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Practicing The Presence Practicing The Presence

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  • Author: Joel S. Goldsmith
  • Size: 848KB | 123 pages
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Inspiring, I was much impacted.

- charles tunde (a month ago)

About the Book

"Practicing the Presence" by Joel S. Goldsmith is a spiritual guide that focuses on the importance of living in the present moment and cultivating a deep connection with the divine. Goldsmith emphasizes the power of prayer, meditation, and mindfulness in achieving inner peace and spiritual growth. Through practical exercises and insights, Goldsmith offers a path to experiencing the presence of God in everyday life.

Isobel Kuhn

Isobel Kuhn In high school and in college, Isobel Miller was vivacious, pretty, smart, athletic, and known for her skill on the dance floor. She had been convinced by one of her teachers that only superstitious people believed in the truth of the Bible anymore; she loved talking about abstract ideas with the intellectual crowd, and disdained the faith of her parents. Influenced by the poems of Thomas Hardy, she saw life as meaningless and dark. Her response to finding out that her boyfriend had been dating another girl was to contemplate suicide. Only the thought that her father would believe that she had gone to hell stopped her at the last minute from killing herself. That night, as she lay back down in bed, the words of Dante, “In His will is our peace,” came to her mind. She prayed, “God, if there be a God, if You will prove to me that You are, and if You will give me peace, I will give You my whole life.” (Repp, xvii) From then on, Isobel began her search for God, though it took several years for her fully to commit her life to Christ. She wavered between God and the world, but slowly gave up her addictions to card-playing, theater and movies, romantic fiction, and dancing, which she loved. A passion to know God had taken possession of her heart, driving out all other delights and desires, and impelling her towards a search for truth and meaning in life. Moving towards Missions After graduating from the University of British Columbia in 1922, she spent a year teaching school while living at a boarding house in Vancouver, British Columbia. During that time, she also attended a night class at the Vancouver Bible School and formed the habit of daily Bible reading. Gradually, she had come to trust in God’s faithfulness and his willingness to answer her prayers, influenced by Howard and Gertrude Taylor, the biography of the early life of J. Hudson Taylor. She had also met several missionaries of the China Inland Mission (CIM) and had begun to wonder whether God wanted her to join the CIM. After hearing J.O. Fraser speak at a Bible conference about his work among the Lisu people in China, Isobel pondered his sobering words about their bondage to fear of demons, and prayed over his solemn call for people to dedicate their lives to helping the Lisu come to know Christ and grow in him, even though Fraser warned that it would entail hard work and sacrifice. Her sense of a divine imperative to take the love of Christ to the women of China came while reading the second volume of the biography of Hudson Taylor, Growth of a Work of God. Isobel’s growing sense that God wanted her to go to China to serve under Mr. Fraser with the Lisu only deepened when he stayed for a few days in their home, invited by her father. Her mother, however, could not abide the thought of her daughter becoming a missionary. Though chairman of the Women’s Missionary Society in her church, she feared that Isobel would never get married if she went to the mission field; that the family would lose face if she had to ask people for money; that she would throw away a bright future and a comfortable and secure life. J.O. Fraser had warned her that Satan would oppose any attempt to obey God in order to expand the kingdom among unreached peoples and taught her to pray, as he did, “If this obstacle be from Thee, Lord, I accept it; but if it be from Satan, I refuse him and all his works in the name of Calvary.” The CIM required two years of Bible school before going overseas, but Isobel did not have the funds to attend Moody Bible Institute, which she and Fraser thought would be the best place for her. Then, one of her best friends, who had saved all her money to go to Moody, found she could not become a missionary, so she offered to pay for Isobel’s training. Her mother’s refusal to allow her to attend Moody remained an obstacle, however, until they learned that a young man whom her mother had wanted her to marry announced that he would be entering Moody that year, so she granted permission for Isobel to attend also. As it turned out, the man later changed his plans, but Isobel was already a student at MBI. When she stepped off the train in Chicago, she was met by Dr. Isaac Page, “Daddy Page,” an old friend of her parents who had, years before, said that he was praying that God would send her to China as a missionary. He and his wife had served there with the CIM for many years before returning to Chicago. Finding out that she didn’t have enough money to buy winter clothes, he gave her enough for a warm coat. She later worked in the school cafeteria as a waitress to earn money for personal needs. When J.O. Fraser warned her that Satan would oppose her moves toward the mission field, he gave as an example the possibility that she would hear news that one of her parents was about to die, and she would want to rush home. He counseled her to pack her bags, but wait until definitive word had come the next day. In fact, that actually happened when a telegram arrived, saying that her father had been mortally injured in an accident. Isobel get ready to leave, but also asked for further information before booking a ticket home. It turned out that his injuries were minor, and she could stay at school. She did learn that her mother died, however, and grieved that she had never given permission to Isobel to become a missionary to China, until someone told her of a note that her mother had written to a friend saying that she had come to believe that this was God’s will for her daughter. At Moody, she met a young man name John Kuhn. Their friendship grew into a deep love as they spent time together in prayer with other students committed to foreign missions and on double-dates with good friends. Still, she wasn’t sure John was the one God wanted her to marry, so she did not commit herself to him. He sailed for China in October 1926, while Isobel was still studying at Moody. After graduating from Moody Bible Institute, Isobel went to Toronto for the CIM missionary training school. Finishing her training there, all she had to do was meet the CIM Council and be accepted by them for deployment to China. She was totally surprised when a Council member told her that one recommendation letter had described her as “proud, disobedient, and resentful,” and that they could only accept her conditionally, pending her growth in Christian character. She returned to Vancouver to live with her father and brother, earning her keep by doing housework for them. For Christian service, she worked as advisor for the Girls Corner Club, a group of Christian businesswomen who banded together to evangelize the working girls of Vancouver. She organized a singing group for them and, leading with her guitar, took them to various venues in the city to sing Christian songs to young women and others. Meanwhile, she inadvertently learned that the writer of that recommendation letter was a former teacher of hers who had asked her to spy on the other students. Isobel had refused, and this letter was the teacher’s revenge. Still, she was urged by a friend to take the letter seriously, and to ask God to cause her to grow in humility, charity, and submissiveness to his will. Correspondence between her and John kept crossing the Pacific, until one day his letter contained a proposal of marriage. She was to respond by cable which, after more prayer, she quickly did. Now they prayed that he would be assigned to Yunnan, the province where Isobel was convinced God wanted her to serve among the Lisu. When his designation was changed from Gansu to Yunnan, they believed even more fully that they were meant to live and work together as missionaries. Finally, she and other women going to China with the CIM sailed from Vancouver. On the journey, she was told by Miss Ruth Paxson, a noted Bible teacher, that when she lived in China, “all the scum of your nature will rise to the top.” Since she wasn’t aware of any “scum” in her heart, she just filed the comment away for future reference. Early Days in China Arriving in China, she spent the first year devoting herself to language study in Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan. John was stationed not far away in Chengchiang. They waited the year that the CIM required before new workers could marry, and then were joined together in a ceremony attended by virtually all the foreigners in the city on November 14, 1929. Immediately, they moved to Chengchiang, where John had found a little place for them to live. Their upstairs “apartment” was very small, and quite open to passersby to look into if the folding doors were open; if they were closed, it was “like living in a wooden box.” (Repp, 35) They had hung their motto on the wall – “GOD FIRST.” From then on, she would have many opportunities to put that resolve into practice. When the first Chinese women came to visit, Isobel cringed as a baby boy stained her new brown rug. Then she had to decide what was going to come first for her: an attractive living room, or a place to share with the Chinese. She discovered that the women were covered with bedbugs, fleas, and lice, and she shrunk from them. She remembered Miss Paxson’s warning about the “scum” of her nature coming forth, and had to pray, “Lord, make these souls more important to me than anything else.” (Repp, 36) After some time, she found that she could forget the bugs and love the women. She found it harder to cope with the laziness, dishonesty, and insubordination of their cook and her husband, but John was reluctant to let them go, for he and the husband had been friends. The cook was not the true Christian she had pretended to be, however, and finally Isobel could take it no longer. After John allowed her to dismiss the couple, housework became a heavy burden for Isobel. They prayed earnestly for a trustworthy housekeeper, and finally Mrs. Chang showed up needing a job. She became a trusted helper and eventually believed in Christ. Slowly, Isobel was learning how to face difficulties with prayer, just as she had at home. Months later, J.O. Fraser directed them to go to Tali (now Dali) where they would run the mission home and help new workers become established. While John preached in surrounding villages, Isobel studied the language, taught a Bible class for women, and served as hostess for visiting missionaries. They also assisted ten new CIM couples in settling in. Near the end of their first year in Tali, Isobel discovered that she was pregnant. Kathryn Alice-Ann Kuhn was born April 10, 1931; Isobel nicknamed her Rynna. Two and a half years after they had come to Tali, when they had both passed all the rigorous CIM language examinations, J.O. Fraser assigned them to work among Muslims in the valley of Yungping. As they had expected, the Muslims were not very receptive to the gospel, though they were not inhospitable. Isobel herself visited every village on the plain and shared the gospel with women. They were pitifully poor and illiterate. Not enough villagers believed to form a church. Isobel wondered why God still had not sent them to serve among the Lisu, who so desperately needed missionaries. Mr. Fraser told them that he didn’t think she was strong enough to handle the hardships of life and travel in the mountainous terrain of Lisu territory. He would re-evaluate their situation after furlough. Though disappointed, they tried to trust God. Then they learned that Isobel was going to have another baby and realized that they couldn’t have gone to Lisu land with a new infant. Not long afterwards, while John was away preaching, there was a flood, and Isobel had to help move some heavy trunks up to the second floor. The next day she began to feel pain in her abdomen; a few days later, she suffered a miscarriage. When John returned, he could only try to comfort her by saying that God must have something better in store for them. The next day, a letter from Mr. Fraser arrived. Trouble had arisen in two Lisu villages, where the local Chinese warlord was angry with them for refusing to grow opium. CIM missionaries Allyn and Leila Cooke had decided that he would go and live in one village and she would remain in their home in the Oak Flat district, in order to afford some protection, if possible, to the Lisu. This situation being unsustainable, Fraser directed the Kuhns to make the journey to the Salween Valley to relieve the Cookes and help with the ministry to Lisu there. After an arduous journey over very high mountains on narrow and dangerous trails, during which Isobel suffered what she thought was dysentery, they arrived at Mrs. Cooke’s home, where they were warmly welcomed, not only by the missionary but also by Lisu Christian leaders. Isobel at once noticed several of these strong, handsome, and faithful men, who had dedicated their lives to serve Christ. A month-long stay was enough to convince her that God had indeed called them to serve among the Lisu, and that she was hardy enough to handle the primitive and often perilous conditions in which they would live and work. Carrying in as many supplies as possible, they again traversed lofty mountains and crossed treacherous rivers to return to the Cookes’ former house, where they settled into what would become their lifelong service among the tribal people. On the way, they were met and then joined by a Lisu girl named Hormay, who became their faithful cook and helper in the following years. Life and Work among the Lisu After a brief stay in Pine Mountain Village, the Kuhns were asked by the Lisu Christians to move to Oak Flat Village, since the Cookes had moved on to another location. John and Isobel alternated itinerating into the surrounding villages to teach the Bible and evangelize, Isobel being accompanied by Hormay and her daughter Kathryn until it became clear that such trekking in wild country was not good for the child’s health. After that, a Lisu man went with her. Since his name was the same as her husband’s, Isobel called him “Teacher John” to distinguish between the two men. Teacher John asked her countless questions about the few New Testament scriptures that had already been translated into Lisu. When her husband took Teacher John with him on a long journey, Isobel came down with a fever; red patches and blisters covered her face. Hormay had gone to care for her dying father, but Job, a Lisu leader, visited several times a day, and the Lisu Christians came to sing to her and pray for her, but to no avail. When she returned, Hormay tried her best to nurse Isobel, but she was only getting worse, so Job ran for six days to Baoshan, whence he fetched two CIM nurses to return with him to Oak Flat Village. They decided that Isobel had contracted erysipelas, a skin disease, and saw that she had been, in effect, starving herself, as a consequence of insufficient nourishment for several months. They carried her back to the CIM mission home in Baoshan, where she recuperated for three months. When she returned to Oak Flat Village, she decided that they had not taken enough time to care for themselves. If they had planted a garden months before, they would not have been without food when the heavy rains caused famine. With Lisu Christian help, they also built a better house, since missionary friends told them that their Lisu-style shanty was not a healthy place for them to live. Slowly, Isobel was learning how to balance her zeal for ministry to Lisu with the realities of being a foreigner, a wife, and a mother. War Years The Kuhns went home on furlough in March 1936. When they returned a year and a half later, Japan had already started attacking China, but they were able to make to Yunnan, far to the southwest. Isobel’s first huge disappointment came when she was told that her daughter Kathryn would have to go to the CIM’s Chefoo School, far away in Yantai, Shandong Province, rather than to the school in Kunming, which was much closer. Her mother’s heart broke when Rynna left for school. Who would take care of her? When could they see her next? How would her girl take being separated from her parents for so long? Isobel gradually learned to think about God rather than about her own grief, and to turn her attention to someone else in need rather than focusing on herself. Another shock hit Isobel when Mr. Fraser assigned John to be assistant superintendent for all of western Yunnan Province. They would live in Baoshan, far from the Lisu Isobel loved so much, and she would not be able to engage in Bible teaching, which she loved and which she did best. On her monthly day of fasting and prayer, God comforted her with the words, “The LORD your God in the midst of you is mighty. At that time I will bring you again … when I turn back your captivity before your eyes.” (Zephaniah 2:27, 20) Trusting that God would take her back to Lisu country, Isobel went to Baoshan happily. Less than two months later, Fraser assigned them “temporarily” to Oak Flat Village again, where the leaders had run into difficulty and needed missionary help for a while. While they were there, in order to provide training in the Scriptures that they saw the Lisu evangelists greatly needed, the Kuhns began what would become a major part of their contribution to Lisu work, the rainy season Bible schools. These three-month intensive sessions brought Lisu evangelists from far and near to Oak Flat Village, where they were taught a variety of subjects, including music. They loved to sing the hymns they had been taught, with Isobel accompanying them on a small organ. Hormay both helped with the translation of the rest of the books of the New Testament and typed out portions of the Scriptures for the students to read and have before them during the classes. On weekends, despite the incessant rain, the evangelists went out, two-by-two, to villages in the surrounding mountains for practical service and also to have some ministry to complement the constant study. After the first rainy season school had concluded, news came of the sudden and totally unexpected death of J.O. Fraser. Isobel grieved the loss of “her friend; her adviser; her spiritual father; the one who had first told her about the Lisu …” (Repp, 81) To console her heart, she thought of Fraser’s wife Roxie, and immediately wrote her a letter, in which she said, “Times like this are when we just have to bare our face to the tempest and go on without seeing clearly, without understanding, without anything but naked faith.” (Repp, 81) For the next several years, the Kuhns alternated between travel throughout Lisu territory and settled times of intensive Bible schools during the rainy season and in periods of good weather also. Encountering illness, deep and apparently irresolvable conflict and resentment within and between clans, hard and unresponsive hearts, and other obstacles, they wrote letters home asking for their friends to pray, just as J.O. Fraser had done. They gave themselves to prayer as well, of course. When breakthroughs that were nothing short of miraculous occurred, they rendered praise to God and told their prayer partners of what their intercessions had been used to accomplish. On more than one occasion, Isobel would learn later that a few faithful old ladies had prayed at a certain time for a breakthrough, and that God had worked a miracle at precisely that moment. Throughout her stay among the Lisu, Isobel, as the manager of the household, had to train, guide, supervise, and often disciple young women and men who served as cook, housekeeper, goatherd, and in other capacities. Sometimes, as with Hormay, the relationship was smooth and delightful. Other helpers, however, proved unruly, insubordinate, unteachable, and generally annoying to her, greatly testing her patience, Christian love, and faith. Repeatedly, however, fervent prayer was used by God to change lives that seemed incorrigible. Lisu believers also came alongside her and assisted in the process of bringing out the latent abilities of a few apparently “hopeless” servants. She actually saw them as part of her family, and referred to them affectionately her “Lisu children.” Isobel loved teaching the Bible, but she also offered English lessons, classes on reading and writing Lisu, hymn singing, and baby care. The Lisu loved to sing, having been trained from the beginning to sing in parts. Isobel translated hymns for them, often for an upcoming Bible school. In these ways and others, she comforted herself during long periods when John, as superintendent, had to travel to distant stations to visit missionaries. Living in a valley, she longed for the mountain vistas that itineration would afford, but she soon realized that her presence was needed as a buffer between the Christian Lisu, who had refused to plant opium, and the Chinese overlords who oppressed them, as well as their pagan fellow tribesmen. The local Lisu deacons had to handle the matter in John’s absence, but they also asked Isobel to write President Chiang Kai-shek for relief. Even after the president’s letter arrived forbidding the planting of opium, the magistrate refused to enforce it, even altering the wording of the letter on public placards, and continuing to threaten the Christians with punishment if they did not pay more taxes in lieu of opium money. Isobel wrote many letters home begging for prayer, the Lisu prayed together, and finally they were delivered from this burden. The Rainy Season Bible Schools were a highlight of each year, with dozens coming from distant villages for intensive instruction by John and Isobel. Isobel thanked God as one student after another went on to faithful service. On the other hand, grief overwhelmed her when an older and very faithful Lisu leader died, followed not long afterwards by a promising young graduate of the Bible Schools. As with her household, Isobel took several of these Lisu men into her heart as beloved brothers and coworkers, whose loss she could barely endure. When Hormay’s husband came with the news that she had died, Isobel wondered how God would raise up more workers to take the gospel to the many thousands who had still not heard. The Japanese invasion in 1939 kept the Kuhns from visiting Kathryn at Chefoo School, but the Rainy Season Bible School was held anyway. This time, Isobel decided to hold a school just for girls. Overcoming considerable opposition, she did so, with very encouraging results. With the deacons’ approval, annual Bible schools for girls during the Chinese Yew Year holiday were conducted thereafter. Graduates of the men’s schools would now find it easier to find women with a biblical education suited to their role as wives of pastors, evangelists, and deacons. After December 7, 1941, Americans and British, both adults and children, were taken into internment camps by the Japanese. Isobel’s heart churned with fear at the thought of what the Japanese might do to her little girl, but happy letters from Kathryn assured her that they were being treated kindly. J.O. Fraser’s widow Roxie was acting as a surrogate mother, so her daughter was being lovingly cared for. Isobel had other worries, however. An infected tooth forced her to go to Kunming for treatment. When the tooth was pulled, she discovered that she had been close to death, for the poison would soon have spread to her entire body. Meanwhile, Japanese troops were advancing on every front, raining bombs on civilians, destroying roads, and inflicting terrible atrocities upon women. Their onslaught kept her and John separated for months at a time. When John finally returned to Oak Flat Village in the Salween Canyon, he and Isobel were invited to a lavish dinner by the general commanding the Chinese troops defending that part of the valley. To their surprise, the general asked John and Isobel, who spoke both Lisu and Mandarin fluently, to mobilize the Christian Lisu to assist the Chinese in resisting the Japanese offensive. Pagan Lisu had already been helping the enemy, and the Kuhns knew that the Japanese commander had announced that he would destroy all Christian churches, so they readily agreed. From then until their second furlough, Isobel and the Lisu church leaders persevered in holding Bible Schools for men and girls (who were now regularly being taught what Isobel called “mother-craft” as well as the Scriptures), despite long absences while John traveled with the Chinese army or to visit missionaries, shortages of vital supplies, illness, deaths among their beloved Lisu, the coming of another baby (Daniel), torrential rains, and frequent bouts of loneliness and near-despair. They named 1944 the “Year of Impossibles” because, looking back, they could see how, when they faced seemingly insuperable obstacles, God had guided, provided, and protected them in answer to prayer. Furlough and Return The Kuhns were greatly relieved to learn that Kathryn had been repatriated to the United States and was staying with CIM missionaries who were old friends. A long and difficult journey in wartime brought them back to the United States, where they were re-united with Kathryn, now thirteen, after years of being apart. After six months of deputation, they settled in Dallas, Texas, where Isobel recuperated and then wrote another book, Nests Above the Abyss, about Lisu Christians. Just when she felt she had settled into a comfortable home and family situation, the war ended, passports to China were again available, and the CIM ordered all superintendents back to the field a year ahead of their wives. Isobel remembered their motto, “GOD FIRST,” and committed her husband and her family to God once more. A year later, she left to join him, taking three-year-old Danny with her but leaving Kathryn behind again to stay with their old friends in Pennsylvania. This separation nearby broke the hearts of both mother and daughter. When John returned to the Lisu, he found that the war had caused not only physical, but spiritual damage. Some believers had died; a few others had fallen away from the faith. They had much to do in rebuilding the discouraged and scattered churches. They also found that bandits, many of them connected with the Communists, infested the area, sometimes supported by the local warlord. Communist strategy included sending in bandits to terrorize a region, then the Red Army to offer peace and order. With John gone much of the time, Isobel had to trust God to protect her and Danny and to allow them to continue the ministry to the Lisu. Despite external threats and internal discord among the Lisu believers, they resumed the Rainy Season Bible Schools (RSBS), and started Bible clubs for boys and girls, as well as Sunday school teacher training. Though happy to see the zeal of the students, they were crushed when the new village headman, a former church leader who had turned into a greedy pagan utterly unlike his beloved predecessor, sought repeatedly to intimidate the Christians into accepting an unbeliever as schoolmaster or even pastor in various villages. Sometimes without John, and supported by only a few Lisu men, Isobel had to stand up against him. Though his case seemed hopeless, she did not give up on him, but prayed that he would repent and return to the Lord. Because she was threatened often and bandits were heard near her house, the Lisu Christian men took turns sleeping in her house with a gun each night that John was away. Finally, Oak Flat Village became too dangerous for them to live in, so they moved across the river to Olives at the invitation of one of the most trusted Lisu church leaders, who built them a house. Still, perils abounded, as the fighting between Communists and government troops intensified, while bandits, including cruel pagan Lisu, terrorized everyone. On several occasions, when her Lisu friends urged her to flee to safety with Danny, Isobel waited upon God for guidance. God seemed to speak to her through his Word, so she stayed put, much to the amazement of the Lisu, whose faith was strengthened by hers. When they heard that the provincial governor had surrendered all of Yunnan to the Communists, however, they knew the time had come to take Danny back to the United States. Before they left, however, the Lisu church leader who had apparently left the Lord and had been such a cruel and evil headman, returned to the church, publicly confessed his sins and asked forgiveness. Convinced of his sincerity and regeneration, the believers, including Isobel, welcomed him back into the church. Home and Back Again The Kuhns knew they had to leave soon, but could not go before holding another Rainy Season Bible School, which turned out to be a great success. Still, they agreed to have John stay behind to teach the new believers, while Lucius, one of the most faithful Lisu believers, accompanied Isobel and Danny to Burma. After a perilous journey through a snow-clogged mountain pass, they were safely in Burma, whence – though not without several tests of faith – Isobel and Danny were able to begin the long trip home. They travelled to Illinois to see Kathryn, now in college, then moved into an apartment in a little town nearby. She was fifty years old, tired from more than twenty years of pioneer missionary work fraught with difficulties and dangers, and ready to settle down into a normal, quiet life. That was not to be. John returned home in 1951, after being forced out of China at the point of a bayonet, and then having gone to Thailand to survey the tribal areas in the regions bordering China, where the CIM, now reorganized as the Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF), was planning to dispatch missionaries to work among the unevangelized. He was full of enthusiasm because he had discovered at least 5,000 Lisu who had never heard the gospel. They would have to learn Thai and begin an entirely new life and ministry, but Isobel had been reading a book by Amy Carmichael that contained a phrase about mountaineering, “Climb or die.” She knew that God wanted her to keep pressing on, following the footsteps of Jesus wherever they led. To remain where she was would entail spiritual death. 1952-1957 For two years, the Kuhns worked among the Lisu in the mountains of Thailand. Isobel served as a hostess of the CIM base in Chiangmai, providing a home for new missionaries studying Thai, workers departing for tribal areas, and missionaries needing rest and recuperation. She also made trips into the mountains, both to explore new areas with John and to help women missionaries settle into tribal villages. Though the Lisu dialect in Thailand was different from that in China, she could still communicate the Scriptures to them. New hymns which she introduced to them were warmly received, and soon they were singing like the Lisu in Yunnan. In 1954, Isobel was diagnosed with cancer and had to return to the United States for treatment. During the next three years, she expanded further the writing ministry begun years before on furloughs, when she had written Precious Things of the Lasting Hill, Above the Abyss, and Second Mile People. After her escape with Danny from the Communists, she composed Stones of Fire, the story of Lucius and Mary, Lisu believers whose lives had been so intertwined with hers. Feeling stronger after initial cancer therapy, she now published her most famous works, Ascent to the Tribes, about the CIM’s work among tribal people in North Thailand; Green Life in Drought Time, describing the experiences of Dr. Rupert Clarke and Arthur Matthews, the last two CIM missionaries to leave Communist China. Finally, By Searching told of her early years, and In the Arena recounted her life as a missionary in China. These gripping books have influenced hundreds of thousands of readers, including the writer of this article. As in years past, she continued to send vivid prayer letters to the many Christians who had become faithful prayer partners; contributed articles for Spiritual Food, a magazine for Lisu who had fled to Burma; and maintained an extensive correspondence with Lisu Christians who were continuing to serve God amidst fiery trials. All this writing required strict self-discipline amidst constant weakness. Isobel never wavered from her reliance upon God each day, drawing upon him for strength and believing that God “only chooses what is best for me … When He allows an evil, it is for the purpose of bringing greater blessing than if it had not happened.” (Repp, 163) Following in her parents’ footsteps, Kathryn joined the OMF/CIM and sailed for North Thailand in 1955, fully aware that she would not see her mother again. John was always at her bedside in Isobel’s last months, when they could finally enjoy extended time together. Isobel Kuhn died March 20, 1957. Reflections Isobel Kuhn is known to us because of her many writings, but she represents thousands of missionaries in China and elsewhere who made “God First” their life motto, and who gave up everything else to serve him. A formerly shy and reserved girl, Isobel became a gifted Bible teacher; born and bred in a comfortable home, she had described herself as “a stay-at-home body by disposition and a veritable slave to physical comforts. Travel never attracted me, for it meant strange faces and strange ways – in others words, discomfort.” (By Searching, 43) After she became compelled by the love of Christ for lost souls, however, health, comfort, safety, social prestige, even “normal” family life took second place to what she thought was God’s will for her – the evangelization of the countless people who had not heard the Good News of Jesus Christ. Time and again, Isobel suffered from profound sorrow, grief, and perplexity about God’s providence. Always, she returned to the Bible and its promises of God’s presence, power, provision, and plan to bring greater good out of whatever sufferings she endured. She demonstrated extraordinary courage, perseverance, and love for the Lisu believers, whom she called her “children,” and with some of whom she developed deep bonds affection. Even John’s long absences were to a degree compensated for by the loyal companionship and tender care of several Lisu Christian men, whom she cherished and loved, without any hint of impropriety. Many have questioned the CIM policy, shared by many other mission societies, of sending children to far-off schools, causing both parents and children heartache and grief, but the alternatives available to them seemed to offer no choice at the time (though some in other missions, like Nelson Bell and his wife, educated their children at home). Whether the CIM practice of having women preach to men and teach them accords with Scripture is another issue that could be discussed. Clearly, however, Isobel sought to equip men to lead the Lisu church, and never usurped their authority. “By their fruits you shall know them,” said Jesus. The hundreds of thousands of Lisu Christians serving God in Yunnan today in a strong and vibrant church testify to the devotion, skill, spirituality, and prayers of those missionaries and the ones who upheld them in prayer. Sources Isobel S. Kuhn, In the Arena. Chicago: Moddy Press, 1958. Isobel Kuhn, By Searching: My Journey Through Doubt Into Faith. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1959. Gloria Repp, Nothing Daunted: The Story of Isobel Kuhn. Greenville, SC: BJU Press, 1994. Based upon letters of Isobel Kuhn as well as her books, Ascent to the Tribes; By Searching; In the Arena; Nests Above the Abyss ; Precious Things of the Lasting Hills; Second Mile People; Stones of Fire, published by OMF Books.

the lake of fire

"For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 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." Luke 12:2-5 Never were words ever spoken more solemn, more terrible, and arresting than these words of the Lord Jesus Christ as He warns His hearers against the danger of being cast into an eternal Hell. And coming from the lips of the gentle, loving, kind and compassionate Jesus, they fall upon our ears with terrific emphasis. Hardest of Messages In this and several messages to follow, we propose to talk on the subject of the "Bible Hell." As we prepared these massages, we were torn between two violent emotions. As we thought on the subject of our future destinies, our hearts warmed with the thought that the saved would spend eternity in Heaven, and we thrilled at the glorious revelation of the Scriptures concerning the future abode of the saved. But when we studied and contemplated the awful revelation of Scripture concerning the eternal abode of the lost and the damned, and studied the subject of a Bible Hell, we were shocked with fear and trembling at the revealing Word of God concerning this place called "Hell" in the Scriptures. It is also called "The Lake of Fire," and the "Perdition" of the unsaved, and the place of "Outer Darkness." I must frankly acknowledge that it was only after severe heart struggle that I finally persuaded myself, and concluded that I must preach on this subject at this time. I do wish that I could believe that there is no Hell for the wicked. I wish that I did not need ever to preach on this terrible subject. I would give almost anything if I could preach only on the love of God continuously and never have to mention the wrath of God upon the sinner. I must honestly confess that I have tried to find excuses for not having to preach on this subject at all. No Choice But the preacher of the Gospel has no choice in these matters. He is under constraint to preach the full counsel of God, and everything the Word contains. The dire warning of Ezekiel 3:17 and 18 kept ringing, ringing in my ears, and finally persuaded me: "Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; BUT HIS BLOOD WILL I REQUIRE AT THINE HAND." Ezekiel 3:17-18 That was enough for me, and I promised God that very moment that by His grace I would warn the wicked with all of my might and power, and keep my hands clean of the blood of my fellow men. The reason then for preaching on the subject of hell may be given under four heads: 1. It is the clear revelation of Scripture. 2. It is commanded that we warn men against it. 3. The modern pulpit is almost completely silent on the subject and that necessitates someone raising his voice about this matter. 4. Hell is a moral necessity in a moral universe. First of all then, the Bible clearly teaches a place called by various names, where the wicked and the unrepentant and the Christ-rejecting will spend eternity. It has been called the Lake of Fire, the Second Death, the Place of Outer Darkness, the Place prepared for the Devil and his angels, and many other highly descriptive names, all summed up in the one word, Hell. The word itself occurs some fifty-three times in our English King James version of the Scriptures; thirty-two times it occurs in the Old Testament, and twenty-one times it is found in the New Testament. However, the word rendered "hell" in our English Bible is a translation of at least three different Hebrew words. The word, whenever it occurs in the Old Testament, without exception is always "sheol," and never refers to "hell" at all, but instead to the temporary abode of the souls of the dead in the center of the earth until the Resurrection of Jesus. Of the twenty-one times the word "hell" occurs in our English Bible in the New Testament, it is the translation of the word "hades " at least ten times. Hades, mentioned ten times is the Greek word for the Hebrew "sheol," and both of them refer to the same place of the lost dead in the heart of the earth. In the ten instances then of the twenty-one occurrences of the word "hell " in the New Testament, it means not the eternal abode of the lost, or the Lake of Fire, but the temporary abode of the wicked in sheol-hades until they will finally be cast into the Lake of Fire at the end of the ages. In Revelation 20:14 we read: "And death and hell (hades) were cast into the lake of fire..." Rev. 20:14 The souls of the lost are in hades now. At the end of the Kingdom Age they will be bodily resurrected in the second resurrection, and then cast body and soul into the Lake of Fire. Be sure, therefore, first of all to distinguish between sheol-hades, the temporary abode of the lost, and Hell, which is the eternal abode of those who now already are in sheol-hades. While on this aspect of the subject, there is one other word in the Bible also translated "hell." It occurs only once in the Scriptures, and is found in II Peter 2:4 where we read: "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." II Peter 2:4 Here is God's revelation concerning some of the fallen angels who were cast down to "hell," but again we must remind you that the word translated "hell" is a mistranslation of the original. The word in the Greek is "tartaroo," and refers not to the Lake of Fire, but to a special place prepared for a certain group of fallen angels until finally they, too, with Satan, their leader, will be cast into the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:10). In the balance of the instances where the word "hell" occurs, it is a translation of quite another word, the Greek word, "gehenna." Let me repeat, the word "hell" occurs fifty-three times in your King James version. In twenty-one instances in the New Testament it is not "gehenna," but should have been translated "hades" and not "hell." In one instance (II Peter 2:4) it again is a mistranslation of the word, "tartaroo," and does not refer to the Lake of Fire. Jesus Uses It Ten Times In the remaining eleven instances where the word, "hell" occurs in the Bible, it is a translation of the Greek word, "gehenna," and refers to the eternal abode of the lost in the Lake of Fire. And now here comes one of the most amazing, arresting things of all. In ten out of these eleven times where the word occurs in the New Testament, it falls from the lips of the gentle Jesus, and only once by any other, James in James 3:6. I emphasize this tremendous fact—ten of the eleven occurrences in which the word, "gehenna" (hell) is used in the Bible, it is uttered by the loving, gentle, compassionate, kind and sympathetic Lord Jesus Christ who came to save people from Hell. Twice it is used by Christ in His Sermon on the Mount. Again we emphasize this fact, because modern theology would do away with the fact of a literal Hell. We are told over and over again that God is so loving, so kind, so long-suffering, so tender, that He would never even think of sending His creatures into a literal Hell. We are told, therefore, not to preach on judgment and sin and condemnation and on the Lake of Fire, for this is a medieval, pagan doctrine, a hangover from the dark ages, and pagan polytheism. We are told, "preach the Beatitudes, preach the Golden Rule, preach the Sermon on the Mount. We are admonished to preach on these subjects. Yes, indeed, we should preach the Sermon on the Mount, but if we do, we will have to preach on the subject of Hell, for the first two times that the word "hell" is ever used in the New Testament, it is used by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in no other place but in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:22 and Matthew 5:29). Hell Is a Fact Beloved, hell is a dreadful fact. We may rebel against it, we may try to do away with it. I, too, wish I could believe that there is no eternal Hell, but to do so I must throw away my Bible, make Jesus a mistaken scarecrow, violate every rule of moral justice in the universe, and give up my faith in a God who is holy, just and righteous. If there is no eternal doom to be saved from, then the coming of a Saviour was unnecessary, His death a miscarriage of justice on the part of God, and the Bible becomes a book of scary, bogie-man pessimism. If there is no Hell, then every Gospel preacher who warns sinners to flee from the wrath to come is a despicable, repulsive, calamity howler, and ought to be silenced immediately and forever. But if God and the Bible are right, and therefore there is a Hell, then by the very same token, the preacher who does not lift up his voice and cry and warn sinners to flee from the wrath to come, becomes a pitiable, unfaithful traitor to his fellow men, and disobedient to God and to His Word. If you think that these statements are drastic, please, please let me quote again, before closing, the passage I gave you at the beginning of this message. First, Luke 12:4: "And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 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." Luke 12:4-5 Or will you listen to this. Jesus is again speaking in 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." Matthew 10:28 Oh, my friend, either these words of our Lord Jesus Christ are true or they are not true at all. It is one or the other. It cannot be anything else. If they are not true, then of course, the Lord Jesus Christ was mistaken, and we might just as well throw our entire Bible away. But these words are the truth, they are God's Word. It is what Jesus Himself said, and this being so, what else can I do as the messenger of God than to cry out, Hurry, Hurry, Hurry, Flee from the wrath to come, before it is too late. I have no other alternative, as the words of Ezekiel ring again in my heart: "When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand." Ezekiel 3:18 Oh, may God help me to keep my hands clean of the blood of my fellow men. In our coming messages, the Lord willing, we shall speak on where Hell is, what it is, how long it will last, and other matters clearly revealed in the Bible. But before we close this message, I must tell you how you may escape this awful fate in the Lake of Fire. God says He is not willing that any should perish, and He has made a way of escape through His Son, Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ the Son of God who died on the Cross and rose again from the grave to save you from eternal doom. His Word clearly says: "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." John 5:24 "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Romans 10:13 Oh, call on Him now. Cry to Him in faith to save you. Receive Him now and believe His Word: "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." John 6:37 Chapter Two "And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matthew 22:12-13 Jesus and the Bible teach beyond all controversy and beyond every shadow of doubt that there is both a Heaven for the saved and a Hell for the lost. Personally, I would ten times rather preach on heaven than on the subject of hell. I wish that I could believe that there is no eternal hell for the lost; but to do so, I would have to reject the Bible, refuse to believe Jesus, and violate every single principle of moral justice in the universe. This truth of the eternal perdition of the lost is the whole background of Calvary, for if there is no doom and judgment from which to be saved, there is neither point nor reason for the suffering and the death of a Saviour, for the very depth of His agony and his suffering speaks to us of the awfulness of the judgment from which He came to save us. We are, therefore, commanded to preach not only heaven for believers, but eternal doom for the wicked, much as we tremble at and shrink from preaching on the subject of a Bible Hell. It is simply impossible for the faithful preacher to relieve himself of this imperative responsibility, so definitely laid down in the Word of God. Silence of the Pulpits I have felt the necessity of preaching on this subject emphatically for a long, long time. We gave four reasons for this in our previous message: 1. The Bible clearly teaches the fact of a Bible Hell. 2. We are definitely commanded to warn men to flee from the wrath to come. 3. There is a deathly silence on this subject in many pulpits, and therefore, necessitates our emphasis on this truth again. 4. Hell is a moral necessity in a moral universe. We take up therefore now our third compelling reason, the inescapable reason for teaching this very unpopular and painful subject which we are dealing with at present. The idea of punishment forever and ever is in itself so very unpleasant a thought that the subject of Hell is seldom heard in the average pulpit in the land today, and never heard at all in many, many churches. You can hear the word "hell" used far more frequently on the street, on the train, in the business offices, than from the pulpits. Profane men use it in cursing, far oftener than many preachers use it in their pulpits. It is avoided on every hand, in the very place where it should be spoken the most. Satan's Trick It is a clever trick of Satan, our adversary, to take away the fear of God and the fear of hell from the hearts of men. Glibly we are told, "Don't preach judgment, don't scare people with caricatures of an angry God. Tell us about the love of God, His goodness, the dignity of man, and the universal fatherhood of God." But, my friend, that does not change the Word of God nor does it change the facts before us. Hell may have lost its terrors, but it hasn't lost any of its reality. It is still a Scriptural fact revealed in the Bible. A friend, a radio listener, wrote me some time ago and said, "I am surprised that a man of your training with a college, university and seminary background, could still believe in that old, antiquated, moth-eaten, disproved apparition of the age of superstition and paganism, a literal Hell. No modem scholar believes that at all any more." Well, so then I am not a scholar, if this is true. But suppose that no intelligent scholar believes anymore in eternal punishment. What does that prove? It still does not change God's Word one iota. Of course, it just isn't true that all scholarship has discarded belief in a literal Hell. There are still thousands of the greatest scholarly men in the world who do believe it, and have been saved from it through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But even though all the wise men and all the theologians and all the scholars in the world should reject it—so what? It would still be true. I don't suppose there was a single scholar in Noah's day who believed a word that Noah was preaching concerning a flood which was imminent. But it came just the same. Not only does the Bible record it, but even geology bears testimony to this fact. There were no scholars in Lot's day who believed the coming judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, but it came just the same and they perished in it. The scholars of Jesus' day paid but scant attention to our Lord when He warned of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the judgment of God upon the nation of Israel, but it came just the same. Ah, yes, my friend, "Let God be true and every man a liar" (Romans 3:4). Satan surely delivered a master-stroke when he convinced man that hell was not real, but just a figment of the imagination, and an outmoded fancy. Few there are, therefore, who today still believe in a Bible Hell. Men use the word so glibly, whereas if they only realized what the Bible says about it, they would tremble at the word. Today we hear on every hand and read in our magazines all sorts of joking about this awful place, and it is made the butt of many a gag and a joke to entertain the poor, blind souls who themselves face this awful doom. Key to Revival If we are to have a revival of soul winning, it will come only when we return without compromise or apology to the preaching of the awfulness and the filthiness of sin, the holiness of God, and the certainty of a Bible Hell. Read the history of revivals throughout the ages and you will find that in every instance it came as a result, and was accompanied by, the preaching not only of the love of God, but the wrath of God upon sinners. We read a lot about the "key to revival"; but I declare that the real key is a return to good old-fashioned Methodist preaching of the holiness of God, His hatred for sin, and a revival of some good fire and brimstone preaching for sinners. I believe the Bible, I believe every bit of it. I believe what it says about the love of God, about His mercy, His grace, His patience, His long suffering. I believe what it says about Heaven. But I also believe that God is holy, perfect, just, righteous, and will in no wise clear the guilty but will insist that every disobedience and transgression receive its just recompense of reward. And since I am bound to believe this, if I am to be consistent, I would be a despicable hypocrite if I did not warn men about it. Bible Is Clear Let me quote for you just a few passages, verbatim, taken from God's own Holy Word. If you believe the Bible you will be convinced; if you do not believe the Bible, of course, then we have no common ground to start with, and we have no more to say to you at all. You become then, like a ship without a rudder, a sailor without a compass. In II Thessalonians 1:8 we read, as Paul is speaking here under inspiration, that the Lord is coming: "In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." II Thessalonians 1:8-9 And the Apostle John in Revelation tells us: "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." Revelation 21:8 Or listen to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself as He describes the destiny of the wicked in Matthew 25: "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: And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." Matthew 25:41, 46 It is hardly necessary, I am sure, to quote additional passages to show what the Bible says about the future destiny of the wicked. I am not trying to convince you that there is a Hell, not at all; I am merely trying to show you what the Bible says clearly concerning this place. Then if you reject it, you are not rejecting my word, but God's own holy, infallible Word. If you differ with me, that is not serious, for I too may be wrong, but if you differ with the teaching of the Word of God, you do it only at the peril and the expense of your own immortal soul. If you don't believe it, you will have to take it up with Him, who is the Author, the One who wrote this Book, and not with me. All that I can do and am trying to do is to tell you what God says, and then the decision must, of course, be up to you. Must Be a Hell We have time before we close this message on the subject, "The Lake of Fire" to say a word about the absolute moral necessity of future retribution. Again and again we hear the argument, "I can't imagine a loving God sending His creatures to an eternal place of suffering. I can't believe that a loving God would allow His creatures to suffer in a literal Hell." Well, my friend, that doesn't happen to be the point at all. Your sentiments, after all, have nothing to do with it. It is entirely a question, as far as I am concerned, of what God has to say, not what I think or what any other man thinks. I do declare, that was the argument the Devil gave to Eve. God had said to Eve. "The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." The Devil placed doubt in the mind of Mother Eve, and said, "ye shall not surely die." It was his opinion against the opinion of God, and I repeat again, that I do wish that I did not have to believe in the eternal Lake of Fire. But in addition to the clear teaching of the Word of God and the holiness of God, my common sense and my reason demands that there must be a place of retribution. The fact of Hell rests upon the very foundation of a moral universe. Do away with the punishment of evildoers, and the whole moral fabric and integrity of society breaks down completely. Basis of Government The basis of all good government is justice. Evildoers must be punished. We have laws to punish the thief, the murderer, the liar, the robber, the traitor, the rebel. No one denies that this is just and right. Every jail and prison in the world is a monument to the necessity of a moral government and the justice of punishing the criminal. What a world this would be if there were no laws to govern, and no penalty for the criminal and the transgressor? We even inflict the death penalty as the punishment for certain crimes and no one questions the right of the government to do so. Why then object to the right of a sovereign God of Heaven and earth to punish His rebelling subjects and creatures. Deny this, and I repeat, the whole moral fabric of the universe immediately breaks down. This world is so full of inequalities, there must be a reckoning some day. If death ends all, and there is no retribution for evil, how then do we explain the despots who lived in luxury here below, oppressing their fellow men, murdering, pillaging, subjecting others to their atrocities. Think of the Hamans, the Neros, and the Hitlers whose hands are stained with the blood of thousands and millions of innocents. Did death end all for these men? Is there no punishment for such? Then my faith in the moral integrity of the God of the universe must go by the board entirely. Ah, no, my friend, a God of love who would let sin go unpunished would be no God at all. He would do less than even human justice demands. How explain all the suffering and the death and tears, heartache and sorrow, disease and pain and separation in the world! How explain war, which slays millions and the pestilences which kill millions more, and famines with its countless millions! If God is a God of love only, will you explain to me why He permits these things to happen? If God is a God of love only and will not let His creatures suffer, then please tell me why these things are in the world today with an Omnipotent, Loving God ruling over all. But again we would close on a more hopeful and glorious note. There is a remedy, thank God. There is salvation, there is hope. If God had made no way of escape, how hopeless all would be. But listen, listen, my friend. It is still also true that: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16 Your hope, my friend, lies in receiving God's offer of salvation, not in rebelling against His justice, or denying His right to punish the wicked. Why not settle this whole business right now by receiving the Lord Jesus Christ and then, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus..." Romans 8:1 Why not believe God's Word, admit your sin, confess and repent, and receive Jesus Christ as your own Saviour for eternity, and be saved from your sin and the wrath to come. God help you to do it. Why take a chance, why gamble with eternity? Suppose you are right, and there is no Bible Hell, then I who do believe in it, still am losing nothing. But suppose you are wrong then you have everything to lose. I who believe the Word then have everything to gain—and nothing to lose. But you have nothing to gain and everything to lose by rejecting God's remedy of salvation. Believe, Believe, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be SAVED. Chapter Three "And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone." Revelation 19:20 In this terrible, awesome verse we have the record of the first occupants ever to be thrown into Hell. These two men, the beast and the false prophet, are the first individuals ever to be cast into the Lake of Fire. Hell today is completely empty, totally devoid of all occupants. The lost are in Hades according to the Word of God. The fallen angels are in the special place called tartarus in 2nd Peter 2:4. After the tribulation period and at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory to this earth, these two men, the beast and the false prophet, will be cast into this place called the Lake of Fire. Here they remain for a period of one thousand years, and then a millennium later they are joined by their master, Satan and the Devil. We have the record of this casting of Satan into Hell in Revelation 20:7: "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. ...and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. 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." Revelation 20:7, 9, 10 Not Annihilation This is an important passage which must not be overlooked. For one thousand years these two men, the beast and the false prophet, are in the Lake of Fire, but they are not destroyed. After one thousand years when Satan joins them we read definitely, "And the Devil was cast into the lake of fire where the beast and the false prophet ARE." After a thousand years they are still there, alive. We cannot therefore teach that Hell is annihilation. It is not in any sense a burning out of existence. The Lost So far then, we have two groups in the Lake of Fire. At the beginning of the thousand years the beast and the false prophet are cast into hell. One thousand years later Satan is also cast into the same place with them, and then soon to be joined by all his wicked followers, the unsaved and the lost. In the last verse of this same chapter we read: "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Revelation 20:15 Origin of the Lake of Fire While the Bible has a great deal to say concerning the subject of Hell, there are some things which our Lord has not seen fit to reveal to us at this time, and on which the Bible is either silent or only gives the faintest suggestions. We do not know, for instance, when Hell was created, nor where it is located. As to its origin, we can safely say, however, that it was not a part of God's original creative act. In Genesis 1:1 we have the account of the original creation. Before the first verse of Genesis 1:1 there was nothing, of course, except God. God all alone in that perfect holy, family love-life of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In this beginningless life of the great eternal "I Am," God planned a creation to be called into being at a time that He Himself in sovereign wisdom should choose. In the plan of this original creation described in Genesis 1:1, Hell was not included. That must have been a subsequent provision. In Genesis 1:1 we read, for instance: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Genesis 1:1 Now will you please notice very carefully that this was the beginning of the creation—not the beginning of the existence of God. In John 1:1 we are distinctly told that in the beginning when God created the universe, "the heavens and the earth," He already was. The Creator is un-created. And so John tells us: "In the beginning WAS the Word, and the Word WAS with God, and the Word WAS God." John 1:1 The verb translated "was" is a Greek verb used only of the existence of God. It denotes existence without reference to any beginning at all. In the following verse in John 1 we read this concerning the creation: "All things were made by him; and without him WAS not any thing made that WAS made." John 1:3 In this verse again the verb "was" occurs three times, twice as "was" and once as "were"; but in this instance it is quite another word which denotes existence from a beginning. It literally means to "become." What a wonderful evidence of divine inspiration. When John uses a verb with reference to God, he uses the word "was" which means to exist without any beginning, but immediately when he begins to speak about the creation, he changes the word and uses another which means "to become" or to "exist from a beginning." In the beginning, then, God created the heavens and the earth. The word in your Bible is heaven (singular) but in the Hebrew text it is plural, "heavens." The word is "shamayim" the ending IM, being the plural ending, just as the letter "s" denotes plurality in our English language. The reference is, of course, to more than one heaven. The Bible distinguishes at least three heavens, the lower heaven (auronos); the middle heaven (mesoranios), and the upper heaven (eporanios). The lower is the atmospheric heaven of air and of clouds and of vapor enveloping the earth. The mid-heaven is the planetary, astronomical starry heaven, and beyond this, is the third or the upper heaven, also called in Scripture, "the heaven of heavens." But No Hell When God created the heavens and the earth, it included at least the two lower of these heavens, and we believe the atmospheric heaven and the planetary heaven were created at this time, and possibly the third heaven. Remember the word is in the plural, "shamayim," the heavens. But strange, and yet not so strange, there is no mention of Hell in this original creation. The Bible does not say: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and hell." No, Hell is significantly omitted. Of course, God being omniscient knew that sin would come, and a Hell would become necessary later on, but before sin entered, there was no Hell prepared by God, Hell was a later provision. When Was It Prepared? The question then arises, "When did God prepare this Lake of Fire?" To this we cannot give a positive, definite answer, but it must have been after the fall of the angels. From the book of Job we learn that the angels (called morning stars) were present at the original creation of the earth. There is much evidence that the original earth, millions upon millions of years ago, was the habitation of these created angels. And then Lucifer, the archangel, and the leader of the angelic hosts, rebelled against Almighty God with a host of lesser angelic beings, and as a result was cast both out of the earth, and out of heaven, and banished to the upper atmosphere. Some wicked angels are in the place called "tartarus" today (2 Peter 2:4). Now because of the sin of these fallen angels, together with Satan, God prepared a place to which they will be consigned in everlasting damnation, to be tormented day and night forever and ever. This is plain from a statement of our blessed Lord Himself, when He says in Matthew 25:41 of the judgment of the wicked in the words we quoted before: "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 What a tremendous solemn revelation! The fires of everlasting Hell were never meant for mankind. They were never meant for you, my poor sinner friend. It was prepared for the Devil and his angels. God never made man for Hell, nor did He make Hell for man. If man goes there, it will be only because he chooses to do so by refusing to receive God's wonderful gift of love and salvation. You will never be able to blame God for sending you into the everlasting fires. Only Two Masters There are only two destinies then, Heaven and Hell. There are only two masters, Christ and the Devil. And you, my friend, as well as I, can serve only one of these. It must be one or the other, Jesus said: "No man can serve two masters." And if you serve Christ here below, it is wholly just and fitting and right that you should spend eternity in bliss in Heaven with the One whom you loved and served here below. But if you choose to serve the Devil, and refuse to receive the Lord Jesus Christ, let me ask you honestly and sincerely, isn't it right and just and proper, consistent and wholly fitting that you should spend eternity with your master, whom you have chosen to serve, even the Devil, in the place of torment prepared for the Devil and his angels? It is your own choice, my friend. You can blame no one else. Certainly there can be no argument here. When this place of torment was prepared we, of course, do not know; but we do know that it was made necessary by sin, and particularly the sin of the angels, and prepared as the place of eternal punishment for the Devil, his angels, and all who choose to follow him, rather than be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. Ah, my precious friend, as we contemplate these thoughts, why not take Jesus Christ as your Saviour? How awful to be the companion of the Devil throughout eternity in the place of outer darkness. Hell never was meant for you and God does not want you to go there. If you do, it will be your own fault in refusing to receive God's offer of Heaven and salvation. If you end up in the place of eternal doom, it will be over the very body of the Crucified Son of God, so why not receive Him now? Where is Hell? We have just time for one more question concerning the Bible Hell, and then in our next and last message on this dread subject we shall discuss the questions: Who is there now? Who will still go there in the future? What will be the conditions there? And how long will it last? But now, "Where is the Lake of Fire?" Again the Bible gives no definite answer. It may be some blazing star a million light years removed from this earth. It may be some burned out, ruined planet. We just don't know. One or two things we do know, however. It is complete separation from God, the God of light. He says, "Depart from me, ye wicked, into the place prepared for the Devil and his angels." And it is called the place of outer darkness. Outer Darkness But it is not only darkness, but it is called "outer darkness." We may translate it as "Uttermost darkness." A place so far removed from God and probably from the universe as we see it today, that not a single ray of light will ever penetrate. To grope in Stygian darkness without one ray of hope, banished from God forever, in the place of which Jesus says: "...there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matthew 24:51 Why do I say these things? Why do I preach on Hell? Why do I remind you of this, and repeat all these very unpleasant things? Listen, my friend, it's because I love you more than you will ever realize, and I want you to be saved. God loves you and He wants you to be saved. It will be a tremendous relief when I have finished these messages, I assure you. I have preached under tremendous pressure and a heavy burden for lost men and women. But God is my witness, I could not do anything else. If a doctor knew you had a terrible disease, but also knew an absolute remedy, he would be a devil if he didn't warn you and suggest the remedy. If I knew a bridge was out down the track, and I didn't try to flag down the train. I would be a murderer. If I saw your house on fire, and you were asleep in the house, and I did not try to awaken you, what kind of a brute would I be? Well, my friend, what would you think of me, a preacher of the Gospel called to warn men and women of the coming judgment, if I did not warn you. If I for fear of being unpopular or of being criticized should fail to cry out to you, "Flee from the wrath to come," there are no words to describe my despicable condition. And so here is the remedy. Right where you are you can be saved from sin, and judgment, and the fear of Hell forever. Here it is: Simply acknowledge that you are a sinner, believe God's Word, and then accept His promise of salvation. With your head bowed now will you say: "Lord Jesus, I, a poor, lost sinner, the best I know how, now trust thee to save me. I accept thee as my Lord, I believe thou didst die for me and rise again to save me for eternity." My friend, that is all you need to do. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Chapter Four "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." Rev. 20:10 "And death and hell [hades] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Rev. 20:14-15 In these awesome words, the Holy Spirit, through John, tells us of the final end and destiny of the Devil, and all his followers who have rejected God's wonderful salvation. We make no apologies for this revelation. We merely tell you what the Word of God has to say. If you have any objections, you can take them up with the Author of this Book, the One who wrote it. The Bible therefore teaches that there is an eternal Heaven for the saved, and an eternal Hell for the lost. Every single branch of Christendom has believed in the doctrine of final retribution and it is embodied in all the creeds of all the great branches of Christendom from the very beginning. Very true, today it is not being preached in many, many churches, but if you will investigate, you will find that it is still written in their creeds, whether its ministers preach their creeds or not. But our belief in a literal Hell is not based on church dogmas, religious creeds, human opinions, or the sentiments of men, but upon the infallible Word of God. My feelings and my sentiments too rebel against the idea of a literal, eternal Hell, but I am compelled to believe it because my own judgment convinces me and God says it. If it is not true, then there is no moral justice in the universe, but if it is true, I must, I must warn you to seek refuge in Jesus Christ. It is a Place In a former message, we told you the Bible does not locate Hell. We do not know where it is, except that it is in outer space and in outer darkness. However, while we do not know the exact location, we do know it is a literal place. Jesus said that "body and soul" would be cast into hell. Two literal men, the beast and the false prophet, enter it in Revelation 19, and a literal Devil joins them in Revelation 20. Origin of the Name The word "hell" in the original is "gehenna." There is no word for "hell" found in the New Testament, although the word "sheol" is so translated in the King James English version, but is corrected in the revised version. The word "hell" occurs only eleven times, and of these eleven times Jesus uses the word ten times. The word, "gehenna" itself comes from two Hebrew words, "gay" meaning "a gorge" and the word "Hinnom"; and the two words together mean "the gorge or valley of Hinnom." It was the place where the wicked king of Israel, Manasseh, sacrificed his children in the fire (2 Chron. 33:6). It was called "the Valley of Hinnom." Gehenna, then, is the Greek form of the Valley of Hinnom. It was a place of fire and death and sorrow. Later on, the word "gehenna" was applied to the gorge or the valley outside the city of Jerusalem, where the refuse and the garbage and the offal of the sacrifices were cast to be burned. It corresponds to our version of the city dump, with its vermin and smoldering fires; hence, Jesus' description of it as a place "where the worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched." Jesus' Picture This place of burning outside of the city of Jerusalem our Lord Jesus Christ uses as a figure to describe the place of the lost in the Lake of Fire, called by Him, "gehenna" and "hell." The Valley of Hinnom was a literal place, and Gehenna is a literal place. You may insist that this is only a figure, but that again, my friend, cannot alter the fact. If the description of burning, and a Lake of Fire is a figure, then how much more awful the reality itself must be than the figure is itself! Who is There? There is no one in Hell today. Satan is not there, for he will not be cast into Gehenna until after his final rebellion in Revelation 20. Today, we are told he, "as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" 1 Peter 5:8 The fallen angels who kept not their first estate are not there, for 2nd Peter 2:4 tells us they are reserved unto judgment in the place called tartarus. The lost are not there, for they are today in sheol-hades, in the center of the earth, and will not be cast into the Lake of Fire until after the judgment of the great white throne (Revelation 20). Hell today then, is empty. Its first occupants as we told you before, will be the beast and the false prophet (Revelation 19:20), to be followed a thousand years later by Satan (Revelation 20:10) and then to be joined by all the lost at the end of the world (Revelation 20:15). The Duration And now we take up the matter on which there is a great difference of opinion. All who believe the Bible, believe in the existence of some kind of a hell. But all are not agreed as to its character and duration. How long will the Lake of Fire last, and how long will the lost be there? There are some who teach that the wicked will be utterly consumed and annihilated in Hell, and burned up into ashes. Still others teach that they will be delivered after a longer or shorter period of time, and therefore, Hell is a sort of a purgatory, more than a place of actual punishment. We believe that the Bible is quite clear on the matter, however. Much as we shrink in fear, and recoil at the idea of eternal punishment, we have no choice but to tell you what God says and the Bible teaches, and then it will make no difference what anyone else may have to say. The wicked are said to be cast into Hell forever and forever. Now the word, "ever," is "aion" in the Greek and means "an age." An age is an indefinite period of time. The expression, "forever and ever," then, means "the ages of the ages," or "indefinite periods of indefinite periods of time." This was the Greek's way of expressing eternity, everlasting or eternal. We seldom weary you with Greek or Hebrew words, but this matter is so vital, so important, that we are going to ask your indulgence just this once. Then go to your concordance or your Greek lexicon, or better still, go to your own pastor, and ask him about it. Here it is. The expression, "forever and ever" is a translation of the Greek phrase "tous aionas ton aionon." Now this expression, "Tous Aionas Ton Aionon,'' translated "forever and ever" in the Bible is used exactly thirteen times in the last book of the Bible alone. Now follow this carefully. This expression translated "forever and ever" occurring thirteen times in Revelation alone is used: 1. Nine times for the existence of God; that is, nine times God is said to live or reign "forever and ever," and the expression is "Tous Aionas Ton Aionon." 2. One time it is used for the eternal existence of the saints in Heaven. 3. Once it is used for the eternal torment of the Devil in Hell. 4. In the other two times the same identical expression is used for the duration of the suffering of the lost in eternal torment. Do you see what is involved in this, my friend, when we teach that when the Bible says "forever and ever," it means FOREVER AND EVER? It is a serious error to say that "forever and ever," is not eternal. If the Bible says that the wicked are cast into the Lake of Fire forever and ever, it must mean just that. If it does not mean "eternal," then it cannot mean that God is eternal, that Jesus is eternal, that the saints will be in Heaven eternally. For the same identical phrase is used to designate all of them. If it means "forever," therefore, in one place it must by every rule of logic mean "forever'' in every other place. Degrees in Gehenna Before we close this series, however, there is one more thing that we want to make clear. While Hell is described in the Bible as a place of torment and suffering, not all the occupants in the Lake of Fire will, by any means suffer in the same degree. To some, Hell will be a little heaven compared with what it will be for others. God's judgment will be according to justice and righteousness, for "his mercy endureth forever." It will be absolutely fair and just. Nowhere is this more clearly taught than in Revelation 20. "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS." Rev. 20:11-12 Now I would have you notice particularly those words: ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS. This same thing is repeated again in verse 13. This judgment therefore, is according to their works. It is to determine the DEGREE of their punishment. The destiny of the lost was settled forever when they died. That was determined by their rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation does not depend upon works, but on faith alone. But here at the final judgment these lost, whose eternal abode in Hell was already determined and settled by their rejection of Christ, are now to be judged as to the degree of their punishment, determined by the light which they have rejected, the opportunities they have enjoyed, and the works that they have done. It will be infinitely more tolerable in the day of judgment for the pagan who never heard the Gospel at all than for you who have heard and rejected the invitation of the grace of God over and over again. I repeat, therefore, that Hell will be heaven for some who have never had the opportunities which others have had, compared to those of you who have lived in Christian lands, heard the Gospel over and over again, and then rejected it. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself said: "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more" Luke 12:48 Again our Lord said in Matthew 11:21 to 24: "Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee." Matthew 11:21-24 From this it is perfectly clear that added light and added opportunity will make for added responsibility. And so we repeat, that not all will suffer alike in the Lake of Fire. It will depend upon the opportunity which has been rejected. If one is to be lost, therefore, in the end, then it would be far better that such an one had never heard the Gospel, far better would it be to die in pagan ignorance and heathen darkness, than to be lost in the land of light and opportunity after hearing the Gospel, and the pleading of the Spirit of God. If you are going to be lost, my friend, it would be infinitely better if you had never heard the message of salvation, if you had never heard this broadcast, yea, it would be better for you if you had never been born. The very fact that you have again once more heard the warning in these broadcasts increases your responsibility, and leaves you without any excuse. Now this concludes our series on this difficult subject, "The Bible Hell." I personally feel a deep sense of relief as I conclude this series. Never have I dreaded a subject as I have this one; never before have I felt the opposition of Satan as much as I have during these messages which I have given. Never have I been more severely tempted to pass by this difficult subject and to speak on something else. But I also feel not only a sense of relief that the job is done, but a sense of relief because I have been faithful in warning you. If any of you awaken bye and bye in the place of outer darkness, you will never be able to rise up against me and say, "that preacher knew about this place, he knew I was going to go here, but yet for fear of being called an old fogy, for fear of being unpopular, he failed to warn me." No, my friends, my hands are clean of your blood. Why not flee to Jesus now? Why not accept Him before it is forever too late? Bow your head, acknowledge your sin, call on Him to save you, and then believe His promise: "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Romans 10:13 Won't you come to Him now? God help you. From The Lake of Fire. Four Radio Sermons by M. R. DeHaan. [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Radio Bible Class, 194-?].
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