Is Hell a Real Place?

 Today, I want to tackle the issue of the eternal, specifically hell. Hell has gone by many names, hell, Hades, the pit, eternal torment, Gehenna, and the Lake of Fire to list a few of the most popular. To understand hell, we need to look at what it is, what it's for, and what the Bible teaches about it. We will unpack things in a few posts, today I want to focus on the question of the reality of hell.

Many people struggle with the existence of hell, with the fact that loving God would create a place of torment. Why would God create a place like hell? It is simple, hell is the eternal place for sin. Unforgiven and unrepentant sin ends up in hell. It was created for the Devil and the demons who followed him. Satan is the place where he will be punished for his rebellion. We will tackle Satan's relationship to hell in another post. For our purposes today, we just need to understand hell was initially created for Satan. 

In the fall of man, humans gave dominion over the world to Satan and joined his team. Mankind, apart from salvation in Jesus Christ, is part of Satan's team. This puts people in the same camp with demons. We have, through sin, rebelled against God. The ramifications of this is that people, like the Devil, will be separated from God.

The reason hell exists is to keep sin and God separate because sin and those with unrepented, unconfessed, and unforgiven sin cannot stand in God's presence. Those who have made a choice to not accept God and have embraced sin will be eternally separated from God. If you don't want to have anything to do with God, then He will oblige and you will spend eternity apart from Him.

Hell is real and it is eternal. Once you leave this life, your soul will exist in one place or another. There are only two options. Souls are not destroyed. There are some who teach that once a soul experiences hell, it is eventually destroyed. The Bible doesn't teach this, what it teaches is that a soul in hell is eternal and conscious for eternity. The soul is eternal and experiences are eternal.

Why is hell torment? The answer is simple because hell is a total separation from God. Everything that is God in life is from God. Everything that brings joy, happiness, and fulfillment comes from God. Even as sinners, people still live in God's presence and receive blessings from Him. Existence in hell is separation from anything good. Joy, friendship, hope, and rest are all good things from God. Without God, there is nothing good. In this life, we cannot even comprehend an existence with no goodness. The ability to take a deep breath and relax is not an option in hell. Relief, comfort, relationships, everything we do that makes us feel good or happy or content. None of them exist in hell.

To sum up, hell is a real place that was created for Satan and his followers. Those who rebel against God will be separated from God for eternity. That separation causes torment because everything that is good is from God. Without the presence of God, there is nothing good. This separation is eternal, and the soul, being eternal in nature, will be in this reality for all of eternity.