Hell is an explanation of that place of punishment that the Bible refers to and warns us to not ignore it as a threat from God.
Explanation of what is the Concept of Hell
We need to start with the concept of God. God exists. While God is omnipresent (everywhere present), He has special places where He is present, like in heaven, like in a reunion of Christians which is the church. Heaven has to exist because God exists. Heaven is more a place of blessing for the saved than the need of God to exist somewhere.
The counter-part of heaven is hell. If God threatens men with punishment if they ignore and disobey God, then simply ceasing to exist is not sufficient. Those who defy God must suffer, and that necessitates an existence after their physical death, and greater than anything that they have suffered before. From this point, we can understand what hell is.
Some people refuse to accept the existence of hell. It is like refusing to accept the existence of dentists. A dentist’s office exists for a purpose. Just because you do not like to go to a dentist because you associate pain with it (which is a valid association), that does not mean it doesn’t exist nor does it invalidate the dental problems that almost everybody has.
Terms used for Hell
The Pit – Taken from the experience of falling, from those in hell.
Sheol – Translated “hell” the place of the dead.
Lake of Fire – Future place that God will throw hell into that lake of fire. Most probably it is the sun. When God does this, maybe it will be blacked up, and all the heat, fire, and fury of the sun will be directed inward. Jesus will replace the sun in the future.
What is Hell? What does it represent?
Hell represents a physical place (same as heaven) where a person who has died on this earth continues to exist. Jesus explained and affirmed the reality of both heaven and hell in Luke 16 in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.
To sum up the idea of hell, God calls to every person during their journey on earth. For the vast majority of these people, they are fools. They say no to God.
Psalms 14:1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
The translation needs a bit of clarification. “There is no God” in Hebrew is actually “No God”. For all the life of these people, they deny God from entering into their lives and affecting their lives. When they die physically, God gives them what they want. An existence without God in it. This is hell.
The key element that these fools do not understand is simply that there is great pleasure and blessing in the presence of God. That presence doesn’t come “cheap,” but rather, Christ had to die on the cross to get us into the presence of God. We should live our lives constantly seeking the presence of God; we should constantly draw near to God (make God and His will a foundational part of our lives and thinking).
Hell is a horrible place. The worst part of hell is not the suffering that goes on there, but rather the worst part of hell is simply the absence of God. There is no mercy from God for the suffering in hell. The rich man had to turn to Abraham, because God will not hear nor grant any “help” or mercy for the people in hell.
See our definition of heaven