Can you grasp the devastating sorrow of being rejected by Jesus Christ in sight of the Heavenly City? In this drama that Jesus told, careless souls miss heaven at the very door.They actually see the great saints of the Bible entering the kingdom with breathtaking fanfare. Shouts and Praises fill the air with an unspeakable glory. The singing and music is like a symphony from another world. This event is in the outskirts of Heavenly Jerusalem, the Father’s Home Place.

The Son of God made it plain that this company of religious people were convinced of their worth to enter into the City. It was evident that Christ had to bar the gate because they were so sure of themselves. Is it possible that this crowd would try to rush Jesus Christ to bolt their way past Him? This is the perfect picture of multitudes that argue their preparation but show no proof of being sold out to Jesus Christ. It is an accepted fact that most well-known Godly Pastors and Evangelist believe at least 90% of the church world have no evidence of a transformed life. The Judgment Seat of Christ is going to be a day of much sadness.

If anyone had told this drama but Jesus Christ we would have doubted its revelation. This event will occur in sight of that magnificent city. The rejected souls are at the very door into Eternal Life. They are religious to a fault and have a powerful argument of their acquaintance with Christ. They know His powerful message and have seen His miracles. They had been so close to Him that they could not believe He did not recognize them. They were deeply religious but had certainly never been “Born Again.” Our Church World is full of this very crowd of unspiritual souls.

Jesus had been asked a powerful question because His message of salvation was so stark and clear. “Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved?” (St. Luke 13:23) His answer was to tell this drama that would unfold in that awesome day of accountability .“Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” (St. Luke 13:24) No one can doubt that this is the large majority of our church world who will turn you off in a minute if you try to share the “Real Gospel” with them. They know too much and have been religious too long to believe that they are lost.

Religion without a sin-killing experience is the great deceiver of all ages. Watch this drama as it unfolds. Remember it is the Son of God telling this prophecy. “When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:” (St. Luke 13:25) At this point of End Times development Heaven and Hell will be in great contrast. There will be no doubting what missing the welcome into this gleaming city of perfect beauty means to each soul. It’s no longer a debate, it’s either Heaven or the Lake of Fire.

To believe that men can be so deceived as to argue with the Divine King of Kings seems impossible. Jesus tells us what they will proclaim to Him. “Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets.” (St. Luke 13:26) They had taken communion and believed that His Graces covered their souls. They had known the influence of His Word of God and they understood His Divine nature. It’s awesome to watch this unfold.

These are eternal souls that were grandmothers and grandfathers, mothers and fathers and sons and daughters. They had been given great opportunity to follow Christ. They knew the truth but chose a lesser path. “But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.” (St. Luke 13:27) The arguments are over as truth settles in and the sheer terror of the consequence becomes real. They are not in the Lake of Fire and the Second Death is yet to occur, but they go into hysteria. “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.” (Luke 13:28)To be turned away from the Glory of our Lord’s Presence is enough, but to be turned over to eternal damnation is sheer terror

They actually see the City in it’s grandeur. The great gardens and mansions of our world do not hold a light. This crowd sees the glory of Christ’s Kingdom and hears the rejoicing and singing inside the great walls of His Grand Estate. To know there is no hope and that eternity in the Lake Of Fire is before them causes them to be beyond despair. We live in a world that refuses to consider this possibility. The attitude with most unconverted souls and many church people is, “I’ll take my chance.” It will soon be too late to wake up.

The great Truths of the Bible will occur exactly as they have been written. The Biblical standards of purity and righteousness will be His measuring tool. Excuses for not living by the Words of God are everywhere. There are enough excuses for all that are careless to adopt for their own. The Lord Jesus Christ knew there would be a multitude of ways of Satan’s devices right in the midst of His Church. He gave this great drama we have seen as His warning of failure and the consequence.

In the same Book of Luke, Jesus is quoted again. The Bible is a repetitious Book because we are a hard-headed self willed people. “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” (St. Luke 21:34-36)

For His Blood-washed saints, one glimpse into His Eternal City where joy is unfolding and every sacrifice (if you can call those things you put aside sacrifices) will be forever forgotten. The Father awaits the grand day of the Kingdom of our Christ becoming the Kingdom of our Father. “Joy unspeakable and full of glory” is right down the road for the Saints that have chosen Him over the world.

Joseph R. Chambers

jrc@pawcreek.org

Hell is the holding place until the WHITE THRONE judgment of the Christ rejecting world and those that live an unholy life. “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.” (Revelation 22:8)

Hell is in the center of our Earth, where molten rock and brimstone cast themselves about like a Tsunami out of the deep. This hellish place did not exist when God the eternal Father created a perfect world. The world was a garden paradise, where the loving Father could step out of His Ivory City to walk in fellowship with His earthly family. It appears that He created the Earth for His pleasure and retreat like a great garden in the suburbs of Heavenly Jerusalem. The space or distance between the HeavenlyCity and the Father’s paradise garden probably did not exist until sin was judged.

Satan was still a beautiful angel and walked about in God’s city and His garden. He was a breathtaking being to behold. Music flowed from Him in its created splendor and blessed the ears of all God’s universe. Ezekiel spoke of this excellent created cherub,“Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created” (Ezekiel 28:13).

Satan had been created as a masterpiece, revealing the uniqueness of God’s creative powers. He was a jewel in the family of angels; however, his pride somehow caused him to see his beauty as his gift to God instead of God’s gift to him. He used his charm to deceive a great company of angels and, together, they rebelled against the Sovereign God. They were cast out of Heaven and left without any permanent dwelling place. This entire company of Satan and his fallen angels has been vagabonds from that day.

Using a beautiful creature as his disguise to sneak into the Garden of Eden revealed his fallen mind as he sought to get even with the Father. In the process Our Father turned that creature into a snake. From the moment Satan was cast out of Heaven, he has had to use trickery in all of his designs. Honesty, beauty, and righteousness do not exist in his world. “. . . For he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44).He cannot create, he can only destroy. Remember, he had walked in that garden in the splendor of his created beauty. He had thrilled God’s entire universe with Heavenly music that revealed the highest form of worship. He was one of God’s grandest angels, but now he returned disguised as a snake in his fallen condition.

In every place where men give him room, he produces a wilderness. His powers are still paranormal as are all of God’s angels — fallen or non fallen — but not supernatural. God’s holy angels can do supernatural things at God’s command but not in and of themselves. This worldwide calamity of Satan had to be judged and the Father created a place called Hell in the heart or center of His earth. The earth’s magnetism demanded great heat within its center to make our world cohesive and inhabitable. It was the chosen place to which Jesus commanded the wicked be exiled and locked up forever.

The souls of the wicked are consigned to this horrible place, but it was not created for them. The Bible clearly states it was created for the devil and his angels, “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). The souls of men go there because they choose to follow Satan’s kingdom and to reject God’s offer of forgiveness and salvation. Such a multitude has chosen Satan and his world over God and His offer that Hell must be constantly enlarged. The Bible states, “Therefore Hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it” (Isaiah 5:14).

There are literally three Hells that await the wicked persons and even morally good people that reject Jesus Christ. God created us for Himself. To reject His Lordship over our lives is to be lost forever. Hell will be filled with the most despicable of wicked souls, but also the careless souls who live valuable lives but refuse the mastery of Christ.

The first Hell is in this life and is represented by multitudes that hear the Gospel, experience the Spirit’s conviction, but sin away the grace His Spirit offers. Noah’s day was a picture of these blasphemous persons that rejected mercy and died in the flood. A growing spirit of blasphemy is gripping our world. Once the Holy Spirit withdraws Himself from a person, it is Hell on earth for that soul. A great majority of today’s population is on this road to despair. Probably the greatest percentage of today’s world has sinned away grace than at any time since those that rejected Noah’s message and laughed at the ark he was building. There is a growing hatred for the prophecy message because it represents the same truth and escape as Noah’s Ark.

Hell in the center of our earth is the present place of every lost soul that has died since creation. Preachers in our day are preaching a vast number of souls into Heaven that are forever damned in Hell. Nothing could be sadder than the deception about Hell in our pulpits. If anger can make Hell worse, there will certainly be a multitude of ministers that will be cursed by the lost for eternity. Jesus settled the question of eternal fire in His Biblical story of the rich man and Lazarus. Jesus’ exact words were, “And in Hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame” (Luke16:23-24). Anyone that denies that Hell is a place of eternal fire and torment speaks the language of Biblical confusion and denial.

The third possibility of Hell is called the “Lake of Fire.” The Bible gives the location of this damnable place. The ruins of the City of Babylon have been the very center of satanic activities since early history. John describes the scene, “And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation (dwelling place) of devils, and the hold (captive) of every foul spirit, and a cage (locked) of every unclean and hateful bird”(Revelation 18:2).

Isaiah describes the joining of Hell in the heart of the Earth to the ruins of Babylon, where the Lake of Fire will be located. Concerning Satan being cast into the Lake of Fire, he stated, “Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations” (Isaiah 14:9). The multitudes that are dying without the righteousness of Christ are forever lost. Hell may be full, but it is enlarging its border for the next wave of the damned. The name of Jesus Christ alone is God’s escape from eternal judgment in unquenchable fire.

Joseph Chambers

jrc@pawcreek.org