We Need to Talk About Hell

Luke chapter 16 contains a very well-known parable of the Lord, the rich man and Lazarus. And there are many differences of opinion about whether this was a completely illustrative parable, simply intended as an illustration, or whether this Lazarus—it does not appear to be the same Lazarus whom the Lord raised from the dead, by the way—or whether it referred to real people or not; what matters is the principle and the spiritual teaching contained in this passage. The Lord always used parables, illustrations, accounts, and stories to make the teaching of certain mysteries of Scripture more understandable and clearer.

Many times He spoke to people who were not educated, who were not very academically developed, and this was one way, among other things, of making His teaching clear, right? Now, the Lord says in this parable: "There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and feasted sumptuously every day." The Lord is thus creating an almost exaggerated, hyperbolic picture of a very prosperous man with so much money: all his clothing was the most exquisite, the very best, and every day was a huge feast to which he invited all his friends and relatives—a full-blown banquet, right?—held sumptuously.

A man who, I imagine, was very popular, inviting all his friends to eat the finest delicacies. The Lord always talks about that, right?—about how, when people have so much money, they do not know what to do with it. So, do you remember that other parable about the man who had so much wealth that he said, "Well, I don't know what to do. What I am going to do is tear down all my barns and all my buildings and make them bigger"? And this man seems to have had so much money that, well, the only things he could spend it on were clothing and banquets; that was how great his material, physical wealth was.

But also: "There was a beggar named Lazarus who lay at his gate." Lazarus is the complete opposite, the diametrical opposite of this rich man, because instead of fine clothing, health, and great financial splendor, Lazarus "was covered with sores and longed to satisfy his hunger with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs came and licked his sores." You cannot imagine two human beings in circumstances more different than those of these two men.

But what happens? "It came to pass that he died." There is the word—take hold of that word: "the beggar died." Death is a dividing line in human destinies; death is what makes us equal. Here on this Earth, people may be in the White House, or in a palace, or in an incredible mansion, or they may live in the greatest misery, but there is a funnel through which we all have to pass: the CEO or president of the largest corporation, the director of the most powerful corporation, or the lowliest beggar all have to pass through a door called death.

And on the other side there are things as well; there is an eternity. We all have to pass through that door, which is eternity. The Bible says that God has set eternity in the hearts of men. How many of you know that we have the essence of God within us? That does not perish, that does not die, that does not disappear.

What is it that makes us human? What gives us that quality that makes us human? What gives us that quality which no other living being possesses—only the human being? Psychologists rack their brains trying to decipher it, as do philosophers and ontologists, but we and the great religions of the world have always said that human beings have eternity within them. We have the spirit; that is what makes us different.

What psychologists sometimes call consciousness, I believe, is not merely consciousness in terms of the brain and its biological, electrochemical processes; it is something that goes beyond biology, beyond psychology, beyond the billions of neurons and the connections made by the human brain. What explains the complexity of man and woman is that mystery which is the breath of God in each one of us.

Do you remember the creation story? It says that God created man and formed him from the clay—a way, I believe, of declaring that, yes, we are closely connected to creation. If you examine human beings in terms of their physical, biological composition, we possess all the elements found in a stone, a tree, a monkey, a fish, water, the heavens, and the planets. They are the same substances, the elements that compose all matter; chemists have deciphered that to a certain extent. We have the same elements that make up the chair on which you are sitting and the food we eat—everything.

When you die, that part disintegrates because it no longer has what is inside, which is what gives integrity to that part of what you are. It says that God breathed upon man, remember? So man was simply a clay figure, a physical and chemical material substance made of the same elements as the Earth. But when God breathes upon man, He infuses him with His breath. Imagine having the breath of God within you. Listen, how many nutrients must the breath of God contain? What marvelous things must be present in the breath of God?

When God infused His breath into that man who was a lifeless figure, man became a living being, and that is what we have within us. I recently watched a documentary about Artificial Intelligence, which is a new dimension of science. Some scientists believe that by around the year 2050, computers will reach the same level of intelligence as human beings, and from then on they will surpass them and go even further—a fascinating area of scientific research.

But there is a problem they have to wrestle with: what is consciousness? In my opinion, and that of many philosophers and scientists, a machine will never be able to do what the human brain does. But it is not merely the human brain; it is human consciousness, and these philosophers have to wrestle with this: what is human consciousness? They try to explain it. I found it interesting that none of them ventures into the realm of the spirit; they are all materialists, and in the discussion, at least there, they confine themselves to deciphering consciousness in terms of the brain's processes, neurons, electronic processes, and the complexity of the human brain.

And even so, they say that this complexity, viewed from a purely material perspective, goes far beyond what a computer—even the most advanced computer—can achieve. They say, "We can make a computer that does any number of things, but for it to duplicate and equal the brain's capacity is impossible." And that is without even taking the spirit into account. I believe that what makes the complexity of the human mind possible is not the billions of neurons and their incredible combinations; it is the spirit within us, that spirit which God has placed there.

We could go much deeper into everything I am saying to explain that death—that vestibule through which we pass into the other dimension, the eternal dimension—comes when we take off this material body. The apostle Paul speaks about that in 2 Corinthians 5, I believe it is. He says, "If this building should vanish, we have within us a building not made with hands, eternal." Eternal, he says—that is your spirit. It is eternal, and the spirit of every human being is irrevocable. It has the essence of God; it cannot be undone. It is like when a king gives his word and it cannot be taken back; that appears many times in the Bible. When a king issued a decree, that decree could not be annulled; it had to be fulfilled, like a promise.

When God placed eternity within us, He does not take back that essence of Himself—which is Him, which is sacred, a divine, eternal, infinite essence. He does not take it and somehow undo it; it must exist for eternity—it is an eternal essence. And then that essence passes into eternity, and there are two paths there.

And that is what I wanted to talk about this morning, because the Lord has laid it on my heart that we have to talk about those two paths. But for now I want to talk about only one of them: it is called hell. I do not like talking about hell—who likes talking about hell?—but we have to talk about hell; the Lord spoke about hell. The New Testament speaks about hell some fifty times, they say, and Jesus Christ, the most loving being who has ever existed and ever will exist, spoke continually about hell.

Hell is not something only for preachers whose dinner got burned and who are in a bad mood when they preach. Hell is a reality that the Bible speaks about, and we have to talk about it because people must be warned. If Christ spoke about it, I cannot be more sophisticated than Jesus in the way I preach the Gospel. And there is such a place; we do not always talk about it, but there is such a place.

During this year, as we have been talking about so many evangelistic subjects, God laid this on my heart: at some point you have to talk about what hell is, what eternal condemnation is—that part A of the two destinies: heaven and hell. So these two men, whose circumstances here on Earth were very different, pass through the vestibule of death, and something happens on the other side. Look at what it says here: "The beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom."

Abraham's bosom was a way, contemporary to Jesus, of saying heaven, paradise, eternal and positive life. He is using a term that the Jews of His time understood. Something interesting is that in the Old Testament, the doctrine of hell is not as fully delineated as it is in the New Testament—a mystery—although there are indeed passages that speak about it.

It is not something entirely new, but in the Old Testament, I believe because of its narrative style, the doctrine of hell is not developed as much. Yet it is outlined and foreshadowed there. In the New Testament it is clarified considerably—not one hundred percent, because there are still mysteries that none of us can explain concerning the ultimate and complete nature of hell—but we have a great deal of information, quite a lot of information, and it is a place no one wants to go.

Now it says, "Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried." Now what happens? Two places are depicted here. It says, "And in Hades." Again, the word Hades is a word that is really almost equivalent to hell. I do not know whether the Lord here, as when He says Abraham's bosom, is using contemporary language—what we today understand as hell—or whether there is a subtle distinction between Hades and Gehenna, which is the other term used there for hell. That would take a long time to explain, and I do not want to get lost in that either, because it is a vast subject. But Hades is definitely a picture of hell. In Hades, this rich man—who, by the way, brothers and sisters, does not go to hell because he is rich, you know? Many rich people are going to go to heaven with their shoes and all, and many poor people are going to go to hell without shoes. But it is not because they are rich or poor; your circumstances here, in that sense, do not determine where you will go.

God has nothing against rich people, intelligent people, or prosperous people. Nor do I believe that because you are poor and suffered here in the world, or took many blows, or whatever it may be, it is as though you sweated out your sin and will therefore go to heaven. It is not like that either. According to the Christian faith, what determines where we go? Christ Jesus—our position with respect to Christ, what we do with Christ. But that is another matter; let that be clear in this passage, right?

Then it says that each one went to a different side, right? "In Hades"—in hell—this rich man, who had not concerned himself with spiritual things—that is what leads him to hell; I will address that a little later—"in Hades he lifted up his eyes." In the Bible, hell is physically located below. I am not sure that if you were to take a machine right now, one of those enormous cranes, and begin drilling a gigantic hole, you would enter hell somewhere inside the Earth. I do not believe it is like that, but the idea of being below is always associated with evil, right?

Then it says, "In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being"—being what?—"in torment." Notice something here again: some people say, "The Lord Jesus is too good; God is too good to torment people." Again, that alone would require an entire conference, a message just about that, but time and again the Scriptures associate hell with torment. Whether it is fire, whether it is sulfur, whether they are literal flames, whether it is a flame of unsatisfied desire, whether it is a little devil poking you with a three-pronged fork, I do not know. What matters to me is that hell is a place of torment. What does it matter to me whether it is with fire, scalding water, or oil? It is torment.

And one more thing, I say this: the Lord was a consummate Teacher like no other. His pedagogical ability was like no other; anyone who looks at His way of teaching and illustrating will acknowledge that. Pedagogically, it would have been a grave, grave error on the part of the most consummate Teacher on the entire Earth to give teachings that would cause so much confusion if He had not meant to say that, yes, there is a hell. For He repeated the doctrine of hell so often that—why repeat it and teach it in so many ways if it does not exist and if He had no intention of endorsing that teaching? I do not know how it can enter anyone's head to believe something else about Jesus' teaching and exclude certain things. I do not know through what reasoning we can accept some things in Jesus' teaching and not others simply because we do not like them; in the end, that is what it comes down to.

But time and again the Lord Jesus Christ spoke of hell as a place of torment, of suffering—so much so that the Lord says one must do everything possible to avoid going to that place, okay? So it is a place where, “being in torment, he saw Abraham far away.” Again, I believe He was using that Pharisaic, Jewish language, the language of Judaism, because it was what was familiar to the people listening to Him at that time, and Abraham was Father Abraham, the symbol of the Jewish system of salvation.

Then the Lord puts it in terms of this man in torment looking upward and being granted access to the other dimension—to see it, to visualize it—and there he sees Abraham. And whom else does he see there? Lazarus, the beggar he passed every day at the gate of his house without tossing him even a penny, as Puerto Ricans would say, not even 25 cents, because he was moving too fast to get into his limousine and go wherever he was going—to play golf, or to the exclusive club to which he belonged, or to his office in a Manhattan high-rise. Now I’m getting too dramatic.

But he saw Lazarus and remembered: Ah, this is the guy I never paid any attention to when I left my house. He saw Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom, now transformed, rejuvenated, completely healthy. “He saw him, and then he cried out, saying, ‘Father Abraham,’” said this rich man in torment, “‘have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am tormented in this flame.’” His suffering, his agony, was so great that, just as Lazarus would have been content with a crumb of bread from his abundant table when he was on Earth, now, in hell, he would be content with a tiny drop of water on the tip of Lazarus’s finger to ease the terrible thirst consuming him.

“And then Abraham said to him, ‘Son.’” That word, son, strikes me. Notice that Abraham does not say to him: You scoundrel, you deserve it; you are there in hell because of your foolishness. You had so many opportunities when the people from Lion of Judah went to preach to you, and you never listened to them; now suffer. No, look: son. Do you not derive something moving from that, a lesson? God does not hate the person who is in hell; on the contrary, that son is like the son of a mother who sees her child suffering needlessly: Son, why are you there? What have you done? I don’t want you to be there. Come home; there is a good bed where you can sleep, boy. Why suffer so much danger and so many things, son?

It is a son addressed with mercy; it is a son addressed with love. There is no hatred in Abraham’s heart. People say: Well, how can a loving, good God condemn people to hell, if God were so loving? Brother, I believe God suffers over every soul that goes to hell. And do you know who is the greatest producer of condemned people? It is the devil, because he knows that it causes pain in the Father’s heart when one of His children goes to hell.

The Word says that God does not want anyone to perish: “And He so desired that no one should go to hell that He sent His own Son to die on the cross.” There you have another question: If hell does not exist, or if we are all going to heaven, or if we are all switched off like a little light going out, why did Christ have to come and suffer the unspeakable, and why did God have to devise this whole complex system called the Christian faith and invest so much energy over the last two thousand years—and more than that, if we count creation itself, from the time of the Fall—in everything God has done to devise a plan of salvation? Because even the existence of the Hebrews, the Jews, is part of God’s plan of salvation, the preparation.

Why would so many theological treatises have been written? Why would a faith as exquisite and complex as Christianity have been developed? And why would the Son of God have come into the world to enter the straitjacket of His humanity, suffer what He suffered, climb onto a cross, be torn apart by sin and the nails, and go to hell? I do not understand why He went to hell; I do not understand exactly what it means when it says He went to hell, whether He simply went there to preach to the souls, whether He... That is too vast an abyss for one to venture into, but the Bible says that He went to Hades.

Why would He have done that if we are all simply going to be saved or to disappear when we die, depending on which of those two things you believe? Why? No, it is because God wanted to develop a way for people not to have to go to hell. He says that He does not want everyone to perish, but for everyone to proceed to salvation. God condemns no one. The Word says that when Judgment Day comes, it will not be God who condemns; rather, it is the Word of God and people’s own deeds that will do so.

A person condemns himself to hell by not accepting the offer of free salvation that Christ made possible. But God does not hate anyone; God does not delight, it says, in the death of the sinner. God suffers. Who is it that has all these young people here in the gangs bound to death, bound to this culture of death? This Friday we officiated here; there was a young man whom I knew. We prayed for him here at the front many times. That young man was lying here—how many bullet wounds he had, I don’t know—and these gang members came, these young men tattooed up to their ears, with the spirit of death over their shoulders and their heads. Terrible, terrible.

Young people who already inhabit an almost demonic dimension—many of them; young girls and young men. Who produces that culture of death? The devil. God is suffering, and that is why we have to act. I would have liked to enter into each one of those young people and give them a little piece of my flesh so that they might be healed; what one feels is infinite mercy. Who produces that? The devil.

The Bible says that if some perish, it is because their understanding is blinded: in them, it says, the ruler of this world blinded their understanding so that the light of the Gospel would not shine upon them. Satan is the one who holds the dominion of death; Christ came to destroy Satan’s dominion. He came to do it for all those who sign on to the plan He developed, which is the plan of free salvation through faith in Him, in His grace, and in His substitutionary death on the cross of Calvary.

You only need to believe that, to sign virtually with your spirit, mind, and will, and say: I sign on to that plan—and you are a saved child of God; you do not have to go to hell. Now, you have to live in a certain way and enter fully, head and all, into that plan, because it is not simply a matter of saying: Okay, I’ll sign, and then I’ll keep living like a little devil. No. There is a whole body of teaching that must be absorbed and lived out, but the point is that God does not hate sinners. God weeps with those who suffer in hell. God has done everything possible so that no one will be lost, and that is why I believe Abraham says to him: “Son, my son, remember.”

Listen, I do not want to hear that—I do not want anyone to tell me: Remember? Do you remember that time when you were walking around Jamaica Plain and someone handed you a tract? No? You don’t remember? Look, there’s the video—look. When you were on the train, that crazy man there with a guitar singing: Repent, and whatever else. Okay, that—bah! When your mother used to tell you: Remember. I believe one of the greatest terrors of hell will come when people remember all the opportunities they had on Earth and did not accept. That, for me, will be one of them.

Regret is the most terrible thing—futile, fruitless regret in eternity. That regret, I believe, is the greatest torture of all: knowing that you traded something within time and space for an eternity. How terrible that is. A few meals here, a diploma, some fleeting praise from men, in exchange for an eternity of condemnation—who would not feel utterly desperate over that? I tell people: Do not let yourself be caught by surprise in that way, having traded eternity for a few glass beads.

I wonder about the Native Americans of Manhattan. Do you know that the Native Americans of Manhattan sold the island of Manhattan for 24 dollars and a number of glass necklaces to those Puritans—who were not so puritanical; they were quite treacherous and quite the businessmen? Twenty-four dollars—the equivalent with inflation, though I still do not think it would be the same. The island of Manhattan! If they could see Manhattan, they would say: Ohhh.

Regret, right? When you sell something of infinite value for something worth nothing—that is what will happen to so many people: selling eternity with Christ, with God, for some little piece of foolishness here in the world. How terrible that is. “Son, remember that you received your good things during your lifetime.” The Bible says: “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?” The terrors of hell are so terrible and the blessings of paradise are so exalted that, even if someone could ask: Which do you want—all the glory, all the money, all the gold, all the fame, and all the achievements in the world, or eternity with God?

The latter is so glorious, so incomparable, that not even all the wealth of this world can compare with it. Let us not talk about 100 million, or 100 billion, or 50 million—no, everything on the face of the Earth cannot compare with the glory over there. That is why, no matter what—where do you want your glory, here or there? Many people say: I’ll take it here—the fame here, my friends’ appreciation here, the money here. And many people make that bargain, that diabolical agreement, here on Earth every day, many times a day.

And they say: No, I prefer my reward here. That is what they are saying. Then, when they are over there, they will be told: No, but you already signed over there; you already have what is yours on the other side. Then: “Remember that you received good things during your lifetime, and Lazarus likewise received bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are tormented.”

Let me tell you something once again, and this is very important, because the doctrine of hell is an entire system of teachings distributed throughout Scripture, and one thing qualifies another, completes another, and complements another. What is being said here is, once again: What was it that took the rich man to hell, and what was it that took Lazarus into eternity with God? A parable cannot contain, all in one stroke, every teaching about something as complex as salvation and eternal perdition, so there are things we would have to go to other verses to complete.

Salvation is definitely by grace and not by works, and human perdition is not necessarily even by works either, but by grace—by failing to appeal to grace and by lack of faith. Salvation is by faith, and perdition comes through lack of faith. But lack of faith manifests itself in many different ways, and an abundance of faith likewise manifests itself in many different ways. What we have here in the rich man and Lazarus—what the Lord is implying—is that the faith or lack of faith of each one manifested itself outwardly in different ways.

In the rich man, it manifested itself in the fact that he had no mercy, love, or compassion and gave no thought to eternal things. What the Lord develops in His initial depiction of the rich man is a man concerned only with material things—a bon vivant, a pleasure-seeker interested only in food, clothing, friends, and social life, with no time to think about the things of the spirit: mercy, love, compassion, and the treatment of human beings. So the Lord does not develop a complete picture of the rich man’s morality, but He does leave us enough for a parable of six or seven sentences, which is what we have there.

This man did not care about the things of the spirit, and that is what kills so many people: they do not care about the things of the spirit; they live in their psychological world. I was thinking of Romans, where it says: “Men became vain in their own reasonings, and therefore God gave them over to a depraved mind.” They became vain in their own reasonings means precisely this: human beings—and this culture exemplifies it like no other—shut themselves inside their own cerebral, rational, mental, scientific, technological, and material constructions, and they close off the world of the spirit.

There are many ways to close off the world of the spirit. One may be by devoting yourself to sexuality and money; another may be by devoting yourself to science and philanthropy. Both are perversions, and both are materialistic. The philosopher who thinks only about his scientific and logical constructions is just as materialistic as the libertine who drinks and eats to excess, or the rich man who devotes himself simply to getting money and making money. Both face the same moral dilemma of thinking only about matter. Do you understand?

So that is what happened to this rich man, who thought only about material things and did not prepare for eternity. Then, when eternity seized him, he had no passport, no papers, nothing. And when a person enters eternity, he has to pass through two barriers, two borders, and the only one for which his papers—or his lack of papers—qualify him is hell. For the other, the papers are Christ Jesus and His blood, and he does not have them; he cannot enter there.

It is a process of elimination. I believe it is not even God’s decision; it is elimination. Do you have what you need to enter? If you do not have it, I am very sorry, but you cannot enter; you have to leave because there are two places. If it is not B, it is A, so you have to go to A. I am sorry; it pains me deeply because you did not prepare, when it was so easy.

And what God is really saying about Lazarus is that Lazarus had the virtue that, although he suffered greatly and was miserable, he evidently stored up good things. Many times in the Bible, yes, poverty—blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall inherit the earth—poverty is indeed associated with it, because the outsider is always the... In the Kingdom of God there is something that would take a long time to explain. What God is saying in code is this: Lazarus had nothing material, but he had something spiritual, and that allowed him to enter the Kingdom of God. Again, it is not saying that it was because Lazarus was poor, no. Poverty guarantees nothing, but a person can be poor and have a moment of clarity and receive Christ as Savior, and that is all he needs; he goes straight to heaven, and there he will be infinitely rich.

So that is the contrast being drawn here, right? You up there did not concern yourself, but now look: this man is being comforted here, and you are being tormented. It says, “And besides all this”—there is a lot contained in “all this”; the Lord is an extraordinary teacher, there is code here—it says, “And besides all this,” Abraham says, “a great chasm has been fixed between us and you.” A chasm means something like a barrier, an abyss. “A great chasm has been fixed between us and you.” That great chasm may be geographical, it may be dimensional; I do not know. It is a barrier, a dimension that makes it impossible to cross over and enter one or the other, which is why I believe they are dimensions rather than geographical places.

You know, one of the things I believe is terrible is that heaven and hell are irrevocable. The place for making decisions is here; the place where your destiny can change is here; where your condition can change is here. On the other side no change is possible; it is indisputable, irrevocable; there is no appeal of any kind. Even those who are in heaven are no longer able to go to hell, even if they wanted to.

I believe that in heaven even this matter of free will will no longer be necessary; free will is for this side. In heaven, I believe freedom will have no relevance or meaning, because our freedom—this is where freedom is needed, this is where one must choose. In heaven there is no need to choose; everything is already over. It says that prophecy is not needed, nor are healing or miracles, because everything has already been fulfilled.

So those who are in heaven can no longer go to hell. You no longer have to worry: “Oh, what if I burn, what if I do something wrong?” That is over. You passed the test; enjoy yourself now. But those who are in hell cannot get out of there either. Repentance is no longer possible. There is no more changing your mind, no more: “Okay, I tried it; yes, it definitely burns, so I’m leaving.” Nothing. It is irrevocable. Abraham tells him: “I am very sorry, but there is a law that prevents me from doing that. I would like to,” Abraham would probably say, “but I cannot, because these are now two completely and impassably separated dimensions; no one can cross from one side to the other.”

Then this man—notice, to me this is the most pathetic and very significant part, and with this we will finish—comes to his senses and says: “Well, if that is so, then look at what it says: ‘Then I beg you, father, to send Lazarus to my father’s house, because I have five brothers, so that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’” This man, suffering so terribly, realizes that, wow, first: it is infinite torment; second: no change is possible.

“My brother, send Lazarus over there. I am sure that if they see him, after reading in the newspaper that he had died, saying that hell is real and heaven is real, they will be converted, because who would not be converted when a dead man appears to him and preaches to him?” It is also interesting: why does God not send a few burly angels to preach the Gospel? I would be converted immediately, brother, if an eight-foot-tall man appeared to me with enormous, beautiful wings and told me, “Repent.” Before he even finished saying “re—,” I would already be on the floor.

But God has not done it that way. What has God done? God has made us messengers of the Gospel. God’s plan is this: Christ died on the cross, and we are the spokespeople for that message of salvation. That is the plan, and there is no other. Why did God do it that way? Because God is God, and also because God works with us, His creation; He takes us into account, He takes us seriously. The Church of Christ has been left in the world to proclaim the message of salvation in every possible way, and that is our great responsibility.

People are going to hell, and we have the message that prevents them from going to hell. That should be the greatest apologetic for our preaching of the Gospel. And at this moment, brothers, I ask the Lord for myself—I always pray: “Father, make the image of hell real in my spirit.” Because I believe that if I truly believed in hell, I would not go home to sleep; I would be out on the street twenty-four hours a day, eating whatever I could, only the bare necessities, and perhaps sleeping one or two hours, preaching the Gospel. But there is something biological in us that prevents us from absorbing the full reality of what heaven is and what hell is, honestly. There is a psychological membrane that prevents us.

Neither you nor I really believe fully in hell, because I assure you that if you and I believed it, we would be out there twenty-four hours a day preaching to people so that they would not go to that terrible place. There is something there; it is a rebelliousness in us. Our minds refuse to believe something like that, even though we want to, and people do too, unbelievers do too; but the Bible says it is real.

I may continue with this next Sunday, but we can look at many verses that speak to us about hell and elaborate a little more on this doctrine. But the fact is that God has left us here to preach reality to the world, and this is not the only thing, brothers, with which to counsel people to accept Christ. I believe that, for me, the most compelling thing is heaven, not hell. I believe that what should most persuade people to seek Christ is that promise of that eternity—to seek Christ is that promise of that eternity—which God has prepared, so perfect that it too is inconceivable.

There are many things we must use as tools for preaching to people. Hell is only one of those tools and, to me, one of the most graphic and most important, but it is a truly important tool. I believe that in the twenty-first century, sophisticated as we are, the devil himself has blinded our understanding and made us hesitant to talk about hell because we do not want to be confused with those crazy fanatics out there. But we are robbing people of the knowledge—or at least of the opportunity to begin reasoning in a way that might lead them to believe.

They may not accept it completely, but at least it has planted a seed of doubt in their hearts, and they say: “Wow, what if it is true?” We have to talk about hell. Of course we have to talk about Christ and His mercy, His love, and so many other things, but hell is very real, and I believe that is what God has told me: “Talk to them about hell.” Do not speak only of the little shepherd with the little lamb in his hand, with blond curls and blue eyes; speak also of that Man whom John saw, with eyes like flames of fire, His tongue like a sword, His body gleaming like burnished bronze, and His mouth with a terrible voice like many waters.

The King is coming, and He comes stained with blood, the Bible says. And the two images—the fearsome image and the exalted, loving image—both images are reflections of the same Jesus. Hell is real, and we have to tell people about it. Tell them.

So this man says to him: “Send Lazarus; let him rise from the dead and go preach to my brothers so that they do not come to this place of torment.” Abraham’s words are moving once again. It says: “Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’” God has already done everything; God has already done everything He has to do. What we must do now is proclaim the Word as God has announced it. If they want to believe it, let them believe it; if not, we are sorry.

Brother, today I see the evangelical Church in the United States and in so many parts of the world with a poor image of itself, with very low self-esteem—the Church trying to lower the price of the Gospel to the lowest possible price so that people will buy it. And we ask people: “What do you want to believe, and what do you not like believing? Oh, you do not like believing that? Okay, do not worry—poof—we will take it out.” It is like taking a computer, opening the cover, and saying, “I don’t know, which of its circuits do you dislike? You do not like that one because it is yellow? Oh, do not worry, I can take it out. Oh, this red one, this little wire, because it is not very pretty and does not have a silk covering? Do not worry, I will take that out too.” What is going to happen to the computer? It is destroyed; it does not work.

The Church is doing the same thing in this age. Nowadays, we act as though people are doing us a favor by coming to church and receiving Christ, and so we tell them: “Okay, you do not like that doctrine? Well, we can take it out; I will take it out. You do not like the doctrine of hell? I will take it out, do not worry.” And then we paint over things; we put white-out on a whole host of things in the Bible that people do not like so that they will buy the Gospel.

And we feel as though we are being impoverished—we, the Church of Christ, whom God placed on Earth to guard His mysteries and announce to humanity the way of salvation—and we are begging people to receive us. It is not us; it is the Word of God that can save them. What authority do I have to change what the Bible says? What terrible panic has spread through the heart of the Church, making it think that it has to change the message of the Gospel so that people will come to the Gospel? That is a scandal.

We have to understand that our self-esteem must rise. We possess the mystery of God; God has entrusted it to us, and we have to rack our brains and do everything possible to bring people into the Gospel. But a moment comes when the decision is theirs, not ours. I cannot water down the content of the Gospel so that people will come to the Gospel; I have no right to do that. That does not work. God has already given the Word, given the plan, given the specifications. Our part is to accept it as it is written. If they want to accept it, they will accept it and be saved; if they do not accept it, they will go to hell for eternity. And I derive no pleasure from saying that; quite the opposite, I bleed when I say it, but that is the truth.

And that is why Abraham says to him here: “Look, they have Abraham, they have Moses, they have the prophets.” In other words, today we could say: “Look, there they have the Bible; they have the Old Testament and the New Testament; there they have the Word of My Son; there they have His blood shed on the cross; there they have the story of Calvary; there they have the promise of the resurrection. Let them listen to that. If they do not listen to it, I am so sorry; I cannot do anything more.”

“Oh, send them cherubim, seraphim; send them a virtual message that all humanity can hear simultaneously in an instant, and they will be converted.” They will not be converted. They will think it is a message from Pluto or Mars, from a Martian who wants to confuse us. Nowadays, human beings have developed so many ways of neutralizing things that I believe that if God Himself appeared in a simultaneous worldwide vision, they would not be converted—I am telling you—because the devil has blinded humanity’s understanding.

Nowadays, people have so many psychological, scientific, and philosophical arguments with which to neutralize even the bare proclamation from the very mouth of God; they will not receive it. That is why God does not change His way; He is not going to lower Himself anyway. The King of the universe is not going to stand like a beggar at the door trying to sell people the Gospel. No. He developed His plan; there it is: receive it. It cost Me enough.

And we must have that same dignity. On the one hand, the Church has immense love and would give its life for one sinner; on the other, it has a sense of dignity: “I am a guardian of the eternal revelation that God has left to humanity, and I am not going to water it down.” Then one walks with the same dignity with which Christ walked. That is what moves me about Jesus: His profound love and also His profound dignity, His sense of self-worth. I do not see the Lord lowering Himself before anyone, peddling the Gospel, or begging people to accept Him. He preached it, He proclaimed it, He did everything possible, but at one point He also said: “Do not cast your pearls before swine.”

We have to imitate that same attitude, that same posture. Love and dignity. Do not water down the Gospel—listen to me—because that is not the answer. I say to all the evangelical churches in this nation today that are selling the Gospel for a handful of coins, believing that by doing so they are winning people: they are not going to win them. Quite the opposite, people will move even farther away, because the system is inviolable, sealed. If you remove one little piece, you destroy the whole thing, because that is how all of God’s constructions are.

And Abraham said to him, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them listen to them.” Then he made one final argument: “No, Father Abraham; if someone from among the dead went to them, I am sure they would repent.” But Abraham said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they change their minds even if someone rises from the dead.” Why should I rack my brains trying to discover whether it is true or not? That is how it is.

We are the only hope, and the only hope is the Gospel that is in us, preached to humanity. There is no other plan, and the stakes are infinitely high: it is the eternal destiny of every one of us who are here and of those who are outside. I ask the Lord to fill us right now with a terrible sense of responsibility in light of the cost, the value.

Let us bow our heads for a moment, brothers and sisters. I believe that the potential benefits of this message are two. First, that any one of us who has not made peace with Christ and is not prepared for that threshold of death and the two destinies awaiting us would become aware of it right now and not leave here without making clear his faith in and embrace of Jesus Christ. That is number one. And number two, that those of us who already have that salvation—not through our own merit, but through the merits of Christ Jesus on the cross—would become conscious that the only thing that justifies our lives is being used as instruments of God for the proclamation of the Gospel, which can save men and women and keep them from going to eternal condemnation.

Those are the two benefits I would hope to obtain from this moment. The third would perhaps be that you embed this teaching so deeply in your being that it never loses its intensity; that even as the days go by and you forget what I preached, the sense of urgency and of the seriousness of this matter would remain firmly fixed within you; and that you would know how important your proclamation of the Gospel is, so that God may use you to bring others to Him. May you overcome shame, timidity, a false sense of dignity, and concern for people’s privacy; may you reject all the teachings you have been taught in order to suppress this teaching from God’s revelation—a teaching so important and repeated in every way throughout the Scriptures—and may you say, “No, no, no; I am going to focus on that part of the teaching, and I am going to let at least that encourage me and shape the way I proclaim the Gospel.”

And I cannot allow people to go to hell, to an eternity that, even though I may not know how to describe it fully in all its complexity and mystery, the Bible tells me: “Do not worry; that is how it is. Believe it and preach it with the little you know about it, because that is enough.” I do not know all the mysteries concerning atoms, but I know they exist. Scientists do not know how to decipher all the mysteries of nature, but they send men to the moon and operate on bodies with the light they have; they do not wait until they have all the light before doing things. I cannot wait until I have deciphered all the mysteries of hell before preaching about them. There may be contradictions; there may be things that are unclear, but there is enough, and we cannot ignore it.

And I know of no other revelation given to humanity that is more powerful, more complete, or more verifiable in its results than the revelation given through the Gospel. There is none; nothing compares to it. I ask God that our Church may be consumed by a sense of responsibility to proclaim the Word and preach. I saw those young people this Friday (weeps). I think that part of what I am reacting to comes from this Friday: those kids were so lost, so lost, almost unreachable; and the devil has them in his grip with their tattoos, their weapons, and their false sense of manhood, and those young girls who accompany them like appendages. Good grief, what a waste. It destroys me.

I would like to do something for them, but I cannot. God can do something, but we have to ask the Lord: “Break down the barriers; break the spell.” And it is the same in the great universities: they are as hypnotized and as possessed by the devil as these kids. The only difference is that their demons wear three-piece suits and are exceedingly elegant and well educated—but they are demons too, and they have them in their grip. Humanity is completely lost.

“Lord, why don’t You do something?” one asks. “Surely I have already done it.” I wonder, “Why on earth not?” I imagine I sound like the rich man who says, “Look, just have Elijah rise again, and they will believe him. Lord, do something.”

Thank You, Lord. Father, speak to us through this Word, Lord. Touch Your people, Lord. Do something, Lord. Teach us how to be better and more effective in proclaiming Your Word. We need You, Father; we cry out to You. Humanity is being lost every day; thousands upon thousands in this city are plunging to destruction. We need Your help. Do something, Father; have mercy. Stir up Your Power and summon Your Church with Your Power, Lord. Bring revival, Lord; we need You.

Have mercy, Father, on those young people we saw on Friday. They were in Your house; they entered Your domain, Lord. May something touch them because they were in Your house and received the Word from Your Church, Lord. Stir up Your grace and Your mercy in them, and give us the ability to reach them somehow, and give us passion for You and for Your works.