Hell and the Eternal Lake of Fire are real but separate places as we will discuss further on in this lesson.
Even though many unbelievers, and even some Christians, doubt that Hell exists... they are misguided, misinformed, and are clueless about eternity! -- Jesus Christ Himself believed in the existence of Hell, and some Bible scholars claim that He even referred to Hell more frequently in His Ministry than Heaven.
Jesus Christโs descriptions of Hell are frightening, and they should be considered as absolute truth because Jesus Christ is God and the Scriptures tell us that God can not lie. Therefore, the descriptions of Hell given by Jesus to us in the Holy Scriptures are completely accurate.
In Luke 16, Jesus tells His disciples about a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus. โ The beggar being named Lazarus is extremely important because it reveals to us that Jesus is NOT telling a โparableโ . . . a parable being a fictitious story that illustrates a moral or religious principle. Jesus NEVER used โreal namesโ in His parables, so when Jesus tells us that there was a beggar โnamed Lazarusโ, Jesus is speaking of a real person named Lazarus that is still living in Heaven today.
Let us now look at what Jesus tells us about the rich man and the beggar named Lazarus. โ In Luke 16:19-31 we readโฆ
There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets [the Holy Scriptures];let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets [the Holy Scriptures], neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead [Jesus Christ].
Everyone lives foreverโฆthe only question is โWhere?โ will a person live forever! --The righteous, those whose sin has been exchanged at the Cross for the righteousness of Christ will experience eternal life in Heaven. โ In 2 Corinthians 5:21, we readโฆ
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
The wicked, howeverโฆ are forever subject to the fury and the wrath of God in Hell, where they will acknowledge the perfect justiceof God. --Those who are in Hell will know that their punishment is just and that they alone are to blame. -- So, the truth is that God has not sent anyone to Hell, they have sent themselvesโฆthey have earned their way to Hell by how they lived their life, and by not accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. โ How horrible for these poor souls to recognize their life failures after they are already in Hell.
Hell is a terrible, terrible place! โฆThe most horrible experience that you can think of that has ever happened on this earth can not compare to the horrors of Hell. Even the Jewish Holocaust during World War II can not compare to Hell because during the Holocaust the Jewish people reached out to each other until it came their time to die. In Hell there is no reaching out to each other, there is no comfort of any kind, and there are only endless degrees of torment, suffering, and pain as seen in Luke 16:24-25; 28 โฆ
And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented . . . . For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
During the Holocaust and during all of the other wars that our nation has been through, the prisoners were given water to quench their thirst and keep them alive. In Hellthere is no water to quench the thirst, and the desire to have oneโs thirst quenched goes on and on, forever and forever.The souls that are in Hell will NEVER have their thirst quenched (Luke 16:24)
In Mark 9:42-44, Jesus saidโฆ
And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell,into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
When someone gets severely burned with fire here on the earth they are taken to a hospital and quickly administered pain killing drugs. โThere are no pain killing drugs in Hell. โ The burning pain and torment in Hell is endless, it will continue forever and ever, and ever. โ Why?โ Because Hell burns with a non-consuming and unquenchable fire (Mark 9:44).
What did Jesus mean in Mark 9:44 when He saidโฆโWhere their worm dieth not.โ? -- The original Greek word that Jesus uses for โwormโ means "grub" or "maggot."โJesus is referring to a local method of garbage disposal used by the Jewish people to emphasize the permanent consequences for unrepented sins.
There was a place outside the city of Jerusalem in the valley of Hinnon where there was a garbage disposal that burned with what was called "Gehenna fireโ. Trash, refuse, animal carcasses, and even the dead bodies of despised criminals were thrown there to be destroyed by the fires that burned perpetually on the valley floor. If some animal or vegetable matter fell on one of the ledges below the rim, escaping the fire, it would instead be devoured by maggots. Jesus' point is that whatever was thrown into the valley garbage disposal never came out again; it was totally consumed, either by fire or by worms or maggots.
In other words, just as nothing and no one exterminated the maggots or extinguished the flames in the valley of Gehenna, so there will be no escape from the certain fate that God has decreed for all unrepentant sinnersโdeath in the "lake of fire".
Jesus does not mean that there are literal worms in Hell or that there are worms that live forever; rather, Jesus is teaching the fact that there is unending suffering in Hellโthe โwormโ never stops causing torment.
In Mark 9:48 we readโฆ
Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
In Isaiah 66:24 we readโฆ
And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
Please notice that the worm is personalโฆeach has a worm.. -- Both Isaiah 66:24 and Mark 9:48 use the word โtheirโ to identify the wormโs owner. -- Some Bible scholars believe the โwormโ refers to a manโs โconscienceโ. -- Those in Hell, being completely cut off from God, exist with a nagging, guilty conscience that, like a persistent worm, gnaws away at its victim with a remorse that can never be taken away.In Revelation 20:14-15 we readโฆ
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
The whole point is that, when a person does not repent of sin, the results are absolute and permanentโeternal oblivion in an everlasting lake of fire.
There are even more horrible things for us to consider about Hell. โ
(1) There is NO REST for the person condemned to Hell. โ
In Revelation 14:11, we readโฆ
And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no restday nor night.
(2) Hell is a bottomless pit โฆ In Revelation 20:2-3 we readโฆ
And he [a might angel] laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit โฆ
Think about the above statement! โฆThe person in Hell will undergo the sensation of falling, and falling, and falling because Hell is described as a bottomless pit! โ Haveyou ever had a dream about falling, and falling, and falling and then you wake up and find you are ok? โ But Hell is no dream and the lost person wonโt wake up and find that they are ok. There will be nothing for them to grip onto in Hell! ..They will continue to have that sensation of falling, and falling, and falling for all of eternity.
(3) Hell is a dark place โฆIn 2 Peter 2:17we readโฆ
These [false prophets] are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.
Hell is a dark place, and there is no place in Hell to party with friends that a person has partied with while living on earth. โ Hell is a place of complete darkness and in that darkness there is screaming, yelling, wailing, and the gnashing (grinding) of teeth together because of the torment that is being experienced by its occupants.Jesus Himself indicates that punishment of those in Hell will be just as everlasting as life in heaven. In Matthew 25:46, we read...
And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.โ
Can you imagine what it would be like for one of your family members, or friends to undergo eternal punishment in a lake of fire? โ Think about it! โ Think about what you can do to encourage them to repent and believe the Gospel of Christ.
Before discussing more about โHellโ and the โEternal Lake of Fireโ, I want to speak for a moment about Physical Death and what happens AFTER the โphysical deathโ of a person.
The truth is that we humans are โtriune beingsโ meaning that we have โthree partsโ to our personโฆ body, soul, and spirit. โNow when physical death occurs, the triune parts of our being are separated as follows:
(1) The โBODYโ gets put into a โgraveโ, or remains in whatever other place it was placed after death, for instance in the sea, or ashes of the body if scattered, etc.
(2) The โRIGHTEOUS SOUL AND SPIRITโ are carried away by angels to Heaven (according to Luke 16:22) where it will remain with Jesus until the earthly body is resurrected.At the โFirst Resurrectionโ (also called the โRapture of the Churchโ, or โCatching up of Christโs Bride the Churchโ) the earthly body of a person who is "in Christ" [a true Christian] will have their dead body changed into a glorified body, and then the glorified body will be reunited with the soul and spirit. -- The righteous person is now prepared to live on the new eternal heaven and earth that Jesus is going to create after the Millennium and White Throne Judgment of unbelievers.We know that our โspiritโ goes with our โsoulโ to Heaven because of what we read in Ecclesiastes 12:7โฆ
Then shall the dust [body] return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
(3) The โWICKED SOUL AND SPIRITโ of all unbelievers will be taken to โHellโ(Hades โ Sheol) where it will undergo torment UNTIL the โThird Resurrectionโ and โWhite Throne Judgmentโ occur AFTER the Millennium (after the 1000 year reign of Jesus Christ from Jerusalem following the Seven Year Tribulation Period.)I have already discussed in the first section of this lesson, how an unbelieverโs โsoul and spirit' are punished in Hell in the true story that Jesus told to His disciples and the Pharisees about the rich man and the beggar named Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31.
Please note that ONLY THE SOUL AND SPIRIT aretormented in Hell and NOT THE BODY of theunbeliever. -- This fact is very important when it comes time in this lesson for us to compare the punishments that the unbeliever will undergo in Hell compared to what they will undergo in the โLake of Fireโ. -- Matthew 25:41 indicates that Satan and his angels will suffer torment in the flames of Hell. This means that spirits can feel pain in hell, but they do not have our physical bodies. That is, they do not need to have flesh and blood bodies to feel pain in Hell.
After Christโs judgment of the whole person(body, soul, and spirit)of the unbeliever, the entire unbeliever (body, soul, and spirit) will then be cast into the โLake of Fireโ where the unbeliever will suffer torment and punishment for all eternity.
It is important to know that the punishment given to these unbelievers by Christ at the White Throne Judgment will be โaccording to their evil worksโ and therefore there will be different โdegrees of punishmentโ given out by Christ to each individual unbeliever. But regardless of the โdegree of punishmentโthat the unbeliever receives from Christ, the length of that punishment will be for all of eternity.
PARADISE ...
In Luke 16:19-31, Jesus was clearly teaching that death is not the end of everything for the righteous or the wicked. And according to Luke 16:22-23, we learn that the upper region of โSheol (Hebrew Old Testament) โ Hades (Greek New Testament โ Hell (English) is where the souls of the righteous were assembled together before Jesus Christ's death on the Cross, and that the upper region of โSheol-Hades-Hellโ was called โAbrahamโs Bosom, or Paradiseโ . . .Luke 16:22 -
And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
Luke 16:23 -
And in hell [Hades] he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
Luke 16:26 -
And beside all this, between us and you [upper hell and lower hell] there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
Since Abrahamโs Bosom, or Paradise had not yet been taken to Heaven before Jesus Christโs death when He said to the thief on the Cross in Luke 23:43 โฆ
Verily [truly]I say unto thee,To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
Jesus moved โAbrahamโs Bosomโ, or โParadiseโ to Heaven after His death and burial. We see this event described in Ephesians 4:9-10 โฆ
(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he alsodescended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)
Paradise is now in Heaven itself and no longer in the upper region of Hades. -- How do we know that Paradise is now in Heaven? โ Because the following verses tell us that Paradise is now in HeavenโฆIn 2 Corinthians 12:4, Apostle Paul wroteโฆ
How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
In Revelation 2:7, Apostle John wroteโฆ
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
I want to share with you now a brief summary of what happens to the different parts of a person after they dieโฆ(1) Death (the Grave, or other resting place on earth, or in the sea) โฆ This is where the dead bodies of Old Testament saints, Christians, unbeliever, or martyred saints from Tribulation remain until Jesus Christ resurrects them from their location.(2) Heaven (former Abrahamโs Bosom, Paradise) โฆ This the temporary abode of the souls of the righteous until such time as Jesus raises up their earthly bodies and gives them glorified bodies. The final abode will be the new Heaven and Earth that Jesus will create after the Great White Throne Judgment of all the wicked unbelievers who lived on the earth since the Creation.(3) Hell โฆ This is the temporary abode of all wicked souls after death and they will undergo torment until such time as their earthly bodies are raised up at the Great White Throne Judgment. This judgment of all wicked unbelievers will occur right after the Millennium and just before the New Heaven and Earth are created by Christ.(4) Eternal Lake of Fireโฆ After the โearthly bodiesโof the wicked unbelievers are raised up for the Great White Throne Judgment by Jesus Christ, their โearthly bodiesโ will be joined together with their souls and spirits that are in Hell.After Jesus Christ judges the wicked unbelievers while in their bodies, souls, and spirits, their whole person (including eternal body) will then be cast into the โEternal Lake of Fireโ where they will receive varying degrees of punishment for all of eternity. โSo, the โLake of Fireโ differs from 'Hellโin that Hell only contains the โsouls and spiritsโ of wicked unbelievers โฆthe โLake of Fireโ will contain the โbodies, souls, and spiritsโ of wicked unbelievers after their โearthly bodiesโ are resurrected and joined together with their โsouls and spiritsโ at the Great White Throne Judgment.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
