What is Hell?
In the Bible the common description of hell is an everlasting/eternal punishment prepared specifically for Satan, his angels and nonbelievers in the salvation offered through Jesus Christ. Many scriptures which also talk about hell “may” be a visual expression of the magnitude of eternal suffering sinners will experience rather than being a literal depiction.
Matthew 25:41“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels."
Mathew 25:46 "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 “He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.”
Revelation 20:10 “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.”
Oxford scholar C. S. Lewis, an atheist turned Christ believer, said that God does not send anybody to hell, “I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked from the inside.”
C S Lewis has various depictions of hell in his various books-The Problem of Pain, The Pilgrim’s Regress, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and The Last Battle.
For Lewis, the essence of hell can be seen in what the damned continue to do. They have lived for themselves, not for God or for others. Anyone who is “totally” self-centered and self-satisfied will not seek forgiveness or even recognize the need for forgiveness and cannot truly love or see the need for relationships with others, including God.
Self-centeredness leads to separation from God and others. Separation seems for Lewis to describe the essential idea of hell, capturing what is conveyed by the biblical imagery of torture, destruction, and privation. To be forever cut off from God’s presence, eternally unable to know God’s love and mercy, would be a torture best described by being burned ceaselessly by fire. The torture of separation is not seen as punishment imposed by God, but as the natural and inevitable outcome of choices humans themselves make and the hellish attitudes they themselves develop.
The struggle with the concept of hell and eternal punishment is the probably due to the misunderstanding of God’s holiness and honor, on the one hand, and the horror and depravity of mankind’s sin, on the other. In other words, if hell seems unreasonable or unfair or disproportionate, it can be due to the unbelief in the facts:
The Bible is inspired and true.
God is infinitely holy and just.
Mankind is morally depraved and is thus deserving of eternal condemnation.
God provides the only way, through Jesus Christ, to live with God eternally.
Also, there are misconceptions about hell:
That nonbelievers in Christ in hell will cry out for mercy and want to reconcile with God. Nothing in Scripture indicates this is so. Instead, those in hell are eternally defiant of the one true God and hate Him even more with each passing moment.
That there are people in hell who don’t deserve to be there. Nothing could be farther from the truth. God’s justice is impeccable, and He never consigns anyone to punishment in hell who does not fully deserve to suffer there.
That there are people in hell who wanted to go to Heaven while they were still alive, but God wouldn’t let them. That is utterly false. Jesus Himself made this clear when He said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. . . . whoever comes to me I will never cast out . . . For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:35, 37, and 40).
On planet Earth, we experience a small taste of heaven – love, joy, goodness, beauty, creativity, compassion, life together, but we also experience a small taste of hell – lies, deception, abuse, alienation, dishonesty, anger, murder, war and other expressions of evil.
Hell is characterized by degraded forms of love—jealousy, possessiveness, manipulativeness. Instead of reaching out to others in love, damned souls love only themselves and as they become more and more self-absorbed doing what is right in their own eyes.
Yet God in His love and mercy paid His own price on the cross for justice, so He would be just in taking back all people who realize they need forgiveness and want the one true God to be God of their lives. Because of Christ’s payment, God has removed every barrier between us and Him. He won’t force us to love or accept His gift, because love must be free. Love requires a free will, and God will not force us to be a slave and a prisoner in Heaven, against our will.
God uses this Earth as a perfect training ground to shape those who accept Christ as their savior into eternally free and loving children. Through earth’s sufferings, God is birthing and teaching His children to become more and more like His beloved son, Jesus Christ.
Erwin McManus, author and pastor, exclaims: “God is for you! The reality of hell is not a statement that God is against you. God isn’t dying to put us in hell. He died to keep you out of it! Hell is not a declaration that God does not love us. Hell is a declaration of a God who will not force us to love Him.”
