Should You be Scared of Hell?

When something truly scares you, it's hard ignoring it. Whether it's a creepy movie you regret watching, a terrifying reality you learned on the news, or an awful circumstance coming for your life, what scares you stays with you. It gives you nightmares. It shadows you, during the day. It affects you, despite your resistance. What scares us, has a certain power over us. Power should never fall into the wrong hands. So, should anything scare us? Should hell?

Some Christians who want to make people afraid of hell have been described as "scaring people into heaven." This is a tactic John Piper describes as "motivating by fear or a desire to escape hell" to send people "into the arms of Jesus." If a Christian makes hell appear scary with their goal to send people to Jesus, then that tactic will only work if Jesus agrees that hell is scary. If people get scared into Jesus' arms by hell, and then He says to them, "There's no reason for you to fear hell," then the people would understandably leave Jesus, because the power that sent them to Him was shown to be no power at all. If, however, Jesus does say to these people when they come to Him, "Yes, hell is something that should terrify you," then those people are likely to never let Him go.

Jesus says hell is "eternal punishment," (Matthew 25:46), and "eternal fire" for the cursed (Matthew 25:41) "where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth," (Matthew 13:50). Jesus quotes the Old Testament and affirms what the prophet Isaiah wrote about hell (Mark 9:48) stating, hell is a place full of "the dead bodies of those who rebelled against Me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched," (Isaiah 66:24). This place of infinite torment was created for the devil and the fallen angels who serve him (Matthew 25:41). It was not made for humans to suffer there, but all people who do not believe what Jesus says about hell will be sent there. It is written, "the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur." (Revelation 21:8). Unbelievers who do not change their mind about the truth of hell are in danger of burning forever.

If you do not believe in Jesus Christ, then you
have chosen to reject God and live in your sin, and
as all sin leads to death and punishment (Romans 6:23),
a future in hell is waiting for you.

Jesus' description of hell shows it as something terrible and horrific, and He further states hell is a place to which He will send people. Jesus says He will one day say to disobedient unbelievers "Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire," (Matthew 25:41). Jesus says He holds the keys of death and hell, so He is the one who sends people to hell and ensures they stay there (Revelation 1:18). Those in hell are not kept away from God, but rather will never escape Him. They are sent into the presence of the Holy Lamb Jesus' righteous wrath. It is written of those in hell in Revelation chapter 14 from verses 10 to 11:

They, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of His wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.

Despite popular opinion, the devil is not the king of hell,
but will one day be a prisoner in there just like every
unbeliever in that fiery pit (Revelation 20:2-3).

Everyone who does not believe in Jesus Christ is in danger of the fires of hell. For it is written, "Whoever believes in Him is not condemned [to eternal punishment], but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son," (John 3:18). If you are an unbeliever, then you should trust Jesus when He says, "be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell," (Matthew 10:28). Indeed the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). Be afraid of this creepy nightmare; this terrifying reality; this awful circumstance coming for you. Only then, unbeliever, will you begin to become truly wise.

After someone fears God, they will never be truly afraid of anything ever again. Those who believe in Christ Jesus are safe from the fires of hell. Jesus says of His followers who have run into His arms, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of My hand," (John 10:28). Those who believe in Christ Jesus are His children (John 1:12), and children of God do not have a spirit of fear. God gives all of His children a spirit of "power, love and self-discipline," (2 Timothy 1:7). Knowing this, believer, "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified," because "God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you," (Deuteronomy 31:6).

Surrender yourself to God and acknowledge Him
as the Lord of all, for "Everyone who calls on the
name of the Lord will be saved," (Romans 10:13).

Even if everything that can possibly scare a believer becomes a reality in this life, it will not follow them to their next. The Children of God are blessed and have a place in "the kingdom prepared for [them] since the creation of the world," (Matthew 25:34). This is the kingdom of heaven, and in that kingdom "the former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind," (Isaiah 65:17). In the perfect heaven God creates "there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain," (Revelation 21:4). This promise should give believers comfort. No matter what frightens them in this life they will spend eternity with God in the presence of His love. 

Those who believe in Jesus Christ will "taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him," (Psalm 34:8). Those who do not believe in Jesus Christ will one day never eat anything good again; not even a drop of water (Luke 16:24). Does that scare you?

"Those here without the Lord, how do you cope? ...
When the toast is burned, and all the milk has turned,
and Captain Crunch is waving farewell.
When the big One finds you, may this song remind you that
they don't serve breakfast in hell!"
- Newsboys

Source

• The Bible (New International Version)
• Open Bible Info: Hell
• John Piper: Scared into Heaven
• Got Questions: Worm will not Die
• Newsboys: Breakfast

1 John 2:22 (The Antichrist Is and Are)

1 John 2:22

Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son.

There are many terrifying characters in the Bible; the stuff of nightmares incarnate. King Herod ordered the slaughter of all infants in one of his cities in order to try and kill the Messiah (Matthew 2:16-18). Athaliah, mother of one of Judah's kings, in a homocidal rage attempted to murder the entire royal family to ensure she became Judah's next ruler (2 Kings 11:1-2). King Nebuchadnezzar captured Zedekiah, Judah's last king, and ordered his soldiers to kill "the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes," (2 Kings 25:7). All of these humans were malicious monsters, but the Bible tells of a more fearsome beast that will come after them; a liar, deceiver and murderer who can only be stopped by God, Himself. This is the antichrist.

In the days after Jesus left the earth, His disciples warned about the coming of the antichrist. Jesus' disciple John wrote to a group of believers, "Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour," (1 John 2:18). John says that the world (then and now) is in its last days. The one to usher in this ending is the antichrist. Although John says that this antichrist has not yet come, there are antichrists already walking the earth. They are so numerous that John says some of them were (and are) among believers (1 John 2:19). These antichrists are all deceivers "who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ," (1 John 1:7), and they are creatures disparate from believers (2 Corinthians 5:17). They are twisted inside, because they are possessed by "the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world," (1 John 4:3). These monstrosities belong to the darkness. They are all liars and murderers (John 8:44).

John wrote in another letter to a mother that there were
antichrists trying to invade her home and do wickedness
to her children, but she and all believers should
never let in these creatures (2 John 7-11).

Even if the antichrist who will bring in the end of the world is not now among us, there are swarms of antichrists stalking the corners of the earth. The antichrists lurking here are all led by one desire, to deceive saying Christ has not come (1 John 2:22), in order to bring about one end, to murder everyone who believes them by leading them away from eternal life (1 John 2:26). What can followers of Christ do to survive, when they are surrounded by hordes of antichrists mindlessly seeking to destroy and kill every last one of them? 

John writes to his fellow believers that they have nothing to fear of the antichrist. John says of all who follow the Christ, "You have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth...no lie comes from the truth," (1 John 2:20-21). Every believer currently living or passed has received an anointing from God (2 Corinthians 1:20-22), and this was done to keep them in the truth and away from the lies (Ephesians 6:16). Jesus says those who follow Him are sanctified, kept away from the clutches of darkness, by God's truth, which is the Word of God (John 17:17). Jesus also says those who are sanctified by the truth are continually taught by the Holy Spirit; kept in the truth, safe from lethal deception (John 14:26). John affirms this, when he writes, "The anointing you received from Him remains in you...His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in Him," (1 John 2:27). It is because God's followers are anointed, kept in the truth and sanctified by the Word of God that they can say they are God's children "and have overcome [the beasts of darkness], because the one who is in [the believer] is greater than the one who is in the world," (1 John 4:4).

Those who follow God are children of the light. They do not
belong to the darkness (1 Thessalonians 5:5), and their light
gives them strength to overcome the dark (John 1:5).

If you are a follower of Christ, "see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what He promised us—eternal life," (1 John 2:24-25). The antichrists want to eternally kill every person on earth, including themselves (Revelation 16:9), but those who follow Christ have been raised from the dead and can never die (Ephesians 2:5). God's children are not helplessly waiting to suffer at the hands of these monsters, but have been fully equipped to face these devils and fight back! (Ephesians 6:10-18).

They can't keep their chains on me

When the truth has set me free

This is how it feels when you take your life back

This is how it feels when you finally fight back

When life pushes me I push harder

What doesn't kill me makes me stronger...

No! Not gonna die tonight!

- Skillet

Sources

• The Bible (New International Version)
• Skillet: Not Gonna Die Tonight