Do You Believe in Hell?

Mark 9:44, Exodus 34:6-7, Romans 6:23

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Two American soldiers on an American troops ship came up to their chaplain and asked this question: “Do you believe in hell?” To which he responded, “No, I do not.” The soldiers turned to him and said, “Well, then we ask that you please resign, because if there is no hell, we don’t need you. And, if there is a hell, we don’t want you to lead us astray.”

Do you believe in hell? The Bible describes hell as eternal separation from God, a very real place of misery and torment, a place of eternal destruction, yet also eternal punishment. As it says in God’s Word, it’s a place where

Where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. (Mark 9:44)

It’s described as a very real place of eternal suffering and torment. You know, it’s very popular today for people to say, I don’t believe in hell. I don’t believe that hell exists. Or maybe others might say, Well, I believe that hell exists, but I don’t believe that God would send anyone there or others that might say, Well, if hell does exist, the only people that are going to go there are the mass murderers and the serial rapist, but certainly not an ordinary person like you or I.

You know if you think about it, somebody that might say, well, my God, wouldn’t send anyone to hell or my God wouldn’t even have a place called hell. What are we doing? We’re really turning to our own thoughts and our own feelings and making ourselves God. It’s important for what we believe concerning God to actually be based on something. Maybe we can look at the world around us. And what do we see concerning the evidence for God? We certainly see in the creation of the world, the universe, that there must be a God out there who is wise and also all powerful to create this completely complex universe and world in which we live. It’s amazing. We also know that he must be a God of right and wrong. He’s a God that’s placed a sense of right and wrong, even on our hearts and in our consciences as well. And all these things that we can observe. But one things we can’t observe concerning God is from what we see in the world, as we can’t really observe that God is a God of forgiveness and love. That really comes from the Bible, doesn’t it?

Our belief that God is a loving God comes from what we hear in the Bible. We think about the way that God really explained His name to Moses in Exodus chapter 34. When he says this,

The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and overflowing with mercy and truth, maintaining mercy for thousands, forgiving guilt and rebellion and sin. (Exodus 34:6-7)

He is certainly described as a God of mercy and a god of forgiveness there, right? We also know further from the Bible why bad things happen in the world. It isn’t because God intended it to be that way, but it’s because of sin that has broken this world and destroyed his perfect creation and brought with it destruction and pain and suffering and death. Yet if we’re going to hold to what the Bible says, that God is a God of love and forgiveness, shouldn’t we also hold to what the Bible says, that God is a God of justice as well? In Exodus 34, it goes on to say

He will by no means clear the guilty. (Exodus 34:7)

We think about later on in the Bible, in the book of Romans, it says,

The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23)

It tells us very plainly that those who sin deserve to die and not just death here in this life on this world, but eternal death forever in hell. That’s what the Bible says. Yet we wonder how could God be both a God of justice who sends people to hell for their sin and punishes them for their guilt, but also a God of grace and mercy and love? Well, it all comes together in Christ, doesn’t it? We see both of those things are true of God in Christ. Think about why Jesus went to the cross. If there is no hell, Jesus doesn’t need to go to the cross. There’s no point to his suffering there on the cross. But he goes specifically because God’s justice had to be satisfied. Because we deserve punishment. We deserve hell. Jesus went to the cross to suffer your hell for you to give you an escape from hell. And that’s how God shows his love. God is is perfectly just. He has to punish sin. But thanks be to God that he did that in Christ for us. And He has promised now that all who believe in Jesus shall be saved, shall be spared hell and have eternal life. However, the sad reality is that those who do not believe in Jesus will be condemned as the Bible declares.

So when it comes to the question of hell, let us not disregard it simply because of our own human thinking and our own human emotions. Let us stick to what the word says. That word that tells us the truth, that God is a God of justice. That does send people to hell. But also especially that he is a God of love. Who in love send Jesus is our Savior from sin. Amen.