FAITH AND METAPHORS BY PASTOR ELKAN.

Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men._ – 2Cor 5:11

Like most terms used in the doctrine of salvation, Hell has no human equivalent. Hell is not the grave; Hell is not fire or darkness, or a dump heap or burning sulphur, etc. Scripturally, Hell means being separated _away_ from God (2Th 1:9; Mt 7:23; 22:13, 25:41). Do you know what that feels like? Well, neither does anyone else.

Even the most debauched sinner alive, perpetrators of the most heinous crime imaginable, or practitioners of the blackest of black witchcraft, still commit their sins in the ambience of God’s presence. And because no living person has been to Hell, no human language has a term to adequately describe it. 

The words used by the writers of Scripture are merely the _closest_ human approximations they could find. People who get overly fixated on how there can be “darkness” in a place of “fire”; or “gnashing of teeth” in a place that’s supposed to be of agony, etc.  (Mt 8:12; 13:42), are not factoring the burden on the inspired writers in describing a thing that, in essence, is indescribable. 

So, is Hell Fire a metaphor? Yes, it is – for something worse than any human word can describe. No one alive truly knows what Hell is; but if it’s something that made God, the Creator of the Universe Himself, to come down and die to save us from, then we can safely conclude it has to be something pretty serious.

Thus, the question of Hell is ultimately an article of faith: _a loving and ever-truthful God says to you that it exists and that it’s bad for you._ Do you believe Him? Or do you want to see if it’s true for yourself? The summary of the Gospel message is that you should choose the former.

PASTOR GREG ELKAN.