HELL FIRE
Daniel Botkin

  Years ago I heard about a Baptist preacher who used some unusual props whenever he preached about hell. This preacher would wear a fire-proof suit made with asbestos, and at the height of his sermon he would douse himself with lighter fluid and set himself ablaze and thrash about to demonstrate the torments of the damned.
  I have not heard of anyone employing visual aids this dramatic recently, but I have been noticing references to hell more often than usual this past month. Moishe Rosen wrote about hell in the Jews For Jesus newsletter. (See excerpt on this page.) It is not unusual to hear Bible-believing Christians mention hell as a reality, but I heard and read a few other references to hell this past month which were not made by born-again Christian preachers in a religious setting.
  In addition to Rosen’s article, I noticed four other serious references to hell, all of them in unexpected places. Two of them were in connection with the execution of Timothy McVeigh. A man who had lost a family member in the bombing told a reporter on secular radio that McVeigh’s soul would suffer in hell for all eternity. Before the execution, our local secular newspaper featured a semi-serious cartoon showing a “welcome-to-hell” banner stretched across the gates of hell for McVeigh.
  I saw a reprint of an article from the Amarillo Globe-News that mentioned a reference to hell on a secular TV show: “A recent episode of the sitcom ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ has sports-writer Raymond staying home watching TV on Sunday morning while the rest of the family goes to church. When Raymond’s little girl draws a picture of Dad standing in the fire of Hell, he does some thinking, and, by the end of the show, starts attending Mass with the family.”
  Another recent reference to hell appeared in the May 25 Jewish Press (page 75). It seems that not all Moslem clerics approve of suicide bombings, and some even go so far as to say that suicide bombers will go to hell. The Mufti of Saudi Arabia said: “I am not aware of anything in the religious law regarding killing oneself in the heart of the enemy’s ranks, or what is called ‘suicide.’ This is not a part of Jihad, and I fear that it is merely killing oneself.” The Mufti of Jericho published a fatwa (religious ruling) last April in which he declared that suicide will lead to “torments in Hell on Judgment Day.”
  In the past the fear of Divine retribution served as a moral restraint to discourage the wicked from fully yielding to their evil nature. Some people believe in the annihilation of the wicked and/or a post-resurrection opportunity for repentance for some of the lost. God will have the final say about what hell is and who will go there. Alfred Edersheim, in “The Question of Eternal Punishment” (Appendix XIX in The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah), wrote: “...in regard to those who have departed (whether or not we know of grace in them) our views and our hopes should be the widest (consistent with Scripture teaching)...”
  I agree. But in the meantime, it is good that the wicked occasionally be reminded that on Judgment Day some people will hear the King say, “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” The wicked need to know that if they continue to follow the devil and his angels, they will share their fate.