Hell

Today we continue looking at Life After Death, specifically what happens right after your heart stops beating.

Recap from Last Week

Last week we noted that at the moment of death the soul separates from the body. Your body dies. It turns to dust. Your soul, however, is totally different. It is eternal.

It is your soul that will face judgment. Those who never committed their lives to Jesus will experience the White Throne Judgment., where they will stand before a perfect and holy God who will look into the Book of Life and will not find their names. Those who committed their lives to Jesus will stand before Him at the Judgment Seat of Christ to be rewarded for what they did in this life.

At the end of that judgment, everyone will go to one of two places: Heaven or Hell.

Next week we will talk about the glories of Heaven and what the Saints have to look forward to as they move from life on earth to life with God. Today, though, we look at a far darker and more challenging topic: “H-E-Double Hockey Sticks” – Hell.

That joke gives us a glimpse at the challenge of this topic. For some, Hell has become a joke involving demons with red tights and pitchforks. Some people had parents who used Hell as a scare tactic to make them behave, and now it’s just baggage from their past. Hell is practically celebrated every Halloween, and yet only 40% of Americans say they actually believe in the existence of Hell. (This is far fewer than those who believe in Heaven.) It seems everybody has heard about Hell, but very few actually know what the Bible says about it. Today we’re going to change that.

Hear me clearly on this: my goal is not to scare you into Heaven by selling you fire insurance from the flames of Hell! Instead, I hope to inform you on what the Bible says about the consequences of our sin so that you can live your life not from a place of ignorance, but from a point of truth. I also hope to help you understand why Hell had to exist and (while this is an uncomfortable thought) how it’s actually for your good.

What Is Hell?

There is confusion concerning Hell because the concept of where the unrighteous go after death is complex. Several different words and phrases are used regarding this.

Sheol – the place of the dead in the Old Testament.

• This is spoken of by Israel (Jacob), Job, David in the Psalms, and Solomon in Proverbs.
• It was pictured as below the earth – subterranean. You went DOWN to Sheol.
• Both the righteous and the unrighteous went there.

Luke chapter 16 depicts Sheol:

Luke 16:19-23 – ¹⁹There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. ²⁰At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores ²¹and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. 

²²The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 

There is debate about whether this passage is a parable or a descriptor of Sheol, but I believe Jesus was describing the place where people who died had been going since the world began. They all went to Sheol.

The righteous people were in Abraham’s bosom, a place of comfort, but they were not yet able to be united with Christ because the blood of animals could never fully atone for their sin. They died BEFORE Jesus was resurrected to become the “first born” of all to experience resurrection from the dead. (More about this in a minute.)

The unrighteous people went to Hades, the opposite side of Sheol, where there was intense suffering and torment.

Hades – the place of the dead for the wicked waiting for final judgment.

This is the Greek word used in the New Testament that most closely correlates with the word “Sheol”; but as we saw in Luke 16, it is almost always used in the New Testament to refer to the place where the wicked go when they die.

The word “Hades” is confusing. Bible translations sometimes translated this word as “Hell” and sometimes just “Hades.” In fact, if you have an old NIV Bible printed before 2011, almost every place the Greek word “Hades” shows up has been translated as “Hell.” But in the newer translation, revised in 2011, they changed all those references to say “Hades.” Why does this matter? Because when most of us think of “Hell,” we think of the place where bad people go for all eternity. But that’s not Hades. That’s something else.

Before we move on, I must clear up something from last week’s message. Last week I talked about what happens the moment you die. We also discussed the judgments and pointed out that, for Christians, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Scripture teaches that believers in Jesus move from this life straight to His presence. Now that Jesus has died and resurrected to new life, we no longer go to Abraham’s bosom but directly to Paradise.

However, the path for the unrighteous is not so straightforward. The Great White Throne Judgment does not happen one person at a time as people die. It will happen all at the same time on the final day of judgment. As the unrighteous die, they must go somewhere before they are judged by God and sent to Hell – and that is Hades. Hades is the temporary holding place of the wicked while they wait for their trial before God.

Let’s go back to Luke 16 to learn a bit more about Hades.

Luke 16:24-26 – ²⁴So he called to him, “Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.” ²⁵But Abraham replied, “Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. ²⁶And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.”

Here we are able to learn a bit about this place called Hades:

• The people there experience agony and torment.
• The soul has memory and consciousness. The rich man knows Lazarus.
• Their eternity is set. There is no way to move to Abraham’s bosom.

Gehenna – Valley of Hinnom

Most occurrences of the word “Hell” in the Bible are translations of this Greek word “Gehenna,” which literally means “Valley of Hinnom.” This was an infamous valley south of Jerusalem where some of the ancient Israelites sacrificed their children to the Canaanite god Molech.

Because of this detestable pagan practice, by the time of Jeremiah the prophet the Hinnom Valley was becoming a metaphor for the place where the bodies of the wicked would be cast. God declares in Jeremiah 7:32: Behold, the days are coming . . . when it will no more be called . . . the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.

Jews living between the time of Jeremiah and the time of Jesus picked up on this metaphor and ran with it; so by the time of Jesus the word “Gehenna” was widely used to refer to the fiery place of judgment for the wicked in the end times.

Outer Darkness / Eternal Fire / Eternal Punishment

In Matthew 25, Jesus uses parables to teach about the judgment and final fate of the wicked. While He doesn’t use the word “Gehenna” here, he uses imagery to depict the final place of torment.

Lake of Fire – the final, eternal home of the wicked.

The book of Revelation is the only book of the Bible to use this term, but it speaks of the Lake of Fire several times and clearly specifies that it is the official, eternal home of the wicked.

While Hades is where the unrighteous go after they die but before the final judgment day, the Lake of Fire is where they are thrown after they are judged to be guilty. We go back to Revelation 20, which we looked at last week, to learn about the Great White Throne Judgment. This is how that passage ends:

Revelation 20:12-15 – ¹²The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. ¹³The 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. ¹⁴Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. ¹⁵Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

What is Hell Like?

Probably you have already noticed the theme of fire: the rich man just wanting a drop of water in Hades; Gehenna, where corpses were burned; the Eternal Fire and the Lake of Fire. This is the imagery Jesus and other New Testament writers use.

Not everyone agrees that this image of fire is literal. Jesus often uses metaphors to teach. When trying to describe a supernatural place that may be unlike anything His hearers can even imagine, He has to use analogies to help us understand.  That’s why in the same passage He refers to Outer Darkness and a few verses later to Eternal Fire. Fire and darkness seem mutually exclusive, but Jesus deems both images as appropriate to help us understand Hell.

To me, the sights, sounds and smells of Hell are less important than understanding the result of being in Hell. Those results are clearly described.

• Jesus repeatedly says there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth,” pointing to the sorrow and rage people will feel.
• Additionally, the words “torment” and “anguish” are often used.

I believe the suffering and torment will be less the result of what is in Hell and more the result of what is not in Hell – the presence of God will be removed.

Hell is a place without one drop of God’s goodness and love. While we live on this earth, even the worst of sinners can experience the beauty of a sunrise, the smell of a spring rain, the sounds of birds chirping, and all the rest of God’s incredible creation.

2 Thessalonians 1:9 – They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might.

Imagine a place where all the vestiges of God’s presence have been removed. It will consist only of all the worst, most horrific parts of this world without the light of any beauty or kindness breaking through. There will be no party – only pain and strife.

Who Will Be in Hell?

First of all, the population of Hell will include its intended residents: Satan and his demons.

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.’

To understand the horrors of Hell, you first have to grasp why God created Hell in the first place. He did it for the same reason we create prisons to separate out the criminals and protect the law-abiding citizens. God needed a place to punish and purge the evil of Satan and his angels from everyone who lived in His kingdom.

Satan and his demons won’t be the only ones in Hell. Here’s the really sobering truth Jesus tells us:

Matthew 7:13-14 – ¹³Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

In America, almost no one believes they deserve to go to Hell. Statistics say just one half of one percent believe they will go to Hell. People think they somehow have a vote as to whether or not they should be in Hell. They like to think they haven’t done anything bad enough to deserve punishment from God. The problem is, they are completely deceived! They don’t understand the holiness of God, and they definitely don’t recognize the depravity of their sin.

The Bible tells us we all deserve Hell. We are all sinners. We are all wicked. Just like the demons who rebelled against God before the world was formed, we have all rebelled against God in our hearts.

God, however – in His goodness, mercy and faithfulness to the humanity He created – made a way. He gave His Son. Jesus paid the price for our wickedness. He shed his blood to atone for our wrongs. And He did it while we were all still His enemies. He did it because of His deep love for all of us. In doing this for us, He offers every single person an opportunity, a free gift of life, a chance to not only avoid Hell but, much more importantly, to live with God forever.

The moment you put your faith in Jesus, your name is written in the Book of Life, and you don’t have to worry about God judging you guilty for your sin. Although our sin is evil and wicked in the face of God, we are incredibly fortunate that God has chosen to declare us CLEAN and adopt us into His family. A proper understanding of all this makes us cherish our gift of salvation all the more.

Unfortunately, many people go to their grave never making the decision to follow Jesus, and once you take your final breath there is no changing your final destiny. At that moment, your eternity is sealed. That’s why it is so important to consider this information TODAY while you still have time to choose.

Why Does a Loving God Send People to Hell?

Here’s one of the most important questions we have to wrestle with when we think about Hell. This is, in fact, why many people don’t want anything to do with God. They look at the doctrine of Hell and find it so distasteful they are unwilling to follow that God. They can’t understand why a loving God would punish people in Hell.

I believe the Apostle Paul explains the situation clearly.

2 Thessalonians 1:6-9– ⁶God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you ⁷and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. ⁸He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.

Hell is the natural consequence of evil in the presence of a holy God. God has always been a God who gives consequences for unacceptable behavior.

• Adam and Eve were banished from His presence after eating the forbidden fruit.
• The world drowned in a flood because the peoples’ sin was so great.
• Even God’s own people, the Israelites, were conquered, slaughtered, and removed from His Holy City because they failed to follow Him.
• Hell happens to be the eternal and final consequence people experience for the unforgiven evil in their lives.

It’s interesting that the same people who find Hell so appalling also want the whole world to be fair and equal. They demand justice for every injustice they perceive, whether real or imagined, and that desire for justice actually comes from the image of God stamped on their lives. The problem, however, is that they warp what they consider “just” around their opinions rather than around the identity of the One who created all.

To fully understand why Hell is necessary and good for the people of God, we must understand the very character of God. God is love. While He doesn’t want anyone to perish but wants all to come to eternal life, He also knows that allowing evil to fester and ruin life for His Beloved is not loving at all.

So, Yes, God is Love AND He is Just and Holy. In His justice and His holy perfection, He must punish the evil-doers. He must separate all that is wrong with this earth from all that is good and right. He must make a division between the two so Heaven is actually paradise, but the result of removing His presence fully is that Hell is torment. The torment gives Him no pleasure, but it is the requirement of His holy justice. He removes people to Hell so that His saints can fully experience the perfection of His goodness as He originally intended for us.

So What Do We Do with This Message?

Let’s jump back to the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:

Luke 16:27-28 –²⁷He answered, “Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, ²⁸for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.”

When the rich man finally understood the horrors of what awaited him for eternity to come, he wanted nothing more than to warn his family so they would not have to experience that same torment.

Here’s the lesson for us. If we don’t really think about Hell often, or if we think it’s “not going to be that bad,” or if we simply don’t care about the eternity of our family and friends, we are not going to have much motivation to share Jesus with them. If we are comfortable with our own lives and the things of this earth, then we will be indifferent to the eternal destiny of others; and that’s exactly the way our enemy wants it.

However, if we truly believe what the Bible tells us about Hell, that should motivate us to warn people and tell them about the God who loves them so much He gave His one and only Son to be tortured on a cross and to die so that all we have to do is put our trust in Him – in Jesus.

I’m not telling you to all go out and knock on doors telling people they are going to Hell, but I want this sobering fact to impact you and push you to do more, to pray more, to love more, and to care more about the eternal fate of others. That’s how we can be a church who makes an eternal difference.

Right now I want you to think, “Whose soul will I pray for?”  Think about a person right now; put their face and their name in your mind. And now, join with me as we pray.