Defining the punishment of Hell

Definitions of Hell


The definitions of Hell have varied down through the ages because of the difference of opinion between different religions as to the nature of Hell and who is saved and who is lost. The only universally agreed upon definition of Hell, though, is that it is the opposite of Heaven. When one passes from this life to the next, he or she will be required to go to one place or the other.

One reason the definitions of Hell are so varied is because all religions of the world have different ideas on whom (or if) God is. The nature (power, purpose, wisdom and love) of any particular god has a direct bearing on the nature and definition of his Hell, as well as who is saved from it and who is lost to it. In other words, the god of your imagination defines the Hell of your imagination. You can imagine an extreme, painful, eternal damnation for someone only when you can imagine a god who will never put YOU there or you’ve turned agnostic, pantheistic or atheistic because you can’t.

Another reason the definitions of Hell are so varied is because the bible is written in such a way that any literate person can interpret it to fit his or her imagination as to its meanings. The fact that there are thousands upon thousands of different religious groups in the world, believing only they know and follow its true teachings, is proof of this. The Catholic Church, recognizing this, existed as the only official Christian church for more than fifteen hundred years because it didn’t allow the bible to be read or interpreted by anyone other than a few select people.

But the main reason the definitions of Hell, as well as all the other truths of the bible, are so varied and confusing is because they were ordained by God to be that way. True Christianity is a secret religion “hid from the wise and prudent and revealed unto babes.” (Matt. 11:25; Luke 10:21) A simple online search of the bible for the word ‘Revealed’ turns up 38 results, 21 of which confirm that the truths of God can only be known when they are ‘Revealed’ by the Holy Spirit. The whole 2nd chapter of 1 Corinthians explains this in detail. Jesus also tells us He spoke in parables so that the lost would not understand. 1 Samuel 3:7 said he “did not yet know the LORD, because the word of the LORD was not yet ‘Revealed’ unto him.” Proverbs 3:32 says “His ‘Secret’ is with the righteous”. Judges 13:18 says “Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is ‘Secret’?” Psalm 25:14 says “The ‘Secret’ of the LORD is with them that fear him.” Romans 16:25 says “Now to him (The Holy Ghost) that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept ‘Secret’ since the world began.” 2 Thess. 2:11 says God sends the lost “strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.” There are many, many more biblical verses that confirm that it is God who has chosen “from the foundation of the earth” who is to hear, understand and fellowship with Him.

The bible does teach Hell is a place where you are put, after you are judged, as a punishment for your sins. But what does this punishment really mean, given that God chooses whether or not the truths of salvation are revealed to you? The Apostle Paul asks the same question…“Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? (Rom 9:18,19) The answer to what the punishment of Hell consists of is determined by how we interpret words and phrases like Hell, death, punishment, damnation, wrath, darkness, fire, tribulation and anguish, everlasting destruction and in a place where the worm never dies.

The bible says “the wages (or punishment) of sin is death;” (Rom. 6:23) and “There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God;” (Rom 3:10,11) also “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. (Rom. 3:23) Sin entered the world when Adam sinned. God told him if he eats the apple he will die. Adam ate the apple but he didn’t die physically; he died spiritually. Every human being ever born has inherited this spiritual death. Therefore, everyone ever born has already suffered God’s punishment and wrath for sin. We are all already spiritually dead in sin. We are all already spiritually damned. We are already suffering in spiritual tribulation and anguish. We are all already in spiritual darkness, in our spiritual grave. We are all already in a spiritual Hell because being born as a human being we are already spiritually lost.

When you destroy something you render it useless. Romans 9:22 says “What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.” This verse should be understood to say...What if God, willing to show his judgment, and to make his power known, endured with much suffering the vessels of judgment FITTED to uselessness? This state of uselessness describes perfectly the other adjectives used to describe the state of the spiritually lost such as death, damned, darkness, in the grave, etc. This uselessness pertains to our relationship and fellowship with our Heavenly Father and the Body of Christ. In our lost condition we have no need or desire for this relationship, so the result is we will be forever separated from it. This is confirmed by 2Thess. 1:9 that states “Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction (uselessness) from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” After Adam ate the apple he hid from God, thus showing he was no longer in fellowship with Him. This is also what happened when Jesus died on the cross. By becoming a member of the human race, the Lord Jesus inherited the guilt of the human race.  But by being God-forsaken, He paid the penalty for us.  He was not tortured and tormented forever as a punishment for sin.  He was only separated from God’s fellowship.  This is the only punishment for sin that God has promised. 

Being in this lost state of uselessness does not make us suffer mentally or physically in this life nor will it in eternity because… we are fitted for it. (Rom 9:22) Jesus said the lost love the darkness (their uselessness) and hate the light. We suffer physically and mentally in this physical world because we are fitted to be mortal. In the next life we will be fitted for immortality, never again to suffer the pain and tribulation of mortality. The lost may be lost from the presence and glory of our Heavenly Father in Hell but they will never be lost to his perfect love and care. (Luke 3:10; 1 Tim. 4:10) Romans 5:8 says God loved us when we were sinners. John (3:16) says “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.

The purpose of the Great White Throne Judgment is to prove to the lost that they are worthy of, and fitted for, their separation from the presence of the Lord.  The wailing and gnashing of teeth only occurs at this time of judgment and only by the religious Pharisee types who think they deserve, by way of their works, a heavenly post. Jesus just tells them “I never knew you.” (Matt. 7:22-24)

The story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) is a symbolic account of what it’s like to be in Hell and thereby defines it perfectly.

In the 23rd verse, we find there is a great gulf that separates the saved in heaven and the lost in hell; therefore, Jesus is the only one who can communicate across that gulf. He, in the form of Abraham, would be the one talking to, and judging, the rich man in this parable. The character of Abraham is used because the bible says it is the faith of Abraham that is counted as righteousness. The word ‘torments,’ in this verse, comes from the Greek word ‘basinitzo’, which means unrest. In this life we sometimes get very involved with searching for an answer to, or fixing some problem. It doesn’t always mean we are tormented by the process; in fact, sometimes, we love doing it. We are in a state of unrest though, until we’ve either found it, or have given up looking for it.

In the 24th verse the rich man addresses Abraham as Father, but not because he knows Abraham as Father. Lost people see God as a ruler and judge, but they can’t see him as a father. A father loves and takes care of his children, whether they acknowledge Him or not. The lost insist they are taking care of themselves; they don’t want or need an all controlling father, or God.

When he cries “have mercy on me” he is NOT screaming in pain, he is NOT saying he is a sinner who needs forgiveness, because in his mind he is not a sinner in need of forgiveness. “His conscience is seared with a hot iron.” (1 Tim 4:1-3). (The definition of conscience is; that faculty of the mind, or inborn sense of right and wrong, by which we judge of the moral character of human conduct.) When a person stands in front of a judge and asks for mercy there must be two prerequisites: one is that the judge is able to grant mercy; the other is that he knows he has already been convicted but he’s sorry for his crime. The rich man thinks that mercy is something to be earned and he knows he’s been convicted because he is not in heaven with Lazarus, but he doesn’t feel remorse; his conscience is sealed. The consequences of this request has to be negative, because He doesn’t understand that the mercy or forgiveness he is asking for cannot be earned, and he isn’t sorry for not giving God the glory, (which is sin, Rom 3:23), because that would mean giving up his own glory of having an independent will and choice.

The bible says “Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” (Titus 1:15-16)  “Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.” (Rom 2:15)

Also, in this 24th verse, the Greek word for ‘tormented’ changes when the rich man stands before Abraham. The Greek word for ‘tormented’ becomes ‘odunasai’, which means physical and mental pain. The word for ‘flame’ in Greek is ‘phlogos’, which means a ‘flame of fire’. Therefore, the “tormented in this flame” in this passage is translated correctly to mean He is physically and mentally suffering in a flame of fire. Matthew 15:30 says “And they shall be cast into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth”. The reason they are suffering physically, mentally, wailing and gnashing their teeth is foretold by Jesus when he says, during the day of their judgment; “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”(Matt 7:22-24) This is the fire the rich man, and all lost religious people, will experience in asking for undeserved mercy. People will turn beet red with anger and frustration, they will want to argue their hearts out, scream and stamp their feet, if they could; they would even try to kill you (they killed Jesus and millions of true believers because of this). They will do anything to defend their ego, independent works and self-righteousness. When they are told by Jesus to depart from him because they are workers of iniquity, it will be the biggest jolt to their idea of righteousness they will ever experience. It will be more tolerable for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah than these religious people, because religious people have the most self-righteous pride to lose.

“Tormented in this flame” are literal words, but the words “his conscience is seared with a hot iron” are literal words, too. What is the difference between hot iron and fire? They both hurt physically in a physical mortal world, but we are talking about  spiritual pain and torment. There can be no physical pain or torment in an immortal body.

It is in this frame of mind that the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to “dip his finger in water.” In the bible, water represents the Holy Spirit of truth. “This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.” (1 John 5:6) and “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5) and “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,” (Eph 5:6) and “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” (Heb 10:22) The rich man wants to “cool his tongue”. The bible says “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell;” (James 3:6) and “These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness (uselessness) is reserved for ever”. (Peter 2:17) What he is asking for, therefore, is the faith he wrongly thinks that Lazarus has the power to give him.

In verse 25, Abraham, calls him son. The bible calls the lost ‘disobedient children’. We all are God’s children (Mal 2:10; Col 3:6; Eph 2:2,3; 5:6) He tells him that Lazarus, who had to go through the trials and tribulations in life, has now been overwhelmingly rewarded. The rich man had to be answered in the only language he could understand; that Lazarus deserved his reward. The rich man didn’t deserve that heavenly reward, because by his works he didn’t love his neighbor (Lazarus). The apostle Paul tells us those who live by the law of works, will be judged by the law of works. Notice, the judge (Jesus) doesn’t give the rich man room for argument; by telling him his beliefs are wrong. In this; the rich man is tormented (odunasai). He wants to present his cause, he wants Abraham to ‘please, just listen to me’; in other words he desperately wants to argue about this. Anyone who has ever been in a serious argument, and isn’t given a proper chance to successfully present their side of it, knows this feeling of this torment. Abraham shows the rich man that in order to give him the mercy he thinks he has to ASK for; he has to EARN it, and earn it perfectly. As we see, this gives him no room for argument, and the rich man has to face the fact that this judgment is final.

In verse 26, Jesus tries to tell the rich man of the great gulf between them that cannot be crossed over. The great gulf between Heaven and Hell separates the saved from the lost, which is prevention. Christians are corrected so that they can go to Heaven. The non-Christian is prevented from contaminating Heaven by disassociation. Life consists of the seeking of goals and the selection of means; those in heaven and hell have different goals because they have different means.

The verses 27 and 28 contradict those who claim the rich man (in verse 24) is burning in fire and just wants a little water to cool off. When he asked Abraham to send Lazarus “to testify to his brothers, so they might not come to his place of torment” (which is now, again ’basinitzo’, or unrest), the rich man verifies that the taste of the water he was asking for wasn’t liquid water. He was asking for the faith he perceived in Lazarus. But all this request did was to further prove he didn’t know what that faith was. Then he tried, by way of his works, to get faith for his sons. He couldn’t GET it, he didn’t EARN it, but maybe his sons can.

In verse 29, Jesus, again because the rich man only understands the law of works, tells the rich man the same thing He told a certain ruler in Matt 18:18 who asked “Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus answered him that he must obey the Law. If you believe salvation and faith is to be earned by doing, then you must DO the law perfectly, for the law is perfect. Jesus said, just before this parable began; “it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.” (Luke 16:17)

In verses 30 and 31, being lost and not ready to give up trying, the rich man suggests that if someone from the dead testifies; his brothers will repent. Jesus answers him again; if they don’t DO the law, “even someone who rose from the dead won’t persuade them”. If man cannot see the purpose behind the law and that he cannot keep it; even Jesus coming back from the dead will not persuade him.

Lost people in hell will have the same self-righteous, free-will attitude as they do in this life. Their (temporary) torment and fire is their wanting salvation on their own terms (works). Religious people will have to acknowledge that there is a God who loves and cares for them just as they are, but they will suppress it just like they do in this life. Agnostics, pantheistics and atheists will act surprised to find out there really is a God, but it will be revealed to them that they already knew it. The god of their imagination, which is their agnosticism, pantheisticism and atheism, will still be precious to them, and their knowledge of a true god will go back to being suppressed.

The lost people in hell didn’t need the real God in life and they won’t need him in eternity.  They are not sorry for refusing to give God the glory. The story of the rich man and Lazarus shows this very clearly. The rich man, even though he is has been given unspeakable joy and a perfect body that will never again feel sickness, pain or death; cannot and will never accept the fact that everything he has, including his self-righteousness and pride in thinking he is a free spirit, came from a God who loves him. He will still covet the things he doesn’t have but he will never figure out that - what he really needs - he can’t have. This will not dishearten or sadden him because there will be no one to tell him what he really needs. Just like in this life, happiness is the ‘pursuit’ of your desires and not in the ‘getting’ of what you don't desire, or know.

In conclusion, the definition and punishment of Hell is… that it is a place of eternal spiritual death where one is placed, separated from the presence and glory of God, in perfect peace and unspeakable joy.