What Hell Is All About
When we discuss “hell,” we are really discussing the fate of the wicked. That is, we are discussing what we believe God will do with those who do not obey Him or love Him back.
We all know the traditional view of Christendom: if you do not love God or you are not perfectly well-behaved, He will torture you in hellfire forever.
Some believe that God will not torture you in hell forever. Instead, He will torture you for as long as you deserve (for example, a murderer might suffer longer than someone who stole a candy-bar once but was otherwise well-behaved), then will allow you to die in the hellfire. That does not seem much better and comes with a whole host of its own questions. In this case, God is still torturing and killing you for not loving Him back.
The Bible paints a different picture of hell and the fate of the wicked.
What The Bible Says About The Fate Of The Wicked
According to the Bible, the fate of the wicked is the “second death.” This is the death from which there is no resurrection. That is, once you die this death, you will not live again, ever.
Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. For them the second death holds no power…
Revelation 20:6 (NLT)
Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.
Revelation20:14 (NIV)
If there is a second death, what is the first death?
The first death is what we typically call death. It is when our brain stops functioning and our body stops working. It is called the first death, because those who experience it will be resurrected.
The Bible refers to this first death as “sleep.”
and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
1 Corinthians 15:17, 18 (NASB)
Then he said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.” The disciples said, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better!” They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. So he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.“
John 11:11–14 (NLT)
God does not consider this first death to be an actual death. The real death–the death that means no more life–is the second death. The first death is merely a state of existence from which one will eventually be awakened.
Jesus said that Lazarus had “fallen asleep,” and that He would go and “wake him up.” In literal terms, He meant he would go resurrect Lazarus, who had experienced the first death.
The Resurrection of the Wicked
The Bible refers to two resurrections: the resurrection of the righteous and the resurrection of the wicked. These resurrections occur, respectively, before and after a thousand year millennium of peace, during which those who have been healed (the righteous) spend time in heaven, and those who have rejected God’s offer of healing (the wicked) spend in a state of suspended animation (or sleep, as the Bible calls it).
“…and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Luke 14:14 (NASB)
Then I saw the thrones, and those seated on them had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image, and had not received its mark on their foreheads or hands. And they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years were complete.
Revelation 20:4, 5 (Berean Study Bible)
After the thousand years, the righteous return to earth with God. They arrive in a city, which lands on planet earth.
I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
Revelation 21:2 (NIV)
The new Jerusalem is described in the Bible in Revelation 21.
Shortly thereafter, God resurrects the wicked.
At this moment in time, every human being who has ever lived is now alive again. Those who have given their lives over to God, who have embraced God’s principles of love, find themselves within the walls of the New Jerusalem. The wicked, those who have rejected God and His offer of healing, are outside the walls of the New Jerusalem.
The Bible tells us that the enemy will rally the forces of evil to attack the city. Before they can reach the city, God reveals Himself completely. The unveiled glory of His truth and love are like a consuming fire. It goes forth across the earth, covering the wicked.
The Consuming Fire
The Bible refers to God’s glory as “fire.” This fire goes forth from God constantly. However, it is not a physical fire that consumes matter.
There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.
Exodus 3:2 (NIV)
The Lord manifests His presence on earth in the form of fire.
And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the mountain top.
Exodus 24:17 (NASB)
However, this “consuming fire” does not do any damage to physical objects.
So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.
Leviticus 10:2 (NIV)
Notice that “fire” came out from “the presence of the Lord.” It says that the fire “consumed them” and they “died.” But look what happens later in that passage:
So they came and carried them, still in their tunics, outside the camp, as Moses ordered.
Leviticus 10:5 (NIV)
How could they carry bodies that were consumed by fire? If the bodies were burned to death, how did the tunics survive?
What is the nature of this fire?
Fire is simply referring to how we perceive the presence of the Lord!
The presence of God is like a “consuming fire,” but it does not damage physical matter. It consumes fear and selfishness (sin). That is why the people in Leviticus 10 died. Their sin was fully intertwined with their being. When the sin was consumed, they died with it. But their bodies and the clothes they were wearing were unharmed.
The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: “Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?”
Isaiah 33:14 (NIV)
The verse asks, Who can dwell in the presence of God, whose glory is like that of consuming fire? The very next verse gives us the answer:
Those who walk righteously…
Isaiah 33:15 (NIV)
The righteous can dwell in the presence of the consuming fire. There is no sin in them, so it does no harm to them.
The wicked cannot dwell in the presence of the consuming fire. They are full of fear and selfishness. It is their very nature. When their fear and selfishness are consumed with the full revelation of the glory of God’s truth and love, it is destroyed, and they die with it.
The wicked do not experience physical fire. The common belief is that the flesh of the wicked is burned so that they experience extreme pain. However, that is a lie. It is an attack on the very character of God.
The wicked do not experience physical torture.
Rather, the presence of God’s unveiled truth and love makes them realize the full extent of their wickedness. Their guilt and shame are dialed up, all the way to maximum. They are overcome emotionally and mentally with agony and misery and the remembrance of all they have done and all the times they rejected God’s offer of mercy, grace, and healing.
They are consumed with dread and misery, so much so that they die from the severe mental trauma, or, in violent anger, they kill themselves and each other.
This is the second death.
God Heals, Sin Kills
For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23 (NET)
These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.
James 1:15 (NLT)
Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
Galatians 6:8 (NIV)
Notice that, according to the Bible, there is a natural law in effect here: the law of sowing and reaping. If you sow selfishness, you reap death.
Sin kills. Sin is like a fatal disease, and it will kill you to death–the second death.
And they cried to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.”
Revelation 6:16 (NLT)
The wicked will perish in the consuming fire of God’s presence, not because God is killing them, not because the fire is burning their flesh, but because they stand fully exposed in their selfishness, and their emotional and mental torment leads to their death.
They cry out for the rocks and mountains to fall on them! The death of the wicked is a suicide.
You do not have to die with the wicked.
The righteous will not be affected by the consuming fire that is the brightness of God’s glory. In fact, they will dwell in the consuming fire forever in peace and joy.
Do you want to experience the peace and joy of this consuming fire and live forever in paradise with those you love and who love you?
God has the Remedy.
You can trust God to heal you of your fear and selfishness.