The Two Hells

By Paul Kasch

Many people think of hell as a mythical place where bad people go to be poked by little devils with pitchforks. The Bible actually speaks of two different places called hell. One is temporary, and is currently occupied – but only by humans. The other is eternal and currently vacant. One day the occupants of the temporary hell will be moving to the eternal one, where they will be joined by the devil and all his demons. Nobody will have pitchforks, though.
 
In this text, Paul Kasch will guide you through a scriptural exploration of the two hells in the Bible. You will learn about the nature of each place, and their likely locations. You will see what the Bible says about the temperature and lighting in each hell. Most importantly, you will come to understand who goes to these places, and learn how you can stay the hell out of them!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andy Kasch
• Release date: Oct 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393919483

Book preview

Introduction

Hell is an uncomfortable subject for believers and unbelievers alike. Those who are perishing certainly don’t want to acknowledge the possibility of spending an eternity in torment. We who are saved tend to prefer happier topics for sermons and books. Hell is the 800-pound gorilla in the room, which everyone prefers to ignore.

We cannot afford to do that, however. Hell is an integral part of scripture, and there are no unimportant parts of God’s Word. Without hell, the great commission of spreading the gospel loses its urgency. The similarities between our legal system and God’s ultimate justice in the Bible are striking. It would seem that God might wish for the existence of hell to act as a deterrent, much in the same manner that prison acts as a deterrent against heinous crime in our society.

Denying the existence of an eternal hell is popular with liberal religious groups, eastern religions, and cults. This makes sense. They can’t very well recognize the existence of an eternal place of suffering which, according to the Bible, a person following their theology will end up in. Therefore, all false religions must deny that the entire Bible is the true, accurate, inerrant Word of God. Many of these groups will pick and choose verses out of the Bible to support their teachings, all the while not believing the Bible is true as a whole – which is tragically flawed logic.

What it all boils down to is whether or not Jesus died for your sins. Those religious systems which teach that his substitutionary atoning death on the cross was not necessary, was insufficient, or did not take place at all, also tend to deny the existence of an eternal hell. Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Scientists, Scientologists, and Unitarians, among others, all reject the concept of an everlasting hell. Some of these groups also teach that man is not a sinner and thus has no need of being forgiven. Obviously, such a belief is contrary to the cardinal doctrines of Biblical Christianity.

If there is no hell, then in reality there isn’t that much to be concerned about. The worst that can happen is you are annihilated or reincarnated, and hey – that doesn’t sound so bad. So, if you slip up and don’t do such a good job at practicing your religion, there are no terrible consequences. If you believe in reincarnation, then there is no real hurry, either. Some false religions teach that everyone will eventually be saved, which removes the finality aspect of hell. If only truth were a self-fulfilling prophecy!

The argument against the existence of hell is purely an emotional one, which appeals to man’s flesh. It is certainly an unbiblical position, as we shall see. The reasoning is typically that a loving and caring God would not send people to a place of eternal suffering. It does not seem logical in our human minds how anything a person does in this short, finite lifespan could possibly warrant severe, everlasting punishment. The argument sounds good, but there is just one problem: God said otherwise.

Not only does the Bible confirm the existence of hell, but there are two of them! (Though one is currently vacant.) In this text, we will conduct an expository study of both hells as written about in the pages of scripture. We will explore their nature, their locations, and their attributes. We will see which one is occupied now, and examine the process by which those occupants will one day be moving to the other hell. Most importantly, we will break down exactly who goes to hell and who doesn’t, and even review a simple five-word prayer which will keep you out of both places – assuming you can pray it with sincerity.

The prerequisite for benefitting from the following material is an acceptance that the Bible is all true. What I mean by true is that it is the accurate and infallible Word of God. The Bible tells us all scripture is the inspired Word of God, which means the men who wrote it were essentially taking dictation directly from the Lord. It is His Word, and therefore it is true and inerrant. It is not a mystery book which only a privileged few can decipher, because the Bible