The Eternal Suffering of Hell, and God’s Grace to Warn Us of Eternity
This last Sunday, we walked through Mark 9:30-50 where Jesus teaches on the eternal suffering of Hell. It was a hard topic, and one that I only bring up when the Bible brings it up. Even though the punishments of Hell is not something attractive to talk about, we must still teach, know, and affirm proper doctrine. The doctrine of Hell is always in danger in our therapeutic society because the realities of eternal suffering do not match our feel-good, gratification-driven culture. From that perspective, our culture (both secular and Christian) fights back usually in one of two directions. Annihilationism is the heresy that teaches that the sufferings of Hell are not everlasting bot only temporary. The basic argument behind this is the idea that God is too loving to make his creation suffer in flames forever. The problem with that argument is that the foundation is not the Bible but one’s personal preferences for who he believe God should be like. Universalism, on the other hand, teaches that everyone will be delivered from their suffering and brought into the new creation with the saints. Hell would cease to exist, and all people are brought into the new creation with Jesus. The argument behind this heresy is the foundation as Annihilationism. If universalism was true, it would deny the doctrine of his perfect judgments. Both camps define God based on their own preferences and not the Bible.
Jesus references Hell three times and describes it twice in Mark 9:43-50. His command is to take the severity of sin serious because eternity is on the line. The one who listens to the Holy Spirit and cuts out the sin of his life will enter life with Christ. The one who rejects Christ and continues in his selfish sin will enter death. Jesus describes Hell as the place of the unquenchable fire and the place where their worm does not die (a quote from Isaiah 66:24). In these words alone, we learn that the fires of Hell never cease and the worm never stops eating the body of the judged. For this to be a reality, the suffering of the judged person must be eternal. If the person ceased to exist, the fire would have no more fuel and the worm would have no more food. Both the agent of the suffering and the object of it will be sustained forever. The word that our Bibles translate as Hell in Mark 9 is the Greek word gehenna. It is literally known as the Valley of Hinnon. This was a physical place on the outskirts of the city of Jerusalem. It was the local garbage dump. This was the ravine that lied on the outside of the city where people brought their trash for it to be burned. The fires continually burned and the smells of this ravine were continually known. This was a physical place that they could use out of their world to help them understand the realities of the unseen world of Hell. Jesus also teaches that the fires of Hell are unceasing in Matthew 25:41, Isaiah 66:24, Revelation 14:9-11, 9:1-3.
In Revelation, John sees a vision of the smoke that goes up from the pit of Hell, and he describes it in this way: “‘[God] has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.’ Once more they cried out, ‘Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.’” The saints of God will will rejoice when they see the smoke because the judgements of God are perfect and right. Sin is completely evil. Sin destroys people. Evil people destroy and take advantage of the weak. Everyone longs for a peace and everyone longs for the world to be made right; for God’s vengeance on the evil. When we are gathered together in the new creation and see the smoke, that will be a day of rejoicing for the time has come. God has judged, and his judgments are what our hearts longs for, and his judgments are completely right.
Today, we must rest in this promise. This is the ammunition behind Paul’s command to never avenge yourselves but leave it to the wrath of God (Rom. 12:19). This command is difficult because the world teaches us to take matter into our own hands and to strike back. The Bible teaches that there is no amount of revenge that we can ever do that will match the vengeance of the perfect God onto evil. Even though we see evil winning battles today, we must rest in the knowledge that its victory is temporary. Our victory in Christ will be eternal.
The point of this blog is to affirm that the Scriptures teach that Hell is an eternal place of suffering set aside for those who are judged as evil by God. The suffering will never run dry. It is a physical place. This should fuel our Christian obedience and especially our evangelism. It is the grace of God that he teaches us about the severity of Hell so that we can have a warning and live accordingly.
See last week’s sermon for more. Mark 9:30-50
