Saying This Makes Me Cringe – Sunday Thought For The Day

As a born-again Christian and an ordained minister, it makes me cringe when I hear people say their loved one who has died is/was looking down on them, smiling.  Theologically, I’ve no idea how this idea found it’s way into society, but Ill tell you why the idea of same troubles me.

Let me start with the hell: It is not a mythical place nor is it a place where a person casually passes time for eternity.  It is imperative to realize that hell is horrible beyond our ability to put into words or remotely comprehend, and there is no escaping it unless we confess and repent of our sins, believe in Christ and receive the gift of salvation through Him while we are still alive and able.

Those who have died unsaved are not fondly looking down on their family and/or friends.  We must understand that to die without having accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior while we were alive, is to spend all of eternity in suffering that’s impossible to imagine.

We must stop giving credence to the lie of an unsaved family member looking down on us from heaven, if they have died unsaved.  The idea of same cannot be used as a means of comfort.  We must tell the unsaved, the truth about dying without Jesus Christ.

By telling the truth, that hell is an eternity of horror and suffering beyond anything we can describe, may help the person(s) we’re telling, understand their need for salvation.

Those perishing in the eternality of hell and experiencing unimaginable suffering, “Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched,” are not looking fondly on their loved ones from the so-called hereafter.  They’re suffering unspeakable agony.

Hell is so terrible that God “…gave His only begotten Son…” to pay the price for our sins, so that we can be saved from going there.  Are we to believe that if hell were just a place of some kind of estranged leisure, Christ would have had to suffer and die as He did?

As Christians we need a clear understanding that hell is so horrific that we don’t even wish it on our enemies, because God didn’t want for us when we were His enemies; which is exactly what we were before we became born-again.

READ:

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Revelation 14:11 – And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

Revelation 20:10 – And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Revelation 20:14 – And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

Revelation 20:15 – And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Revelation 21:8 – But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

John 3:15-21 (KJV)

15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.