Hell ain’t a bad place to be . . .
So sang screamed AC/DC. Of course, what they were describing was not the hell of the Bible. Perhaps, in their perverted view of life, what they were describing was not so bad. But we know better, don’t we? We know that hell is a bad place to be — or at least, we should. Yet, to hear some Christians talk — including some who will incur a stricter judgment — hell might not be so bad.
The Bible describes hell in pretty vivid terms. Yet it is becoming more popular to describe hell as nothing more than separation from God. Imagine the following conversation:
Father: Son, I’m warning you that if you continue in the way you are going, there will be serious consequences. One thing will lead to another, and you may eventually end up in prison.Son: What do you mean, “prison”? What’s “prison”?
Father: Prison is a terrible place. You don’t want to go there. “Prison” means you’ll be separated from me. Is that not a terrifying thought? Oh, my son . . . !
Ridiculous, isn’t it? No one would ever describe a prison sentence in such trivial terms. And who would think they were doing anyone any favors by whitewashing the truth about it? That anyone would do that is inconceivable and incomprehensible. Yet that is exactly what many are doing with hell.
Sometimes people talk about this as if it is just the passive, quiet absence of God. But it’s more than that. It is God’s active judgment against sin, and the Bible says it will be terrifying. Look at how the book of Revelation describes what the end will be like on the day of right and good judgment. The seven angels will “pour out on the earth . . . the wrath of God,” and “all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him” (Rev. 16:1; 1:7). They will call out to the mountains and the rocks, “fall on us and hide us from face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Rev. 6:16-17). They will see Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, and they will cower, for “he will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty” (Rev. 19:15).
The Bible teaches that the final destiny for unrepentant, unbelieving sinners is a place of eternal, conscious torment called “hell”. Revelation describes it as “a lake of fire and sulfur,” and Jesus says it is a place of “unquenchable fire,” (Rev. 20:10; Mark 9:43).
Given how the Bible talks about hell and warns us against it, I do not understand the impulse some Christians seem to have to explain it in a way that makes it sound more tolerable. When Revelation speaks of Jesus treading the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty, when Jesus himself warns of the “unquenchable fire . . . where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:43, 48), my incredulous question is, Why would any Christian have an interest in making it sound less horrific? Why on earth would we comfort sinners with the thought that maybe hell will not be so bad after all?—Greg Gilbert, What is the Gospel (Crossway, 2010), 56–57.
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#1 || 10·07·20··07:33 || Shamgar
As someone who has used a similar description in the past, I would say I use it because I think it presents a far more horrifying picture than those other things. I would rather live in the place described above in such powerful terms if God is there, than live in the most peaceful and beautiful lands where He is not.
That's not to say we should abandon the biblical language about the more easily grasped miseries of hell. However, the wider swath of evangelicalism has historically done the opposite. It has focused exclusively on the physical misery of hell without accentuating the real horror of it - God's absence.
As a result, you end up with a lot of people who want to /escape/ hell but have no particular desire to be in heaven. Or want heaven, but what they want from it isn't the point. The joys of heaven are no joys for them, because they don't want God - they just don't want misery.
I suspect that at least some of what you're referring to is probably an overreaction to that. A pendulum swing in the other direction. (At least in some quarters. I'm sure in others it's a far less noble attempt to capitalize on this thinking to avoid discussing such unpleasant topics as sin and judgement.)
#2 || 10·07·20··10:42 || David
On the contrary, prisoners in hell will only wish for the absence of God. They are in the presence of God, who is omnipresent, unshielded from the fullness of his wrath.
#3 || 10·07·20··18:12 || Shamgar
There is a difference between being before the face of God and under his wrath, and being "in His presence" in the sense that I mean it above.
I suppose I could be more precise in my terms, but I think the meaning is mostly clear. Think of your worst, darkest night, where you feel most separated from God, when your prayers don't seem to even bother to reach the ceiling before spilling out on the floor and it doesn't even come close.
The long dark night of the soul is a theme park compared to the misery of separation from God in the torments of Hell.
#4 || 10·07·20··18:46 || David
As far as I can see, that’s just speculation. Unless you can provide some biblical text describing the longing of the damned for God, I don’t see it. Consider the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16). The rich man cries out to Abraham and complains of only one thing: “I am in agony in this flame.” Not one word of longing for God.
The damned didn’t love God and desire his presence in life, and they won’t desire him in death, either. As they wanted to be far from him in life, that desire will only be magnified when they are finally in his awful presence for eternity.
Only those who are born of the Spirit desire God.
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