| .:WILL GOD PUNISH PEOPLE IN HELL FOREVER? Hell - Why Believe in it?
Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons and other
religious groups deny the idea that a literal "hell"
exists in which all who reject Jesus Christ will be
eternally tormented with fire. They question how a "loving
God" could send people to such a place with no
hope of an end to the torment. In answer, we must examine
what the Bible teaches in regard to "hell,"
God's love, justice and the sinfulness of man.
Summary of Topic Contents:
1.
How does the Bible describe Hell?
2.
How do we know that these descriptions of Hell are not symbolic?
3.
Why did God create Hell?
4.
How can a loving God send people to Hell?
5.
If Hell is punishment for sins committed in mortality, why is
Hell forever?
1.
How does the Bible describe Hell?
There are two Greek words in the Bible that are
often translated "hell." One word is "hades"
and the other word is "gehenna." In the
Greek Septuagint (Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament),
the word "hades" is the Greek equivalent for
the Hebrew word "sheol." Thayer's Greek-English
Lexicon of the New Testament notes that the term "hades"
often refers to "the realm of the dead," and in
some cases "it denotes...the infernal regions, a dark...and
dismal place... in the very depths of the earth...the common receptacle
of disembodied spirits...." —Thayer's Greek-English
Lexicon of the New Testament, by Joseph H. Thayer, 2002ed
Hendrickson Publishers, p. 11
While the word "hades"
is used to refer to mankind's "grave" or the "realm
of the dead," the Greek word "gehenna"
is more commonly used in connection with the idea of eternal
fire. Concerning this word, Vine's Complete Expository
of Old and New Testament Words notes:
"Geenna represents the Hebrew
Ge-Hinnom (the valley of Tophet) and a corresponding
Aramaic word....To the passage in Matt. 18, and in Mark 9:43-47,
is parallel; here to the word 'hell' are applied the extended
descriptions 'the unquenchable fire' and 'where their worm dieth
not and the fire is not quenched.'" —Vine's Complete
Expository of Old and New Testament Words, W.E. Vine, Merrill
F. Unger, William White, Jr., 1985 Thomas Nelson Publishers,
p. 300
"Tophet: Once a part of a king's garden
in Hinnom; it became a place where people in
Jerusalem sacrificed their children (Isa. 30:33; Jer. 19:6, 11-14;
2 Kings 23:10)." —Nelson's Quick Reference: Bible
People & Places, 1993 Thomas Nelson Publishers, p. 349
Thayer explains:
"Gehenna, the name of a valley on the S. and
E. of Jerusalem...which was so called from the cries of the
little children who were thrown into the fiery arms of Moloch....The
Jews so abhorred the place after these horrible sacrifices had
been abolished by king Josiah....that they cast
into it not only all manner of refuse, but
even the dead bodies of animals
and of unburied criminals who had been executed. And since fires
were always needed to consume the dead bodies, that
the air might not become tainted by the putrefaction, it came
to pass that the place was called gehenna tou puros
[gehenna of fire]....and then this name was transferred to that
place in Hades where the wicked after death will suffer punishment."
—Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament,
p. 111
Keep the above definitions in mind and take note of how hell
is described in the following verses:
- MATTHEW 10:28: "And do not
fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill
the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy
both soul and body in hell [gehenna]."
1.
- LUKE 12:5: "And I say to you,
My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and
after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn
you whom to fear: fear the One who after He has killed
has authority to cast into hell [gehenna];
yes, I tell you, fear Him!"
*
If "hell" is simply mankind's grave, why would Jesus
exhort us to "fear" it more than death?
- MATTHEW 25:46: "And these will
go away into eternal punishment, but the
righteous into eternal life."
2.
- DANIEL 12:2: "And many of those
who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake,
these to everlasting life, but the others
to disgrace and everlasting contempt."
*
There are only two options for eternity — i.e., "everlasting
life" or "everlasting punishment." Hebrews 9:27
states, "...it is appointed for men to die once and after
this comes judgment." One does not have a second
chance after death. In whatever state one may be found, it will
last for eternity.
- MATTHEW 3:12: "And His winnowing
fork is in His hand...and He will gather His wheat into the
barn, but He will burn up the chaff with
unquenchable fire."
- MATTHEW 8:11-12, 28-29: " 'And
I say to you, that many shall come from east and west, and
recline at the table with Abraham, and Isaac, and
Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven; but the
sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into the outer
darkness, in that place there shall
be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'...and
when He had come to the other side...two men who were demon-possessed
met Him....and behold, they cried out, saying,
'What do we have to do with You, Son of God? Have You come
here to torment us before the time?' "
* Here
we have an interesting statement made by the demons mentioning
a "torment" that shall occur at a future "time."
This "torment" is alluding to the "eternal fire"
of hell that was "prepared for the devil and his angels."
(See Matthew 25:41) Although this punishment was originally created
for Satan and his followers, Jesus warns that "weeping and
gnashing of teeth" in "unquenchable fire" also
awaits those who have rejected Him.
- MATTHEW 13:41-42, 49-50: "The
Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather
out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit
lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of
fire; in that place there shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth....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."
- MATTHEW 18:8: "...it is better
for you to enter life crippled or lame, than having two hands
or two feet, to be cast into the eternal
fire."
- MATTHEW 22:13: "Then the king
said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and cast him
into the outer darkness; in that
place there shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth.' "
- MARK 9:43, 47-49: "...it is
better for you to enter life crippled, than having your two
hands, to go into hell [gehenna],
into the unquenchable fire....it is better
for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than having
two eyes, to be cast into hell, [gehenna]
where their worm does not die, and the
fire is not quenched. For everyone will be salted
with fire."
- ISAIAH 66:24: "Then they shall
go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed
against Me. For their worm shall not die,
and their fire shall not be quenched; and
they shall be an abhorrence to all mankind."
- LUKE 3:17: "And His winnowing
fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor,
and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn
up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
- LUKE 13:28: "There will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth there when
you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in
the kingdom of God, but yourselves being cast out."
- LUKE 16:22-29: "...the poor
man died and he was carried away by the angels to
Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died
and was buried. And being in Hades
he lifted up his eyes, being in torment,
and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in
his bosom. And he cried out and said, 'Father Abraham, have
mercy on me...for I am in agony in this flame.'
But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your life you
received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things;
but now he is being comforted here, and you are in
agony. And besides all this, between us and
you there is a great chasm fixed, in order that those
who wish to come over from here to you may not be able, and
that none may cross over from there to us.' And he
said, 'Then I beg you, Father, that you send him to my father's
house—for I have five brothers—that he may warn
them, lest they also come to this place of torment.
But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them
hear them.' "
- 2 THESSALONIANS 1:9: "And these
will pay the penalty of eternal destruction,
away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His
power."
- HEBREWS 10:26-27, 29, 31: "For
if we go on sinning willfully...there no longer remains a
sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of
judgment, and the fury of a fire which
will consume the adversaries....How much
severer punishment do you think he will deserve....And
again, 'The LORD will judge His people.' It is a terrifying
thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
- REVELATION 14:9-11: "And another
angel...followed them, saying with a loud voice, 'If anyone
worships the beast and his image...he will be tormented
with fire and brimstone....and the smoke
of their torment goes up forever and ever; and they
have no rest day and night...."
- REVELATION 19:20: "And the
beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed
the signs in his presence...these two were thrown
alive into the lake of fire which burns with
brimstone."
- REVELATION 20:10: "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 20:13-15:
"And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and
death and Hades gave up the dead
which were in them; and they were judged, every one of
them according to their deeds. And death and Hades
were thrown into the lake of fire. This
is the second death, the lake of fire.
And if anyone's name was not found written
in the book of life, he was thrown
into the lake of fire."
- REVELATION 21:8: "But for the
cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and
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."
2.
How do we know that these descriptions of Hell are not symbolic?
Jesus described the "torment" of "gehenna"
with severe illustrations and the acute language. It is evident
that He did not regard such a place as a figurative expression
of symbolism. Take note of the following passage:
"...it is better for you to enter life crippled,
than having your two hands, to go into hell
[gehenna], into the unquenchable fire....it
is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye,
than having two eyes, to be cast into hell,
[gehenna] where their worm does not die,
and the fire is not quenched. For everyone
will be salted with fire." —Mark
9:43, 47-49
Likewise, just as Jesus utilized strong language
to express the utter terror of hell, Jesus used real life experiences
in His parables to illustrate spiritual truths in a way that
could be grasped by His audience. Such was the case with His
parable of the rich man and Lazarus at Luke 16. This was the
first and only parable in which Jesus mentioned the name of
one of the individuals in His account as He related their real-life
story. This detailed exposition of the afterlife leaves little
doubt as to the reality of hell and its subsequent affect on
the fervency of the gospel message.
Furthermore, we know from Scripture that God
is a God of love (1 John 4:8) and that He is "not wishing
for any to perish but for all to come to repentance."—2
Peter 3:9 We also know from Scripture that it was out of God's
great love for all mankind "that He gave His only begotten
Son, and that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but
have eternal life."—John 3:16 If there was any other
way for mankind to be saved, Jesus would not have had to die
to atone for our sins. (See Matthew 26:39)
By the same token, if "hell" is merely
a symbolic icon of complete annihilation, or is a figurative
expression of a destruction of one's reputation that will live
on in infamy, what would be God's purpose for sending His Son
to pay an eternal price for our redemption? If all who
die apart from the ransom provision will merely
undergo the destruction of annihilation in which they will cease
to exist for eternity, why wouldn't God just start over with
a new creation of humanity and let the current one run its course
and cease with annihilation? After all, God did not
send His Son to die for any other part of His creation. (See
Hebrew 2:16-17) If humans are like animals in that they become
unconscious after death and dissolve into dust, why would God
send His Son to die for our sins and to eternally bear the marks
of our redemption in His body? (See John 20:25-28)
It is true that one can only speculate as to
the reason God chose to exercise His overwhelming love to pay
such a high price for us. However, when one grasps the existence
of a literal hell to shun and an everlasting life to gain, this
conveys a whole new dimension to the significance of Jesus'
ransom sacrifice on account of our sins, for there was a lot
more at stake than just the atonement of Adam's sin and its
subsequent effects on human nature. Jesus' ransom sacrifice
paid the eternal price not only to redeem mankind from the curse
of the law of Moses and Adamic sin nature, but to bring about
permanent propitiation for each one of our personal sins and
to deliver us from an everlasting torment in hell.
3. Why did God create Hell?
Hell is the opposite of everything that is good, righteous,
pure and holy. This is why hell is described as a place of great
pain and suffering. Scripture explains that in the new heavens
and the new earth, "righteousness" will "dwell"
(See 2 Peter 3:13) and there will be no more "death,"
"pain" and suffering. It is for this reason, that
God created hell as a place where evil could be separated from
good for eternity.
God did not create hell with the intention
of using it for mankind. Jesus explained that "the eternal
fire...has been prepared for the devil and his angels."
(See Matthew 25:41) When Satan
rebelled against God and drew one-third of God's angels after
him (See Revelation 12:4), God created Hell in order to provide
a place where the devil, his angels and everything that is evil
could dwell in everlasting separation from God and His goodness.
Sin is like cancer or leaven (yeast) which
infects the entire substance in which it is located (See 1 Corinthians
5:6). Just as cancer must be separated and removed from the
body in order to keep it from spreading throughout the rest
of the body, so it is with sin. God is a God of purity and holiness,
and as a result, nothing unclean can stand in His presence.
"Behold, the LORD'S hand is not so short that
it cannot save; neither is His ear so dull that it cannot
hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between
you and your God, and your sins have hidden
His face from you, so that He does not hear."—Isaiah
59:1-2
Because sin cannot exist in the presence of
good without soiling the good, God provided an everlasting place
where every immortal creature that has been permeated by sin
and wickedness and has not been cleansed by the blood of Christ
can dwell in everlasting separation from God and everything
that is pure and holy.
4.
How can a loving God send people to Hell?
This question is misleading in that it implies that
God "sends" people to Hell. As we just discussed,
God does not send people to Hell. It is our sin and wickedness
that cause us to be condemned before the perfect and righteous
standard of God's holy law, and cause us to be tainted in a
way that will not allow us to enter God's presence where His
glory dwells.
"As it is written, 'there is none righteous,
not even one; there is none who understands,
there is none who seeks for God....' Now we know that whatever
the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that
every mouth may be closed, and all
the world may become accountable to God; because
by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His
sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin....for
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."—Romans
3:10-11, 19-20, 23
We must recognize that God is just as much
a God of righteousness and true justice as He is a God of love
and mercy. Just as oil cannot mix with water, neither can God
overlook sin and allow it to dwell in His presence. It is for
this reason that God in His love and mercy provided a means
by which His justice could be fully satisfied.
Scripture declares that, "...without the
shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."—Hebrews
9:22 Thus, the only way God could extend love and mercy to sinful
humanity, was to redeem mankind by allowing the blood of His
Son to be shed to pay the price for our sin. All who have embraced
the free gift of forgiveness granted in Jesus Christ will be
spiritually cleansed from their sins and will thus be able to
dwell in God's presence forever in everlasting life. (See Romans
6:23; John 5:24; 1 John 1:9; Hebrews 10:20, 14) Those
who reject the cleansing offered in Christ, however, will have
no other choice than to enter everlasting punishment in hell
as this is the only place that they will be able to reside with
their sin and impurity apart from the presence of God.
Just as hell stands for everything that is
evil and wicked, so God stands for everything that is righteous,
pure and holy. By rejecting God and His provision for spiritual
cleansing in His Son, those who will end up in hell, have made
the decision to reject everything that is good and righteous.
Thus, on judgment day, God merely confirms the decision they
have already made by allowing them to dwell in everlasting punishment
away from His presence and virtue. Thus, hell (which encompasses
all pain, suffering and wickedness) becomes the everlasting
abode of those who reject God.
"And these will go away into eternal
punishment, but the righteous into eternal
life." —Matthew 25:46
5.
If Hell is punishment for sins committed in mortality, why is
Hell forever?
We have discussed how hell is the opposite of everything
that is good, holy, pure and virtuous. It is the place that
God has designated for unclean, immortal creatures to dwell
in everlasting separation from Him and His holy presence. Since
we were created with immortal souls that continue to exist after
physical death (See Matthew 10:28), our eternal destiny will
either be spent in God's presence or in everlasting hell away
from the presence of God. Because God's righteous holiness will
not allow one to receive His love and mercy apart from personal
acceptance of Jesus Christ's atoning sacrifice for sin, those
who reject the spiritual cleansing offered in Christ, have as
a result, made the personal decision to dwell in everlasting
separation from God. It is for this reason that hell is described
as torment that will last forever.
Quite often, those who struggle with the concept
of an everlasting hell, do so because they fail to grasp the
eternal consequence of sin. Our finite minds cannot comprehend
the extensive gap that God bridged to redeem mankind. God Himself
who eternally stands outside of time, space and created matter,
entered His creation by being born a human, in the person of
His Son Jesus Christ. Confining Himself to the limitations of
His creation and experiencing all the boundaries of human weakness,
Jesus died an excruciating death for all of our past, present
and future sins. Thus, in His human body, Jesus will forever
bear the marks of our redemption. (See John 2:18-22; 20:25-27;
Luke 24:39-40) And just as the scars
of our redemption live on in eternity, so the penalty for anyone
who rejects God's gift of salvation results in everlasting punishment
and separation from God.
Jehovah's Witnesses who deny the concept of
a literal "hell," often rationalize Biblical passages
on this subject by claiming that they merely symbolize the "destruction"
of a complete "annihilation" of the human soul in
judgment. However, in reality, the Jehovah's Witness concept
of "annihilation" results in an avoidance
of judgment, rather than the righteous recompense for
various degrees sin. If "annihilation"
of the human soul and the repudiation of one's character after
death is to be equated with righteous judgment, one would question
how this type of judgment would be "torment" when
people today often commit suicide in this life as a means of
"escape" from reality.
Furthermore, if annihilation were God's
permanent judgment against those who reject Him, how would this
type of judgment be righteous as it would treat everyone alike
— regardless of the kind of life he or she lived here
on earth? How could God be righteous to allow someone
who lived a relatively moral life to undergo the same kind of
judgment of "annihilation" that a person like Adolph
Hitler who killed over 6 million Jews through his Nazis regime
would receive?
As can be seen, such reasoning does a disservice
to the righteous character of God as it fails the test of equitable
standards in judgment. Scripture is clear that not only is hell
a literal place of torment, but there will be degrees of punishment
based on one's level of sin in this life. In closing, we ask
Jehovah's Witnesses, if indeed "annihilation"
is the "destruction" of "everlasting fire"
spoken about in the Scriptures, why does Scripture speak of
degrees of punishment? One cannot have degrees of annihilation,
can he?
- LUKE 10:12, 14: "I say to
you, it will be more tolerable in that
day for Sodom, than for that city....But it will be more
tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment, than
for you."
- HEBREWS 10:26-27, 29, 31: "For
if we go on sinning willfully...there no longer remains
a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation
of judgment, and the fury of a fire which
will consume the adversaries....How much
severer punishment do you think he will
deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God....And
again, 'The LORD will judge His people.' It is a terrifying
thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
 See Related Subject: IS THE HUMAN SOUL AND SPIRIT IMMORTAL?
========
1.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the
New American Standard Bible
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