The Good News About Hell
It is recommended you go through this study point by point, turning to the texts in your Bible as you progress.
- Introduction
- What is Hell?
- When is Hell?
- Where is Hell?
- How long is Hell?
- Complete Destruction
- Degress of Punishment
Popular Definitions
Eternal Torment – “Hell is the place and state of eternal torments”
“Hell may be defined as the place and state in which the devils and such human beings as die in enmity with God suffer ETERNAL torments.”
A Preacher's Quote
“God, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, cannot look upon sinner but with utter detestation. His face shall be red in his anger, his eye shall not pity, nor His soul spare for their crying. The day of vengeance is in His heart. It is what His heart is set upon. He will DELIGHT in it. He will tread that rebel crew in His anger, and trample them in His fury.”
God’s Character
1 John 4:8 – God is love
Exodus 34:5-7 – God is forgiving, merciful, and gracious
You cannot reconcile a place of punishing that will go on forever with the concept of a merciful, just, and loving God.
Does love inflict eternal pain if it can be helped? Is mercy never satisfied with the misery of others? Is it essential to holiness to keep evil forever in existence? And is Justice only satisfied with everlasting agonies?
Satan has always attacked the character of God. This doctrine attacks his character.
Robert Ingersoll said “If God is like that, I hate him.”
An Irreconcilable Problem
This doctrine starts with the idea that the soul is immortal. In fact, these people say that human beings possess an immortal soul which is indefeasible. Meaning, God made it immortal and cannot undo it. Once this view is taken, eternal torment becomes necessary.
1. If the wicked have to live forever because man has an immortal soul that God is powerless to destroy, we have a limited God. He’s no longer worthy of worship for he created us, lost control, and that was it.
2. If God is all powerful and can destroy the wicked, but willfully keeps them alive, then He is purposely burning and scorching them for all eternity. This is a hateful God of fear and hate, a sadistic God.
1. What is Hell?
| Hebrew | Greek |
| Sheol – grave, where you go when you die Translated in the KJV as ‘grave’ 31 times, ‘pit’ 3 times, and ‘hell’ 31 times. The language conjures up no images of burning. |
Hades – grave, where you go when you die Gehenna – In Jerusalem, the city garbage dump. Refuse and waste was thrown in the Valley of Hinnom and set on fire. This place was pretty much always burning. Maggots also fed on the dead bodies of the poor that were thrown here. Tartarus- darkness that surrounds the material universe (2 Peter 2:4) |
One cannot conclude on the basis of Sheol, Hades, and Tartarus, that the word rendered ‘hell’ in English (from these words) is anything other than a grave or dark place. Yet, when you read ‘hell’, your mind immediately assumes a place of fire and burning.
On the other hand, it is safe to conclude that in the Bible where the world ‘hell’ in English is translated from the Greek Gehenna, the reference is to a place of destruction by fire.
See: Matthew 5:22,29,30; 10:28; 18:9, 23:15,33; Mark 9:43,45,47; Luke 12:5, James 3:6
2. When is Hell?
2 Peter 2:4,9- The unjust are RESERVED until THE DAY of judgment to be PUNISHED
Job 21:29-30 - Reserved until the day of judgment.
1 Peter 1:4- Like the wicked, the righteous have an undefiled inheritance reserved for them in Heaven.
Jude 6 - If you make a reservation for something, you’re not there currently.
Matthew 8:28,29 – The demons spoke of Christ tormenting them before their time. They weren’t currently in Hell.
Matthew 25:31,46 – If the sheep and the goats were already in their appropriate places, why not say ‘ stay where you are’?
If Hell was burning now, Cain would be punished 6000 years longer than Hitler. That’s not justice at all. According to these texts, Hell fire is still future. It will occur in the future, at the Second Coming of Christ (the day of judgment).
3. Where is Hell?
2 Peter 3:3-7 – The earth was destroyed by water, but it will be destroyed or cleansed by fire.
2 Peter 3:10,12 – The elements of the earth will be melted.
Proverbs 11:31 – Earth is the place of recompense.
Revelation 21:1 – God will make the earth new.
If Hell burns forever, and Hell is on earth, at what point will God be able to make the earth new? He can’t. Once again, this doctrine limits God.
4. How Long is Hell?
Jude 7 – Sodom and Gomorrah are examples of everlasting fire.
Sodom and Gomorrah are not still burning today. In fact, the most recent archaeological evidence points to the location at the bottom of a portion of the Dead Sea.
Exodus 21:6 – A servant shall serve his master forever.
I Samuel 1:22,28 – Samuel would serve the lord forever.
Hebrews 5:9 – the process of saving doesn’t go on forever, but the result will be eternal.
Hebrews 6:2 the process of judging doesn’t go on forever, it’s the result that is eternal.
Hebrews 9:12 – not endless redeeming, but the result of eternal redemption
We have ‘stood in-line forever’, and have experienced things that ‘took forever’. We don’t mean for all eternity. We mean that those experiences felt like a long time. If you were on fire, how long would five seconds seem? Besides, if Hell burned forever, and if Satan is in charge of Hell, then God would keep Satan on the heavenly payroll forever to do what he loves to do best. This makes terrible sense!
Complete Destruction
Malachi 4:1-3 – The wicked shall be ashes. They burned until there was nothing left.
Psalm 37:10 – The wicked will cease to be.
Psalm 37:20 – The wicked will consume away.
Psalm 37:35,36 – The wicked will not be able to be found (because as we’ve read, they will be destroyed).
If something is forever burning, there will never come a time when it ceases to exist.
The effects of the fire are eternal, not the fire itself.
Psalm 92:7 – The wicked will be destroyed forever.
Obadiah 16 – The wicked will be as though they had not been.
The greatest pain in hell is going to be the loss of Heaven. The fire will be hot and burning and it will hurt, but sinners will welcome the destruction because they can’t bear to look at God.
Romans 6:23 - The wages of sin is DEATH. Not eternal torment.
John 3:16 – Those who do not believe will PERISH.
Christ had to pay our penalty. If our penalty was everlasting torment, then that’s what He would have to suffer through.
Degrees of Punishment
Romans 2:6 – according to deeds.
Revelation 20:12-13 - judged according to your works.
Luke 12:47,48 – we are accountable to God according to what we had the privilege to know.
Psalm 87:4-6 - God even takes into account where we were born.
Revelation 20:9,10 – The wicked will be devoured. Of all the wicked, the beast, the false prophet, and the devil will be punished the longest ‘according to their deeds’.
He is a just, loving, and fair God. He will put Satan down. He loves each of us but hates our sin. In the end, he has to destroy sin. Those who cling to it are caught in the line of fire.
2 Peter 3:9 – God is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance.