Jim Sluiter

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Jim Joyce - When I was 16, I decided to leave home and live on the street.  I thought real living was having fun and going after a thrill.  I became a regular user of drugs and alcohol. In my parents' home, God and spiritual things were most important. Just as I decided to leave the house, it occurred to me, “If I leave, I will leave behind the gospel. This will be my final decision to reject God.” It was as real as if I was opening a door and walking into hell. I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to be lost. I wanted to be saved...

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Jane Aubry - I remember one day in the 1970's playing my guitar, looking up to heaven, and saying, “If there is a God, I want to know Him.” When I met Roger, my husband to be, he told me he was “saved”.  I had never heard the word before.  I had thought we could only “hope” to go to heaven. He told me how he was saved and that was the end of talking about it for a time. more...

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Eric Walberer

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Brian Elliott - God’s good news was always bad news to me. All it seemed to do was remind me that some day I was going to die and leave this world to meet God. It constantly reminded me I was going to hell. (more)

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A mini coloring book and small posters to help the Sunday school teacher tell the story of Elijah ascending to heaven in a chariot of fire.

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What will be the nature of the Jewish sacrifices offered at Jerusalem during the Millennium?

They cannot, of course, in any way be connected with sin since Christ has died and “their remaineth no more sacrffice for sin.” Will they be sacrifices of praise and adoration or of remembrance?

Here again we see the importance of dispensational truth—according to the oft-quoted words of Augustine: “Distinguish the dispensations and the Scriptures will agree.” Here, what is quite out of place in the present Church era, will evidently from Ezekiel 43:26" TARGET="_blank">Ezekiel 43:26 once more be in vogue. After the measures of the altar are given (chap. 43. 13), the ordinances of the altar are laid down, and the sin offering is mentioned again and again (e.g., vv. 21, 22, 25, and Ezekiel 44:27-29)," TARGET="_blank">Ezekiel 44:27-29), but certainly not in the sense of taking sin away. The Old Testament dispensation was characterised by an altar on which typical sacrifices (a shadow of good things to come) were offered, the present is characterised by a table, on which the memorial symbols of bread and wine are presented, and partaken of, in remembrance of the One Sacrifice of Christ, the only and sufficient ground for the atonement and taking away of sin. But the future millennial age, when the earthly people are once more restored to the place of testimony and blessing, will be characterised once again by an altar of remembrance—on which literal sacrifices will be offered, no longer pointing forward, but backward—and that by earthly priests—the sons of Zadok alone (chap. . 15). So that we see that what is a Satanic delusion to-day:—the pretended offering up again and again of the sacrifice of Christ, will in a future dispensation be renewed in a figurative and memorial sense.

W.H.

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Do people become angels after death? Do children become angels?

No.  Angels are spirit beings, while humans are composed of a body and spiritual part consisting of soul and spirit.

Christ taught in Matthew 22:30" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 22:30 that angels do not get married nor have children.  

In heaven, there are two distinct groups who live there.  Hebrews 12:22-23" TARGET="_blank">Hebrews 12:22-23 mentions a  “myriads of angels” and “the spirits of righteous men made perfect”.

The story of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31" TARGET="_blank">Luke 16:19-31 tells us that at death a person either goes to the agonies of Hades or to the bliss of God's presence.  The Rich Man even asked Abraham to send Lazarus to his father's house, but believers who have died do not return to earth to communicate with anyone.  In contrast, God sends his angels to protect and communicate with believers who are still alive (Hebrews 1:13-14;" TARGET="_blank">Hebrews 1:13-14; Psalm 91:11-13;" TARGET="_blank">Psalm 91:11-13; Acts 27:23-24;" TARGET="_blank">Acts 27:23-24; Matthew 2:13;" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 2:13; Acts 5:19)." TARGET="_blank">Acts 5:19).

Children who die do not become angels.  They die like adults who are saved.  They are covered by Christ's work at the cross.  A related question to this is "Are children saved who die young?"

Shad David Sluiter

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Is belief in eternal punishment an archaic remnant of an outdated theology or is it both a doctrine of Scripture and a consequence of the character of God?

The Bible teaches eternal punishment.

1. The Test of Truth
A subject may be believed or disbelieved depending on factors which actually have no bearing on its truth or falsehood. If I say that the test of truth is the measure in which I feel comfortable in believing it, I am not really using logic, but subjective emotions. There is so very much in our tragic world about which we are most uncomfortable, so much that does "not seem right," and yet, we dare not reject reality because it pains us. Cancer, heart disease, child abuse, drug addiction, Aids, rape, hunger and murder have never produced a comfortable thought in our minds, yet they exist. Eternal punishment is not grasped by feeble sense and can never be comfortably believed. We must always make a difference between what is against reason and what is beyond it. Hell is as real as Heaven, because the Lord Jesus taught its reality as clearly as He taught that Heaven was the place from which He came to earth (John 3:13;" TARGET="_blank">John 3:13; John 16:26)." TARGET="_blank">John 16:26).

2. The Warnings Prove God's Tender Mercy
One of the greatest proofs of the love and mercy of God is His faithful warnings of coming judgment. There is a voice that comes down the corridor of time, warning of those who will "be cast into everlasting fire" (Matthew 18:8)" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 18:8) and giving testimony to a place where "the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:48)." TARGET="_blank">Mark 9:48). It is the voice of the tender Savior who asked the Pharisees and scribes, "How can ye escape the damnation of hell (geenna)?" (Matthew 23:33)," TARGET="_blank">Matthew 23:33), and then wept over them (v.37). His warnings are not only "true and faithful" (Revelation 3:14)," TARGET="_blank">Revelation 3:14), but are tender and timely, for we all are travelers to eternity, and we dare not trifle with it. Obscure teaching on this subject, or half-hearted warnings are not kindness, but cruelty. It is the same kind of cruelty that would allow a child to drink deadly poison when it was in my power to stop it, or see a blind man stepping off a precipice to his death when I could have warned him. What if those who soften this teaching are wrong? The consequences are eternal loss, an irreversible mistake, a shock from which no victim will recover.

It is a great error to suppose that if a thing is true, I must be able to fully comprehend it, for our minds are not the court of final appeal. There are many things in the physical universe beyond the range of our personal experience, and therefore beyond our full comprehension. In the spiritual realm, the holy character of God transcends our highest thought, nor do we comprehend the infinite sufferings of our Savior upon the cross. We will never find in ourselves an untroubled acceptance of the horrors of eternal punishment, but its reality is not based on our feelings, but on the words of the One who was "declared to be the Son of God ... by the resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:4)." TARGET="_blank">Romans 1:4). We acknowledge His authority as our Lord; He said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" (Matthew 24:35)," TARGET="_blank">Matthew 24:35), and we believe Him.

3. God is Good
Many times Christians have heard an unbeliever ask, "How can a God who is good send people to hell?" or "Would a good man put any of his children into a place of eternal fire?" Human goodness and "the goodness of God" are scarcely comparable. Even God's goodness is holy and just, but the best of human goodness is "as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6)." TARGET="_blank">Isaiah 64:6). However, it is not "the goodness of God" that puts anyone in hell, and most certainly God will never put any of His children in eternal fire. Those who perish forever have rejected "the good news" of the gospel. The "goodness" of God was fully displayed in the giving of His Son and in the infinite sufferings of Golgotha's darkness. Even at the cross, it can be said, "Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God" (Romans 11:22)." TARGET="_blank">Romans 11:22). For those who crucified Him the Savior prayed, "Father forgive them..." (Luke 23:34)." TARGET="_blank">Luke 23:34). Surely this was "the goodness of God", but upon the holy Sufferer fell unmitigated judgment. For those who reject God's goodness and His mercy which flow through one channel - the cross, there can only remain "His severity."

4. The Meaning of Everlasting
In the Greek New Testament, "for ever and ever" is a translation of five words that literally mean "unto the ages of the ages". Some have claimed that this is a finite length of time, therefore the fire is not eternal. If a student of Greek wished to translate "for ever and ever" into Greek, he would have to use the same words that are used in the NT, because the language has no other choices. But, there is a far stronger argument against making "for ever and ever" a limited period. This exact phrase is used 21 times in the NT. Eighteen times it refers to God's eternal throne, His everlasting praise and His "glory for ever and ever." Three times the same phrase is used to describe eternal punishment. It must mean the same thing in the second case as it does in the first unless there is contextual evidence for believing otherwise, and there is not. The third major point in this debate hat the Lord Jesus said on at least's three occasions that "the fire never shall be quenched" and we know of no way to circumvent "never".
Two other words in the NT are translated "eternal" (aionios) and "everlasting" (aidios). W.E. Vine quotes Cremer, "While aionios negatives the end either of a space of time or of unmeasured time, and is used chiefly where something future is spoken of; aidios excludes interruption and lays stress upon permanence and unchangeableness". Aionios is used in such verses as "shall inherit eternal life" (Matt 19:29)" TARGET="_blank">Matt 19:29) and "Depart from Me ye cursed into everlasting fire" (Matthew 25:41)." TARGET="_blank">Matthew 25:41). In Romans 1:20," TARGET="_blank">Romans 1:20, aidios is used of God's "eternal power". It is impossible to make a difference in the meaning of these words whether they refer to the Eternal God or the eternally lost.

In Jude 1:7," TARGET="_blank">Jude 1:7, aionios is used of "eternal fire", but this verse does not say, "They suffered," but they are "suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." In Revelation 20:10," TARGET="_blank">Revelation 20:10, two men that have been in "the lake of fire" are still there after 1000 years.

5. Universalism
The doctrine of universalism, that all men will eventually be saved, has a great appeal. It takes various forms. Some believe that after a period of purgation, what the blood of Christ could not accomplish will be done by the purging fire. Purification by fire is Paganism. The Scripture appealed to as proof is, "By which (the Spirit) also He (Christ) went and preached unto the spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3:19)." TARGET="_blank">1 Peter 3:19). This preaching was not in hell, but was "when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing." It was by the Spirit of Christ that Noah preached (Genesis 6:3)." TARGET="_blank">Genesis 6:3). We must never interpret a difficult verse in contradiction of plain verses. When the door is shut the Lord will say, "Depart from Me ye cursed into everlasting fire" (Matthew 25:41)." TARGET="_blank">Matthew 25:41).

6. Annihilation
This theory has several forms. Some believe that in the day of judgment the wicked will be annihilated, and others believe that after a period of conscious punishment, they will be annihilated. The Scriptures appealed to are those which speak of the wicked being "destroyed" and "perishing", and both qeber and sheol in the OT, as well as hades in the NT are said to be only the grave, which is impossible in the light of the Lord's teaching in Luke 16:19-31." TARGET="_blank">Luke 16:19-31. If Luke 16" TARGET="_blank">Luke 16 is a parable, what is its meaning? The words "destroy" and "perish" are found about 92 times in NT and 80 of these times it is the translation of apolummi (to utterly destroy). We must ask, "Does apolummi mean the end of being or the end of well-being?" The Lord Jesus used it of the end of well-being in Luke 5:37;" TARGET="_blank">Luke 5:37; Luke 15:46;" TARGET="_blank">Luke 15:46; Luke 15:24." TARGET="_blank">Luke 15:24. In His teaching, it is synonymous with the eternal, conscious suffering of the lost.
There is no repentance after death, so those upon whom God's wrath will fall will blame God forever for their pains (Revelation 16:11)." TARGET="_blank">Revelation 16:11).
To all of this, the humble believer responds, "The Savior who suffered for my sins on the cross and in triumph arose from the dead is my Lord. He said that the fire never shall be quenched and I believe Him."

Norman Crawford

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Help would be valued on 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10." TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 6:9, 10.

1 Corinthians 6:9," TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 6:9, 10 describes some of the ungodly at Corinth. “Such were some of you,” says Paul, naming various phases of sin which habitually characterised them, some one sin, some another. A believer might fall into a grave sin, a Noah into drunkenness, a David into adultery, a Peter into cursing and swearing; but these were terrible accidents in their lives, not habitual customs. A lamb might fall into the mire, but it could not rest there; a swine if dragged out of the mire would return to it again. The characteristically unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. They must be born again. Such were some of the Corinthians (but not all grossly so), but they were “washed” (i.e., from the defilement), “sanctified” (i.e., from the habit), and “justified (i.e., from the guilt) in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

W.H.

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