Is Hell Real?
By Radio Pastor Perry F. Rockwood
2. What the Bible Teaches
It is not easy to be a Bible preacher in these days of compromise and anti-Bible preaching. But we have the plain command in Ezekiel 3:17,18: "Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand."
Dr. Charles J. Woodbridge, author of the book, THE NEW EVANGELICALISM, speaks concerning the compromises of our day: "The very existence of this so-called 'neo-evangelicalism' implies a discontent with and disapproval of the old-fashioned approach. It is felt that there must be a new, more moderate definition of orthodoxy, a milder view of the inerrancy of Scripture, less contending for the faith and more friendly give-and-take with modernists. The 'neo-evangelicals' desire seems to be to make as much common cause as possible with the enemies of the cross, to regard ministers who deny the Bible as 'fringe-friends', to fraternize with believers as though we were all the family of God, and to do theological evil in order that good might result. This Jesuit attitude is not advocated in the Bible. Indeed, it runs counter to the plain commandments of the Word of God. The true believer is to have no spiritual traffic with sin or error" (from The King's Business, p.14, may 1958).
Irrespective of what modernists and modern-day appeasers teach, the Bible declares there is a Hell.
HELL! the prison house of despair,
Here are some things that won't be there:
No flowers will bloom on the banks of Hell,
No beauties of nature we love so well;
No comforts of home, music and song,
No friendship of joy will be found in that throng;
No children to brighten the long, weary night,
No love nor peace, nor one ray of light;
No blood washed soul with face beaming bright,
No loving smile in that region of night;
No mercy, no pity, pardon nor grace,
No water; O God, what a terrible place!
The pangs of the lost no human can tell,
Not one moment's peace - there is no rest in HELL.
HELL! the prison house of despair,
Here are some things that will be there:
Fire and brimstone are there, we know,
For God in His Word hath told us so;
Memory, remorse, suffering and pain,
Weeping and wailing, but all in vain;
Blasphemers, swearers, haters of God,
Christ-rejectors while here on earth trod;
Murderers, gamblers, drunkards and liars,
Will have their part in the lake of fire;
The filthy, the vile, the cruel and mean,
What a horrible mob in Hell will be seen!
Yes, more than humans on earth can tell,
Are torments and woes of eternal HELL!
-Catherine Dangell
JESUS ON HELL
Any child reading the Bible will understand that Jesus spoke time and again about a place of eternal punishment. This is the same Lord Jesus who spoke words of comfort to those in trouble, who healed diseases, who raised the dead, and who went
to the Cross.
Here are some of the passages of Scripture that record our Lord's teaching on Hell (Gehenna).
"But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of
hell fire" (Matthew 5:22).
"And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell" (Matthew 5:29).
"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28).
"And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire" (Matthew 18:9).
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves" (Matthew 23:15).
"Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" (Matthew 23:33).
These are sober words coming from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ. If He believed in a place called Hell, I do; and since He preached on it, certainly all Bible preachers must do likewise.
I am thinking today of so many of you who have loved ones not saved. They are without hope. When members of our families are ill or in trouble of some kind, it is easy for us to be concerned and to weep for them. How much greater our concern ought to be if they are not saved and on the way to a Christless eternity. Jesus wept for lost souls. He had compassion on the unsaved multitudes. Yet we have ceased our weeping. We have lost our compassion.
THE OLD TESTAMENT
Not only do we have the words of Jesus, but we have the simple, plain Bible teaching on Hell from cover to cover. In Jeremiah 23:12 we read of the peril facing every unsaved person each hour he lives: "Wherefore their way shall be unto them as
slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the Lord." Just think seriously of the peril of standing on slippery grass in the darkness facing the judgment of Hell.
Isaiah 14:9: "Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming ..."
Job 21:29,30: "...do ye not know ... That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath."
Psalm 9:17: "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God."
What we have learned today from the Word of God is that there is a place called Hell. In the New Testament alone there are 264 chapters and 27 books. 234 times God speaks of a place of judgment and eternal punishment. If you were travelling along
life's road and saw 234 signboards within 27 miles with the warning, "THIS ROAD LEADS TO DESTRUCTION", I am sure you would turn around and get on another road. Yet, how careless the multitudes are concerning their eternal destiny. God's warnings go unheeded, but at death it will be too late to change directions. The following poem reiterates this solemn fact:
FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE
Loved ones will weep o'er my silent face,
Dear ones will clasp me in sad embrace,
Shadows and darkness will fill the place,
Five minutes after I die.
Faces that sorrow I will not see,
Voices that murmur will not reach me,
But where, oh, where will my spirit be,
Five minutes after I die.
Quickly the years of my life have flown,
Gathering treasures I thought my own,
There I must reap from the see I have sown
Five minutes after I die.
Naught to repair the good I lack,
Fixed to the goal of my chosen track,
No room to repent, no turning back,
Five minutes after I die.
Now I can stifle convictions stirred,
Now I can silence the Voice oft heard,
Then the fulfilment of God's sure Word,
Five minutes after I die.
Mated for aye with my chosen throng,
Long is eternity, O, so long,
Then woe is me if my soul be wrong,
Five minutes after I die.
O, what a fool- hard the word, but true,
Passing the Saviour with death in view,
Doing a deed I can ne'er undo
Five minutes after I die.
If I am flinging a fortune away,
If I am wasting salvation's day
"Just is my sentence", my soul shall say
Five minutes after I die.
God help you to choose! Your eternal state
Depends on your choice, you dare not wait;
You must choose now; it will be too late
Five minutes after you die.
http://www.tpgh.org/IHR.htm
Ancient tree to help turn Jericho into tourism hub
"And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, who was the chief among the tax collectors, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus ... but could not because of the crowd, because he was of short stature. And he ran ahead, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house." Luke 19:1-5
___
JERICHO, West Bank (AP) — With a giant trunk and boughs towering 60 feet high, a gnarled sycamore near Jericho's main square has long been touted as the very tree that the hated tax collector climbed to get a glimpse of Jesus.
Now it's taking center stage in a plan to transform this ancient desert backwater into a tourism hub.
The tree, once tucked obscurely away on a side street, is a featured attraction of a Russian-funded museum complex to be unveiled this month as part of Jericho's 10,000th birthday celebrations.
At the Oct. 10 launch of yearlong festivities, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will outline ambitious plans for Jericho, a Jordan Valley oasis that bills itself as the world's oldest and lowest-lying town, at some 780 feet below sea level.
"This is to promote Palestine as a destination," Palestinian Tourism Minister Khouloud Daibes said of the venture, which includes a resort to be built on the shores of the nearby Dead Sea. The Palestinians even hope for an airport in the area, though both projects hinge on Israeli approval.
The plans reflect the Abbas government's approach of building a Palestinian state from the ground up, regardless of the ups and downs of negotiations with Israel. Such pragmatism grew out of painful years of conflict, especially in the past decade, when Palestinians across the West Bank saw many economic gains wiped out.
The road leading into Jericho still bears witness to the scars of the fighting, but also fledgling signs of prosperity.
It's now a four-lane highway instead of a potholed country road, and an Israeli army checkpoint that used to snarl traffic and deter visitors has been removed because of a growing atmosphere of calm. But a casino, shut after the outbreak of fighting in 2000, remains closed because the Israeli military believes it is too dangerous for Israelis — the main clientele — to return to Jericho.
Still, more foreign tourists are visiting, about 1 million a year since the Israeli-Palestinian fighting began to drop off in 2006, said Jericho Mayor Hassan Saleh. Their main stops include Tel Sultan, an archaeological dig some say proves Jericho was first settled around 8,000 B.C., and an 8th-century Umayad palace with intricate mosaics.
Many visitors also stop at the ancient sycamore, usually snapping pictures before getting back on their buses. The hope is that the $3 million museum and visitors' complex to be opened next to the tree will encourage visitors to linger.
Local lore has long maintained the tree, whose massive partially hollowed trunk measures 7 feet in diameter, is the very one featured in the biblical tale of Jesus and Zacchaeus, the tax collector of short stature who, according to the Gospel of Luke, climbed the tree to get a better look at Jesus.
The tree will eventually be ringed by the perimeter wall of the museum compound.
On Friday, dozens of Palestinian and Russian workers laid brick, rushing to finish the white stone building with two domes and several graceful columns in time for the Oct. 10 opening. The museum, which sits on land bought by the Russian government in the 19th century, will feature Russian art and an exhibit on cultural ties between Russia and Palestine, as well as artifacts discovered during a salvage dig before construction began.
In the garden, workers laid tiles for a walkway from a recently excavated Byzantine-era mosaic to the sycamore tree. Landscape architect Sofiya Minasiyan said she plans to fill the grounds with plants mentioned in the Bible.
Daibes, the tourism minister, said tests are being conducted on the health of the tree, in hopes of finding ways to keep it strong. She said preliminary tests have shown the sycamore is more than 2,000 years old.
Mordechai Kislev, an Israeli archaebotanist, said it is quite possible for sycamores to live that long, though it's difficult to estimate a sycamore's age because it does not have annual growth rings.
The tree does have a rival — nearby, in the courtyard of a Greek Orthodox church, the huge trunk of a dead sycamore encased in glass is also presented as the biblical tree.
Still, Saleh said the tree in the Russian complex is believed to be the oldest sycamore in Jericho. "People believe that this is the tree," the mayor said.
Some visitors take the uncertainty in stride.
"Of course, we've heard stories from the Bible ... and I can image that it would be like this," said Anna Boertveit, 47, of Stavanger, Norway, as her tour group stopped for photographs.
"If it's really the tree does not matter that much to me."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101001/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_palestinians_sacred_sycamore
Pastors defy prohibition on politicking
NASHVILLE — Nearly 100 pastors across the USA stood up at their pulpits last Sunday and did what federal law says they can't — tell their congregations how to vote.
The campaign was sponsored for the third straight year by the conservative Christian group Alliance Defense Fund as a challenge to the restrictions on pulpit politicking. The group hopes to provoke a legal battle that would overturn the law's prohibition on candidate endorsements from tax-exempt non-profits and churches.
"Our goal always has been to empower pastors to speak freely from the pulpit without government censorship or control," said the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based group's senior legal counsel, Erik Stanley.
IRS spokesman Dan Boone declined to comment, and the IRS has issued no response. On Tuesday, Americans United For Separation of Church and State, a non-profit that has been monitoring the activities of the Alliance Defense Fund, filed a complaint with the IRS against Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond, Okla.
"When churches become cogs in any candidate's political machine, they ought to lose their tax exemption," the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said in a statement. "I urge the IRS to investigate this matter and apply the law."
Among last Sunday's participants:
• In Yukon, Okla., outside Oklahoma City, pastor Dan Fisher of the 1,500-member Trinity Baptist Church told his congregants he liked Republican candidates Mary Fallin for governor and Scott Pruitt for attorney general, among other endorsements he made.
Fisher said the Bible is clear on the Second Amendment issue, with numerous stories of God's people defending themselves with weapons.
• In Minnesota, Gus Booth, pastor of the 195-member Warroad Community Church in Warroad, endorsed Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer and several other candidates.
"We as Bible-believing Christians should elect the most Bible-believing candidates," he said, adding that he plans to send an audio CD of his sermon to the IRS.
• In Nashville, pastor David Shelley of Smith Springs Baptist Church told about 30 people in the pews Sunday about the abortion views of state and federal candidates and said, "We need to end legalized abortion to stop the slaughter."
Church member Lyndell Cowan said after the service that she wouldn't vote for politicians just because her pastor recommended them, but the sermon was helpful.
"You get so little information, you go into the voting booth and you don't know who these candidates are," she said.
The IRS has yet to penalize the churches participating in previous years, Stanley said. Only one church has ever been penalized for running afoul of the law — a New York congregation that took out a full-page ad in 1992 to rail against then-candidate Bill Clinton, Stanley said. It lost its tax-exempt letter from the IRS for a year, he said.
The tax code provides tax-exempt status to churches and other charitable groups unless they participate in political campaigns or make statements on behalf of candidates.
Some churches and non-profits legally start political action groups, but contributions to those organizations are not tax deductible, said Ira Lupu, a professor at George Washington University Law School.
"The whole idea is that taxpayers shouldn't be subsidizing political activities," he said.
David Masci, a senior researcher with the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, said clergy endorse candidates with some regularity across the country in violation of the rules.
"It doesn't seem to be something the IRS devotes a lot of resources to," he said. But, he said, many mainstream churches recoil from the idea of erasing the line between church and state.
"It puts congregations in an awkward position," said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. "It's not a wise thing for churches to endorse candidates. We think candidates should endorse us."
"We think the mixing of the sacred nature of the church with the exceedingly worldly nature of politics is ... unseemly," he said.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops provides a "Faithful Citizenship" document on its website intended to help Catholics evaluate candidates based on Church teachings, without offering endorsements.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-10-01-politicalpulpits01_ST_N.htm
'Happiness Preacher' Commits Suicide
A South Korean television personality known as the "happiness preacher" and her husband were found dead in a motel room in an apparent joint suicide, police said Friday.
A motel employee in the town of Goyang, north of Seoul, found Choi Yoon Hee, 63, and her 72-year-old husband hanging in their room Thursday night, they said.
A note left by Choi and released by police read: "I've felt something wrong with my body from two years ago. I have a hard time, suffering from lung and heart diseases."
She apologized to her family and friends for giving in to "unbearable" pain.
Police said the husband was believed to have helped his wife commit suicide before killing himself.
Choi wrote about 20 books about happiness and hope and earned her nickname for inspiring people to live happily through her TV programs.
South Korea has the world's highest suicide rate for women among major advanced nations, according to official data, and the second highest rate for men after Japan.
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/international/happiness-preacher-commits-suicide-20101008-ncx
Why i homeschool
2 Investigators: School System Ignored Safety Concerns
If your child feels unsafe at school, and you want them transferred to a new school, what do you think would happen?
Families say officials with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) drag their heels and even prevent transfers, further endangering their kids. 2 Investigator Dave Savini found the district has been lacking a policy to deal with this safety concern.
Since 2008-2009 school year, Edwina Meyer has been trying to get a transfer out of Scammon Elementary School, 4201 W. Henderson St. She says she feels unsafe.
“It’s terrible,” Meyer says. “It’s like so much happened in that classroom.”
She says she has witnessed multiple X-rated acts while in class.
Meyer was reportedly not alone in witnessing this behavior. Laura Flores says her daughter also witnessed the sex acts.
“My daughter was psychologically damaged by it, in the way she had nightmares, she fretted about going to school,” Flores said. “She was afraid.”
Flores and Susan Meyer, Edwina’s mother, both say that during the past two years, they wanted their daughters transferred to different schools for safety reasons. But they say school officials fought them, even though they acknowledge the sex acts occurred and fired the teacher.
Edwina Meyer says even after the teacher was fired, problems persisted. She says she was bit, inappropriately touched and she says denied access to the bathroom. Meyer says she wet herself and was forced to sit in her own urine.
“I don’t have an explanation from anybody why it’s happening,” Susan Meyer said.
She removed her daughter from Scammon and has been trying to have her placed in a new school.
The problem is there have been no official CPS policies to help students transfer when they felt unsafe.
Meyer wanted her daughter, who has special education needs, to go to a new school, Lorca, which opened just blocks from her home. She says CPS officials refused.
Finally, they were told Edwina Meyer could switch, but to a school five miles away without bus transportation. That is impossible, says her mother, who has no car. That left Edwina sitting at home.
“She doesn’t deserve this,” Susan Meyer said.
After CBS 2 contacted Chicago Public School officials, they agreed to provide Edwina bus transportation to a new school.
For other students, there also is help. This year, a new CPS policy allows students to transfer for safety reasons, but applying for a move does not guarantee you will get one. District-wide, 17 students have applied for safety transfers citywide this year, and five were denied.
“The district makes every effort to accommodate all of its students and their individual needs equitably and fairly, and we will review and monitor our internal procedures,” a schools spokesman says.
She removed her daughter from Scammon and has been trying to have her placed in a new school.
The problem is there have been no official CPS policies to help students transfer when they felt unsafe.
Meyer wanted her daughter, who has special education needs, to go to a new school, Lorca, which opened just blocks from her home. She says CPS officials refused.
Finally, they were told Edwina Meyer could switch, but to a school five miles away without bus transportation. That is impossible, says her mother, who has no car. That left Edwina sitting at home.
“She doesn’t deserve this,” Susan Meyer said.
After CBS 2 contacted Chicago Public School officials, they agreed to provide Edwina bus transportation to a new school.
For other students, there also is help. This year, a new CPS policy allows students to transfer for safety reasons, but applying for a move does not guarantee you will get one. District-wide, 17 students have applied for safety transfers citywide this year, and five were denied.
“The district makes every effort to accommodate all of its students and their individual needs equitably and fairly, and we will review and monitor our internal procedures,” a schools spokesman says.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2010/10/07/2-investigators-school-system-ignored-safety-concerns/
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