Where is Hell?
There are lots of options being proposed, but where does the Bible say it actually really is? Before Creation started, we have this record of what things looked like, the “Before Photo,” Genesis 1:2 “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Now in Hebrew “form and void” is written as Tohu and Bohu, or “unseen and unformed,” or “confusion and emptiness.” This concept is also seen in the creation of Adam, Genesis 2:7 “And the LORD God formed man [of] the [confusion and emptiness] dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” From nothing, creation made something, living, moving and having being, plants, fish, insects, birds, mankind. Now we get this from Revelation 12:9 “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” So long before creation, this planet was the penal colony, the home or residence of Satan and his angel followers. So this Earth is the home of Satan, it is therefore in essence Hell.
Now “Hell,” is oft depicted as being the home, or residence of Satan and his demon angel followers, and Revelation tells us that Planet Earth is his home, so that means humorously, we all live in Hell, just look out your window, it’s a hell of a place to live, you are already in Hell. Now the humorous part is the start of this story, Satan calls himself “The Illuminated One,” or “Lucifer,” the light or enlightened one, but he must be a bit useless, for when Jesus comes to create Planet Earth, to build an outpost here in enemy territory, it is just darkness, Genesis 1:2a “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep.” So much for his great illustrious illumination, as there is here only darkness and Tohu and Bohu, just formless nothing, sort of like the surface of Mars or the Moon, dust and nothing much of anything else, void and formless.
So much for fire and smoke and a huge furnace/funeral pyre, for currently in this world we have form and substance. So when do we get the fiery Hell that tradition aptly portrays? Revelation 20:14-15 “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Revelation 21:1 “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.” Jesus then rolls up his sleeves and starts all over again, once more creating the Heavens and the Earth for a second time, but this time sin and sinners are nowhere to be found, righteousness has conquered sin and evil, and the results of sin has come to a fulfilment, Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Now the sacrificial system tells us that death occurs when the blood drains out, then the carcass is placed upon the altar, and the fire reduces it to ashes, so the wages of sin is ashes. Ezekiel 28:18 “Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.” So the promise of God is that, Satan and Sin will become “Ashes.”
Malachi 4:3 “And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do [this], saith the LORD of hosts.” So does “Hell” burn on forever, well yes, it burns rapidly until there is nothing left to burn, quickly consuming everything to ash, the “Forever,” part is the results, just like Sodom and Gomorrah, which burn forever, but there is no fire at the site of these cities near the “Dead Sea,” just ash piles. 2 Peter 3:12 “Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” So this is no cozy warm fireside chat, but a roaring rock melting furnace, that consumes everything flammable in micro-seconds, Malachi 4:1 “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven [Furnace]; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” No toasting marshmallows here then, this is some place you certainly do not want to be anywhere near, just sheltered in the arms of Jesus. At the end of the rapid destruction, we get back to Genesis Chapter 1, Tohu and Bohu, no form, just void of anything and everything living, just barren nothingness, formless and ash covered, well that is until Creation occurs for a second time, new life is breathed into this battered dusty and ash covered mess.
Revelation 21:1 “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.” Revelation 2:1-4 “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, [was there] the tree of life, which bare twelve [manner of] fruits, [and] yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree [were] for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name [shall be] in their foreheads.” There was a cheeky wee song popular a long while ago and it goes somewhat like this, “Everybody wants to go to Heaven but nobody wants to die, nobody wants to die, no nobody wants to die, everybody wants to go to Heaven but nobody wants to die, nobody, nobody, nobody wants to die.” Now this song was written with corrupted pagan theology, purporting that when a person dies they somehow instantly flit off to some astral plane to continue existence there, but the Bible plainly says when you die, you are buried in the grave and that is that, you are buried in Hell, the dirt. But does the song have a grain of truth, that people want “The Pleasures of Sin,” and yet still want get to heaven? Maybe they want Heaven but dying to sin and self is uncomfortable to them, they want heaven, but the Cross is, well lets defer there. So it appears that sort of everybody does get to Heaven, as Heaven does come down to earth, so do you want to be Sin and to become ashes under foot, or do you want to have Jesus and walk upon the New Earth, choose ye this day whom ye will serve. Hebrews 11:25 “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;” Do you want to live forever there in the New Heaven or to just exist for just a short time living here in Hell?
