Does Hell really, really, REALLY last for all of eternity? Is it bearable?

[Chrysanthemum7879]

Like the title says.

 

[NoahK]

Like the title says.

My experience has been that God doesn't do things half-way. So yes, hell is forever. And for those in Christ heaven is forever

 

[WIP]

Like the title says.

Are you trying to decide if you want to take that chance? Seek first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33).

I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV

We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28 NKJV

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
John 3:14-18 NKJV

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."
Matthew 7:1-8 NKJV

 

[Tenchi]

Like the title says.

This is what God's word plainly states:

Matthew 18:7-9
7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!
8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.
9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Matthew 25:41
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

Matthew 25:46
46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

2 Thessalonians 1:8-9
8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;

There is GOOD NEWS, though! God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11). He would have all people saved, if only they would choose to be (1 Timothy 2:4). And so, through His Son, Jesus Christ, God the Father has made a way for any and all who want to be saved from eternal damnation to be saved.

2 Corinthians 5:20-21
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Romans 5:6-10
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

John 3:16-17
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Hell is not a certain end for you. Choose life, who is Christ (John 14:6; 1 John 5:11-12; John 1:4). Cease to live for yourself and begin to live for God, which you were created to do. He loves you and will restore to you the spiritual connection to Himself that was lost to all humanity in the Fall of Adam in Eden. Only in and through this connection can you begin to enjoy the life for which God made you.

Psalm 16:11
11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

 

[Who Me]

"Does Hell really, really, REALLY last for all of eternity? Is it bearable?"

Think for a moment, God sent his son to die a disgusting, degrading death in order to stop us from going to hell. How would you treat someone who throws in your teeth every effort you've made to help them?
You know hell exists and you know how to avoid going there.

Following the reasoning, do you make every effort not to go there or do you do the little that is needed to ensure you do go there?

 

[LOOKING]

Let's look at this from another perspective.

See how beautiful and perfect our life on this planet could be, and yet how painful and horrible it often is. Humans create their own hell out of nothing. How long will it take for humanity to stop doing this?

The point is that we can't make life better without God, because God is the way to a better life. That's it.

So, it's not exactly that hell is eternal; it's more that there is no beauty or happiness outside of God. Therefore, seek God.

 

[Vinny37]

[Does Hell really, really, REALLY last for all of eternity? Is it bearable?]

IMO, Yes & Yes. I think that Dante is a mix of sense and smile. Of course his circles don’t cover the idea of sinners who were candidates for more than one circle of hell, and they also assume eternal punishment of crimes (or crime-types), but at least he presented the idea of degrees of unending unhappiness which has some biblical warrant. But the idea, Bearable Hell, has long been held in high and low sections of the church. Some postulate either a removal, or a non-bequeathing, of immortality, doctrines largely based on 1# the ideas of point-of-decision as the only key to heaven and only as possible pre-mortem, and 2# Unbearable Hell, ideas I don’t hold.

 

[for_his_glory]

The lake of fire may be a real place or a metaphor as scripture gives no literal location, but is very descriptive as a place of outer darkness and torment and being eternal as all those people including Satan, the beast and the false prophet that are cast into it will be remembered no more.

The duration of punishment for the one cast into the lake of fire is everlasting. Isaiah speaks of the everlasting burning of the fire that shall never be quenched and of the worm which shall never die (Isaiah 33:14; 66:24). David said that some would awake unto eternal life and others unto shame and everlasting contempt (Daniel 12:2). John the Baptist and Jesus spoke of the unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:12; Mark 9:43). Paul the Apostle speaks of how the lost will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord (II Thessalonians 1:9).

The Apostle John says that the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever; and they shall have no rest day and night; and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever (Revelation 14:11; 19:3; 20:10). Jesus said that the lake of fire is a furnace of fire in Matthew 13:41, 42 and outer darkness in Matthew 22:13.

The fact that the lake of fire is eternal is plain from the following verses where it is described as:
1. Everlasting fire.......................Matthew 25:41
2. Everlasting punishment...........Matthew 25:46
3. Eternal damnation..................Mark 3:29
4. Everlasting destruction.......... II Thessalonians 1:9
5. Everlasting contempt..............Daniel 12:2
6. Torment forever and ever.......Revelation 14:9-11
7. Blackness of darkness forever.....Jude 1:13
8. Vengeance of eternal life............Jude 1:7
9. Lake of fire--forever and ever......Revelation 20:10
10. Second death--forever..............Revelation 20:14
11. Elements melt, earth and works are burned up.......2Peter Chapter 3

God gives us a description as in fire and brimstone which can be used literal as in Sodom and Gomorrah burned to ashes and as a metaphor for torment, suffering, punishment or as Matthew 8:12 describes it as outer darkness. The New Testament description is a bottomless pit (abyss) (Revelation 20:3), a lake (Revelation 20:14), darkness (Matthew 25:30), death (Revelation 2:11), destruction (2 Thessalonians 1:9), everlasting torment (Revelation 20:10), a place of wailing and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 25:30), and a place of gradated punishment (Matthew 11:20-24; Luke 12:47-48; Revelation 20:12-13), everlasting fire Matthew 25:41, everlasting punishment, Matthew 25:46, lake of fire burning with brimstone.

Jude 1:7 clearly states an example of eternal fire. This is the same Greek word that is used for everlasting fire and everlasting punishment as used in Matthew 18:8 and Matthew 25:41,46 (Notice: The place, as no real name is given, where the unsaved go is everlasting punishment, and not everlasting punishing. The punishment is eternal in its results, not in its duration. Unquenchable fire is a fire that cannot be quenched or put out until everything in its path is burned up.

In my own minds eye I see the lake of fire as a place where those who have rejected God, whether they be good or bad people, burning in a torment (fire and brimstone could be a metaphor for torment) of having to see those who have heard the call of God and have accepted Him and now live in a place of paradise with all the fullness of God in all His glory. No more tears, no more hurts, pain sickness, etc, etc. Those in the lake of fire are outside the realm of God continuing in all their sin, sickness, hurts, pain tears, etc. etc., but can see those who are in the glory of the Lord like looking through a window and wanting what others have, but will never have it and this is their torment for eternity as they are constantly consumed with the fire that burns in their souls for what they have rejected and now to late to receive.

 

[matthewmbennett1982]

Hell is very real and you could go there. Its made of sulfur and your going to die for telling them that. All you need is water and good spirits but no one will provide that except the christ.

 

[JLB]

Like the title says.

I hope and pray you nor anyone else ever has to find out for themselves.

Jesus Christ paid the price for us to be with Him forever.


God loves us and does not desire for any to perish but all to come to repentance.