Hell and Everlasting Punishment, Part 1: Abiding Wrath

"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth no the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36). This verse says that the wrath of God abides on the sinner right now and if he dies unsaved God's wrath will abide on him forever. "But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God; But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath." (Romans 2:5,8). "Let this awful word Wrath, settle into the conscience of every soul; for God hath spoken it!" And every Preacher, and every prophet of God has warned of it: Enoch, Noah, Moses, the Psalmists, Isaiah, John the Bapist with his 'flee from the wrath to come;' the Apostles - from Romans to Revelation; and the great Preachers and Evangelists of the Christian centuries, - the men who have won souls - the Reformers, the Puritans, the Wesleys, Whitefields, Edwardses, Finneys, Spurgeons, Moodys, - all have told of man's guilt and danger, of the coming judgment, and of the wrath of God upon the impenitent and unbelieving." -William R. Newell "There are the black clouds of God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God, for the present, stays His rough wind. Otherwise it would come with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you would be like the chaff of the summer threshing floor. The wrath of Godis like great waters that are damned for the present. They increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given. The longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose... And consider here more paticularly whose wrath it is. It is the wrath of an infinite God... It is the fierceness of His wrath that you are exposed to. Thus we read of 'the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.' (Rev 19:15). The words are exceedingly terrible, if only it had been said, 'the wrath of God', the wrod would have implied that which is infinitly dreadful. But it is said, 'the fierceness and wrath of God'. The fury of God! The fierceness of Jehovah! Oh, how dreadful that be! It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it for all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite, horrible misery... How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in danger of this great wrath and infinite misery! But this is the dismal case of every soul that has not been born again. however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. Oh, that you would consider it, whether you are young or old! Therefore, let everyone that is out of Christ now awake and flee fromt he wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over every unregenerate sinner." -Jonathan Edwards Hearing such solemn admonitions about the reality of an abiding wrath must make us stop and consider how we are living our lives, the soul that God has given us to be accountable for. How short is time, how long is eternity! May we do violence to our normal thinking and actions and place our thoughts firmly on these eternal subjects that will be life to us if we allow them to be.