5 Questions About Hell Answered Many believers don’t know the answers to these questions. By Lesli White

 

5 Questions About Hell Answered

Many believers don’t know the answers to these questions.

By Lesli White

Shutterstock.com

Hell is mentioned in the Bible numerous times including in Matthew 8:12, which says, “The children of the kingdom will be driven out into the darkness where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

Hell is also mentioned related to internal destruction in 2 Thessalonians 1:9 which says, “These will pay the penalty of eternal ruin, separated from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power”. Hell is also described in great detail in Revelation 14:11 which says, “The smoke of the fire that torments them will rise forever and ever, and there will be no relief day or night for those who worship the beast or its image or accept the mark of its name”. From these descriptions of hell in the Bible, we know that it is a place of final judgment and a place of anguish.

There is no place on earth that truly compares to hell. No human truly has a sense of what hell looks like or feels like. No experiences of pain and torment on this earth parallel the pain and torment one would experience in hell. It is even hard to comprehend what hell is like from the Bible’s descriptions.

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As believers, we know that hell is very real but it is still hard to fully comprehend. Descriptions of hell are dark and scary. While it’s not easy to wrap our minds around it, as Christians we have to fully understand it to understand God and His love for us. Here are five questions about hell answered.

Is hell a real place?

You may be astonished how many believers don’t believe or accept that hell exists. For those who doubt it, God has given us substantial evidence that Hell does exist in His infallible message to us. If you don’t believe hell exists, consider these words from Jesus: “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him” (Luke 12:4-5). If you don’t believe hell exists, you don’t trust God’s Word or truth.

Will we suffer in hell?

Scripture is clear that hell is all about suffering. Hell is often depicted as a place similar to that on earth today, with people running around killing and committing evil acts. If you think hell is anything like this, you are up for a rude awakening. Hell was designed as a place of horror, torment and torture. That’s why it is repeatedly referred to as a lake of fire and brimstone. The Bible warns that we not make light of this evil. The Bible tells us, “For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them” (Proverbs 1:32). The only concern in hell is how bad the pain is.

Does Jesus ever mention hell?

There is a common misconception that Jesus didn’t talk about hell which is completely untrue. Jesus talked about hell more than anyone else in the Bible. In fact, Jesus talked about hell more often than He talked about heaven. There is also a notion that God only talked about hell in the Old Testament but not in the New Testament, being that the New Testament is the Good News. It’s time to open up our Bibles. Yes, Jesus spoke about love and compassion, but that doesn’t mean that He didn’t address hell. Hell is very real and it was important that Jesus speak on this often.

Is hell eternal?

Just as heaven is eternal, hell is eternal. As Christians, we believe that the righteous will inherit the kingdom they have been citizens of during life on earth, and the unrighteous will be told to depart from Jesus. This is what Jesus told the apostles, when He said, “Then [the unrighteous] will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” (Matthew 25:46). What will the truth of your life be? Whatever the verdict at the time of judgment is, there will be two options, and they are both eternal, not temporary.

Does God send us to hell because He is angry with us?

Hell is not a place that God sends you when He’s upset with you, or turned off by something you’ve done. There’s a common misconception that God sends people to hell. This is wrong. People send themselves to hell when they reject Christ. Yes, those who do not accept Jesus will go to hell but that’s because of their own choosing. Our God is a God of love. When we are born again through the waters of baptism and make Christ the center of our lives, we have no place in hell.

Hell seems like a scary place and truthfully, it is. Suffering in hell is filled with great anguish and is not a place we want to spend the rest of eternity. However, for those who think that people are destined to go to hell with no hope are missing a really important component to our relationship with God: His grace. God gives us what we don’t deserve. God’s Will is that we are saved, that we turn to Jesus and receive forgiveness for our sins. Those who go to hell are isolated from everything else, permanently cut off from God and everything that is good. So what’s the good news? There is hope with God and the great thing about God’s love is that we can all be saved.

Lesli White is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth with a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications and a concentration in print and online journalism. In college, she took a number of religious studies courses and harnessed her talent for storytelling. White has a rich faith background. Her father, a Lutheran pastor and life coach was a big influence in her faith life, helping her to see the value of sharing the message of Christ with others. She has served in the church from an early age. Some of these roles include assisting ministry, mutual ministry, worship and music ministry and church council.   

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5 Ways the Holy Spirit Tries to Get Your Attention If you’re not getting guidance, it’s because you aren’t listening. By Stephanie Hertzenberg

 

5 Ways the Holy Spirit Tries to Get Your Attention

If you’re not getting guidance, it’s because you aren’t listening.

By Stephanie Hertzenberg

Lightstock

How many times have you felt like you needed guidance, but you were not getting any answers to any of your questions or prayers? The odds are you have felt that way relatively often. After all, most people are unpleasantly familiar with the feeling of wanting something but being unable to reach it. Most people are also acquainted with reaching a goal, taking a job or entering a relationship only to find out that they have made a terrible mistake. When these things happen, it can be easy to feel angry or think that you should have gotten some sort of warning that this was going to end badly.

The reality is that you probably did get some kind of warning that you were about to make a terrible mistake. You, however, ignored the whisper in the back of your mind telling you to walk away. You thought you knew better. That little voice, however, may well have been the Holy Spirit trying to get your attention. You, however, ignored it. You expected the Holy Spirit to come to you in a blaze of fire, but sometimes, the Holy Spirit uses subtler ways to try and reach you. Here are five ways the Holy Spirit tries to get your attention.

Dreams.

When you go to sleep at night, how often do you have dreams? If you are like the vast majority of the human race, you dream every night, but you are rarely lucky enough to remember your dreams in the morning. The few that you do remember are preserved primarily as hazy impressions of color, a few vivid images that have little to no context or an echo of intense emotion, though you are unsure what in the dream made you feel ecstatic, terrified or angry. Dreams from the Holy Spirit, however, are often different. They are deeply emotional and often involve vivid imagery. You also remember them come morning. Unlike ordinary dreams, they do not fade away into the ether at dawn. Instead, they linger in the back of your head for days, weeks or even months after you initially had the dream.

Repeated symbols.

The human brain loves patterns. You may not even notice it, but your mind is hardwired to find patterns and meaning in absolutely everything around you. This is why when you were little, the shadows cast by the tree outside your window resembled a person to you and why you think you can make out individual words in a recording that is being played backward. This inherent hatred of randomness, however, can work to your advantage when you are looking for messages from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit might try to get your attention by repeatedly putting the same symbols or signs in your path. If you are looking for divine guidance and keep seeing the exact numbers, phrases or animals, it might be a sign from the Holy Spirit. This is especially true if the numbers end up corresponding to a Bible verse applicable to your situation or the animal has Christian connotations, like a dove.

Messages from others.

Sometimes, the Holy Spirit uses other people to get its message through to you. These messages usually are more blatant than other forms of the Holy Spirit’s influence. This means the messages tend to stand out more than other methods the Holy Spirit uses for reaching out to you and trying to grab your attention.

Messages from others could come in a wide variety of ways. They almost always, however, appear to you as statements from those around you that seem eerily accurate to your circumstances. A speaker on television might seem to be talking directly to you about your situation. A friend that you have not told about your troubles yet texts you out of the blue to say they are praying for you. An encouraging song comes on the radio exactly when you need it. The Holy Spirit usually drives these sorts of deeply improbable coincidences, so pay attention to them.

Gut feelings.

You have almost certainly been told in the past that you need to trust your gut feeling or pay attention to your instincts when you are trying to make a decision. This is excellent advice. Everything about a situation — whether it is a new job, a new relationship or a new apartment — may seem wonderful, but there is a nagging feeling in the back of your head or a knot in your stomach that makes you hesitate. Sometimes, these are just natural concerns over change. Other times, those inexplicable nerves or unexpected and out-of-place excitement are a sign that the Holy Spirit is reaching out to you. When you have those feelings, study them carefully in order to determine whether what you are feeling is simply a byproduct of a transition in your life or the result of the Holy Spirit either warning you away from something or encouraging you along the path God has planned for you.

Closed doors.

Sometimes, it seems like every door you try to walk through slams in your face. You apply for a new job only to be turned down after the final interview. You try to deepen your relationship with your significant other, only for them to walk out of your life a few weeks later. You try to start working out again, only to trip and break your leg. When every door closes, it can seem like God has forgotten about you. The opposite, however, is usually true. When the Holy Spirit closes doors, it is because those are not the doors you are meant to take. What lies on the other side of them will keep you from walking the path that God has laid out for you. That may seem like cold comfort when you are hunting for a job or excessively lonely, but there is a plan, and come hell or high water, the Holy Spirit is going to make sure you follow it.

The Holy Spirit is always calling you, but you might not be listening. If you are expecting the spiritual equivalent of a neon sign, you will not notice the quiet little suggestions that may be left in your path. You will ignore warnings, miss opportunities and then wonder why you are not receiving guidance. The Holy Spirit is always with you, but that does you no good if you are not willing to listen to its voice.

Stephanie Hertzenberg is a graduate of the College of William and Mary where she majored in Religious Studies and minored in Creative Writing. She maintains an avid interest in health, history and science.

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