# The Severity of Hell



## Fish&Chips (Jan 27, 2012)

Charles Spurgeon once advised fellow-preachers, â€œShun all views of future punishment that would make it appear less terrible.â€ Yet another timely word from Spurgeonâ€"efforts to extinguish the flames of hell abound in our day, just as they did in his.
As you listen to popular views about hell, you can test what you hear with a few biblically-discerning questions:

Does this view of hell diminish the threat of Godâ€™s judgment?
Does this teaching soften the urgency of repentance?
Is this offering the sinner any hope of salvation beyond this life?
Modern views of hell wonâ€™t survive the test of biblical fidelity. Theyâ€™ll allow the sinner to feel more comfortable and complacent by defanging God, making Him appear less severe.
Challenges to the doctrine of hell start out by questioning what the Bible clearly says, but they donâ€™t end there. Wayne Grudem, recognizing the trend to make hell appear more bearable, noticed a tragic pattern:
The doctrine of eternal conscious punishmentâ€¦tends to be one of the first doctrines given up by people who are moving away from a commitment to the Bible as absolutely truthful [â€¦]. Among liberal theologians who do not accept the absolute truthfulness of the Bible, there is probably no one today who believes in the doctrine of eternal conscious punishment. (Wayne Grudem, _Systematic Theology_)​Two of the more prominent campaigns against hell are attacks against its eternality and severity. Travis gave us some help in understanding the eternality of hell; now letâ€™s take a look at hellâ€™s severity.

*Will hell really be that bad?*
Whenever Jesus described hell, He was never flippant or dismissive. He used vivid, terrifying terms to describe the final destination of sinners, shocking and scaring His audiences with frighteningly graphic metaphors. Hell is a place so bad that you should be willing to cut off sensitive, irreplaceable parts of your body to avoid it (Mt. 5:29-30); even martyrdom would be worth avoiding the torment of hell (Matt. 10:28). He always presented hell as a _horrific_ place of intolerable suffering.
His descriptions are consistent with other biblical writers. Daniel referred to hell as a place of shame and everlasting contempt (Dan. 12:2). Paul called it a place of endless destruction and punishment (2 Thess. 1:5-10). Jude called hell a place of eternal fire and darkness (Jude 7). The Apostle John described hell as a place where sinners suffer everlasting torment, with no rest day or night (Rev. 14:9-11).
Taken together, all those descriptions of hell communicate pain, fear, loss, anger, separation, and hopelessness. It's utter agony, eternal torment.

*Agony and Torment*
The New Testament describes hell as a place of unimaginable torment. Biblical writers help us picture scenes of unspeakable horror, and most of the time theyâ€™re merely quoting what Jesus said about hell:

weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 8:12)
spiritual and bodily destruction (Mt. 10:28)
fiery furnaces (Matt. 13:42, 50)
outer darkness (Matt. 22:13)
unquenchable fires (Mark 9:48-49)
endless torments (Luke 16:23-24)
JohnCalvin, commenting on those descriptions, wrote, "By such expressions, the Holy Spiritcertainly intended to confound all our senses with dread.â€ Calvin understood the Bibleâ€™s appeal to our senses. When you read about hell in Scripture, you can almost hear the agonizing wails, smell the smoke and burning sulfur, see the flames from the lake of fire, and feel the seething anger of the wicked as they gnash their teeth at the Righteous Judge.
Jesus used pictures and metaphors to help us understand the horror of hell. Darkness represents loneliness, insecurity, the sense of being lost and disoriented; fire represents the excruciating pain of burning; and a _lake_ of fire represents the sense of drowning, suffocating, taking the burning sulfur internally. These vivid pictures of hellâ€™s environment should provoke a reasonable sense of fear in a normal, thinking person. No one can come away with the idea that hell is a tolerable place to spend eternity.

*Abandonment*
While itâ€™s true that hell is a place of untold _physical_ pain and suffering (fire, scorching, being cut to pieces), I think we often overlook the _mental_ agony of being completely forsakenâ€"abandoned for all eternity. After all, the most chilling cry from our Lord as He suffered Godâ€™s wrath on the cross stemmed not from physical pain, but from being forsaken by the Father. Jesus cried out, â€œMy God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me?â€ (Matt. 27:46).
John MacArthur explained the significance of God forsaking the Son in relation to hell: â€œThis is a reminder to all sinners that while hell is the full fury of Godâ€™s personal punishment presence, He will never be there to comfort. He will never be there to show sympathy. He will never bring relief. [â€¦] it is both the punishment of God and the absence of comfort. [â€¦] Thatâ€™s hellâ€"punishment without relief (â€œThe King Crucified: Consummation at Calvaryâ€). As the Puritan Thomas Vincent put it, â€œNot only will the unbeliever be in hell, but hell will be in him too.â€

*Imprisonment*
The New Testament frequently presents hell as a prisonâ€"a place of eternal confinement (Mt. 22:13; Jude 13; 2 Pet. 2:9). Itâ€™s impossible to understand first-century prison conditions by looking at American prisons today where accommodations include cable television, three square meals, educational opportunities, outdoor exercise, and toilet/shower facilities. In many of the worldâ€™s jails throughout history, jailors didnâ€™t just treat prisoners like criminals, but rather as sub-humans, as _animals_.
But even the _worst_ of earthly prison conditions serve as weak analogies to the eternal dungeon of Godâ€™s hell. God will offer nothing to comfort or relieve his agonyâ€"ever. In hell, sinners will forever be hopeless, helpless, and powerless. God casts them into hell for one reasonâ€"punishment (2 Thess. 1:9).

*Look at the Cross*
If you want an inside glimpse of the agonies of hell, look at the Savior in Gethsemane as He anticipated the cross. See the bloody drops of sweat falling from his body as He faced the reality of absorbing His Fatherâ€™s eternal wrath. Hear His agonizing screams from the cross as His Fatherâ€"for the first and last timeâ€"abandoned His sin-bearing Son. Feel His loneliness as He faced those agonies alone.
Hell is a place where Godâ€™s full wrath and fury will be poured out eternally on sinners. Possessing in Himself the essence and omniscience of deity, Christ knew what He spoke of. And as our sin-bearing substitute, He anticipated the torments of hell and finally experienced the full outpouring of divine wrath for all those who believe.
Scripture is abundantly clear about the doctrine of hell. Nothing good can come from advocating a view of hell that makes it out to be anything less than a hopeless, agonizing, eternal separation from the good and gracious presence of God. If you reject, diminish, or neglect the doctrine of hell, you undermine the gravity of our sin in contrast to the holiness of God. But armed with accurate teaching on hell, you help the sinner understand why he _must_ flee from the wrath of God to the mercy of Jesus Christ.

Tommy Clayton
Content Developer and Broadcast Editor

http://www.gty.org/blog/B110511


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## Fish&Chips (Jan 27, 2012)

May God have mercy on those who mock & make jokes about hell as if it were no big deal. Eternity in hell is no small thing.


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## WillieT (Aug 25, 2010)

The wage of sin is death, nothing more, nothing less. God loves all his sons, even those that sin, as we are all sinners. Because of sin, we die. The dead are conscience of nothing. If you were burning for eternity you would be conscience of it. God want us to obey him because of our love for him, not because we are afraid that he is going to burn us forever.


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## Fish&Chips (Jan 27, 2012)

There is a heaven and there is a hell. And God has demonstrated his love for us by allowing his only son, Jesus to die for us while we were yet sinners. If you want to believe that there is no hell, go right ahead.


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## Fish&Chips (Jan 27, 2012)

shaggydog said:


> God want us to obey him because of our love for him, not because we are afraid that he is going to burn us forever.


When you were a kid, did you obey your parents because of the consequences if you didn't obey them? Or did you obey them because you love them? I believe it was some of both.


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## Fish&Chips (Jan 27, 2012)

Shaggydog, and if there were no eternal consequences for the way we live in this life, wouldn't this world be way worse than it already is? But most people know that there is a hell. And some believe, but are in denial.


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## WillieT (Aug 25, 2010)

Fish&Chips said:


> When you were a kid, did you obey your parents because of the consequences if you didn't obey them? Or did you obey them because you love them? I believe it was some of both.


Yes, I was punished when I was a kid and disobeyed, punished not tortured.

Let me explain it like this. I do not know if you have children, but I think you do. Do you punish them if they disobey? Does your punishment include sticking their hand on the red hot burner on top of the stove, then the other hand, then pushing their face down on it, then holding their feet to it? If you do this whenever they disobey, and they know what is coming, do you think they would love you for it? I bet, if you love your children, you do not punish them in this way.

Now lets look at God. He is the epitome of love. 1John 4:8 ".....GOD IS LOVE." We cannot even come close to feeling the love God does, much less express his type of love.

Now I ask you to reason on this. Don't think about what you have been taught all of your life, reason on that one scripture. With the example of you and your love for you children, and the fact that God is love. How can you possibly think that he could torture His children for eternity. It make no sense at all.


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## WillieT (Aug 25, 2010)

Fish&Chips said:


> Shaggydog, and if there were no eternal consequences for the way we live in this life, wouldn't this world be way worse than it already is? But most people know that there is a hell. And some believe, but are in denial.


The word is horrible, unlike God's original purpose, which was for man to live forever in a paradise. At the day of judgment, the unrighteous will be done away with, ie Noah's day, Sodom and Gormorrah. This will continue to worsen until that happens.

The bible speaks of hell, hades, sheol, which are all the same, the common grave of man. We all go there when we die. The burning lake of fire that is spoken of is symbolic. It designates that if you are pitched into the burning lake, it means you have no hope for a resurrection, not that you will be tormented for eternity. God is not capable of that.


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## Fish&Chips (Jan 27, 2012)

Shaggydog, I can see what you are saying. The thing is that when we disobey God, he does not torture us like you mentioned. He will discipline us, yes. But if we end up in hell, it is our own fault because we have free will. Just like our parents always try to teach us to do good and not evil. Yet if we decide to commit a horrendous crime once we are old enough to make our own choices, we will end up paying for it. We will pay severely. Yes our parents still love us, but it was our own choices that got us to that place of suffering & torment in prison. In hell, it is not God who will be torturing us either. I don't just say this because that is what I was taught. This is what the bible says. Also, God is not in hell, so we will be eternally separated from him.


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## WillieT (Aug 25, 2010)

Fish&Chips said:


> Shaggydog, I can see what you are saying. The thing is that when we disobey God, he does not torture us like you mentioned. He will discipline us, yes. But if we end up in hell, it is our own fault because we have free will. Just like our parents always try to teach us to do good and not evil. Yet if we decide to commit a horrendous crime once we are old enough to make our own choices, we will end up paying for it. We will pay severely. Yes our parents still love us, but it was our own choices that got us to that place of suffering & torment in prison. In hell, it is not God who will be torturing us either. I don't just say this because that is what I was taught. This is what the bible says. Also, God is not in hell, so we will be eternally separated from him.


Revelation tells us that Satan will be abyssed at the battle of Armageddon. He will not be able to mislead those remaining or resurrected. If he is abyssed, who will do the tormenting?

We end up paying for our sin by dying. God would not allow us to be tortured by Satan anyway. Remember, he would not allow him to kill Job.

Please REASON on what the scriptures say. It is not reasonable to think God would torture us for eternity, or allow that to happen. Just like you would not do it or allow it to happen to your children.

The wage of sin is DEATH. Period.


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## Fish&Chips (Jan 27, 2012)

*24 reasons why hell is real*

*24 Reasons Why Hell Is Real 

* 
*Some false teachers today would like us to think that everybody will eventually get to heaven. Don't believe them. *

William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army and a man who dedicated his life to lifting the poor out of sin and poverty, reportedly made this statement: "Most Christian organizations would like to send their workers to Bible college for five years. I would like to send our workers to hell for five minutes. That would prepare them for a lifetime of compassionate ministry."

Booth never suggested that the desperate people he served were "already in hell." He believed in a real, eternal hell, and it drove him to rescue people from both their current plight and future perdition.

Shortly before his death in 1912, Booth warned prophetically that he saw coming to the church "forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration ... a heaven without a hell."

In today's theological fog, his ominous caveat is unfolding. Even some who claim to believe the Bible are having second thoughts about eternal judgment, and others have rejected the notion of judgment altogether. The name usually given this teaching is Universalism.

Universalism basically is the belief that all people will be saved. Jesus' death and resurrection will automatically, or at least eventually, save the whole human race. Personal repentance and faith in Christ are not necessary for going to heaven. The Christian mission is reduced to announcing to people the "good news" that they are already saved.

But does Scripture teach that everyone will be saved? There is overwhelming biblical evidence to the contrary.

I'd like to offer 24 reasons to reject Universalism. You may be able to add a few of your own.

1. Jesus made both repentance and faith prerequisites for forgiveness. "Unless you repent you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3, NKJV). "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15).

2. The "water of life" is offered to all, but not all receive it or even desire 
it. "Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17).

3. Scripture teaches that there will be a judgment after death. "And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment" (Heb. 9:27).

4. Those who have not had a true conversion will experience a judgment for sin that the Bible describes as "the second death." "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death" (Rev. 21:8).

5. Contrary to Universalist beliefs, Jesus' teaching indicates that most of humanity is on a broad path that leads to destruction. "'Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, "Lord, Lord, open for us," and He will answer and say to you, "I do not know you, where you are from. ... Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity"'" (Luke 13:24-27).

6. Jesus spoke often of a terrible place of judgment for those outside His kingdom rule. "'The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth'" (Matt. 13:41-42).

7. The Bible teaches both the love of God and His sure judgment of sin. Trusting in Christ's payment for our sins saves us from this coming judgment. "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him" (Rom. 5:8-9).

8. In one of the most loving verses in the Bible, Jesus issues eternal options. "'For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life'" (John 3:16).

9. Scripture teaches that there is unending, eternal judgment for those who do not know God and who do not respond in faith to the gospel. "The Lord Jesus [will be] revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power" (2 Thess. 1:7-9).

10. Jesus emphatically taught that a spiritual birth is essential to entering the kingdom of heaven. "'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God'" (John 3:3).

11. In answer to a very clear question about what is necessary for salvation, Paul gave a very clear answer: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved" (Acts. 16:31).

12. Jesus gave no indication that many roads lead to God. He forcefully stated that He was the only way. "'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me'" (John 14:6).

13. The early preachers of the church clearly preached that Jesus is the only way to salvation. "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12; see also 1 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 2:3-4; 1 Pet. 1:3-5).

14. According to Scripture, only those who receive Jesus Christ and believe in Him are children of God. "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name" (John 1:12).

15. The gospel is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes" (Rom. 1:16; see also 10:9).

16. Rather than teaching that those without faith in Christ are already saved, the Bible teaches that they are already under judgment. Faith in Christ brings us out of condemnation and into right relationship with God. "'He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God'" (John 3:18).

17. Only those whose names are in the Lamb's Book of Life are granted access into the eternal city of God. "And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:15; see also 21:27).

18. People are not automatically righteous. Only when we declare faith in Jesus Christ does God declare us righteous in His sight. "But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness" (Rom. 4:5).

19. Eternal life comes only through a relationship with God. We cannot know the Father unless we know the Son. "'And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent'" (John 17:3).

20. The cross of Christ is where payment for our sins was made. Only when we believe this are we saved. "'And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up [on a cross], that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life'" (John 3:14-15).

21. Only those who have the Son of God have eternal life. "And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 John 5:11-12).

In addition to these verses, the story of Cornelius in Acts 10 and 11 provides hard evidence against Universalism. Cornelius was devout, prayed often, gave generously to the poor and even received an angelic visitation. Yet God went to great lengths to get the gospel to him so he could come to know Jesus and be saved.

22. Added to the avalanche of scriptural evidence, there are also practical reasons for rejecting Universalism. History teaches that acceding to Universalism sets the church on a slippery slide toward theological liberalism. Soon all confidence in Scripture is lost and the uniqueness of the Christian gospel evaporates.

23. If we embrace Universalism, there is no urgency to evangelize or imperative to do missions. In fact, evangelism and missions would have to be redefined. We need look no further than most of the mainline denominations to see what happens to evangelism when Universalism is prevalent.

24. If Universalism is finally proved right, nothing will have been lost by our continued urgency in winning people to faith in Christ. But if it is false and we embrace it, then everything will be forever lost--including people who do not know Christ.

*Unbroken Hearts*
It needs to be said clearly that God's character is not on trial. The judge of all the earth will do what is right (see Gen. 18:25). Our faith is on trial. Our hearts are on trial. But God is not on trial. Whatever judgment He makes regarding those who have not responded to the gospel will be executed according to His standards of equally perfect righteousness and love.

When we ponder God's mercy, this whole issue is inverted. Because God is perfectly holy, the wonder is not that some will be lost. The greater wonder is that anyone from rebellious humanity will be saved! Only Christ's work on the cross could reconcile us to God.

God has put down the most massive roadblock possible to stop humanity's mad rush toward hell. He sent His Son. God intervened personally through Christ. His sacrifice on the cross paid the penalty for our sins. This is the good news for all who will believe and receive Him.

Espousing Universalism is sad. But rejecting it with no impact on our hearts or change in our priorities is sinister. If we believe that people are lost outside of Christ (and they are), and that faith in Christ is the only way of salvation (and it is), what could possibly be a higher priority than getting the gospel as far as we can as fast as we can?

To pronounce people "saved" who are obviously enslaved by darkness, deception and the devil is surely the cruelest of jokes. We are sent to a lost world with a gospel of power. Our message gives the spiritually blind their sight and liberates those who are chained by Satan. We do not preach that people are forgiven but that they can be forgiven.

I would not want to stand before Jesus Christ as a Universalist. But neither would I want to stand before the Lord as an evangelical who was not evangelistic. What a serious accounting must await us if we believe in eternal torment for those without faith in Christ--and yet do nothing! A recovery of biblical truth and compassionate evangelism are the twin screaming needs of the American church.

The apostle Paul said he would be willing to give up his place in Christ if by such a sacrifice others would be saved (see Rom. 9:2-3). He believed all people outside Christ were lost, and it left him with a broken heart.

More than encroaching Universalism, it is our unbroken hearts that often impede evangelism. Many Christians today have never even heard of "a burden for the lost." The harvest is huge and ready to be reaped by those who are willing to sow first in tears (see Ps. 126:5-6).

Right theology will only indict us if we do not recapture the evangelistic imperative. We must believe the truth, and we must act on what we believe. Let's not just reject faulty theology; let's embrace those who need Jesus.

http://www.charismamag.com/spirit/apologetics/880-24-reasons-why-i-believe-in-hell


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## Fish&Chips (Jan 27, 2012)

Shaggydog it all has to do with "God's Righteous Judgment"
Yet God is patient & longsuffering. He waits and waits and waits...


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