Hell is Real

We love to talk about eternity in heaven. After all that is the sure promise of God for his faithful children—an eternity in his presence without pain or tears or sorrow or death. Each of us fully plans to spend eternity with God in heaven.

The opposite, though, is also true; hell is just as real and just as eternal as heaven. Jesus said that the worthless servant would be cast “into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt 25:30). Those who refused to aid the downtrodden, Jesus said, “will go away into eternal punishment” (Matt 25:46). No annihilation, no temporary separation from God until their sins are atoned, but an eternal punishment, one which never ends. In that hell, our Lord said, “their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mk 9:48). And as I’ve said recently in sermons, I’m constantly haunted by Revelation 14:11: “The smoke of their torments goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night” (Rev 14:11). The only way to avoid that eternal fate is to have one’s name written in the Lamb’s book of life: “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev 14:15).

I’m honestly fearful that hell no longer frightens us, and we fail to live up to the reality of hell. Provided you are in Christ, hell shall not be your lot; Jesus promised, “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (Jn 11:25-26).

Yet those outside of Christ (those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s book of life) have nothing to anticipate but the wrath of God in eternal torment. Your family, your neighbors, your coworkers, your doctor, your pharmacist, your walking buddy, your friends are all headed to that place if they’re outside of Christ. Seriously, when is the last time you thought about those closest to you spending an eternity in a pain, torment, and fire which never ends? When has that thought prompted you to share Jesus? When is the last time you urged your loves ones or your neighbors or our friends to submit to Jesus so that their names may be found in the Lamb’s book of life?

Life may be snuffed out at any moment: “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (Js 4:14). I learned last night that someone dear to me—a kid in my youth group back when I was a youth minister—left this world. He was young and had years before him, but his life was suddenly cut short.

Don’t wait. People are headed to hell. And you—yes, you—can change the population of heaven.

This article was originally written by Dr. Justin Imel, Sr., for the weekly newsletter at Church of Christ Deer Park in Deer Park, Texas.