The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forgot God (Ps. 9:17).
This life is not the end, though many people wish it were. According to Holy Scripture, there is heaven to win and hell to shun.
One day an elector of Cologne, who was also archbishop, used profane words in the presence of a farmer, who could not conceal his astonishment. "Why do you look so surprised?" he was asked. "Because an archbishop can be so profane." Quickly the answer came, "I do not swear as an archbishop, but as a prince." "But, Your Highness," asked the farmer, "when the prince goes to hell, what will become of the archbishop?" The reply was not recorded.
It is plain from Scripture that the wicked are not in hell now, for we read in 2 Peter 2:9: "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." The hell, or "lake of fire," which is the "perdition of ungodly men" (2 Peter 3:7), is illustrated by the fire that destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, turning them into ashes, "making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly" (2 Peter 2:6). For they suffered "the vengeance of eternal fire" (Jude 7). This is everlasting punishment "prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41). The wicked shall "go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal" (verse 46). What is this everlasting punishment? It is this: "Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord" (2 Thess. 1:9). "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23), and this will be the final reward of the wicked--destruction in hell, the lake of fire. It is for us to see that we are not among the wicked, that we do not forget God. "For God so loved the world, that...whosoever beleiveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
MEDITATION PRAYER: "Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is" (Ps. 39:4).
This life is not the end, though many people wish it were. According to Holy Scripture, there is heaven to win and hell to shun.
One day an elector of Cologne, who was also archbishop, used profane words in the presence of a farmer, who could not conceal his astonishment. "Why do you look so surprised?" he was asked. "Because an archbishop can be so profane." Quickly the answer came, "I do not swear as an archbishop, but as a prince." "But, Your Highness," asked the farmer, "when the prince goes to hell, what will become of the archbishop?" The reply was not recorded.
It is plain from Scripture that the wicked are not in hell now, for we read in 2 Peter 2:9: "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." The hell, or "lake of fire," which is the "perdition of ungodly men" (2 Peter 3:7), is illustrated by the fire that destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, turning them into ashes, "making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly" (2 Peter 2:6). For they suffered "the vengeance of eternal fire" (Jude 7). This is everlasting punishment "prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41). The wicked shall "go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal" (verse 46). What is this everlasting punishment? It is this: "Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord" (2 Thess. 1:9). "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23), and this will be the final reward of the wicked--destruction in hell, the lake of fire. It is for us to see that we are not among the wicked, that we do not forget God. "For God so loved the world, that...whosoever beleiveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
MEDITATION PRAYER: "Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is" (Ps. 39:4).
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