When you think of Hell, what is the first image to pop in your mind? Is it like this picture? Do you imagine little imps with horns and pitchforks? Rivers of lava? Who do you think is there? People like you? No, can't be. Hell is reserved for only the worst of the worst- the Hitlers, Stalins, Maos, and Bin Ladens. Don't forget all the icky Atheists, Muslims, Hindus, etc! Most of them are probably there. How about the non-churchy type in America? Well, if they live good enough lives then they can go to heaven!
If you cringed at all while reading the above, then congrats!!! You probably already know the truth about Hell. Everyone else, have a seat. We have some discussing to do.
Before we get into that, I want to add that this is the typical type of reading about Hell. I'm not trying to scare you. I'm not trying to preach fire and brimstone. I am simply stating what the Bible has to say about this place called Hell. And this will not, of course, be an exhaustive study.
So what is Hell? Most people would answer something like "the place where evil people are punished forever". This is sort of correct, but not quite. The first thing we need to look at all the terms associated with what is commonly called Hell.
*Sheol- This is the first term found in the Bible to signify an afterlife for those who have died. The ancient Israelites believed that all people who died, regardless of wicked or righteous, would go to Sheol to await the Resurrection.
*Hades- The Greek equivalent to Sheol. In the Parable of Lazarus and the rich man, Jesus seems to imply a separation in Hades/Sheol, as the rich man is being punished with Fire and Lazarus was in "Abraham's Bosom", a place of comfort.
*Gehenna- Literally named after the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. The valley was a very wicked place where pagans and apostate Jews sacrificed children to the god Moloch or Baal, by burning them. (2 Chronicles 33:6, 2 Kings 23:10, Jeremiah 19:2-6). Jesus spoke about Hell using this word (Mark 9:43-48, Matthew 10:28)
*Lake of Fire- This is different from Hades/Sheol as Revelation 20: 13&14 point out:
13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.
14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.
The Lake of Fire, therefore, cannot be the same as Hades/Sheol. However, when Jesus does talk about Gehenna, he mentions fire and darkness and such, so I think it is reasonable to assume that Gehenna and Lake of Fire are referring to the same place: Eternal Hell.
Now, the big confusion about the proper usage of Hell has come from poor translations of the above words. In the KJV Hades/Sheol is often translated as Hell, along with Gehenna. So people have this mumble jumble view of the after life in regards to Hell. My use of Hell in this blog is not that mumble jumble view where Hades/Gehenna are combined. My use of Hell will strictly be used for the concept of Gehenna/Lake of Fire, the eternal death. Any place where I say Hell, I mean that. If I mean Hades/Sheol, I will explicitly say those words.
Okay, so we have the basic concepts down. Let's starting building a picture here. When a person dies, Scripture says they will go into Hades/Sheol until the Second Coming of Christ and the Resurrection of believers(1 Corinthians 6:14,15:12-13; 2 Corinthians 4:14,Hebrews 6:2 1 Thessalonians 4:13-16.)or final judgement for unbelievers (Revelation 19:20, 20:10-15, 21:8). Upon being judged and receiving eternal death, people will be cast into the Lake of Fire, where there is no escape.
So far, so good, I hope. We did the "what", now its time to do the "who" and "why". This is really easy to answer: Hell is for those who do not profess faith in Christ. They will be judged, not simply for taking a namesake, but are punished for rebelling against the fundamentals of God's character and His commands. It is easy to give that answer, simply for an answers sake. However, when I think about what that implies it causes me physical illness. My stomach gets in knots.
That is why I wrote this particular blog.
There are quite a few people in the world, heck even in my own life, that reject Christ. I am not the Judge, but scripture makes it quite clear that those who reject God will be punished in Hell, eternally separated from His grace. I can name a whole host of people who I know who are without Christ, and if they die, it is almost certain they will spend eternity apart from God. This is a depressing thought, is it not? Family, friends, co-workers, people I admire and love dearly; all will be cast away. I know we all have these people in our lives. This brings up another question: why don't we do more to express this reality to those people? Hell isn't simply reserved for Hitler, Stalin, and Satan. It's reserved for every, mom, cousin, husband, child, best friend, pew-filler, cop, soldier, postal worker, manager, lawyer(yeah, duh!), etc.
There are, I imagine, many people who assume they will be in Paradise, but will be surprised to find out that simply living a 'good life' won't cut it before a Holy and Righteous God. People don't realize that simply not murdering(in their heart), not lying(too much), not lusting(in front of your spouse), isn't enough to gain God's favor. Nothing we can do will make up for the rebellion we have. That is why it is imperative we stress the Gospel of Christ, which alone saves people from Hell. Man is depraved, and if God is in anyway at all a God of justice, the evil will be punished. Either we accept Christ's punishment on our behalf, or we take the eternal punishment on ourselves. It is that simple.
So our picture now looks more like this:
A person who lives a life apart from God. They may do various good things, such as avoiding murdering a person, but those deeds alone are not enough to bridge the gap between them and God. As a result, when they die they will, along with the believer be sent to Sheol, awaiting the Second Coming of Christ. They will be separated from the believer, who is in comfort while waiting. Instead, the unbeliever will face some torment and darkness. Christ will come back and raise His saint and judge them as Righteous. Those left will face Christ and give an account of their life, which will be lacking of Him. They will then be cast away into the Lake of Fire to be punished.
This brings us to the most controversial part of Hell, which is, undoubtedly, hardly spoken on. Not everyone agrees with this viewpoint, and it isn't explicitly stated in Scripture, but I believe following logic a person would come to this conclusion. There is no sugar coated way to say this, so I will be blunt. God is in Hell.
Whoa. HOLD UP. God...in HELL??? Before you assume I am some Heretic or smoking the marijuana, let me explain. Trust me, when I first heard this idea I was like WHAT??? That is crazy!! God cannot be in Hell. After all, most Christians believe Hell will be absent of God.
First we must understand that God is everywhere. This is one of His characteristics: omnipresent. As such, there is NO place that God cannot go. Hell is no different. Theologian Wayne Grudem said this in his book, Systematic Theology:
The idea of God’s omnipresence has sometimes troubled people who wonder how God can be present, for example, in hell. In fact, isn’t hell the opposite of God’s presence, or the absence of God? [No.] This difficulty can be resolved by realizing that God is present in different ways in different places, or that God acts differently in different places in His creation. Sometimes God is present to punish.
Sometimes God is present to punish. Now, there are some who believe that Satan is the one in Hell who punishes people. This is where we get the image of Satan with a pitch fork, I think. However:
And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Revelation 20:10
If Satan is tormented day and night, then how can he punish others? Who is punishing him? There can only be one: God.
I suppose I take a very Eastern Orthodox approach to God in regards to both Heaven and Hell. They believe (roughly summarized) that Hell is where God is present releasing His unrestrained wrath on sinners who rejected Him. On the other hand, Heaven is where God's mercy and grace is completely unrestrained for the Saints. No matter where you are, you will be in God's presence(Psalm 139...especially verses 7 and 8).
It's up to you to decide if you want to face wrath or enjoy mercy. God's wrath isn't something to take lightly. Take in consideration what happened to Jesus in the Garden before He died:
Luke 22:42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.
44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
Why was Jesus so worried? What could possibly have Him worried that he SWEAT BLOOD? Some may say He was worried about being crucified. This seems reasonable enough, but I don't think its the whole answer. Sure, crucifixion is terrible, and I'd hate to have it done to me or anyone else. And I know for sure that Christ suffered much pain. I don't discredit that. However, I agree with a point that David Platt, author of "Radical", made once (I'm taking the point he made in a sermon, and using it in sort of my own words :P): "I don't think Jesus was scared of being crucified. Jesus isn't a wimp or weak. This is considering, especially, that many of His followers died JOYFULLY in far worse ways, such as being boiled alive, burned, eviscerated, etc. What had Jesus worried was knowing that He was going face an eternities worth of the wrath of the Father".
Now, as I said in the beginning, I am not preaching the Fire and Brimestone, like the old time preachers. I am simply giving an accurate view of Hell, and more importantly a part of God that is not spoken about in Christian circles. You see, we've reduced God from being God, into being our soft hearted best friend, who seemingly lost his anger in the 400 years between OT and NT. This is simply not so. Yes, God is indeed love. His love is vast and far beyond our imagination. His grace is completely and utterly amazing. He is, indeed, the lover of my soul. I recognize all of this and will tell anyone about this side of God. YET, I am afraid that if I just speak of love then people will not take God seriously, because they have not known the full picture of God. A.W. Pink(oddly, I'm quoting Calvinists tonight :P) said this, in The Attributes of God:
It is sad to find so many professing Christians who appear to regard the wrath of God as something for which they need to make an apology, or at least they wish there were no such thing. While some would not go so far as to openly admit that they consider it a blemish on the Divine character, yet they are far from regarding it with delight; they like not to think about it, and they rarely hear it mentioned without a secret resentment rising up in their hearts against it. Even with those who are more sober in their judgment, not a few seem to imagine that there is a severity about the Divine wrath which is too terrifying to form a theme for profitable contemplation. Others harbor the delusion that God’s wrath is not consistent with His goodness, and so seek to banish it from their thoughts.
Yes, many there are who turn away from a vision of God’s wrath as though they were called to look upon some blotch in the Divine character, or some blot upon the Divine government. But what saith the Scriptures? As we turn to them we find that God has made no attempt to conceal the fact of His wrath. He is not ashamed to make it known that vengeance and fury belong unto Him.
He further claims:
A study of the concordance will show that there are more references in Scripture to the anger, fury, and wrath of God, than there are to His love and tenderness.
Yet, it was His love and tenderness, which saved us from wrath. That is the Gospel. Man rebelled and deserves God's eternal wrath. God, who is both love and wrath, therefore developed a plan, before time existed, upon which He himself would take the flesh of man, so that He could both pour out an eternities worth of wrath, exposing His justice and raw power as God, while simultaneously exposing His deep love for us by drinking the wrath Himself. Now, because of Christ Jesus, I do not have to face God's wrath in eternal Hell. Neither do you, or anyone. This is the Good News.
I hope this exposes some new light for people. As I mentioned before, this isn't 100% everything about Hell,or wrath. Nor will people agree with me on many things. That's cool. I've posted verses for a reason. The truth is there. Read them yourself. Seek God's wisdom in understanding. I'll admit it, the biggest problem I have had with my faith was this concept of Hell. I echoed the sentiments of many "How can a good, loving God send people to Hell?" On the surface, it seems like a valid point. That is, until you realize the full character of God. Then you ask yourself "How could a just, righteous God not punish evil?" That is why Hell exist. Evil must be punished. But praise be to God that we have a way from punishment and into Mercy.
Blessings,
Thomas
