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Heaven, Hell & Afterlife
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Add to FavoritesHell is real? Prove it. I can't prove that it isn't real, but then again I also can't prove that Narnia isn't real. To quote the arrogant but witty Christopher Hitchens, "What can be asserted without evidence, can also be dismissed without evidence."
If you think Hell is real, you might claim that your proof is simple: it says so in the Bible. But, that's not a logical proof. Here's why. This common version of circular reasoning is often referred to as "begging the question." In order for it to be true, the skeptic must hold the same previously conceived notions on the topic as the believer does. If you say "Hell is real because it says so in the Bible," you assume that I must also believe the Bible to be unarguably true. I don't.
If you think Hell is real, you also might claim that you have seen it yourself! Perhaps you choked on a chicken bone and were declared legally dead for forty-two seconds, and while dead you saw not a glorious white light but an immense red demon sitting on a pillar of fire and brimstone. To that I'd say that you were probably having what many people who suffer from near-death experiences have: a hallucination.
If you think Hell is real, you might say "Hell is other people," to quote Sartre, or "This is Hell because men are cruel," or some other equally pseudo-deep existentialist saying. To that I'd say, if this IS Hell, due to all of its murder and crime, deeply evil men and women, poverty, hunger, death and destruction, could not it also be Heaven? Could it not also, conversely, be Heaven, either to some evil person who loves raping and pillaging, or to someone who sees the benevolence, the kindness, the hope and the love? In other words, you cannot claim that this is Hell, because Earth definitely does not align with the biblical depiction of Hell, so you must be speaking figuratively, and if you are, then Hell is different things to different people, is it not? As Emerson once said, "To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven."
Hell is obviously a man-made concept constructed as a means to keep all of humanity from venturing too far from that which was considered good and decent. Your children misbehaving? Threaten them with hell! Husband have a wandering eye? Remind him of that commandment about adultery and how he could spend eternity in Hell! Hell is the unavoidable unjust punishment. Even if you hold unshakable belief in the Bible, wouldn't you agree that the Jesus depicted in the Bible is a stark contrast from the incongruent description of "Hell"? Jesus opted for justice; remember "turn the other cheek" and "let he who is without sin cast the first stone"? And isn't the definition of justice that the punishment fit the crime? What crime could warrant an eternity of fire and brimstone at the hands of some fierce demon? No, hell is not even a biblical creation; it is a biblical concoction, and most definitely a metaphor.
Learn more about this author, Andrea Nostramo.
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Real
Hell is a real place, because the punishment is just as real as the judgment that precedes it. God has fixed a day in the future on which he will "judge the world with justice" by Christ, Paul informed the Athenians in Acts 17:31.
God did not hesitate in sending rebellious angels into the dense gloom below earth's surface, to be kept in their darkened state. Where they wait for the pronouncement of their eternal fate, we are informed in 2 Peter 2:4. These perpetrators of the angelic rebellion, that left their place of origin, are being held by "eternal bonds", we read in Jude 1:6.
Christians are instructed to rescue men by snatching them away from the "fire", we see in Jude 1:23. Hell is the underworld of deep darkness and flames, where the "fire never goes out," as described in Mark 9:43. Those eternally condemned will be void of all hope of ever glimpsing the light again. Being completely "cut off"(Psalm 37:38) from the brightness of the glory of God forever, hell remains even darker still. A place of "weeping and gnashing of teeth," as described by Jesus in Matthew 8:12.
There are accounts in Scripture that reveal the reality of the wrath of God against sin and rebellion. While Israel roamed the wilderness, a most notable insurrection was referred to as "Korah's rebellion" in Jude 1:11. Korah led a host of community leaders to usurp Aaron's position as high priest, which was firmly established by the Lord. In response to their audacity, "fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense." The bronze incense burners held by the rebels were then lifted up out of the smoldering remains, and shaped with hammers into a covering for the alter.(Numbers 16) Since bronze represents judgment, this account should remind all men to fear the "One who can destroy both soul and body in hell," Jesus commanded in Matthew 10:28.
The "wrath of God is coming" because of homosexuality, shameless immorality, depraved passions, lustful cravings, and greed - which in itself is "idolatry," Paul wrote to the church in Colossians 3:5-6. A man must be "born again"(John 3:3) in order to avoid the judgment that will suddenly reach "those who are disobedient," as written in Ephesians 5:6. Jesus rescue men from the "coming wrath,"(1 Thessalonians 1:10) because He wants the light of God to shine on men, and keep all souls from eternal punishment in a dark dark hell.
Learn more about this author, Nikolaus Federmann.
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