HELL IS REAL
THE
NECESSITY OF HELL
Most
who scoff at hell today probably do so for several reasons. Primary among them
is a desire
to
pursue their own paths of sin without having their consciences troubled about the
consequences
of
their actions. They do not want to hear that what they are doing is wrong. They
do not want to
hear
that their sin will be punished. I can hear someone say, "But isn't
eternal torment in hell
inconsistent
with a merciful and loving God? How could a good God punish people in hell
forever?"
A misunderstanding of the character of God and the nature of sin can easily
lead to such
questions.
Why is hell necessary? Let us examine several reasons for the necessity of
hell.
1) The Great Evil in Sin
and the Holiness of God. The difficulty most people have in understanding
the
necessity of hell is related to an incomplete and inadequate understanding of
both how awful sin
is
and how glorious God is. We do not see what a great evil is in the least sin,
nor do we
understand
God's holiness, His justice, and His wrath. If we saw sin as the greatest evil
in the
world
and realized that every sin is a rejection of God's rule over us, a sneering at
Him, a shaking
of
our fist in His face, and a hurling of dung at Him, we would begin to
understand a small bit of
what
our sin is like to God. Every time we sin, we either set ourselves, or a pet
lust, up in our
hearts
as a rival god. Sin rejects the Creator as God and sets up the creature in His
place.
If
we could comprehend God's holiness and what it means to be holy, pure, perfect,
upright, and
untainted
by the least sin, we would have a better idea of why God hates sin so much.
Absolute
holiness
cannot tolerate the least sin, "Thine eyes are too pure to approve evil,
and Thou canst not
look
on wickedness with favor" (Habakkuk
and
purity of God and also the abominable nature of sin more, then we would have no
problem
with
the absolute necessity of hell.
"The
heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can
understand it?" (Jeremiah
17:9).
The human heart is sick. The human heart is wicked. The human heart is
deceitful. The
corruption
in the heart causes us to be deceived about the awfulness of sin as well as
many other
things.
2) God's Infinite
Nature. In understanding what our sin is really like, we must view it through
the
eyes
of God. God is an infinite, eternal being. Every act of sin is committed
against an infinite, holy
God.
In every act of sin we dethrone God and set ourselves above God. In every sin
this question
is
the issue, "Whose will shall be done, God's will or man's? Now, man by sin
sets his own will
above
the Lord's, and so kicks God as filth under his feet."1 A single act of
sin committed against
a
holy, infinite God deserves infinite punishment. It is an infinite evil to
offend an infinite God even
once.
3) Divine Justice. Even
one sin against God calls for God to vindicate His name and His justice by
punishing
it as fully as it deserves. God can and will vindicate His justice. He promises
to do so in
Romans
mine,
I will repay, says the Lord.'" One of the greatest preachers that ever
lived, Jonathan
Edwards,
wrote, "The glory of God is the greatest good; it is that which is the
chief end of
creation;
it is of greater importance than anything else. But this is one way wherein God
will glorify Himself, as in the eternal destruction of ungodly men He will
glorify His justice. Therein He will appear as a just governor of the world.
The vindictive justice of God will appear strict, exact,
awful,
and terrible, and therefore glorious.
A
DESCRIPTION OF HELL
Hell
is a furnace of unquenchable fire, a place of everlasting punishment, where its
victims are
tormented
in both their bodies and their minds in accordance with their sinful natures,
their actual
sins
committed, and the amount of spiritual light given to them, which they
rejected. Hell is a place
from
which God's mercy and goodness have been withdrawn, where God's wrath is
revealed as a
terrifying,
consuming fire, and men live with unfulfilled lusts and desires in torment
forever and ever.
In
Matthew 13:47-50 the Lord Jesus tells a parable relating to the judgment. In
verses 49-50, the
Lord
describes the fate of the wicked: "So it will be at the end of the age;
the angels shall come
forth,
and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will cast them into the
furnace of fire;
there
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
In
examining these words of the Lord Jesus we should first notice that hell is
described as being a
furnace
of fire. Nebuchadnezzar's furnace was heated seven times hotter than normal and
is
described
as "a furnace of blazing fire" (Daniel
and
Revelation describes hell as "a lake of fire burning with brimstone"
(Revelation
teeth."
The lost will wail and gnash their teeth from having to endure the most intense
pain and
suffering
they have ever felt as the flames consume them and constantly burn every part
of their
bodies.
And there will be no relief.
Jonathan
Edwards describes in graphic language what the fires of hell will be like:
"Some of you
have
seen buildings on fire; imagine therefore with yourselves, what a poor hand you
would make
at
fighting with the flames, if you were in the midst of so great and fierce a
fire. You have often
seen
a spider or some other noisome insect, when thrown into the midst of a fierce
fire, and have
observed
how immediately it yields to the force of the flames. There is no long
struggle, no fighting
against
the fire, no strength exerted to oppose the heat, or to fly from it; but it
immediately
stretches
forth and yields; and the fire takes possession of it, and at once it becomes
full of fire.
Here
is a little image of what you will be in hell, except you repent and fly to
Christ. To encourage
yourselves
that you will set yourselves to bear hell-torments as well as you can, is just
as if a
worm,
that is about to be thrown into a glowing furnace, should swell and fortify
itself, and prepare itself to fight the flames.
Hell
is also described as a place of darkness. The Lord tells us of the guest
without wedding
clothes
who was cast "into outer darkness" (Matthew
whom
the black darkness has been reserved forever" (Jude 13). Christopher Love
says in his
work
Hell's Terrors: "darkness is terrible, and men are more apt to fear in the
dark then light: hell is therefore set forth in so terrible an expression, to
make the hearts of men tremble; not only
darkness,
but the blackness of darkness". Hell is compared to Tophet in Isaiah
30:33. Tophet was the place where the idolatrous Jews sacrificed their children
to the heathen god Molech by casting them into the fire. Day and night shrieks
and howls were heard in that place, as day and night shrieks, howls, and
wailing are heard in hell.
Isaiah
speaks of "the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone"
setting hell ablaze. There is
good
evidence from the Scriptures that God Himself will be the fire in hell. Hebrews
"Our
God is a consuming fire." The ungodly on earth ignorantly dance for joy
when they hear
pastors
speak about the love and mercy of God, but they will be the beneficiaries of
neither, unless
they
repent. To them God will be an all consuming fire. Hebrews 10:30-31 warns:
"For we know
him
who said, `Vengence is Mine, I will repay,' And again, `The Lord will judge His
people.' It is a
terrifying
thing to fall into the hands of the living God." It is a fearful thing, it
is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God! You shall not
escape hell, sinner. God will be your hell and
His
wrath will consume you and be poured upon you as long as He exists. "Who
understands the
power
of Thine anger?" (Psalm 90:11). It is because God Himself will be the fire
in hell that words
cannot
possibly express the terrors of the damned in hell. "There is no reason to
suspect that
possibly
ministers set forth this matter beyond what it really is, that possibly it is
not so dreadful
and
terrible as it is pretended, and that ministers strain the description of it
beyond just
bounds...We
have rather reason to suppose that after we have said our utmost, all that we
have
said
or thought is but a faint shadow of reality."5
In
Luke 16:19-26 Christ tells us of two men. One of them was rich (he has traditionally
been
called
Dives); the other man was poor (his name was Lazarus). Both men died. The poor
man was
carried
by angels to heaven and the rich man went to hell. The rich man did not go to
hell because
he
was rich, nor did the poor man go to heaven simply because he was poor. The
Lord shows us
through
this contrast that our circumstances may change drastically when we pass from
time into
eternity.
We are not to be fooled that just because God may not have dealt harshly with
us here,
that
he will not do so after death. The eternal abiding place of both men resulted
from the condition
of
their hearts before God, while they were on earth. Lazarus was a true follower
of God. Dives
was
not. We want to carefully note what the Scriptures tell us about Dives and his
condition, for
from
that we may learn much about hell. Verses 23-24 indicate to us that Dives is
"in torment."
What
does it mean to be "in torment?" This torment refers to both torment
in body and torment in
soul
as well. As we have seen, men's bodies will be tormented in a furnace of fire.
Every part of
the
body will feel the pain of that fire. Men with severe stomach pains can be in
great agony from
that
alone, but this pain will be far greater. Death from cancer is sometimes said
to cause extreme
pain
in the body, but the pain of hell will be far worse. If your body were
afflicted with many
different
and painful diseases all at the same time, you still would not begin to
approach the pain of
the
damned in hell.
Men's
consciences shall be in torment in hell as well. Conscience is the worm that
will not die
which
the Scriptures speak of (Mark
your
life." Men will be tormented with extreme pain, but they will also be
tormented by their own
memories.
They will remember hearing of hell and scoffing at it. They will remember being
warned
and
told to repent or told that accepting the blessings of heaven without
submitting to Christ as
Lord
falls short of salvation, but they took no heed to those warnings. They will be
tormented by
seeing
at a distance the glories of heaven (as Dives was able to do), and knowing that
for all
eternity
they will be damned. They will be tormented by unfulfilled desires and
unfulfilled lusts
(Dives
is not able to receive even a drop of water to cool his tongue). They will be
tormented by
the
knowledge that they will never escape from hell (Dives is told that
"neither can you pass to
us").
They will be tormented by the cries, shrieks, and curses of the damned around
them. The
most
extreme torments a man can experience on earth will be like flea bites compared
to the
torments
of hell.
Jonathan
Edwards speaks of men unable to find even a moment of relief in hell in his
sermon on
The
Future Punishment of the Wicked: "Nor will they ever be able to find
anything to relieve them
in
hell. They will never find any resting place there; any secret corner, which
will be cooler than the
rest,
where they may have a little respite, a small abatement of the extremity of
their torment. They
never
will be able to find any cooling stream or fountain, in any part of that world
of torment; no,
nor
so much as a drop of water to cool their tongues. They will find no company to
give them any
comfort,
or do them the least good. They will find no place, where they can remain, and
rest, and
take
breath for one minute: for they will be tormented with fire and brimstone; and
they will have
no
rest day nor night forever and ever."6
THE
ETERNITY OF HELL
The
most terrifying aspect of all about hell is its length or duration. Hell is
eternal. Hell will last
forever.
Can you comprehend eternity? No mathimatical equation or formula can explain
it. Your
mind
cannot conceive of eternity, but it is none the less real. This aspect of hell
alone should cause
men
to cry out in repentance. It is not surprising that skeptics of all ages have
attacked the eternal
nature
of hell, substituting doctrines like the annihilation of the wicked in its
place. Let us look at
the
Scriptures to verify the eternal nature of hell and to try and understand
eternity better. Then we
will
explore why hell must be eternal.
"And
the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone,
where the beast
and
the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever
and ever"
(Revelation
20:10). This verse clearly gives us the duration of hell. Hell is forever and
ever. How
could
a stronger, more certain expression be used? If the Spirit of God wanted to
communicate
the
eternal nature of hell to men what could communicate it better than the
expression "forever and
ever?"
The Scripture has no higher expression which is used to denote eternity than
"forever and
ever"
for it is the very phrase used to tell us of the eternal existence of God
Himself, as in
Revelation
4:9: "to him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and
ever." Does anyone
doubt
that God will live to all eternity? How then can you doubt that hell will not
last to all eternity
when
the same expression is used for both?
"We
can conceive but little of the matter; but to help your conception, imagine
yourself to be cast
into
a fiery oven, or a great furnace, where your pain would be as much greater than
that
occasioned
by accidentally touching a coal of fire, as the heat is greater. Imagine also
that your
body
were to lie there for a quarter of an hour, full of fire, and all the while
full of quick sense; what
horror
would you feel at the entrance of such a furnace! and how long would that
quarter of an
hour
seem to you! And after you had endured it for one minute, how overbearing would
it be to
you
to think that you had to endure the other fourteen! But what would be the
effect on your soul,
if
you knew you must lie there enduring that torment to the full for twenty-four
hours...for a whole
year...for
a thousand years! Oh, then, how would your hearts sink, if you knew, that you
must bear
it
forever and ever! that there would be no end! that after millions of millions
of ages, your torment
would
be no nearer to an end, and that you never, never should be delivered! But your
torment in
hell
will be immensely greater than this illustration represents."7
Christ,
describing the great day of judgment, tells of the separation of the wicked and
the righteous
using
these words: "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the
righteous into eternal
life"
(Matthew 25:46). Is there anyone who would deny that heaven exists eternally?
Will the lives
of
the blessed in heaven be brought to an end one day? Of course not. But the same
Greek word
is
used here in this verse to speak of the eternal life of the righteous and the
everlasting punishment
of
the wicked. Hell will last as long as heaven does.
In
hell there will be different degrees of torment appointed to men as indicated
by a number of
Scriptures.
Luke 12:47-48 says: "And that slave who knew his master's will and die not
get ready
or
act in accord with his will, shall receive many lashes, but the one who did not
know it, and
committed
deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few." Christ says in Matthew
11:24:
"Nevertheless
I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the
judgment,
than for you." The verses in Matthew indicate that the people in
a
greater punishment on judgment day than those who had lived in
speak
of a differentiation in judgment based on the amount of light received: some
will receive
many
stripes and others will receive few.
Those
who commit greater sins than others or more sins than others will receive
greater
punishment
in hell (John
real
Christians, will be punished more severely than others (Matthew
Judas
Iscariot, "It would have been good for that man if he had not been
born" (Matthew 26:24).
How
could any of these things be said to be true if annihilation were what awaited
men after
death?
The presence of different degrees of punishment only makes sense in light of
the ability to
sensibly
feel the torment. Could it be said that it would have been better for Judas if
he had never
been
born if annihilation was all that awaited him? Annihilation is like no
punishment at all.
Each
time the unbeliever sins he is adding to his torment in hell. The person who
sins twice as much
as
another with similar light will receive twice as much punishment. Every day
that sinners continue
to
live and breathe here on earth without repenting, they are adding to their
torments in hell.
Romans
2:5 tells us: "But because of your stubborness and unrepentant heart you
are storing up
wrath
for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of
God." The Lord
Jesus
encouraged the righteous to lay up treasures in heaven rather than on earth.
The wicked are
increasing
their future wrath and torment in hell every day by their continued sinning.
They add to
their
punishment daily. In hell men will wish that they had never been born.
Charles
Haddon Spurgeon said: "In hell there is no hope. They have not even the
hope of
dying--the
hope of being annihilated. They are forever--forever--forever lost! On every
chain in
hell,
there is written "forever". In the fires there, blaze out the words,
"forever". Above their heads,
they
read, "forever". Their eyes are galled and their hearts are pained
with the thought that it is
"forever".
Oh, if I could tell you tonight that hell would one day be burned out, and that
those who
were
lost might be saved, there would be a jubilee in hell at the very thought of
it. But it cannot
be--it
is "forever" they are cast into the outer darkness."8
Christopher
Love uses an illustration to try and help us understand what eternity means:
"Suppose
all
the mountains of the earth were mountains of sand, and many more mountains
still added
thereto,
till they reached up to heaven, and a little bird should once in every thousand
years take
one
(grain of) sand of this mountain, there would be an innumerable company of
years pass over
before
that mass of sand would be consumed and taken away, and yet this time would
have an
end;
and it would be happy for man, if hell were no longer than this time; but this
is man's misery in
hell,
he shall be in no more hope of coming out after he hath been there millions of
years, then he
was
when he was first cast in there; for his torments shall be to eternity, without
end, because the
God
that damns him is eternal."9
Earlier
we looked at the necessity of hell or why there must be a place like hell. Now
we will look
at
why hell must not only exist, but why it must exist eternally. Why is it
necessary that hell be
eternal?
There are several answers to this which we shall explore briefly.
The
first reason we will look at is the one mentioned by Christopher Love in the
passage just
quoted.
The God who damns men is an eternal God. "Ultimately the eternality of
hell is based upon
the
nature of God."10 Is God's Word eternal? Is God's nature eternal? The
Scripture tells us:
"Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).
"His
righteousness
endures forever" (Psalm 111:3). "The Word of the Lord abides
forever" (I Peter
why
shouldn't His wrath be eternal as well? As eternally existent, all of God's
attributes are eternal
and
immutable; therefore, hell, as an expression of God's wrath, must be eternal.
Hell
must be eternal because God's justice could never be satisfied by the
punishment of sinners no
matter
how long it lasts. Christ makes this clear when He speaks about settling with
your accuser
before
you get to court, otherwise you shall be cast into prison and "I tell
thee, thou shalt not
depart
thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite" (Luke
his
sins. No amount of punishment in hell, no matter how long, can ever atone for
sins. It is
impossible;
therefore, hell must be eternal.
Thirdly,
hell must be eternal because the Scriptures tell us that the worm which gnaws
the
conscience
of men in hell never dies. "For their worm shall not die, and their fire
shall not be
quenched"
(Isaiah 66:24). If the worm never dies, then those being tormented by the worm
shall
never
die.
Lastly,
hell will be eternal because men continue to sin in hell. They increase and
compound their
guilt
there. Hell is a place where tormented men curse God, curse themselves, and
scream and wail
with
blasphemous language at their fellow men around them. Wicked men will increase
each
other's
torments as they accuse, blame, and condemn one another. Men will not repent in
hell
because
the character of sinners does not change. They remain sinners. Men will sin to
eternity,
therefore,
God will punish them eternally.
APPLICATION
TO BELIEVERS AND UNBELIEVERS
The
Old Testament prophets warn us repeatedly of the dangers of hell: "Who
among us can dwell
with
everlasting burnings?" (Isaiah 33:14, KJV). "Who can stand before His
indignation? And who
can
endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire" (Nahum
1:6). Sinner, are
you
so arrogant as to think you can bear the wrath of God poured out in full
measure upon you?
You
may think that hell is not so hot and that you will be able to bear it quite
well. If you believe
that
you are more than a fool. The terrors of hell cause the devils to tremble and are
you so foolish
as
to be unmoved by them or make light of them?
Do
not think that simply because you go to church, or believe in God, or believe
intellectually in the
truths
of Christianity that you will escape hell. The majority of those who regularly
attend churches
every
week, all over the world, will go to hell. Thomas Shepard, pastor and founder
of Harvard
University,
wrote: "Formal professors and carnal gospelers have a thing like faith,
and like sorrow,
and
like true repentance, and like good desires, but yet they be but pictures; they
deceive others
and
themselves too...most of them that live in the church shall perish."11
You
who profess to be Christians, but do not read your Bible much and pray little:
how shall you
escape
the damnation of hell? You who are not especially bothered by little sins or
troubled by the
vain
and filthy thoughts which you have: are you ready to go to hell? You who think
the kingdom of
God
consists in a verbal profession of Christ or intellectually believing that
Jesus died for your sins,
but
who are not concerned with living a holy, godly life and give little or no
thought to God during
the
week: are you prepared to endure the torments of hell, day and night, forever
and ever? You
had
better be, because if these things are true of you, you are headed straight for
hell, unless you
repent.
Do not delude yourself! Christianity does not consist in words, or pious
statements, or
mere
intellectual belief, but in a new heart and a new life dedicated to not sinning
and living for the
glory
of God. If your heart and life have not been changed by God, you are still in
your sins. If you
are
living in known disobedience to the word of God and are unconcerned about it,
you have no
right
to assume you are going to heaven: you are on your way to hell! Repent of all
your sins and
turn
to Jesus Christ and surrender to Him as Lord. Listen to the words of Christ:
"If your eye
causes
you to stumble, pluck it out, and throw it from you. It is better for you to
enter life with one
eye,
than having two eyes, to be cast into the fiery hell" (Matthew 18:9).
"Nothing short of the
complete
denying of self, the abandoning of the dearest idol, the forsaking of the most
cherished
sinful
course--figuratively represented under the cutting off of a right hand and the
plucking out of a
right
eye--is what He claims from every one who would have true communion with
Him."12 But
remember,
the difficulty involved in forsaking all for Christ is nothing compared to
spending eternity
in
hell.
I
do not believe anyone can be scared into heaven, but I do believe they can be
scared away from
hell,
so that they might begin to seek God with all their hearts, and to beg Christ
to have mercy on
them.
Men stand on the brink of the pit of hell and are ready to fall headlong into
it and yet they
are
completely unaware they are in any danger. If hearing about hell can cause
otherwise senseless
men
to consider eternal truths, then preaching about hell is valuable indeed. It is
better to view hell
now,
while you are living, and be terrified by it, than to have to endure hell
forever when you die.
I
would not have you to be more afraid of hell than of sin. Sin is your real
enemy. Sin is worse than
hell
because sin gave birth to hell. Would you be willing to go to hell for all
eternity for the
enjoyment
of a little pleasure and lust here on earth? Flee from sin! Flee from living
for self and
self-pleasing
to Jesus Christ. When you die it will be to late. All opportunity to repent
ends at
death.
This
doctrine is useful to the godly as well as the ungodly. The doctrine of hell
should stir up within
the
righteous a fear of God. A godly fear is useful in many ways. The one who has a
fear of God in
his
heart has a greater respect for the commandments of God. He who truly fears God
will not fear
men
and would rather displease men than God (Isaiah 8:12-13). This doctrine should
increase
your
faithfulness and joy in Christ that you have been delivered from the torments
of hell and
should
likewise increase your love for Christ who endured the wrath of God upon the
cross for
you.
The
doctrine of hell should stir up within you a fear of sin. It should cause us to
fear even little sins
and
be careful to confess and forsake sins of the heart and thought life also. Let
the doctrine of hell
keep
you from the practice of sin.
The
doctrine of hell should help the godly to be patient under all outward,
temporary afflictions
which
come to them. No matter how great your afflictions are in this world, they are
far less than
the
torments of hell from which the Lord has freed the godly. You may have to
undergo lessor
torments
while on earth, but remember they are only temporary and you have been freed
from the
greatest
of all torments so you may rejoice even in a time of affliction.
This
doctrine is useful to motivate you to tell others of the message of Christ.
Eryl Davies wrote in
his
book The Wrath of God: "The eternity of hell's sufferings should make us
the more zealous and
eager
to tell people of the only One who is able to rescue them. Do we shrink from
declaring these
solemn
truths? Does the thought of hell displease us? Remember that God will be
glorified even
through
the eternal sufferings of unbelievers in hell. His injured majesty will be
vindicated...What is
supreme
in the purpose of God in the election and reprobation of men is His own glory,
and hell
also
will glorify the justice, power, and wrath of God throughout eternity. In the
meantime it is our
responsibility
to pray and work for the salvation of sinners before such awful punishment
overtakes
them."13
I
cannot leave without one final word to those who think they are converted, but
are not; and also,
to
those who know themselves to be unconverted. Can you conceive of eternity? Stop
now and
try
to imagine being tormented unceasingly, forever, without end. Does this not
terrify you? Never
a
chance for a moment's rest. Never a drop of water to cool your parched throat.
Think again of
how
long eternity is. Try to imagine it: day and night, forever and ever, burned
with fire like a
spider
in a furnace of flames. Shrieking, howling, wailing, cursing the day you were
born, and being
cursed
by the devils and damned souls around you eternally. Remembering, forever
remembering,
how
you were warned on earth and how you ignored those warnings: self-satisfied and
self-deceived
that all was well with your soul. Job's wife told him to curse God and die.
Unless you
repent
and flee to Jesus Christ, who is your only hope, you shall curse God eternally
and be
tormented
by Him in His presence in the awful fullness of His wrath, and you shall never
die. You
shall
never die. You shall never die! Eternity is forever!