July 8, 2024

Matthew 25:41

⁴¹ “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 

The Bible is full of Good News. But not all of the news is good. There is some information in there that is disturbing and that shouldn’t be ignored. And the subject that is most disturbing to me is the subject of the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Some people would call this “hell,” although the Bible indicates that hell is a temporary place that will eventually be swallowed up into a place of eternal fire. But essentially, anyone who is in hell has no chance of getting out, so their final destination is not in doubt.

But Jesus tells us something very shocking about the eternal fire that is the final destination of those who are cursed. It is a destination that wasn’t prepared for them! It was actually prepared for the devil and his angels.

When humans end up in the eternal fire, it is a place that they weren’t destined or designed to go to. That horrible place was designed for the devil and his angels. It was a place that was built at some time in the past, presumably at the time when Satan rebelled against God. It was built as a final destination for the rebellious angelic beings. But it wasn’t built for humans.

So when humans end up there, this lets us know that something truly shocking has occurred. There will be occupants of the eternal fire that have ended up there CONTRARY to the will of God.

If it were God’s will for people to end up in the eternal fire, God would have prepared this eternal fire for the devil, his angels, AND the people who follow the devil. But when God built this terrible place of eternal torment, He did not build it to put people in. He only built it to put the devil and his rebellious angels.

And this information tells us something VERY IMPORTANT about the subject of predestination. There are some who teach that some people are born with a destiny of going to hell and that God knows from the very beginning of their lives that they will end up in eternal fire. They teach that some people are chosen for hell.

But if this is the case, why didn’t God prepare the eternal fire for THEM, as well as preparing it for the devil and his angels? I will tell you why. It is because God doesn’t will that any human being would end up in that final place of eternal torment.

Every human who ends up in hell, and eventually the eternal fire, will be there outside of and apart from God’s will. Not a single human will be burning eternally because God willed them to be there. There is no teaching in the Bible that some people are just born as predestined to go to hell.

So if God does not will that any human should go to this place of eternal fire, since He didn’t build it for humans, why would any human end up going there?

Because they CHOOSE to go there! They make the choice to ignore God’s grace. It is a grace that invites them to come join Him in heaven. It is a grace that tells them that there is such Good News, that the bad news doesn’t have to be a part of their lives. It is a grace that comes with the offer of eternal life. And it is a grace that is offered as a free gift through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

Now you would have to be truly insane to pass up this free gift. There isn’t a better offer out there. But amazingly, there are people who do. They reject the Good News. And they CHOOSE death and eternal fire.

And the place where they end up is a place that wasn’t even prepared for them. This truly blows me away how anyone could make such an insane choice. But choose it they do. And choose eternal fire they will.

But we are in error if we blame God for sending them there. He didn’t make the eternal fire for them, and it wasn’t His will or His plan for them to end up there.

God is good and God is love. He didn’t create any people with the purpose of populating hell. The people who end up populating hell will be there because they ignored God’s goodness and love and made the choice. It’s a dumb choice. But God allows them to make it.