What does the Bible say about hell?

The Bible passages below can be used in sermons or pastoral care considering hell.

• Psalm 6:5, no praise in Sheol (the dead cannot praise God's name)
• Psalm 9:17, wicked depart to Sheol (those who pursue evil will end up in Sheol)
• Ecclesiastes 9:10, no wisdom in Sheol (there is no work, planning, or knowledge in the grave)
• Matthew 5:22, liable to the hell of fire (unrighteous attitudes are liable to judgment as unrighteous actions)
• Matthew 7:13, wide road leads to destruction (enter through the narrow gate)
• Matthew 10:28, soul and body in hell (reserve your fear for the one who can destroy both the soul and body)
• Matthew 16:18, gates of Hades (God will build the church on the rock)
• Matthew 25:30, the outer darkness (a place of weeping and torment)
• Matthew 25:41, the eternal fire (a place prepared for the devil and his angels)
• Matthew 25:46, eternal punishment (the opposite of eternal life)
• Mark 9:43-48, thrown into hell (better to cut off your hand than to go to hell)
• Acts 2:27, not abandoned to Hades (God will not abandon God's people to Hades)
• 2 Thessalonians 1:9, eternal destruction (those who suffer the punishment of eternal destruction are separated from the presence of the Lord)
• 2 Peter 2:4, cast into hell (God did not spare the angels when they sinned)
• Revelation 6:8, Death and Hades (a pale green horse whose rider's name was Death; Hades followed with him)
• Revelation 20:13-15, Death and Hades (death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire)
• Revelation 21:8, lake of fire (the second death)

Sermon ideas about hell

A sermon on hell can point out that Sheol in the Hebrew Bible may mean death, grave, or the realm of the dead. It's a shadowy destination, sometimes described in the Old Testament as a place where very little is going on (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Biblical thinking about hell sharpened in later centuries so the Greek words translated as hell in the New Testament (Hades, Gehenna, Tartoros) connote fire, lake of fire, darkness, punishment, death, and destruction.

Images of hell

The fact that some of these pictures of hell clash with each other suggests that they are more like images than literal descriptions. Sometimes the image for hell is darkness, or outer darkness. But sometimes it's fire, which is not very dark at all. In Matthew 25:30 and Matthew 25:41 Jesus employs these alternate images almost back to back. 

It's helpful to consider these images — fire and darkness — as representing the two principle forms of sin. We either attack God or flee from God. We are either rebels or aliens. Sinners turn life to hell when they attack God and discover that God is a consuming fire; they are moths to God's fire. On the other hand, those who turn their backs on God, fleeing the fire, experience the blackness that marks God's absence. If unchecked, sin can lead to the desolation of either extreme.

Gates of Hades

A sermon dealing with hell can consider Jesus' famous saying that he will build his church on Peter "and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). The expression gates of Hades represents ungodly power. Ancient cities were often walled and gated, so the city's vulnerability lay in its gates. If the gates were strong, they would repel assault. In speaking this way, Jesus is saying the powers of death will not be able to repel the greater powers of righteousness — which they did not in Jesus' own resurrection on Easter morning.

A difficult doctrine

Those who preach on the doctrine of hell should be prepared for questions. Thoughtful believers have often struggled with the doctrine of hell. Who belongs there? Why eternally? Why would a good and just God create a world that would later feature a populated hell? And how does hell fit in a renewed world in which all things are to be "gathered up" in Christ (Ephesians 1:10), or in which "God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things" (Colossians 1:20), or in which "God is merciful to all" (Romans 11:32) or in which "every knee should bend . . . and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord" (Philippians 2:10-11)? Why eternal torment for one lifetime of sinning? 

Starting with the Greek church fathers, considerations of these kinds have prompted speculation that hell might turn out to be something like purgatory, or that it's a place where God euthanizes his enemies. C.S. Lewis appeared to have believed that nobody is in hell who doesn't want to be, and that hell for them is the poverty of their imagination and the corruption of their thinking (C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce).

The doctrine of hell is one about which the church has as many questions as answers.

Excerpts about hell

Following are sample excerpts from Zeteosearch.org sermon resources about hell:

• "Hell is used in some New Testament texts to label people or groups as 'outsiders' (Revelation 19:19-21; Revelation 20:7-15). But even in those texts, hell is not primarily mentioned to distinguish between correct and incorrect belief." Article about Scripture by Meghan Henning from Bible Odyssey
• "Jesus' descent into hell means, among other things, that there is no abyss of human suffering that is not touched by God. Even in nothingness and annihilation, God is present." Article about Preaching by Theresa Latini from Working Preacher
• "The architecture of hell and many of the scenes that take place there are borrowed directly from Dante's Inferno, which is reproduced here in a monumental painting for the first time." Artwork by Nardo di Cione from Web Gallery of Art