Grace Institute: Systematic Theology: Eschatology: Heaven & Hell

Eschatology Grace Institute for Biblical Leadership Winter 2006

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III. Heaven & Hell

A. What is Hell?

Revelation 20:10-15 state that Satan will be thrown into a lake of fire, along with all those whose names are not found in the book of life. The lake of fire is one of many descriptions of hell. In Matthew 8:12 it is described as a place of darkness. Other places describe it as everlasting torment (Revelation 14:10-11), separation from God (2 Thessalonians 1:9), an unquenchable fire (Luke 3:17) and a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8:12, 13:50, 22:13, 24:51). Jesus spoke often of hell and referred to the judgment. Hell, therefore is a real place where the wicked are punished following the judgment.

There are many different viewpoints of hell:

• Annihilation – People in hell are eventually destroyed and do not dwell there for eternity.
• Purgatory – In addition to the wicked who are thrown into hell, saints with unrepentant sin go to a “mini-hell” to pay for their sins prior to entering heaven. This is a Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox view.
• Metaphorical – The descriptions of hell are not literal, but merely describe a reality of pain and suffering beyond our ability to comprehend it.

Scripture does teach that hell is a physical place, for the souls of those who have died must be resurrected in order to go there. Whether or not the punishment is physical is debatable. The fact that is a place of unfathomable pain is not.

C.S. Lewis' states that hell is not a prison where people must pay for their punishment, as much as place where those who have rejected God receive exactly what they desire— existence apart from the presence of God. Those who want God to leave them alone will get exactly that. But what they will find is that life completely alone apart from God is a place of unspeakable torture and pain [1]. Lewis, says, in a sense hell is “locked from the inside,” not in the sense that people could get out if they wanted, but that that those who reject God are so self-absorbed that they would rather live in hell in their own selfishness than submit to God.

Hell is a difficult doctrine and at times it seems reprehensible that God would eternally punish those who reject Him. However, God is very tolerant and He will not force anyone to dwell with Him if they don't want to. A God who forces people into relationship with Him would be an oppressive an intolerant God. Instead God gives space for those who oppose Him, honoring their free will choice [2].

B. What Is Heaven?

Scripture uses the term heaven in many different ways. It can refer merely to the sky. Most often, however, when we think of the term heaven, we are referring to the place where God dwells. Currently God dwells in a spiritual heaven. However, Revelation 21 and Isaiah 65 tell us that after the judgment, God will create a new heaven and a new earth. Indeed, when we think of living in eternity in “heaven” we are not referring to the spiritual place where God currently dwells, but a new physical earth where God dwells.

The new heaven and earth are a restoration of what God intended in the creation of this earth. God does not change his program when humanity falls. Instead he just finds another path to accomplish the same agenda. Namely, God desires to have the image of God dwell with Him on the earth. The new heaven and earth is therefore a restoration of the state that God originally desired in the garden.

(Acts 3:21 NASB) ...heaven must receive (Christ) until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.

(Romans 8:19-21 NASB) For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God…. the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

The new heaven and earth therefore is a physical place where we will dwell with physical (albeit glorified) bodies forever. Like Adam and Eve, believers will have the responsibility to exercise dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:28-29). Believers will have responsibility to administer the reign of God on the earth (Matthew 25:14-22, 1 Corinthians 6:3). We will grow and learn and live much as we do now.

God will always have something more to teach man, and man will always have something more to learn from God.

-Irenaeus, AD 130-202 [3]

But what makes this new earth heaven is the presence of God. Just as hell is defined as eternal separation from God, heaven is defined as the eternal union with God. It is not the physical space that matters as much as the relationship we have with God.

To that extent, this present age can exhibit characteristics of heaven and hell even today. Those who reject the presence of God in their lives are experiencing on this current earth are experiencing a small glimpse of hell on earth. Likewise, those who accept the presence of God in their lives, walking in the Spirit are experiencing a small glimpse of heaven on earth (Ephesians 1:13-14).

Footnotes

1. C.S. Lewis. The Problem of Pain. (New York: McMillan, 1962), 122-23.
2. Metzger.
3. The Theology Notebook, 146.

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