Why I Believe in Hell

Hell is a topic I have avoided till now, mainly because of its obvious nature, or so I thought. I recently noticed that several prominent Christians disavowed their faith because of their decision that hell doesn’t exist. I find this curious since the existence of hell appears clear to me. Don’t get me wrong. I find hellfire and damnation preachers tedious. Scaring people into heaven has proven generally ineffective.

Jesus mentions hell many times, which is enough for me. But the evidence of hell overwhelms me. I see it so clearly in myself, in others, and in this wonderful and terrible world we live in. I think we are all well-acquainted with the abyss. Perhaps we are so accustomed to it that we no longer recognize it for what it is. But even Jesus experienced hell, mainly so we wouldn’t have to after we die. But that doesn’t exempt us from the miseries that await us here. So here are the three primary glimpses into Sheol that each of us sees daily:

1: Our private hells:

Anguish is a part of the human condition. And so many kinds of suffering afflict each of us. Mental, physical, and spiritual anguish provide tastes of hell that are hard to rinse out of our mouths. Nothing in Genesis suggests God intended misery to be a part of the human experience. Still, interestingly, the humans chose it above Eden. Most theologians agree we choose to go to hell, but that is too easy of an answer. It doesn’t consider that circumstances beyond our control often force hell on us in this life. Nobody, for instance, chooses cancer, an experience most would agree is a nightmare.

I believe that when we experience pain, we experience a bit of death—suffering in all of its nuances forces on us the cup of tribulation. My abuse at the hands of my ex-husband is a hell I did and did not choose. I married him, yes. And stayed married too long. But I did not cause him to abuse me. That responsibility rests on him alone. The narcissistic abuse I endured was both a choice and not a choice, but it was hell either way.

And so we each have our abysses we fall into. Addiction, abuse, illness, mental illness, and the whole host of human agonies we each face in our turn. Is redemption possible for them? Absolutely. Jesus overturned the grave and made a mockery of it. The Kingdom of Heaven is here, he said. And just as hell awaits us every morning, so do the mercies of God.

2. The hells of others:

I am as affected by the suffering of others as I am by my own. With my children, perhaps more so. We do not exist in isolation, not really. While no one can fully share in our pain, the pain of others pierces us. Sometimes, that pain looks like empathy, a taking on of someone else’s anguish as our own. I recently saw the movie Cabrini. I highly recommend it. Mother Cabrini took on herself the suffering she saw around her in the Italian tenements of New York City.

Sometimes, we can intervene in the hell of others. Prayer, service, and relationship are the weapons against which hell often falls. Sometimes we cannot. Abusers, psychopaths, and dedicated criminals choose to be agents of the devil. We must fight against them to prevent them from causing harm to the innocent. Christians are often naïve in this fight. We want to look for the good in everyone and see our enemies as victims. But make no mistake. Heaven and hell are at war, and reconciliation of the two will never be on the table.

3. The hell we see around us:

One of the most apparent hells the Christian is called to fight is poverty. And poverty creates a hellish landscape all over the world. War, terrorism, and disease create nightmarish zones wherever they land. I think of the Holocaust, a time and place created for death. But the Holocaust doesn’t own hell. It is merely a more commonly cited manifestation of the pit on earth. Many such pits have existed throughout time. Many exist now. The enemy is always looking to expand his territory.

But I am not without hope. Just as the taste of death often lingers on my tongue, so do tastes of heaven. Miracles still happen. Love appears in my life every day. Truth shows up. My prayers get answered. Beauty surrounds me, even in ugly places. The Kingdom of Heaven is here, but we must usher it in. We must choose between life and death, heaven and the pit. Sometimes, we must fight, body and soul, against evil.

To give up a belief in hell is to give up the good fight. It is not enough to know what we fight for. Jesus fully knew what he was fighting against. I cannot imagine a Heaven with evil in it any more than I can imagine good without God in it. Heaven and hell are already here, and they exist in concrete realities, not abstractions.

Praise the Lord for overturning the curse. The Tree of Life is available to us once more. Adam and Eve ate from the wrong tree, but that doesn’t mean we have to. Hell will eventually claim its own, but I have tasted enough of it already. I am certain that I will experience its bitterness again in this life, but one day, the memory of it will be completely erased. And even now, I taste and see that the Lord is good, and his mercies endure forever.

Inviting Jesus into our Horror

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