what is hell like according to the bible

The third picture given is that of the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 8:12; Matt. 22:13; Matt. 25:30; 2 Peter 2:17; Jude 13). This picture too is taken from the earthly reality. Inside the banquet hall there is joy and light, but outside it is night and those who are there do not share in the joy of those inside. This picture depicts the sharp contrast with the atmosphere of joy and light in the house of the Lord, in His kingdom. For this is the banquet hall where the wedding feast is held and where fellowship with God is enjoyed, who is light and in whom is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). The unbelievers have been removed from this realm of light and love. Just like the foolish virgins, they are out in the darkness, faced by a closed door (Matt. 25:10 ff.), and just like Judas, they have gone out into the night (John 13:30). They are separated from God forever and live on in darkness, far from His kindly face. In this place of outer darkness there is not even one ray of light to be seen and there is neither hope nor expectation anymore. There is only an impenetrable darkness. It is a place of weeping, of eternal grief. There is also gnashing of teeth. This may refer not only to remorse, but also to anger; an eternal rebellion against God. Weeping and gnashing of teeth are certainly characteristics both of the outer darkness and of the furnace of fire (Matt. 13:42, 50). This clearly indicates that the two pictures, that of the fire as well as that of the darkness, are about the same terrifying reality.

Though shocking, it is beneficial to ponder these things, since it helps us to realise to some degree how much the Lord is to be feared (2 Cor. 5:11), and this awareness prompts us to persuade others. As has already been mentioned, this third picture of eternal punishment raises the question of how the outer darkness can be combined with the unquenchable fire of the first picture. Fire spreads light and where fire burns it cannot be pitch dark. However, we are not to draw any conclusions from the physical reality around us and apply them to supernatural realities that lie beyond our understanding. On the other hand we should certainly take the concepts indicated by these pictures seriously, for example, not limiting darkness to something like “moral darkness”. Scripture clearly uses these seemingly contradictory pictures in order to give us an impression, from different points of view, of the seriousness of eternal punishment.

Conversely, rather than one stumbling the weakest believer, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea weighted with a millstone. For our treatment of believers shows our attitude toward Christ. Self-judgment therefore is absolutely imperative. "If thy foot serve as a snare to thee, cut it off." One's own conscience can discern this. If the foot goes in the wrong direction, the sharp knife is to be used: I must ruthlessly judge it. If one never learns self-judgment he will be cast into hell, into unquenchable fire. The same is said concerning the hand, which speaks of actions. If the actions of the hand are never judged, the end is the awful fire of hell. The offending eye is to be plucked out. If the eye sees what is evil (and the world makes provision for this in its pictures, its television and often in public displays) our one resource is to judge it and turn from it. "Turn away thine eyes from beholding vanity" (Ps.119:37). If one never judges his own evil propensities, he will never recognize his need of the salvation of God: the end of such a man is the torment of hell. The worm dying not speaks of the interminable writings of his accusing conscience, a significant factor in the torment that never ceases. The fire is the holiness of God, who because of His very nature must judge sin. The same fire that in some cases brings warmth and blessing will in this case bring heat and torment.

We will now briefly examine some of the most important passages of Scripture bearing on the eternal condition of the ungodly. Turn first to Mark 9:47-48: "If thine eye offends thee, pluck it out; it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire (Gehenna); where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched." One need have no contention with any who claim that this is figurative language; what I desire to impress upon you all is that the conditions described are abiding. The undying worm and the unquenchable fire mean nothing if those upon whom they are inflicted ever pass from under their terrible power. Turn next to Rev. 14:10-ll. Concerning the worshippers of the Beast, we read: "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of His anger; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever; and they have no rest day and night" (R.V.).

Such language is too plain to require much comment. "No rest" suggests eternal consciousness, and reminds one of our Lord's expressive words, many times repeated, "Weeping and gnashing of teeth." Lest any have a difficulty as to the precise force of the words "for ever and ever," I would point out that they occur twenty times in the New Testament: sixteen times they are applied to God, His being, reign, and worship: once they are used concerning the reign of the saints: and three times concerning the punishment of the lost. What the words mean in one passage they must of necessity mean in every other passage in which they occur; thus the very being of God, the blessedness of believers, and the torment of unbelievers, all continue, or come to an end together. Some will perhaps say, "Then immortality is only a curse to many of our race." But is this a reasonable objection against immortality itself? Riches are a curse to some men; education to others; but who would be so foolish as to declaim against these things because some men know not how to use them aright.

What humiliation for those who thought they could brazen their way through every obstacle into heaven! These Jewish leaders boasted in their natural fathers -- Abraham, Isaac and Jacob -- and in the prophets of Israel, but they would find they had no spiritual relationship with them at all. "Weeping and gnashing of teeth" would be theirs, while their fathers and the prophets would have the pure joys of the kingdom of God, from which they themselves would be thrust out. For the kingdom will be fully purified from the admixture of which we read in verses 19-21. They will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt.13:41- 42). The weeping is only in self-pity, not in repentance. Wailing is the attitude of complaining, for faith is absent. Gnashing of teeth is a spirit of rebellion, not corrected even by the solemn judgment of God.

The Valley of Hinnom, the refuse dump outside Jerusalem, where fires always burned and maggots continually did their work, was known as Gehenna; and this word on the Lord's lips became a terribly apt figure of the abode of the lost. Verily hell will be the great refuse heap of eternity, where all that is incorrigibly evil will be segregated from the good, and lie for ever under the judgment of God. This terrible fact reaches us from the lips of Him who loved sinful men and wept over them.

133 In Luke 12 it is used as a known thing, a place, the effect of divine judgment. James 3:6 is only of importance as shewing that it is connected with pure unmitigated evil; where nothing else is. Now a person who reads all this cannot doubt that that which the word "hell" is used for in English is fully contemplated. The desirableness of not confounding it with Hades, the vaguest possible word for the unseen world, no reflecting mind would deny. It is a place into which God's judgment casts the unrepentant and rebellious wicked, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. That human figures of fire and worms are used may be; but the force of it is plain enough — it is the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels, where God casts in judgment those that are righteously rejected, where there is no remission, when God says gegone, It is done; and without are whoremongers, and all who love and make a lie. Hades is not Gehenna, and Gehenna in the New Testament is never used as the Valley of Hinnom. The proper English word is "hell"; that is, the place where pure evil, if such a phrase may be used, meets its final doom, after restoring means (even to God's giving His own Son, and beseeching men to be reconciled) are exhausted, and where the effect of judgment remains unquenched.

Whatever figurative meaning there may be in the use of any of the above words, it is plain and certain from scripture that there is a place of everlasting punishment. It is awfully described as the LAKE OF FIRE, 'the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.' Rev. 19:20; Rev. 20:10, 15; Rev. 21:8. It was prepared for the devil and his angels, but into it the wicked also will be cast. Matt. 13:40, 42; Matt. 25:41; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6, etc. See ETERNAL.

Each of those condemned and sentenced unsaved is thrown into the Lake of Fire: they surely wouldn't go voluntarily (Rev. 20:14-15). Can you imagine a more terrible picture of hell than being in and surrounded by fire, feeling the intense pain that fire inflicts, and yet not being consumed? How thankful we who are saved should be that we never will come under the wrath of a holy God! How important it is to present God's salvation to those around us, that we can never be accused by them of not warning them of the terrible realities ahead for them if they continue in their sins and without the Savior.

The Lake of Fire is called the Second Death (Rev. 20:14; 21:8). The first death is separation of the body from the soul and spirit which never die (James 2:26). The second death is the eternal separation of the entire person from God (2 Thess. 1:8-10) in hell (Gk: Gehenna) (Matt. 5:21-30; Mark 9:43-49) where the fire of judgment is not quenched and the worm of conscience does not die. There are no friends there: each person is isolated as wandering stars (comets) in the blackness of darkness forever (Jude 13), under God's eternal wrath (John 3:36; Rev. 20:10). It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:31).

There are several names used for this: “the furnace of fire” (Matt. 13:42, 50; cf.Rev.9:2), “everlasting fire” (Matt 18:8), “hell, … the fire unquenchable” (Mark 9:43). The everlasting fire of hell (Gehenna), the lake of fire, is prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41; cf. Rev.20:10). The fact that it will not only be angels but also people who will be cast into this unquenchable fire — eternally in the company of the fallen prince of angels — will be because, during their life here on earth, they didn't turn away from the prince and god of this age who blinded their minds (2 Cor.4:4).

This first picture describes how the godless will be tortured by the everlasting fire of judgment. Fire is a symbol of the wrath of God, who is called “a consuming fire” and the “everlasting burnings” (Deut. 4:24; Deut. 9:3; Isa. 33:14; Heb. 12:29). It is questionable, though, whether we should be thinking here of the personal attribute of God, rather than its outward expression that will strike the godless through all eternity. Indeed, are we able to imagine the “lake of fire”? This is also called “the lake of fire and brimstone”, which perhaps suggests that this picture is partially derived from the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, when God rained down brimstone and fire out of the heavens (Gen. 19:24 ff.; cf. also the word “furnace” in verse 28).

Although it is right to say that Scripture uses figurative language to describe the reality of heaven and hell, this does not in any way alter the fact that we are dealing with the literal existence of real places and things. These pictures are borrowed from our earthly reality in order to give us some understanding of another, supernatural, reality. For example, the name Gehenna (hell) was derived from the valley of the son of Hinnom, (In Hebrew “Ge-Hinnom”), near Jerusalem, where children were burned as sacrifices to Molech and where, after Josiah's reforms, all sorts of rubbish was collected and burned (2 Kings 23:10; 2 Chr. 28:3; 2 Chr. 33:6; Jer. 32:35).

γέεννα, Gehenna, the Greek equivalent for two Hebrew words, signifying 'valley of Hinnom.' It was the place near Jerusalem where the Jews made their children pass through fire to heathen gods, and which was afterwards defiled. 2 Kings 23:10. A continual fire made it a fit emblem of the place of eternal punishment. Matt. 5:22, 29, 30; Matt. 10:28; Matt. 18:9; Matt. 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5; James 3:6. The above-named place of defilement and fire is also called in the O.T. TOPHET or TOPHETH. 2 Kings 23:10; Isa. 30:33; Jer. 19:13.