I wish hell wasn't real. I don't want anybody to go there. The idea of eternal wrath repels me. I'd rather not even talk about it. Recently, one of our members gave me a book titled, "Hell is Real (But I Hate to Admit It)". It is the story of a pastor who graduated from a conservative seminary and entered pastoral ministry with a secret...he didn't believe in hell. He believed hell was a concept incompatible with God's loving nature and therefore dismissed it. As he began to study the Scriptures (which you'd think should have happened in Seminary 
), he began to realize that God's nature is more than "nice." It was shocking to him to discover how often the mercy and wrath of God were both mentioned in the Bible. Of course it is a lot easier to talk about God's love, acceptance, grace, forgiveness etc than it is to talk about wrath, judgment, hell and the lake of fire...yikes! Our study this week will unpack the visit of the Pharisees and Sadducees to John the Baptist. JB didn't hand them a Welcome Packet and give them a cup of coffee. He addressed them as a "brood of vipers" and warned them that the "ax was being laid to the root of the tree". That doesn't seem very loving to these men "just seeking baptism." Yet, it is in fact loving to warn people of the wrath to come. It is evidence of our depravity that we deem immersion into the life of God so lightly that we would complain about the alternative. We should run to this wonderful offer of God...the Creator of Heaven and earth wants to be our Dad, why wouldn't we jump at that opportunity? Refusing the good life of God can only have one alternative, and even though it is an unpopular subject it is still in the best interest of our "neighbor" to say so.
), he began to realize that God's nature is more than "nice." It was shocking to him to discover how often the mercy and wrath of God were both mentioned in the Bible. Of course it is a lot easier to talk about God's love, acceptance, grace, forgiveness etc than it is to talk about wrath, judgment, hell and the lake of fire...yikes! Our study this week will unpack the visit of the Pharisees and Sadducees to John the Baptist. JB didn't hand them a Welcome Packet and give them a cup of coffee. He addressed them as a "brood of vipers" and warned them that the "ax was being laid to the root of the tree". That doesn't seem very loving to these men "just seeking baptism." Yet, it is in fact loving to warn people of the wrath to come. It is evidence of our depravity that we deem immersion into the life of God so lightly that we would complain about the alternative. We should run to this wonderful offer of God...the Creator of Heaven and earth wants to be our Dad, why wouldn't we jump at that opportunity? Refusing the good life of God can only have one alternative, and even though it is an unpopular subject it is still in the best interest of our "neighbor" to say so.