SO YOU WANT TO GO TOHELL?/yOUE NEW HOME?

Hell Described

What is Hell actually like? We can read all about it in the Bible.

Is Hell a place where we party down? Is it a place where it is just a little too warm, but where we hang out with our old friends? No, Matthew 25:46 tells us it is a place of punishment for rebellion. Punishment is not good, and so Hell is not a good place.

Hell is where the wrath of God is finally fulfilled. In John 3:36, we read about the wrath of God. The wrath of God is whenever God judges the earth in its entirety. We saw it with the Flood. We will see it poured out at the Tribulation. God will judge all who have rejected Him at the Second Death. These are demonstrations of God’s wrath.

Hell is called the Second Death in Revelation 21:8. It is also called Eternal Destruction in 2 Thessalonians 1:9. Look at the word “eternal.” Eternal means just that — forever destroyed.

With Hell, there is just no escape. Luke 16 says there is no way out of it. It’s not like there can be some fancy Star Trek episode escape where they hitch a few wires and the doors open and they always escape. No, it’s not like that in Hell. There is absolutely no way to escape from Hell.

What is Hell physically like? Matthew 25:41 and Revelation 20:15 describe it as a Lake of Fire. Some people speculate that maybe it is located in the underworld of our planet, as we see lava flows from a volcano like a lake. I tend to think Hell is a star. If you ever get a good close picture of a star, you will see superheated energy plasma boiling and rolling like lakes. It could be in a star, but the Bible doesn’t tell us. But, it is described as a place of flames. It’s a place of burning.

With all that fire, one would think it would be a very bright place, but Matthew 8:12 tells us it is a place of utter darkness. There is no light. No one will get to see in Hell.

And, the stench of it! Revelation 19:20; 20:10; 21:8 tell us that Hell stinks. It has a bad smell to it.

The people who are sentenced there will be conscious. They will not be knocked out. They won’t be driven so mad that they won’t think about the horrible reality crushing them. They will have to exist with a conscious existence as Deuteronomy 18:11 demonstrates, and what they are consciously aware of is that they chose to separate themselves from the Father, as Luke 16 relays. God says to us all with no exception, “I love you. Come to me.” You can choose to respond to that, or you can reply with, “No, way!” Those who rejected God’s love will spend eternity regretting that decision.

Being separated from God has other consequences, for God is life, and without Him the universe doesn’t hold together. You may hear about physicists trying to find the God particle or the String Theory. Well, in part they are correct. The underlining force that holds everything together is God. Jesus says it is Him. He is the bread and the life. He’s what’s holding us together.

Without God there is only loneliness and separation. There’s just you being convicted by your memories filled with regret and despair.

Luke 16 says in Hell you thirst. In Hell there is nothing to quench one’s awful, mind-burning thirst.

Another reason I believe Hell may be a star or some other place with plasma energy is that should the Abyss be a reference to Hell then Revelation 9:2 tells us that it’s bottomless. There is no ground to put your feet on. It is a place of continual falling and falling and never landing.

Because of all the agony and destruction that you feel in Hell, it says in Matthew 8:12 that there is gnashing of teeth. There will be nothing from you but weeping and crying with no comfort and no water to supply your tears.

Hell is truly a place of torment, as Revelation 14 describes. It’s an awful place of torment where you are alone with yourself possibly forever. You wanted God to leave you along and so you didn’t accept Jesus’ salvation, and well, you got what you wanted.