Dangerous neglect – Part 1

Some things God considers as important are entirely lost to many people, including some Christians. And to underline these vital requirements, the Lord often employed parables or illustrations or stories in the scriptures. This then explains why Jesus Christ revealed the great significance of the neglected ministry of the Word through the story of the rich man and Lazarus. The account, through which Jesus revealed the reality of hell more than any other prophet or preacher in both old and new testaments, is not a parable, as He did not mention names in His parables. He described vividly the perpetual, eternal suffering and damnation of all sinners after death.

Deserving of our constant attention in the story is the revelation that, one, a man’s outward condition is no proof of his state in the sight of God. Two, death is the common end to which all classes of people must come. Three, the souls of believers are especially cared for by God in the hour of death. Four, the unconverted immediately goes to hell at death; there is no purgatory or place of waiting or improvement. Five, hell is as real, eternal and perpetual as heaven.

Six, in hell, there is perpetual and eternal fire, flame, torment, pain, suffering, sorrow, regret and remembrance, a place where there’s no water, peace, love, sympathy, relief, light, fun, excitement, joke, jesting, escape, ease or annihilation and seven, the unconverted will suddenly realise the value of a soul after death. It was this realisation that made the rich man request from Abraham that Lazarus should be sent to the world to warn his sinful brethren of the danger of hell. “Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them” (Luke 16:29).

Abraham’s objection affirms the truth that God’s plan, purpose, pattern and project of appointing His ministers with the ministry of the Word (and not the testimony of those who died and rose again about hell or heaven) are to save sinners. The reason is that their claims do not tell of the atoning blood of Jesus, conversion, repentance and holiness without, which no man shall see the Lord, and perseverance of the saints till the end. They have no doctrine at all, but fables that cannot save. “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 16:31). The Scripture’s mention of “Moses and the prophets” does not refer to them in person, but their writings. Now, we have the totality of the word of God revealed by Moses, the prophets, Christ and the apostles. If we read and do everything instructed in the entire Scripture, heaven will be ours.

Abraham’s directive that the five sinful brothers (representing all sinners) of the rich man should hear Moses and the prophets was for them to read their writings and be transformed to avoid going to hell. It is obvious that Moses and the prophets did not converge in any temple to minister to people as they lived in different centuries, separated by hundreds of years. Though they are gone, their writings are available for everyone to read and understand what it means to get to heaven.

Christ revealed Himself in the writings of Moses and the prophets after His resurrection. “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). He did not tell stories or mention names of people He saw in hell or heaven, when He arose, as some people who downplay the ministry of the Word do today. He simply preached from existing “scriptures” to bring conviction on His disciples about salvation and godly lifestyle of the heaven-bound.

After affirming “all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning [Him]… Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the SCRIPTURES” that “Thus it is WRITTEN, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”

In fulfilment of Scriptures, Christ, the expected “Prophet,” has come to save from sin. All that the apostles preached was from the writings of Moses and the prophets. Reading and studying the Old Testament should drive us to repentance, conviction and prayer to have all the needed spiritual experiences. Moses and the prophets are not the Saviour; their writings only serve as the “schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24).
Further Reading (King James Version): Luke 16:19-31; Luke 24:27,32,44-47; Acts 3:22-24,26; 26:20-23; 28:23,24,27; Galatians 3:24.