The State of Hell and What It Is - Part 1

Is Hell Eternal

There are two principle views among Christians. The Bible is very clear that the wicked are punished, that there is a lake of fire. On one side you can stack quite a few Scriptures that talk about the wicked being mortal, not immortal, that they perish, they die, they’re consumed, they are no more.  Then there are some Scriptures where it talks about Satan being tormented day and night forever and ever in the lake of fire. And that of course is Revelation 20.  When you put all these Scriptures side by side, it seems like the bulk of evidence is on the side that the wicked are not immortalized in hell, so that 50 billion years from now they’re still burning. The history of that doctrine can be traced to the Dark Ages, and the church during the Dark Ages found it was very lucrative to scare people. They were told that they could pray even after someone died and to get them out of purgatory, or they could make offerings and the priest could pray that they would not go to hell. If you look up this information you will find that this doctrine grew big time out of Greek Mythology where the Jewish belief was that people are going to be punished according to what they deserved and then they would perish. Bottom line is that there are two choices for the Christian:  life and death.  Remember Satan said to Eve, ‘you will not really die.’  God said, ‘you will die.’  How many Christians, even Preachers, have taken the devil’s side?  They say you don’t really die – you live forever in heaven or you live forever in hell.  Eternal life does not go to those who are thrown in the lake of fire.

Why people are scared of hell?

The Bible does teach that there is a lake of fire.  That’s in Revelation 20 again.  The Bible says in Malachi 4 that “All that do wickedly shall be burned up. It will leave them neither root nor branch.”  In Revelation 20 it says that “The wicked are cast into the lake of fire.  This is the second death.”  So there’s no question that the wicked are punished, every man according to his deeds.  Some preachers, in an effort to try to get people to come to church using fear as a motive, have expanded the teaching of hell beyond what the Bible says.  And they tell people that hell is burning right now.  Well, the Bible is very clear that people don’t burn in hell until after the judgment day and the resurrection.  So nobody’s burning in hell right now because it says they’re reserved for judgment—again in  2 Peter. So there are a lot of pastors who've tried to motivate people by fear, but that’s the wrong reason.  Jesus said ‘If you love Me, keep My commandments.’  He doesn't want us to follow Him because of fear of hell, but rather from a desire to be with Him because we love Him, because we know Him.

Where do people go when they die

Well, there’s all kinds of wacky theories out there, everything from reincarnation to limbo to Abraham’s bosom to purgatory.  The Bible tells us that when a person dies they sleep until the resurrection.  If they’re lost it’s called the resurrection of the damned.  Jesus says, Behold the hour is coming (in the Gospel of John) in which all that are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth, they that have done good to the resurrection of life, they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation. So you've got two resurrections.  Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4 that the Lord will descend from heaven with a shout and the dead in Christ will rise first.  Well then you go to Revelation 20 and by the way, if the dead in Christ rise first, then who would be second?  That would be the lost!....the ones that are not in Christ.  Remember Revelation 20 says that “Blessed are those that have part in the first resurrection”.  The rest of the dead come forth in the second resurrection in Revelation 20.  So it’s very clear that there is a resurrection of the damned that Jesus refers to, so until that resurrection when they are judged, at the great white throne judgment, the wicked are in their graves.  It says they are reserved. Peter says in the New Testament—they are reserved until the day of judgment. The Bible is very clear.  You and I live in a dimension of time.  You know, we look at clocks and watches all day long.  God is not restricted to that.  When someone dies, whether they’re saved or lost, they don’t know about the time that they’re asleep as far as we’re concerned.  Their next conscious thought is the resurrection of the just, or, if they’re lost, the resurrection of judgment and punishment. They’re not floating around in limbo.  They’re not burning in purgatory.  But as far as they’re concerned there’s no time.  So when our loved ones die, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord; that means their next conscious thought is the resurrection.  There’s no time for them.  But as far as we’re concerned, they haven’t gone yet because the resurrection hasn't happened yet.

Is there a biblical purgatory?

There is no scripture that mentions purgatory, and there is no scripture or any chain of scriptures that really teaches that once a person dies that they can be saved after death by virtue of what people in this life are doing. The teaching of purgatory, that the priests can pray or someone can make a donation to the church and get someone out of hell really developed about a thousand years after Christ and it became a scheme for the church to basically capitalize on controlling salvation, or trying to capitalize on the idea that they control salvation. 

It comes from the word ‘purge’ and supposedly, you’re not quite good enough for heaven yet, but you’re going to go through a little bit of burning to get any little sin that might be left burned out, or boiled out, and how long you boil might not only depend on how bad you were but how people are praying for you. This is so contrary to the teachings of the Bible which is once you die you take your record with you.  People are not rewarded based on how others are praying for them once they die.  People take their record with them to their grave that they’ll meet in the resurrection and the judgment, and purgatory is just not found in Scripture.  It is really a teaching that came from pagan tradition. 

Everlasting Fire

Matthew 25:41 speaks of "everlasting fire" for the wicked.  Does it go out?

Yes, according to the Bible, it does.  We must let the Bible explain itself.  Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with everlasting, or eternal, fire (Jude 7), and that fire turned them "into ashes" as a warning to "those that after should live ungodly," 2 Peter 2:6.  These cities are not burning today.  The fire went out after everything was burned out.  Likewise, everlasting fire will go out after it has turned the wicked to ashes (Malachi 4:3).  The effects of the fire are everlasting, but not the burning itself.

Doesn't Matthew 25:46 say the wicked will receive "everlasting punishment"?
Notice the word is punishment, not punishing.  Punishing would be continuous, while punishment is one act.  The punishment of the wicked is death, and this death is everlasting.