“People
argue, ‘Well, if my grandmother’s going to hell, and Hitler’s going to hell,
and they get the same end, and my grandma was a wonderful, sweet, kind old gal
who lived good all her life, there’s no justice in that,’ ” says Jordan. “That’s
right, there’s not any justice if they get the same punishment, so God isn’t
going to give the same punishment to both of them. Hitler’s going to
have white hot heat and maybe grandma will just have it a little reddish white.
It’s still going to be hell, though. It’s going to be awful.”
Paul
says in Romans 2:5-6, “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest
up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous
judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds.”
Many unsaved people
who’ve consigned themselves to an eternity in hell don’t realize their station
in hell will vary and that there are degrees of punishment in the ‘lake of fire’
based on accumulated guilt.
Jordan confirms, “God
will reward men based on the accumulation of their guilt, and the more guilt
there is—the more hardness against God’s goodness, the more impenitence, the
more lack of sorrow and contrition, the more rebellion of heart there is—the
more wrath there’s going to be.
“Jesus Christ warns
in Matthew 10:14, 'Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the
land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.’ He’s
saying the people of Sodom and Gomorrha won’t have eternal judgment as bad as
the people who reject the Kingdom.
“The more light, the more
responsibility. The more opportunity, the more judgment. The greater the light
and the greater the privileges given, the greater the sin and the greater the
wrath obtained. It’s all degrees of punishment.
“Just as Believers
have the opportunity to lay treasures in heaven for themselves by living godly
lives, unbelievers are laying up their own treasures in hell and it’s all about
degrees of indignation, tribulation, anguish and wrath.
“God’s judgment is on
the basis of divine justice. God doesn’t put people in hell because they don’t
deserve to be in hell. He puts them in hell because they DO deserve to be in
hell and He puts them there on the basis of their activity and what they’re
seeking after. Judgment is on the basis of the man’s deeds—what the man seeks
after.”
*****
Fire
is a common topic in the Bible. In a study Tennessee preacher Darryl Mefford
once gave about the Second Coming of Christ, he assured, “When Jesus Christ
comes, this world's going to experience a flame and a fire so hot the likes of
which nobody’s ever experienced before and He's going to kindle it! He's
getting the coals hot.
“Over
in Daniel 3, it talks about that ‘burning fiery furnace . . . being seven times
more than it was wont to be heated.’ It's going to be hotter than any fire the
world's ever known or seen.”
*****
The way Psalms 13 describes
it, “The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice;
hail stones and coals of fire.
“Yea, he sent out his
arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.
“Then the channels of
waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy
rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.”
Likewise, “the great
day of the Lord” is further detailed in Zephaniah 1:15-18: “That day is a day
of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a
day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, A day of
the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.
“And I will bring
distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have
sinned against the LORD: and their
blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.
“Neither their silver
nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD's wrath;
but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall
make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.”
*****
Mefford explains,
“He's going to make a speedy riddance and you know fire is a very destructive
power. He will devour the land with the fire of his jealousy. Nahum 1:2 says,
‘God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious;
the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his
enemies.’
“I want tell you
something, God has got wrath reserved and built up. When we go to war with
Iraq, we're going to call on our reserves. Stuff we've got stockpiled. That
verse there tells me God's got wrath stockpiled. He's got a treasure house, and
a storehouse, of wrath and He's got it reserved for His enemies.
“And, folks, the
course of that Tribulation; it begins and it intensifies as it goes through,
and when you get to the end of that 70th week, when Jesus
Christ comes in His Second Coming, it's going to be the great culmination of
His wrath and His judgment and, folks, the world’s going to experience the
wrath of God.
“The verse in
Revelations says it will be ‘poured out without mixture into the cup of his
indignation,’ and that’s just another way of saying what Nahum’s talking about
when he says ‘He reserveth wrath.’ He's got wrath built up, laid up, reserved
and held back for His enemies—wrath such as like the world has never
experienced before.
“The passage in Nahum
1 continues, ‘The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth
is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who
can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his
anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.’
“When He comes there's going to be flaming fire that
engulfs and surrounds Him, and wherever He goes the intensity of that flame
will be so hot that the hills are going melt and the earth is going to be burnt
at His presence. I tell you, folks, you’ve never known a fire that hot!
“Nahum 1:10 says, ‘For while they be folden together as thorns,
and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble
fully dry.’
“I mean, you talk
about naked vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ’! For those who reject the gospel, Jesus is coming back in
flaming fire and he's going to take vengeance, and those that know not God and
that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, shall be punished with
everlasting destruction.
*****
“Men like to ask the
question, ‘How could a God of love send men to hell for eternity?’ That God of
love, He loved this world, and He sent His Son into this world to die on a Cross and, folks, if He sent His Son into this world to die at Calvary, and to
die for man's sin, and to give Himself and die in their place, and pay fully
their sin debt . . .
"If He gave His dearest, precious Son; the only one He could
look at and say, ‘This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased; hear ye
Him’ . . .
“If He gave His Son
to die at Calvary, don't you think for a minute that He won't send men into the
second death for eternity if they reject the wonderful, gracious, loving thing
that He did for them on that Cross. He will, and the verses say that He will!
“God is going to take
vengeance, and He's going to punish with everlasting destruction ‘from the
presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.’ That's what the second
death is—it's eternal separation from God in the ‘lake of fire’ forever and
ever.”
(new article tomorrow)
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