TRASH INCINERATOR“There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” –Revelation 21:4
Years ago, before pollution crackdowns, many homes had back-yard incinerators to burn the family’s trash. Though they smoked and stunk, incinerators did destroy what wasn’t wanted. In thinking about Heaven, even an incinerator is symbolic--but for something far, far worse: hell. The Bible refers to it as “the lake of burning sulfur” or “lake of burning fire.” Scientists have determined that sulfur burns at 250 degrees Celsius. That’s two and a half times the boiling point of water. Though the burning lake is an earthly description of true hell, it still portrays the horrific destination for Satan and his demons, plus all those who reject God’s love.
Contrary to cartoons and flippant jokes, this won’t be “one hot party.” Those there are “tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Rev. 20:10). This is not annihilation. It is constant, endless misery. And this misery has no company. Hell is solitary aloneness, abandonment, and alienation. Jesus told about a man who trusted in his riches, but not in God. At death he went to hell and experienced utter agony from heat and thirst. He pleaded in vain for someone to warn his five brothers to change their ways, lest they end up there, too (Luke 16:19-31).
People still reject God until it’s too late. The French infidel Voltaire once claimed he’d help bring an end to Christianity. But as Voltaire neared death at 83, his doctor reported Voltaire expressed great emotional torment, crying out, “I am abandoned by God and man!” (1)
Be sure of this: the trash incinerator is outside heaven. It’s nowhere nearby. God planned that all wickedness and sorrow be kept far away from His perfect eternal home for us. Death will not taint it. No more “terminal” diagnoses. No more cancer, strokes, Lou Gehrig’s disease, diabetes, heart attacks, or kidney failure. No more fatal accidents that whisk away life in a blink. We’ll no longer mourn our losses or diseases or fractured homes. God will wipe every sorrowful tear from our eyes. Any tears will be of joy. No more pain. No aspirin or other pain-killers. No codeine or morphine. No laying in bed, moaning in pain because your body won’t quit hurting. All these went in the incinerator because they were part of Satan’s weaponry against God’s perfect order.
These days it’s become politically incorrect to talk about hell. Some avoid the subject, not wanting to offend anyone. They contend, “Why would a loving God send anybody to hell?” They skirt the real question: “Why would a holy and just God allow His heaven to become tainted with sin?” God has already decided who will be sent to the ever-burning incinerator of hell. The sexually immoral will land there. The Bible includes in that description those who live for lust and debauchery, and practice adultery, male and female prostitution, and homosexuality (1 Cor. 6:19, 1 Peter 4:3). The Bible describes them as people who’ve lost sensitivity to God’s Way and lust for more and more wrongdoing (Eph. 4:19). The self-indulgent will be there: drunkards, carousers (1 Peter 4:3). The selfish will be there: thieves, the greedy (1 Cor. 6:10). Slanderers will find themselves kept out of heaven (1 Cor. 6:20). So will idolaters—those who put pursuit or position or possession above following God. The same for those who follow after false gods or religions. “False teachers” who advocate non-Biblical religions will be in hell.
Does this list scare you? Have any been a part of your life? Remember, these are people who died unchanged. Heaven waits if you have turned your back on these lifestyles and behaviors, and believe that Jesus died for every sin in the book. Heaven will be full of people who were once sexually immoral, but purified by faith in Christ. It will embrace those who turned away from excesses or prideful sins. What matters is what they are at death, not what they were. And that is what some of you were,” Paul wrote the believers in the sin-riddled city of Corinth. “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11).
No human words exist for the horror of hell’s incinerator. Its occupants will suffer forever and forever. That’s the bad—very bad—news. But this is the good news: Sin will never taint heaven, nor distract from God’s holiness. Be encouraged by this: “There is no condemnation [no hell] for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).
Have these descriptions of hell upset you? Do you wonder if you’re bound for Heaven? If not, don’t wait any longer. Make this prayer yours: “Dear God, I know I have sinned. I deserve the worst there is. I also believe that Jesus died for my sins. I claim Your offer of forgiveness and ask You to come into my life. For whatever time I have on earth, dwell within me and prepare me for my Heavenly Home. Amen.”
(1) Luis Palau, “Overcoming the Greatest fear of All,” Pursuit, Vol. III, No. 1 (1994), p. 22.
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