Darkness and Hell at Christmas Time

For some reason Christmas has become too angelic, all lights and glitter and shining cherubs on gaudy Christmas cards. There is some truth to this, of course. When Christ came as a child the true light shineth. But Christmas is also about demons and hell and darkness. It is about the darkness of eternal fire. It is about the terrors of death. It is about the dragons that live in our own hearts. There is nothing wrong with rejoicing in the light, but if we forget the darkness the light loses its potency.  It is easy at Christmas time to take the light for granted. To forget what Christ actually came to do.

It may come as a surprise that many of the Advent and Christmas songs we sing mention this darkness and hell. I thought I would quote a few lines from these songs to give some perspective on what exactly Christ came to do. 

O Come, O Come Emmanuel is one of the best carols to show who we were before Christ came. It views God's people as in exile and  bondage to Satan and in need of rescue. Verses 3 and 4 clearly bring this out.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.

The fourth verse of the song Savior of the Nations, Come has these lines in it:

From the Father forth he came and returneth to the same
Captive leading death and hell, High the song of triumph swell.

The final verse of Good Christian Men Rejoice, says, "now ye need not fear the grave."

Of course, Joy to the World, talks about Christ coming to make his blessings flow "far as the curse is found."

Let All Mortal  Flesh Keep Silence, says that Christ descends 'from the realms of endless day, that the powers of hell may vanish."

Lo, How a  Rose E're Blooming, states that Christ "dispels with glorious splendor/the darkness everywhere."

Of the Father's Love Begotten says in verse 3:
He is found in human fashion death and sorrow here to know
That the race of Adam's children doomed by law to endless woe
May not henceforth die and perish In the
dreadful gulf below evermore and evermore.

I am sure there are some I have missed. Numerous Christmas songs speak specifically of Christ's victory over sin, which means his victory over death and Hell.

And of course, the Scriptures speak to this as well. In Matthew Jesus' birth is not follow by peace on earth, but by Herod killing the children and Joseph fleeing with his family to Egypt. The battle begins at the Incarnation. Herod knew this. Unfortunately, we often do not.

In Luke the power of Christ's birth is sung about. Mary states that when God sent Christ he:
Showed strength with his arm
Scattered the proud
Put down the mighty
Filled the hungry
But sent the rich away empty.

Zacharias says that Christ came so:
We should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us..
That we will be delivered from the hand of our enemies.

So Christmas is not just about a child born in a manger. It is about a King who came to banish all the powers of darkness and Hell. When the angel came to Mary and the angels sung to the shepherds the end of our enemies was already at hand. Christ came to destroy all our enemies. So don't forget darkness, Hell, Satan, Herod, death, and sin during this Christmas. If we forget these things we forget what Christmas was really about.

And the Gates of Hell Shall not Prevail Against Her

Matthew 16:18b and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 

          

The promise here is a simple one, but one that should give us great courage. Death, sin, Satan, and all the powers of darkness will not overcome God’s people. Why? This is Jesus’ Church. He will overcome all and so his people will overcome all. The human heart is so easily gripped by fear that Christ must constantly remind us that he is in charge. He is the one with authority.  We are weak and the powers of Hell so mighty. The forces of darkness rally against us. We rarely hold positions of power and authority in the world. Governments clamp down on us and burn Bibles. Churches are destroyed and Christians killed around the world. Hollywood actively opposes the Christian faith with billions of dollars with of movies and TV shows every year. Christianity is bad mouthed by the media. Wolves are within the fold. Wolves are outside the fold. Yet somehow the Church marches on. Somehow civilizations fall, yet we do not. Somehow Rome, France, Spain, England, and now America fade into the sunset, but the Church marches on. She preaches and prays and worships and gives alms. She meets in huts and store fronts and houses and cathedrals.  She tells her people to turn the other cheek and to live peaceably with all men and to lead a quiet and peaceful life and to deny yourself. Yet she conquers all. Nations like Russia try to stamp her out and fail miserably. Jesus cannot lose. Hell doesn’t have a chance.  I think this is why Christians like to read and write stories about underdogs. For example, we love Lord of the Rings. A small Hobbit with hairy feet saves the world. I am reading a story now to the boys about an assistant pig keeper who is fighting against the forces of evil.  Christians feel these types of stories are true to the real story, the story of Christ the carpenter’s son and all his losers who conquer the world. 

(Excerpt from my sermon this past Sunday.)

Hell and the Truth

Here is a longer quote from Trinity and Reality about hell. This section of his book is truly terrifying. The picture of man in Hell, as lonely, isolated, separated from God and man, burning physically and psychologically was a picture not easily dismissed from the mind.

"Man in hell cannot control his thoughts and motives. He is caught in the iron trap of his sinful self because that is all that is left of him. God no longer restrains his sin, upholding the nobler aspects of his character as Gods' image. At the same time, the man cannot satisfy his lusts either. He is confined to a world in which lust rages without limit and without satisfaction. The more he lusts, the greater his frustation--the greater his frustration, the more the fires of lust burn.

Thus, hell is dis-intergration in the sense that the sinner contradicts his own self. The horror of hell is the horror of the man who looks into the mirror of his soul and sees all the monsters, all the fearsome and foul fiends he so loathes and abominates. The fire of hell is the fire of a conscience that can no longer escape the penetrating self-accusation, the clear and complete knowledge of one's utter perversity--all the excuses gone, every form of self-justification and self-deception stripped away, so that nothing is left but the most unpleasant, unendurable, unbearable truth. The psychology of hell is the psychology of a man whose greatest torture is to become what he truly is and know it with infallible certainty." (p. 186)