It’s been said that we have more knowledge about the Moon and of Mars than we do of what lies in the depths of the ocean. Additionally, some of the smartest minds in science have estimated that we only know 5% of the universe. With our little lives surrounded by insurmountable mystery when it comes to the things we can discern with our five senses, the mystery is only compounded when we think of the reality of eternity and everything it entails.
As opposed to eternity, one more familiar concept to the human brain is that actions have consequences—both good and bad. When you’re a child, and your mom tells you not to put your hand on the hot stove because it burns, and you do it anyway, your action produced a negative consequence. When you spend hours studying for a final exam at the end of a semester, you will most likely get a high score and pass your class, which is a positive consequence. As adults, most of us painstakingly plan for the future by putting money into a 401k, paying for life insurance, and even saving enough money to give an inheritance for our children so that our present actions would produce a positive future outcome. However, if we spend this much time planning out the rest of our lives which will inevitably come to an end, how much more ought we to spend planning for our eternity, which lasts forever?
The only one in the universe who has the truest perspective of eternity is God Himself—the Trinity who exists outside of time and has never been subject to it, although He uses it as a tool to clue mankind in on what His plans are and to invite them to study His ways. His word is the only authoritative source on the subject, so when Jesus, who is God incarnate and is called “The Word,” emerged on the scene and warned people of a place called Hell (or “Sheol” in Hebrew), He is the one who will judge all of us individually at the end of the age (John 5:22), naturally, people should be inclined to listen, though we know that most do not (Matthew 7:13-14).
Why Does Hell Exist?
Hell doesn’t exist because God is a bitter old man who can think of nothing better to do than to throw away human beings into a fiery pit for sport. It actually exists because He is a God of justice, and His justice is never at odds with His love.
What most people fail to realize is that Hell was originally created for “the devil and his angels” (Matt 25:41). What even fewer fail to realize are the layers of history behind that statement and how devout Jews of the time would have understood it when Jesus was teaching them about judgment at the end of the age.
Hell has its origins in Genesis, even though it’s not explicitly mentioned. According to Genesis 6:1-5, there came a time when the “sons of God” (another name for “angels” in the Old Testament) saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they bore children to them, creating a race of giants called the Nephilim, which were half human/half angel hybrids. Only Noah and his family were left untouched by these lustful fallen angels and therefore were spared when the Lord sent the flood to destroy most of the giants. Later, the Lord tasked Joshua and the Israelite army to vanquish the remaining giant clans to clear out the promised land. Even still, he wasn’t 100% obedient in this task, and some giants would remain to oppose Israel (remember David and Goliath?). While this might sound like it came straight from a fairy tale, variations of this story do appear in other surrounding cultures such as the Greeks, Babylonians, and Assyrians. Conversely, a noteworthy textual source that was studied and frequently quoted by ancient Jews in both the Old and New Testaments but was never deemed “inspired” was the Book of Enoch. While not considered inspired, this text is useful because it was in the forefront of the minds of biblical writers when composing the Bible and it sheds more light on Hell’s function and reason for existence.
In short, Enoch was considered one who “walked with God” and never tasted death (Genesis 5:21-24), and in the Book of Enoch, it details the story of how he was visited by these fallen ones and how they petitioned him to be an intercessor before God on their behalf so they could return to their heavenly habitation, but God denied their request and reinstated their eternal punishment. Enoch was also taken on a guided tour of Hell (or Sheol in Hebrew) to witness the condemnation of the Watchers. In the Slovenian version of the Book of Enoch, chapter 2, it states:
… I beheld seven angels of heaven bound in it together, like great mountains, and like a blazing fire. I exclaimed, ‘For what species of crime have they been bound, and why have they been removed to this place?’ Then Uriel, one of the holy angels who was with me, and who conducted me, answered: … ‘Enoch, these are those of the stars which have transgressed the commandment of the most high God; and are here bound, until the infinite number of the days of their crimes be completed … Enoch, why are you alarmed and amazed at this terrific place, at the sight of this place of suffering? This,’ he said, ‘is the prison of the angels; and here they are kept forever’” (1 Enoch 2:3, 6).
This scene was referenced by Jesus, who said that upon Judgment Day, there would be a group of people on His left hand that He would command to depart from Him into “eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). This scene was also referenced by Jude, who mentioned the “angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling place, these He has kept in eternal restraints under darkness for the judgment of the great day” (Jude 1:6). Lastly, Peter even briefly alludes to this scene when talking about the significance of baptism in light of Jesus’s death and resurrection, saying “For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which He also went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison” (1 Peter 3:18-19). When Jesus descended into the belly of Hell, he proclaimed to the enchained angels that they are still condemned, and every time someone gets baptized into the Kingdom of God, it’s a slap in the face of the devil and his angels as they are continually reminded of Jesus’s victory over death and their eternal doom.
Who is Going There?
While many people—including Christians—do not wish to acknowledge Hell’s existence or the fact that more people are going there than those that are going to Heaven (Matthew 7:13), inevitably, people are dying and being cast into Hell every day for reasons that Jesus warned people about many times throughout the course of His ministry. Again, the list of criteria and analogies Jesus provided detailing what would make someone fit for Hell would not have surprised any of His listeners or disciples because it was already discussed at length in—you guessed it—the Book of Enoch.
While Enoch was still exploring Sheol and overwhelmed at the horrific view before him, the angels that accompanied him explained that:
This place, Enoch, has been prepared for those who do not glorify God, who practice on the earth the sin |which is against nature, which is corruption in the manner of Sodom|, of witchcraft, enchantments, divinations, trafficking with demons, who boast about their evil deeds – |stealing, lying, insulting, coveting, resentment, fornication, murder| – and who steal the souls of men secretly, seizing the poor by the throat, taking away their possessions, enriching themselves from the possessions of others, defrauding them; who, when they are able to provide sustenance, bring about the death of the hungry by starvation; and, when they are able to provide clothing, take away the last garment of the naked; who do not acknowledge their Creator, but bow down to idols which have no souls, which can neither see nor hear, vain gods; constructing images, and bowing down to vile things made by hands – for all these this place has been prepared as an eternal reward.” (2 Enoch 10).
This reality is reiterated in the New Testament but takes on a different flavor in light of the arrival of the Messiah prophesied from of old that would crush the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). In Revelation 21:8, the resurrected Christ tells John that at the end of the age, “the cowardly, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and sexually immoral persons, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” This list is tied to those who are not born again and who do not believe and follow the Son of God. As He says in John 3:18 that “‘The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.’” Furthermore, Jesus also talks about some of His “followers” at the end of the age that are hell-bound if they don’t repent, saying “‘Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; leave Me, you who practice lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:21-23). This means that there will be those who even operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit but did so outside the context of relationship with the Son of God, so while some will do good works in His name, their “good works” will be counted as lawless deeds in the end because they prostituted His gifts for their own personal gain and did not acknowledge the Son of God whatsoever.
Later, Paul issues a warning to the fledgling Corinthian and Roman churches coming out of paganism and sexual immorality, reminding them not to fall back into the sins from which they were freed by the blood of Jesus, saying, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor those habitually drunk, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God?” However, he leaves them with an encouragement by reminding them how far they’ve come, saying, “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (Corinthians 6:9-11, also see Romans 1). It will also be the case that in the last days, those who receive the “mark of the beast” on their forehead or hand and who “worship the beast and his image” will be made to “drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out in full strength, into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb” (Revelation 14:9-10). The bottom line is this. Jesus says, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). If you believe in Jesus and the Father that sent Him (and not just know about Him) then you have eternal life. If you do not know Him, then the opposite is true. Regardless, Jesus will receive anyone that humbles themselves in repentance in spite of any sin committed. His death and resurrection are that powerful in the eyes of the Father to justify anyone and everyone that receives Him (1 John 1:9, Hebrews 12:24).
What Does One Experience in Hell?
While there are many depictions of Hell in the New Testament, perhaps the most revealing passage is the one where Jesus describes the story of a poor man named Lazarus who would sit and beg for crumbs from a certain rich man. Eventually, both men died and experienced different fates. While Lazarus was carried by angels and taken into the “bosom of Abraham,” the rich man descended into Hades and was subject to unimaginable torment. Seeing Abraham and Lazarus from afar, he became the beggar and pleaded, saying, “send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” Abraham responded that they weren’t able to do so. He then pleaded again, this time asking him to raise Lazarus and send him back to speak with his family to warn them to repent and not to “join him in this place of torment.” His request was again denied, the reason being that “if they did not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead” (Luke 16:19-31).
In terms of what we can extract from this passage regarding what one experiences in hell, we can conclude the following:
When one goes to Hell, they are completely cognizant and have all their senses intact. Their soul isn’t destroyed but lives on to experience unimaginable torment by an eternal flame, but according to this passage, the flames aren’t even the worst part of the punishment. Even worse than the flames is the stinging pain of hopelessness and regret. The rich man could see what he was missing from afar, and he knew it was too late to repent and crossover to the other side. His reward was final. At the very least, he wanted someone to go back and warn his family. He had probably lived his life knowing about hell but never imagined he would end up there. He was rich, after all. Didn’t that mean he was more blessed than the poor man begging for crumbs who were clearly cursed by God? He learned the hard way that the opposite was actually true, and he learned too late. Additionally, he was told that there was no excuse for him to end up in Hell when he had all of these messages available to him from the prophets of old while he was alive, but he never took it seriously. He ignored every warning sign and went his merry way down the path to destruction. Now he would live eternally separated from God—as in life, now even more so in death.
Other descriptors Jesus repeatedly used to describe Hell were that it was a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” In Mark’s account alone, Jesus is recorded to have said this phrase at least six times. Matthew documented Him saying this at least five times. Luke records Jesus saying that “Once the head of the house gets up and closes the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door [again and again], saying, ‘Lord, open to us!’ then He will answer you, ‘I do not know where you are from [for you are not of My household].’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’; but He will say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you evildoers!’ In that place, there will be weeping [in sorrow and pain] and grinding of teeth [in distress and anger] when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out and driven away” (Luke 13:25-28). It’s the pain of being able to see what you could have had right before your eyes and then having the Lord cast you away from His presence that will cause one to weep and gnash their teeth.
Another aspect of Hell that is heavily emphasized is the concept of eternal separation. The duty of judgment has been fully assigned to the Son (John 5:22-23). Therefore, when the time comes for Him to take His seat as Judge and the books are opened, He says that He will separate the wheat from the tares (Matt 13:40-42), the good fish from the bad fish (Matt 13:49-50), the prepared wedding guests from the unprepared (Matt 22:12-13), the evil servants from the faithful servants (Matt 24:50-51), the foolish virgins who ran out of oil for their lamps from the wise virgins whose lamps were full and prepared for the Bridegroom (Matt 25:10-12), and the sheep from the goats (Matt 25:44-46). Through these analogies, Jesus makes clear the separation that is already occurring and will occur, and this separation, as we’ve explored earlier in the article, will be painful in more ways than just one.
Why is Hell Eternal?
To dilute the severity of the message, there have been some that claim that Hell is not eternal. To “prove” this claim, they have to perform all kinds of theological gymnastics, partnered with poor exegesis, to arrive at this conclusion. However, the most natural conclusion one can arrive to requires no such gymnastics as Jesus Himself stated many times and in many different ways that this is an eternal punishment. For example, in John 3:36, He is quoted as saying, “And these (unrighteous) will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.” The Greek word translated to the words “eternal” and “everlasting” in this statement is aiṓnios, which according to Strong’s concordance means, “without beginning and without end, that which has always been and always will be.” Using that same word, Jesus describes that He is the Good Shepherd that gives His life for His sheep and who even gives them eternal life meaning that they would never perish (see also John 3:16, John 17:2-3, 1 Timothy 1:17, Romans 1:20).
Jesus also proclaimed that He is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” and that “no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:16). If He gives eternal life, and knowing Him is eternal life, and He Himself IS the way, the truth, and the life, the preeminent One in whom ALL life was created by, created for, and created through (John 1:3), who alone could satisfy the wrath of God against sin on our behalf so that we could be reconciled to the Creator of all—then the only logical alternative to believing and following Him is eternal death. In other words, though it sounds harsh, the punishment fits the crime. Rejecting Jesus means to reject the eternal life He offers. Jesus even told the Father, “if this cup (of suffering for the sins of mankind) cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done” (Matthew 26:39). Indeed, that cup never passed Him. He drank it all until the last drop and it bled through Him from His hands, feet, back, side, and head. If there was another way for us to have eternal life, like the Son has eternal life, then God is unjust to make His only Son endure that pain. But if this was the only way, then His justice is more than I can fathom.
Jesus’s Victory over Death
When Jesus died and was buried, He wasn’t checking His metaphorical wristwatch and killing time until He resurrected. Even in death, He was still a Man on a mission from the Father.
Before He died, the Pharisees asked Him for a sign, but they weren’t sincere. They thought of Him as more of a circus monkey who could do tricks than their promised Messiah. He responded, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:39-40). We know that this means that He would be buried and resurrected three days later. However, there is sufficient evidence that He not only died but that He descended into the realm of the dead. Since He who knew no sin “became sin” so that we could “become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21), that means that He would suffer the effects of our sin as if He Himself had sinned, and that sin not only was punished at the cross, but it brought Him down to Satan’s jurisdiction. Peter briefly explains that Christ “suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which He also went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison, who once were disobedient” (1 Peter 3:18-20), alluding to the Genesis 6 scenario of the fallen angels who mingled with mankind and are now bound in everlasting chains until judgment day (Jude 1:6). If Jesus didn’t come to the realm of the dead, He would have not fully tasted death (Hebrews 2:9), and He would not have truly “filled all things,” as Paul said to the Ephesians: “Now this expression, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean except that He also had previously descended [from the heights of heaven] into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the very same as He who also has ascended high above all the heavens, that He [His presence] might fill all things [that is, the whole universe]” (Ephesians 4:9-10).
However low you have gone into the depths of sin and rebellion against God, Jesus went lower than that to taste death on your behalf. He doesn’t offer eternal life to a third of the angels who rebelled, but when 100% of mankind rebelled against Him, for reasons beyond compression, He decided to offer eternal life to us instead who were made lower than the angels. Who is this King of Glory who would leave His heavenly throne to endure the scorn of the creation made in His image, dangling Himself as bait in front of Satan, who then beat Satan at His own game so that He could lead captivity captive (Psalm 68:18) and bestow eternal life to as many as would receive Him (John 1:12)? Not only this, but the resurrected Christ declared to John and all of us who believe that “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death” (Revelation 1:18). When He descended to the heart of the earth, He also took back the keys that rightfully belong to Him so that He could open doors that no man could open and shut doors that no man could shut.
The Will of God vs. Your Will
From the two trees in the Garden of Eden in Genesis to the New Jerusalem and the lake of fire in Revelation, God has always given mankind a choice and left their ultimate fate in their own hands. Since God has free will and we are made in His image, we also have free will. However, God is holy and perfect and we are not. Therefore, even though both we and God have free will, our tainted will is often at odds with His perfect will.
With so many who have descended into Hell and many who still will descend into Hell, it can be hard to discern what God’s will is. Evidence would almost seem to tell us that His will is to send as many people to Hell as possible, but if that were true, He would have never sent us His Son to pave the way to reconciliation into His family. On the contrary, He cares so deeply about this issue that God in flesh subjected Himself to His own unbridled wrath in order to “cancel the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him (Colossians 2:14-15). We’ve watched Disney cartoons where the prince didn’t endure half as many trials in order to save the princess, and we would still call that love. Yet the King of Heaven and Earth left His throne to dwell among His own creation to bring people from the rags of their sin to the riches of His glory in order that He might raise up a Bride after His own heart, but because He warned people about Hell, people don’t acknowledge the depths of His love and compassion to save, deliver, and redeem completely from the powers of the place He warned people about.
Even in the Old Testament, God told Ezekiel to tell His people, “‘Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?’ says the Lord God, ‘and not that He should turn from his ways and live?’” (Ezekiel 18:32) and later, “‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his ways and live …” (Ezekiel 33:11). Take it from God Himself—He does not enjoy people dying in their sins. It’s anything but fun for Him. I would even venture to say that it breaks His heart. He would much rather people repent and turn back to Him instead of eternal death being their end.
In the New Testament, Jesus clearly states, “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life…” (John 6:40) and that “[The Father’s] command is everlasting life” (John 12:50). Later, Peter reminds his audience that “ … He is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). God cannot make Himself any more clear. While many will still say that He isn’t being fair, He could not be any more fair than to sacrifice His only Son so that we would never taste death and be with Him forever. He did the hard part. All we have to do is repent, believe, and follow Him. Contrary to popular belief, the message of repentance is the most loving message that we could hear. It shows that God does not desire for us to join in on the punishment of the fallen angels who rebelled but invites us with open arms to enter into the reward of His suffering, which is to empower us on earth by His Spirit to do the works He did and even greater (John 14:12) and to rule and reign with Him after we leave this earthly body behind us (2 Timothy 2:11-12), which is redemption not even offered to the angels that fell, yet is being offered to us.
One thing that surprised me when I was studying to put this article together was Song of Solomon 8:6, which says, “For love is as strong as death, Jealousy is as severe and cruel as Sheol (the place of the dead). Its flashes are flashes of fire, [A most vehement flame] the very flame of the Lord!” I realized that the fires of the Lord’s love and jealousy for His people burn hotter than the fires of Hell. Jesus’s steadfast love for those that would follow Him was stronger than death. It was the Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, but it was the love of the Trinity for mankind that fell away from them that provoked them to accomplish all of these things because His love is as strong as death and even stronger!
Conclusion
To close, I will leave you with this message from the Lord from Joel 2:12-14, which says:
“Now therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will return and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him—A grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?” If you are alive enough to read this message, that means Jesus still wants you to be with Him. He is familiar with your pain, your tears, the wrong done against you, the wrong you committed against others and Him, and He still wants you. All you have to do is repent and grab His outstretched, nail-pierced hand, and He will wash you clean by the blood of His sacrifice and receive you into newness of life. Hell was never meant to be our home. Our home was always meant to be in Him. Receive His invitation to you today from the very One who made an open shame out of all the powers of Hell just so He could be with you. Take it from me, and billions of others throughout history—your “yes” to Him will be worth any sin you leave behind.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on AwesomeSierra
Featured Image by Jan Steiner from Pixabay
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