Where exactly is "hell"? What is it like? Is there such a place as "hell" at all?  Most people have asked these questions at one time or another.  What they may not realize, however, is that the Bible gives us some very clear answers about these very real questions.
 
 

Did you know the word "hell" is used 13 times in the New Testament Bible?  Did you also know that the Lord Jesus Christ speaks of "hell" eleven times, more than any other person in the Bible? Let's begin by looking in Matthew 5:22.

“But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

Here our Lord speaks of HELL as a place of fire.

Then in Matthew 5:29-30;  18:8,9, and Mark 9:43-44, the Bible tells us what Jesus says about this place.

Matthew 5:29-30 “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. “If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.

Matthew 18:8-9 “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. “If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell.

Mark 9:43-44 “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

Here He calls it an eternal, unquenchable fire. Jesus is teaching us that it is better to suffer the temporary loss of someone or something as close as a body part, than to suffer forever in HELL and the lake of fire after you die! Jesus also warns us in Luke l2:5,

"But l will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who after He has killed has authority to cast into hell, yes, I tell you, fear Him! "

Again,  He warns in Matthew l0:2,

"And do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."

We are not to fear MAN who can only kill and destroy the flesh.  Instead, we are to fear God who can kill and destroy BOTH soul and body in HELL, a place of immediate punishment after physical death.

Jesus talked about two places where people will spend eternity, and He uses the word "eternal" to describe them,

 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;...,"And these will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life" (Matthew 25:41, 46).

When we die, we will all go on into eternity.  The question is not "if" there is an eternal existence,  the question is “where” that eternity will be spent - with God (eternal life), or in hell, then the lake of fire (eternal punishment).  Jesus said in Revelation 20:10,

"And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”  That means eternally, without end.

Our Lord also talks about a "lake of fire" in Revelation 19:2,

“And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who had worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive in the lake of fire which bums with brimstone.”

Let's go to Jude 1:7 and see what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah.

"Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example, in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire."

Notice what kind of punishment are they undergoing, and how long it lasts.  Also notice where they are. To escape the "punishment of eternal fire," your name MUST be in the book of life. This book contains only the names of those  who believe that they will never be good enough to go to heaven and that God became a man, Jesus Christ, to suffer on the  cross and in hell to save them from an eternal punishment of flames that they  deserve.

“And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:15)

“And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power," (2 Thessalonians 1:9).

Notice that it says "AWAY" from the presence of the Lord;  not "IN" His  presence, but in "ETERNAL DESTRUCTION" -- the lake of fire!   The horrible suffering that will take place the moment a person dies in his sins without the Savior is a  sobering thought.  It is even more sobering to comprehend the fact that God would love us enough to become a man and suffer the flames of hell for us!  Amazing grace!

HADES (synonym for hell)  is mentioned ten times in the New Testament Bible, five times by Jesus. It always refers to the place of the punished unsaved inside the earth, and is always synonymous with "lower" Sheol, "Abaddon," and the "lower parts of the earth" in the Old Testament. Other Old Testament synonyms for "Hades" are the "power,"  "sting," or "thorns" of Sheol, "recesses of the pit," and "waterless pit."

Deuteronomy 32:22  "For a fire is kindled in My anger, And burns to the lowest part of Sheol, And consumes the earth with its yield, And sets on fire the foundations of the mountains."

Proverbs 27:20 "Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, Nor are the eyes of man ever satisfied."

Isaiah 14:15 “Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit."

Ezekiel 26:20  "then I will bring you down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of old, and I will make you dwell in the lower parts of the earth, like the ancient waste places, with those who go down to the pit, so that you will not be inhabited; but I will set glory in the land of the living.

Ezekiel 32:23  "whose graves are set in the remotest parts of the pit and her company is round about her grave. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword, who spread terror in the land of the living."

Ezekiel 32:24 “Elam is there and all her hordes around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, whowentdown uncircumcised to the lower parts of the earth, who instilled their terror in the land of the living and bore their disgrace with those who went down to the pit."

Hosea 13:14 "Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from death? O Death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion will be hidden from My sight.

Zechariah 9:11 "As for you also, becauseofthe blood of My covenant withyou, I have set your prisoners free from the waterless pit."

Sheol (upper Sheol) in the Old Testament corresponds to  "Abraham's bosom" or "Paradise" in the New Testament.  This place, also inside the earth, is where the souls of people who were "saved" resided after their death until Christ was resurrected.  They could see and talk to those below in Hades, as we will see in Luke 16:19-30.  Jesus emptied (upper) Sheol after His resurrection.  Now the souls of the saved who die go directly to heaven to wait for the resurrection of their bodies (II Cor. 5:6-9, Eph. 4:8-9).

We read in Luke Chapter 16 of an actual, literal account of someone whose departed soul is experiencing HADES, even now, as you read this. In  verse 22 his  body is buried.   In verse 23, the man's soul, conscious of his whereabouts, “and in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment,..." (severe pain, and torture).  In verse 24 he is still conscious and cries out, "Father Abraham!" He is speaking to the  soul of Abraham, a REAL person, not a fictitious person.  He asks if Abraham, who is in Paradise, above Hades, would have mercy on him and if he would send the soul of Lazarus, another REAL person, to "dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, because I am in AGONY in this FLAME."  THIS IS LITERAL "AGONY" and it truly means suffering and pain.  In Luke 16:27-30, knowing that he himself cannot leave Hades, the man BEGS Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead to his family still living on earth, to warn them of this place of TORMENT. (They, like he, didn't believe that there was such a place!)  Abraham's answer in verses 29-31 is summarized as, "Let them read the Bible!" ("Moses and the prophets" -- the Old Testament, completed approximately 500 B.C.)

Luke 16:27-31 “And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house—for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”

In other words, if they won't accept the Bible's testimony of  Hades, they won't listen, even if someone comes back from Hades.  But someone did come back   from Hades -- Jesus -- and people still do not listen!

The people in Capernaum did not accept Jesus as their Messiah.  Even all of the miracles He performed did not change their minds, therefore, they would perish in HADES or HELL (the same place) as departed, unsaved spirits, as stated in Matthew 11:23,

“And you, Capernaum (the people in the city), will not be exalted to heaven, will you?  You shall descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day.

God also speaks of Hades in the book of Acts in Chapter 2, verse 27: "Because Thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades" (place of departed unsaved spirits), "Nor allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay."  When Jesus died for your sins, He went to the same place that the rich man in Luke 16 did, (Acts 2:31). "he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He (Jesus) was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay". Now go back seven verses to Acts2:24 "And God raised Him up again, putting an end to the AGONY of death ... ",- Like the account in LUKE 16:24, this reveals the pangs, pain and suffering of Hades or Hell -- a place of torment. Jesus was in "agony" for our sins; the resurrection ended that agony!

Once again look at Acts 2:31.  Peter is giving testimony about Jesus Christ and that God would not allow His Son's soul to be "abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay" in the tomb, fulfilling the prophecy that He would rise again after three days, having PAID the complete death and hell penalty for those who would believe (Luke 24:26 and Mark 8:31).This was also predicted in Matt. 12:40,

"for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Hades)".

Jesus tells us in Revelation 1:18, that only He has "the keys of death and of Hades."  Revelation 6:8 tells of demons who will have power during the Great Tribulation to kill one quarter of the unbelievers on the earth.  They come from ... you guessed it... Hades, which is HELL; the place where God has some of them at this time, Revelation 6:8 states,

"I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth."

Luke 8:31 They (the demons) were imploring Him not to command them to go away into the abyss.

Rev. 9:1-2, 11 says, "And the fifth angel sounded and / saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit (abyss) was given to him.  And he opened the bottomless pit (abyss); and the smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit”. They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon.

ABYSS (Gk. abussos, translated "bottomless pit") is used nine times in the New Testament and always as a synonym for hell, Hades and "the lower part of the earth." Romans 10:7 shows us clearly that Christ was in that "abyss" with the spiritually dead suffering for our sins,

Romans 10:7 "or Who will descend into the abyss? (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead)."

We also see this in Ephesians 4:9, "Now this expression, “He (Jesus) ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?"

The structure of our legal system is designed to deal with the guilty in three steps -- first, local jail; second, appearance before the judge for sentencing; and third, state prison. God's plan is similar.  At death, unbelievers, (including "false" Christians, Matthew 7:22-23) immediately drop into hell.  At the proper time, all those in the abyss/hell -- "death and Hades" -- will stand before the ultimate judge, God Almighty, for sentencing. Rev. 20:11-15 refers to this event as the White Throne Judgment)  Finally, they will be cast into the "lake of fire" to burn "forever and ever," without parole.

Revelation 20:14-15  "Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."

The following verse tells us that Jesus Christ Himself will deal out retribution (vengeance) on those who do not accept the "FREE GIFT" of salvation by faith alone.

2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 says, "dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.  And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power."

When people do not accept the totality of Jesus’ payment alone for their sins, but add things such as baptism, confirmation, church sacraments, prayer, repenting, confessing, keeping the Commandments or the Golden Rule, giving money, loving their neighbors, going to church, living a good life, or doing anything else considered "good" by human standards, then salvation is no longer a "FREE GIFT," but demands good “works.” The Bible clearly states in Ephesians 2:8-9,

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast”.

Simply knowing and believing that Jesus Christ suffered, died, and rose from the dead is not enough. Many people know and believe this, and think they are “Christians,” but they will not be in heaven when they die! You need to believe that you will never be good enough to go to heaven, and that Jesus suffered, died, and rose from the dead FOR YOU!

Romans 4:5 “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness”,

HELL (also referred to as death, Hades, bottomless pit, abyss, heart or lower part of the earth, lower Sheol) and the eternal lake of fire are both very real and, as we saw earlier, simply believing  in Jesus and being good is not enough to avoid going there. Please take time to see what God's Word says, then choose to believe it.

You really need to examine your Bible in order to realize that understanding the Scriptures is not a matter of one's own personal interpretation.  "But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, " (2 Peter 1:20).

You WILL exist forever. But WHERE you will be FOREVER is entirely up to you.  Trust in the suffering of Jesus Christ alone as the total payment for all your sins (to save you from the HELL you deserve) and you will spend your eternity in heaven, (since all your sins are paid for)!  If you refuse to believe and trust in Christ alone  you will find out, much too late, that you have made the same choice as the  rich man that we  saw earlier in Luke.  Your time to decide may be up soon.  God's grace to you may soon be at an end.  Please don't delay.  It's a matter of eternal life or eternal death .... YOURS!
 

JOHN 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being by Him; and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

JOHN 5:18 For this cause therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

PHILIPPIANS 2:6-8 ... who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

JOHN 8:24 "I said therefore to you, that you shall die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins."
 

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