HELL-IDENTIFIED

When we preach about hell, then, to what are we referring? Well, if we are speaking about the place in which God has confined some of the fallen angels, then hell is Tartarus, a place to which human beings do not appear to be sent. But if we are speaking about the place to which souls of the unsaved are sent while their bodies await resurrection, then hell is Hades, and it is those passages which mention it that become our texts when warning unbelievers about the hell in which they will be confined immediately at death. However, there is, in addition, a dreadful day looming, following the judgment of the Great White Throne, when both the bodies and the souls of the unsaved shall be cast into a final destination called Gehenna, or the lake of fire.

Mark Minnick

The Doctrine of Eternal Punishment, Preach the Word Ministries, Inc., p. 13.

Let us not so much labor to know where hell is – as how to escape it.

Chrysostom

Hell will not be a place, as some jokingly envision, where the ungodly will continue to do their thing while the godly do theirs in heaven. Hell will have no friendships, no fellowship, no camaraderie, no comfort. It will not even have the debauched pleasures in which the ungodly love to revel on earth. There will be no pleasure in hell of any kind or degree – only torment, “day and night forever and ever” (Rev. 20:10).

John MacArthur

Revelation 21 and 22 present heaven as the opposite of hell. Hell is separation from the gracious presence of God; heaven, living in that presence. Hell involves terrible pain; heaven, unceasing joy. Hell means the darkness of banishment from God’s glory; heaven, basking in its light. Hell consists of everlasting rejection by God; heaven, being His son or daughter forever. Hell entails the second death; heaven, eternal life.

Robert A. Peterson

Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal Punishment, P&R Publishers, 1995, p. 220. Used by permission.

Neither the devil nor his angels will torment people in hell. Satan and his demons will be among the tormented; they will not be tormentors (Revelation 20:10).

Erwin Lutzer

Taken from One Minute After You Die by Erwin Lutzer, Moody Publishers, 1997, p. 112.

[It is not] as though the ungodly see God and His appearance as the godly will see Him; but they will feel the power of His presence, which they will not be able to bear, and yet will be forced to bear.

Martin Luther