Hell is a place of eternal suffering?

[alexamasan]

Just wondering if anyone can give biblical references where it says hell is a place of eternal suffering. Or if you have another interpretation of hell, please say what it is and give biblical evidence for it. Thanks!

 

[ebia]

Biblical descriptions of 'hell' are all metaphor. But it strikes me that the most prominent ones (rubbish thrown on Jerusalem's ever-smoldering rubbish tip, prunings on a bonfire and especially chaff thrown on a winnowing fire) don't look like a place of everlasting punishment in the Dante sense at all.

 

[The Penitent Man]

If hell were not a real place, we would be in no need of a Saviour and the Cross would have been as pointless as it was gruesome. If Heaven is a place of eternal reward, Hell must exist as a place of eternal punisment. I don't know how you can have one without the other.

 

[The Penitent Man]

Biblical descriptions of 'hell' are all metaphor. But it strikes me that the most prominent ones (rubbish thrown on Jerusalem's ever-smoldering rubbish tip, prunings on a bonfire and especially chaff thrown on a winnowing fire) don't look like a place of everlasting punishment in the Dante sense at all.

Do you believe heaven is just a literary device, as well?

 

[drich0150]

Mathew 25:
41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink.

 

[Emmy]

Dear alexamasan. God loves us, and we have free will to follow Jesus back to God, or go our own way. God gave us His Commandments, (loving advice) and Jesus gave us 2 Commandments, which contain all what God tols us. 1) Love God with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds. 2) Love our neighbour as we love ourselves. By following God`s loving advice to us, " Love as God wants us to love" we will Repent, and follow Jesus back to God. Those of us who will not follow Jesus back to God, who rather go their own wilfull way, will end up in Outer Darkness, without God`s Love or Light. There can be heard loud wailing and gnashing of teeth. Those are Jesus`s Words, and you can find them in the Gospels. Why the loud wailing and gnashing of teeth? Because by then, the poor souls recognise the wrong choice they made, eternity without God`s Love or Light, as compared to eternity with our loving Heavenly Father, and each other, is absolute HELL. We have the choice, alexamasan, God gave us free will to choose, Heaven with God`s Love, or Outer Darkness without God`s Love or Light. I say this humbly and with love. Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.

 

[UnionJack]

hell sux

 

[fm107]

Here are just some, it's enough to prove that it is eternal but there are plenty more verses.

Matthew 18:8
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 maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.

Matthew 25:41
"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Matthew 25:46
"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

Jude 1:7
In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

Matthew 3:12
His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

Luke 3:17
His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

Jude 1:13
They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

2 Thessalonians 1:9
They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power

Revelations 14:11
And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name."

 

[ebia]

Do you believe heaven is just a literary device, as well?

I didn't say hell was a literary device. Hell is a label for whatever the alternative to the Kingdom of God is, and whatever it looks like that alternative is real. What I said was the descriptions of hell we have in the New Testament describe it by metaphor.

That said, heaven is not "a place of eternal reward". Heaven is God's space, and our resting place between death and the resurrection, but the Christian hope is for resurrection into the New Creation when heaven and earth are rejoined, not an eternal disembodied time in heaven.

 

[Jpark]

Never mind.