HELL

A FINAL

WORD

HELL

A FINAL

WORD

THE SURPRISING TRUTHS I FOUND IN THE BIBLE

EDWARD WILLIAM FUDGE

HELL: A FINAL WORD

The surprising truths I found in the Bible

Copyright 2012 by Edward William Fudge

ISBN 978-089112-149-7

Printed in the United States of America

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise—without prior written consent.

Quotations from the Bible are translated by the author.

Cover design by Marc Whitaker
Interior text design by Sandy Armstrong

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TO MOTHER

Known to the world as Sybil Short Fudge Dewhirst:

The personification of
godly devotion,
humble service,
Christlike selflessness,
and faithful loyalty;

She preached by pattern,
taught by example,
and loved without boundaries or discrimination.

She risked her life to give me mine—
Invested her reputation in my defense;
Whom I can never repay,
but who never expected that anyway.

Edward

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book calls for special words of appreciation to:

Jackie Lyles, who suggested it,
Leonard Allen, who requested it,
Jesse Ward, who brainstormed it,
Mark Lanier, who sponsored it, and
Sara Faye Fudge, who edited it.

Thank you, and God bless you,
one and all,

Edward William Fudge

“Hell was not made for men.
It is in no sense parallel to heaven;
It is ‘the darkness outside,’
the outer rim where being fades away
into nonentity.”

C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

MY INVITATION TO YOU

No doubt about it . . . HELL is a hot topic. And whatever they say on the subject, it seems almost everyone has an opinion. On one side of the aisle, promising sunny days and fair skies now and forever, are the television gurus, New Age evangelists and outright skeptics. On the other side we find prophets and priests, preachers and pundits—in full agreement as to hell’s reality, while still debating the precise details.

If, like me, you take the Bible seriously (whether or not you also take it literally), you know that hell is part of its vision of the final future. That means we also must take hell into account in our own understanding of Last Things, else we will find ourselves looking at a distorted picture when measured by the book we all claim to follow.

That, of course, will require much thought—which itself calls for certain preparation if we are to do it well. Chief among those preparations, I suggest, are an open Bible, an open heart, and an open mind. Come join me with all three and let’s see what surprises might await!