The Story of Reality: How the World Began, How It Ends, and Everything Important that Happens in Between

by Gregory Koukl

What would change Saul of Tarsus, a man so dedicated to his religion he rounded up men and women to be bullied, beaten, and killed for following Jesus? What would cause such a man to turn on a dime and take his place with those he oppressed, eventually sacrificing his own life for the very Gospel he previously despised? What best explains that? Only one answer will do. It is the answer given by the one who had earlier renounced Christ with an oath. In Peter’s words, “This Jesus, God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.”

One writer put it this way: “When a damned soul shall have shed tears enough to fill all the rivers of the world, even if he should shed but one a century, he will be no nearer deliverance after so many millions of years; he will only have begun to suffer.”12 Hell will be like that. There will be no escape. You will never be released. You will never disappear. And the suffering will never end, ever. The clock will never stop ticking. In fact, the clock will never even start.

Hell is not an example of God’s love. It is an example of his justice. His love is demonstrated by his free offer of pardon from hell, which many decline. But they will not be able to decline his justice.

We were made for something far better than what we experience in this life. And we long for it.

God, the Creator of the universe, in order to rescue man from punishment for his rebellion, came to earth and took on humanity in Jesus, the Savior, to die on a cross and rise from the dead, so that in the final resurrection those who receive his mercy will enjoy a wonderful friendship with their sovereign Lord in the kind of perfect world their hearts have always yearned for.