Hell Is Hot!

I honestly wanted to speak on this topic to put some fear in our hearts. We tend to hear about Heaven a lot: why we should go, how beautiful it will be, etc. And by all means, I’m trying my hardest to get there! But what about Hell? What can we read and learn about it to make sure we DON’T go? I hope this reverse psychology helps!

As  some of you may know, I reside in the south, here in Villa Rica, GA. The summers are muggy hot! When I say muggy, I mean even the air is sweating! We have the type of heat where it’s inevitable that you frown when you walk outside. So if you’re ever visiting this way, don’t think we’re mean because our foreheads are wrinkled and eyes are squinted. We’re literally just hot! And sometimes upset with the heat itself. It’s been a lot of times I walked outside and instantly started praying. Because Lord, if I can’t handle the Georgia heat for a few minutes, how much more can I handle the eternal burning in Hell?

The Bible describes Hell as a place of punishment and separation from God. In Matthew 25, Jesus describes the separation of the righteous and the unrighteous when He returns. In verse 41 He says to His disciples, “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels”. But why do you think He added that it was prepared for the devil and his angels if He was speaking about us humans being sent there? Jesus is letting us know that Hell was not intended for us! Our Lord and Savior didn’t make this terrible place just for us to go, because He doesn’t want to see any of His children perish! (Matt. 18:14) But if we are choosing to live a life contrary to His Word, then we are literally making ourselves a bed in Hell! We are befriending Satan, and doing just as he did: disobeying God. 

If Satan doesn’t care about our Almighty God, then why would he care about us who are not even worthy to be compared? Jesus says that those who love Him will keep His commandments. Satan didn’t. If He doesn’t love the Lord, how is it even possible for Him to love us? He doesn’t. And he won’t. He knows that eternal destruction is coming for him and his angels, and he wants to take as many of us with him as he can. Why give in to such evil? Don’t let him win this battle, because being in his army will bring nothing but pain and misery. First on Earth, then in Hell. 

I want you to close your eyes for a brief second and tell me what you see. Most of us will say darkness. But in reality, it’s really nothingness. Think about God’s blind children out there. They don’t just see darkness, they see nothing at all! I know this concept may be hard to grasp, but that’s what it’s going to be like in Hell. God is light, and without Him there, it will be so utterly dark that we will see absolutely nothing! Jesus refers to this punishment as “outer darkness” a few times in Matthew. (Matt. 8:12, 22:13, 25:30). Now, I want you to close your eyes once more, and imagine the most horrific screams you can think of. Imagine hearing the cry of so many voices begging for forgiveness and mercy. Now imagine your own voice. Imagine screaming to the top of your lungs in pain and anguish. My brothers and sisters, this is only the beginning of eternal damnation. 

Jesus often uses the phrase “weeping and gnashing of teeth” to describe the anguish that will be experienced in Hell. For example, Matthew 13:41-42 says, “The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Imagine being in so much pain, that the closest thing you have to comfort, is grinding your teeth.

Recently, I was having trouble sleeping because I grinded my teeth while asleep. It was painful! I felt literal pain in my teeth, not my gums, but my teeth. A feeling I can’t even describe. But I do know that it’s not a feeling I want to have for eternity. Especially if I’m going to be burning along with it! How many of us have ever been burned? Whether it was by a match, lighter, or a hot pan on the stove. How bad did it hurt? How often would you want to feel that type of pain? Well, that is going to be a tiny paper cut in comparison to the wrath God will be sending to those in Hell. 

We have to keep in mind that the souls that are sent to Hell will be burning with SATAN and HIS ANGELS! The ones who had it beyond great in Heaven with the Lord Himself, but still felt like that wasn’t good enough. The souls in Hell are going to be burning with the one that betrayed God Almighty! Just think about how angry God is with Satan and the angels who followed him. Not only did they disobey Him in Heaven, but they’re working day in and day out to convince His children to do the same! There is no way that God is going to show any mercy on them when they’re cast down to Hell. And for those of us that want to follow in Satan’s deceitful footsteps, there will be no mercy for us either. If we make that bed of fire, we have to lay and burn in it. 

Referring back to Matthew 13:42, I want us to try to visualize this moment so we can better understand the severity of this verse. To the best of your ability, try to imagine an angel coming toward you. You see the beauty and light in them. You’re ecstatic, happy, ready for them to take you to Heaven to finally meet our Lord and Savior. You’re taken up to Jesus, but instead of welcoming you the way you’re expecting Him to, He says, “I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matt. 7:22 NKJV) And immediately, the angels toss you into the lake of fire. Never to see Jesus ever again. Never to smile again. Never to feel happiness or peace ever again! Only pain, suffering, crying, regret, screaming. Day after day after day after day. It never ends. I’m getting terrified just talking about it!

Now, let’s pretend you went to school with someone, and to your recollection, you guys were the best of friends! From Pre-K through college. Whenever you needed anything, that friend was there, and vice versa. But as you got older, you got too busy for that friend. You only reached out when you needed help. After receiving the help, the friend didn’t hear from you again. This goes on for a few years after college. Until one day, your friend is getting married. You hear about it and assume that you should be one of the bridesmaids or groomsmen. You go to talk to them, assuming they’re going to ask you to be a part of the wedding. But instead of even getting an invitation, they say “Only my friends and family can be a part of this wedding. Only my family and friends are welcome to come and witness the wedding.” How badly would that hurt? Your best friend (at least you thought), throwing you to the side, after all y’all have been through! This is what it will be like if Jesus were to tell us He never knew us. And to depart from Him. He’s saying in the nicest way “Get out of my face!” But the difference is, it will hurt much, much worse coming from our Lord and Savior. 

This is the fear that the Lord wants us to keep in our hearts. He doesn’t want us to be afraid of Him alone, but to be afraid of His wrath and what’s to come if we don’t obey Him. To be afraid of being cast to the side by His Son on Judgement Day. As written by Solomon in Proverbs 19:23, “The fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it will abide in satisfaction; He will not be visited with evil.” The Lord doesn’t ask us for much. If you take the time to meditate on it, you will see that He only wants us to be good people. The only thing He asks of us is to keep His commandments and love Him and others. What’s hard about that? Why is it that we choose to do bad over good? Why do we tend to brush off the Lord, when all He wants is to love us, and receive that same love in return? Every time we sin willingly, we are choosing Hell over Heaven, Satan over Christ. This shouldn’t be the way we’re living.

But apparently burning for eternity in absolute darkness is not enough for the disobedient. In Mark 9:43-48, Jesus tells us three times “their worm does not die and the fire does not quench” when giving the disciples a brief description of Hell. For years, I always looked at this text as literal worms, and it would creep me out! Worms here on Earth are sickening too, but at least we can kill them! And if you’re not brave enough to kill them, you have the ability to walk away! Or run if you’re just THAT terrified. But either way, we’re able to get away from them. My mind cannot comprehend worms that don’t die after being burned. I want nothing at all to do with those mucky creatures! But after doing a deeper study, I found that the “worm” that Jesus speaks of is far much worse. 

Have you ever done something so terrible that you wanted to put it behind you and pretend it never happened? I can honestly say that I’ve done and said some things that I wish I never had. And it upsets me pretty badly to even think that I was behaving that way. That thing(s) that we all have buried in the back of our mind to never look back on? That’s our worm. We will have to relive those moments over and over and over, for all of eternity. Can you imagine constantly seeing the things that kept you out of Heaven? How you hurt others. The times you pushed God to the side because you were ashamed of Him, or simply wanted nothing to do with Him. The ample amount of times you could have chosen the righteous path but didn’t. The times you brushed off those who were trying to help you get onto the straight and narrow path to Christ. The list goes on and on. And so will that worm. Eternal regret. Eternal “what if’s”. Eternal “I should haves”. Never to be able to push it to the back of your mind or to forgive yourself. That is much worse than any worm this Earth has to offer. In Psalm 103:12, David tells us, “As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.” But this is only while we’re alive here on Earth. Those in Hell would be able to ask for forgiveness, but God won’t be there to forgive. His ears will be shut off to that whole realm, because He is already giving us chance after chance each day we wake up. Once in Hell, it will be too late.

So, not only will there be burning in utter darkness, but our dreadful thoughts will be there on repeat to keep company. God will not be there at all! He’s not even coming to check and make sure anyone is okay or needs a cup of water or the fire turned down a bit. 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 tells us that those who did not know God nor obey the Gospel of Christ will “be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power”. (NKJV) God will not be there! I find it interesting that some of us tend to overlook how often God is with us now. The Apostle Paul speaks to our dependence on God in Acts 17:28, saying, "For in him we live and move and have our being." (NKJV) This underscores the idea that our very existence, every breath we take, and every move we make, is rooted in God's sustaining power. We need God in every millisecond of our lives! I cannot, and do not want to, imagine life without Him. Let alone ETERNAL life without Him! He created us to need Him and depend on His existence. Even if we think we are doing just fine without Him, we’re wrong! Our Lord is still there! And still providing blessings and breath in our nostrils that we don’t even deserve. 

I’m almost finished terrifying you. But before I let you go, I want to tell you the story of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16:19-31. There was a rich man who lived in luxury every day. At his gate lay a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. (I think that minor detail plays a significant role in this parable). In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, “Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.” Take a brief moment to try to imagine the suffering this man had to be going through to only want a FINGERTIP of water! That will forever blow my mind. 

But Abraham replied, “Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.” This emphasizes the finality of God’s decision. There are no second chances after death. Absolutely no turning back!

He answered, “Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.” Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.” ''No, father Abraham,” he said, ”but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.” He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” The rich man wanted to save his family after it was too late for him to do so. We need to try and save ourselves and our loved ones now while we have the chance! We should be spending everyday of our lives avoiding this horrendous place, and helping others avoid it as well. 

Overall, Hell is not the place we want to be! And God is giving us daily opportunities to get right, and choose the straight and narrow path. He loves us and wants us to spend eternal life with Him! The devil cares nothing for our souls, he just wants us to suffer with him. He doesn’t love us, and neither does this world. Why not choose love? Why not choose Heaven? Why not choose GOD? Let’s get right, before it’s too late. We don’t want Hell to be our home. Thank you for talking with me. Let’s walk with Him.