Because the subject of hell is difficult to contemplate, many inside and outside the church have sought to soften the idea, for how can a loving God send people to such a miserable place? But God hasn’t asked us to get Him off the hook for hell, and He doesn’t permit such a softening. Much of what we learn about hell, in fact, comes from the loving Jesus Himself, whose teaching concerning hell expands on the teaching of the Old Testament. Here are five things to know about hell.
1. Hell is a real place of conscious and unending misery.
The erroneous doctrine known as annihilationism, or conditional immortality, posits that the wicked are destroyed at the last judgment. They need not worry about conscious, eternal punishment in the afterlife. Contrary to this view, the Bible presents hell as a place of conscious and perpetual misery. The miseries of hell are unending (Jude 13; Rev. 20:10). In Luke 16, for example, the rich man is described as “being in torment” (Luke 16:23) in Hades and conscious of his miserable state, no doubt preferring to forfeit his existence than to continue in torment.
There is also no biblical basis for a “second chance.” The residential status of the inhabitants of hell is fixed forever. Death marks the moment of a permanent address change. So, the ideas that the souls in hell will eventually be destroyed (annihilationism) or that they will be given a second chance have no scriptural warrant.
2. Hell is one of only two possible destinations of every human.
When a person dies, his body is buried and his soul is immediately transported into the presence of God, where he will either be ushered into heaven or cast into hell. Westminster Confession of Faith 32.1 describes it this way:
The bodies of men, after death, return to dust, and see corruption: but their souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them: the souls of the righteous, being then made perfect in holiness, are received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God, in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies. And the souls of the wicked are cast into hell, where they remain in torments and utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day. Besides these two places, for souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none.
At the last day, every soul will be reunited with its body. At that point, the righteous will go into everlasting life, while the wicked will be cast into “eternal torments” (WCF 33.2). Again, besides these two places, for souls reunited with their bodies at the resurrection, the Scripture acknowledges none.
3. Hell is a place of God’s wrathful presence.
The “eternal torments” of hell are described by Westminster Confession 33.2 as a place of punishment “with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” Oftentimes, hell is thought of as a place of separation from God’s presence. But God is omnipresent—He can’t not be somewhere. Rather, Scripture envisages hell as an experience not of His absence but of His wrathful presence, His unending displeasure and punishment. Our God, who is a “consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29), will pour out His “wrath and fury” (Rom. 2:8) on the wicked in hell.
If this sounds bad to the Christian, that’s because it’s a side of God that doesn’t accord with our experience of God as His beloved children. What the wicked will experience in hell is the wrath of God that was extinguished for His people by Christ, but the realities of hell for the reprobate are more miserable than even the symbolic descriptions of it, just as any sign can only imperfectly represent and signify a reality. Perhaps the Bible’s symbolic descriptions of hell are due to the fact that endless punishment from a holy God is indescribably miserable.
4. Hell’s inhabitants are those who have chosen to be there.
Hell is the destination for those who have chosen to love darkness rather than light (John 3:18–21). This might seem to contradict the rich man’s longing cry, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame” (Luke 16:24). But notice that the rich man doesn’t suddenly desire God; he merely desires relief from the punishment of God.
Calvinists can and should readily affirm that every person receives in the end that which he has freely chosen—either to worship God by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit or to curse God. Those who are in hell cannot and will not claim unfairness, for they’ve been given precisely what they’re owed and precisely what they’ve chosen. The Bible doesn’t see a contradiction in hell’s being a punishment that God inflicts on the wicked and hell’s being the destination that human beings freely chose. Hell, then, is the ultimate “giving over” of ourselves to our own desires and the lusts of the flesh (Rom. 1:24).
5. Hell is consistent with God’s nature.
Hell is not a black mark on God’s record. It’s not an embarrassing undertaking on His resume that is inconsistent with who He really is. No, hell is consistent with the holy justice of God that demands the punishment for sin be properly proportioned to the subject’s guilt. God’s justice and His benevolence are not mutually exclusive attributes. They are perfectly consistent, and heaven and hell are expressions of that holy harmony. Were God not just, annihilationism, universalism, or any other unbiblical view related to the afterlife would be in the realm of possibility.
Consider the benevolence and justice of God in the work of His Son. Would not the work of Christ be in vain if there were no hell? If the wicked were destroyed or somehow admitted into heaven, would not Christ’s sacrifice be rendered unnecessary? Indeed, a denial of hell is not only inconsistent with God’s character, but it is tantamount to trampling underfoot the Son of God (Heb. 10:29). God’s character—both His justice and His goodness—demands the proportionate execution of the full penalty for sin on the wicked forever.
While much more could be said about hell, perhaps we’d do well to remember that the Bible’s many descriptions of hell are intended to magnify the grace of Christ who has saved us from it, and to fuel a zeal in us to warn others to flee from the pains of hell by turning to Christ in true faith and repentance.
This article is part of the 5 Things You Should Know collection.
Ligonier Ministries