's some grotesque monster. No, the Bible says he was a beautiful angel. He wants us to think that's what he's like.

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? Then he's got the pitchfork to make sure everybody barbecues evenly, I guess, right? So, that's not in the Bible. That's all mythology.

The Bible says the devil is going to be cast into hell and destroyed there. God says, "I'll bring forth a 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 anymore." That's a quote from Ezekiel chapter 28. Satan is going to be burnt and he'll be burned up. He'll burn longer than anyone else. "The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone." Satan, even the devil, believes what I'm teaching because it says in Revelation 12 he's come down with great wrath 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 47:14, "It shall not be a coal to be warmed by, nor a fire to sit before." Malachi 4:3, "You shall trample the wicked, they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I do this," says 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. This is Matthew chapter 3, verse 12. "He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up"—now notice "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 gasoline. 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 17, verse 27. 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.

Was it burnt? Yes. Nebuchadnezzar came, they did not repent. 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 just means—the word quench is a verb—it means extinguish. It just can't be extinguished. It's going to burn until it's burnt up. That's all that means.

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 molehill. 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. It'll be very clear and 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 a question: are they still burning? I've got a Plexiglas podium here. Plexiglas is flammable. If I were to throw this into a furnace and it was burnt up, it is burnt with 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 them. Is that clear? Say amen.

Number 11: when Revelation 20:10 states that the wicked are tormented forever and ever, doesn't that indicate—now there's one place where it says this in Revelation 20. 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 from 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 in Jonah chapter 2, verse 6, he is in the belly of the whale forever. But how long does chapter 1, verse 17 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 or 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'm starving." 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 that still had not heard. Paul is using hyperbole to say the gospel's gone everywhere. So, don't use a statement of hyperbole literally in the Bible, okay?

Jonah says, "Did it feel like forever for Jonah?" Three days and three nights, you're surrounded by sushi in the digestive system of a whale—I mean, that'd be terrible. Probably felt like 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, Elkanah, "I'm not going to go up yet," she says, "not until the child is weaned, then I will take him, that he may appear before the Lord and remain there forever." Well, is Samuel 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. So, sometimes you'll find the expression "forever" and it simply means for the rest of your life, okay? That's another example.

Exodus 21: it uses the term "forever" and there's 50 times in the Bible "forever" is used to talk 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'd go through a ritual where his ear would be nailed to the door of his master's house and it says, "And he will serve his master forever." Well, is he still serving him today or did it 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 12: 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 to 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, say amen. If you want to know what happens, He says you're punished according to what your works and soul and body are destroyed in hell. They perish.

Number 13: for whom will hellfire 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. Question 14: 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 in 2 Peter 3, "The Lord is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

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? No. 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. How many people sin? All. 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 going to 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 going to beat you forever." Isn't that what's happening here? God says, "Love me or I'm going to"—"I want to pay for your sin, but if you don't accept my payment, you're going to pay for your own. And if you sin for 70 years, you're going to have 70 years of payment. He who sins much, little payment." God is just.

The Bible says the Lord is not willing that any 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 are only two roads.

When I lived up in the mountains, 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 16 years old. I left home early. I went to 14 schools and I only completed the ninth grade, though I did get my GED and went back to college right down the road here. So, I'm living up in the mountains in a cave and one day a cat shows up. Now, I go days without seeing anyone. I was a hermit. So, finding a cat up there was amazing. It wasn't a mountain lion; it was a domestic cat way up in the mountains.

So, I called him Stranger. It was great having this cat up there because at night he'd get done hunting and he'd come over while I'm sleeping in my sleeping bag on the cold desert nights. He'd come and he'd take his paw and he'd push my face. He'd do this with his paw and that was the signal. He'd push my face, I would lift up my sleep bag, he would go down to the bottom of my sleep bag where my feet are and he'd go down there and he'd purr. It was like a foot warmer at night. 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 mouse, one gulp, it's gone. 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. They catch this live mouse and they will bat it around and torment it. I was in my cave one night and I was cooking my dinner and Stranger caught a kangaroo rat. They're kind of cute, you know, they got long tails and they hop. He caught this kangaroo rat and he's doing the natural thing, so I let him do his thing. He's having his dinner, I'm having mine.

He'd 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. He'd injure it just enough where he knew it couldn't get very far and then he'd kind of let it go and say, "I dare you to try and get away," and it would—and he'd pounce on it again. I felt so sorry for this little creature, you know. Nobody here really likes watching a cat slowly kill a mouse. How many of you seen this before? You know what I'm talking about.

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. Listen to the collective gasp coming from the audience for a rat. It broke my heart. The 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 troubled 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 to a rat, then how can we think the loving God of the universe would send His Son to save us—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've got two options: life or death.

God told Adam and Eve, "If you disobey, you will surely die." Matter of fact, the translation says, "In dying, you will die." We've got two options: life or death that are set before us. Destroying people is so foreign to God's ways. Hellfire is called His unusual act. Even the lost will admit that God's only desire was to save them.

Number 15: after sin and sinners are destroyed, what will Jesus do for His people? "Nevertheless, we according to His promise look for a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness." Revelation 21:4: the Bible ends by promising us, "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will 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 going to 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 or 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 hellfire, He said, "I will go through the pain of your hellfire for you." On the cross, Jesus experienced your hell so that you don't have to. He loves you that much. For us to turn that down breaks His heart.

Number 16: will the sin problem ever rise again? Answer: affliction—Nahum, the book of Nahum 1, verse 9—"Affliction will not rise up the second time." When we see how much sin hurt God and what it cost 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. All old things are passed away. Their suffering is over. There's 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 17: 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 4:17, "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. God doesn't want us to experience that. He loves us too much.

Friend, God is offering you peace and eternal life. How? Well, it all begins by simply turning towards the Lord. The Bible promises that if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. You can turn to Him right now and ask for forgiveness and a new heart, and He's ready to forgive and receive you. That's why Jesus came. Whether you know it or not, He's always been your best friend. A new life is only a prayer away. Just ask Him now.

Guest (Male): My question comes from Matthew chapter 7. Can you be thinking you're doing the will and not be doing the will?

Doug Batchelor: Well, yes, it is possible for a person to think—the Bible says there's a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the ways of death. And there are, no doubt, people who have followed false teachers that they thought that they were true, but they were following false shepherds. So, it is possible for a person to think they're on the right path.

Now, God knows everybody. So, when He says, "I'll declare I don't know you," Jesus is talking about the term knowing someone in the intimate sense. The Bible says Adam knew his wife, she had a child. So, Christ is saying that I don't really know you, we don't have a love relationship where you know me. Sometimes a person will say, "Well, do you know the Lord?" Some people know the Bible and they don't know the Lord.

Christ is saying that anyone who is living in disobedience doesn't really know me, because He says, "Depart from me, you who work lawlessness." Some versions say "wickedness," but the actual definition is lawlessness. You are without law. There's a lot of churches out there that say, "Lord, Lord," but they're living in sin. They say, "Well, once you're saved, you can't be lost." They don't really know God. They don't know about His holiness. They don't know about His power to deliver them.

When He comes, they're going to say, "Oh, but Lord, we were in church every week and we fed the poor." He'll say, "Depart from me, you who work lawlessness. You did not turn away from your sin." There's going to be a lot of stunned people. The scary word in this passage is the word "many." He doesn't say it's few. He said it's many. There's a lot of deceived people out there. He says there'll be many false Christs. We want to make sure we're not deceived, so we know the word and we're following Christ. We know Him.

Guest (Male): You know, we have a book, Pastor Doug, that talks about being once saved and always saved. How does that work? It's called *Can a Saved Man Choose to be Lost?*

Doug Batchelor: We'll be happy to send it to anyone who calls and asks. The number is 800-835-6747. Ask for the book by name, *Can a Saved Man Choose to be Lost?*, and we'll be able to send you a digital copy.