Alex: Is hell a place of literal fire and brimstone?

Question

Everyone keeps saying that hell is literal and yet in Luke it says that few are saved. Narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life and few are the ones finding it.
So most people are going to hell. Isn't that kind of cruel?
Preacher said: "at young life that most people are going to heaven." So who's right?

Answer 1

Many religions teach that the wicked will go to a fiery hell and be tormented forever. Is this teaching logical and Scriptural? The human life span is limited to 70 or 80 years. Even if someone was guilty of extreme wickedness all his life, would everlasting torment be a just punishment? No. It would be grossly unjust to torment a man forever for the sins that he committed in a short lifetime.

Only God can reveal what happens after people die, and he has done so in his written Word, the Bible. This is what the Bible says: “As the [beast] dies, so the [man] dies; and they all have but one spirit . . . All are going to one place. They have all come to be from the dust, and they are all returning to the dust.” (Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20) There is no mention here of a fiery hell. Humans return to dust—to nonexistence—when they die.

In order to be tormented, a person has to be conscious. Are the dead conscious? Once again, the Bible gives the answer: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5) It is impossible for the dead, who are “conscious of nothing at all,” to experience agony anywhere.

Since the dead have no conscious existence, hell cannot be a fiery place of torment where the wicked suffer after death. What, then, is hell? Examining what happened to Jesus after he died helps to answer that question. The Bible writer Luke recounts: “Neither was [Jesus] forsaken in Hades [hell, King James Version] nor did his flesh see corruption.” (Acts 2:31) Where was the hell to which even Jesus went? The apostle Paul wrote: “I handed on to you . . . that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, yes, that he has been raised up the third day according to the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:3, 4) So Jesus was in hell, the grave, but he was not abandoned there, for he was raised up, or resurrected.

Consider also the case of the righteous man Job, who suffered much. Wishing to escape his plight, he pleaded: “Who will grant me this, that thou mayest protect me in hell [Sheol], and hide me till thy wrath pass?” (Job 14:13, Douay Version) How unreasonable to think that Job desired to go to a fiery-hot place for protection! To Job, “hell” was simply the grave, where his suffering would end. The Bible hell, then, is the common grave of mankind where good people as well as bad ones go.

Could it be that the fire of hell is symbolic of all-consuming, or thorough, destruction? Separating fire from Hades, or hell, the Scriptures say: “Death and Hades were hurled into the lake of fire.” “The lake” mentioned here is symbolic, since death and hell (Hades) that are thrown into it cannot literally be burned. “This [lake of fire] means the second death”—death from which there is no hope of coming back to life.—Revelation 20:14.

The lake of fire has a meaning similar to that of “the fiery Gehenna [hell fire, King James Version]” that Jesus spoke of. (Matthew 5:22; Mark 9:47, 48) Gehenna occurs 12 times in the Christian Greek Scriptures, and it refers to the valley of Hinnom, outside the walls of Jerusalem. When Jesus was on earth, this valley was used as a garbage dump, “where the dead bodies of criminals, and the carcasses of animals, and every other kind of filth was cast.” (Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible) The fires were kept burning by adding sulfur to burn up the refuse. Jesus used that valley as a proper symbol of everlasting destruction.

As does Gehenna, the lake of fire symbolizes eternal destruction. Death and Hades are “hurled into” it in that they will be done away with when mankind is freed from sin and the condemnation of death. Willful, unrepentant sinners will also have their “portion” in that lake. (Revelation 21:8) They too will be annihilated forever. On the other hand, those in God’s memory who are in hell—the common grave of mankind—have a marvelous future.

Hope that helps

Answer 2

I feel that Hell, as everything else in the Bible a wonderful, descriptive, picture of what it would be like to be without God's love. When the first "Hell" appeared in the Bible it was given the same name as the garbage dump, so in essence it was saying if you don't have God's love you might as well live in this seething, burning trash heap. It has been taken so literally by religious leaders to scare people into believing. Just like I have trouble seeing a place in the sky paved with gold with jewel encrusted walls and a giant pearl as a gate. A pretty picture at best.
I think literally Hell would be a place without God, without hope. Heaven a place full of peace and love. I don't need a mansion of silver just a calm place to dwell without doubt and pain for all time.

Answer 3

hell is not a place of literal fire and brimstone. Those are images given to us to describe the pain of Hell.

Hell is existence without the love and mercy of God. It is an existence of complete and total hopelessness. There is no love, no joy, no mercy, no hope, no peace, no compassion, and no possiblity of any of these things.

Yes, the anguish we feel here on earth is a small taste of Hell, but here, there is at least hope that the pain and anguish will end. In Hell, there is no hope.

As to how many people are going to Heaven and how many are going to Hell? No one really knows. Luke was saying that getting to Heaven will not be an automatic pass for us. Our eternal destiny depends on the kind of world we create here in this life.

Answer 4

"All children are near to heaven." This means that heaven is not a place. They are near because they are pure, they are sinless.
When we grow up, we learn dirty things from this corrupted world, we commit sins, the state of our soul becomes dull, that is hell, that is far from God.
We love our parents, if we are separated from them, that is our worst suffering, our hell.
When we know that God gives us parents and all the best things in His possession for our enjoyment, we will greatly love Him. So the separation from such a divine Father would be more miserable than anything else, more than any burning heat.
Let us learn, meditate and realize this truth for ourselves. In this age we no longer depend on any priests, on any pressure from any men on earth. We are fully independent to seek the way to our spiritual hell or paradise.

Answer 5

Those who do not accept Jesus as their savior and do not become born again go to hell.
Have you accepted Jesus as your savior? If not, and if you don't you are going to hell.

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.


James 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

Revelation 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

Answer 6

I think because men wrote the bible; they put whatever they want us to believe and hid the real truth from the world.
There is a hell, its right here on earth.
When things go well u r in heaven;when things turn sad you r in hell,that is my concept of hell and heaven.
I believe god put us here for our souls to experience things and grow so that we can return to him with great knowledge.

Answer 7

According to hisorians the concept of hell derived from a communal burning pit for garbage. Believe as you wish.

Answer 8

Hell is a myth used to terrify people into submission. Heaven is a myth used to seduce people into submission. There is no place for either in the real world.

Answer 9

Hell does not exist. It was made up by people in an attempt to control others.

Answer 10

hell could be 100 times worst than described in the Bible so don't wait to find out if it's true, accept the Lord as your savior and see the glory of God.