Misconceptions

Randy Alcorn has written a lot about Heaven. His blog for Friday, Dec. 21 is VERY interesting.

It led me to think of all the misconceptions about, not just Heaven, but everything the Bible has to say. I once taught a Sunday School class for teenage girls. I was shocked at how much they MISunderstood. For example, Satan. They thought he lives in hell; that it's his domain and he loves it there. Wrong! 2Peter 2:4 says, "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;..."

Jamieson, Faussett, and Brown Commentary says this: 'hell — Greek, “Tartarus”; for though their final doom is hell, yet for a time they are permitted to roam beyond it in “the darkness of this world.” Slaves of Tartarus (called “the abyss,” or “deep,” Luke 8:31; “the bottomless pit,” Revelation 9:11) may also come upon earth. Step by step they are given to Tartarus, until at last they shall be wholly bound to it.' Strong's Concordance says that Tartarus is the deepest abyss of Hades. Matthew 25:41 says that the everlasting fire was prepared for the devil and his angels.

Satan's not looking forward to spending eternity there, but he wants to take as many souls with him as he can, to spite God. The penalty for sin is death (Romans 6:23), but Jesus took that penalty on himself so that we don't have to die for our sins. He conquered death and he makes one requirement of us - that we accept that gift. God has chosen not to force us to be in heaven. Satan uses every insidious lie and half-truth he can come up with to deceive us into thinking heaven is boring and hell is a party.

The question is: Are you going to let him get away with that?