What Does The Bible Say About Hell?
Does God Torture People Forever?
Many false myths portray God as torturing people forever in a fiery place called hell. But the bible tells us that people who ultimately reject their own creator will be destroyed forever, so they will not be suffering for endless amounts of time. Jesus said people’s souls and bodies are destroyed in hell:
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Matthew 10:28
Something which has been destroyed no longer performs the functions it was created for. For example, a dinner bowl that has been destroyed is no longer able to serve as a container for food because it’s been totally shattered. Similarly, if a person’s body and soul is destroyed, the functions of seeing, hearing, feeling and thinking no longer take place.
Jesus also spoke of the opposite of everlasting life as perishing, or dying:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
The lost will be cast into the “lake of fire” which is called the “second death”:
14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Revelation 20
Because they are cast into the lake of fire, the lost are described as being cut off, consuming away into smoke, and not being found anymore:
8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.
9 For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.
10 For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.
11 But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
…
20 But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.
Psalm 37
The idea of the lost being gone after being burnt to ashes in the lake of fire also matches with Revelation which describes pain as something that has passed away and no longer exists:
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Revelation 21:4
The purpose of God’s final judgement is to end sin forever, and that is why the lost are finally destroyed. If they were preserved in a painful place called hell, sin would not be ended but would rather continue as the lost would endlessly utter curses to their creator.
To study the topic of hell, I highly recommend reading this article “Hell-Fire: A Twisted Truth Untangled” by Joe Crews as well as “The Rich Man and Lazarus” by Dennis Crews.
Another recommended resource for studying the topic of hell is the site Hell Truth at http://helltruth.com/
David Asscherick’s Beautiful Believable Basic 7: Hell shown below is an excellent study on this topic:
Stephen Bohr’s The Rich Man And Lazarus is another excellent study on this topic:
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