Answer
It is interesting that a much higher percentage of people believe in the existence of heaven than believe in the existence of hell. According to the Bible, though, hell is just as real as heaven. The Bible explicitly teaches that hell is a real place to which the wicked/unbelieving are sent after death. We have all sinned against God (Romans 3:23). The just punishment for sin is death (Romans 6:23). Since all our sin is ultimately against God (Psalm 51:4), and since God is infinitely glorious, the punishment for sin must also be infinite. Eternal hell—the second death—is the punishment we have earned because of our sin.
The reality of hell was taught by Jesus. His warnings about hell are unambiguous in passages such as Matthew 5:22, Mark 9:47–48, and Luke 12:5. Pastor Alistair Begg draws this conclusion: “If Jesus Christ is Lord, then I have to believe exactly what he taught. If we start from that premise, then we can’t simply excise the hard parts out of it. We’ve got to take him at his word. The most loving person who has ever lived spoke so straightforwardly about the awfulness of hell” (https://youtu.be/ycrg9Q8x8dc, accessed 11/7/24).
The punishment of the wicked dead in hell is described in Scripture as “eternal fire” (Matthew 25:41), “unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12), “shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2), a place where “the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48), a place of “torment” and “fire” (Luke 16:23–24), “everlasting destruction” (2 Thessalonians 1:9), a place “burning sulfur” where “the smoke of . . . torment rises forever and ever” (Revelation 14:10–11), and a “lake of burning sulfur” where the wicked are “tormented day and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:10).
The punishment of the wicked in hell is as never-ending as the bliss of the righteous in heaven. Jesus Himself indicates that punishment in hell is just as everlasting as life in heaven (Matthew 25:46). The wicked are forever subject to the fury and the wrath of God. Those in hell will acknowledge the perfect justice of God and the lordship of Jesus Christ, the Savior they rejected (Psalm 76:10; Philippians 2:10–11).
Yes, hell is real. Yes, hell is a place of torment and punishment that lasts forever and ever, with no end. Praise God that, through Jesus, we can escape this eternal fate (John 3:16, 18, 36).
