What is hell? Functionally, it is the eternal, spiritual destination of the devil and his angels, and of those who reject Christ. The question in my mind is what does it look like and what happens there? Jesus gave few specifics, nothing beyond saying that the their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched. (Mark 9:48)
Traditional imagery has pictured hell as a perpetual blast furnace (unquenched fire). Something like the third chapter of Daniel, except that the Hebrew young men and the Son of God were not harmed by that furnace. Fire is punishment, causing eternal torment.
Let me propose a slightly different view. Fire also purifies, especially metals, from impurities. Perhaps in this eternal destination, God directly purifies those who cling to rebellion against Him. For those who love sin, this purification of sins they hold on to results in perpetual pain, because their vice is denied. Perhaps it is eternal insomnia in the middle of darkness in which the memory of actions and choices, now regretted, cannot be avoided by sleep and can no longer be remedied by repentance and atonement. A bad conscience for all eternity. Or perhaps God cleanses that by eliminating it, and there is nothing left but an empty shell, unable to enter His presence.
C. S. Lewis offered another view in The Great Divorce. He addresses the question of how a loving God could send people to hell by picturing a post-death tableau in which people are offered the opportunity to go into God’s Presence but choose not to, for a variety of stupid reasons. The reasons are stupid because people choose transient soulish activities, and emotional relationship manipulation over permanent, transcendent bliss. And in Lewis’ depiction of hell, people reside in (can’t say live in because they are dead) ethereal dwellings in an endless slum, in which they keep moving farther and farther apart because they can’t stand each other.
Jesus said that hell was prepared for the devil and his angels. (Matthew 25:41) This certainly implies some forcible restraint because the demons don’t want to be there (Luke 8:31). In some respect their powers are curtailed. But their essential nature is unchanged since they chose to reject God’s love and holiness in full knowledge of the eternal consequences of that choice. They will eternally persevere in being fundamentally evil at heart. They have it, but I doubt they will like it.
Another possible view of hell might be that it is not a separation from God’s presence, but being in His presence, and the torture of feeling the pain of having our life essence being purified by His holiness. But this does not seem consistent with Scripture, which in several places has Jesus saying “Depart….” So perhaps sending people away from His presence is an act of mercy on God’s part. Their torture in the outer darkness is that they can no longer prey on those who have chosen God, and they recognize what they are missing out on because of their choice of evil instead.
We have a choice in this life: Jesus offers eternal life to those who will receive Him and choose to receive, however imperfectly, the nature and character of God. God is love. (1 John 4:7) He defines agape as sacrificial self-giving for the good of another, as demonstrated in Jesus’ death on the cross to redeem humankind. Not some namby-pamby feel-good emotional high, but a positive visceral, moral and ethical virtue or attribute. Willing and working for the best, long-term good of another.
Hell will unfortunately include the ultimate reaping the fruits of sins, with the demons laughing at humans who foolishly chose them. It will be the eternal outcome of their own decisions and actions. For those who do not choose Christ, an endless eternity of emptiness; wanting something they can never have; all alone in pain and rejection remorse; emotional and physical desires always there but no way to satisfy them; knowing others are in heaven and enjoying God’s presence, while they have nothing; burning in their desires but no way to make the pain stop. Whatever its exact makeup, if we are separated from Christ, it will be hell.
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