Is There A Hell? And If So, Why Did A Loving God Create It?


The Scriptures are very clear that there is a Hell, just as there is a Heaven. We do serve a loving God, but He is also just. Our Heavenly Father provided a way of escape for us through the death and resurrection of His own Son (John 3:16). Why would He have made this sacrifice if it didn’t matter and all men would be saved anyway without a Savior?

Hell was not created for man, but for the enemy of our souls, satan and his demon hordes (Matthew 25:41); but as man chooses to walk in disobedience and at enmity with God, he has chosen for himself eternal damnation. Below is an excerpt from Hayford’s Bible Handbook on "Hell."


"...The word Gehenna occurs twelve times in the New Testament. Each time it is translated as "hell." With the exception of James 3:6, it is used only by Jesus (Matt. 5:22, 29-30; 10:28; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5). In Matthew 5:22, 18:9; and Mark 9:47, it is used with "fire" as "hell fire." So the word hell (Gehenna) as a place of punishment is used in the New Testament by Him who is the essence of infinite love.

"In Mark 9:45 and 48, hell is described as a place where ‘their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ Repeatedly Jesus spoke of outer darkness and a furnace of fire, where there will be wailing, weeping, and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28). Obviously this picture is drawn from the Valley of Gehenna (i.e., Valley of Hinnom)....

Because of the symbolic nature of the language, some people question whether hell consists of actual fire. Such reasoning should bring no comfort to the lost. The reality is greater than the symbol. The Bible exhausts human language in describing heaven and hell. The former is more glorious, and the latter more terrible, than language can express.
Resources:
1.) "The Glory Of Heaven; The Horror Of Hell"  
 #2354 

2.) Hayford’s Bible Handbook

3.) The Spirit-Filled Life Bible

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