And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
(Luke 16:22-23, 27-31) KJV
Jesus describes the internal structure of the Earth in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. We use this passage to understand that sheol includes a chamber in the lower mantle which overlooks hell.
It also describes a great gulf of open space inside the Earth, as confirmed by the P-wave shadow in seismological data, which establishes that hell is in the center of Earth.
But what else does this passage say? Jesus is speaking, telling the story of a soul in hell pleading that someone would intervene in the lives of his family members so that they wouldn’t end up where he is. The rich man is begging.
What’s the point? One of the fruits that we would expect to see after someone gets saved is that they acquire a burden for the souls of the lost. We would hope that this is imbued with a sense of urgency that something needs to be done to get the word out and warn people about the eternal consequences of inaction. The short version: If we love Jesus then then we’ll love other people enough to warn them about hell.
How is it anything BUT loving to warn people about hell, given the passage above?
What, other than love, would make someone go to extreme lengths to warn others about hell? Extreme lengths like destroying the theoretical foundation of popular science (SciPop), for instance.
Matty (Headwind) 