For Christians, this present life is the closest they will come to Hell. For unbelievers it is the closest they will come to Heaven.
Taken from Heaven by Randy Alcorn. Copyright © 2004 by Tyndale, p. 28. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
For no man is damned precisely because God hath not chosen him, because he is not elected, but because he is a sinner, and doth willfully refuse the means of grace offered.
A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 88.
If there is any truth in Scripture at all, this is true – that those who stubbornly refuse to submit to the gospel, and to love and obey Jesus Christ, incur at the Last Advent an infinite and irreparable loss. They will pass into a night on which no morning dawns.
Commentary on Colossians and Philemon, Expositor’s Bible, vol. 31, Armstrong, 1905, p. 300.
We should observe that God does not send anyone to hell. He desires that none should perish (2 Pet. 3:9). God created humans to have fellowship with Him and provided the means by which they can have that fellowship. It is a human’s choice to experience to agony of hell. His or her own sin sends the person there, and his or her rejection of the benefits of Christ’s death prevents escape. As C.S. Lewis has put it, sin is the human being saying to God throughout life, “Go away and leave me alone.” Hell is God’s finally saying to the human, “You may have your wish.”
Christian Theology, Baker, 1998. Get this book!
None sink so far into hell as those that come nearest heaven, because they fall from the greatest height.
A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 20.
If one is filled with revulsion at the thought that such vengeance is ascribed to a Savior whose love and tenderness are beyond all imagination and description, might not the solution be that these very attributes make hating and rejecting such a Savior worthy of supreme retribution?
Luke, Baker, 1978, p. 863.
In the long run the answer to all those who object to the doctrine of hell is itself a question: “What are you asking God to do?” To wipe out their past sins and, at all costs, to give them a fresh start, smoothing every difficulty and offering every miraculous help? But He has done so, on Calvary. To forgive them? They will not be forgiven. To leave them alone? Alas, I am afraid that is what He does.
There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in hell choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it will be opened.
Their god is something which they created themselves, a being who is always prepared to oblige and excuse them. They do not worship him with awe and respect, indeed they do not worship him at all. They reveal that their so-called god is no god at all in their talk. For they are forever saying that “they simply cannot believe that God will punish the unrepentant sinner to all eternity, and this and that.” They cannot believe that God will do so, therefore, they draw the conclusion that God does not and will not. In other words, God does what they believe he ought to do or not do. What a false and blasphemous conception of God! How utterly untrue and unworthy! Such is the new paganism of today.
Those who reject Christ do so because they are content with darkness. And because they choose darkness rather than light, they will forever have darkness rather than light. Eternity simply crystallizes the choice into permanence.
Ephesians, Moody, 1986, p. 208.
People do not have to do something to go to hell; they just have to do nothing to go to hell.
Treating Christ with Criticism and Indifference, Matthew 11:16-24. The article originally appeared (www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/2287) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
The sinner in hell does not become morally neutral upon his sentence to hell. We must not imagine the damned sinner displaying gospel repentance and longing for the presence of Christ. The damned indeed are longing for an escape from punishment, but they are not “new creations.” They do not, in hell, love the Lord their God with heart, mind, soul, and strength. Instead, they are now handed over to the full display of their natures apart from grace, natures that are satanic (John 8:44). Thus, the condemnation continues forever and ever and ever, with no end in view either for the sin or the punishment thereof.
Secret Church 2105.
God rules over everything, including heaven and hell. The popular idea that hell is Satan’s kingdom over which he rules is proved false [in Matthew 25:41]. Jesus described the destiny of wicked humans as “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). Instead of reigning over hell, Satan will suffer the worst punishment there.
Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal Punishment, P&R Publishers, 1995, p.47. Used by permission.
There will be many in the Lake of Fire who commenced life with good intentions, honest resolutions and exalted ideals – those who were just in their dealings, fair in their transactions and charitable in all their ways; men who prided themselves in their integrity but who sought to justify themselves before God by their own righteousness; men who were moral, merciful and magnanimous, but who never saw themselves as guilty, lost, hell-deserving sinners needing a Saviour.
Another Gospel.
God considers it right and suitable that those who rejected Christ see Him triumphant, pure, and justified over all who considered Him unworthy of their trust [Rev. 14:10]. The focus…is not that those in hell have the privilege of seeing what they enjoy, but that they have the remorse of seeing what they rejected.
Used by permission of Desiring God Ministries, www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-presence-of-the-lamb-and-the-sufferings-of-hell.
Having held the glory of God in contempt through ingratitude and distrust and disobedience, (those without Christ) are sentenced to be excluded from the enjoyment of that glory forever and ever in the eternal misery of hell.
Desiring God, 1996, p. 57, Used by Permission, www.desiringGod.org.
The Scripture is clear that all will be found praising Jesus Christ. Those who begin praising Him now after receiving Him by faith as their Savior will enjoy the blessed consummation of that throughout all of eternity. Those who reject Him will praise Him, but under obligation and separated from Him (Jn. 18:6; Phil. 2:10; Rev. 5:13). Simply put, God is too glorious to allow any corner of His creation to exist without recognizing His glory by ascribing to Him the worship that is due His name.
Sermon, The Triumphant Lamb, Revelation 5:1-14, October 11, 2015.
If you find a professing Christian indifferent to his Bible, you may be sure that the very dust upon its cover will rise up in judgment against him.
Hell is the highest reward that the devil can offer you for being a servant of his.
Satan does not rule hell or lead his demons in tormenting those who are banished there. In fact, the Bible does not say that Satan has been to hell yet. Rather, “eternal fire” is awaiting Satan; the place was originally created to punish Satan and the demons (Matthew 25:41), not to give them a kingdom to rule.
Got Questions? www.gotquestions.org/Satan-master-hell.html. Used by Permission.
Hell is full of the Divine holiness; holiness in the manifestation of justice; holiness in its most glorious exercise. How fearfully are the lost now learning this truth! Think it not a trifling matter, unconverted reader, to look into the bottomless pit, and to know that there is but a step and you are there! You walk to the end of the treacherous plank, and you are gone! O solemn thought! but one step between you and the quenchless flame! but one step between you and endless torment! Throughout eternity the lost soul will be testifying to this truth: “God is holy; I was a sinner; I rejected His salvation, I turned my back upon His gospel, I despised His Son, I hated God Himself, I lived in my sins, I loved my sins, I died in my sins, and now I am lost! to all eternity lost! And God is righteous in my condemnation!”
Holiness, the Fruit of the Chastening of Love
