Hell - The Unpleasant Reality

The Bible warns us of two eternities. One is impressive and all like to hear about it. But the other is horrifying and seldom wants to believe it. They are heaven and hell.

Is hell real? There can be two answers. One is from man and the other is from God.

What I think about hell neither make a little change to the truth, nor your opinion about hell matters. The opinion of the whole world doesn’t reduce one degree of temperature in hell either. What God said about hell will always stay there as the solid truth!

Hell is mentioned just over 160 times in the New Testament. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself mentioned about it more than 70 times. Read the four gospels and you will discover that our Lord spoke more about hell than about heaven. Most of what we know about hell comes from the words of our Lord. Add to that the fact that the apostles all believed in hell. And the Christian church has always believed in hell. This is one of those rare points on which Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, and evangelicals are in general agreement.

Hell was not made for humans. We read in Matthew 25:41 that hell is the place of everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. There will be no one in hell by mistake. If you end up there, it will be because of the way you lived and choice you made. In Hebrew this place is called ‘Sheol’ and in Greek ‘hades’. Another name is ‘Gehenna’ which means ‘valley of Hinnom’ which originally was a valley, west and south of Jerusalem where children were burned as sacrifices to the Ammonite god Moloch by some evil kings of Judah like king Ahaz and king Manasseh. This place was later used for garbage disposal where garbage was burning all the time.

The Bible says in Hebrews 9:27, “Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgement”.

The story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31 offers the best and clearest picture into the nature of hell. Because these words come from our Lord Jesus, we must treat them with utmost respect. We see the cry of rich man from hell to heaven. Jesus doesn’t call it a parable. If it is, it’s the only parable in which an actual name of a person is used (Lazarus). It reads like a genuine report of life after death, which is how I think we should treat it.

What do we learn in this passage about life after death and the situation of those who are in hell?

The dead are still alive. Both Lazarus and the rich man survived their own funerals.

The dead retain their personalities and their essential character. Lazarus is still Lazarus and the rich man is still the rich man. Even in hell the rich man could see, hear, feel, recognize, remember, speak, reflect, plead, suffer, and think ahead. There was only one thing he couldn’t do. He couldn’t get out of hell. Death marks the final separation between the saved and the lost. Once in heaven, always in heaven; once in hell, always in hell. No one can pass from heaven to hell or from hell to heaven. Hell is a place of personal suffering. Three times Jesus mentions the torment, suffering, and agony of the rich man. The damned cry for help that does not come. None of the rich man’s “prayers” were answered nor could they be.

What if the Atheist is right and the Christian is wrong?

I won’t lose anything. I lead a decent and quality life in this world. I lived with an eternal hope which gives me joy and comfort in my heart. I could love and respect every single human being on the face of the earth because I followed the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have developed a character in me to hate sin and every transgression which I loved once. My family life was changed. I could love my wife and live for her and the same happened with her too. The Atheist would live a normal life in his own way with every natural bondage of a human being without any hope. He will finally die as any living creature, probably had never lived a day with joy and rest in his heart.

What if the Christian is right and the Atheist is wrong?

I will be in heaven the moment I leave this earth. I will rejoice with my Lord for ever. I will have every heavenly promise and will never have a regret the way I served the Lord in earth.

But the Atheist will end up in eternal hell. He will regret the whole eternity the way he lived on earth, rejecting the gospel though he had every opportunity to embrace the truth.