Our sense organs 45

then you’ve misled everyone you have spoken to.
You’re just lying to us here.”
Jesus clearly speaks of hell as a place that exists.
His intention is never to scare us, but to warn us
and to invite us into the other, equally real place -
heaven.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns us: “If
your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and
throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part
of your body than for your whole body to be
thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes
you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better
for you to lose one part of your body than for
your whole body to go into hell” (Matt 5,29-30).
Let us take yet another passage from the Gospel
of Matthew: “Do not be afraid of those who kill
the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be
afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and
body in hell” (Matt 10:28). Who sends people to
hell? It is certainly not the devil, although that
might seem likely at first. The devil himself is
condemned and will be judged (Rev 12:10; Rev
20:10). The Judge will make the Last Judgment,
and God has set the Lord Jesus to be that Judge.
As we read in Matthew 25:41: “Then he [= Jesus]
will say to those on his left, ’Depart from me, you
who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for
the devil and his angels’.”
Towards whom are the warnings about hell directed?
Who is being addressed? I always thought
that they were directed at the faithless, the outsiders,
the thieves and criminals. However, in
almost all cases Jesus directs his warnings about
hell towards the faithful. He only addresses the
Pharisees on occasion, but when he does, Jesus is
especially strict with them because of their selfrighteousness.
They do not receive a warning,
because hell is a certain end for them: “Woe to
you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!
You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s
faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let
those enter who are trying to (Matt 23:13).”
The British author David Pawson once compiled a
list of those deeds which, according to the Bible,
144
lead to hell. This list contains 120 points and
names, among others, the following groups of
people:
– the adulterers
– the homosexuals
– the debauched
– the liars
– the miserly
– the proud
– those who follow astrology
– the cowardly
– the slothful
–…
In the Parable of the Talents, the man who
receives one talent says: “Master, ... I knew that
you are a hard man, harvesting where you have
not sown and gathering where you have not
scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and
hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what
belongs to you” (Matt 25:24-25). His Lord
answers him, “You wicked, lazy servant! So you
knew that I harvest where I have not sown and
gather where I have not scattered seed?” (Matt
25:26). The text ends with the punishment of
rejection: “And throw that worthless servant outside,
into the darkness, where there will be weeping
and gnashing of teeth” (Matt 25:30). The
Bible defines this place of darkness as hell. This
servant is neither an atheist, nor a bad person in
the usual sense. He is one who knows Jesus. That
is why he addresses Jesus as “Master.” Despite
this, he is lost. And why? Because he is lazy!
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives a serious
warning to those who habitually have his name
on their lips, but will never see the glory of God:
“Not everyone who says to me ’Lord, Lord’ will
enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who
does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt
7:21). The Parable of the Ten Virgins is also about
the faithful. But five of them were to find that
“the door was shut” (Matt 25:10). Why? Their way
of life reflected more the customs of the time
than the Commandments of God, and Jesus Christ
was no longer the centre of their lives. That is why
they hear the unexpected words of Jesus: “I tell
you the truth, I don´t know you” (Matt 25:12).