'An Independent Baptist Church'

Is Hell a Real Place of Fire and Torment?

A Recent Los Angeles Times Newspaper article in The Evansville Courier on Saturday, July 6 on page C1 entitled "MINISTERS COOL TO DISCUSSING NOTION OF HELL" goes on to state "You can go to a whole lot of churches week after week and you'd be startled even to hear a mention of hell."  The Article continues: "The tendency to downplay downplay damnation has grown in recent years as nondenominational ministries, with their focus on every day issues, such as child-rearing and career success, have proliferated and loyalty to churches has deteriorated.  'It's just too negative," said Bruce Shelley, a senior professor of church history at the Denver Theological Seminary.  Churches are under tremendous pressure to be consumer-oriented.  Churches today feel the need to be appealing rather than demanding."  A 1998 poll by Barna Research Group, found that church shopping has become a way of life: One in seven adults changes churches each year;  one in six regularly rotates among congregations.  That fickleness has helped to give rise to 'MEGACHURCHES',  evangelical congregations of more than 2,000 people who mix scripture with social and recreational programs in a casual atmosphere. Megachurches routinely pay for market research on what will draw people to their ministries and keep them coming back.  "Once pop evangelism went into market analysis, hell was just dropped," said Martin Marty, professor emeritus at University of Chicago Divinity School.  Traditional Denominations also have pushed hell to the margins.  The Presbyterian Church (USA)'s first catechism, drawn up a few years ago by a committee, mentions hell only once.  

The Pope's View on Hell.....

The Article continues...."Where once hell was viewed as a literal, geographic location, it is more often seen now as a state of the soul.  In 1999, Pople John Paul II made headlines by saying that hell should be seen not as a fiery underworld but as 'the state of those who freely and definitely separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy."  As much as that seemed like a departure from church teachings, the pope's words weren't all that new.  The Roman Catholic Church in the 1960's had moved away from the view of hell as a gothic torture chamber as part of the Second Vatican Council's modernization of church teachings."

Billy Graham's Changing View on Hell....

The article continues:  "One measure of hell's continued decline can be found in the changed attitude of the Rev. Billy Graham, who came to prominence in the 1940's as a fire-and-brimstone Gospel preacher.  His depiction of hell was unequivocal, an unpleasant address for unrepentant sinners.  Even Graham has reconsidered hell---not whether it exists, but what it is.  "I believe that hell is essentially separation from God, so we can have hell in this life and hell in the life to come..,"  Graham told an interviewer in 1991." But to describe hellin vivid terms like I might have done 30 or 40 years ago, I'm not at liberty to do that because whether there is actually fire in hell or not, I DO NOT KNOW."

Well, I don't know what has happened to Billy Graham, but let's see what the Bible says about the subject of Hell and let's see whether hell is a real place of actual fire and flame and torment.

What Does the Bible Say About Hell?

Hell is a REAL place of fire and brimstone, and smoke.

Revelation 21:8   But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Revelation 20:12-15   And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

From this previous verse we see that there will be different degrees of punishment in hell based upon the wickedness of their life.

Revelation 19:20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

Hell will be a place of smoke and torment.

Revelation 14:10,11 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

Hell is a place of eternal fire.

Jude 1:7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

The unsaved go immediately to hell at death.  There is no purgatory, no soul sleep....immediately in conscious torment in Hell even before the viewing back at the funeral home on earth.

Luke 16:19-31 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: 20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, 21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. 25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: 28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

We also see from this passage that hell is a place of conscious existence, not annihilation!  This rich man had a body with a finger and tongue and wanted a drop of water!  It will be a place where we recognize  each other according to this passage.   Notice this lost man was concerned in hell about his five lost brethren!

Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels.  Hell was not prepared originally for humans at all.  How could a loving God send someone to hell?  He doesn't send anyone to hell.  We choose to go there when we choose to follow the devil and reject Jesus Christ as our Savior during our lifetime.

Matthew 25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

The fire in hell is real fire....not symbolic language or figuratively speaking.  The same word for fire in hell is used when Peter spoke of real fire in Matthew 17:15.

Matthew 13:41,42   41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Now compare the word 'fire' in Matthew 17:15...

15 Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.

The Same greek word for fire is used in both passages.  The fire in hell is real.

We also learn from above in Matthew 13:41,42 that hell is place of wailing and gnashing of teeth.

The Bible seems to teach that the present hell is in the middle of this planet earth. 

Matthew 12:40,41For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Recall that at His death, Jesus descended to hell to proclaim victory of the cross and take the OT saved people from Abraham's bosum to paradise....the heaven where Jesus is now.  You see, before calvary, the saved people went to this 'saved compartment' in the center of this earth which was next to the 'hades' or hell compartment.  Both were separated by a great gulf according to Luke 16:19-31.

Ephesians 4:8-10 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. 9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)

An Old Testament passage also hints the present hell is in this earth.

Numbers 16:32-35 And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them: 32 And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. 33 They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation. 34 And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also. 35 And there came out a fire from the LORD, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.

The final hell, the Lake of Fire, described in the Revelation passages earlier, exists in some remote part of the universe we would guess.  After the Great White Throne judgment of the unsaved at the end of the Millennium, the lost will spend eternity in this lake of fire.

My friend, hell is real.  We need to win our friends and loved ones to the Lord.  Hell is no joke.