'An Independent Baptist Church'

 What has happened to Hell? 

A recent local Newspaper article read, "MINISTERS COOL TO DISCUSSING THE NOTION OF HELL" In the article it states, " "You can go to a whole lot of churches week after week and you'd be startled even to hear a mention of hell...It’s just too negative.." a seminary professor says...

I can remember going to church as a little boy and hearing the preacher proclaim the Bible reality of hell with such for and so vividly that I was tempted to loosen by little bow tie because it was getting so hot in the church building.... 

The idea of a real, literal HELL....a place of fire, torment, and flames is very distasteful to modern culture and thinking.  Even Billy Graham, world famous evangelist who came to prominence in the 1940’s as a fire and brimstone preacher, was clear and unequivocal in his depiction of hell as an unpleasant address for unrepentant sinners.  However, even Billy Graham has reconsidered hell---not whether it exists, but what it is.  Billy Graham said about HELL,  

 "I believe that hell is essentially separation from God, so we can have hell in this life and hell in the life to come..," Graham told an interviewer in 1991." But to describe hell in vivid terms like I might have done 30 or 40 years ago, I'm not at liberty to do that because whether there is actually fire in hell or not, I DO NOT KNOW."

The Article continues...."Where once hell was viewed as a literal, geographic location, it is more often seen now as a state of the soul.  In 1999, Pope John Paul II made headlines by saying that hell should be seen not as a fiery underworld but as 'the state of those who freely and definitely separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy."  As much as that seemed like a departure from church teachings, the pope's words weren't all that new.  The Roman Catholic Church in the 1960's had moved away from the view of hell as a gothic torture chamber as part of the Second Vatican Council's modernization of church teachings."

Did you know that the newer Bible versions are taking the fire out of hell?

The word HELL occurs 31 times in the OT in the KJV (King James Version).  In the OT of the NIV (New International Version), it occurs - ZERO!   The word HELL is not in the OT of the NIV!    

 And what do they do with HELL?  They substitute the GRAVE for hell. They take Psalms 9:17 (KJV) which reads "The wicked shall be turned into HELL..."   The NIV reads in Psalms 9:17 "The wicked return to the grave..."  What?  Don’t we ALL return to the grave?

 This passage in Isaiah 14:15 is a good example in case.  Here ‘hell’ is removed and replaced with ‘the grave’.   The new versions refuse to send Lucifer to HELL!  The NIV reads in Isaiah 14:15 "But you are brought down to the GRAVE...."  The NASV (New American Standard Version) and NKJV (New King James Version) place him in ‘SHEOL’!  Critics claim, "Oh the newer Bible are easier to read and understand.."  Really?  SHEOL really clarifies that verse for a Sunday school class! 

Did you know that Lucifer has been taken out of the NIV?  Lucifer is no longer a Bible character.  He has been relegated to Mythology.  You will not find Lucifer in the New International Version! 

New Agers & Satanists believe that Lucifer is God and they don’t want the newer Bibles sending him to hell!  Albert Pike, one of the most revered and respected leaders of Freemasonry claimed that 'Lucifer is God' in instructions to 23 Supreme Councils of the World on July 14, 1889.  Here is his quote,

 "Yes, Lucifer is God....the true and pure philosophic religion is the belief in Lucifer....you may repeat it to the Brethren of the 32nd, 31st, and 30th degrees: The Masonic religion should be...maintained in the purity of the Luciferian doctrine." 

 In the New Testament the NIV removes the word HELL 9 times and what ‘clearer’ and ‘easier to understand’ word do these newer versions substitute for HELL?  The word ‘HADES’!  How many people understand what HADES is?  EVERYBODY KNOWS WHAT HELL IS!  Do you know what HADES is?  Imagine the preacher preaching about HADES on Sunday morning from his NKJV (New King James Version) and the teenager is reminded that the night before at the party he heard The rock group STYX sing about HADES with their lyrics:   "...if you kill yourself, you will go to a wonderful place where you will party forever...called HADES...."  

 According to New Age teaching, Hades is not a place of torment or terror, it is an intermediate place of purification....an abode of blessedness with silver skies called HAPPY FIELDS.  Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines HADES:  "the underground abode of the dead in Greek MYTHOLOGY."  The New Age Philosopy is  perverting your Bible into Mythology!    

 The NIV (New International Version) removes the word HELL in 40 of the 53 places it occurs in the KJV (King James Version).  Some of the clearest references to hell as a place of fire are removed completely, such as Mark 9:44 & 46 which reads,  "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire quenched."  These verses are being taken out of the newer Bibles.

 Why is the fire being put out in the newer Bibles? 

 The eternality of HELL is even put in doubt in 2 Peter 2:17 in NIV when it changes the reading of the verse from "...darkness is reserved forever’(KJV)  to ‘darkness is reserved’....removing the word ‘forever’..

 2 Peter 2:17 (KJV) "These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever." 

 2 Peter 2:17 (NIV) "These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm.  Blackest darkness is reserved for them."

Hell is losing its reality fast as an actual, physical place as taught in the Bible.

That would make it nicer for all of us, wouldn’t it?