Roman Road

The Bible, God’s Word, is always right. All the historical prophesies have been 100% accurate so we know the great and awesome ones predicted will come. I know you don’t want to face that, and you don’t have to.

 Perhaps you are dealing with your own personal tribulations of life right now and you don’t feel there is much if any hope ahead. I want you to know, there is always hope in Jesus Christ. Whatever you are going through right now, whatever you are dealing with right now, He can and wants to help. Take a road trip along the Roman road with Prophecy Dude right now…

  • Romans 3:23 says, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” We all have sin in our hearts. We all were born with sin. We were born under the power of sin's control. Just admit that you are a sinner.
  • Romans 6:23a says, “For the wages of sin is death…” Sin has an ending.  It results in death.  We all face physical death, which is a result of sin.  But a worse death is spiritual death that alienates us from God, and will last for all eternity.  The Bible teaches that there is a place called the Lake of Fire where lost people will be in torment forever.   It is the place where people who are spiritually dead will remain. Understand that you deserve death for your sin.
  • Romans 6:23b says, “… but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Salvation is a free gift from God to you!  You can't earn this gift, but you must reach out and receive it. Just ask God to forgive you and save you.
  • Romans 5:8 says, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” When Jesus died on the cross He paid sin's penalty. He paid the full price for all sin, and when He took all the sins of the world on Himself on the cross, He made it possible for us to become born again and have the opportunity for a whole new spiritual life replacing spiritual death. The only condition is that we believe in Him and what He has done for us, understanding that we are now joined with Him, and that He is our life.  He did all this because He loved us and gave Himself for us! Just give your life to God... His love poured out in Jesus on the cross is your only hope to have forgiveness and change.  His love bought you out of being a slave to sin.  His love is what saves you -- not religion, nor church membership.  God loves you so much, He sent his only Son to die for you so you could live eternally with Him.
  • Romans 10:13 says, “For ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”
  • Romans 10:9, 10 says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.”  It is that simple!

    

Just pray this simple prayer, “Jesus, I come to you as a sinner who wants a new life in you. Right now, I confess that You, Jesus, are Lord. I believe in my heart that God raised you from the dead and that you took all my sins away. Now, I confess with my mouth that I am saved, that I am a child of God, and that Jesus is my Lord and Savior. Thank you Jesus!”

 

  If you prayed that prayer and believe it in your heart, then you have just joined the family of God! Please let me know that you did this so I can pray for you. In fact, I have many people who will be more than happy to pray for you. Email me to let me know. I really care.

 

  It’s so important for you to grow deeper in your spiritual walk and the best way to do that is to find a good church that teaches the Bible and challenges people to reach out in ministry.

Prophecy Dude

 

The Cross-- A Message from Billy Graham
 

Whatever happened to hell?

From AG News

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 - 4:19 PM CST

As the 20th century drew to a close, the subject of hell came up quite a bit, both in and out of churches. Street preachers and crusade evangelists delivered fiery sermons about the flames of Hades. Self-proclaimed prophets and futurists speculated the end of the millennium would culminate in the end of the world. Christian moviemakers and authors focused on the Rapture and those left behind. Congregations sponsored Hell Houses, which in a sequence of live tableaux depicted the fate of unrepentant sinners.

What a difference a decade makes. Hell has fallen off the radar screen, both from the pulpit and in the media. Many pastors, partly in reaction to the earlier dominance of the topic, are stressing the benefits of heaven rather than the threats of perdition. Fewer people now believe in hell — or at least in the possibility they will end up there.

Early in his 30-year ministry, Assemblies of God evangelist Sam Farina often preached about the realities of hell and the escape plan for Christians. Farina, who is based in Huntersville, North Carolina, and is national coaching facilitator for the AG Church Multiplication Network, says pastors no longer are too interested in the topic, preferring to focus on discipleship and spiritual formation.

But if hell is dismissed as irrelevant, Farina insists, it both trivializes Jesus' atoning death and renders biblical teaching erroneous.

"What do we do with Jesus and His cross?" Farina asks. "It is the place of redemption from hell."

Ed Rybarczyk, associate professor of historic and systematic theology at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, California, says postmodernism and multiculturalism have played large roles in making hell an unpopular topic in America.

"Postmodernism disdains ultimate truth claims," Rybarczyk says. "Many view a God who they believe would make unnecessarily divisive and unfair judgments as imperialistic."

Rybarczyk appreciates that his pastor during childhood willingly preached on the difficult topic of hell.

"We still need to proclaim that those who violate God's laws or ignore Jesus Christ will be judged," Rybarczyk says. "But we don't need to yell or psychologically manipulate. We need not try to pretend to be the Holy Spirit."

Many pastors pragmatically have opted not to broach a subject that might risk driving away congregants. Likewise, laypeople infrequently raise the subject of eternity out of fear of being offensive to friends and relatives.

Melody Palm, director of counseling programs for Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Missouri, believes many pastors in their 20s and 30s view the fear-based messages they heard as children as an ineffective way to spur people to accept Jesus as Savior.

"I've talked to significant numbers of young adults who have childhood traumas from being in church and hearing about a mean God who will throw them into a lake of fire," says Palm who also is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice and a licensed minister. "It caused significant psychological distress."

While short-term results of fiery messages may have filled altars with confessional youth, the recurring impressions they had involved nightmares about demons, fire and physical torture, she says.

Students have told Palm they have felt manipulated by such tactics and that fear doesn't provide a lasting motivation to live an authentic holy life based on a relationship with Jesus.

Belief in an everlasting hell is dwindling. Two years ago, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life reported that 59 percent of Americans considered hell real, compared to 71 percent in a 2001 Gallup opinion poll.

While the majority of Americans still believe hell exists, most think they will avoid it in the hereafter.

"There's a misconception that 'because I'm good — or at least not as bad as some others — I'll be OK,' " Farina says. "But you can't make God love you more or less by your actions."

"Those who do believe in hell think it is reserved for Hitler, Stalin and Chairman Mao," Rybarczyk says. Even some Christian college students succumb to nonbiblical thinking that good behavior will spare family members, he says.

Rybarczyk believes there is interest in learning about hell, both in academic and church circles. He teaches a theology elective on hell in Scripture at Vanguard University, an Assemblies of God school.

"Jesus has more to say than anybody else in the Bible about hell," Rybarczyk says. "Jesus wasn't just warning about hell because He didn't want people to go there; He also wanted to inform people the way to live their lives now."

Hell has a place

One of the 16 fundamental truths of the Assemblies of God deals with the final judgment.

"We're ignoring a reality of Scripture if we do not talk about it," Farina says. "There needs to be an understanding that God did make a place called the lake of fire reserved for Satan and those who follow him."

The challenge today is for Christians to find ways to lovingly share the truth so that people are enlightened about the reality of hell, Farina says. He notes that Jesus lovingly approached those who didn't know Him.

"To be a true disciple of Christ, it's very important that we share truth and have open dialogue and discussion with those who don't believe in hell, or at least don't think it's a reality for them," Farina says.

Rather than stress the physical discomfort, Palm recommends that Christians point out an equally disturbing reality of hell: separation from God for eternity.

"To be complete, biblical theology should clearly articulate that hell is never having peace," Palm says.

Bumper stickers depicting hell as a great party destination are wrongheaded, according to Rybarczyk.

"One is cut off from a relationship with not only God but all other human beings," Rybarczyk says. "The good news is that Christ has come to save us from sin, death, Satan and hell."

Author: John W. Kennedy, Pentecostal Evangel

What happens to the unsaved when they die?

By Nathan Jones
Lamb and Lion Ministries

In sharing the Gospel with the world, I would be remiss if I didn't share what happens to those people who die without having accepted Jesus as their Savior and so continue onwards down the path to judgment. What's going to happen to them?

Those people who have died never having accepting Jesus' lifeline of salvation have an entirely different destination from Heaven. They are going to die in their rebellion, and they have no hope whatsoever. As Jesus in John 3:36 warned, "God's wrath remains on him." The following is what's going to happen to them after they die.

1) Hades
After an unsaved person dies, they go to a place called Hades. The Bible also calls it Sheol or Torments. You can read all about it in Luke 16. Hades is a holding place for the dead, a prison. It at one time had two compartments, a place called Paradise and a place called Torments. The Old Testament Saints used to go to the Paradise part as they couldn't go to Heaven yet because Jesus' blood hadn't yet been shed to cover their sins. By faith they were there as Hebrews explains, but Jesus' blood finally allowed their freedom and Paradise was taken up to Heaven with Jesus after His crucifixion. What we have in Hades now is just what is left — Torments — a place of torment.

2) Judgment
At the end of Jesus' Millennial Kingdom, there will be the Great White Throne Judgment. That's a special name basically for the Resurrection of the Unjust. We can read about this final judgment in Revelation 20:11-13:

"Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it and earth and sky fled from his presence and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead great and small standing before the throne and the books were opened. And another book was opened which is the book of life, the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in them and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them and each person was judged according to what he had done."

Those from Hades are going to be judged based on their works, but without the saving work of Jesus Christ — the only work that matters, they will be found wanting. God's the perfect litmus test, and so no matter how good our works have been, they just cannot add up to God's standard of perfection. Everyone who tells you that you have to work your way to Heaven is lying to you, because the Bible says otherwise in Ephesians 2:8-9. Jesus' work on the cross is the only work that matters, and our response in faith.

3) Hell
When they are all found guilty, their next and final destination is a place called Hell. Revelation 20:14-15 explains that awful sentence of condemnation, "Then death and Hades were thrown into the Lake of Fire." The Lake of Fire is called the Second Death. If anyone's name was not found written in the books of Life, they will be thrown into the Lake of Fire.

Misconceptions About Hell

A lot of people have some really false ideas about what Hell is like. One misconception about Hell for instance is that Satan is down there stoking the fires and that he's already there waiting to punish and torment people with pitchforks. No, Satan doesn't rule Hell. There are no demons waiting to torment us in Hell.

Actually, believe or not, there is not a single person in Hell right now. Hell is the punishment created for Satan and his demons. Matthew 25:41 says Hell was created for them when they rebelled against God. When we rebelled in sin, that same punishment fell upon us. Hell was never meant for us, but when we sinned, we fell under the same judgment as Satan and his followers.

Hell Described

What is Hell actually like? We can read all about it in the Bible.

Is Hell a place where we party down? Is it a place where it is just a little too warm, but where we hang out with our old friends? No, Matthew 25:46 tells us it is a place of punishment for rebellion. Punishment is not good, and so Hell is not a good place.

Hell is where the wrath of God is finally fulfilled. In John 3:36, we read about the wrath of God. The wrath of God is whenever God judges the earth in its entirety. We saw it with the Flood. We will see it poured out at the Tribulation. God will judge all who have rejected Him at the Second Death. These are demonstrations of God's wrath.

Hell is called the Second Death in Revelation 21:8. It is also called Eternal Destruction in 2 Thessalonians 1:9. Look at the word "eternal." Eternal means just that — forever destroyed.

With Hell, there is just no escape. Luke 16 says there is no way out of it. It's not like there can be some fancy Star Trek episode escape where they hitch a few wires and the doors open and they always escape. No, it's not like that in Hell. There is absolutely no way to escape from Hell.

What is Hell physically like? Matthew 25:41 and Revelation 20:15 describe it as a Lake of Fire. Some people speculate that maybe it is located in the underworld of our planet, as we see lava flows from a volcano like a lake. I tend to think Hell is a star. If you ever get a good close picture of a star, you will see superheated energy plasma boiling and rolling like lakes. It could be in a star, but the Bible doesn't tell us. But, it is described as a place of flames. It's a place of burning.

With all that fire, one would think it would be a very bright place, but Matthew 8:12 tells us it is a place of utter darkness. There is no light. No one will get to see in Hell.

And, the stench of it! Luke 16 tells us that Hell stinks. It has a bad smell to it.

The people who are sentenced there will be conscious. They will not be knocked out. They won't be driven so mad that they won't think about the horrible reality crushing them. They will have to exist with a conscious existence as Deuteronomy 18:11 demonstrates, and what they are consciously aware of is that they chose to separate themselves from the Father, as Luke 16 relays. God says to us all with no exception, "I love you. Come to me." You can choose to respond to that, or you can reply with, "No, way!" Those who rejected God's love will spend eternity regretting that decision.

Being separated from God has other consequences, for God is life, and without Him the universe doesn't hold together. You may hear about physicists trying to find the God particle or the String Theory. Well, in part they are correct. The underlining force that holds everything together is God. Jesus says it is Him. He is the bread and the life. He's what's holding us together.

Without God there is only loneliness and separation. There's just you being convicted by your memories filled with regret and despair.

Luke 16 says in Hell you thirst. In Hell there is nothing to quench one's awful, mind-burning thirst.

Because of all the agony and destruction that you feel in Hell, it says in Matthew 8:12 that there is gnashing of teeth. There will be nothing from you but weeping and crying with no comfort and no water to supply your tears.

Hell is truly a place of torment, as Revelation 14 describes. It's an awful place of torment where you are alone with yourself forever. You wanted God to leave you along and so you didn't accept Jesus' salvation, and well, you got what you wanted.

Living With an Eternal Perspective

Our forever destination is why we need to think about something bigger than just our life here on earth. Where the road ends is why we need to have an eternal perspective, because our life on this earth is really very short, isn't it? It's just like a breath. And so, it makes sense that we need to look at the bigger picture in life. You need to know where you are going.

You can't just live for the now, because if you die this very minute without preparing for the next minute, then where will that get you?

A friend of mine had this happen to him. While his mother was making him dinner she slipped on some water on the floor. While she was making something as innocent as dinner, she fell and banged her head against the cabinet. The fall snapped her neck and she died instantly. One minute she is making the meatballs, the next minute she is dead with her son standing over his dead mother.

Life happens that way. We don't think it can happen to us, especially the younger we are. We think life doesn't end so suddenly, but it will. Death will catch up to us usually when we are unaware.

Death is inevitable, unless you are raptured, so live with an eternal perspective. If you live with an eternal perspective, then everything else in life will make sense. Life will have purpose.

Your Eternal Decision

Have you made the choice for Jesus? Have you asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins and be your Savior? Have you cried, "Jesus, forgive me of my sins and be my savior!"

An amazing, wonderful, awesome future lays ahead of us with Jesus Christ! So, what on earth are you doing that's just so important that you won't grab hold of that future? What sins are you committing that are so temporarily enjoyable that you wish to stay here, when you've got so much better ahead of you in Heaven? Turn to Jesus right now and ask Him to forgive you of your sins and be your Savior.

Think of the future that you have. Don't write Hell off as not a real place. The God of the Universe who is outside of time and who knows what is beyond here has told us in the Bible exactly what our afterlife will be like. In the Bible we can know our future.

You have a decision to make today. Have you accepted Jesus as your Savior, or have you not? Will you be rescued from judgment and Hell, or will you be saved for Heaven by placing your trust in Jesus Christ?

 

The Truth

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