Thanks for visiting Bible Mountain. This lesson is part of a series of lessons on the book of 2 Thessalonians. In this lesson I’m going to look at chapter one, verses nine and 10, and talk about the reality of eternal destruction.
2 Thessalonians 1:9 starts out with “These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction”. Obviously, Paul was writing about eternal destruction. He said there are certain people that will pay the penalty of eternal destruction. Before I take a closer look at these verses to see what Paul was writing here, I want to look at some other verses in the New Testament to see what the Bible in general has to say about eternal destruction, so that we have some context for understanding what Paul wrote here in 2 Thessalonians.
Transcript:
Thanks for visiting Bible Mountain. This lesson is part of a series of lessons on the book of 2 Thessalonians. In this lesson I’m going to look at chapter one, verses nine and 10, and talk about the reality of eternal destruction.
2 Thessalonians 1:9 starts out with “These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction”. Obviously, Paul was writing about eternal destruction. He said there are certain people that will pay the penalty of eternal destruction. Before I take a closer look at these verses to see what Paul was writing here, I want to look at some other verses in the New Testament to see what the Bible in general has to say about eternal destruction, so that we have some context for understanding what Paul wrote here in 2 Thessalonians.
Let’s start in Matthew chapter five. Matthew five contains some teachings that Jesus gave that are called the Sermon on the Mount. As part of that, he said the following, starting in verse 22.
Matt. 5:22 “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.
Jesus taught that hell is real. He called it a fiery hell. A little bit later, Jesus said this.
Matt. 5:27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’; 28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 “If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.
Jesus repeated the reality that there is such a thing as hell. Later, in chapter 10, we see another teaching of Jesus where He taught this.
Matt. 10:28 “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
God is the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Jesus taught the reality that hell is real and that God is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
In Matthew 18 we see a teaching by Jesus that is very similar to what we saw in chapter 5, but there’s a difference.
Matt. 18:8 “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire.
Here. Jesus mentioned the eternal fire. In other words, hell is an eternal fire.
Matthew 23 contains a passage known as The Woes, where Jesus pronounced some woes on the scribes and Pharisees. One of the woes starts in verse 29.
Matt. 23:29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 “So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 “Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. 33 “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?
Jesus taught very clearly that some people will be sentenced to hell.
In Matthew 25 we read about eternal punishment in a passage known as the Olivet Discourse. Let’s start reading at verse 31.
Matt. 25:31 “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 “All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.
Now let’s go down to verse 41.
Matt. 25:41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ 44 “Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ 45 “Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Jesus taught very clearly that, at some point in the future, people will be separated into those who spend eternity in eternal punishment and those who spend eternity in glory with the Creator.
Jesus taught very clearly that hell is real, that hell is a lake of fire, and that hell is eternal destruction. With that as some background, let’s go to 2 Thessalonians and see what Paul wrote about eternal destruction. For context, let’s start reading at verse three.
2Th. 1:3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater; 4 therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure. 5 This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. 6 For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed — for our testimony to you was believed.
Paul wrote, “These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction.” Then he described eternal destruction. It’s away from the presence of the Lord and away from the glory of the Lord’s power. Then Paul wrote that it’s going to happen when He, Jesus, “comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed”.
Who is going to pay the penalty of eternal destruction? In verse 9 Paul simply wrote, “These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction.” Who does the pronoun these refer to?
The pronoun these refers back to verse 8 where Paul wrote that Jesus will deal out retribution to “those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus”. Anyone who does not know God and does not obey the gospel of Jesus will pay the penalty of eternal destruction.
Many Christians in 21st century American Christianity have the mindset that they don’t want to talk about hell and eternal destruction. They think it’s much better to evangelize by talking about positive things.
For those Christians who don’t want to talk about hell or the eternal lake of fire, here’s a question for you. If hell does not exist, then what are the consequences of not becoming a Christian?
When we talk about the existence of hell, the issue has to do with what happens when people die. If hell does not exist, then there are only two possibilities that will happen when people die. Either everybody goes to heaven, or some people go to heaven and some people cease to exist.
If you think about those two options, either going to heaven or simply ceasing to exist, going to heaven, obviously, is good and not bad. Ceasing to exist is not necessarily good, but it’s not bad either. There are many people in our world that, if you gave them the choice of going to heaven or ceasing to exist, they would choose to cease to exist. Many people would rather cease to exist than spend eternity in heaven serving God. Ceasing to exist is not really bad. So if hell does not exist, then nothing bad will happen to anyone who does not become a Christian.
However, hell does exist. After life on earth, every person will either spend eternity in heaven or eternity in hell. Spending eternity in hell, a lake of fire, is a bad thing.
The conventional wisdom in our culture is that people don’t want to hear about hell. The conventional wisdom in our culture is that Christians should only talk about positive things. However, as Christians, we need to speak the truth. The truth is hell is real. The truth is anyone who dies without being a servant of Jesus Christ is going to spend eternity in hell. We need to proclaim that truth because, ultimately, hell is real and there is a consequence of not becoming a Christian.
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