People are quite willing to speak about hell, but only on their own terms. It has become a metaphor for harrowing, traumatic experiences. For instance, a soldier returning from Afghanistan might say, “It was pure hell fighting with the Taliban.” However, hell as a literal, eternal place where unbelievers will weep and gnash their teeth is not something most people like to acknowledge. This has not been lost on churches and theologians who want to be amenable to human sensibilities.

Liberal theology does not hold to an infallible and authoritative Word of God and therefore advocates that there will be no hell or at least there will be no people in hell. This fits in with an old teaching known as “universalism” which believes that in the end everyone will be saved. After the Reformation another viewpoint known as “annihilationism” taught that there is no hell because the unsaved will cease to exist eternally. In more recent years a third viewpoint has emerged among evangelicals which really should have our attention. It is known as “conditional immortality.” It also believes in the annihilation of the unsaved after the final judgment. Clark H. Pinnock of McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario writes in The Destruction of the Finally Impenitent:

I myself will take the position that the finally impenitent wicked suffer extinction and annihilation. Here is his reasoning:

Let me say at the outset that I consider the concept of hell as endless torment in body and mind an outrageous doctrine, a theological and moral enormity, a bad doctrine of the tradition which needs to be changed. How can Christians possibly project a deity of such cruelty and vindictiveness whose ways include inflicting everlasting torture upon His creatures, however sinful they may have been? Surely a God who would do such a thing is more nearly like Satan than like God, at least by any ordinary moral standards, and by the gospel itself.

The argumentation is clearly emotional rather than scripturally based.

A key difference between universalists and annihilationists is that the latter do believe in the punishment of unbelievers. However, that punishment will be accomplished by ceasing to exist rather than being in eternal anguish in hell. Hence the name conditional immortality!

What does Scripture Say?⤒🔗

Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke more than anyone else about hell. In Matthew 5:22 He said in connection with the sixth commandment: “But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” He uses here the word Gehenna which is a Hellenized transliteration of the Hebrew, “Hinnom Valley.” This was a ravine just southwest of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It was a place of trash fires and perpetually burning rubbish and thus became an appropriate term for hell or the lake of fire where the devil, the two beasts, the great prostitute, demons, and all unbelievers will spend eternity weeping and gnashing their teeth. Some have suggested that all Jesus Christ’s comments about hell and punishment were references to the suffering that the Jews would experience with the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. That is difficult to reconcile with Jesus Christ’s parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25 or what He said at the end of that chapter:

I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

Punishment is real and it is eternal.

The Book of Revelation is very clear in its teaching about hell as a real and eternal place where the unsaved stay forever. We read in Revelation 14:9-11:

If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.

God’s wrath will bring eternal torment on unbelievers. In Revelation 20 we read about Jesus Christ’s 1000 year reign, his return, and the final judgment:

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

The lake of fire is another term for hell. It is also called the second death because it is the very opposite of life in the New Jerusalem where God will wipe away every tear from our eyes and believers will have the right to the tree of life. Hell is a living, spiritual, and eternal death where man is separate from God and from his blessings.

Why Talk about It?←⤒🔗

As Bible-believing people, we accept the doctrine of hell as a place of eternal punishment. Our confessions uphold this doctrine. However, it is a difficult doctrine. For those who have a friend or family member that has turned away from Jesus Christ hell is a painful thing to contemplate. Do we need to talk about it? Can’t we just acknowledge it is true and for the rest avoid the topic? Obviously we cannot. It is an essential part of Scripture and therefore deserves our attention. There are a few things that need to be considered. Why must we talk about hell and acknowledge its reality?

In the first place we are missing the point when we talk about how horrible hell is. What is really horrible is sin. What is really horrible is how people reject the gospel and throw dirt in the face of God’s holiness as they recklessly pursue their sinful lifestyle. In this present life people show they want nothing to do with God. We must not underestimate this horrible affront to God. In hell they can continue to be separate from God and live in their sin. However, at that point it will be clearly impressed upon them that God is an all-consuming fire and his wrath has come upon those who reject Him and live in sin. Hell is a righteous recompense for sin. There is a warning here for everyone to recognize and confess the seriousness of our sins.

In the second place having a knowledge and understanding of hell will make us appreciate and understand what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. We all deserve hell. God in his awesome grace sent his own Son into the world to pay for our sins and to experience the agony of hell for us. He became like the dog cast outside the gates of Jerusalem. He wept and gnashed his teeth and cried out forlornly to a God who at that moment did not answer Him. Jesus Christ went through hell for us so that we would never have to experience it. We need to know about hell to know about Jesus Christ and to reach out to Him in true faith and adoration.

In the third place, knowing about hell and that many people will spend eternity in hell should galvanize every believer to seize every opportunity to evangelize. How can you have a co-worker, a neighbour, a friend who is an unbeliever and not share with them the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ? Can you watch someone slip away into eternal torment without at least trying to share with them the hope that is in you? Even the Book of Revelation, which is perceived as a book that speaks harshly about the eternal suffering of the wicked, has a strong evangelistic theme to it. In the very last lines of Revelation we hear the well-meant gospel offer:

Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.

The knowledge of hell should spur us all to seize the day and to share the gospel with people around us.

There is much more that can be said about the doctrine of hell. Hopefully enough has been said that we do not succumb to the modern theological trends that avoid talking about it. When we do that we will only detract from the glory of God and the salvation of sinners.