What Will Hell Be Like?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Revelation 20, 2 Peter 2, Acts 2, 2 Thessalonians 1, Luke 12, Luke 10

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--what-will-hell-be-like
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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first it's important to understand the meaning of the word hell in English it actually represents several different words in the Bible so we've got to start there so in Revelation 20 for example when death and hell are CA cast in the Lake of Fire hell there is the Greek term Hades which means place of the dead it's a parallel to the Old Testament uh word Shield but there is a different word used by Jesus uh for hell in the sense of the Lake of Fire and that's gehenna and actually there's a third word used in second Peter Two for the angels that were uh cast into judgment and there the hell is from the Greek word tart Tartarus which uh in Greek mythology or Greek thought would be like the lowest hell or you know the place of the Dead where they're suffering so to summarize what I think is happening when the Bible the King James version talks about people going to hell it really means the place of the Dead Old Testament Shell New Testament Hades not the permanent place where people will go after the last judgment who are unsaved but a temporary place uh so uh if you look at the story Jesus told of the rich man in Lazarus it seems that both were in a place of waiting Lazarus in Abraham's bosom in Paradise a place of rest and comfort uh although not in the direct presence of the Lord at that time the rich man in a place of Torment or unrest but separated by a gulf it seems that both were in this temporary place so to try to put it all together and I would say there's more we don't know about the future and the afterlife uh and what we call the intermediate state that is the Place between the time between we die and the time of the last judgment there's more that we don't know about that than what we do know but piecing together what we do know uh it seems that when people die they go to a place of waiting for the Judgment now before Jesus Christ died and rose again to pay the price for our sins both Believers and unbelievers went to the same place of shol Hades but two compartments one a place of rest one a place of unrest

yes I do think there's been a difference because after the resurrection of Christ uh you find according to Paul's statements that Believers go into the direct presence of God it seems that one of the benefits of the Cross is that Jesus like all other humans as a human when he died he went to this place of Hades which um Acts 2 actually States and it's King James word hell but it's the Greek Hades and it seems that he proclaimed Victory and and led the righteous dead into the presence of the Lord so they're still waiting for the resurrection so it's still an intermediate state but it's in the presence of the Lord so with that in mind Revelation 20 would be saying the unrighteous dead would be in this place of waiting Hades so their body is in the grave their soul spirit is in this temporary place of waiting Hades so when they go to the last judgment and they're found to have not believed on Jesus Christ not received his salvation they will endure the permanent judgment so death and Hades will be cast to the Lake of Fire so the Lake of Fire becomes the permanent judgment now Jesus spoke of this a number of times the Lake of Fire uh and so that is the Eternal punishment and let me just add and by the way I have a chapter on in my book anchor points which discusses Salvation And it discusses Eternal judgment and I think we should be careful I believe hell the Lake of Fire in the Eternal sense is a real place and it's a real place of separation from God but I think trying to describe it in physical terms is inadequate so yes Jesus and here in Revelation it describes Des cries it as a lake of fire the underling Greek word is gehen which actually comes from the valley of ham so in the first century uh Jerusalem ham was a valley on the west and the south of Jerusalem and it was kind of the garbage dump for the city uh in ancient times when Israel backslid the the people of Judah backslid they actually sacrificed children to Molech in this Valley so was considered to be a place of disgust physical garbage uh fires burning endlessly maggots uh eating on things and also a place of spiritual disgust spiritual Horrors where the most terrible blasphemy and child sacrifice had occurred uh in violation of of God's plan and the worship of the one true God so for Jesus to take that term it it's a a very significant metaphor this is what eternity without God will be like but to try to translate into physical terms I think is missing the point because Jesus also Talk use Parables talking about people being cast into outer Darkness so some people say well which is it is the Lake of Fire is it like is it out of Darkness you know this and that and so I think the point is a spiritual reality so it's a real place but to try to draw a picture of little demons you know poking people p Forks or people on a barbecue spit being turned over slowly to be roasted you know that's uh grossly lettering the scripture what I would say over literalizing it I think what we should instead understand second Thessalonians chapter 1 says that when Jesus Christ returns he will come in flaming fire to take Vengeance on those who do not know God and who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ they will be punished with Everlasting destruction from the presence of God so the essence of the Eternal judgment what we call the Lake of Fire hell in that one sense is to be eternally separated from god so let's think about this God is the source of life every good and perfect gift comes from God according to the Book of James and so even today all of us even atheist Sinners uh don't realize it necessarily but they're enjoying the grace of God the common Grace that sustains all of us uh every good thing that people experience love joy peace It ultimately comes from God even in human relationships it's because God has created us with that capacity so although we don't realize it many times everyone is enjoying God's grace but sin separates us from God and if we persist in sin do not repent do not obey the gospel and we die in that conition then now we're going to an eternal separation from God so I believe what's going to happen is sinners in the Lake of Fire will experience the total absence of God in a way that they never experienced in this life the total absence of all Grace all goodness all love all joy all peace and I think the essence of that punishment will not be a physical burning because after all even Jesus said the worm dies not the fire isn't quenched so it can't be a physical fire or burn up your physical body but it's talking about a spiritual reality uh that's greater than we can comprehend but it has to be described in terms we can comprehend such as fire and outer Darkness but the essence of it is that we will be separated from our creator uh and and it will be the spiritual anguish and I think that includes regret and and and so people who've known the Lord and rejected him will have a great U experience of punishment than perhaps someone who who never knew the Lord and of course this is such an awful reality to comprehend because now you're cut off from the source of Life the source of Grace you you actually God isn't sending anyone to the Lake of Fire people are going there because of their own choice of separating themselves from the source of life so if you separate yourself from the sources of Life what's the alternative death and death is not not cessation of existence but separation and the book of Hebrews talks about how that Jesus tasted death for every person and the Book of John talks about if you believe in Jesus you'll never die well what do that mean we are all subject to physical death before the Rapture but those of us who are saved as I said even in our unsaved condition we are enjoying the common grace of God in this world then we're saved now we enjoy fellowship with with God we will die physically but we'll go in the presence of the Lord and then will'll have eternity with the Lord we will never experience that Eternal separation I'm talking about so we will die physically but we will never experience that total Eternal separation from God I think that when Jesus died not only did he die physically but as indicated by his cry on the cross my God my God why have you forsaken me he took the punishment of the sins of the world he actually felt as a sinner feel in the lake of heart he felt for that time the Eternal separation he tasted that death for everyone so for those of us who were saved Jesus Paid that price for us we will never experience that for those who are lost they have rejected Christ sacrifice they will experience that now this outcome is so awful that of course our minds struggle uh you know is it fair is it just and I will say this that when you sin against an infinite God there can be infinite consequences but I do think God is just and fair and the Bible does give some indications that uh even those who die without God God will be fair towards them now how that will be implemented I don't know some have come up with ideas like the Roman Catholic Church says well you know if you believed in Christ but you and you were part of the church but you committed some sins you die you go to purgatory you you spend ages paying for your sins then you go to heaven well obviously the Bible doesn't teach that others say there's Annihilation that so that you're either immediately or after some time of suffering you're just wiped out of existence well the Bible doesn't really teach that but these are human ways to try to make sense of the awfulness of this punishment but try to con maybe to convince ourselves or or unbelievers or God's gonna be fair he's not going to be because people say well isn't that excessive punishment but I do think there are other ways to look at that for example in Luke 12 Jesus gave a very interesting Parable that said the servant that did not know his master's will but but VI violated will be beaten with few Stripes but the servant who knew his master's will and deliberately violated will be beaten with many stripes so there will be different levels of punishment based on a person's knowledge and culpability uh um doesn't mean anybody can be saved without Christ uh nobody can be saved by good works but yet Works will be taken to account and their their knowledge what they knew what they should have known will be taken to account there are many passages of scripture that tell us that God doesn't judge us by what we don't know he judges Us by what we do know or at least should have known again that doesn't mean someone who doesn't know anything gets a free pass but it means God will be fair and just and the judgment will be based on their actual knowledge or what they could have known and their culpability not by some standard that they could not have known or did not know there's an also an interesting statement in the gospels you see it in Luke 10 for example where Jesus is pronouncing judgment on the cities of Galilee that reject his message and he said it would be more tolerable in the Judgment for Ty and sod Sodom these evil cities because if they had had this kind of message they would have repented so what does that mean it doesn't mean people are going to be saved that are disobedient but somehow judgment will be more tolerable for some than for others and so you know some have wondered you know in eternity could there be a time of punishment and suffering and then you kind of go into a snance or or you know maybe a semiconscious or disquietude where the intensity is gone I don't know how that that works I know we can't say the Book of Revelation says that the unbelieving and the disobedient will be in the Lake of Fire so we can't offer salvation for someone who rejects the gospel or uh who is disobedient to God but I think we can say and maybe this is where I'll end up if we say this seems too awful to contemplate uh is this really just for all eternity I will just say we trust that God will be just and fair so we cannot mitigate or deny the awful reality of Eternal separation from God uh it's not based on God being punitive it's based on the the reality God is Holy we're Sinners we reject the Plan of Salvation so we reject fellowship with God we're left with the alternative so it's like unplugging yourself from electricity so you don't have power uh you can't have it because you're disconnected from The Source if we disconnect from the source of life and Grace We're left with the absence of life and Grace so that's not God's fault that's the way it is and it's permanent but I do believe God is just and fair and merciful so I believe that even for those who are lost uh God will have a fair outcome uh and we can't really understand what that will be like but we can trust that it is just and fair so to go back to your original question um you have to understand that uh the word hell in the King James English represents uh two primary Concepts one a temporary place of waiting called Hades before the judgment and then the permanent place of judgment um gehenna or the lake of fire for those who have ultimately imp permanently rejected the gospel