What Is Hell?

2 Thessalonians 1:9

"They [those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus] will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might..."

In today's culture, there are many who do not believe in a physical hell. Some say that we have hell on earth, when we have difficult times, and others say that there is no such place, because God is too loving to have created it. In these two statements, we find a fundamental misunderstanding of hell. The first is based on a wrong definition of hell. Those that say we have hell on earth are defining hell as a place of tormenting and punishment. They see hell as only God's punishment on those that disobey Him. However, this is not the sole purpose of hell. The others have the complete wrong view of what loving means. Their view of love is warped and twisted. We find the other purpose of hell, by having a true definition of love. Although hell is a place of punishment for the wicked (which we cry out for, when we see injustice and evil), it is also a place of choice. See, dear brothers and sisters, without choice, there can be no love. This is why, in the garden of Eden, there had to be the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the commandment to not eat of it. Adam and Eve were given the choice to either love God and stay in His presence, or disobey God (which is to not love Him) and not be in His presence, and we have the same choice. Forced love is rape. God will not force anyone to spend eternity with Him, and since we are created as eternal beings (Genesis 2:7), we must have eternal dwelling. The fundamental misunderstanding of hell is the answer to this question: why is hell so terrible? It is not the worms or the gnashing of teeth, or the fire. It is being away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might. This is why it is folly to claim that hell could be on earth, because as dark and terrible as the earth is, the presence of God is here: within those in the body of Christ dwells the Spirit of God. Because of this presence, earth could never be hell. The thought then is in my mind, if earth is this bad, with the presence of God (even on a minuet scale), how terrible would a place devoid of His working presence be? How wonderful would a place completely filled with His presence be? Those that spend eternity separated from God, do so after coming face to face with Him in judgement. They face Him and see that everything about Him is true: His beauty and majesty, His love and power, and all that is our Lord, and they are faced with the fact that they chose to be separated from Him. This is why hell is so terrible. Some may say that God is unfair to force us to make a decision of eternal consequence this side of eternity with no proof, but if it were not by faith, then the blessing would be lessened. When Jesus appears, every knee will bow, but not out of love. We were created for relationship, not for mindless praise. This is why it must be now. It can not wait. Do not put off any longer, because the reality is this: the choice is to spend eternity with God or without God, and it must be made this side of eternity.