Hell
Hell. The word has become a convenient slang expression of dislike or emphasis such as “cold as hell” or he plays baseball “like hell”. Now as a theological subject hell has been bandied about as a myth, or somewhat less than the medieval view, or in actuality an eternal place of torment beyond what anyone could imagine. This word generally speaking covers the words Sheol, Gehenna, and the Lake of Fire along with the many descriptive glimpses into what hell actually is. So when I refer to it as hell I mean the eternal place of punishment which has several names but hell being the most familiar.
Now in order to deny its existence one must deny the plain teaching of the Scriptures. Jesus refers to the eternal hell time and time again, and it is disingenuous to take his parables about hell and render them useless by dragging their meaning down to mean earthly discomfort. That is what we have heard from so many unbelievers who claim hell is here on earth and only heaven awaits all of us after death. It is stunning to watch thousands and perhaps millions of professing believers, enamored with the intellect of the preacher, actually listen as he systematically removes the open and intended meaning from the New Testament and claim they do not refer to an eternal place of torment.
We always thought that the question “How could a loving God send people to hell” would be asked in the midst of liberal churches and also by unbelievers, but now that question is not only asked in evangelical circles it is taught as new revelation. Hell has taken on an uneducated and unenlightened connotation even within churches that still want to be considered evangelical. And within evangelical churches that still believe in hell, the lack of passion about the eternal damnation of the lost removes the edge from the truth they say they espouse. Most are more interested in buildings, success, marriage, self esteem, and a myriad of others things at the expense of the place we call hell.
How cruel would it have been for Jesus to speak to us in a code that uses terms like, the worm never dies, torment, cast into the fire, furnace of fire, everlasting fire, and scores of other words and phrases that make it evident in His description that hell is real, hell is torture, and hell is forever? That would be the greatest deception of all if a God of love purposely threw an incredible scare into His people. The Scriptures tell us that God has not given us the spirit of fear which means God does not want us to walk totally in unsubstantiated fear, but Jesus has warned us to fear him who has the power to cast the body into hell and its “unquenchable fire”. Our Master would not have given us such vivid imagery of this awful place called hell unless it was real. Let us examine a few things that describe this place we call hell.
First it is eternal. Matt.3:12 - “Whose fan is in His Hand (Jesus), and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire”. This fire that burns up the chaff will never be quenched. The chaff is never completely burned up so the fire continues. How is that possible? Rom.9:22 - "What if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction”. The lost will one day received a vessel that is fitted for destruction in hell where they will never die but suffer the pangs of tortured death for eternity.
That is an incredible thing to actually believe and because of the deep and overwhelming nature of that truth many today have abandoned believing it. Let us be honest, none of us have acted in a way that is consistent with that truth, have we? Are we so passionate, so driven, and so broken about souls on their way to hell that believer and unbeliever alike must say, “Look, this person must REALLY believe what he says he does!”? The answer is obviously no. How many pillows, void of any tear stains, can testify against us as we sleep comfortably while millions perish at the rate of 150,000 a day? How many of us have shied from witnessing because of social fear or inconvenience or even being judged as unsophisticated? Or maybe just consumed with our own lives? All of us are guilty of them all.
But still hell is for eternity. There are souls there at this very moment who have been there for thousands of earth years and there are souls who have arrived this very day and are just becoming horribly acclimated with their eternal plight. Three times in Mark chapter 9 the Lord uses the phrase “Where the worm doesn’t die and the fire is never quenched”. That is a way to press home the eternality of hell, there is no sign of a temporary purgatory there. Can you imagine opening your eyes in hell and realizing you would be there for one million years? How could you cope with such a thought and what supernatural emotions would go through your mind? But at least you would have a million year hope, small as it would seem. But when someone “wakes up” in hell and realizes they are there forever…and ever…and ever…how can we even fathom such a scenario?
Remember, many are dismantling the truth about hell because it is distasteful and unsophisticated in our post modern world. They tell stories and present tortured etymological theories and twisted Hebraic contexts that implant doubt not faith. They are controlled by the Evil One himself whose wish is that many will one day join him in that awful place that was originally prepared for him and his angels. Think about it, with the shallow and convenient witnessing that the church does now, consider what effect it would have if we all thought there was no hell. All the great preachers and evangelists who were mightily used of God believed in eternal punishment for the wicked sinner without Christ’s forgiveness. Would there ever have been a Whitefield or Wesley or Edwards if they had not believed in hell?
We are indebted to the Christ who saved our souls from hell to obey His command and go and warn others, and as the rich man in hell (Lk.16) pleaded we must go and tell others about God’s gift of deliverance and salvation. Anyone who diminishes or questions or in fact teaches that hell is not a real and an eternal place of tormented justice must be considered anathema to all of us. I know, it seems so intellectual and so merciful and so modern to be extricated from the fundamentalist doctrine of hell but never forget, you are being led away from the teachings of the Lord Jesus Himself, not just the teachings of men.
Second it is torment. Jude tells us that Sodom and Gomorrah were and example of “suffering the vengeance of eternal fire”. The rich man in hell was surely concerned with the prospect of his brothers coming to that place of torment (Lk.16). This place called hell carries with it eternal suffering and torment. Many today make light and jest of this type of description concerning hell but they only reveal their own deep deception. Think about how people will do anything to avoid fire and its burns. Some people had jumped from eighty stories from the World Trade Centers on 9/11 just to avoid the flames. They chose death by jumping more than waiting one more minute in the heat. It is fire that our Lord used as a metaphor for us to comprehend the colossal nature of hell’s torment.
Haven’t we all experienced some burn on our fingers that torments us for hours? One of the most painful sections of the hospital is the burn units. These torments in hell are no minor matter, they are real and they are torment and torture way beyond our ability to comprehend. But how could a loving God do that? Be careful, you are constructing a God after your own understanding and not according to His revelation of Himself. And if fire is a metaphor because the spiritual reality is beyond us then we should be all the more concerned.
Third it is for the unbeliever. The Scripture tells us in Hebrews that “He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy…”. (Heb.10:28) That phrase “died without mercy” is an especially bone chilling description of someone who passes from this life to the next without the sin forgiving mercy of the blood of Christ. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” says the writer of Hebrews. (Heb.10:31) God has poured out His wrath upon His Son for us, but for those who refuse the redemption of Christ their end is just the beginning of an unimaginable eternity. As I said it is very difficult to fully believe in a literal hell and so we either reject the clear teaching or we refuse to think about it very often. Even those of us who believe what Jesus said about hell have a somewhat shallow faith about it.
In the sight of a holy and righteous God the unbeliever is not some well intentioned creature genuinely attempting to find his Creator, no, the sinner is a disgusting enemy of the Most High who considers himself his own deity and rejects all calls for faith and obedience which will inconvenience his life of hedonism and sin. Each and every unbeliever lives a life of eternal peril that only waits for his last heartbeat to begin the judgment that awaits all those whose sin enters eternity uncovered and unforgiven. It is no wonder the angels of heaven rejoice when one sinner repents and believes because they are well aware of the tormented justice that will meet the unrepentant unbeliever.
In reality there are only two kinds of people in the redemptive economy of Christ, saved and lost. There is no in-between and there is no negotiation, one is either a believer or an unbeliever. A sinner might be pious and believe in Allah and horizontally speaking may be a kind and gracious person, but he is still lost and headed for hell. We must not give way to these new theologies that deceptively suggest that sincere adherents to other religions that follow other gods can be saved without believing on Christ, they cannot. The kindest and most generous sinner whose demeanor and behavior puts many believers to shame is still an enemy of the cross of Christ and is bound for hell because his sin is still unresolved forever. The works of man have no part in God’s redemption, it rests alone on one and only one work, the work of God’s Dear Son Who shed His blood upon the cross and then rose from the dead. That work is the only issue and can only become a sinner’s eternal covering and salvation by faith and by faith alone.
So hell now and the lake of fire in the future will be filled with unbelievers. No second chances, no purgatory, they will spend eternity in a place of torment. If a man had to spend eternity with just the torment of an ingrown toenail he would be in misery, so just imagine what sinners will go through in a torment so horrible it can only be described as fire. We do not fully believe in that hell, do we? Come on, if we really believed that kind of eternal place of torment we would witness more, pray more, fast more, and surely weep more for the unbelievers that we know and in fact the entire world. Oh but we are so concerned that our comfortable lives may be affected if we meditate upon the consequences of hell. We fear we may be seen as a fanatic even among church people. If God would see our broken hearts over hell bound sinners He just might call us to a more direct and sacrificial service to the Lord Christ.
It was unbelievers like you and I were that consumed God’s heart and ultimately had the divine Word come to earth, put on human clothing, and suffer the punishment of our sin in our place. Words are almost embarrassing sometimes when we attempt to fully grasp the enormity of the sufferings on that bloody Roman cross. To think that God could come as God incarnate and allow Himself the indignation of death and in that death He was paying the price for the sins of the entire world. What kind of sufferings would take the place of one sinner’s eternity in hell? But the entire world? It causes us to gasp with holy awe and bow in broken worshipful gratefulness when we realize He suffered like that for me, for you.
Finally to speak of hell on the printed page is to so mute the reality that it is almost a disservice but it is our command and our only vehicle of communication. I will always contend that if we could bring five men back from hell they would dramatically affect much of the church with their passionate witness and personal testimony of the time they spent in hell. Forget about anyone who claims to have gone there and returned, they have not. The reality of hell and its teaching from the lips of our Lord will continue to be attacked through subtle and creative methods, but we must stand fast and ask God for the faith to fully believe what He has said about hell.
If we ever really believe in hell, it will revolutionize the church.
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