Scripture photo, Hell ("Church Bulletin" Series)

Church bulletins are great. They contain information the congregant will need during the week, such as which deacons are 'on call', who is going to staff the nursery next week, and what time the church supper starts on Wednesday. Some pastors include sermon notes, or a devotional.

The cover always contains a pretty picture and a lovely verse. The picture is always eye catching. One might see a meadow-covered mountain top or a close-up of a pretty flower. The verse is always likewise. Always. It's encouraging, or it speaks of God's love or a promise of God.

I'm irked by this.

Leave it to me to be irked by something pleasant, right? But just once I'd like to see a different kind of verse on the front of a bulletin, a verse that speaks of God's wrath, or His justice, or something unpleasant. "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness," says 2 Timothy 3:16, so let's not always focus on the verses that please us or encourage us. What about the verses that challenge us, or convict us, or make us think, or speak of an aspect of God that's increasingly denied these days, such as His wrath?

This week will be scripture photos of ones you never see on a church bulletin or online as a scripture picture. But I love these just as much as the flowery ones or the encouraging ones. So get ready for scripture photos, Prata-style. If anyone needs a church bulletin lady, I'm available...

EPrata photo

The Matthew 10:28 verse is saying, as Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary explains, is:

Our Lord warned his disciples to prepare for persecution. They were to avoid all things which gave advantage to their enemies, all meddling with worldly or political concerns, all appearance of evil or selfishness, and all underhand measures. Christ foretold troubles, not only that the troubles might not be a surprise, but that they might confirm their faith. He tells them what they should suffer, and from whom. Thus Christ has dealt fairly and faithfully with us, in telling us the worst we can meet with in his service

Gill's Exposition says,

this is peculiarly solemn, "I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear," even Him.
which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell—A decisive proof this that there is a hell for the body as well as the soul in the eternal world; in other words, that the torment that awaits the lost will have elements of suffering adapted to the material as well as the spiritual part of our nature, both of which, we are assured, will exist for ever. In the corresponding warning contained in Luke (Lu 12:4), Jesus calls His disciples "My friends," as if He had felt that such sufferings constituted a bond of peculiar tenderness between Him and them

Scripture photo "Church Bulletin" series #1, Vulture

Scripture photo "Church Bulletin" series #2, Anguish

Scripture photo "Church Bulletin" series #4, Lake of Fire

Scripture photo "Church Bulletin" series #5, Wrath
the-end-time.blogspot.com/2016/01/scripture-photo-wrath-church-bulletin.html