Jim didn't become a Christian until he was in his late 20’s.
He was a pilot and tactical training officer during WWII, and was badly burned
in a plane crash. He spent a year in the hospital recovering from his burns.
Early in his hospitalization, he had a vision of hell.
He saw himself on a steep decline, sliding into the flames,
and he called out to God to save Him. He always said he was saved and called to
ministry at the same time. He told the Lord, and I’m quoting his autobiography,
“Lord, I’m not asking you to spare my life, but if you
do, I just want to spend the rest of it warning others against what you have
opened my eyes to here tonight.” For the next 54 years he warned people about hell, preached
the good news of the gospel, and planted churches until
the Lord called him home.
Talking about hell is not much in favor these days, even
among people who claim to believe in it. We don’t want people to believe in
Christ simply as “fire insurance.” “But I’m pretty sure my friend Jim Dolin
would remind us that Jesus talked more about hell than about heaven.
For example, Jesus told a parable about a rich man who had
everything in this life, and a poor man who had nothing. Lazarus, the poor man,
died and went to heaven, but the rich man ended up in hell. (You should read
the whole thing by clicking here: Luke 16:19-31). What Jesus told us amounts to five terrible truths about hell.
1. Hell is a real place. The Lord Jesus
described it as a fiery furnace where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth
(Matthew 13:42), a place of torment, of eternal punishment where their worm
does not die and the first is not quenched (Mark 9:48).
2. Hell is a place of just punishment. The
word of God names in specific detail the sins that people commit that bring
them into eternal punishment of hell. Hebrews 10:26-27 says: For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the
knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a
fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the
adversaries.
3. Hell is a place of conscious torment. In
Christ’s parable, the rich man is not “annihilated” in hell, but exists in a
terrible soul-searing regret over his wasted life. Hell is not oblivion; it is endless anguish.
4. Hell is a place of
irreversible permanence. Jesus spoke of heaven and hell with the very same
adjective: eternal. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the
righteous into eternal life. (Matthew 25:46). We might prefer to believe
that hell is temporary, or escapable, but it is as eternal as heaven.
5. Hell is a place of
ignored warnings. The end of Christ's parable is a reminder to the rich man
and a warning to everyone else – people end up in hell not because they didn't
know better or didn't have enough evidence that they should repent, but because
they ignored the many warnings they already had.
Jim Dolin is in heaven now. He is surrounded by joyous
people who are so grateful that he took the time to tell them the bad news -
hell is real, and we deserve to go there, and the good news - but Jesus died to
make a place for us in heaven when we turn from our sins and trust in Him
alone.
