Burn Notice

May 13, 2011| Legion of Skills
Burn Notice

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The subject of hell, most times, is taken to two extremes by Christians, either we strongly condemn people to the fiery depths or we refuse to talk about it at all, fearing that people may condemn us. Everyone believes in death, because we see death all around us and it is now fully a part of the human condition, but the majority do not believe in hell. We cannot see hell until, and if it is revealed to us and we truly cannot identify with it.

In the garden of Eden mankind could not identify with death, because we were not created with death in mind, but it was promised by God to Adam and Eve that, if they disobeyed Him by eating of the tree of knowledge, their punishment would be… death!

“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” ~ Genesis 2:16-17

So we see from scripture that death came into the world by man’s disobedience (sin) against God but, God has a greater plan than death for man. God’s ultimate plan is to destroy sin forever and put an end to death and those that hate Him.

“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:” ~ Hebrews 9:27

Notice: We die once, and then the judgment, no reincarnation necessary or possible.

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” ~ Romans 6:23

Death is not the end of the human experience, we don’t just live die and that is the end of our existence, we must stand before God in the judgment and give an account for the life He has given to us.

“When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of his glory: And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.” ~ Matthew 25:31-46

Some people think that it HELL is going to be a great place where there is going to be an everlasting party and a lot of sex and everything we could ever want, well I think we already have that on earth, so no need to repeat. Others think it will be great because, they will be able to meet up with their favorite stars. For the Reggae lovers, they will get to party with Bob Marley or for the Rock and Rollers it will be a great time to meet the Beetles and for the Rap lovers, it may be a great place to meet up with The Notorious B.I.G or 2Pac. Some philosophers believe that hell is just a state of mind here on earth or some spiritual realm to come, if you ask around you can find varied opinions on what hell really is. But the bible describes hell has everlasting punishment, that should be avoided at all cost.

Let’s take a closer look at why hell was created and who will be there..

“Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:” Matthew 25:41

Surprisingly, we see that hell was never created as a punishment for mankind; instead it was created for the first set of created beings (the devil and his angels) that disobeyed Him.

Although God does not want us to go to hell, His perfect justice on sin and those who hate Him, will ultimately mean that some men and women will also be in hell because, they choose to turn their backs on a loving God. Some may ask, how can a loving God send people to hell? but, if we really think about it, it is because of that love why He must. God’s perfect judgment and justice requires that there be a place designed to punish the wicked and the unrepentant. What kind of God would He be if the wicked were not punished? We would not even let our government here on earth do that!

So since hell is real, God has given us the “Burn Notice” in the form of warnings found all throughout scripture, He gives us clear examples of what it would be like and why we should not go there.

  • Revelation 20:10 “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
  • 2Peter 2:4 “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;”
  • Matthew 8:12 “But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
  • Psalm 9:17 “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”
  • Matthew 10:28 “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
  • Luke 12:5 “But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear him.

Hell will be fused with darkness, there will be no light because God is light and we will be separated from Him. There will be no green trees and blue skies and all the beautiful things we enjoy on earth, we will be removed from the beauty of his creation. There will be perpetual hopelessness, because we will know that it is an everlasting punishment, no matter how bad life gets here on earth, at least we know that we have an escape through Christ, in hell there is no escape! Not only will we be separated from God, we will be separated from other humans and we will feel the brunt force of the hatred that the the devil and the demons have for us!

One of the greatest “Burn Notice” was spoken by Jesus in the book of Mark

“And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” ~ Mark 9:43-48

This passage of scripture is most times interpreted to mean that God wants us to start cutting off our limbs!, …but some people miss the point. The point is that God is showing us how awful it will be to be separated from Him, and how much He does not want us to go there. God has done so much to warn us, He even sent Jesus to suffer and die on the cross for our sins. We have a chance now, to be saved from eternal damnation and separation from God by accepting His free gift of eternal life. What will you choose today? Have you accepted the free gift of Christ’s death on the cross? It is powerful enough to spare you from an eternity in hell. God’s ultimate desire is to spend eternity with you in heaven, a place of joy and happiness; where you will experience no more tears or sorrows. He wants to adopt you into His family to be equal partakers in His promises.

“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” ~ John 3:17

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” ~ 2 Peter 3:9

Feel free to share your thoughts on this topic in the comments section below.

Godserv Designs

Categories: Insights, Inspiration

7 thoughts on “Burn Notice”

  1. Hagen

    I think that his story is a very paganistic philosophy of what hell is. A loving God would not torment someone for eternity for 60-80 years of a sinful life? That is completely against God’s character. He loves even the worst sinner. He wants all to be saved. Please read more at: helltruth.com

    1. loswl Post author

      Hagen, if you think it is a paganistic view of hell, please give us scriptural evidence of it, not just the thoughts of the author of "helltruth.com", As you can see the scriptures I gave has many warnings, and the Bible does not contradict itself. God is love, that is why he gave the warnings, and sent His Son to die, so we can have eternal life, free of cost. God is also righteous and Holy and cannot let sin go unpunished. Now if hell was not everlasting separation from God and a place of torment, why would I be afraid of it? I would just be brought back to life, face the judgment of God and die again?..nothing to fear, I just die again, but the Bible promises us "once to die" and then the judgment and even if we cannot agree on the fire or how long "Everlasting" is, you must agree that eternal separation from God is awful! and as Christians, we should do as Jesus did and warn people about it…., even if it is not what we think should happen.

  2. Rick Lannoye

    Sorry, but to believe in Hell is to reject everything Jesus originally said and all he stood for!

    The truth is that Jesus, as God’s Word or Expression, shows us Someone who would never, ever hurt anyone, not for a second, and certainly not for an eternity. In other words, Jesus did not believe in Hell; he couldn’t have!

    I’ve actually written an entire book on this topic–“Hell? No! Why You Can Be Certain There’s No Such Place As Hell,” (for anyone interested, you can get a free ecopy of my book at my website: (thereisnohell.com), but if I may, let me share one of the many points I make in it to explain why.

    If one is willing to look, there’s substantial evidence contained in the gospels to show that Jesus opposed the idea of Hell. For example, in Luke 9:51-56, is a story about his great disappointment with his disciples when they actually suggested imploring God to rain FIRE on a village just because they had rejected him. His response: “You don’t know what spirit is inspiring this kind of talk!” Presumably, it was NOT the Holy Spirit. He went on, trying to explain how he had come to save, heal and relieve suffering, not be the CAUSE of it.

    So it only stands to reason that this same Jesus, who was appalled at the very idea of burning a few people, for a few horrific minutes until they were dead, could never, ever burn BILLIONS of people for an ETERNITY!

    True, there are a few statements that made their way into the copies of copies of copies of the gospel texts which place “Hell” on Jesus’ lips, but these adulterations came along many decades after his death, most likely due to the Church filling up with Greeks who imported their belief in Hades with them when they converted.

    Bear in mind that the historical Protestant doctrine of the inspiration of the Scriptures applies only to the original autographs, not the copies. But sadly, the interpolations that made their way into those copies have provided a convenient excuse for a lot of people to get around following Jesus’ real message.

    1. INSPIKS

      So you are saying that all this truth is out their in your Bible and all others with the ‘non-holy” Bible is preaching heresy? I find that hard to believe, I know an apologist who would definitely disagree with you. The point you made with the disciples calling Jesus to rain down fire on those who didn’t accept His message is unfortunately wrong. The disciples were not perfect men as we all know and most were taught that the Messiah would come to rage war and even free them from the rulership of Rome, some were even ready to fight with the sword – their mind set was still being renewed by Christ, they were with God but, they did not think like God. There reaction was not Godly it was fleshly (we don’t like to be pushed off – so therefore bring down the hell fire on those sinners 🙂

      But Jesus did not come for that type of Gospel or War – His enmity strategy was not to kill His enemies, but to give them new birth. That is the best strategy – if you can change your enemies into your adapted sons and daughters then they will “fight” with you by doing the same work you did in them. Brilliant. So, jesus was not saying I will not bring death when the role is called up yonder. He was saying, I did not come for that, I came to save, not to condemn.

      The mere fact is, if we do not believe Jesus, we are already condemned to death (everlasting) so Jesus did not need to bring down fire on His enemy – that’s man’s way of dealing with things.

      Now, hell is real, it is the punishment made for the devil and his demons and unfortunately for his children. Who are his children? Those who do not love or do the things of God ie are not born again into life everlasting. As the post said – God is not slack in His promises and Jesus spoke more about Hell than He did, heaven because He needed to warn us of His coming judgment. Unfortunately there are more of us that are choosing the broad way to hell than the narrow way to heaven. Wake up people, God is not a liar – do not test Him. His judgment is perfect in every way.

  3. Godserv

    A very insightful piece of artwork and commentary here. Amazing how detailed it is. It looks scary but, as a christian I am not afraid of it. It’s a good warning for everyone nonetheless, and you are right we should speak about it more often.

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