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What about Hell?

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 What the Bible Says About Hell

Introduction.  Hell is probably the most sobering and least popular subjects in the whole Bible, and yet the Bible speaks of it with clarity and urgency.  Our Lord Himself described Hell more often than any other Biblical figure.  Hell is not some medieval invention or scare tactic invented by the Baptists.  The doctrine of Hell flows directly from God’s holy character:  His perfect justice demands punishment for sin, while His perfect love provides a way of escape through Christ.  This study will examine what Scripture actually teaches.  We’ll let the Bible speak for itself.  The goal is not to frighten you but to awaken awe at God’s righteousness and gratitude for His mercy.

Descriptions of Hell.

Scripture paints Hell with very vivid, consistent imagery that underscores its absolute terror and finality.  Here are four key passages that give us a multifaceted portrait.

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”  (Matthew 25:41 | TNIV)

This is the king’s solemn verdict at the final judgment.  Hell is not a divine afterthought or a human construct – it is an “eternal fire” deliberately prepared.  The word “eternal” is “aionios” and is used here in the same context as “eternal life” a few verses on in verse 46, establishing “unending duration.”  The fire is not purifying but punitive, reserved first for Satan and his demons but shared by unrepentant humanity.  This verse demolished any notion of Hell as temporary or remedial; it is the just sentence for those who reject the King.

Matthew 8:12 adds another layer:

But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  (Matthew 8:12 | TNIV)

In context, even those who outwardly belonged to God’s people – Israelites who expected a place at the feast – can be cast out.  Hell is “darkness,” the opposite of God’s presence.

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  (1 John 1:5 | TNIV)

The “weeping and gnashing of teeth” is a way to express intense sorrow mixed with unbearable regret.  The phrase is used several other times in Matthew’s Gospel and it always describes the reaction of those condemned.  It is conscious, emotional, and physical anguish.

2 Thessalonians 1:9 goes even further:

They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might…  (2 Thessalonians 1:9 | TNIV)

“Everlasting destruction” doesn’t mean annihilation but ruinous separation that lasts forever.  It comes from a Greek phrase that has the idea of “irreversible loss.”  I guess the worst aspect of Hell is not the fire or the darkness but exclusion from the Lord’s presence, who is the very Source of all joy, light, and life.  To be “shut out” from the glory that sustains the universe is the ultimate desolation.

Finally, Revelation 10:20 describes the fate of the beast and the false prophet:

But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.  (Revelation 19:20 | TNIV)

This “lake of fire,” which is also called “the second death,” is the Bible’s climactic image of Hell.  The “burning sulfur” evokes the destruction of Sodom in Genesis 19 but on an eternal scale.  It’s not symbolic poetry alone; the context of final judgment show real, conscious punishment for those who deceive the nations and oppose Christ.  Together these verses portray Hell as eternal fire, outer darkness, relational banishment, and a lake of sulfur – real, unending, and just.

The reason for Hell’s existence.

Why does Hell exist?  The Bible makes it clear that sin against an infinitely holy God demands infinite justice.

We already looked at Matthew 25:41 that told us the eternal fire was “prepared for the devil and his angels.”  Hell’s original purpose was the punishment of rebellious spiritual beings.  Mankind joins them willingly by freely choosing the same path of defiance.  Revelation 21:8 lists those consigned to the fiery lake:

But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.  (Revelation 21:8 | TNIV)

These are not arbitrary categories of sin but lifestyles of persistent rebellion and unbelief.  The “cowardly” are those who shrink back from following Christ; the unbelieving reject the Gospel; the rest practice sins that flow from idolatry itself.  Hell exists because God’s holiness can’t co-exist with unrepented evil.

Romans 2:8 and 9 supplies the principle:

But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. [9] There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;  (Romans 2:8, 9 | TNIV)

God’s wrath isn’t happenstance, undirected, or a form of capricious rage. It is the settled, holy response of the righteous Judge to those who “suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18).  Every human being knows enough about God through the observation of nature and conscience to be without excuse.  Rejection of the truth brings “trouble and distress” – the very definition of Hell.

We learn from 2 Peter 2:4 that Hell is already in business:

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment…  (2 Peter 2:4 | TNIV)

Here, Hell translates “Tartarus,” a place of confinement, like a prison.  God has already imprisoned some rebellious angels; human judgment follows the same pattern.  Finally, Matthew 10:15 warns of comparative severity:

Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.  (Matthew 10:15 | TNIV)

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was temporal but Hell is eternal.  Greater revelation brings greater accountability.

“The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. [48] But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”  (Luke 12:47, 48 | TNIV)

Hell exists because justice requires it.  A holy God cannot overlook sin without ceasing to be holy.  Yet the very existence of Hell magnifies the glory of the Cross:  Jesus endured Hell’s equivalent so that we would never have to.

The punishment of Hell.

The Bible never sugar-coats the nature of Hell’s punishment – it is conscious, bodily, and eternal.

And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.  (Revelation 20:10 | TNIV)

That phrase, “tormented day and night forever and ever,” uses the strongest possible language for unending conscious suffering.  The same Greek construction describes the eternal worship of God in Revelation 4:8 and 7:15.  If Heaven’s joy is conscious and unending, so is Hell’s torment.

Matthew 5:29 and 30 applies all of this personally:

If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. [30] And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.  (Matthew 5:29, 30 | TNIV)

Here, Jesus uses the word “Gehenna,” which is the “Valley of Hinnom,” a huge garbage dump outside of Jerusalem where the fires burned 24/7.  This was our Lord’s picture of final judgment.  The hyperbole is deliberate and obvious: No earthly loss compares to eternal ruin.  Sin is so serious that radical obedience is wiser than any compromise.

The longest description comes in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:22 – 31).  The rich man dies and finds himself “in Hades where he was in torment.”  He sees Abraham and Lazrus “far away” and begs for a drop of water because he was “in agony in the fire.”  Abraham replies that there is a great, impassable chasm between the two of them.  The man then begs for his brothers and sisters to be warned, only to learn that Scripture is sufficient.

This parable teaches us a number of things, like conscious torment, memory, regret, unquenchable thirst, irreversible separation, and the futility of last-minute pleas.  Though a parable, its details definitely align with the rest of Scripture and cannot be dismissed as a mere metaphor.

The condition of people in Hell.

Those in Hell will not be annihilated or unconscious.  They will exist in a state of complete consciousness and unending distress.

In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man is “in torment” and Abraham gives him a reminder:

“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.”  (Luke 16:25 | TNIV)

Memory lives on and the damned will recall their choices with perfect clarity.  Again, in Luke 16, the agony the rich man experiences is physical (fire, thirst) and emotional (isolation).  There will be no relief.  Ever.

Psalm 139:8 adds an interesting little fact:

If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.  (Psalm 139:8 | TNIV)

Here “depths” refers to Sheol, reminding us that God is omnipresent, even in Hell.  His presence there is not one of comfort but of holy judgment.  The same God who is a consuming fire upholds the very existence of the damned while executing judgment.  They cannot escape His gaze or His wrath.  This truth should humble us.  No one slips into Hell by accident or unnoticed.  God knows.

Major words for Hell in the Bible.

The Bible uses three primary terms – Sheol, Hades, and Gehenna.

Sheol is used 65 times throughout the Old Testament.  In the NIV, it’s usually translated “grave” or “pit” or “realm of the dead.”  It is the general abode of the dead – both the righteous and wicked.  Sheol is dark, silent, and shadowy, but not always a place of active torment.  It functions as the Old Testament’s way of describing the intermediate state before the final judgment.

Hades is the New Testament equivalent of Sheol.  Like Sheol, it is simply the realm of the dead (Acts 2:27).  In Like 16 it clearly includes a place of torment for the wicked while the righteous are “at Abraham’s side.”  Revelation 1:18 and 20:13, 14 show that Hades is temporary; at the final judgment it gives up its dead and itself is cast into the lake of fire.  Thus, Sheol/Hades is at present a holding place.  The lake of fire is the final destination.

Gehenna is used a dozen times, all by Jesus, and it’s the most specific and terrifying.  It comes from the Valley of Hinnom (Ge-Hinnom) south of Jerusalem – once a site of child sacrifice to Molech and later a burning garbage dump. Jesus used Gehenna as a symblod of divine judgment – a place of unquenchable fire where “the worm does not die” (Mark 9:48).  It’s the New Testament’s main term for the final, fiery punishment after resurrection and judgment.

These words are not interchangeable synonyms. Sheol and Hades describe the temporary realm of the dead, but Gehenna and the lake of fire describe the eternal, conscious punishment that follows the final judgment.  The Bible’s consistent revelation is clear – Hell is real, deserved by all apart from Christ, and avoidable only through the Cross of Christ.

Conclusion.  What the Bible says about Hell should drive sinners to the Gospel.  Jesus endured the darkness, the fire, and the separation so that “whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  Hell magnifies the love of God:  He gave His Son to rescue us from it!  The God who prepared Hell also prepared Heaven for all who trust in Christ.