Yesterday’s post on 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 referenced several of John MacArthur’s sermons, one of which was ‘The Vengeance of the Lord Jesus, Part 2’ from January 19, 1992.
In it, he related a true story about his friend Spencer Nielsen, who was involved in the well-known Nielsen Report, which measures and analyses various types of data to help major corporations market themselves better.
Late in 1991, Nielsen received a complaint about the religious Christmas insert he had included with the December newsletter.
MacArthur takes up the story (emphases mine):
I have a friend, Spencer Nielsen. He writes “The Nielsen Report” … It’s a very scholarly and esteemed newsletter, quoted often in The Wall Street Journal and other places. In the December mailing of his newsletter, Spencer included the gospel, as he likes to do around Christmas, to share that with all of these people. In response to that he receives letters. Here is one from an executive of Bell Atlantic, the phone company on the east coast. “Dear Mr. Nielsen, I am writing to voice my displeasure at receiving the religious material insert in my last issue. This is most inappropriate and detracts from the strength of each subject in a stand-alone manner. You should reevaluate this as a business practice. My guess is that most of your readers were put off by it.” And the letter is signed.
This, he faxed to me, was his reply and he wanted to know if I thought this was a good reply. “Thank you for your December 30 letter. I was pleased to hear you noticed the Christmas message. Regarding your comment that it was inappropriate to include it in my newsletter, there is no such thing as an inappropriate time to talk about Jesus Christ. Each year I get an equal number of letters and phone calls thanking me or objecting to the Christmas message I send. Negative comments are generally because they consider it offensive. The message of Christ is offensive. Christ was crucified by people who considered Him offensive. He tells us we are all born sinners in need of salvation, that we must be washed clean by His blood, shed on a cross, that no one will get to heaven unless they come to the realization they are powerless to save themselves, that Christ died to redeem them from punishment they can’t escape unless they accept Him as their Savior. That’s all pretty offensive, but true. Over the centuries His disciples were stoned, beheaded, and tortured for simply confessing their belief in Him. So I consider myself fortunate in this age to be able to speak freely about Him without anyone being able to stop me. I don’t mind the criticism as long as it brings anyone who is not saved to the realization it is necessary to make life’s most important decision now, before it is too late. Sincerely,” and he signs his name.
MacArthur says:
How can anyone who understands where history is going and what the end of it is take any other approach? If we understand that Jesus Christ is coming to deal out retribution to all those who know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and that what awaits them is pain forever in a ruined condition, away from His presence and His glory for all eternity, it would seem to me that nothing could restrain us from compelling people to that realization, offensive or not. And I thank God for the faithfulness of Spencer and others who hold back nothing. God would be offended if we didn’t warn the sinner.
2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 has the starkest description of the Second Coming outside of Revelation. Paul wrote it to comfort the Thessalonians who were faithful and loving in spite of persecution. Paul assured them that God would punish their persecutors.
MacArthur gives us insights as to how God will exact His divine retribution, including this description of hell:
Who is going to feel the retribution of God? Those who persecute Christians, who are part of a larger group who do not know God because they do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus.
How is this retribution meted out? Back to verse 6, “After all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction.” That’s how, with affliction, pain if you want another word, a synonym, pain. If you want a good definition of thlibō, this is the term used here. It’s used in the New Testament in other places. The best illustration of what it can encompass is in 2 Corinthians 7:5. Paul says, “We came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, no relief, we were afflicted.” There’s the same word. “On every side,” and here he defines it, “conflicts without, fears within, but God who comforts the depressed comforted us.” What is it? It’s affliction. It’s depression. How is it defined? Conflict on the outside, fear on the inside. That’s why it’s the word “pressure,” “squeeze.” You’re squeezed between the terrors on the outside and the terrors on the inside. That’s the punishment. God is going to give you pain. God’s going to make you feel that pain, misery. And that misery and pain with which He will afflict you is further described in verse 9, “And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction.”
Now here we find something that needs our attention: The word “eternal.” This pain, this misery, this depression, this affliction is forever. The word “eternal” is aiōn and it basically means a period of undefined length, age-long. However long the age is, that’s how long this is. The reason it’s always translated “eternal” is because it is always associated with eternal things. Seventy-five times aiōn is used in the New Testament. Out of seventy-five, only three refer to other than an endless duration. Only three times is this word used for other than an endless duration: Romans 16:25; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 1:2. Seventy-two of the seventy-five mean an endless duration. For example, it is used of God. God is aiōn. He is eternal, Romans 16:26. In John 3:16 it is used of our time in heaven, or our period in heaven, which is eternal, forever. Hebrews 5:9 it is used of our salvation, which is forever. In Hebrews 9:12 of our redemption, which is forever, and on and on for 72 times; it must mean forever. The coming age has no end, as God has no end, as we have no end, as salvation has no end. It is not an abbreviated time, it is forever.
How is this vengeance and punishment going to come? It’s going to come as pain, pressure, affliction, conflict in…outside and fear inside crushing the person forever. He calls it here “destruction,” which adds another component, olethros. The word means “ruin,” ruin. It has the idea not of annihilation, not of being obliterated and put out of existence, but the idea of the loss of all that makes life worth living. It speaks of somebody who is ruined. It would be a… It would be a condition perhaps best, most graphically articulated to you as a condition like the physical condition of a dying … patient. You’ve seen them, skin and bones lying on a bed with sunken faces and hollow, glassy eyes, unable to move, racked with killing disease, tortured with excruciating agony, and unable to have the strength to even respond. Only it is that same condition forever, never the relief of death. You never die. You just experience the uselessness, the hopelessness, the emptiness of a life with no meaning, no value, no worth, no accomplishment, no purpose, no goal, no future, no change, no hope. You’re ruined forever.
The Lord Jesus had some terrifying things to say about this ruined existence. He said it is an experience of fiery torment. It is an experience that burns with a furious fire and yet gives no light to impenetrable darkness. It is an experience of weeping and grinding of teeth in pain and frustration. Soul and body are both ruined as far as worth and beauty are concerned. Any vestige of the image of God is gone. Consuming worms eat but never die and are never satisfied. The fire never goes out. There is no escape. And worst of all, there’s no second chance. That’s what happens. God pays back and He pays back with pain and He pays back with pain that lasts forever, pain that renders a person absolutely useless, ruined forever.
Then there are two reasons given why this life is so terrible. One, verse 9: “Away from the presence of the Lord.” Wherever this place is called hell, God isn’t there. There isn’t a vestige of His presence there. In fact, in Luke 16 … in the story … of Lazarus and the rich man, there is a great gulf fixed between the place where the blessed are and the place where the cursed are. And that gulf separates the cursed from God and all that represents His presence. Imagine an existence like that. Imagine an existence in this kind of terrible, ruined, worthless, useless, purposeless, painful, eternal existence where there is no vestige of anything that connects with God. James 1:17, James said, “All good things come from God. All perfect things come from God.” There won’t be any of them there, nothing good, nothing meaningful, nothing beautiful, nothing valuable, no joy, no peace, no love, nothing, no pleasure, nothing because God isn’t there. Jesus said it. In Matthew 7:23, He said, “Depart from Me.” That’s the point, “I don’t know you, go out of My presence.” That’s what hell is, it’s away from the presence of the Lord. There is nothing of God there, therefore there’s no beauty, there’s no joy, there’s no pleasure, there’s no purpose. God isn’t there. You’re gone, banished, exiled from God.
As Leon Morris says, “Those who oppose the things of God here and now are not engaged in some minor error.” This is not a minor error. There’s no fleshly sentiment that can alter the consequences to not knowing God and not obeying the gospel of the Lord Jesus.
Then Paul adds another feature of hell. Not only are they away from the presence of the Lord, but also they’re away from the glory of His power. That’s a magnificent reality, you know, the glory of His power. What does it mean? It means visible splendor, His majesty, and the display of that majesty in power. They’ll never see that. They’ll never see that. There will be nothing of the presence of God there. There will be nothing of the power of God there. Nothing of His presence to comfort, nothing of His presence to give meaning, nothing of His presence to give beauty, pleasure, joy, peace, happiness, nothing of His presence to bring those things that make life worth living, and nothing of His glory and His splendor and His majesty and His power.
Your company? The devil. Your company? His evil angels. And yet an eternal loneliness. Jesus is coming and He’s bringing retribution. He’s bringing retribution. Why? It’s just. It is just. On whom? Those who persecute Christians who belong to that larger order of people who do not know God because they do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And how will the retribution come? It will come with pain that is eternal that ruins them and they will live forever without any vestige of the presence of the Lord or any display of His glorious power through all eternity. That’s the coming of Jesus Christ. That’s what it means to the people who reject Christ.
Unbelievers will say, ‘As I do not believe in God, I don’t care about His presence or the loss thereof’.
However, suppose that the realisation of the lack of God’s presence becomes crystal clear as one goes to meet Satan and his angels forever. In the first instance, following death, the condemned souls are in torment. After the Second Coming, they are reunited with their body in their second death. With the physical aspect, the torment increases.
There is no rest, mentally or physically.
Unlike cartoon depictions, there is no drinks trolley at 6 p.m. There is no fun, no beauty of any kind, nothing to lift the spirit. There aren’t any relationships, either.
It’s hard for us to imagine.
In closing, MacArthur reminds us:
John the Baptist didn’t come along … and say, “It would certainly be wonderful if you would repent,” he said, “Repent, or else.”
Don’t wait until it’s too late.
Churchmouse Campanologist 