Eternal Considerations

Have Conservatives Overstated the Number of People Who are Hell-bound?

By Jim Croft

Many believers have difficulty when discussing certain elements about the concept of eternal damnation. They feel a strange discomfort whenever asked about the heathen who never heard the Gospel. Questions at funerals about the eternal state of seemingly good people who were not overtly spiritually minded spawns the same. It’s not that they deny that Hell will be the abode of the wicked. They simply find it hard to dogmatically assert that anyone and everyone who did not confess Jesus as Lord while living is going to spend eternity there. If you are one of those sensitive souls, this article is for you.

It’s focus is that while every member of the Bride of Christ will be in heaven; not necessarily every inhabitant of heaven will be a member of Christ’s Bride. Heaven will have both royal and ordinary citizens.

Hell’s Inhabitants and the Hell-bound

Hell is a reality. Undoubtedly, it is the site of endless torment for millions from past generations and will be the same for millions from future generations. The Bible either directly states or strongly implies that Hell’s present and future eternal prisoners include the following:

• Unrepentant Jews of antiquity who rebelliously chose idolatry over faithfulness to God and His laws.
• People of ancient monotheistic cultures that once had the revelation of the Triune Godhead and chose abominable forms of worship. (Rom 1:18-2:16)
• Those whose hearts were opened by the Holy Spirit to believe the Gospel and to confess Jesus as Lord who to death willfully rejected every opportunity to do so. (Luk 12:8-9)
• Anyone who has been in the Faith and purposely departed from it. (1Ti 4:1-3)
• Anyone who knew the Lord and those who never knew Him who persistently rejected conscience about aberrant behavior. This would include people who are habitually unrepentant about bitter unforgiveness, sexual immorality, occultism, and telling lies. Those who shun the dictates of conscience in such matters are among those who are in grave danger. In this regard, Christians who revel in the excesses of carnality could be in for a rude awakening. (1Co 6:9-10, Rev 21:8)
• Those who side with the Antichrist during the Great Tribulation. (Rev 14:9-11)
• Anyone who sides with Satan’s attempt to usurp Christ’s authority after the Millennial Reign. (Rev 20:7-15)

There are many who don’t fall into any of the aforementioned categories. To understand how they might make heaven in the afterlife there are two things that must be explored beforehand. These are the process of salvation through faith and the goal of the Christian life.

Privileged Revelation

Becoming a born-again believer is not a guaranteed right that has been made available to everyone who has drawn breath since the First Advent of Christ. To the contrary, it is a privilege that is afforded to some, but not to all. This can be explicitly understood from the language employed in an abundance of New Testament texts.

No one is born of the Spirit solely by a decision of his own will/by the will of flesh and blood. (Joh 1:10-13) The Gospel is to be preached to all. However, it is the Spirit blowing upon whom He wishes that determines those who will be given the ability to repent and believe. (Joh 3:8, 15:16) It is true that whosoever to the Lord may come and He will by no means cast them out. It is also true that none come unless the Father has wooed them to Jesus through the auspices of the Holy Spirit. (Joh 6:37) The understanding that Jesus is the Son of God comes by revelation to those who are appointed to be members of the Bride of Christ whose hearts have been opened to receive salvation. (Mat 16:16-17, Act 13:48, 16:14) The ability to repent is a gift. It is granted as such from God and therefore should not be regarded in a flippant manner. (2Ti 2:25)

Any sinner who has been graced with the ability to repent and to believe the Gospel today should do so. Any believer who is under conviction about sins of the flesh should do the same. None who have the grace to repent on one day have the guarantee that it will abide with them into the following day. The Father and the Son have never obligated the Holy Spirit to endlessly strive with any individual. (Gen 6:3, Isa 45:9, Mat 10:14-15, Heb 12:16-17)

A Shocker

Heaven is not the primary goal of the Christian Life. Unlike many contemporary believers, the focus of the Apostle Paul’s life and ministry was not merely to make it into heaven. He had a defined goal that he urged his constituents to emulate. He was rewards-oriented and Bride-oriented and wanted every Christian to be the same. He knew that Christians who will win the prize and receive crowns are those who will be caught up in the First Resurrection’s rapture. Those who are not raptured will at best be permitted into heaven after the Millennium and at terrible worst will be sent to hell.

Even though he was an apostle who had been given a unique revelation of the Gospel, Paul was not presumptuous. For him, his calling status and miracles did not automatically guarantee that he would be in the First Resurrection/the Rapture. (Phi 3:10-15) It was his goal to apprehend that for which he had been apprehended.

Paul fully realized that he could be disqualified for the prize even though he had preached the right things to others. Therefore, his lifestyle was one of spiritual, moral and ethical discipline. (1Co 9:24-10:6) He foresaw that the rewards for Christian service are not available for anyone whose resurrection is put-off until the general/final/second resurrection after the Millennium. (Rev 20) He understood that the grand prize and its highest rewards are reserved for believers who exercise faith in overcoming life’s obstacles. (Rev 2:11, 17) To this end he exhorted all to live soberly, knowing that one can be disqualified from receiving the highest rewards. He wanted all to receive the crown of righteousness and to become participants in the Millennial Reign of Christ.

The good news is that believers can gain the assurance that there is a crown of righteousness reserved for each of us, even as Paul did. He reached a point wherein he knew that his discipline had paid-off and there was a crown waiting for him among those reserved for those who lovingly anticipate the Coming of the Lord. (2Ti 2:7-8) That assurance is apprehended by the confidence that one has effectively run and won their God appointed race. (Heb 12:1-3) Those who have that understanding will not be found naked at the Coming of the Lord. (2Co 5:1-3) Each of us is responsible to provide the Lord with yarn for the white linen robes that are presented to us on that day. Such are woven from the righteous Act of the faithful. (Rev 19:8) Faith that has no accompanying works is stillborn. (Jam 2:18-20, 22, 26)

Pertinent Considerations

Faithful Christians who died will be resurrected at the rapture and those who are living will be caught up in it. They will serve as the Lord’s Bride to co-reign with Him during the Millennium. All such will be royal citizens of the new heavens and the new earth. A much larger group will be resurrected after the Millennium. They will stand before God’s Great White Throne Judgment. These will be judged on the bases of their deeds while alive and whether or not their names are found in the Book of Life. Those who names are not found in the Book of Life are hell-bound. However, there will be others present whose names will be found in the Book of Life. Those people are the topic of our considerations.

Two general categories of people will stand before the throne. One is all those who died from the beginning of time through the Millennium who had not been previously resurrected. The other is all of those who lived as mortals during the Millennium who didn’t die and therefore did not need to be resurrected for the judgment. Christians who were faithful will not be in this group on several counts. They were given glorified bodies at the rapture and they will abide in such during the Millennium and throughout eternity. They don’t need to be judged, as they were already judged in a previous event called the Judgment Seat of Christ. (1Co 15:51-56, 2Co 5:9-10) At that time their lives as believers were assessed and they received rewards accordingly.

Pivotal Text

Rev 20:12-15 - 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. [13] And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. [14] And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. [15] And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Note What It Says

The text says “And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” That strongly suggests that there may be some present whose names will be found in the Book of Life. It is similar to someone stating that those who don’t have tickets to the Opera will be turned away. The inherent implications of the statement indicate that there will be those present who do have tickets and won’t be turned away. The question is, who might those be whose names will be found in the Book of Life? Who are those who will be ordinary rather than royal citizens of heaven? The Bible states that every man is appointed to experience death and to afterward stand at judgment. (Heb 9:27) If a person is not judged at the Judgment Seat of Christ, they must stand at the Great White Throne Judgment. The process of judgment implies adjudication to determine proper sentencing. If all were hell-bound there would be no need for judgment and adjudication. All of the unsaved would simply be resurrected and sent immediately to Hell.

Possible Candidates

• It could be that some will be carnal Christians whose level of carnality was sufficient enough to rob them of the rapture and the right to serve as the Co-sovereign Bride during the Millennium. However, their carnality levels were not high enough to send them to Hell. My speculations are that they are those whom the Apostle Peter spoke of as scarcely saved. (2Pe 4:18) These will be ordinary rather royal citizens of the Kingdom. The word scarcely is closely akin to scarcity. Scarcity is quite different from abundance. Not all Christians can be considered as scarcely saved. 2 Peter 1:4-11 speaks of those who will have an abundant entrance into the Kingdom of God. Those who qualify for such are those who were diligent about progressing in the various aspects of the fruit of the Spirit. Surely, they will be the ones who are deemed worthy of Bride membership.

• Matthew 27:52-53 speaks of Old Testament saints who were resurrected almost simultaneously with the resurrection of Jesus. It says that many were raised. It does not say that all/every one of the Old Covenant’s righteous were privileged to be in that company. We know that King David was not among them. Days after that event Peter stated that David was dead and buried and that he had not ascended into heaven. (Act 2:29 & 34) It is apparent that he did not qualify for that aspect of the First Resurrection. It is unthinkable to assert that a name as honored throughout the Scriptures as that of King David would not be found in the Book of Life. Since he was not part of the First Resurrection it necessitates that he will be included in the Second Resurrection. That one takes place post the Millennium and is the summons for people to appear for the opening of the books at the aforementioned Great White Throne Judgment. The number of Old Covenant Jews who were not resurrected after Jesus resurrection is in the millions. Many of their names will be found in the Book of Life, because they were compliant with the Law of Moses prior to the Christian era.

• Jesus mentioned that the Queen of the South and the people of Nineveh who repented under Jonah’s preaching would stand up in judgment against the generation that had rejected Him. (Mat 12:41-42) It would be highly unorthodox to assume that the hell-bound could sit in judgment against the hell-bound in the same judgment. This infers that the names of the Queen of the South who was greatly influenced by Solomon and the thousands of repentant Ninevehites will be found in the Book of Life.

• The next group is people of monotheistic cultures who existed before mankind degenerated into aberrant idolatry and abominable sexual sins. (Rom 1:17-23) Archeologists and anthropologist concur that many of the cultures of antiquity were monotheistic. Dr. Don Richardson, author of Eternity in their hearts, cites conclusive proofs that many societies worshipped a Triune God featuring a Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Such groups had legends that parallel the Bible’s accounts of Adam and Eve, Noah, Melchizedek, Abraham and Isaac and Joseph. He mentions some aboriginal tribes of the Western Hemisphere in that context. Job was a contemporary of Abraham who knew God, but had no relatives among the twelve tribes of Israel. (Job 1:1 & 8, 19:25-27) He looked for the Coming of the Messiah and God called him righteous. Moses’ father-in-law Jethro/Reuel was a Midian priest. (Exo 2:16-21, 4:18, 18:1-12) The Midianites were closely akin to the Arabs of antiquity. Some had such a strong confidence about God’s protection that they refused to wall their cities. Rom 2:5-16 infers pertinent things about all of the aforementioned. Such had the Law of God written in their hearts/consciences. Those who persevere in following the dictates of conscience and perform good works indicate that they are seeking honor, glory, immortality and eternal life. In reference to such the Bible implies that at the judgment they will be rewarded with honor, glory and peace. That does not sound remotely like the fires of eternal damnation. Those who rejected conscience and refuse to follow it in doing good will be consigned to the lake of fire.

• There is another group that might be included with the one above. It is those who never heard the Gospel and those who might have heard it, but whose hearts were never opened by the Spirit to receive its message. Provided that they meet the criteria of flowing with conscience and did good things while seeking honor, glory, immortality and eternal life; their names might also be found in the Book of Life.

• The final group to be considered is those who will live as mortals during the Millennium. These are unlike the previously raptured believers who will have glorified bodies like that of Jesus after His resurrection. Those who enter the Millennium as mortals will live exceptionally long life-spans, but some will die. (Isa 65:20) Following the principle that it is appointed for men to die once and to afterward face judgment, these will stand before the Great White Throne Judgment. Provided they are not among those who side with Satan’s attempt to wrestle the Kingdom from Jesus, their names will also likely be found in the Book of Life. Heaven might be their home, but they will not be counted among the redeemed of the Bride of Christ.

Conclusion