Eshatological reflections of the protestant defense of the hell

Jesus is teaching this, so this ends all debate on the existence of Hell. Because Jesus is referring to a specific man, and He says in verse 23, “in Hell he lifted his eyes”. Jesus says this man went to Hell.

This also ends all debate on whether this is a place of fire, because Jesus says, “in this flame”. We want to emphasize, we believe the New Testament refers to Hell 32 times as a place of fire. Unquenchable, everlasting, eternal fire. Lake of fire, flame of fire, furnace of fire. And Jesus himself refers to Hell as fire.

And this also ends all debate on whether this is a place of torment or not, because we have the variation of the word torment four times in this scripture. The Greek word here for torment has three meanings.

So according to what Jesus tells us, we can discern a few things about what happens to a person when he or she goes to Hell. I want to give our three of them:

1. He desires comfort - “Send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water that I may cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame ”. I want we to notice that he didn't say, “Could I have a bucket of watef', or “Could I have a cup of watef', and he didn't even say that he might dip his finger in water. He said “that he may dip the tip of his finger in water that I may cool my tongue ”. He was in such pain and discomfort that any relief was desired, and would have been of great comfort.

We should remember, Hell was not created for us. In Isaiah 5:14 it says that Hell had to be enlarged, because man decided to follow Satan. It was enlarged by necessity, not by design. Here is the scripture that shows we Hell was not prepared for us, Matthew 25:41 (NKJV) [4]:

“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, we cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:”

And the Bible tells us a few things about future Hell that we need to understand. I am going to tell you some things that will help we to understand what eternal Hell will be like, and I'll give we the scripture to prove it.

1. There are two physical properties on earth that keep us mentally stable, light and solid. Light helps us to gain our bearings; if we can just see where we are going, and what we are doing. Blind people can even many times see light and dark, which keeps them stable. Please understand there is no light in Hell. The Bible describes Hell as a place of “outer darkness”. Utter darkness; complete, total darkness. As a matter of fact, the Greek word means “blackness”. If we have ever found yourself in a strange place, with suddenly no access to any light, we know the feeling I'm talking about. We lose all stability, and it can be terrifying.

Satan has so lied to us that Hell is going to be some big party. We will never see anyone! We will never see another person, and we will never talk to anyone. The reason he did in this story, remember, this is before Jesus resurrection. This story does not reflect eternal Hell. We will never see or talk to any other person, forever and ever.

So there is no light in Hell. The reason there is light in Heaven, Revelation 21:10, tells us, there is no sun in Heaven, because the Lamb is the light. The reason there is no light in Hell is because God takes His presence from Hell. So there is no light in Hell.

Here is the second thing, solid. Being able to hold something, grab something, keeps us mentally stable on this earth. Being able to sit down, or walk or touch something. Hell is described in Revelation 9, 11, 17, and 20 as a “bottomless pit”. We will never touch anything again. We will never sit down, walk again, it will be the sensation of eternal falling. No matter how hard we lunge, we will never touch anything else. Those two physical properties aren't in Hell that keep us mentally stable.

There are two emotional properties that keep us emotionally stable on this earth, rest and hope. Many of we feel like rest is a physical property, which it is, but it is also an emotional property. Rest keeps us emotionally stable. Think how irritable we get when we're tired. When we get tired, we begin to lose it emotionally. When we lose someone we love, think about how tired we get, and people around we say, “We need to get some rest”. We know that if we can just rest, even if it is for just a few moments, then we can better handle what we are going through emotionally.

Revelation 14:11 9 (NKJV) says: “And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night”.

So there is no rest in Hell.

The second emotional property that is not in Hell is hope. There's no hope in Hell. On this earth, we always have hope that things can get better. Do we realize that a person who commits suicide is a person to whom Satan convinced that something is true on earth that is actually true in Hell? He has convinced that person that he has no hope, and on earth, we always have hope, because we are alive, and we can turn to God. But in Hell, there is no hope. Every person who goes to Hell will at some point have a thought something like this, “When I have been here ten thousand years, I will not have one less second to be in this place, because Hell is forever.

Over and over again, God makes it clear that He wants we to live, not die. Not only in the New Testament, but in the Old Testament, God finds no pleasure in the punishment of even the most wicked sinners. Now this is what is so amazing about God. We see when we see the wicked hurt, and abuse, and destroy others, we have this sense of righteous indignation. We want things made right; we want justice, but it goes even beyond that. We want them punished. And if we would be truthful with our own hearts, we often find a disturbing pleasure or satisfaction in it. But God never finds pleasure in it.

We see God desires that no one go to Hell, but that every one comes into a vital relationship with Him. And so the backdrop about any conversation about Hell is that God longs for we to live with Him forever; and He finds no pleasure in punishing anyone eternally, even the vilest of mankind. God is not trying to send us to Hell; He is trying to keep us out of Hell. He died to keep us from Hell.

The reason He has not already dealt with sin is clear. The Bible says that God is good, and loving, and patient, because He doesn't want anyone to go to Hell. But there is coming a day when God is going to say, “Enough!” God is going to stop the pain and misery and violence of this world. There is coming a day when a child will never again be molested. There is coming a day when not one more human being is going to be sold into slavery in the sex trade because God is going to stop it. There is going to be a day when God says “Enough! I will not let we kill each other”. There is going to be a day when not one more husband will beat his wife; one more mother will abandon her child.

What do we expect God to do with the person who says, “I want my heart to be fueled by anger, and hatred, and lust, and pride? And what I want to be marked by is abuse and violence”. What do we expect God to do if we allow our soul to spiral downward to such dark places where we just don't want to be different?

For all we know, an environment such as the one we live in-an environment in which one encounters real threats and dangers of a temporary kind, where one person's temporary welfare may depend upon the choices of others and upon natural forces over which one has limited or no control, where a quest for truth and genuine discoveries about the glories of God's creation are possible, and where moral failure would likely provide ample opportunities for repentance, forgiveness, and atonement - for all we know, such an environment is an important part of the process whereby God renders us fit for eternal joy [7].

We hate talking about Hell. I hate to think about an eternity filled with wasted lives. But if I had to choose between God allowing people to be forever tormented and abused by each other, and a day when God says, “I'm going to stop it”. I would choose that.

So, making conclusions, we can say that two thousand years ago, Jesus walked among us, and took on the smell of smoke, because He came for us. Would a loving God create a place called Hell? Absolutely. Because He would never force we to love Him, because force eliminates love. Love requires choice. He would never override our will, even if we wanted Him to, because He honors the way He created we. But He will not put up with the worst of us forever. He will stop it one day. And so we can choose for our lives to be the ashes, or our lives to be the children who are dancing, the choice is yours. So choose life; choose love; choose God, because He has already chosen us.