What Sends A Person To Hell
God has never sent anyone to hell. God will never send anyone to hell. Actually, people do this themselves by their unbelief. God never sends anyone to hell just as He never forces anyone into heaven, but the good news is that God desires that no one perish and suffer eternal torment and He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked . People send their own selves to hell by choosing not to believe in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. Jesus can save you today . You simply have to believe in Him and place your trust in Him . There is no other way on earth to escape hell except through faith in Jesus Christ . It may well be that you are reading this for a reason. That reason could be that this very day is your day of salvation . That is my hope and prayer for anyone that reads this. Just believe in Him and you will be saved .
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- Issy
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I believe Ive seen Hell, in a dream after a trip to Mount Sinia, Egypt. My late Mother-in-Law was there, who was very troublesum to me and others whilst alive she looked very grey, infact everything looked grey. She came up to me and seemed to be looking for help but then wandered off as though she had no control of where she was going. I remember the torment on her face and dispair, the dream was very vivid and although happened several years ago I still clearly remember it as if it were yesterday.
What Happens To The Wicked In Hell
This may surprise you, but the Bible says in several places that the wicked will be burned up and completely destroyed in hellfire. You heard right, the wicked will not burn forever. Malachi 4:1-5 says that on the day of the Lord, ‘All the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,’ Says the Lord of hosts, ‘That will leave them neither root nor branch…You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet. Psalms 37:10, 20 also states that the wicked will be no more, they will be carefully looked for but not found. Verse 20 adds that the enemies of the Lord will die and vanish away into smoke. All that is left of the wicked is smoke and ashes, there will not be any part of them left to be tortured forever. All wickedness will be removed from the earth. The root as well as the branches will become ashes with no more life left in them.
Where Souls Go After Death
Aquinas uses an analogy of buoyancy:
And since a place is assigned to souls in keeping with their reward or punishment, as soon as the soul is set free from the body it is either plunged into hell or soars to heaven, unless it be held back by some debt, for which its flight must needs be delayed until the soul is first of all cleansed. … Sometimes venial sin, though needing first of all to be cleansed, is an obstacle to the receiving of the reward the result being that the reward is delayed.
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Hell Is Like A Garbage Dump
The word that is often translated hell in the New Testament is Gehenna. This was a place where the garbage was dumped in New Testament times. Every kind of garbage was thrown there, including the corpses of criminals. Worms bred and fed in the filth while smoke filled the place due to continually burning fires.
Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of Hell?
Jesus, warning His disciples of the opposition they would face, added the encouragement, Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell .
Does The Bible Talk About Hell The Complete Answer
Our culture seems to have an obsession with Hell and what it is like. It works its way into books and movies. Even non-Christians wonder what hell is like.
Does the Bible talk about hell? The Bible does talk about Hell. However, our current cultural understanding of Hell comes from bits and pieces of leftover Medieval theology, epic poems, and people like Dante Alighieri and is not true to the Biblical understanding of this place. We do know that it exists, it is not a good place, and it was designed as a place of punishment for Satan and his followers.
With this deep obsession with Hell and the demonic in our culture, it is important that we have a strong understanding of what the Bible actually has to say about it, and that is what we will explore in this post.
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Lazarus And The Rich Fool
A premier text about hell from the mouth of Jesus is Luke 16:1931. The wider context of its teaching is the abuse of wealth. Yet when describing the other-worldly setting of this teaching, Christ expanded the doctrine of hell. The passage is about a rich man who played the ultimate fool by luxuriating in his wealth, ignoring true faith in God and service to humanity, until he found himself in hell for his godless selfishness.
The passage seems much like a parable, but it is not specifically called that. In this text, Jesuss primary intent was not to describe details of the unbelievers afterlife, but the Lord does end up giving us an insiders view of hell, encapsulating important details of what is taught on this subject elsewhere.
Hell: A Biblical Staple The Bible Never Actually Mentions
Hell is not a Biblical concept.
Much of the Bible is debatable. Much of the Bible is open to numerous interpretations. There are many theological stances that can be convincingly argued both for AND against.
The modern concept of Hell as a place of eternal conscious torment is not one of them. Today, we are going to look at every mention of Hell in the Bible, and we are going to demonstrate this conceptual staple of Western Christianity to be virtually untenable.
But dont get me wrong I believe in Hell.
Ive readextensively about it. Ive heard first-hand accounts of it. Ive even caught glimpses of it myself.
As humans, we seem to be fantastic at creating hell. We sow it into our own lives and the lives of others and then watch as its reaped around the world.
Hell is the terror of the refugee. Its the grief of surviving family members, the despair of the abused spouse, the self-hatred of the neglected child.
But its also more than that.
Hell is the disillusioned numbness of the soldier. Its the hopelessness of the drug addict. Its the perpetual frustration, anger, and self-loathing of the abusing spouse.
Hell can be found everywhere we look. It can be seen in both the eyes of the oppressed and the eyes of the oppressor. Humanity doesnt need to be made aware of Hell. We are all too aware of it already.
What we need is good news.
Hell: a place where people are consciously tormented for all eternity.
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Are People Suffering In Hell Right Now
How does a future date of hell show a loving God? Imagine if a man committed adultery thousands of years ago during the time of David. That man never repented and went down the wrong path. Now think about a man who just yesterday also committed the same sin. Would it be fair for the first man to be punished thousands of years more than the man caught in adultery yesterday? How would this be fair? The answer lies in the fact that both men are reserved for judgement . Each man will be punished beginning at the exact same time.
How Does The Bible Describe Hell
Pastor John MacArthur writes, Fire causes the greatest pain known to man, and the furnace of fire into which the sinners are cast represents the excruciating torment of hell, which is the destiny of every unbeliever. This fire of hell is unquenchable, eternal and is pictured as a great lake of fire which burns with brimstone. The punishment is so fearsome that in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Jesus also says the same thing in Matthew 13:50. Hendriksen expounds on the weeping and gnashing of teeth, along with 13:42, in light of Matthew 8:12. He writes,
As to weepingThe tears which Jesus speaks here in Matt. 8:12 are those of inconsolable, never-ending wretchedness, and utter, everlasting hopelessness. The accompanying grinding or gnashing of teeth denotes excruciating pain and frenzied anger. This grinding of teeth, too, will never come to an end or cease.
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But Lets Assume Im Wrong
Lets just assume, for the sake of argument, that Jesus is using Gehenna as a reference to death and the afterlife. While each of the references to Gehenna can be easily interpreted via our new historical lens, there are a few verses where an argument can conceivably be made otherwise.
The best example is seen in Matthew 10:28 and Luke 12:5, where Jesus says:
Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
Lets assume here that Jesus is using Gehenna to mean Hell. In this case, we dont see a picture of eternal torment. Jesus is saying to His audience that they should be more concerned about a God who CAN permanently destroy their body and soul.
Lets look at that word destroy.
Destroy
apollumi ap-ol-loo-mee From G575 and the base of G3639 to destroy fully , literally or figuratively: destroy, die, lose, mar, perish.
Thats a word of finality. Its not a word of perpetual torment. The entire idea of perpetual fire comes from the imagery of Gehenna. Even if we interpret Jesus to be figuratively referencing Hell, wheres the eternal suffering of unbelieving humans? Where is that narrative?
Key Passages About Hell
Hell was designed originally for Satan and his demons .
Hell will also punish the sin of those who reject Christ .
Hell is conscious torment.
- Matthew 13:50 furnace of fireweeping and gnashing of teeth
- Revelation 14:10 he will be tormented with fire and brimstone
Hell is eternal and irreversible.
- Revelation 14:11 the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever and they have no rest day and night
- Revelation 20:14 This is the second death, the lake of fire
- Revelation 20:15 If anyones name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire
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Where Is Hell Located And How Did It Begin
Although we cant be sure exactly where hell is at, we can be sure it does exist. In Matthew 12:40, Jesus Christ says: “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly: so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the HEART OF THE EARTH.” Other passages such as 1 Samuel 28:13-15, that the medium of Endor sees the spirit of Samuel, coming up out of the ground. Other passages like Ephesians 4:9 state that before Jesus ascended into heaven, He descended into hell. However, Revelations causes us to speculate that the earth itself is hell once it is turned into a lake of fire . We may not have the exact physical location, but we do know that hell is a literal place of real torment.
From what we can gather from Scripture, Hell was created for the rebellion of Satan and the angels that followed him . Scriptures indicate God never intended Hell and the lake of fire for mankind but that is where all will go who choose not to put their faith in Jesus Christ. The most important question is not where hell is or even when it was created but how to avoid going to hell. We avoid hell when we choose to believe in Jesus Christthe One who died to pay for your sins and all who choose to put their trust in Him.
What Is Hell According To The Bible
Hell is a place of sorrow and torment. This truth is seen throughout the Bible in the Old and New Testaments. The Bible clearly and explicitly teaches that hell is a real place to which the wicked/unbelieving are sent after death. Hell is this infinite and eternal death which we have earned because of our sin. Christ talked a great deal about this subject. He describes Gehenna as a place where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched . He spoke several times about weeping and gnashing of teeth for those who are cast into outer darkness . He also gives the parable about inhabiting a place of torment . Jesus spoke about hell more than anyone else in Scripture.
Some people try to avoid the idea of hell by saying that God is a God of love and He wont let any of us perish. A loving God would not send people to a horrible hell. But God is a just God .
Some say not everyone has heard of Christ. But Gods word says they are still held accountable .
Some say hell is too severe a punishment for mans sin or our sin doesnt merit hell. But God is a holy and perfect God .
Some say God doesnt send people to hell, they choose it .
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Weeping And Gnashing Of Teeth
Gnashing of teeth appears several times in the Old Testament, including three mentions in Psalms, one in Job and one in Lamentations. Lamentations says, of the Babylonian occupiers of Jerusalem, ” ,” “They hiss and gnash their teeth”. In all OT cases except Psalms 112:10, the gnashing appears to be an act of persecution and not suffering.
The phrase ” weeping and gnashing of teeth” appears seven times in the New Testament as a description on the fate of the unrighteous ones at the conclusion of the age. It is thought to derive from a logion in the hypothetical Q source, which yielded Matthew 8:12 and Luke 13:28. The other five occurrences are all within the context of parables and are widely held to be redactional additions by Matthew. Others, however, believe redactional theories of the parables are speculative at best, and offer little explanation as to the meaning of this phrase, and only speculate as to why Matthew and Luke included this apparently familiar saying.
The phrase “gnash the teeth” is found in Acts 7:54, in the story of the stoning of Stephen. The phrase was an expression of anger of the Sanhedrin towards Stephen before the stoning.
The phrase is also found as an idiomatic expression in colloquial English.
Gehenna Literal Place Of Perpetual Burning
Gehenna accounts for 12 of the 13 Hell mentions, and most importantly, it comprises 100% of Jesus alleged references to Hell.
So what is Gehenna?
Its a valley. A literal valley. A physical, geographic location. The Valley of Hinom. In fact, heres what this valley looks like today.
There it is. And look, passing right through the middle of it is Gey Ben Hinom St.
The typical response here is that Jesus was using the valley of Hinom figuratively to mean our modern concept of Hell. But figurative to who?
It really doesnt matter what this valley means to us today. Jesus wasnt speaking to us. He was speaking to Jews who lived 2,000 years ago.
So the real question is, what did Gehenna mean to the Jews of Jesus day?
The section of this valley referred to as Gehenna was well known throughout Israel as an evil and dark place, used for a variety of evil acts throughout Israels history. In the time of Hosea, the rebellious Israelites committed child sacrifice there to honor the pagan god Molech , as seen in 2 Chron 28:3.
Moreover, he burned incense in the valley of Ben-hinnom and burned his sons in fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had driven out before the sons of Israel.
Later, in 2 Kings 23:10, it says that King Josiah desecrated Topheth, which was in the Valley of Hinnom, so no one could use it to sacrifice their son or daughter in the fire to Molek.
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The Unquenchable Fire Of Hell
In Matthew 18:8-9 Jesus teaches on temptations to sin and that it better for a person to go without the limbs that allow them to give into sin, then for their whole body to be cast into hell. And in Matthew 25:41-46 the unrighteous will depart from God into eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels for eternal punishment. In conclusion, in The Gospel of Matthew, hell is described as the place of fire, which is unquenchable, containing suffering, weeping and gnashing of teeth. Those who will inhabit hell are the devil and his angels. Also, all those who do not bear fruit because of their unbelief, those guilty of murder and lust in their hearts and those who do not believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. They are the ones guilty of the sins of omission and commission.
In the Gospel of Mark, hell is mentioned Mark 9:45-49. Jesus is teaching again on how it is better to lose a limb then for ones whole body to be cast into hell, as seen in Matthew 5:29-30 and 18:8-9. But where it differs is in verse 48, where Jesus says that hell is the place where the worm never dies and the fire is not quenched. Hendriksen explains that, The torment, accordingly, will be both external, the fire and internal, the worm. Moreover, it will never end. He also writes,
He also writes,
So, in the book of Jude, hell is described as the place where unbelievers and rebellious angels will experience a more extreme fire, and devastation, than Sodom and Gomorrah experienced.
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