Foundation Topic

Is Hell in the Bible?

Hell is often mentioned jokingly, or as a curse word. If hell is truly all that the Bible says it is, we would much rather pass it off as a joke! Perhaps, we think, it's like a place in fairy tales, only there to teach children to behave. But friends, that's not the case. We want you to understand what the Bible says about hell, because your eternity is truly at stake. 

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Short Content

The Reality of Hell and the Goodness of God

How to even begin? We don’t take this subject lightly. We hope you don’t either. The concept of hell makes us just as uncomfortable as you. But not liking an idea doesn’t make it any less true. We are not here to give you our personal opinion on the afterlife. We’re here to open the Bible.

What Is Hell?

What is hell? Though we’ve reduced “hell” to a word we use when we stub our toe, hell is not a joke, nor a place reserved only for fairy tales, nor a cute subject to celebrate on Halloween. It is a real place for real people, and it’s real scary.

Hell is the place of eternal conscious punishment for sinners. The New Testament describes hell as a place “in flaming fire” prepared by God for “those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thessalonians 1:8 NIV). They will be “punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thessalonians 1:1:9 NIV).
Jesus frequently warned people of the turmoil of hell. It is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth (Luke 13:28), where “maggots never die” (Mark 9:48 NLT)—a place of “eternal fire” (Matthew 25:41 NIV).

Hell Is Hard to Handle

Hell is so hard to handle psychologically that we don’t bother with it or we belittle it. It’s natural that some of what the Bible says doesn’t sit well with us emotionally; we expect this to be the case. The Author of Scripture is our Creator, who isn’t exactly like us. Surely there will be times we find his thoughts and plans perplexing (Isaiah 55:8-9).

But we mustn’t let this incite us to doubt what God says, or toss his words out altogether. If anything, such perplexing subjects give us reason to listen to God more closely.

The Psalms instruct us to taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8). The aim of the Bible is that we would know God and his goodness. Every topic within the Bible serves that purpose—even the topic of hell. But we have a problem—our hearts are always inclined to think the worst of God. Because of our sinful hearts, when we come to the Bible, we have a chronic misconception problem.

We Are Not Good

This is certainly the case when we hear about hell. We immediately think poorly of God—because we are at root narcissistic, unable to hear the diagnosis of our sinful condition due to our false self-evaluation. By nature our sin will always persuade us to make God out to be the bad guy.

However, hell should not make us question the goodness of God, but our own. That there should be such a place as the Bible describes does not indicate that God is a tyrant, but that we are thoroughly rebellious. It does not mean that he is unjust, but that our crimes are incalculable. It shows not how intolerant he is, but how intolerable we are.

If hell is real, we will come to one of two conclusions. Either God is cruel and unjust, or we actually deserve the hell he has prepared. By nature, we’re inclined to choose the first.

But the teaching about hell actually supports the idea of the goodness of God like every other teaching in the Bible, and we would like to explain how.

by Bibles.net 

OPEN YOUR BIBLE

Theme Verse

I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.

LUKE 12:4-5 NIV

What The Bible Says about Hell
Article: 7 Min

The Reality of Hell and the Goodness of God

by Bibles.net
Verse
Romans 1:18-23 ESV

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Quote

These are such
weighty things,
such that when
I dwell upon them,
I feel far more inclined
to sit down and weep
than to stand up
and speak to you.

Verse
Ephesians 2:3 ESV

…we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Quote

Why We Think Little of Hell in the Bible

When men talk of a little hell, it is because they think they have only a little sin, and believe in a little Savior; it is all little together. But when you get a great sense of sin, you want a great Savior and feel that, if you do not have him, you will fall into a great destruction, and suffer a great punishment at the hands of the great God.

by Charles Spurgeon | Source
Messages: 57 Min

Heaven and Hell Are Real

by Al Mohler

Article: 8 Min

Is Hell Real?

"Scripture teaches us these five truths and more about hell."

by Dane C. Ortlund at Crossway

Image

It is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands
of the living God.

Hebrews 10:31 ESV
Verse
Psalm 5:4 ESV

For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you.

Article: 7 Min

What the Bible Teaches About Hell

by H.B. Charles Jr. at his blog

Article: 7 Min

There Is Something Worse Than Death

by Kevin DeYoung at 9Marks

Image

our God is a
consuming fire.

Hebrews 12:29 NKJV

WHAT JESUS SAID
ABOUT HELL

Article: 6 Min

Fire! Fire! The Reality of Hell

by J.C. Ryle at Bibles.net

Who Goes to Hell?
Article: 7 Min

What I Would Have to Deny to Deny Hell

by Tim Challies at his blog

Article: 7 Min

Why Is Hell Forever?

by Russell Moore at his blog

Quote

There are only
two kinds of people
in the end:
those who say to God,
“Thy will be done,”
and those to whom God says,
in the end,
“Thy will be done.”

Verse
Mark 9:43-49 NIV

"If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where

'the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.'

Everyone will be salted with fire."

Hymns

How Sweet and Aweful Is the Place

by Sovereign Grace Music & Bob Kauflin
Devotional: 2 Min

If God Is Loving, Why Do People Go to Hell?

by Nancy Taylor and Phil Ryken, adapted by Bibles.net

Quote

What We Deserve

So you may be, my dear friend; but you are not so poor as you deserve to be. Do not be mightily offended about that; if you are, you are no child of God; for the child of God acknowledges that he has no right to the least of God’s mercies, but that they come through the channel of grace alone. As long as I am out of hell, I have no right to grumble; and if I were in hell, I should have no right to complain, for I felt, when convinced of sin, that never creature deserved to go there more than I did.

by Charles Spurgeon | Source
Quote

Ready or Reluctant to Think About God's Wrath?

We are ever prone to regard sin lightly, to gloss over its hideousness, to make excuses for it. But the more we study and ponder God’s abhorrence of sin and his frightful vengeance upon it, the more likely are we to realize its heinousness... Our readiness or our reluctancy to meditate upon the wrath of God becomes a sure test of our hearts’ true attitude toward him. If we do not truly rejoice in God, for what he is in himself, and that because of all the perfections which are eternally resident in him, then how dwelleth the love of God in us?

by A.W. Pink | Source
Messages: 47 Min

An Unquenchable Fire:
The Wrath of God

by Ligon Duncan

Infographic

"Believe and Be Saved"

This short powerful poem by Isaac Watts heralds the truth found in John 3:16-17, that Jesus came into the world not to condemn us but to save us. It’s a call for us to respond to God’s love by believing in Jesus for our forgiveness. We made this wallpaper so you can remember this poem and save it to your phone or share it with a friend.

Quote

That is the reality
we must make clear to our people—either
they will bear the curse
of God themselves
or they will flee
to the One who took it
for them.

Quote

If Sinners Will Be Damned

If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.

by Charles Spurgeon | Source
Verse
Revelation 21:6-8 ESV

And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Quote

We must fall into the arms of Christ
or into the flames of hell.

Contemporary

God Be Merciful to Me (Psalm 51)

by Keith & Kristyn Getty feat. Cindy Morgan
Books