When she saw “I had a goodness that she didn’t even know existed,” said Pokluda, “her eyes got really big, and then the realization that she lost that forever—that’s hell, every second, forever and ever and ever.”
“It’s the full realization of the goodness of God that was available to you, paradise with God forever and ever and ever,” said the pastor, “a place where there’s no sadness, no death, no disease, no heartbreak, [where there is] laughter and joy, the fullness of joy forevermore, forever and ever and ever and ever, and the realization that you missed out on it.”
The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16 illustrates that in hell “we are separated for eternity,” said Pokluda. “And I think the way that the enemy deceives us is to convince us that it’s not a big deal.”
Bure then asked Pokluda and Lev for their thoughts on people who say, “Why are you trying to scare me with hell?” and “God should be all loving and kind.”
“Different people respond to different things in different ways, and I really appreciate the truth,” Pokluda said. “And so if something is truthful, I think it’s loving, and the truth can feel like hate to those who hate the truth. And if hell is real…then the most loving thing I can do is tell you about it.”
In fact, Pokluda said that the way he has been describing hell is less graphic than what Jesus said in Luke 12 when Jesus said the faithless servant will be “cut up into pieces and sprinkled into the outer darkness.”
“If you said, ‘Well, you’re just trying to scare me, you know, out of hell,’ I would say, ‘Did it work?’” said Pokluda. “I’m just trying to communicate the truth. And, really, it is the kindness of God that leads people to repentance.”
“C.S. Lewis said hell is locked from the inside,” the pastor continued, “that the only people that go there are those that just said, ‘Hey, I so much, so badly don’t want anything to do with God that I will end up in a place where there’s nothing there that remotely resembles God.’”
Lev then asked Bure and Pokluda how they tell people about hell in a way that shows God’s goodness. Bure answered that she explains it by comparing it to someone’s house being on fire.
If a neighbor of hers was asleep but the neighbor’s roof was on fire, even though the neighbor would be annoyed and grumpy, Bure would bang on the door until the person woke up. That is similar to what she is doing when warning people about hell.
