If Hell is defined as separation from God, what does this mean for its residents?

Question

For Christians, what is God and what will those in hell be separated from?

Answer 1

If we read the bible we read "God is......." in many places. Each mention does not specify the interity of God but just one facet of Him. If we collect all these references we can see what we will be separated from in hell (by our choosing).

Can we be separated from God's presence, even though He is omnipresent? Although King David wrote "If I go to the highest mountain, You are there, If I go to the depths of the deepest sea, You are there, If I go to the ends of the earth you are there -( I can't get away from your presence)", he also wrote "Cast me not away from Your presence oh LORD and remove not your Spirit from me". It would appear that we can be absent from the presence of God and His Spirit.

God is love
God is light in Him is no shadow of turning
Jesus said "I am the way the truth and the life
The fruit of the Spirit is : love, joy,peace, gentleness, meekness, long suffering, self control, patience and kindness.

Can you imagine an existance with no love. no joy, no light, no truth, etc (from the list above).

That would really be "hell".

Answer 2

We can get into serious theological discussion here, and probably get nowhere. Hell in the present means that because one is separated from God, they have no hope for the future, and no faith for the present. They live a life based on materialism, what they can get, without ever finding true fulfillment. Perhaps that's why many wealthy or famous people turn to drugs - even fame leaves an empty feeling inside of you.

So...Hell is the condition, right now, of those who are not believers in Jesus Christ.

As far as "what is God" is concerned, you can more easily research this yourself, or read the answers from others.

Answer 3

I never thought this would happen, but I agree completely with "SpamandHam." The doctrine that Hell is separation from God cannot be found in the Bible. Since God is omnipresent, this concept is an impossibility.

Those in Hell will be separated from the living and the saved. They will be tormented and eventually resurrected, then cast into the Lake of Fire, which will annihilate them.

Answer 4

Revelation 21:8 talks about ..."the lake of fire which burns with fire and brimstone..."
and Revelation 22:14-15 says "Blessed are those who...enter by the gates into the city. Outside are..."

I don't think there is an actual verse (directly translated from the original Greek language that the Bible was written, and not some translation of a translation) that mentions hell. But there are many verses in the New Testament that talk about the lake of fire. And according to the verses the lake of fire is outside the New Jerusalem. So it's still around, but the people there will not be able to partake in the holy city and their enjoyment. They will be burned in fire and brimstone for eternity (Revelation 14:10-11)

Answer 5

hello:}
Christians believe that separation from God means without the light ,a dark void where you simple do not go to the light .others Christians believe you are going to burn in hell, in a inferno for eternity .
i am not from organized religion ,i am a spiritualist .i believe souls that are dark /evil will get to come right back here to earth immediately and that they will get to experience first hand some of the evil/darkness that they perpetuated themselves
to me that is truly a hellish thought .
so too me hell really is here on earth .
that is why i live trying to do and be the best i can ,without judgment,i do not want to have to come back here over and over again [although we all must many times ].[my belief only ].
but with this thinking it tends to make me much more compassionate ,more giving ,less gossipy ,trying to be kinder and more loving so that i don't have to keep repeating a life till i GET it .
but each to their own ideas of hell ,whatever motivates you to be a good person ,or makes you strive towards a better soul .
most Christians will think this a horrible thought i am sure and will say oh this one is going straight to hell .
to bad people are often closed minded ,for really we humans are not allowed to know all the answers .no one has them .
anyway
Peggy:}:}:}

Answer 6

haha, there's actually nothing in the Bible to suggest God is omnipresent, omniscient, nor omnipotent. The bible certainly seems to hint at omniscience and omnipotent, but doesn't really say that he is (only that he's very powerful). Also, my understanding is that Jews see hell not as a place of torture but as simply separation from God, so clearly God would not be in hell (because hell is the absence of God). Now Christians on the other hand base their notion of hell on the novel "The Divine Comedy" so who knows, maybe God and the devil are the same thing, certainly would make sense if you read between the lines in the Bible (perhaps that's the big plot twist!!). @This Bird is for you !..., so where in the Bible does it talk about responding with sarcasm to honest questions about your faith? Notice that by responding with that verse, you actually didn't follow your own advice.

Answer 7

Separation here is not distance in space; but it means lack of spiritual qualities. In other words, hell is the condition of the soul which reflects no names and attributes of God.

"It is evident that the divine nearness is an unlimited nearness, be it in this world or the next one. This is a nearness which is sanctified from the comprehension of the minds. The more a man seeketh light from the Sun of Truth, the nearer he will draw. For instance, a clear body is near unto the sun, and a black stone is far from the sun. This nearness dependeth upon clearness, purity and perfection and that remoteness is due to density, dullness (or obscurity) and imperfection."
(Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu'l-Baha v1, p. 204)

Answer 8

separation is the worst thing , because there is no hope. There is no more mercy, no release from pain, no water for the "unquenchable thirst", no one to hear your cries except the ones who delight in tormenting you, no joy, no peace, no light, no end to your pain, terror, misery, no relief from the heat, that's what the separation means. As long as you are alive there is hope, there is a chance to be saved, but when you're dead, whatever condition your relationship with God is, it's final. If you belong to Him, you are safe with Him in heaven, if you refused Him, you are forever without Him, and forever in the presence of satan and his demons.
PS for melanie, there are numerous scriptures in the Bible about the conditions in hell, what you have to do is READ the bible.

Answer 9

For Christians God is are Savior.For nonbeliever He will be a Judge.Those who are judged and found unworthy will be cast into a lake of fire to be tormented.This is the second death that separates us from a Saving God forever.There you will no longer be able to except Jesus and be saved.Now you can.So why not allow Him to save you before its to late?

Answer 10

As in the debate over the problem of evil, an option open to theists is to state that man is not perceptive enough to actually understand the "mind" of God, and cannot therefore conclude that the existence of Hell is unjust. The crux of this is that it is very possible that we do not understand the mind of God, and thus may not understand the reasons for the existence of Hell.

With regard to the question "why is there evil in the world?" there are at least candidate reasons why evil might serve some sort of useful purpose - for example, it might be character forming, or give humans something to struggle against. With Hell however, most such purposes fall away. Hell clearly does not serve any interests of its residents. The only possible conclusion is that God has reasons for Hell that humans cannot fathom.

However, denying human understanding of God's will has a logical windfall: all aspects of God's will become arguably incomprehensible to humans. (It is hard to argue that God's punishments are the only case where His will is beyond human understanding.) And if God's will is beyond human understanding, its products (including the definition of Hell) are beyond human understanding. The inability to even define "Hell" renders the "Problem of Hell" outside rational consideration. The problem is circular: human interpret the religion to state that God's will is beyond human understanding, but the religion is a product of God's will, so -- one must conclude -- the religion is beyond human understanding. But if the religion is beyond human understanding, human understanding of the religion cannot be trusted to define the nature of God's will.

On the contrary, many believe that humans can reach a fairly good understanding of the nature of God. For example, through reading scripture, a Christian may come to believe that God is "just and right" (Deuteronomy 32:4) or while reading Ecclesiastes come to the conclusion that God cannot be understood by man. If someone holds the belief that he or she understands god and believes in the injustice of Hell, then his or her faith in God and/or personal understanding of God may be disturbed.

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Denying the assumptions
For those who believe the traditional doctrine of Hell is unconvincing, and believe that claims 1 and 2 are incompatible, the only course of action is to deny one or both of them.

The first claim can be denied by rejecting the existence of God (atheism), or of a God sufficiently powerful or loving to prevent people from being consigned to Hell.

The second claim can also be denied. Three possible ways to do this (while maintaining a belief in God) are the doctrines of Annihilationism, where Hell is seen only as oblivion without consciousness, Universalism, where everyone is saved, without exception, and the Second chance doctrine (or Escapism), where even after one has been sent to Hell, one can still accept God and be saved. This would seem to deny the story Jesus told about Dives and Lazarus. Some also assert in denial of claim 2 that the only "torture" in Hell is that of separation from God — that separation from God is the embodiment of pain itself and hence that it constitutes infinite torture in a symbolic sense (cf. John 3:19-20).