5 Myths about Hell

5 Myths about Hell
(Mark Jones)

Myth #4: Hell is merely separation from God.

Hell is a place of punishment by God; sinners who have committed treason against an infinite God will remain in the place of torment where they shall only be able to continually hate the God they hated in their previous life. The idea that Hell is mere “separation from God” is misleading and wrongheaded, though it certainly includes the idea of separation from Christ (Matthew 25:41). Rather, it is the opposite: a God-hating sinner, who does not have a mediator, remains in the presence of a holy, righteous, and powerful God.

Hell is a place, not a metaphor to describe some inner thought processes. The rich man in Hell calls it a “place of torment” (Luke 16:28). Judas went to “his own place” (Acts 1:25). Just as there is a “place” for the righteous after death, so there is a “place” for the wicked after death. Gehenna refers to the Valley of Hinnom, outside Jerusalem. This place has a horrible history, with Israelites and kings of Israel, at one time, burning their children as sacrifices to false gods (that is, Molech; see 2 Chronicles 33:6; Ahaz did much of the same–see 2 Chronicles 28:3). Gehenna may not be a reference to a burning trash dump, but it is actually far worse: a place where the most horrible things take place, such as the willful sacrifice of children. Evil at its worst is associated with Gehenna. Hell is a place of pure evil, a place as scary as it is destitute of all hope.

Rather than being mere “separation from God,” Hell is, as the Puritan Thomas Goodwin said, a place where “God himself, by his own hands, that is, the power of his wrath, is the immediate inflictor of that punishment of men’s souls in Hell.” God’s power will be “exercised” as his wrath towards those who cast away from the presence of God’s blessedness. In other words, those in Hell will receive the opposite of those in glory, but they will still be in God’s presence. For those in Heaven, they have a Mediator; for those in Hell, they have nothing between them and an avenging God.

Myth #5: Hell is simply giving people what they want.

This is only partly true and open to possible misunderstanding. In one sense, Hell is an endless (suffering) existence whereby the wicked do not commune with God. In this sense, their life in Hell mirrors their life on earth. They did not want Christ on earth and they will, therefore, be without him in Hell. However, nobody desires to suffer at the hands of God, especially forever. Nobody wants their despair to increase as well. As the creature in Hell realizes more and more that they are suffering forever, the despair of eternal judgment can only increase. Those in Hell have no promises, and thus no hope, but only increasing despair.

According to Goodwin, the “wretched soul in Hell . . . finds that it shall not outlive that misery, nor yet can it find one space or moment of time of freedom and intermission, having forever to do with him who is the living God.” The wicked will despair because there is no end to the wrath of the living God. Therefore, the concept of ever-increasing despair for all eternity, whereby the creature damned to Hell can do nothing else but blaspheme a living, eternal God, gives us all the reason in the world to persuade sinners to put their faith in the one who experienced hellish despair on the cross.

True, many do not want to worship the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we need to convince people that Hell is not people ultimately getting “what they wanted” as if there were some victory for the wicked, or possibly in an attempt to “sanitize” the doctrine to somehow make it palatable to unbelievers. In one sense, the wicked are going to get the opposite of what they wished for (and often experienced) on earth. We all want happiness, and as such we should all come to the fountain of blessedness, the Lord Jesus Christ, so that he can give to us all that we really desire: joy unspeakable.

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Those who want to read the complete article can find it here: 5 Myths about Hell.

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