Hell is Real

Luke 12:

4 And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.

5 But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

 

The purpose of this post is to remind us that hell is real. According to the scripture, it is located down in the heart of the earth (Amos 9:2; Matt. 12:40; after the millennial reign it will be cast into the lake of fire which is possibly located at the bottom of the universe, Rev. 20:14). It has bars, gates, and keys (Jon. 2:6; Matt. 16:18; Rev. 1:18). It is a place of unquenchable fire, worms (Mk. 9:43-48), torment (Lk. 16:23), darkness (2 Pet. 2:4), hopelessness, weeping, and separation from God (2 Thess. 1:9). There are no parties in hell! The reality of this horrible place should impact and motivate everybody. It should motivate the lost to trust Christ as their Savior. It should motivate Christians to reach the lost. R.A. Torrey said, "If you in any way abate the doctrine of hell, it will abate your zeal." Do we really believe what God said about hell?

Of the 23 times that the word "hell" is used in the New Testament, 15 of those references were spoken by Jesus Christ. There are about 162 texts in the NT that speak of eternal damnation and Christ spoke over 70 of them! Lewis Sperry Chafer said, "Men are pleased to receive the Bible revelation concerning Heaven, but do not heed its warning regarding hell. Human sentiment, opinion, and reason are valueless regarding these eternal issues. It is wisdom to heed the voice of the Son of God, and He more than any other has stressed the woes of the lost". Jesus Christ is the Truth and spoke the truth. To deny the reality of hell is to call Christ a liar! 

In the above passage (Lk. 12:4-5) Christ plainly taught that hell is not the grave. If hell is just the grave, as false teachers claim, what is the point of this warning? Notice that hell comes AFTER physical death. The soul is distinct from the body and remains conscious after physical death (Matt. 10:28). This text also teaches that the reality of hell should cause people to fear God. Most people fear man more than God. Yet, the worst that a man can do to you is kill your body. God has the power to cast you into hell! But, most people do not believe that a loving God would ever do such a thing! According to a Barna Survey, 71% of Americans believe there is a hell but only 32% believe that it is an actual place of torment and less 4% think they are going there. Billy Sunday said, "A man is a fool who thinks, because he does not believe in hell, that his opinion shuts the door and puts out the fire." A.W. Tozer said, "The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions". Those that deny the reality of hell do so based on human reasoning and have not submitted themselves to the authority of holy scripture. There is a hell because of the absolute holiness of God and the awfulness of sin. Chafer said, "If eternal punishment cannot be comprehended, it should be remembered that infinite holiness and the sin by which infinite holiness is outraged is equally unmeasured by the human mind".

A definitive passage on hell is found in Luke 16:19-31. In this passage Christ gave a true and literal account of what happened to two men (one saved, the other lost) after death. Those who do not agree with His teaching attack the passage by saying it is a parable not to be taken literally. This is a literal and historical account, not a parable:
• People are never named in His parables. Lazarus, Abraham, and Moses are real people.
• In a parable, a commonplace story is told to illustrate spiritual truth. This is not a commonplace story (the common man knows nothing of the underworld) and what could hell in this passage illustrate but hell itself? In the parable of the tares of the field Christ spoke of the tares being burned. In the interpretation of the parable He declared that the furnace of fire was real (Matt. 13:36-43).
• Even if this were a parable it would not disprove the consciousness of the soul after death or the reality of hell which is clearly taught in other passages. 

False teachers attack the passage because it attacks their false doctrines:
• Soul sleep – the rich man, Lazarus, and Abraham are conscious, the body sleeps in the grave
• Hell is only the grave – vs.22-23 contrast the grave and hell
• Universal salvation – no second chance after death, those who die lost stay lost

There are false teachers that claim God would not allow anyone to suffer in conscious torment forever. They believe in eternal life but not everlasting punishment (Matt. 25:46). If eternal life is to be taken literally, so is everlasting punishment! It is not the will of God for any soul to perish in hell (Jn. 3:16; 1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9) but all those who die in their sins will suffer in the same everlasting fire that was prepared for the devil (Rev. 20:10-15). Some claim that everlasting fire means annihilation and not conscious torment. The antichrist and the false prophet are cast alive into the lake of fire when Christ comes again to earth (Rev. 19:20). A thousand years later the devil is cast into the lake of fire where the antichrist and false prophet still ARE (Rev. 20:10).  

The apostle Paul wrote 13 of the 27 books in the NT and never used the word hell. Some actually take this to mean that he did not believe in eternal damnation! Although he did not use the word hell, he clearly taught the doctrine of it in his epistles. One of the best descriptions of hell is found in 2 Thess. 1:9. In Rom. 2 he refers to the great white throne judgment (Rev. 20:11-15) and uses words such as: "judgment", "wrath", "anguish", and "perish". Hell is implied in other passages (like Rom. 6:23). Likewise, Paul does not plainly speak of the virgin birth of Christ but implies it (Gal. 4:4). Perhaps one of the reasons that the Spirit didn't inspire Paul to write much about hell is that the doctrine of hell was already established in the scripture (we need the whole Bible, 2 Tim. 3:16).

Christ defeated sin, death, hell, and the devil through His death, burial, and resurrection. All those who believe the gospel of Christ have eternal life and will never perish!