Everyone in our society and culture would be familiar with thoughts or beliefs similar to this statement:
Well if Heaven is for Christians and the like, I’d rather go to Hell. Hell will be where the partying and fun is.
Can I be a little bit radical and say “yes, you’re correct”. Everything about that statement is pretty much true. Let’s explore it shall we?
What is the traditional view of Hell, which seems common to most people? Well Hell would be a place where God sends the unbelievers and the sinners. God punishes people for not believing in Him or not following Him. There’s fire and I guess people are tortured or something. This is what most people, even Christians would say. Well, how does the bible describe Hell?
So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn then, so that they will not also come to this place of torment’. Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘if they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’
What do we get from this biblical account of Hell?
We see that this Rich Man doesn’t realize what has happened. He still perceives Lazarus as his servant. He is full of denial, blame shifting and blindness. He has no name and is simply referred to, as the “rich man” so we are given a very strong indication that he was wealthy and that his identity was in fact, built on this wealth. Everybody has a god. Something we strive for above all. Maybe something we can’t give up. Something without which, we feel incomplete and worthless. Something we need to be happy.
If we want to see the closest thing to Hell on Earth we can look at addicts. What starts with a simple pleasure results in what we call “tolerance”. Meaning you need more and more of something to get the same affect or “kick”. You get less and less satisfaction from it over time. This is true whether it is alcohol, gambling or pornography. Maybe even for acceptance, popularity or money? What happens next is isolation. You become blameful of other people and circumstances for your addiction. ‘Nobody understands me, I don’t have a problem’.
2. There is a “chasm” between Hell and Heaven.
With heaven being where God is, souls in Hell are infinitely and eternally separated from God. If we want to get a glimpse of what this feels like we can simply look at Jesus. What He suffered on the cross was not just physical or psychological pain. It was a deep spiritual one. Imagine if you got separated from your girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband/loved one. It would be painful. Now consider if you had known them and been with them for a really long time, something close to eternity in deep relationship. Imagine now you were split away from them. It would be agony on a different level. This is the spiritual pain Jesus felt.
Hell is our chosen path, consuming us till it becomes out identity. We are apart from God with this identity on a path to infinity and eternity. It’s the party you always wanted. One that will never end. At this party we see our sanity and humility slowly disappear, replaced by pride, anger and paranoia. We want our god so much we don’t even want to leave Hell.
But, if we were in that position wouldn’t we change our minds? Well, have you ever asked an addict what it feels like to know their addiction is hurting others/is damaging their lives (if they are able to admit that)? They know they should stop but it’s hard. It bites into you, mentally. It consumes you. You know you should stop, but you can’t. You have to have the next fix. It takes a large effort and a substantial amount of assistance to break free. But, this process of recovery and redemption doesn’t start without one key factor, the will to do so. The choice. Imagine how impossibly hard it would be to even consider this choice when you have your fix, your ‘god’, right in front of you.
So how can a loving God send people to Hell? Well, because people want it. People want the party and they want the “fun” right? It’s horrible to think that God sends people to Hell while they’re screaming, ‘I’m sorry! Forgive me!’ It seems entirely different to this. We see it differently when Hell is chosen rather than given. C. S. Lewis describes hell as ‘the greatest monument to human freedom’. And as we see in the bible:
God gave them up to … their desires’.
There seems to be two ways to live life as C. S. Lewis puts it:
There are only two kinds of people – those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done’ to God or those whom God in the end says, ‘Thy will be done’. All that are in Hell choose it. Without that self-choice it wouldn’t be Hell.
