Searching_for_God said in post #1:
Does it say in the Bible what Hell is actually supposed to be like?
It is eternal, continuous torture:
Revelation 14:10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night . . .
Revelation 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be
tormented day and night for ever and ever.
-
It is sometimes asked: "But isn't torture wrong?"
The answer is that to torture their fellow creatures is wrong for humans, because, as mere creatures, they have no right to do it. But it is not wrong for God, because, as the Creator, He has the right to do with His creatures whatever He wants (Romans 9:21-22). Also, the eternal suffering which He will mete out to non-Christians (Revelation 20:10,15, Revelation 14:10-11, Matthew 25:41,46) will not be some sick or capricious act of cruelty, but an expression of that aspect of His perfect holiness called His righteous judgment and wrath against evil (Romans 2:5, Hebrews 12:28b-29).
Also, the suffering in the lake of fire (the future, eternal hell) may not be torture in the sense of it being so bad that it causes uncontrollable screaming, or the loss of one's mental faculties. For an unsaved person in Hades (the current, temporary hell) can still carry on a calm, rational conversation, even while he is being "tormented" by flame (Luke 16:23-31).
But, sadly, the torture perpetrated by humans against their fellow humans, which was practiced by the CIA in the past (under "rendition", and in its "black sites"), and which is still being secretly practiced by even some Western intelligence agencies today, and of course by many non-Western intelligence agencies, is still ongoing without any legal recourse for the victims. And it is utterly evil, Satanic. For it thinks that the end justifies the means, which is false (Romans 3:8), a lie of Satan himself, who loves to secretly torture and murder people (John 8:44; 1 Peter 5:8).
Searching_for_God said in post #1:
Does it say in the Bible what Hell is actually supposed to be like?
What is eternally punishing (Matthew 25:46, Revelation 14:10-11) about the future, "Gehenna" hell (Luke 12:5, Greek) is fire eternally burning the physical body, and worms eternally eating the physical body (Mark 9:46, Isaiah 66:24). The physical bodies of non-Christians in Gehenna need not be exactly like people have now, which do not regenerate parts of themselves if those parts are burned or eaten. For before non-Christians are cast into the Gehenna hell (also called the lake of fire), they will be physically resurrected (Revelation 20:12-15, John 5:29b). And their new, physical resurrection bodies could eternally regenerate parts of themselves whenever those parts are burned or eaten. But then the regenerated parts could be burned or eaten again, only to regenerate again, only to be burned or eaten again, and so on, forever: an everlasting suffering (Revelation 14:10-11).
In the future Gehenna, the fire will never go out (Mark 9:46). It will never run out of fuel, but will continue to punish non-Christians forever (Matthew 25:41,46, Revelation 14:10-11, Revelation 20:10,15). The fact that the fire will already be burning before the physical resurrection bodies of non-Christians are cast into it (Matthew 25:41, Revelation 20:15) means that their bodies will not be the fire's fuel. The fire will have its own source of fuel by which it will burn/punish non-Christians forever (Revelation 14:10-11, Revelation 20:10,15, Matthew 25:41,46, Mark 9:45-46).
Searching_for_God said in post #1:
Does it say in the Bible what Hell is actually supposed to be like?
There are two literal hells, one temporary and one eternal. The temporary hell, called Hades in Greek (Luke 16:23), and Sheol in Hebrew (Psalms 86:13), is where the souls of non-Christians go when they die, and where they are tormented by flame (Luke 16:23-24). Before Jesus Christ's first coming, Hades was also where the souls of saved people went when they died. But the part of Hades for the saved was a place of comfort (Luke 16:25).
After Jesus Christ fulfilled the Gospel by suffering and dying on the Cross for our sins, and rising physically from the dead on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:1-4), He went down into Hades and preached the fulfillment of the Gospel to the souls there (1 Peter 3:19; 1 Peter 4:6), and then drew the souls of obedient believers there who had died in faith (Hebrews 11:13) up with Him when He ascended into heaven (Ephesians 4:8-9, Hebrews 12:22-24). Since then, the souls of obedient Christians go directly into heaven to be with Jesus when they die (Philippians 1:21,23; 2 Corinthians 5:8, Revelation 6:9-11).
At Jesus Christ's future, Second Coming, He will bring with Him from heaven the souls of all obedient Christians who have ever died (1 Thessalonians 4:14), and their bodies will be physically resurrected into immortality at that time (1 Thessalonians 4:16; 1 Corinthians 15:21-23,52-53). They will then reign on the earth with Jesus for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:4-6, Revelation 5:10, Revelation 2:26-29). After the 1,000 years and subsequent events (Revelation 20:7-10), all non-Christians of all times will be physically resurrected out of Hades and judged (Revelation 20:12-13), and then cast into the eternal hell, called the lake of fire and brimstone (Revelation 20:15, Revelation 21:8), where they will be tormented along with Satan and his fallen angels forever (Matthew 25:41,46, Revelation 20:10,15, Revelation 14:10-11). This eternal hell is also called Gehenna in Greek (Luke 12:5, Mark 9:45-46), and Tophet in Hebrew (Isaiah 30:33).
Tophet was also the name of a place in ancient times called the valley of Hinnom (2 Kings 23:10), just outside the southern wall of Jerusalem (Joshua 15:8). "Gehenna" literally means "the valley (ge) of Hinnom". Just as the ancient Tophet/Gehenna was outside the wall of ancient Jerusalem, so the eternal Gehenna, the lake of fire, will be just outside one wall of New Jerusalem (Revelation 22:15, Revelation 21:8), on the future, New Earth (Revelation 21:1-8). Christians will go forth from New Jerusalem in order to witness the eternal torment of non-Christians in the lake of fire (Isaiah 66:24, Mark 9:46, Matthew 25:41,46, Revelation 20:10,15, Revelation 14:10-11).