Lesson Seventeen • Judgment and Hell
Adam Moore
One of my favorite summertime and fall activities is to sit out in my backyard near an open bonfire. We have a yard full of trees that are constantly dropping branches so there is always an abundance of good material for making a fire. It never fails that as the fire gets red hot and the embers begin to glow that at some point my mind comes full circle to a literal place the Bible calls Hell, or the “Lake of Fire.”
Just as I throw the endless supply of dead tree branches that dare to fall and trample on my landscape into a fire, the Bible says that those who reject Jesus Christ as their Savior will face a similar fate. However, as I watch my tree branches burn and eventually turn into a pile of ash, Hell will never burn out and the souls that are bound there will face eternal torment.
Revelation 20:11-15 says, “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
Throughout Scripture, we find different descriptions of Hell from a place of “outer darkness” (Matthew 22:13) to a place of “fire and brimstone” (Revelation 14:10 KJV) along with several more passages describing Hell as a place of conscious eternal torment in an unquenchable fire.
Friends, there are only two classifications of people in God’s eyes, lost and saved. Those who are lost and never accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior will spend eternity in a place called Hell. Those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of their life will spend eternity in Heaven. I do not believe we as humans can imagine how amazing Heaven will be (1 Corinthians 2:9) and how terrible Hell will be. The Bible gives us glimpses of what both eternal destinations are like, but in our human minds, we cannot fully comprehend them.
I once heard a story about the sinking of the Titanic, and it was said that after the destruction of the ship a list was made of all those that were on board that simply stated, “known lost” and “known saved.” One day we are all going to stand before God and those whose names are found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will be in the category “known saved.” Those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will be in the category “known lost” and will be separated from God for eternity in the Lake of Fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mathew 22:13.)
The question today is what have you done with Jesus? Are you “known lost” or “known saved”?