Straight Talk on Hell

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No topic stirs greater resistance than hell. Who wants to think about eternal punishment? We prefer to casualize the issue, making jokes about its residents or turning the noun into a flippant adjective. "That was a hell of a steak." Odd that we don't do the same with lesser tragedies. You never hear, "My golf game has gone to

." Or, "This is an AIDS of a traffic jam." Seems a conspiracy is afoot to minimize hell.

Some prefer to sanitize the subject, dismissing it as a moral impossibility.

"I do not myself feel that any person," defied atheist Bertrand Russell, "who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment." Or, as is more commonly believed, "A loving God would not send people to hell." Religious leaders increasingly agree. Martin Marty, a church historian at the University of Chicago Divinity School, canvassed one hundred years of some scholarly journals for entries on hell. He didn't find one. "Hell," he observed, "disappeared and no one noticed."

Easy to understand why. Hell is a hideous topic. Any person who discusses it glibly or proclaims it gleefully has failed to ponder it deeply. Scripture writers dip pens in gloomy ink to describe its nature. They speak of the "blackest darkness" (Jude 13), "everlasting destruction" (2 Thess. 1:9), "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 8:12).

A glimpse into the pit won't brighten your day, but it will enlighten your understanding of Jesus. He didn't avoid the discussion. Quite the contrary. He planted a one-word caution sign between you and hell's path:

. "Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

Jesus spoke of hell often. Thirteen percent of his teachings refer to eternal judgment and hell.  Two-thirds of his parables relate to resurrection and judgment. Jesus wasn't cruel or capricious, but he was blunt. His candor stuns.

He speaks in tangible terms. "Fear Him," he warns, "who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matt. 10:28 NKJV). He quotes Hades's rich man pleading for Lazarus to "dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue" (Luke 16:24 NKJV). Words such as

,

, and

presuppose a physical state in which a throat longs for water and a person begs for relief—physical relief.

The apostles said that Judas Iscariot had gone "to his own place" (Acts 1:25 NASB). The Greek word for place is

, which means geographical location. Jesus describes heaven with the same noun: "In My Father's house are many mansions....I go to prepare a place for you" (John 14:2 NKJV). Hell, like heaven, is a location, not a state of mind, not a metaphysical dimension of floating spirits, but an actual place populated by physical beings.

Woeful, this thought. God has quarantined a precinct in his vast universe as the depository of the hard-hearted.

Exactly where is hell? Jesus gives one chilling clue: "outside." "Tie him hand and foot, and throw him

, into the darkness" (Matt. 22:13). Outside of what? Outside of the boundaries of heaven, for one thing. Abraham, in paradise, told the rich man, in torment, "Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us" (Luke 16:26 NKJV). No heaven-to-hell field trips. No hell-to-heaven holiday breaks. Hell is to heaven what the edge of our universe is to earth: outside the range of a commute.

Hell is also outside the realm of conclusion. Oh, that hell's punishment would end, that God would schedule an execution date. New Testament language leads some godly scholars to believe he will:

Fear Him who is able to

both soul and body in hell. (Matt. 10:28 NKJV)

Whoever believes in him shall not

. (John 3:16)

Continued on page 2: Is there an end to suffering in hell? ... »