There Really is a Hell - part 1

H - Hell is real & there are people going there

I didn't do the counting myself, but according to one site I looked up, Jesus spoke of Hell 53 times. That is a lot of times that we are reminded of the fact that this place exists...

Matt 10:28 Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both SOUL AND BODY IN HELL."
But why would a good God create Hell? Hell was made for the devil and his angels...

Matthew 25:41 (New International Version)
41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

And God never intended for any of us to be there...

2 Peter 3:9 (New International Version)
9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Ezekiel 18:23 (New International Version)
23 Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?

So, you may say...ok there is a Hell....Jesus warned us against Hell...got it...You move on...

Meaning...is it only a question that hits your head? Is it only an academic question that receives essentially an academic answer? I don't think God ever intended Hell to be viewed as a trivia question or as something that we should only acknowledge in our head.

Think back to examples in the Bible...in the OT, you see people swallowed up into the earth...

Numbers 16:28-34 (New International Version)
28 Then Moses said, "This is how you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: 29 If these men die a natural death and experience only what usually happens to men, then the LORD has not sent me. 30 But if the LORD brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the grave, [c] then you will know that these men have treated the LORD with contempt."
31 As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart 32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah's men and all their possessions. 33 They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. 34 At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, "The earth is going to swallow us too!"

Can you imagine being an Israelite in those days seeing this amazing scene? Do you think that you would have been watching EVERY SINGLE STEP, EVERY SINGLE WORD that you spoke? Knowing that God gave them a very specific view into what awaits us for those that do not fear Him. This wasn't for the Israelites to recognize that God could send them to Hell, it was for them to fear the consequences of not following Him...not just to know that they should follow Him, but to feel it and for it to motivate them to change their behavior.

And of course there were many times in the NT that Jesus spoke about Judgement Day and ultimately Hell itself, describing how there would be much "weeping and gnashing of teeth"
Matthew 8:12, Matthew 13:42, Matthew 13:50, Matthew 22:13, Matthew 24:51, Matthew 25:30 , Luke 13:28
You have people in fear of their next step in the desert...people described as being in agony in the New Testament...those don't sound like intellectual arguments for the existence of Hell.

I wonder...where is that fear in us today? I don't feel like I generally have it...
And maybe worse yet...where is our emotional outrage to the fact that many other people are going to Hell? And of course, once people are there...they are there FOREVER.