Oh, Hell...

Is Hell a place of torment and physical pain?
Will the LORD be present there?
Will the souls of the damned have physical bodies, or are they just souls?



Well, in a way, to answer the first question is to answer the third, generally speaking. If one believes in the physical pain and agony of Hell - and I do - then there must be something that can indeed feel that pain. Pain is a feeling, and therefore it is feel-able. So in order to feel pain, the sense of feeling, a physical sense, must be present. And of course the sense of feeling is the signals that nerves send to a brain. Nerves, brain, feeling; these are all physical characteristics of a physical body. Therefore, if a man believes that there will be pain in Hell, then he must subsequently believe that the damned souls there actually do have physical bodies.

But how does one go about believing that there is indeed actual physical pain in Hell? Is Hell a place where souls with real bodies go to be tortured for all of eternity, or is Hell a place where one is forced to spend all of eternity facing the reality of his error?

My answer is yes to both. It is possible to be both in physical pain and mental agony at the same time. Many Christians believe that when Jesus makes mention of Hell in his talks He is speaking metaphorically, and does not really mean that it is a place of literal "weeping and gnashing of teeth." One man I talked to asked, "Does the phrase 'weeping and gnashing of teeth' always imply actual physical pain? No, not necessarily, but take into account the story of the rich man and Lazurus:

"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.

So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'

But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'

He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'

'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'

He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "

Notice the first time the rich man calls from Hell. "I am in agony in this fire." He cries. Both in the Old and New Testaments Hell is associated with fire. To say that this passage here is a metaphor may be possible, but it is ridiculous to assume that every time the words 'Hell' and 'Fire' are mentioned together in the Bible, that person is speaking metaphorically. There is a convincing consistency in the phraseology of the Bible concerning Hell.

Will God be present in Hell? My answer - and it is only my answer; though I stand behind it I do not claim righteous superiority - is a resounding NO! Or, if He is, it is only to administer justice to the souls (I use the word 'souls' for lack of something else) there.

Consider this:
As Jesus hung upon the cross, he cried aloud, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" ("My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?") Christ, at that moment, was experiencing the abandonment and despair that that resulted from the outpouring of divine wrath on Him as the sin-bearer.

Think about that. What does it mean to be "forsaken" by God? Surely you agree with me that what Jesus experienced on the cross and in the grave is what we all should have experienced, were it not for the Grace of God. So we deserve to be forsaken by God.

To be forsaken, according to a standard English dictionary, is to be completely deserted or abandoned. God turned His back on Jesus. And, if Jesus 'got what we deserved' on the cross, then it is only reasonable to assume that sinners who are unrepentant in their actions will suffer this same fate (if you will). God has, and will, turn His back on them and abandon them.

Now, that is not to say that God will have no part in the eternity of Hell. One man I discussed this with admirably pointed out that God is the One who sustains us, and therefore if He is not present, the souls in Hell will cease to exist. To that, I say that our belief in God's omnipresence requires our admittance that He is 'everywhere.' However, when I say that God is not 'in Hell' I am merely pointing out that His special care for people - even unrepentant hearts on this earth - will not be a factor in Hell. There will be something present there, yes: His holy wrath, constantly burning. If we believe in the omnipresence of God, then it is easy to see His ability to turn His figurative back on Hell and yet still bring justice to the souls there with His wrath.

To sum up:
Yes, I believe that the dying undying souls in Hell are/will be given physical bodies, and thus will be able to feel the excrutiating pain there.

No, I do not believe that God is present in Hell, save for the fact that He is carrying out His will in every place, and He is bringing justice to those who deserve it.

I hope my opinion on this matter is insightful.

Drew