WesleyGospel Ministries

Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?
–Luke 13:7 (KJV)–

1. I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord’s will, whatever it may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.

2. Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.

3. I seek the Will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.

4. Next I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God’s Will in connection with His Word and Spirit. [Edit:–He’s probably referring to financial miracles, as this was a frequent experience for him, in connection to different services connected with his orphanage. I would add dream interpretation, vision interpretation, and mental voice interpretation into the mix; along with sign interpretation or divine coincidences, and include them all as valid messages from God, when judged by Scripture, and in agreement with its moral principles.–J.B.]

5. I ask God in prayer to reveal His Will to me aright.

6. Thus, through prayer to God, the study of the Word, and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. In trivial matters, and in transactions involving most important issues, I have found this method always effective.

O quickly come, dread Judge of all;
for, awful though thine advent be,
all shadows from the truth will fall,
and falsehood die, in sight of thee:
O quickly come, for doubt and fear
like clouds dissolve when thou art near.

O quickly come, great King of all;
reign all around us and within;
let sin no more our souls enthrall,
let pain and sorrow die with sin:
O quickly come, for thou alone
canst make thy scattered people one.

O quick­ly come, true Life of all;
For death is migh­ty all around;
On ev­ery home his sha­dows fall,
On ev­ery heart his mark is found.
O quick­ly come, for grief and pain
Can ne­ver cloud Thy glo­ri­ous reign.

O quick­ly come, sure light of all
For gloomy night broods o’er our way;
And weak­ly souls be­gin to fall
With wea­ry watch­ing for the day.
O quick­ly come, for round Thy throne
No eye is blind, no night is known.

And I watch how your big words
Return with an echo of emptiness
Inside your walls of fear
Feeding the insecurity

And I watch as your soul
Swallows the blackest lie
Resurrection rejected
Denial of the truth
Symptoms of a blind man

The spirit that fears the Blood
Can never bring truth
Fallen with the snake
Never to rule

To comprehend the insanity
Of this grand illusion
Is unbearable

And I watch you return to your folly
As a dog returns to it’s vomit
The choice has been made
Abandoning the call of freedom

The spirit that fears the Blood
Can never bring truth
Fallen with the snake
Never to rule
–Extol, “And I Watch”–

Responding to John Crowder’s universalist “Consuming Fire” series caused me to refine some of my Hell-fire bibliography that I had originally laid down in my book The Gospel of Jesus Christ…

Augustine, The City of God (Penguin, 2003), ch. 21.26.

Jonathan Edwards, The Wrath of Almighty God. Ed. Don Kistler (Soli Deo Gloria, 1996).

—. The Torments of Hell: Jonathan Edwards on Eternal Damnation. Ed. William Nichols (International Outreach, 2006).

John Gerstner, Heaven and Hell: Jonathan Edwards on the Afterlife (Baker Books, 1984).

—. Repent or Perish: With a Special Reference to the Conservative Attack on Hell (Soli Deo Gloria, 1990).

John Wesley, “Of Hell.”

George Whitefield, “The Eternity of Hell-Torments.”

Robert Peterson, Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal Punishment (P&R, 1995).

—, and Christopher Morgan, eds. Hell Under Fire (Zondervan, 2004).

—, and Christopher Morgan, eds. Is Hell for Real or Does Everyone Go to Heaven? (Zondervan, 2011).

W.G.T. Shedd, The Doctrine of Endless Punishment (The Banner of Truth Trust, 1986).

Thomas Vincent, Fire and Brimstone (Soli Deo Gloria, 1999).

Westminster Confession of Faith (The Banner of Truth Trust), chs. 10.3-4; 32-33.

A. W. Pink, The Attributes of God (Baker Books, 2006), ch. 16.

John Blanchard, The Truth About Hell (Evangelical Press, 2017).

—. Whatever Happened to Hell? (Evangelical Press, 1993).

John R. Rice, Hell! What the Bible Says About It (Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1942).

Thomas C. Oden, John Wesley’s Teachings, vol. 1 (Zondervan, 2012), p. 156ff.

—. John Wesley’s Teachings, vol. 2 (Zondervan, 2012), p. 180ff.

Randolph Foster, Objections to Calvinism As It Is (Schmul Publishing, 1998), ch. 8.

Kenneth J. Collins, The Theology of John Wesley (Abingdon Press, 2011), ch. 2.

Harry Buis, The Doctrine of Eternal Punishment (P&R, 1957).

John Walvoord, “The Literal View,” in Four Views on Hell (Zondervan, 1996).

Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley, eds. Reformed Systematic Theology: Church and the Last Things, vol. 4 (Crossway, 2019), ch. 39.

David Bercot, ed. A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs (Hendrickson Publishers, 1998), p. 242ff.

Speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. –Titus 2:1 (KJV)

As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. –Romans 8:14 (KJV)

Mack Tomlinson, In Light of Eternity: The Life of Leonard Ravenhill (Free Grace Press, 2010). An example of a man who was led by the Holy Spirit, but was never tied down to any one church, or under the “supervision” of an elder board. He had preacher friends, but he was not under anyone’s covering. He preferred good Baptist preaching more than anything else, although he would also answer speaking invitations to Pentecostal and holiness churches.

John Wimber, The Way In Is the Way On (Ampelon Publishing, 2006), ch. 9: “Power Healing.”

Recalling the road, leading it away from right
As the dark had appeared as the light
Tricked to cross the line, dragged further in
Then trapped in a swirl of wicked lies
–Extol, “Undeceived”–

God is angry with the wicked every day. –Psalm 7:11 (KJV)

When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? –Matthew 3:7 (KJV)

This implies that those groups didn’t preach on the wrath of God, judgment, or Hell. Among all the rabbis in Jerusalem, who among the Bible teachers has warned them about God’s wrath against sin, about Hell, and the Day of Judgment? Its a rhetorical question: the answer is nobody, which is why they’re going to hear about if they come out to the desert to see John the Baptist. The Pharisees and Sadducees were into easy-believism, no-lordship, or anti-repentance type of religion; and John meant that people like that are headed for a burning Hell (Matthew 3:8-12). –J.B.

“The alarm he gives them is, Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? This intimates that they were in danger of the wrath to come; and that their case was so nearly desperate, and their hearts so hardened in sin (the Pharisees by their parade of religion, and the Sadducees by their arguments against religion), that it was next to a miracle to effect anything hopeful among them. “What brings you hither? Who thought of seeing you here? What fright have you been put into, that you enquire after the kingdom of heaven?” Note, (1.) There is a wrath to come; besides present wrath, the vials of which are poured out now, there is future wrath, the stores of which are treasured up for hereafter. (2.) It is the great concern of every one of us to flee from this wrath. (3.) It is wonderful mercy that we are fairly warned to flee from this wrath; think–Who has warned us? God has warned us, who delights not in our ruin; he warns by the written word, by ministers, by conscience. (4.) These warnings sometime startle those who seemed to have been very much hardened in their security and good opinion of themselves.” —MATTHEW HENRY’S COMMENTARY

It is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.   –2 Thessalonians 1:6-9 (NKJV)

They cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?   –Revelation 6:10 (KJV)

Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. –Matthew 7:23 (KJV)

Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. –Matthew 25:41 (KJV)

These shall go away into everlasting punishment. –Matthew 25:46 (KJV)

—

The Jesus Trip, “God Is Hell.”

Robert Peterson, Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal Punishment (P&R, 1995), chs. 10-11.

J. I. Packer in Hell Under Fire (Zondervan, 2004), ch. 8: “Universalism: Will Everyone Ultimately Be Saved?”

A. W. Pink, The Attributes of God (Baker Books, 2006), ch. 16: “The Wrath of God.”

Many turn away from a vision of God’s wrath as though they were called to look upon some blotch in the divine character, or some blot upon the divine government. But what says the Scriptures? As we turn to them we find that God has made no attempt to conceal the fact of His wrath. He is not ashamed to make it known that vengeance and fury belong to Him. His own challenge is, “See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no God with me: I kill, and I make alive: I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me” (Deut. 32:39-41). A study of the concordance shows that there are more references in Scripture to the anger, fury, and wrath of God, than there are to His love and tenderness. Because God is holy, He hates all sin; because He hates all sin, His anger burns against the sinner (Ps. 7:11).

Our readiness or our reluctance to meditate upon the wrath of God becomes a sure test of how our hearts really are affected toward Him. If we do not truly rejoice in God, for what He is in Himself, and that because of all the perfections which are eternally resident in Him, then how dwelleth the love of God in us? Each of us needs to be most prayerfully on guard against devising an image of God in our thoughts which is patterned after our own evil inclinations. Of old, the Lord complained, “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether…as thyself” (Ps. 50:21). If we rejoice not “at the remembrance of his holiness” (Ps. 97:12), if we rejoice not to know that in a soon coming day God will make a glorious display of His wrath, by taking vengeance on all who now oppose Him, it is proof positive that our hearts are not in subjection to Him; that we are yet in our sins.

A word to preachers: Do we in our oral ministry preach on this solemn subject as much as we ought? The Old Testament prophets frequently told their hearers that their wicked lives provoked the Holy One of Israel, and that they were treasuring up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath. Conditions in the world are no better now than they were then! Nothing is so calculated to arouse the careless and cause carnal professors to search their hearts, as to enlarge upon the fact that “God is angry with the wicked every day” (Ps. 7:11).

The forerunner of Christ warned his hearers to “flee from the wrath to come” (Matthew 3:7). The Savior bade His auditors, “Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him” (Luke 12:5). Paul said, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men” (2 Cor. 5:11). Faithfulness demands that we speak as plainly about hell as about heaven.