Ever since the Cross, the Church and the Gospel have been the constant target of deceptive doctrines. Doctrines that twist the true grace of God into a false gospel and surprisingly lead many Bible illiterate believers astray. These errors creep into the Church through people who come in appearing to be brothers but are in fact false brothers whose salvation is seriously in question. Jude said we are to contend for the faith for certain men have crept in unnoticed who twist the grace of God (Jude 4). John said he writes to the believers about things concerning those who are trying to deceive them (1 John 2:26). Paul says that when he leaves savage wolves will come in, even people from among them who would speak twisted things to try lead people astray (Acts 20:29,30). Peter said there will be false prophets and teachers among them that will secretly bring in destructive heresies and many will follow their destructive ways (2 Peter 2:1-3).
Today is no different. The same people are trying to creep into the Church unnoticed to bring in deceptive and destructive heresies. Among some of these errors is the belief that there is no literal hell where all those outside of Christ will spend eternity. Then there’s Universalism that says all will go to heaven. Then similar to that, there’s the perversion that claims all those in hell will have a chance to repent and go to heaven, called Post-mortem salvation. Another one is Inclusionism which claims all mankind is already in Christ and that hell is simply not realising that you are in Christ.
The apostles of the New Testament would not tolerate these heresies in the Church. They so often had to write to the churches and warn them of these things because believers seemed so vulnerable through their lack of revelation in the Gospel. Paul would probably tell us to not even eat dinner with cunning people who teach these kinds of lies and even to get them out of the church. (1 Corinthians 5:9-13).
Here’s one scripture, of many such scriptures, that shows us that hell is a real place, that it’s eternal and that all those not in Christ will go there.
Revelation 20:10-15 “and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” (Notice how all three go to a real place called the lake of fire, where they are tormented forever.)
Verse 11-15 “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
These scriptures clearly show that everyone will stand before Christ and give an account and those not in Christ will be thrown into the lake of fire where they will remain for eternity.
Universalism and Inclusionism are despicable doctrines that twist the Gospel and pacify the Church from an urgency to preach the Gospel to this world and see the lost saved. Lets contend for the faith and keep these doctrines out of the Church and continue to empower the Body of Christ to evangelise and disciple the nations!
