What is hell really?

Question

I was reading the Case for Faith by Lee Strobel, and it talked about how hell wasn't exactly what people expected it to be. Like it being a burning place with fire or a frozen wasteland is just figures of speech. The interview in the book says that hell is a place where you are completely isolated from God forever. You reject God, you go to hell where God is no longer connected to you. Like burning fire and stuff are all just figures of speech. And it's not a torture chamber where you burn forever and can't die. What do you see hell to be as?

Answer 1

Hell is not a place of eternal torment like Christendom teaches. The Bible hell is where all people go when they die. It is the common grave.
How do we know that hell is the grave? Well, we can read many verses in God's Word that assures us of that fact. Here are but a few:

Psalm 139:8--"If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there." (If hell is a fiery,hot place of torture, would David think God (Psalms 83:18) would be there ?)
Amos 9:2--"Though they dig into hell, From there My hand shall take them; Though they climb up to heaven, From there I will bring them down." ( Can you dig into fire? No, but you can dig into the earth and God can find you no matter where you try to hide.)
Jonah 2:2--"And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice." ( The belly of the fish would have been Jonah's grave, if God had not rescued him.)
Ecclesiates 3:19,20--"For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again."
( Humans and animals go to the same place when they die)
Revelation 1:18--"I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." (Why would Jesus need keys to hell? Because the dead do not have to stay in hell forever; they can be resurrected back to life.)
Revelation 20:13-14--"And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." (Hell delivers up the dead, meaning a resurrection from the grave), and what happens to death & hell? They are thrown into the lake of fire, meaning total destruction.
God is love and tortures no one.

Answer 2

There is no words in the oldest scrolls held by the Vatican that translates as Hell or Hell Fire. The Bible says everyone goes to the same place, the grave, until the resurrection. They can do nothing, just as Christ could do nothing, until after the first or second resurrection. Christ couldn't even visit the fallen angels to pass final judgment on them, until after he was resurrected. The fact is, what would go to hell? The Bible says the soul is the blood and dies with the body. The spirit of life we share with lower form animals, with neither being greater than the other.

When we die, we sleep in the grave, and our names are either written in the Book of Life or not.

Answer 3

From what I know I think hell is on earth and I know in Revelation it talks about ppl trying to kill themselves but they won't be able to die that happens these days. There are alot of things the Bible talks about that is suppose to happen in hell but when you look at it those things happen right here on earth so that's what I mean when I say hell is on earth. The only ones who know where hell is and what it looks like is God, the devil and the deceased and nobody will really know until they die.

Answer 4

It is a hot place where there is never ending pain and suffering, and eternal torment.

Revelation 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Answer 5

Hell actually is not real. The word is never mentioned in the bible. The word sheol refers to the grave. The word hades refers to the grave also. These words are often used to try to prove that the bible is refering to hell, even though it is not. The idea of hell was created by church officials to scare people, so that they would go to their church. For more info. contact Jehovah's Wittnesses, the real experts!

Answer 6

HELL was made for Satan and his angels.
Mankind was never suppose to go there.
Adam blew-it.
When a Human Spirit is Totally out of GODs Presence, it is torture and you are very thirsty.
For GOD.
To Flow through you, as in Living Water.

Answer 7

Hell is literally a burning lake of fire! It is also the seperation from God!

Answer 8

If you want to ignore the Bible(for whatever reason you could possibly have), I guess the closest thing I could imagine Hell to be like is Chuck E. Cheese's, ridiculously overcrowded and full of people who care about noone but themselves.

Answer 9

"Hell" was a concept dreamt up by man kind thousands of years ago, and then written about in holy books (that were also created by man kind)

The concept of Hell, is used to scare religious people in to line and make them pay money to the church.

Answer 10

We don't know for sure what it is like but I tell myself that if I go to Hell, I will endure all the pain and suffering I might have caused others in my lifetime. This keeps me Heaven bound!