Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Paul Twiss - Is there a literal Hell?

Episode Date: March 22, 2022

Jonny Ardavanis is the Dean of Campus Life at The Master’s University, a Camp Director at Hume Lake Christian Camps and hosts the podcast Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis. He is passionate about the Gospel and God’s Word and desires to see people understand and obey it. Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis: Big Questions, Biblical Answers, is a series that seeks to provide biblical answers to some of the most prominent and fundamental questions regarding God, the Gospel, and the BibleIn this episode Professor of Theology Paul Twiss answers the question: “Is there a literal Hell?”Subscribe to stay up to date with each episode! Watch on YouTubeFollow on InstagramVisit Our Website

Hey guys, my name is Johnny Artavanis and this is Dial In. I want to thank you guys for listening to the show and I wanted to ask, if you haven't already, if you would subscribe and rate the Dial In podcast. This helps get the show into more cars and more homes and we want people to hear the truth. Now in this episode, I'm going to sit down with Professor Paul Twiss and I'm going to ask him a question that's very important for you to understand biblically. You can also watch this interview on our YouTube page like all of our other interviews.

But in this episode, I'm going to ask Paul Twiss about the reality of hell. You and I live in a world where people say things like, no, just say separation from God because that's more palatable to the world around us. But the Bible speaks very clearly about hell and we need to know how to think biblically about it. Let's dial in. Paul, thanks for sitting down. I wanted to ask you about the nature of hell.

We live in a context where people have placed much subjectivity on what hell is. And I want to look at it from an objective perspective on how the Bible defines hell. Meaning, number one, is it a literal place? And is there a literal fire? Because others have said that's not definitive. And so we should just say terms

like separated from God, because that's what hell is, because we can't be sure if it's a literal spot or literal fire. And now it's removed much fear from what hell is, and it's divorced from the way that Jesus describes it. So what would be your answer to that? What is hell biblically and how we should view it? Yeah. Just to start with, this is an incredibly important topic. When you start to tamper with the Bible's teaching on hell, very quickly, you're going to start to tamper with the gospel itself. And as you just mentioned, as people find the teaching on hell to be more palatable, then the gospel loses its value. Jesus comes and presents to us a way of salvation.

And what's at stake is eternity with God being reconciled to him or hell. And so when you see the crossroads that the gospel presents, you understand that it's critically important. We perceive the Bible's teaching on the two things, the two ways. What does it mean to be destined to live with Christ forever? And what does it mean to be in hell? We have to get those things right. The gospel is informed by our understanding of heaven and hell. So thinking then about hell, the Bible talks about hell an awful lot, and it does so in very, very concrete language. If you go to all of the texts that invoke hell, there's no sense of

subjectivity there. It's spoken about oftentimes with reference to fire, also in a multitude of other ways. So I think about references to hell that speak about the weeping and gnashing of teeth, talk about darkness, talk about a pit. As we were talking about with Genesis, there's no reason to consider these things in a non-literal sense. What is it that's compelling you to take these in a subjective manner as symbolic of something else? Far better to take them at face value and to understand that as Jesus talks about hell, he's giving us really just a window into what it's going to mean to reject Christ forever, to have not repented of your sins and been reconciled to God. He gives us a window into. So one thing I would say is, yes, the Bible talks about hell with reference to fire. And yes, there is a literal fire in a

literal place. That is what hell is. That lasts forever. Forever. Ongoing torment that never ends. One thing I would want to stress is that it is so much more than that. So don't limit your understanding to this literal place with fire as if that's the sum total of the punishment. Again, the Bible talks about hell with other words as well, darkness, a pit, all these different ways of describing the suffering that occurs there. Fire is just part of it. And I think what God has done in his wisdom, he's given us these windows into what it means to reject him so as to give us as best as we can comprehend a cumulative picture of just how intense the suffering will be in this literal place for everybody

who does not acknowledge their sin and seek forgiveness from God through Christ. The suffering will be ongoing and it will be far, far greater than anything that any of us have experienced here on earth. So when people talk about a subjectivity to hell or a suffering in the present time, I don't think they've quite grasped

how desperate our situation is and how intense that suffering will be when this life ends. Now, Paul, maybe you've heard someone say that when someone comes to Christ, it's more than just a get out of hell card, but it's not less than fleeing from the wrath of God. And so Jesus says flee, John the Baptist says flee from the wrath to come.

And so how do we put hell in its proper perspective as we plead with people to be reconciled to God? Because sometimes on a quest of not fear mongering them to come to Christ, we've lacked the necessary communication that hell is the inevitable plight of the individual who does not believe. What's the proper wisdom there?

Yeah, I think with all of these questions, there's a balance to be struck as we think about preaching or simply evangelism and the proper communication of the gospel. It is right that we talk about hell to unbelievers. The Bible talks about hell an awful lot. So to neglect that entirely, I think would be to take a misstep. At the same time, it's entirely right that we talk about how glorious is the offer of salvation. So you talked about there of separation from God. We can think about that one concept with respect to both destinations. So think about, for example, separation from God as it relates to heaven and hell. I think sometimes perhaps we are lulled into this sense of hell being a place where all of the unrepentant sinners are collectively together, getting along as a group.

You have to understand that friendship, fellowship, that is a gift from God. There's going to be no friendship in hell. You're entirely separated from God with no communion with Him and no communion on a horizontal level either. With each other. It's the loneliest place that we could ever imagine. And every sinner there is left entirely by themselves in their suffering. And it would be good to communicate that as you preach the gospel. The flip side, the wonderful offer of salvation is that in the here and now, we are brought into this wonderful, supernatural relationship, honestly,

as brothers and sisters in Christ. One of the things I remark at in the church, Sunday by Sunday, God has brought together people that, if it weren't for the gospel, would have no other reason to be in this room together. And yet here we are as brothers and sisters in Christ, And we're all headed towards fullness of communion with God on that last day. We enjoy something of that now. We are brought into a right relationship with God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit now. And on the last day when God has worked and finished his plan of salvation, how great will be our communion with God in that day. And so if we were just thinking about that one idea

of relationship with God, separation from him versus communion with him, we can preach both sides of the coin and we should to be faithful ministers of the gospel, I think we preach both sides of the coin. This is what it looks like if you reject this message. And here is the glorious news if you would accept it and trust in Christ. That's so helpful because I think sometimes on a quest of love, people hide the truth,

which would be inaccurate. And sometimes they only promote the destiny of rejection without including that necessarily element of receiving Christ, but people will only be prompted to receive Him when they understand their plight apart from Him. So Paul, that's so helpful. Thank you for your time. My pleasure.