Answers

By   •   June 15, 2005   •   Topics:

Q:

I know people ask you from time to time what you think heaven is like, but I'd also be interested to know what you think hell will be like. I have a friend who says he's looking forward to hell, because all his friends will be there and they'll have one big party. He's not right, is he?


A:

No, he certainly isn’t right. If he could have only a brief glimpse—even just a tenth of a second’s look—at what hell is like, he’d never say again that he looks forward to going there.

Not one word in the Bible suggests that hell is a pleasant place, or a place where anyone would ever want to go. Jesus called hell a place of “outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30, KJV). In one of His parables, Jesus told of a man who was in hell, begging for someone to come and “cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire” (Luke 16:24). The only companions anyone will have in hell will be “the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).

There is much we don’t know about hell—but we know all we need to know. And the most important thing we know about hell is that we don’t have to go there! Yes, we have sinned, and we deserve only God’s judgment. But God loves us, and Christ came to deliver us from hell and welcome us into heaven forever.

Don’t take hell lightly—but don’t take Christ lightly, either. Instead, by a simple prayer of faith ask Him to forgive your sins and come into your life today. The Bible’s promise is true: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).