Does Hell Exist?

Someone asked, “Is Hell real?” The real question is, does God punish people who do not believe in Christ?

Jesus used the term translated as hell. He seemed to think it existed and that it is a place of torment for people who are not reconciled to God.

This is what Jesus said about hell:

Luke 12:4-5

4 “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.”

Matthew 5:22

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca, ‘ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Matthew 5:29-30

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Matthew 10:28

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matthew 18:9

And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

Matthew 23:15

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are

Matthew 23:33

“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?

Mark 9:42-45

42“And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck. 43If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. 45And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.

Luke 12:4-5

 4 “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.

Now read what James and Peter said about hell:

James 3:6

The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

2 Peter 2:4-10

 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6 if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)- 9 if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. 10 This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.

Read what Jesus said rejecting Christ and the wrath of God,

John 3:36

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.

This is what Jesus said about not coming to Him,

John 6:40

yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

John 14:6

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

All of us sin. We each earn our payment.. good or bad….

Romans 3:23

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In fact, God also said about belief,

Romans 10:9

That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

About people who have not heard – God wants them to seek Him, but it must be as He said,

Acts 17:26-31

26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone-an image made by man’s design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”

If someone does not believe in an afterlife, then that person does not believe God. God has said we have eternal life with Him if we believe, and hell if we do not. In fact, Jesus said (about people who believe in Him),

John 10:28

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.

Jesus said about people who do not believe, 

Revelation 21:8

But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars-their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. 

So people are free to believe or not believe. But there are consequences.

Someone wrote that is ”elitist, exclusive, and SADISTIC.”

My response is an analogy:

hmmm.. I am on a railroad track, walking. Someone runs past me yelling, “a train is coming!” I see a train coming, the engineer hits the brakes and blows the horn, and I yell at others who are also on the track to jump off, as I jump off, trying to drag some with me. Others also see the train and yell for people to jump, trying to drag some with them. Some will see the train and jump. Some will refuse to look, but will feel the train and jump. Some will refuse to think about what they hear and feel and will refuse to look. Some even fight to not be dragged off the tracks. Who is responsible for the deaths of those who did not believe? They themselves are.

God is patient and works that people might believe,

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

People who are seeking God will find Him – I have read second hand accounts and heard first hand accounts of God speaking to men and women in dreams and visions and them coming to Christ – and there are more cases world wide every year.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/554407/posts

http://www.persecutionblog.com/2008/07/a-vision-of-jes.html

http://www.morethandreams.tv/

But not only is God loving and patient, but He is righteous and Holy and Just as well. His essence demands an accounting for what we’ve done. And He MUST judge. But because He loves us and is full of grace, He sent His Son to pay the price of our sins. Because He is merciful and patient, He is giving everyone the opportunity to seek Him and worship Him through faith in Christ.