After reading Krauthammer’s official “goodbye letter,” Prager said
that since no mention was made of God or the afterlife, he could
only hope his friend Krauthammer was aware of his options.
Then Prager, a rabbi who currently has a national bestseller
commentary on the Old Testament, actually said he believes a person either goes
to a good place when he dies or goes nowhere at all!
This comes from a self-proclaimed “practicing Jew” who is always
emphasizing how much he loves the fact God requires justice and that he could not buy into a
God who doesn’t judge those who engage in evil. Go figure!
*****
I had a guy reason with me once that hell could only be a “metaphysical
concept” since a person’s soul couldn’t be physically found in a body.
The answer is our individual souls exist in a different dimension
and are made from different material than the Carbon 14 stuff of our bodies.
“A
soul, when it goes to hell, encounters real, literal gates and bars in a
spiritual dimension with doors and locks,” confirms Jordan. “Matthew 16:18
talks about the ‘gates of hell.’ Preachers say, ‘Well, that means the power of
hell.’ If it does, why doesn’t it say ‘powers of hell’?
“Why is it that Jesus Christ in Revelation 1 says, ‘I am he that
hath the keys of death and hell’? You know what a key’s used to do? Open a
gate. Jonah goes down into hell and he talks about the bars. You know what you
have with a gate? Sure sounds real to me.”
*****
As
Jordan explains, there's a physical place in Palestine currently clogged with
dirt that will be opened up at the Second Advent. While hell’s in the heart of
the earth for now, one day it will be moved.
“God’s
already prepared a place where darkness is going to be housed forever and ever and
it's down at the bottom of the universe.
“God asks Job, ‘You ever searched out the deep and found the place
where darkness is going to live forever?’ He prepared that place in Genesis 1.
He created the whole universe with the view of the destruction of the satanic
policy of evil in the ‘last days.’
*****
People
who want to do away with the Bible’s literal teachings on hell make arguments
about the literary style of the passages, insisting hell simply means the grave.
As
we know, there’s no activity or memory in the grave. From Luke 16: 22-24,
though, we see people in hell are fully conscious and tormented.
The
passage reads, “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by
the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
“And
in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and
Lazarus in his bosom.
“And
he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he
may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented
in this flame.”
“The
guy in hell isn't just, ‘Poof, he's gone,’ ” says Jordan. “He's there, he's
talking, he's active, he's got a mind about him, he's asking for help, he's
suffering.
“Verses
like Matthew 25:41 assure the punishment in hell is everlasting. Everlasting
means ‘there shall be no end,’ as Luke 1:32 defines the term.
*****
In
Israel’s history, the Pharisees picked up the pagan mythology of purgatory from
their Babylonian captivity and then taught it as part of their traditions.
Jesus Christ Himself references the false purgatory doctrine in Matthew 23:14 when He says,
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses,
and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater
damnation.”
As
Jordan explains, “They're praying for the dead and why would you pray for dead
people? They’re praying to get them out of purgatory. Christ’s making the point
that that's not what's going to happen. There's no purgatory; the separation is
final. There's no hope of deliverance, or help, or relief.”
*****
Not
surprisingly, most so-called Christian preachers don’t talk about hell anymore
and fail to acknowledge Jesus Christ was the greatest "fire and
brimstone" preacher who ever lived, preaching about it more than any other
subject.
When
TV mega-church pastor Joel Osteen famously appeared on Larry King Live years ago, King asked, “But you're not fire and
brimstone, right? You're not ‘pound the decks and hell and damnation?’ ”
Osteen
answered, “No. That's not me. It's never been me. I've always been an
encourager at heart. And when I took over from my father, he came from the
Southern Baptist background, and back 40, 50 years ago there was a lot more of
that. But, you know, I just—I don't believe in that. I don't believe—maybe it
was for a time. But I don't have it in my heart to condemn people. I'm there to
encourage them. I see myself more as a coach, as a motivator to help them
experience the life God has for us.”
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