Ray Stone
Here is the “other side of the coin”—a place called Hell, the counterpart of Heaven. Does it really exist? Or is it just a story made up by preachers to scare people into the church? In this psychological atmosphere promoting “positive thinking,” the concept of Hell is an unpopular one among virtually everyone.
Yet, our Lord devoted much of His teaching time to discussing just such a place. Heaven and Hell are invariably mentioned together; the two ideas—that of reward on the one hand, and punishment on the other—are so closely linked that they stand or fall together. If you accept the existence of Heaven, you must also accept that there is a Hell, for the same language is used to describe both.
Jesus spoke of the Last-Day general resurrection as a resurrection into life for some, but a resurrection into damnation for others (John 5:28-29). In His picture of the Judgment scene, Matthew 25, He spoke in terms of “the sheep and the goats” (v. 32)—those on His right hand and those on His left (v. 33), those who will “inherit the kingdom prepared for them,” (v. 34), and those who will “depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (v. 41). Plain language for what some consider to be an imaginary place.
Again, Jesus spoke of the danger of going into a Hell described as “the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:43-48). Even in the midst of that beautiful description of Heaven in the book of Revelation, the apostle John interrupts himself to remind us that,
the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolators, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death (Rev. 21:8).
But perhaps most graphic is that remarkable account in Luke 16 of two men, one evil and one righteous, who both died about the same time. The same dualism, or contrast, is seen here: the one went to a place of comfort called “Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16:22), while the other found himself “in Hell” (hades) (v. 23) in a condition described there as “being in torments.” This shows us, among other things, that Hell is not “just the grave,” as some would like to say, for there is consciousness there. The man himself said, “I am in torment in this flame” (v. 24), begging for relief and mercy—a request denied him, indicating that Hell is also permanent and eternal.
Why would there be a description in the Bible—repeatedly—of such a horrible place? If you said, “To scare you into Heaven,” you’d not be far from wrong. God said to the Israelites of old long ago, “I have set before you life, and death; blessing, and cursing: Therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live” (Deut. 30:19). God presents a very similar choice to us today. The picture of Hell in the Scriptures is meant as a warning that we not go there. God “is not willing that any should perish” (2 Pet. 3:9). He “would have all men to be saved” (1 Tim. 2:4). God never prepared Hell for man; it was actually prepared “for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). But God won’t force Himself on anyone. He has given man the power of choice; if one chooses to follow Satan to that Hell of torment, God will allow him to do so. And so, God has said in effect to us today, an echo of that long-ago Deuteronomy passage, “I have set before thee Heaven, and Hell: Therefore choose Heaven, that ye may live.”
Don’t let your fear of Hell lead you to deny that it exists; rather, let it, as God intended, motivate you to seek out the road to Heaven. “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men” (2 Cor. 5:11). Won’t you be persuaded?
