What happens when you die? Is that it – the end – or does your soul live on? Or, do you think that you might come back in some other form – reincarnation? As Christians committed to scripture we believe that man is immortal. Our souls do not die but continue after death in either heaven or hell. It is to this dark subject of hell that we must turn our attention in this article. We would much rather contemplate the glorious subject of the new heavens and the new earth but if our consideration of the return of Christ is to be balanced then we need to reflect upon everlasting punishment. When Jesus comes, according to Matthew 25, He will separate the sheep from the goats and the goats will be told to ‘depart into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels’.

We consider this dark subject, however, not just because it is the clear teaching of scripture but also because it is a significant and important truth that is under attack at the present time. The IVP ‘New Dictionary of Theology’ in considering this doctrine states the following:

Whether this (hell) involves eternal conscious torment (the traditional Christian view) or cessation of existence (as taught by advocates of conditional immortality) is a matter of ongoing debate

Conditional immortality is the teaching that immortality is God’s gift to those who believe in Jesus Christ and benefit from his saving work. All those who do not believe in Christ will ultimately be destroyed and cease to exist. But what does the Bible say? What is hell? In considering this subject we will focus, almost exclusively, on the teaching of Jesus Himself. This is deliberate. Jesus is so often presented as being the One who is full of love and compassion in contrast to Paul or Calvin or some of those cold reformed theologians! But note that Jesus Himself clearly taught the doctrine of hell. The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16: 19-31 clearly shows us what hell is like.

It is a Place of Separation from God (verse 26)⤒🔗

There is ‘a great gulf fixed’ between heaven and hell. Man in hell is cut off from God. Sometimes people quibble with this description of hell. Is God not everywhere present? So how can we say that man is totally cut off from God? Well God is everywhere and, yes, he is present in hell in the sense that His presence there is one of total wrath and judgement and anger. Man in hell is cut off from God in the sense that he is utterly separated from His benevolence, kindness and grace.

It is a Place of Torment (verse 24)←⤒🔗

Sometimes you hear people describing experiences that they’ve had in this life as hell. ‘9/11 was hell’. ‘Omagh was hell’. We don’t, for a moment, want to play down the awfulness of these events or minimise the suffering experienced by those who were directly involved. We are, and will always be, sympathetic towards those who suffer through terrorist activity or ‘natural disaster’. However the solemn teaching of scripture is that no experience through which we pass, no matter how dark or terrible, can legitimately be described as ‘hell’. Hell is indescribable torment. It is relentless wrath and judgement.

It is a Place of Awful Company (verse 26)←⤒🔗

Notice the words of the Rich Man here. He speaks in the plural – ‘between US and you there is a great gulf fixed.’ He is not alone. He is surrounded by others – unrepentant sinners – dwelling together in a bond of sin and depravity.

It is a Place of Continual Sinfulness←⤒🔗

Sometimes when we think of the wicked in hell we have a tendency to think of them being in a static condition. There is no change, no alteration to their situation. But Cornelis Venema suggest that hell is a place of ongoing sinfulness: He writes:

When God delivers the impenitent over to hell, he can be said to give them not only what they deserve but also what they perversely continue to desire. To live apart from God and His favour is the epitome of the suffering of hell. But this is precisely what the impenitent sinner seeks even in hell, namely, to live without God.C Venema: The Promise of the Future: p 448

Can we also suggest that hell is not only a place of continual sinfulness but, tragically, a place of increasing sinfulness? In Matthew 25: 46 there is a certain parallelism set before us concerning the wicked and the righteous, concerning everlasting punishment and eternal life. Is it not legitimate to deduce that just as the saints in glory grow in their knowledge of God and their appreciation of the new heavens and the new earth so the godless in hell will sink into deeper depravity and sin?

It is a Place from which there is No Escape (verse 26)←⤒🔗

During the Second World War my father was captured in the North African desert at the Battle of Tobruk in 1942. He spent the next two years as a prisoner of war. In talking to him about those years I was anxious to discover how he coped with the captivity, not just physically, but psychologically. His response was telling: ‘We always believed that we would be set free.’ In hell there is no such reassurance. Hell is forever. There is no exit. No way out.