What Is Hell Like?
Hell is eternal. According to
Matthew 25:46, Jesus said, "and these shall go away into
everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal".
Romans 16:26, speaks of the everlasting God. Hebrews 9:14 refers
to the eternal spirit.
There are four expressions in these three verses to be considered.
They are "everlasting punishment", "eternal life",
everlasting God", and "eternal spirit". The only
difference between everlasting and eternal in our language is
a difference in spelling. They mean the same thing. The Greek
word translated as everlasting or eternal in these three passages
is the same. It is "ionious" which means eternal, everlasting,
without end, never to cease, or indeterminate as to duration.
There is another argument which can be made against the eternality
of hell. which cannot be applied against the eternality of God
the Father, God the Spirit, and Heaven. If one were to take the
poisition that hell were to last only a thousand years, to be
consistent he would also have to contend that the Father, Spirit
and Heaven will last for only a thousand years. That is true for
the same word used to describe the duration of Hell's punishment
is also used to describe the duration of the Father, Spirit and
Heaven.
The very moment that the disobedient cease to be punished, the
righteous will cease to be blessed and the Father and Spirit will
cease to exist. Hell's punishment will continue forever and ever.
Two arguments advanced against this position are as follows. First,
some say that would make hell too long. They argue that it would
not be right to punish one eternally for five years of disobedience.
If that is true it would also be wrong to bless one eternally
who had lived for only five years in obedience to God's will.
If not, why not? The same arguments used to rid the Bible of the
doctrine of hell, can be used with equal validity against the
doctrine of heaven. Those who feel that eternal punishment is
too long, reflect upon every system of justice in the world. How
does one determine the enormity of an act? By the time it takes
to perform it? or by the act itself? For example, in fifteen seconds,
a man could kill a dozen people by throwing a hand grenade into
a crowded store. If that were done, should the killer go to prison
for only fifteen seconds? Should he be placed in the penitentiary
for only sixty seconds? Would the demands of justice be satisfied
if he served a jail sentence of two minutes? Oh, no, if he were
able to escape execution, he would have to spend the rest of his
life behind bars for an act which took only fifteen seconds to
perform. The heinousness of evil is seen in the act itself, rather
than by the time involved in its perpetration. The most horrible
thing one can do is live in rebellion to the will of Almighty
God. Those who live five years, five months, or five days in defiance
of the Lord, and die in that condition will be punished in hell
forever.
Second, there are those who believe the punishment of Matthew
25:46 means eternal annihilation. They maintain that the disobedient
will be cast into the fires of hell and simply experience a cessation
of all existence. When Revelations 21:8 speaks of a second death,
they understand it to refer to a second physical death. In their
view, when one dies the first time he goes back to where Adam
was before he was created. Where was Adam before he was created?
He was not. They believe that at the Lord's second coming, the
dead will be re-created and those who have rejected the Saviour
will be burned, experience a second physical death and be annihilated
forever. Everlasting punishment to them means to be dead, like
an animal, eternally.
In response to that position, consider the word translated as
punishment in Matthew 25:46. It is, "colason", which
means to chastise, or torment. In I John 4:18, it is translated
as torment. Read Luke 16:19-31, and notice that four times the
rich man in the flames of Hades is described as being in anguish
or torment. See Revelations 14:11 and 20:10, where the word torment
is used to describe the fate of the unsaved. If those who leave
this world unprepared to meet God go into eternal nonexistence,
how could the words torment or anguish be used to describe their
state? Torment can exist where there is consciousness. It is impossible
to torment a dead dog, since he is not conscious. There is a difference
between a man and a dog. Man survives the grave and judgement.
The unsaved shall go away into everlasting conscious, suffering
torment. That is what Hell is like, If you are not a Christian,
if you are a backslidden child of God, I plead with you to turn
to Christ by obedience to his will and flee from the wrath to
come. Please do not neglect your soul.