Death

The torment and eternality of hell


If anyone chooses not to believe upon Jesus for the salvation of his soul it’s important to know what that choice really entails. “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him-the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). The torment described in Revelation 14:11 refers to ceaseless infliction of unbearable pain. I don’t know if you caught the story recently of a priest from Michigan who said he had a heart attack in 2016 and died and then saw hell. I don’t know if his story is true or not, there is no way to know that. But the priest describes a terrifying scene.

Gerald Johnson says he died in 2016 after suffering a heart attack, and what he saw—and more specifically, heard—was horrifying. Johnson says he saw terrible, gruesome sights of torture and pain, and heard music that was designed to cause maximum trauma. Here’s what he says he heard during his death experience. He says instead of heading straight for Heaven as expected, he went the other way, down into the pits of Hell. Johnson says he saw demons enslaving humans, and a man “walking on all fours like a dog and getting burned from head to toe. His eyes were bulging and worse than that: He was wearing chains on his neck. He was like a hellhound.” Johnson claims Hell was much worse than he could ever imagine. “I entered the very center of the Earth,” Johnson says. “The things I saw there are indescribable. Johnson says there is a section of Hell where music is played… but very badly. The priest claims he could hear Rihanna’s “Umbrella” and Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry Be Happy” being used as instruments for torture. To make things significantly worse, the demon choir performing these songs was deliberately performing them incorrectly for maximum pain. Johnson says he made his way back to his physical body, but will never forget what he saw. “I was angry with God because I did so much good in my life and ended up in Hell,” he says. “I rose up out of Hell and returned to Earth — and God spoke to me. He said, ‘You were secretly angry with people who harmed you, you hoped I would punish them. These are not your people. These are my people. I just want you to focus on the task I give you.’ Even though I did good, the thing I had in my heart was a lack of forgiveness for the people who wronged me.”

Even if this story is not true and not actually a glimpse of Hell, it could very possibly be even worse than what Gerald Johnson experienced. God made us, and he made us to honor and glorify Him. God loves us, and Jesus came to save us from the price we must pay for who we became after what Adam and Eve did. Hell, regardless of how bad a place it is, is what Jesus wants to save each of us from having to experience. Instead, God wants us all with Him, forever. However, this required a great sacrifice-Someone volunteering to die to save you from eternal separation from God and having to live with excruciating pain every single day, forever. Ask Jesus to be your Savior, and He will hear you calling out to Him. Accept His offer to save you from this Hell, do it now, today. None of us knows when our last moment will be-after that point it will be too late.

Gerald Johnson’s story has been printed in numerous media publications, the above is from: https://bestlifeonline.com/michigan-priest-rihanna-hell-news/

Dead or Alive

Nonbelievers are so bound in the sphere of sin, the world (Eph. 2:12), the flesh (Rom. 8:8), and the devil (1 John 5:19) as to be unable to respond to spiritual stimuli; totally devoid of spiritual life. The spiritually dead have no ability to make themselves alive.

Only through a union with Jesus Christ can those hopelessly dead in their sins receive eternal life. Believer’s sins are all put to Christ’s account, nailed to His cross as He paid the penalty in their place, for them, thus satisfying the just wrath of God against crimes requiring punishment in full.

Commentary from the MacArthur study Bible, notes for Colossians 2:13,14.

Supreme Significance

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It is important for us as believers to understand what happened on the cross, and that it was of supreme significance.  Jesus’ crucifixion on a tree is far more than simply the site of a Jewish man’s execution-this was the solution to mankind’s biggest problem: sin and the resulting alienation from God.  The crucifixion of Jesus is the divine transaction that saves us.  Only the blood of Christ can cleanse us from sin and reconcile us to the Father.

Although the Jews and the Romans viewed the crucifixion as the execution of a criminal, God saw the death of His Son as the perfect atoning sacrifice, which allowed for the justification of sinful mankind.

Commentary from the In Touch devotional by Charles Stanley, May 18, 2020.

Death reigned

Romans 5;17a

Adam’s sin brought universal death-exactly opposite the result he expected and Satan had promised: “You will be like God” (Genesis 3:5).

Unlike Adam’s act, Christ’s act has-and will-accomplish exactly what He intended, i.e., spiritual life.

Commentary from the MacArthur study Bible, notes for Romans 5:17.

Justified

Romans 5;9

Justified-to be declared righteous, by His blood-through His violent, substitutionary death.  Christ bore the full fury of God’s wrath in the believing sinner’s place, and there is none left for him (see Romans 8:1, and 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9).

Commentary from the MacArthur study Bible, notes for Romans 3:24; 5:9.

The aroma of death and of life

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Paul used the style of Hebrew superlatives to emphasize the twofold effect of gospel preaching.  To some, the message brings eternal life and ultimate glorification.  To others, it is a stumbling stone of offense that brings eternal death.  No one in his own strength is adequate or competent to serve God in the ways and with the power that Paul has been describing.

Commentary from the MacArthur study Bible, notes for 2 Corinthians 2:16.