Hell
Is it real? Will it last for ever? Who will go there? Will we get a second chance after we die? An explanation of the story Jesus told in Luke chapter 16 verses 19 to 31.
This article was first used for a talk at Wellsprings Chapel, Taunton, on 19th November 2000, by David Couchman. It may be reproduced in print or on web sites, subject to the copyright notice below.
Before you start this article, please read Luke chapter 16 verses 19 to 31 from the Bible. What follows is an explanation of this passage from the Bible, and it will not make much sense until you have read the passage.
I once heard someone say:
The recent Soul of Britain survey found that 52% of us believe in heaven, but only 28% believe in hell. In the USA, about 75% believe in heaven and 25% in hell. So it seems we would prefer to believe in heaven without hell. Of course, whether or not something is true does not depend on what we prefer.
Not only do we believe in heaven rather than hell, but most of us seem confident that we are going to heaven, rather than hell. In fact, people today do not often talk about, or think about, hell. If they do, there are two common reactions:
The first is to treat it as a joke. We have neighbors from hell, holidays from hell, and even - recently - weddings from hell.
But if one response is not to take hell seriously, the other common response is to be deeply offended by it. Recently when I was talking about hell, someone said to me:
Today, if we talk about hell, the people around us see the Christian God as primitive and barbaric, old fashioned and immoral. When they hear what the Bible teaches about hell - eternal punishment for anyone who does not know the Lord Jesus and come to faith and reconciliation with God through him - they say:
Increasingly, even followers of Christ start to think that the way God is described in the Bible is actually primitive, immoral and old fashioned.
In this article, we are going to try to understand what Jesus really taught about hell, and why, beginning with this story in Luke chapter 16.
What did Jesus mean by this story in Luke 16, verses 19-31?
From the beginning of chapter 16, Jesus has been warning his hearers against the dangers of being rich and of mis-using wealth. Among the people listening to him are some pharisees. They are the religious elite. Verse 14 tells us that they love money, and they are sneering at Jesus - because they know that his teaching is aimed at them. Now, in verse 19, he starts to tell this story about a rich man (perhaps a pharisee?) and a beggar. The rich man lived in dazzling splendor, dressed in royal finery. The beggar was literally on his doorstep.
It is important to understand that the rich man was not just rich. He was totally self-centered. He did not show any kindness to the beggar (verse 20-21).
They both die.
What do you believe will happen to you five minutes after you die? Quite clearly in this story, and all through the teaching of Jesus, when someone dies, their consciousness continues. In this story, death brings a great reversal of fortunes:
The beggar is carried to 'Abraham's side'. This is traditional language for heaven. The rich man goes to Hades, and is in torment (verse 23) and agony (verse 24).
Is Jesus just using 'picture language', or did he mean this for real? Well, we have to ask, if it is just a picture, what is it a picture of? If Jesus knew that people really just stop existing when they die, or that everyone - good or bad - goes to heaven, then what is the point of this story? If it is a picture, it must be a picture of reality. Otherwise, Jesus is a liar.
And the reality it pictures is one of continued, conscious existence, in two completely different destinies. Total happiness or total sorrow. The point of this story is that their destinies were fixed before they died, in this life.
People sometimes say that the Old Testament God was a God of wrath and judgment, but Jesus proclaimed a message of love. But this is not true: most of what we know about hell comes from the mouth of Jesus.
Jesus spoke more about judgment and hell than about anything else. More than half his parables were about these subjects. And he did not 'only talk about hell to religious people.' Yes, the Bible's message is Good News - but it is only Good News in the context of the bad news that comes first. It was not just something in stories or pictures - he meant us to take his warnings very seriously. So what does the Bible teach us about hell?
Two words
There are two Greek words that are sometimes translated 'hell' in our English versions of the Bible:
(1) Hades
This is the Greek word that is used to translate the Hebrew word 'Sheol'. This has a range of meanings, and that has sometimes caused confusion. The basic meaning is 'the grave' - the place where the dead go - the region of the departed spirits. It sometimes includes the idea of punishment, but not always. The word 'Hades' occurs ten times in the New Testament. It is used four times in the Gospels, always by the Lord Jesus himself:
- Matthew chapter 11 verse 23 (and the parallel in Luke chapter 10 verse 15)
- Matthew chapter 16 verse 18
- and the story we are looking at here, Luke chapter 16 verse 23.
(2) Gehenna
This comes from the name of a place: the valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem. Historically, this was the place where the Israelite kings Ahaz and Manassah had sacrificed their children to foreign gods, by burning them in the fire. It was an infamous place. The nearest equivalent today would be Auschwitz.
By Jesus' time, this valley had become the city's rubbish tip:
- It was a place of decay, where the maggots and worms never stopped feasting.
- It was a place of burning, where the fires never went out.
This is the place that came to be used as a symbol for the place of final judgment on those who do evil. The word gehenna occurs in the New Testament twelve times, eleven of which are in the mouth of the Lord Jesus, and eight of these are in Matthew's Gospel:
- Matthew chapter 5 verse 22
- Matthew chapter 5 verse 29
- Matthew chapter 5 verse 30
- Matthew chapter 10 verse 28
- Matthew chapter 18 verses 8 & 9
- Matthew chapter 23 verse 15
- Matthew chapter 23 verse 33
- Mark chapter 9 verses 43, 45, and 47
In the teaching of the New Testament, hell is a place of punishment, prepared for the devil and his angels, and for those who reject Jesus. And Jesus went to the cross to rescue us from hell.
Will it last for ever?
Many people today think that if you do not go to heaven, you will just be annihilated - wiped out as if you have never been. But this is not how Jesus describes it in this story - or anywhere else in his teaching.
- He talks about 'outer darkness' (Matthew chapter 8 verse 12, chapter 22 verse 13, and chapter 25 verse 30). This is a picture of rejection.
- He talks in the same passages about 'weeping and gnashing of teeth'. This is a picture of regrets.
- He talks about a worm that never dies, in Mark chapter 9 verse 48. This is a picture of decay that never comes to an end. This is a very clear allusion to the Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 66, verse 24.
- He talks about a fire that never goes out - Matthew chapter 18 verses 8-9, and chapter 25 verse 41. Surely if this means anything at all, it means unending pain. This is also an allusion to Isaiah chapter 66 verse 24.
Jesus' description of what happens after death to those who do not turn to God through faith in him is not annihilation but everlasting conscious suffering - rejection, regret, decay and pain. Either I accept that Jesus knew what he was talking about, and meant what he said, or I decide that I know better than he does, or I try to re-interpret what he said in some way that is more bearable.
According to Jesus, a million years from now, you will still be around. The question is, where will you be?
A place of justice
But surely it is unjust that people should face eternal suffering? No. Rather, Hell is a place of dreadful justice. Remember that in the story Jesus told, the rich man was not only rich but totally selfish. And Abraham and Lazarus could not help him because the reversal of fortunes is just and fair (verse 25).
To understand what is going on here, we need to think what heaven is about:
Lots of people seem to think that heaven will be just like earth with the bumps taken out. So you get people being interviewed on television about 'When I get to heaven' - describing what they most want it to be like. But the underlying message, the underlying idea, is that I can carry on being the same selfish person, but not have any suffering or problems - even though I am still the kind of person who inflicts suffering and problems on others.
But heaven is not just being about totally happy, while carrying on being the kind of person who can make others totally miserable. Heaven is centered on God - his majesty, his glory, his total goodness, his wisdom, his power. It is all about worshipping God and being like the Lord Jesus
We would all choose to be happy - of course we would - but we would choose to be happy on our own terms. As soon as you start talking about God being at the center of everything, and about living a life characterized by goodness -- well, it is not at all clear that everyone would choose to be holy, to live a life centered on God rather than on myself. That is a different thing altogether.
Now it happens that in the long run the only way to be happy is to be God-centered, because that is how he made us, and what he made us for. But of course, we do not believe that. And for some people, being truly God-centered will always be too high a price to pay for being happy - always, for all of eternity, too high a price.
But what is God to do if someone will not choose good over evil? What is he to do with those who will, to all eternity, insist on being the center of their own universe and doing what they want, regardless of the way it detracts from God's own glory, and regardless of the harm it does to others?
God cannot just make them change - He has created them as moral beings, with the ability to choose. He will have their willing love and worship or nothing. He will not - ever - turn us into robots who have to obey him. That would mean an end to human significance.
But equally, God cannot just allow them to carry on going their own way, making heaven as miserable for everyone else as they have made the Earth. That would mean no end to human injustice and wickedness. Heaven would not be heaven. God will not let the evil go on blackmailing the righteous in this way for all eternity. There will come a day when he will give them what they want: a place where they are the center, and evil is un-checked. This is hell. C. S. Lewis put it like this:
The theologian Jim Packer expressed the same point slightly differently when he said:
That is why hell is a place of justice. It is where we shall get what we deserve. We are very keen, these days, on getting our rights. In hell, we shall get our rights. We shall not like what we get.
We cannot avoid it
Here and now, the reality of God's presence is hidden from us by the physical world we live in. But moments after death, we shall be brought directly into God's presence - the God who is so great and majestic and glorious that the Bible says that even the heavens and the earth flee away from His presence.
Even for those who have been put right with God through trusting in Jesus, that experience will be terrifying - but it will also be like coming home. But what of those who persist in their rebellion against God? The light of his presence will beat down on them unremittingly. There will be nowhere to go; no place left to hide. The French atheist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, said:
But in a universe created by such a holy God, that is exactly what will happen to him, and to all of us - how could it be otherwise? Perhaps you can avoid a sense of God's presence in this life, but not in the life to come. As theologian Jonathan Edwards said, for both the righteous and the unrighteous, eternity will be spent...
You see, hell is not about God being cruel to innocent people. Ultimately hell is the result of the way the universe is - that we are selfish and sinful people living in a universe made by a holy, just and fair God. Hell is as much the expression of God's goodness as heaven is. It is the expression of God's justice for those who will not accept His mercy.
If we have a problem with this, it is because we do not take our own evil seriously enough. We convince ourselves that we are innocent, and that we do not deserve to be judged. But there are no innocent people in hell - only the evil go there, just as only the forgiven go to heaven. In the end, you cannot be a self-centered person and a good person at the same time.
Is there a second chance after death?
So will everyone be saved in the end? Will people have a 'second chance' after they die?
If someone will not turn to God now while He gives them the opportunity, why would they sincerely turn to God then? The only reason someone would change then would be because they did not like the results of their decision. That would not be a genuine turning to God; it would only be a turning away from the unpleasant results of rejecting him. So God puts us for a little while in this world where there is no obvious connection between being God-centered and being happy, so that we can make a genuine decision whether to turn to him.
In the story Jesus tells, Abraham and Lazarus cannot help the rich man because there is a great chasm fixed between them. What is the point Jesus is making here, if it is not to say that change is impossible?
This is the whole point of the story: your attitude to God is decided in this life and cannot be altered in the next. Once someone has died, their condition is fixed for ever.
How should we respond?
If heaven and hell are real, and if our destiny is fixed by what we do in this life, surely nothing else really matters, by comparison. So how should we respond to this story that Jesus told? Here are two suggestions
First: We should make sure we are right with God
If we are really in danger of hell, what can be more important than to get right with God now, while we have the opportunity?
The rich man's brothers were evildoers, as he was. They also needed to turn back to God, as he did. And they did not listen to Moses and the prophets - in our terms, they did not listen to the message of the Bible they had. And Jesus says that they would not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead (verse 31).
You sometimes hear people say, 'There's no urgency. I can turn to God whenever I want to.' But can you? It is a bit like the people who say 'I can quit smoking whenever I want to.' But they never actually want to. Although they say they can, they never actually find the willpower.
The reality is that the situation is urgent, and pressing, and no-one knows what will happen to them tomorrow. Think of the thousands of people who went to work in the World Trade Center on September 11th. They expected to have a normal day just like any other - and yet in a matter of seconds they were swept into eternity. You do not know where you will be this time tomorrow. Neither do I. The Bible says 'Today is the day of salvation.' (2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 2).It says 'Today you must listen to his voice. Do not harden your hearts against him' (Hebrews chapter 4 verse 7).
Second: What are we living for?
The Pharisees said they believed in Moses and the prophets (verse 31). In our terms, they believed the Bible. They said they believed in a future life and in future judgment, just as followers of Christ do today. But they did not live in line with that belief, but rather in the pursuit of wealth (verse 14) - of material prosperity and happiness here and now. They were religious - they went to church, and prayed, but when the chips were down their reputations, careers, homes, cars, televisions and DVD players mattered to them more. What about you and me? What are we living for?
If heaven and hell are real, what else matters? What are our priorities?
For more on this
important subject, we recommend John Blanchard's book 'Whatever Happened
to Hell?
Order
from the UK
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