They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord … (2 Thessalonians 1)
Therefore God gave them up … For this reason God gave them up … And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up … (Romans 1)
I’d like to write a bit about hell. I want to do this because it's an important topic. And I think it’s an important topic because it's in the Bible. If it weren’t so important then the Bible wouldn’t have talked about it so much.
The image of hell that is most familiar has to do with lots of fire. The Bible uses that image to convey something of the horror of the place. There are, however, other images that the Bible also uses, images that I have bumped into in the writings of some modern Christian writers.
First, there is the imagery of being 'away from the presence of the Lord'. What we want more than anything else - whether we understand it as such or not – is to be near our God. To be able to walk with him, without all the problems and obstacles that sin creates, is what eternity is all about. Our experience of God is at the heart of life in the age to come. So, quite apart from the pleasures of getting to know and enjoy the saints from every place and every age, each with his own story of the amazing works of God, the big thing about eternity is to be able to see God face to face - whatever that means. The fun of the new heavens and new earth is all about being with God. So, it makes sense to describe hell as the absence of all of that; the utter absence of God. Hell is being utterly abandoned by God.
It's important to say that God decides who goes to hell. It isn't a matter of some natural consequences of people's choices that God merely watches. God decides. But Paul tells us that God can decide to give to some what they desire. So, those who desire life without God sometimes get what they want. God no longer restrains them. He lets go of the leash. He ‘gives them up’ to what they want. Now, in Romans 1 quoted above Paul is talking about what happens to some in the present. 'The wrath of God is revealed...' But I wonder if that might not also describe what happens in the future. So, in this sense, people choose hell. They want to live without the true God, and God grants their wish.
There will be those who will think that this kind of thinking is just a way to get soft on hell. That's wrong on so many levels. But the one that is most meaningful for me is simply this. I cannot imagine even one day without the comforting knowledge that my God is with me. Immanuel. The presence of God with me is my hope. It is the only thing that keeps me going. The thought of being left completely alone, all on my own, in this evil world is terrifying to me. The only reason that I don't completely freeze, completely shut down, too afraid to make even one decision lest I get it wrong, is that my God is near. He will love me even if I totally blow it. He will forgive my shameful sins, and somehow he will even use them for good. He will guide me, through all my foolish choices, to my true home where there will be love and peace and joy beyond my imagination. If these things were not true then the only rational thing for me would be suicide. But doesn’t this explain what hell is – being all alone, enslaved to sin and burdened by its consequences, abandoned by God and ‘away from the presence of the Lord’? There is one big difference, though. There can be no suicide in hell. This horrific existence (How could anyone call it 'life'?) will not end. It cannot end.
An unpolished thought