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Transcript 536A — Will Hell Really Go On Forever?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum
CALLER: Do you think that God really wants to have hell and people suffering forever and ever and ever? Don't you think that there's going to be a time when He just puts an end to it entirely and makes it final?
HC: The question is, how can it be that God would want hell to go on eternally? Wouldn't there finally come a time when the suffering has been sufficient and He would put an end to it?
Well, the problem is that we are in no position to judge the quantity or the quality of the penalty God demands for our sins. We are part of the sinful people, you see. And we of course do not understand the immense holiness of God, the fantastic justice of God. We just don't understand it. We can't contemplate anyone who is perfectly just. We therefore do not understand the immensity, the awful immensity of having been created in the image of God so that we were created to love God and have fellowship with Him, and yet to openly violate God and rebel against Him. We don't understand the awfulness of that kind of a sin. And for that reason we cannot really understand the awfulness of the punishment that God has.
We do know this, however, that God is absolutely perfect in His holiness, He's absolutely just in His holiness. And therefore whatever penalty He has meted out in hell, it is a perfect penalty. We know that. But we cannot understand it. There's no human being who's ever experienced hell. And those who are going to experience it are going to take eternity before they really know how great it really is. All we can do is get a little bit of an insight as to the utter awfulness of hell when we see Jesus in His suffering, as already before ever a hand is laid on Him He's in the Garden of Gethsemane, and already He's throwing Himself to the ground with great cries, and the sweat is pouring off His body like great drops of blood into the ground, and He's crying out to God, "Father, is it possible that this cup might pass from Me?" And we already then are beginning to see the awfulness of hell. But again, because we've never endured hell and because we don't know the perfection of God's holiness or the terribleness of sin as a reproach against the holiness of God, we cannot understand hell.
But when we look at the language of the Bible, as God speaks of it as a place of outer darkness, as God speaks of it as a place where the worm dieth not, as a place where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth, as a burning furnace, as a lake of fire, as a place of outer darkness, where the torment goes on forever, and so on, and look at all the language, we know that it's a super awful, terrible place. And it's no place I want to go to.
CALLER: I'm confused, because in some places it does speak about forever and tormenting, and the worm dieth not. However, in many other places it speaks of ashes and consumed and utterly destroyed. And those things sound very final to me.
HC: I think we can reconcile these two kinds of passages if we recognize this, that first of all God uses the language of Judgment Day and hell as being cut off, or perishing from this earth. You see, man was created to live forever on this earth. If Adam and Eve had not sinned, then mankind would have continued forever on this earth. The fact is, Jesus said, "The meek shall inherit the earth." The believers are not going to inherit this present sin-cursed earth as it now is, but as it will be when it is recreated.
When God created man, God created man in a very intimate relationship with this earth. We come from the dust, we're made up of the same chemicals as the earth is, and we return to the dust. There is an intimacy that exists. God created us that way. Now God uses language of those who are to endure hell, or who are under judgment, that they will be cut off from this earth. They will perish from this earth. And this is the language that particularly might look like there is annihilation.
But when we try to include all of the verses of the Bible that speak of hell, then we know that it is not annihilation but that it is something that goes on forever, whatever it is.
CALLER: Well, in Malachi 3:6 I hope you can look at that now, where it says why you were not already utterly destroyed.
HC: "For I am the Lord. I change not, Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." Now what are you saying about that?
CALLER: I think maybe there's a verse after that about why we are not already utterly destroyed.
HC: But destroyed from what? We can be destroyed, God uses the word destroyed in Hebrews 2:14, that Satan was destroyed at the cross, that Christ by His death destroyed Him who had power over death, namely, Satan. Well now, Satan still exists. He still is alive and well. And he is going to be committed to hell. But nevertheless God uses the word destroyed.
Now the word destroy means that he has been vanquished, and he has been removed from his place of authority, and he is destined for hell. The word destroy has a whole lot of implications when we look at everything that's going to happen to Satan. Now again, man is going to be destroyed from this earth. Now in our common parlance, when we use the word perish or destroy, we think of annihilation. But when the Bible uses this word, the Bible doesn't necessarily mean this at all. Man was created to exist forever, and he will exist forever, either under the blessing of God in the New Heaven and the New Earth, or under the curse of God in hell.
And the big question is not is hell going to go on so long or so long. The big question is, am I ready to face my Maker? Have I made my peace with God? Do I know that my sins have been paid for, so that I will take no chance with hell? Whatever hell is, I want no part of it at all. Everything I read in the Bible about the wrath of God shows me that it must be super terrible, and I wouldn't sleep tonight if I thought that there was any possibility I might go to hell.
But thank you so much for calling. And may the Lord richly bless you. Good night.