hat Does Jesus Say about Hell Being Eternal and Just? Scott Shifferd Jr. Have you ever asked “Why Hell?”, “How could Hell exist?” and have not found a good answer? I will do my best to give you a concise, biblical, and reasonable answer and examine its truthfulness for yourself. I will not explain away Hell like some Bible teachers into not being real, and some have made Hell into a fire that burns everyone into non-existence. The scriptures are clear about this. In the Bible, Jesus spoke the most about “Hell” or rather the actual word is Gehenna. Gehenna refers to the earthly valley of Hinnom or Tophet. The earthly Tophet was the Valley of the Hinnom where the idolaters offered their own children in sacrifice to Molech (2 Kings 23:10, 2 Chron. 28:3, 33:6, Jer. 7:31-32, 19:6, 32:35). Yet, Jesus spoke of the spiritual Tophet. In judgment, Jesus will judge that those who did not do good to others will go in to “everlasting punishment” (Matt. 25:46). This is a spiritual place of “the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of God” (2 Thess. 1:7-9). All of the eternal punishment of Hell can be understood to be just, because people are separated from God by their sins and that eternal separation can only be described to earthly people to be eternal Fire and torment (cf. Eph. 4:18, Col. 1:21). While Gehenna is a spiritual place, Hell is described by Jesus and by His Spirit as a “the everlasting fire”, a “lake of fire”, and a “furnace of fire” “that shall never be quenched” where the “worm does not die” (Matt. 25:41, Rev. 21:8, Isa. 66:24, Mark 9:43-48). Isaiah described this spiritual place of torment called “Tophet” that burns by the breath of God (Isa. 30:33), and Isaiah described the worm and maggot that covered the king of Babylon and the dead in Hell were excited about his going there (14:11, 15). Hell is a place of “outer darkness” and so dark being described as “the blackness of darkness” (Matt. 8:12, 2 Peter 2:17). Hell is so dark that false teachers are described as being bound by “the everlasting chains of darkness” (2 Pet. 2:4, Jude 6). In Hell, “there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 13:49-50). Hell is described as a place where a neglectful rich man will thirst, yet be able to see, and still have memories (Luke 16:19-31). These are the descriptions that Christ used to describe the final place of eternal separation from God where each person has made this separation between himself and God by one’s sins (Eph. 4:18, Col. 1:21). This “eternal punishment” means that there will be no rest day or night in Hell for those who worshiped the Beast and those who received his mark (Rev. 14:10-11). The Bible teaches clearly that there will be an eternal torment for the Beast, the False Prophet, and even Satan (Rev. 20:10). Everyone not written in the book of life will be cast into this lake of fire (Rev. 20:15). Yet, the punishment for each person can be different in Hell (Luke 12:47-48). While some ask, “How could everlasting punishment be eternal torment for all the condemned or even some of them? How is this not cruel and brutal? How can a loving God do this?” It is thought-provoking that skeptics do not believe the Bible for the same exact questions that believers ask and do not lose faith. Both skeptics and believers ask, “How could God send people to Hell?” Clearly, Hell is just, because people separate themselves from God. Many are blind to the justness of Hell. When we understand the severity and treachery of sin, we understand the severity of Hell. When we understand the alienation that sin has caused between us and God (Eph. 4:18, Col. 1:21), then we can understand “the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thess. 1:7-9). When people separate themselves from God by sin and die, they do into eternity separated from God. The lack of understanding the justice of Hell shows a fundamental misconception of sin and the need and the way that Jesus can save everyone from their due justice in Hell. Note that Hell was not made for man. Jesus said that “the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). Hell was prepared and intended for the Devil and his angels to be punished. See how the Devil will not be ruling Hell. Then, why is Hell used for people? This is the place of separation from God. People do not understanding Hell, because they do not understand sin. Man and woman were made for good. Every person was made in the image of God, and man is the image and glory of God (Gen. 1:26, 1 Cor. 11:7). By sinning, each person profanes the image of God and their life, and thus their life is required having earned death (Rom. 6:23, Rom. 5:16, 18). Therefore, Romans 3:23 concludes that, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (cf. 2 Cor. 4:4). All are guilty of sinning and profaning the image in which we were made. God is love and He made us in His image to love. By sinning, each person has acted contrary to love. Therefore, God being just requires the life of each person, his blood (Gen. 9:4-6, Lev. 17:11-14). Sinning is more than unrighteousness and lawlessness (1 John 3:4, 5:17). Sinning is profaning the image of God and profaning one’s own life, and therefore judgement results in the death of condemnation (Rom. 5:16-18). If your words or works revile the life and that spirit of life that was given to you, then you deserve at least spiritual death. Every sin that one does is a profaning of the life that God gave them, so this is why spiritual death is just. Spiritual death is separation from God like the physical death is the separation of the spirit from the body (Jas. 2:26). This spiritual separation is spiritual death, which is the second death, which is also called the lake of fire (Rev. 21:8). There is the severity of sin in contrast to the purity and holiness of God’s image. People separate ourselves from God by being unholy. Christ’s Spirit teaches, “but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” (1 Pet. 1:15-16). Each person can purify one’s soul by obedience to the truth and thus being born again (1 Peter 1:22-23, cf. 1 Pet. 1:3, 3:21). Because of the separation of sin that made us to be alienated, one must be reconciled to God (Isa. 59:1, Eph. 4:18, Col. 1:21). Therefore, “these shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thess. 1:9). That separation from God is described by Christ to be the torment of Fire. When we read about Hell, we are reading about the description of the severity of everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. This eternal separation from God is the only just punishment for those who profane eternal life. God gave them life being created in God’s image. Hell is just when one has received life in the image of God and then has profaned that gift, then their punishment is death and it is eternal. When one dies in separation from God, that person does into eternity in separation from God. Still, God has been patient regarding these wages of sin, and He is merciful in Jesus Christ. Because of the wages of sin, God in due time begot His Son, Jesus, “for the Word became flesh” (John 1:14) who is “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person” (Heb. 1:3), “He is the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15), and “the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4). Now, Jesus did not profane the image of God by sinning like us “for in Him is no sin” (1 John 3:5, Heb. 4:15). This made Him perfect to reconcile man to God. Jesus was not worthy of spiritual death, and God being just would not send Him to Hell. Yet, Jesus died and bypassed Hell. Jesus can now reconcile all of us who were alienated and enemies in our minds, and present us holy and blameless before God if we continue in the faith (Col. 1:21-23). Thus, we are saved from wrath through Christ, who reconciled us to God through Jesus’ death and being justified by His blood (Rom. 5:6-11). See, Jesus was perfect and did the perfect thing by being “wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him” for whom “the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” so “He was cut off from the land of the living” (Isa. 53:5-6, 8). “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5). God did not leave Jesus’ soul in Sheol or allow His soul to see corruption (Psa. 16:10), but God prolonged His days (Isa. 53:10). Because of Jesus’ perfection, Hell is even more a wage for those who neglect Him. “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation (Heb. 2:3)?” In contrast to the sentence of death in Moses’ Law, Hebrews 10:29 says, “Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?“ The 2nd epistle to the Thessalonians teaches that when Jesus comes back with His angels, then He will take “vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1:7-9). This is just. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). Everyone is without excuse for not thanking God and not glorifying God (Rom. 1:21). No one has an excuse for by having a conscience, “the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing” (Roman 2:15). No matter where you are in the world, God has made you in your world, “so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27). This is confirmed by Jesus, who said, “Seek, and you will find” (Matt. 7:7). Seek God and you will find Him. Now, God works justice either in this life or the next. You have your chance now. In 1 Timothy 2:4, God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth“. In 2 Peter 3:9, Peter wrote, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is enduring toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” Only by being transformed into the image and glory of Christ can one be saved. See in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” We can be saved and reconciled to God by obeying the Gospel. As 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 says, those who do not obey the gospel will go to eternal destruction. We can only be saved by the Gospel (1 Cor. 15:1-2). The Gospel is the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:3-4). We have not been saved by grace until we have died, been buried, and raised with Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:4-6). Romans 6 shows us how to die, be buried, and raised with Christ. We must died to our sins, be buried in baptism, and be raised to live in the newness of life (Rom. 6:3-7, cf. Col. 2:12-13). This is when we are made alive (Col. 2:12-13). This is when we are saved and born again when we are saved by baptism through the resurrection of Christ (1 Pet. 1:3, 3:21).
Posted on: Sat, 14 Jun 2014 04:45:02 +0000
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