We continue to look at the issue of hell. We have looked at some false views, word definitions and why people go to hell.
This time, I want to look at what hell is like. We must approach this humbly. We have a number of pictures and teachings, but to actually comprehend hell and what it is really like is no more possible for us on this side of eternity than it is to comprehend heaven. We looked at heaven for several weeks and realize there that though we get pieces of understanding, we still come away with knowing that we don’t know a great deal. I think that is also true of hell. So, we must approach this humbly.
A lot of the talk about hell comes from the lips of Jesus Himself, but I want to look first at one of the passages in the epistles. 2 Thessalonians 1:9, which says, “These,” speaking of the unbelievers, “will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.” This is one of the passages in the epistles that talk about hell. There is not a great number, but here is what we find.
Three things about what hell is like:
1. Seems to be a place of eternal destruction. Destruction here does not mean annihilation that we talked about a couple days ago, but eternal wrecking, more or less. The destruction, the destroying of all that matters. It is an eternal thing that is talked about here.
2. Eternal separation from the Lord. That is a terrifying thought here that for all of eternity one will not enjoy the presence of God. We know God is omnipresent, so He is everywhere, even in hell. David talks about that, I believe, in Psalm 139. His presence is everywhere, but the saving, loving, and glorious presence is not something that those in hell will ever experience. So, there will be that void of being in the presence and knowing the presence of God in that sense.
3. Idea of death. Death means separation, so we are separated from Him forever . . .
