Is Hell for real?

Is Hell for real?

Or is it just a matter of opinion or a mental thought without substance?  There have been some who even go as far to say even the devil is just a term without attaching a person to it.  These are of course contrary matters of disbelief and perhaps the work of Satan convincing weak thinking persons into a truth that does not exist.  By this he opens the minds of many to doubt that even God is not true or his rules are completely wrong.  

In physics we learn that there are opposites to everything in life.  With up we see down.  Black and white oppose each other in distinguishing color.  Go fast or go slow.  Good vs. evil.  Wealth is against the poor and those who are affected by either one hold onto the one as opposed to the poor without anything.

So it is that God created everything good and evil entered this perfect world becoming an adversary against the Creator.  Here is where we find that if there is an eventual existence as heaven where all whom God has called, must also avoid the existence of hell when the rejection of God becomes real.  

If hell does not exist then neither does Satan.  If these attributes are not real, then the Incarnation was not necessary and the celebration of the Easter Pasch is a farce.  The only reason God ordained a redeeming factor for humanity is to save his creatures from an eternity of loss from him.  That is hell, a place or existence of the eternal separation of those who choose the emptiness in eternity rather than their creator. 

As it is Jesus spent much of his teaching talking about hell, the loss of his Father’s forgiveness, and a gift, not earned or collected rewards for obeying.  It is freely handed to us just by believing in Jesus Christ and accepting this privilege he calls us to.  However, Jesus did not spare us the certainty that hell is real.  

In eternity, we name the existence of heaven and hell by terms that our finite minds can identify without actually putting a particular physical prominence in them.  But, do not think that these are not real and our souls will absolutely end in one or the other.  In distinguishing opposites without making either one like up or down, they are opposites of eternal finality.  

Listening to learned teachers of the faith, they both exist as entities whether we call them by finite identifications or the belief that they both do exist, we shall all arrive at one or the other, for all eternity.  Hell will be a lonely existence without God.  Heaven will be a real life with the Triune God, his angels, saints, and enjoying the promise Christ promised for all who are chosen.

The saddest reality is when we attend a loved one’s funeral, our hope is they chose to be with God forever by adhering to the love God gives to us.  We do not know who has chosen hell when God’s love is rejected.  Some have argued they know many who are in hell.  We cannot act as God who alone knows those who went there, but we must realize God sends no one to hell.  Any soul that ends there is by their own choosing to reject God’s forgiveness.  That is unfortunate since all sin is forgivable and up to the point of death any one may choose at the last moment by calling on our Savior who died for that purpose.  That will save their soul from eternal death.

Ralph B. Hathaway