The Truth about
Hell that the Devil Does Not Want You to Know
There is a place deep in the heart of the Earth, in a
spiritual realm. It is a place many have heard of and few truly understand. It
is a place full of darkness, suffering, and horror unimaginable. It is a place
that you will never want to visit, not even once. And yet, according to the
Bible (God’s Holy Word), it is a place many will spend an eternity in.
Hell has inspired people for generations to come up with
fanciful ideas about what it is like. Some have imagined a place where sins are
burned up and “cleansed.” Others have imagined a place where people can “party”
with their friends and do whatever their flesh wants to do. Both beliefs are
false and contradict the Bible. Sins can only be cleansed by the blood of Jesus
Christ and Hell is certainly not a place to “party” with one’s friends.
The psalmist writes this in Psalm 88:
Psalm 88:3-8
3 For my soul is full of troubles:
and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.
4 I am counted with them that go
down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:
5 Free among the dead, like the
slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut
off from thy hand.
6 Thou hast laid me in the lowest
pit, in darkness, in the deeps.
7 Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and
thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.
8 Thou hast put away mine
acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut
up, and I cannot come forth.
Psalm 88:18
18 Lover and friend hast thou put
far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.
This writer, likely King David, had been going through a lot
of anguish and difficulty. He had been pursued by his enemies who sought to
kill him. In Psalm 88, the psalmist describes what Hell is like. We learn that
people in Hell (the pit) have “no strength” (vs. 4). People in Hell are in
darkness and are separated from their acquaintances and friends (vs. 8 and vs.
18). They are certainly not partying with them.
Hell is a Place of Torment
Hell is a place of torment, both physical, and emotional,
and spiritual. The emotional
torment of Hell is described in Proverbs 5. In this section we read about a
foolish man who committed adultery and fornication with a strange woman (a
harlot).
Proverbs 5:3-5 (bold / underline added)
3 For the lips of a strange woman
drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
4 But her end is bitter as
wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
Proverbs 5:8-13
8 Remove thy way far from her, and
come not nigh the door of her house:
9 Lest thou give thine honour unto
others, and thy years unto the cruel:
10 Lest strangers be filled with
thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
11 And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy
body are consumed,
12 And say, How have I hated
instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13 And have not obeyed the voice of
my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
This man in Hell is mourning over the fact that he didn’t
listen to his teachers or anyone who instructed him. Instead, he went after
harlots and now experiences anguish in Hell in addition to the pain of his flesh
and his body being consumed. Though his flesh and his body are being consumed,
he does not cease to exist. The Bible, in 2 Thessalonians 1, shows that…
2 Thessalonians 1:7-10 (bold / underline added)
7 And to you who are troubled rest
with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty
angels,
8 In flaming fire taking vengeance
on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ:
9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the
presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
10 When he shall come to be
glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because
our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
Hell is Eternal
Destruction is not until the person ceases to exist.
Destruction in Hell is everlasting (vs.
9). And, it involves being separated “from
the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power” (vs.9). But,
they shall be “tormented with fire and
brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb”
(Revelation 14:10). God is omnipresent (everywhere at once) and His angels are allowed to look at Hell, but God has cut Himself off from the people in Hell.
Revelation 14 also reveals that the torment in Hell (or the
lake of fire) is eternal.
Revelation 14:9-11 (bold /
underline added)
9 And the third angel followed
them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and
receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
10 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.
Notice the words in verse 11: “they have no rest day nor night”? Anyone who taught that
Hell is temporary until the body is burned up does not understand the scripture,
or is lying. Hell is eternal and the hellfire is eternal. “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever…”
(vs. 11).
This torment, as we mentioned earlier is both physical, and emotional, and spiritual. The man who did not
repent from fornication and adultery was in agony physically as he flesh and body were consumed by eternal
fire (see Proverbs 5:11). This soul was also in emotional agony as he
remembered that he had not listened to people (i.e. his teachers) who had warned
him about the consequences of sin. He said…
Proverbs 5:12-13 (bold / underline added)
12 And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13 And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined
mine ear to them that instructed me!
He wishes now that he had listened to his teachers and others
who had warned him about Hell and sin. But, it is too late for him now.
Hell is Spiritual Separation from God and People in Hell are Fully Conscious.
Besides being physical and emotional torment, Hell is
spiritual torment in that the human spirit-soul that God created to exist
forever is separated from God (who is the source of life and joy and peace and true
love) not for a thousand years, not for a million years, but forever.
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Jesus Christ warned His own disciples about Hell.
Mark 9:42-44 (bold / underline added)
42 And whosoever shall offend one
of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone
were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.
43 And if thy hand offend thee, cut
it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands
to go into hell, into the fire that
never shall be quenched:
44 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
Jesus was not teaching that men should cut off their hands to
stay away from Hell as much as He was teaching that anything that offends (or
leads one into sin) must be removed from a person’s life to keep that person
from Hell. Sin is very deceptive and it does lead people “…into hell, into the
fire that never shall be quenched: [44] Where their worm dieth not, and the
fire is not quenched.”(Mark 9:43-44).
