Is Hell For Real?

Hell. Is it real? I’ve been pondering the fact that there are over 3 billion people in the world who have never heard of Christ. Will they go to hell when they die?

In my last 2 articles I asked  “Why Aren’t We More Concerned?” and addressed the problem Some People Get to Hear the Gospel While Others Don’t… It’s Just Plain Wrong!

Possible reasons we’re not more concerned about the lost are our own self centeredness or complacency.

Maybe we don’t believe hell is for real or people will actually die and go to hell if they don’t follow Christ .

That’s why I want to address these questions,  “Is hell for real? and who will go to hell?”

Is hell for real?

Hell is mentioned 167 times in the Bible, sometimes called Gehenna, Hades, the pit, the Abyss, or everlasting punishment (Proverbs 7:27; Luke 8:31; 10:15; 2 Thessalonians 1:9).
Jesus spoke of heaven and hell as real places (Matthew 13:41–42; 23:33; Mark 9:43–47; Luke 12:5).

The story Jesus told about the rich man and Lazarus was an actual event that demonstrated the reality of the two eternal destinations .

Luke 16:19-31 contains the account of a very rich man who lived a life of extreme luxury. Laid outside the gate of this rich man’s house, however, was an extremely poor man named Lazarus who simply hoped “to eat what fell from the rich man’s table” (v. 21). The rich man was completely indifferent to the plight of Lazarus, showing him no love, sympathy, or compassion whatsoever. Eventually, they both died. Lazarus went to heaven, and the rich man went to hell. Appealing to “Father Abraham” in heaven, the rich man requested that Lazarus be sent to cool his tongue with a drop of water to lessen his “agony in this fire.” The rich man also asked Abraham to send Lazarus back to earth to warn his brothers to repent so that they would never join him in hell. Both requests were denied. Abraham told the rich man that if his brothers did not believe in Scripture, neither would they believe a messenger, even if he came straight from heaven.  ( Taken from www.gotquestions.org/rich-man-and-Lazarus)

Here’s some of the things we learn:

1. Jesus teaches here that heaven and hell are both real, literal places. The Bible is clear that every person who has ever lived will spend eternity in either heaven or hell. Like the rich man in the story, multitudes today are complacent in their conviction that all is well with their soul, and many will hear our Savior tell them otherwise when they die (Matthew 7:23).

2. This story also illustrates that once we cross the eternal horizon, that’s it. There are no more chances. The transition to our eternal state takes place the moment we die (2 Corinthians 5:8; Luke 23:43; Philippians 1:23).

Heaven is the dwelling place of God (2 Chronicles 30:27) where Jesus has gone to “prepare a place” for those who love Him (John 14:2).
Hell was created for “the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). But because every human being is a sinner, every person past the age of accountability has already been condemned to hell (Romans 3:10; 5:12; John 3:18). We all deserve hell as the just punishment for our rebellion against God (Romans 6:23).

Who will go to hell?

John 3:18 explains in the simplest terms who will go to heaven and who will go to hell: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

I searched the question of who will go to hell and found a little more info from www.gotquestions.org/who-will-go-to-hell?

So, those who go to hell are specifically those who do not believe in Jesus’ name.

How could a good and loving God condemn to hell someone who’s never heard of him?

 Before we ask this tough question we must ask, “Do I really believe all lost people will die and go to hell without Christ?”

After asking myself why I don’t do more to try to spread the good news to the lost I’ve come to the conclusion that even though I’m an evangelist to other nations I must not believe that if these people who don’t know Christ will actually spend eternity in hell.