The Great Chasm

July 21

(Luke 16:23-28 NIV) ““In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. {24} "So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' {25} "But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. {26} And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.' {27} "He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, {28} for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.””

(2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 NIV) “God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you {7} and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. {8} He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. {9} They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power {10} on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.”

The rich man died and was now suffering in hell. He wanted Lazarus to come over to his side with some water. But Abraham tells him that is not possible because a great chasm has been fixed between them. “Fixed” means permanent. The chasm will be there for eternity. In hell, the rich man feels concern for his brothers, and wants to warn them about the horror of hell -- but he cannot. One of the greatest torments of the dead is that they cannot warn the living. No one comes back from the other side, even to do good. There is an impenetrable wall between the here and the hereafter. At the moment of death, our destiny is sealed forever. After we die, there is nothing we can do to change our eternal destination. There is an un-crossable chasm between heaven and hell. We enter one or the other, and there is no crossing over or coming back. The time for choosing is now, not later. -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day