For September 17, 2026
The Great Fixed Chasm by Greg Holmes, D.MIN – Director of Missions serving 17 churches
DEFINING HEAVEN AND HELL in biblical context is difficult. Though the bible speaks frequently of both, it develops the description and meaning of each progressively over time. In God’s mind the issues regarding both are clear, but we are not fully privy to his thoughts. For us, each ‘place’ has a certain fluid sense of this depending upon where we make entrance to the biblical historical timeline. A simplistic juxtaposition of the accounts found in O.T. and N.T. is enough to give a sense of how the indeterminate inferences of the earlier scriptures have morphed into more comprehensive doctrine by the end of the later ones. If we attempt to position ourselves outside linear time, say past the Book of Revelation, and see redeemed man forever glorified and condemned man vilified eternally, we arrive fairly close to the classical Christian understanding of what has come to be considered doctrine.