For the person outside of Christ, nothing is more serious than the reality of hell. No one who refuses Christ will escape it. The unbelieving world often uses the word “hell” lightly. Christians, too, can easily pass over the term without contemplating its utter horror and being stirred in their hearts to evangelize those headed there.

Fundamental to an understanding of hell is the absolute holiness of God. Habakkuk writes, “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity” (1:13, KJV). Sin against absolute purity requires an absolute, that is, an infinite judgment. Infinite wrath requires infinite time, an eternity. As we will see, several texts state explicitly that hell is eternal. Numerous texts teach other sobering aspects of this weighty doctrine.

HELL IS FORETOLD

Long before Jesus spoke of hell, Old Testament writers foretold what will happen to unrepentant sinners. Daniel prophesied, “many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (12:2).¹ Isaiah closed his book with a reference to a continuing existence of dead rebels against God: “And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched … ” (66:24). 

In the New Testament Jesus Himself spoke of “Gehenna,” the place of fire and judgment that unbelievers will face. The fact that Jesus used this special term for hell 11 out of its 12 times teaches that the place is real, certain, and a necessary corollary to God’s holy character. Jesus warned the Pharisees, “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” (Matthew 23:33)

Jude prophecies about the coming judgment upon the ungodly by quoting an OT prophecy by Enoch: “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way” (vv. 14b–15). 

HELL IS FURIOUS

Typically, Scripture describes God’s judgment upon the wicked as a pouring out of wrath, but in Romans 2 (vv. 5, 8) the wrath upon them is heightened to include God’s fury. For “on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed … for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.” Fury refers to the long-continued expression of hatred of evil. John 3:36 refers to God’s wrath as already active, already “remaining” upon the one who will not believe and “obey the Son.”

HELL IS FORENSIC

People are sent to hell because they are unquestionably guilty. Brought into the court of God’s omniscience, the evidence about a person’s life proves the sentence is just. Jesus states the liability man has for every sin when He says, “whoever murders will be liable to judgment” and one guilty of insulting anger and using abusive speech “will be liable to the hell of fire” (Matthew 5:21–22). Jesus continues in the book of Matthew to specify various sins for which men will be accountable. Sins such as lust (5:28–29), maligning Jesus’ followers (10:26–28), religious hypocrisy and proselytizing others (23:13–15), and murderous hatred of God’s messengers (23:31–33) justly bring upon sinners a “sentencing to hell” (23:33). This list is a tiny fraction of the wickedness practiced by man. But God knows all. No appeal is possible. The evidence is exhaustive, incontrovertible, condemning.

HELL IS FIERY

If any one description characterizes hell it is fire. The effects of the fire on doomed sinners are weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Jesus portrays the scene at the end of the age when the wicked and the righteous are forever distinguished and separated:

“The Son of Man will send out his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all the causes of sin and those who do lawless deeds, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:41–43)!

Paradoxically, in hell’s fire there evidently will be no light. Other texts refer to this place of sorrow, remorse, grief, anger, wailing, frustration and pain as also one of darkness. Matthew describes it as “outer darkness” (8:12), and Jude 1:13 says that for these people “the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.” The New American Standard Bible translates “utter” as “black.”

HELL IS FULL

“Full” here means that hell has the full, unmitigated measure of torment (see Revelation 14:9–11).

• Full of DIVINE torment as unrepentant sinners drink God’s wrath—they receive the full effect of God’s anger on their full being.
• Full of PHYSICAL torment—fire and smoke include sulfur’s noxious effect.
• Full of VISIBLE torment—this occurs in the presence of angels and the Lamb, possibly even the entire universe.
• Full of CONTINUAL torment—there will be no rest or letup, suffering “forever and ever.”

HELL IS FELT

Perhaps the most realistic depiction of hell is found in the dialogue of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31). The passage stresses the physical, the felt aspects of the rich man’s misery. He had SIGHT in hell. A person will be able to see that he is in hell and not in heaven. He had SPEECH in hell (v. 24). A person will be able to speak, but it will give no relief. He had PAIN in hell. He was “in torment.” His senses were alert. He had THIRST in hell. He asked for water to cool his tongue and was denied. This teaches that mercy ends with the grave. He had sinned away his day of mercy and now it was too late.

Finally, he had MEMORY in hell (v. 25). This may be hell’s most distressing aspect. Let these words sink in: “Son, remember.” In hell a person will with great remorse and agony remember the opportunities to know God he had rejected. Reader, if you are yet unconverted, please “remember” this opportunity, repent and believe the gospel, and avoid the inevitable fate! 

HELL IS FOREVER

The Apostle Paul is clear about the eternality of the judgment on gospel rejecters: “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction” (2 Thessalonians 1:7b–9). Teaching irrefutably that the eternity of heaven and hell are the same, Matthew writes: “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (25:46).

HELL IS A FOUNDATIONAL AND MOTIVATIONAL DOCTRINE

Soberly contemplating the truth about hell is foundational to proper missionary motivation. William Carey and his coworkers understood this and charged each other yearly in their Serampore Form of Agreement:

In order to be prepared for our great and solemn work, it is absolutely necessary that we set an infinite value upon immortal souls; that we often endeavor to affect our minds with the dreadful loss sustained by an unconverted soul launched into eternity.