Comfort and Torment

There are varying degrees of understanding when it comes to our comprehension of the afterlife—of heaven and hell—of comfort and torment. Heaven is almost always associated with paradise. Conversely, the Hebrew and Greek words usually interpreted as hell don’t always mean the same thing, and the Bible differentiates between them in significant ways.

The Hebrew word Sheol and the Greek word Hades are most often translated as “the grave” or “the realm of the dead”. The common perception is of a temporary state of the dead before the final judgement. This does not equate with the notion of purgatory where people receive a second chance to repent and are purified, a concept that is not biblical.

Residents of Sheol and Hades are destined for eternal punishment with no chance of parole. Jesus illustrated this truth in the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus recorded in Luke 16:19—31. The beggar Lazarus died and was carried off to Abraham’s bosom, while the rich man found himself in a place of torment, where he could see Lazarus far away but could not traverse the great chasm between them.

The text says that Lazarus was enjoying comfort, while the rich man was in agony in a fire. Verse twenty-seven states that the rich man asked Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his father and five brothers so they would not also wind up in that place of torment.

ETERNAL CONSCIOUS TORMENT

Eternal conscious torment is a hotly debated topic that is supported by scripture. The notion of resting in peace is not scriptural and is a misrepresentation of biblical truth. People in Sheol and Hades experience conscious pain and torment while those who die in Christ immediately go to be with Him.

Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with Me in paradise,” (Luke 23:43), and Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:8, “We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” In the first chapter of Philippians he declares, “I desire to depart and be with Christ,” (Philippians 1:23). Those who belong to Christ do not enter the torment of Hades.

In addition to Hades, scripture mentions another place where those who doomed are held. “God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to Tartarus, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgement,” (2 Peter 2:4). The word Tartarus does not appear anywhere else in scripture but it can be found in Greek literature as a place for the worst criminals.

Jude 1:6 also reveals, “And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home—these He has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.”

In Luke 8:26—39 Jesus encounters a man possessed by many demons and they begged Him not to send them into the Abyss or Abussos (Luke 8:31). Abyss can be translated as bottomless pit and represents an underworld prison or holding place of confinement for evil spirits and demons. The Abussos and Tartarus are closely related Greek notions, yet they are distinct theologically.

THE LAKE OF FIRE

The Lake of Fire is described as the final destination prepared for the devil and his angels, as well as the unrepentant who are condemned to eternal punishment (Matthew 25:41). Revelation 20:10 states that the devil, the antichrist (the beast of Revelation 13) and the false prophet (Revelation 19:20, 20:10) will be cast into the Lake of Fire.

Additionally, Revelation 20:14 discloses, “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” So, death and Hades are temporary states and distinct from our cultural understanding of hell.

And Revelation 21:6—8 provides further contrast between the saved and the unsaved. “He said to me, ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

Death is not annihilation. When someone dies, they do not cease to exist. And the second death isn’t the end—it is the next step for the condemned. If physical death (the first death) does not bring about the cessation of life, then the second death will not either.

The second death is the final, irreversible judgment that condemns the unrepentant to eternal punishment in the Lake of Fire. The Bible makes a clear distinction between Hades and the Lake of Fire. Hades is temporary while the Lake of Fire is permanent.

Jesus used the term Gehenna metaphorically to symbolize eternal punishment. Gehenna was a valley outside of Jerusalem where pagan child sacrifice once took place and served as a garbage dump where fire continually burned. In Mark 9:48 He refers to Gehenna as the place, “where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’”

GOD IS NOT CRUEL AND HUMANITY IS NOT INNOCENT

God is not cruel and humanity is not innocent. Our Creator is holy and just and His perfect justice demands judgment, so He took it upon Himself to pay the penalty that we deserve, thereby satisfying the legal requirements of His perfect law. When we believe in the atonement, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we will be saved from the consequences of sin. However, God gives us the freedom to choose His gift of grace or reject salvation.

The existence of hell illustrates that sin is far more serious than humans imagine and the cross demonstrates that God’s love for us is far greater than we deserve. He took it upon Himself to pay the price that we are incapable of paying so that we can receive mercy and forgiveness we cannot earn. It is our responsibility to investigate this truth because we cannot claim obliviousness when Christ’s crucifixion is incontrovertible.

In Acts 17:30—31 Paul declares, “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent. For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

The Bible clearly defines the consequences of mankind’s actions. We will either experience comfort or torment. Many will find comfort in their physical lives only to receive torment in the afterlife, and others will endure torment and suffering in this life and be rewarded with comfort in eternal life.

“Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me, for whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it,’” (Matthew 16:24—25).