Mar 20, 2023
Hell. It makes us all uncomfortable, so much so that we tend to
make light of it by joking about its existence. We can thank
Gary Larson, the creator of The Far Side Cartoons (do a quick
Google search and enjoy a chuckle), for providing us with some of
the most humorous depictions. Humor makes hell less scary.
For me personally, I was surprised by how much the Saturday morning
Looney Toons cartoons influenced my depictions of hell. It was
always underground, with fire, and some person in a red suit with
horns running around chasing Bugs Bunny with a pitchfork. Again, it
made hell palatable.
Little did I know, Looney Toons grabbed their ideas from fourteenth
century Italian author Dante and his epic
work, Inferno. This poem depicts Dante's journey
through the nine concentric circles of torment in hell. This
has been the standard for how many people, maybe even you think
about hell. Unfortunately most of it is not how the Bible describes
hell.
What does the Bible say about hell? Even more specifically, what
does Jesus teach on hell? On Sunday we are going to examine how the
Scripture depicts hell. We will focus on these three themes:
- What we know about hell.
- Why hell is necessary.
- How to ensure you don't go there.
As uncomfortable as it may be to wrestle with this topic, it
is one we need to push into and understand. Here is the good
news: Our loving God provided a way for no one to ever
experience hell.
To learn more, make sure and listen to part seven of Asking For A
Friend.