Oh, Hell? No.

"Excuse me, do you believe in Hell?" "In what?" "Hell." "Oh, Hell? No."

The concept of Hell has been part and parcel of Christianity since it began. Today the idea is slipping into the Hell of Tossed Ideas. A survey in 2006 held that 76% of Americans believed in Hell. In 2008, that number was down to 59%. While belief in Heaven remains fairly high, the idea that there is some sort of eternal damnation, some torment forever for my sins, is no longer the fear factor it once was. Most people are pretty sure they'll get to Heaven. Hell is not an issue.

When I was younger, I was baffled by the idea of Hell. I got that it was intended to be punishment for sin. I was fine with punishment for sin. However, I wondered, "Shouldn't the punishment fit the crime?" After all, if I defied my mom and dad, I got something like a spanking. If I defied God, I got eternal torment. How was that reasonable? If I commit temporal crimes, why do I get eternal punishment? This was all, of course, because I was operating from the center of Man rather than God. Sin was just "doing bad things" and God was a big Dad. I was a nice fellow. Why would I deserve that kind of response?

God explains the problem in a different light. Starting with God, we see the One and Only Master of the Universe, the King, the Sovereign of All. He doesn't simply make suggestions; His Word is Law. He not only demands, but deserves complete obedience. So we, as creations of His, see those demands and respond with "I will make myself like the Most High" (Isa 14:14). We decide to overthrow the King of the Universe and make ourselves masters of our universe. Looking at this top down, we can see that our refusal to submit to the King of Kings is not simply a violation of rules. It is treason. We are committing Cosmic Treason against the King. Now, in normal, temporal governments, treason is punishable by temporal death. It makes sense, then, that in an eternal government, the punishment for treason would be eternal death.

The second problem in our thinking about Hell is that we have some faulty definitions. Take, for instance, the concepts of "life" and "death". We see them as fairly simple ideas. Life, to us, is the condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms, being manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to environment through changes originating internally. Death, then, would be the absence of life, the permanent cessation of all the vital functions of an organism. Not much controversy there. God, however, sees these differently. Jesus said, "This is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" (John 17:3). From God's perspective, then, life is our relationship with God and His Son. The absence of life would be the absence of said relationship. Jesus confirmed this when He told of those who would come to Him falsely claiming Him as Lord. The defining problem, according to Jesus, was "I never knew you" (Matt 7:23).

Another faulty definition we perpetrate is thinking of "Hell" as "a place of fire". The biblical concept of Hell is simply the place of the dead. The Old Testament word is Sheol, and the concept is simply the grave. The New Testament (Greek) word is Hades, the grave. Now, don't misunderstand. I'm not saying that there is no place of eternal torment, of eternal death. I'm saying that our wording here is confused. According to John, at the end of the Millennial Kingdom, "Death and Hell were thrown into the lake of fire" (Rev 20:14). So, if both Death and Hell are terminated in this "lake of fire", what are we talking about when we use the term "Hell" as eternal death and eternal torment? In fact, how do "eternal death" and "eternal torment go together?

So, we have a view of sin that is simply "doing bad things" and God sees it as Cosmic Treason. We see "life" as living and breathing and death as the permanent cessation of such life while God sees it as connection to Him or the lack thereof. We see "Hell" as "a place of eternal fire" and God terminates Hell in the Lake of Fire. Holding up the concept of Hell to these new values, then, we might begin to have a new perspective on Hell. First, Hell is not the final resting place of sinners. The "Lake of Fire" is. But that's a minor issue, a trivial point, a matter of terminology, not reality. The reality is that Cosmic Treason demands justice and the just recompense for that crime is Cosmic Death. Life is not living and breathing, but connection with God, so Cosmic Death would be an eternal separation from God.

"Oh," some might think, "that's not so bad. You're just talking about separation. That's nothing at all like 'fire and brimstone' like we hear about." Again, we're suffering from a faulty concept. Humans are designed by God to be in connection to God. We are built in His image and fashioned to have a relationship with Him. This loss of connection, this separation from God, is not a small issue. Interestingly, the most prolific information we have on the eternal torment that awaits those who are damned comes from the Son of God. People like to think of Jesus as a warm and loving guy, but Jesus spoke more of Hell than He did of Heaven. It is Jesus who gives descriptions like "the unquenchable fire" (Mark 9:43) and "Where their worm does not die" (Mark 9:48). Whatever it is, we know that it is eternal and it is torment.

The final abode of those who die without Christ may not be a place of fire. That image comes from language in Scripture and is popularized by Dante's Inferno. Whether or not it is literally such a place is up for discussion. What we do know is that it is eternal, that it is eternal death, that it is eternal separation from God, that it is eternal torment. Physical torment? Who knows? But I suspect there will be slim satisfaction to the soul that is damned to find out that it isn't fire and brimstone ... just eternal torment.