If you have not read the first 2 articles in this series, I want to encourage you to go back and read those. If you don’t, this one may seem a little dark and morbid. This is a series of articles about difficult questions that have been asked of me that really challenged me to look at my Christian walk. I hope these questions challenge you as well, and I hope the discussion encourages you to be a better and more faithful follower of Christ. The third question in this series is this:
“Have you ever considered that hell is a real place?”
This is a really scary question to me (and probably anyone else who has any concept of what hell will be like). When this question was posed to me, it kind of caught me off guard and scared me a little. Even as a I was studying and typing these descriptions below, the lights flickered in my office and my stomach dropped a little (1 Thessalonians 5:2). Hell is scary to think about, but it’s a reality that should challenge us, as it has me, to consider our decisions today because they will impact our eternity later. Look at these descriptions of hell from the Bible:
- “unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12)
- “fiery” (Matthew 5:22)
- “outer darkness” (Matthew 8:12)
- “furnace of fire” (Matthew 13:42)
- there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:42)
- “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41)
- “eternal punishment” (Matthew 25:46)
- “where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:47)
- a place “for God to repay with affliction” (2 Thessalonians 1:6)
- God’s way of “taking vengeance” (2 Thessalonians 1:8)
- a place to “pay the penalty of eternal destruction” (2 Thessalonians 1:9)
- “away from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thessalonians 1:9)
- “swift destruction” (2 Peter 2:1)
- “black darkness” (2 Peter 2:17)
- “punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 7)
- “the wine of God’s wrath…which is full strength in the cup of His anger” (Revelation 14:10)
- “tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever” (Revelation 14:10-11)
- “they have no rest day and night” (Revelation 14:11)
- “lake of fire and brimstone” (Revelation 20:10)
- “tormented day and night” (Revelation 20:10)
As scary as these descriptions may sound, they pale in comparison to what hell will actually be like. We cannot fathom an unquenchable fire. We cannot comprehend outer darkness. We cannot grasp what a place away from the presence of God forever would be like. We don’t understand what it’s like to have no rest day and night. We don’t understand what it’s like for God to release his wrath and take vengeance……. But we better believe it’s going to happen.
“Have you ever considered that hell is a real place?”
In the account of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man who was in the fiery torment said this: “Father Abraham have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame” (Luke 16:24). It almost sounds like when you’re baking cookies and you open the oven way too fast and stick your face too close and all of your eyebrows start to smell funny. Except that it lasts forever, and it’s not just your face, and it’s about 1000x hotter, and it’s dark, and there’s a lake of fire and burning sulphur, and you’re in it….. begging for the people in heaven to put their wet finger on your tongue to give you relief…. Hell is scary to think about. The cookie illustration was the only thing I could think of where I’ve felt a lot of heat slap me in the face, but make no mistake, hell is much more than an oven. It’s a fiery place that is completely devoid of anything to do with God. That means no light, nothing good, no kindness, no love, no joy, no peace, and no hope forever and ever.
“Have you ever considered that hell is a real place?”
This question scares me for 3 reasons: (1) I understand that it’s a real place. (2) I don’t want to go there. (3) I don’t want you to go there.
This question caught me off-guard because I’m not sure that I’ve put much thought into hell. But a few things are certain: Hell is real. Hell is hot. Hell is dark. Hell is completely miserable (even this word is inadequate). Hell is forever. Once you’re there, there is no turning back.
The upside to this dark and gloomy blog post, is that you have the choice between heaven and hell. It’s all up to you and how you choose to live your life. The decisions you make today will alter your eternity. You can tell someone else about this choice. That is exactly what the rich man wanted done. The rich man said, “Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house – for I have five brothers – in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment” (Luke 16:27-28). Make no mistake, hell is hot, eternity is long, and you and the people you know DO NOT want to be there. Make the right choices now, and help others make the right choices. You’re soul depends on it.
I hope this doesn’t scare you away from Christianity (because if it does, you missed the point). I want to end with a few quotes from Francis Chan’s book, Erasing Hell:
“So often these hell passages become fodder for debate, and people miss the point of the warning. Jesus didn’t speak of hell so that we could study, debate and write books about it. He gave us these passages so that we would live holy lives.”
“Like the ER doctor who shocks the dead back to life, belief in hell should rescue our complacent hearts from the suffocating grip of passivity.”
In simpler terms: Understanding hell should motivate you to love and be faithful to God. Never forget that the Bible talks about hell as a reminder for us to keep our focus where it should be. And remember that God “is patient toward you not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God wants your soul with Him in heaven, and you are the only person that can keep that from happening.
Remember that I love you and God loves you,
-KB
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