Does Hell Exist?

This has been an especially burning question since the recent publication of Rob Bell’s book Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.  Listen to how D.A. Carson answers this question:

Doubtless many think that hell, if it exists, is for really bad people, like the guards at Auschwitz, perhaps.  What this overlooks is that the guards at Auschwitz were just “ordinary” people from a sophisticated and highly educated culture.  A number of photographs have come to light showing these guards, including prominent leaders such as Rudolf Hoess and the infamous Josef Mengele (who performed cruel medical experiments on camp inmates) at Solahutte, a retreat center for SS personal located a mere 30 kilometers from Auschwitz.  These photographs disclose merry times—eating berries, mugging for the camera, lighting a Christmas tree.  One is thus introduced to the “banality of evil”: one of the most revolting elements of the evil was the sheer thoughtlessness of it all. 

Yet although this is an evil of a high order, from a biblical perspective the ugliest evil, the highest order of evil, is the erection of idols, the failure to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength.  We may console ourselves with self-deceptive comfort that our culture would never act like that of Nazi Germany, but a little self-knowledge enables us to imagine descending to similar levels, while reflection on the biblical themes shows that these levels are merely symptoms of a far deeper corruption that, in its idolatrous independence, has happily and mockingly ignored the God who is there and thereby attracted his wrath.  Indeed, the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). 

Yes, hell does exist—even though many try to deny this fact.  A.W. Tozer was right when he said “the vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions.”  Since the fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, the theme of judgment and curse runs throughout the Scriptures.  Jesus actually says more about hell than any other person in the Bible (Matthew 10:28). 

Hell is not a time to hang with your friends—there are no “friends” in hell.  Hell is also not separation from God; rather, hell is to be eternally tormented in the presence of the Holy angels and of the Lamb.  Imagine facing God in his wrath, without regard to his mercy—this is what hell is and why the torment is so great (Revelation 14:9, 11).  So, the testimony of God’s Word is that hell is eternity in the presence of the wrath and justice of God with weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:42; 2 Thessalonians 1:9; Revelation 19:11-16; 20:9-10). 

God is righteous, just, and holy.  We have all broken his law, and are deserving of his wrath and judgment for all eternity (Revelation 14:6-20).  The good news for God’s people is that Christ finished something on the cross; namely, he satisfied God’s justice and bore God’s wrath in our place (John 19:30).  On the cross, Christ didn’t just suffer suffocation and dehydration and blood loss.  While he hung on the tree on Golgotha, the sins of all his people were imputed to him and his righteousness is imputed to us (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

On the cross, Jesus was the ultimate obscenity.  He bore the curse of God’s law and became a horrific mass of depravity in the sight of the Father, suffering the wrath, judgment, and punishment of a holy God who is just and hates sin (Matthew 27:46; Galatians 3:13).  He was punished as a criminal under the justice of God for our crimes.  He drank that cup of the Father’s wrath for us so it wouldn’t come to our lips, and he was baptized into hell for us to be saved.  Carson writes: the measure of Jesus’ torment as the God-man is the measure of torment that we deserve and that he bore.  And if you see that and believe it, you will find it difficult to contemplate the cross for very long without tears.

Today is the day of salvation.  The Bible says that we are to flee from the coming wrath (Matthew 3:7) by trusting in Jesus, who saves us from the wrath to come (John 3:16-18, 36; 1 Thessalonians 1:10).  Carson says “granted that hell is real, terrifying, and eminently to be avoided, it would be unkind and uncharitable of me not to warn you, in exactly the same way that it would have been unkind and uncharitable of Jesus not to warn the people of his day.” 

If you are interested in talking more about the question of hell, you are invited to come and join us for our next Bible study, which takes place tomorrow night (Wednesday, September 14) from 6:30 to 8 PM.  We meet at 9257 Amsden Way in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.