A Few Thoughts about Hell

Some facts

B1 Created for devil and his angels

C1 Matthew 25:41 EMTV Then He will also say to those on the left, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

C2 Evidently some fallen angels are in a holding cell with chains of darkness. Some have mocked the idea of chains of darkness, because they have never seen one. There are a lot of things we have not seen. 2 Peter 2:4 NRSV For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment. The word hell used here is Τάρταρος Tartaros̄, and it means (the deepest abyss of Hades) [Strong].

B2 Is a place of torment. It is described as a place

C1 Of fire. See Matthew 25:41, 2 Peter 2:4, Luke 16:24, and Revelation 20:14-15.

C2 Of darkness See Matthew 8:12, Matthew 22:13, 2 Peter 2:17, Jude 1:6, 13.

C3 Of sorrow See Matthew 13:50.

C4 Of torment See Matthew 8:29 and Revelation 14:11.

B3 Consider hell as a prison for eternity. Hades is jail where lawbreakers await trial. The initial judgment is when one dies (Hebrews 9:27). Those who refused to believe Jesus will go to Hades. There they will wait until the trial and sentencing at the Great White Throne (Revelation 20:11 and Romans 2:16).

C1 Hades/Sheol See Luke 16:23, Acts 2:27 (Psalm 16:10), Revelation 1:18, and Revelation 20:13-14.

C2 Law of Fire See Revelation 19:20 and Revelation 20:14-15. See Barnes comment on 2 Peter 2:4.

C3 For further information, you can read from the questions at Eschatology :: Questions about Death, Heaven, Hell, and Future Life (click “Additional Bible FAQs” then Eschatology).

B4 Jesus paid the penalty for lawbreaking. It is applied to those who meet His conditions. The conditions are faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone. Those who do not trust in Jesus Christ will go there to be punished for their sins (crimes by breaking God’s laws).

B5 The anti-Christ and False Prophet go there 1,000 years before the devil and his angels. See Revelation 19:20.

B6 The residents are conscious. Hell is described as torment. Matthew 13:41-42 (weeping and gnashing), Revelation 20:10, 1 Samuel 28:11-15, Isaiah 14:9-11, Acts 2:27.

B7 Hell never ends. The sentence imposed is eternal, forever, and never ending. God warned them and plead for them, but they refused God’s conditions because of pride and love of sinful pleasure. Daniel 12:2, Matthew 25:46, Revelation 14:11.

B8 It is a place God has cursed. Compare Matthew 25:41.

The loving God sentences people to hell, because of sin. Revelation 21:8.

The loving God warns all about hell and that they are going there. Mark 9:28 and Matthew 10:28.

The loving God sees most people refuse His offer of salvation.

B1 Some would refuse to look and so die. Numbers 21:8-9 NLT Then the LORD told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!” 9 So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed!

B2 Matthew 23:37 NIV Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.

B3 Isaiah 30:15 NRSV For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. But you refused.

The loving God sees most people remain proud and love sinful pleasure. John 3:19, 2 Thessalonians 2:12, and 2 Timothy 3:1-2.

The loving God sees most people justify their sin. Compare Genesis 3:12, Psalm 94:7, and Ezekiel 9:9.

The loving God sees most people blame others for their own sin. Genesis 3:12.

The loving God pleads with all people to repent. Matthew 4:17.

The loving God punishes living people for their repeated sins and hardening their hearts by allowing them to sin even more. Romans 1:18-32.

Matthew 11:28-30 NRSV Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

A Few Thoughts About Hell

A Few Thoughts About Hell 

Modern views 

B1 Restored Church of God:  

C1 The most common image of people “roasting in hell” pictures a God willing to burn people for all eternity without ever totally burning them up. Apart from what the scriptures teach, ask yourself, what kind of God is capable of this? Modern “human rights activists” recognize the terrible evil of torture—even in its temporary forms. Would the loving God of the Bible design an everlasting torture chamber? If so, He would have to witness—for the rest of eternity—the suffering of those that He had condemned to such a “hell.” 

C2 We might also ask: How enjoyable could salvation be for the saved if they were forced to watch their children or parents—and other loved ones—screaming in pain and agony for the rest of time? Do you see the absurdity of this idea? Yet millions upon millions come to this conclusion when they accept the beliefs surrounding the popular concept of hell. (Source) 

B2 The Seventh Day Adventist believes in conditional mortality, but they are not very specific about it on their official web site. 

B3 Then there is the Evangelical Conditionalists:  

C1 Statement on Evangelical Conditionalism 

D1 Conditionalism is the view that life is the Creator’s provisional gift to all, which will ultimately be granted forever to the saved and revoked forever from the unsaved. 

D2 Evangelical conditionalists believe that the saved in Christ will receive glory, honor and immortality, being raised with an incorruptible body to inherit eternal life (Romans 2:7). 

D3 The unsaved will be raised in shame and dishonor, to face God and receive the just condemnation for their sins. When the penalty is carried out, they will be permanently excluded from eternal life by means of a final death, implicating the whole person in a destruction of human life and being (Matthew 10:28). 

C2 Ideas Rob Bell and other modern books and authors. 

Confessions 

B1 Athanasian Creed: 

39.He ascended into heaven, He sits on the right hand of the Father, God, Almighty; 

40.From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. 

41.At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies; 

42.and shall give account of their own works. 

43.And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that have done evil into everlasting fire. 

44.This is the catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved. 

B2 Arminian Confession of 1621: 

"And finally, punishment, especially eternal, is unjustly and cruelly inflicted on him as disobedient by whom this obedience was not performed solely through the absence of that irresistible and truly necessary grace, who really is not disobedient. "We cannot here state how everywhere in the Scriptures it is affirmed of some, that they resisted the Holy Spirit, that they judged, or rather made themselves unworthy of eternal life(h), that they made void the counsel of God concerning themselves; that they would not hear, come, obey, that they closed their ears and hardened their hearts, etc. 

B3 Belgic Confession: 

The evil ones will be convicted by the witness of their own consciences, and shall be made immortal—but only to be tormented in the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 

B4 Westminster Confession of Faith: 

Q. 29. What are the punishments of sin in the world to come? A. The punishments of sin in the world to come, are everlasting separation from the comfortable presence of God, and most grievous torments in soul and body, without intermission, in hell-fire forever. 

B5 Wesleyan Core Beliefs: 

22. Destiny 250. We believe that the Scriptures clearly teach that there is a conscious personal existence after death. The final destiny of each person is determined by God's grace and that person's response, evidenced inevitably by a moral character which results from that individual's personal and volitional choices and not from any arbitrary decree of God. Heaven with its eternal glory and the blessedness of Christ's presence is the final abode of those who choose the salvation which God provides through Jesus Christ, but hell with its everlasting misery and separation from God is the final abode of those who neglect this great salvation. 

Scripture 

B1 Old Testament 

C1 God is eternal and so is His rule: 

D1 Isaiah 40:28 NRSV Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 

D2 Psalms 10:16 NRSV The LORD is king forever and ever; the nations shall perish from his land. 

C2 Life and contempt are eternal states: Daniel 12:2 NRSV Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 

B2 New Testament 

C1 Doing good is defined by God. It is only believing and trusting in Jesus Christ. No human is good except God the Son. John 5:28-29 NRSV Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. 

C2 Jude 1:7 NRSV Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. 

C3 Revelation 20:10 & 15 NRSV And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever... 15  ...and anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. 

C4 Matthew 25:41 NRSV Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 

B3 The Scriptures are clear to anyone who can read. 

A Few Thoughts About Hell 

Hell, torment, everlasting 

Hell

What is hell and why is it talked about in the Bible?

A1 Terms

B1 Hades is the place of those who do not believe God. (Sheol is the Hebrew word).

C1 It is a place of torment. It is a holding cell in jail until the Judgment day.

C2 "…and in Hades, where he was in great pain, he looked up and saw Abraham, far away, with Lazarus at his side." (Luke 16:23, GNB92)

C3 "Death is the destiny of all the wicked, of all those who reject God." (Psalms 9:17, GNB92)

C4 "You snakes and children of snakes! How do you expect to escape from being condemned to hell?" (Matthew 23:33, GNB92)

C5 The direction is down.

D1 "And you, Capernaum, the one having been exalted to heaven, you will be brought down to Hades; because if the miracles which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained to this day." (Matthew 11:23)

D2 "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." (Matthew 12:40)

C6 It is not a permanent place for souls. "And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to their works." (Revelation 20:13)

B2 Abyss

C1 Literally it means "without bottom."

C2 It is the place of the evil dead, demons, and sorrows. It is essentially the same as Hades.

C3 "…or, 'Who will descend into the abyss?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). (Romans 10:7, WPNT)

C4 "And he kept imploring Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss." (Luke 8:31, EMTV)

C5 "And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the Abyss and a huge chain on his hand. And he seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is a slanderer, even Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited earth, and bound him for a thousand years; he threw him into the Abyss and locked and sealed it over him so that he should not deceive the nations any more until the thousand years were finished. And after these years he must be loosed for a short time." (Revelation 20:1-3, WPNT)

B3 Tartarus

C1 A place for evil angels who went and remain there for their coming judgment.

C2 It is used once in the New Testament.

C3 "For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but rather confined them to Tartarus, and delivered them into chains of darkness, reserved for judgment." (2 Peter 2:4)

B4 Gehenna

C1 This is more or less the same as the Lake of Fire.

C2 It is a place of final judgment for those who did not obey the Gospel.

C3 "…but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 8:12)

C4 "…and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 13:42)

C5 "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both the soul and the body in hell." (Matthew 10:28)

B5 Lake of Fire

C1 A place prepared for the everlasting abode of the devil, his angels, and those whose names are not found in the Lamb's Book of Life.

C2 "And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where also the Beast and the False Prophet are. And they shall be tormented day and night forever and ever." (Revelation 20:10)

C3 "And if anyone was not found having been written in the Book of Life, he was cast into the Lake of Fire." (Revelation 20:15)

A2 Questions

B1 Why would God send anyone to hell? I thought He is a "God of Love."

C1 Breaking God's law must be punished just like any law that are broken.

D1 "And now go, lead the people to where I spoke to you. Look, my angel will go before you, and on the day when I punish I will punish them for their sin." (Exodus 32:34)

D2 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

C2 God warns that the penalty is eternal. Some might think that the punishment is greater than the crime, but God warns all people.

D1 Those who have God's Law know what is right and wrong.

D2 Those who do not have God's Law know that murder, lying, stealing, etc. is wrong.

D3 So both are guilty.

D4 "The Gentiles do not have the Law of Moses; they sin and are lost apart from the Law. The Jews have the Law; they sin and are judged by the Law. For it is not by hearing the Law that people are put right with God, but by doing what the Law commands. The Gentiles do not have the Law; but whenever they do by instinct what the Law commands, they are their own law, even though they do not have the Law. Their conduct shows that what the Law commands is written in their hearts. Their consciences also show that this is true, since their thoughts sometimes accuse them and sometimes defend them. And so, according to the Good News I preach, this is how it will be on that Day when God through Jesus Christ will judge the secret thoughts of all." (Romans 2:12-16)

D5 "These, then, will be sent off to eternal punishment, but the righteous will go to eternal life." (Matthew 25:46, GNB92)

D6 "And these shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (Matthew 25:46, EMTV)

B2 Why is hell forever? Doesn't eternity seem too long? They will repent once they are in hell, so then they should be let out and go to heaven.

C1 God warns all that hell is forever.

C2 Anybody in their right mind would not want to stay in hell. It would not be a true repentance, just a fake one to get out of punishment.

C3 We are saved by faith, but once we are dead then we know. It is then fact, not faith.

C4 Rebellion (not obeying God's rules) is very serious.

C5 God has provided a way. See Need God.

 

A3 Other's article/response

B1 http://www.gotquestions.org/eternity-hell-just.html

B2 http://www.gotquestions.org/hell-real-eternal.html

B3 http://pleaseconvinceme.com/2015/is-christianity-unduly-harsh/