Where Will You Spend Eternity?

“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.

“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”  Matthew 25:31-46

Hell - many have mocked it, denied it, ignored it, flooded it with every drug and pleasure; yet it still burns deeply in the conscience of every man. Most famous of all literature touching this untouchable well is Dante’s Inferno. His description illuminates the heart’s most terrifying nightmare. Dante makes the reader smell the sulfurous breath of hell; hear the screams and cries of anguish, wrath, and grief.

On Heaven and Hell, Isaac Watts wrote: “There is a dreadful hell, and everlasting pains; where sinners must with devils dwell in darkness, fire, and chains.” That description came as a result of reading the references to hell in Scripture.

Contemporaries C.S. Lewis and A.W. Tozer both warned of ignorance on the subject: “The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions” (Tozer). “The safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts” (Lewis).

The reality of hell has been the devil’s greatest coverup. When the human soul recognizes the danger of spending eternity within the confines of hell’s grasp, heaven can’t be sought soon enough.

One of the horrors of hell is the undying memory of a misspent life.