Hell

[darby]

Is hell a physical place, or is it a euphemism for separation from God (thus having none of His holy love).  Thoughts?      

[aw]

Luke 16:23 is a reference to consider. Both SHEOL and HADES are sometimes translated as GRAVE, but the final destiny of those who reject Christ is the Lake of Fire. It was prepared for satan and his cohorts but people choose it as their destiny.

Just consider, besides the worst possible state of all as being 100% separated from God for all eternity, that it will be spent in a sinful, decaying body still prone to all types of pains and sicknesses. The wicked dead do NOT receive glorified bodies upon resurrection and the best they can hope for is the condition of those bodies during the millennium. Not only so, I am sure satan has a wide variety of punishments that he will inflict upon his people. Look at what Sadaam Hussein did to his!

aw

[Guilo]

Not only so, I am sure satan has a wide variety of punishments that he will inflict upon his people. Look at what Sadaam Hussein did to his!

aw

Satan wont reign in hell nor will he be able to infict any punishment on anyone.  He will be a little busy getting his own.

just my 2 cents

[Bronzesnake]

The following story is reported to be a true event that was investigated by the 700 club. They reportedly get thousands of these type of stories all the time, however, they are rarely considered to be legitimate after being scrutinized. The 700 club asserts that they did a thorough investigation which included sending agents to Africa to investigate every detail, and have concluded the story to be 100% accurate and true...you decide if Hell is real or not after reading this story.

Daniel: Raised from the Dead


By Susan Mann and Ken Hulme
The 700 Club



Following an automobile accident, Daniel Ekechukwu was pronounced dead, placed in a mortuary for three days and embalmed. But his life on earth was not finished. Today he is alive and well, and he has a strong message for the world.



CBN.com – On November 30, 2001 Pastor Daniel Ekechukwu's brakes failed and his car slammed into a concrete pillar. He was rushed to a Nigerian hospital. His condition was serious.

For some reason, Daniel wanted doctors to transfer him to another hospital. The doctors warned that the trip would kill him. They were right. Daniel's wife remembers her husband's dying words.


"My husband called to me and told me that I should take care of the children and the ministry. He said he had built a house for me, and that I should not worry. I should take care of everybody. He said that there are some people who are called to go quick (to die early) and that he was among them," Ekechukwu said.

Daniel died on the way to the second hospital. He was rushed to a Nigerian clinic where Dr. Josse Annebunwa was working.

"I was told he was involved in a motor accident in Onitsha, Nigeria. When I examined him, I looked at the
chest and there were no respiratory movements. I listened with the stethoscope and there were no breath sounds. I searched the heart and cardiovascular system, but there were no sounds. The patient had no pulse. I looked at the eyes - the pupils were fixed and dilated. I came to the conclusion right away that the patient was dead and that he should be removed to the mortuary," Annebunwa said.

Mortician Barlington R. Mann remembers when Daniel's father and wife brought his body into the mortuary.

"There was no life in him, no heartbeat, and no signs of breathing," said mortician Barlington R. Mann. "I accepted him as a corpse. After checking these things, I checked all around the body and everything was stiff. That is what gave us the conviction to start our embalming procedure. I sent him into the second room and put him on the last slab."

For three days, Daniel's body lay there, in the open-air embalming room. During that time the body was prepared for burial-including embalming! While they waited for the funeral, Daniel's wife began to argue with her Maker.

"I began to call on the name of the Lord. I wanted to remind God of His promises," Daniel's wife said. "One verse that inspired me was Hebrew 11:35: 'Women received their dead bodies to life.' The moment I read this verse it strengthened me to hold God firm and act."

Three days after Daniel's death, his wife decided what she would do. She had heard about a meeting near by-where miracles were happening. It was a Reinhard Bonnke prayer service. She went to collect her husband's body.

"Before I could come they had the casket ready," she said. "The moment they put him in I ran inside the ambulance with my son and his brother, and we started coming down to this place. And I asked somebody if Bonnke had come."

Within a short time they arrived at the Reinhard Bonnke service, and asked if they could bring Daniel's body in for prayer.


"I felt that the anointing would be so strong there and that the anointing would resurrect my husband," Daniel's wife said.

"They came up to me and I told them that it would be an embarrassment to bring a corpse inside a church," said one of the workers at the Bonnke service. "We realized that whatever we do and wherever we are God is present. If God wants to perform a miracle for the man, the place where the man is does not really matter."


They carried Daniel's dead body into the basement where the service was being held. They laid his body across two tables, and several pastors began praying for him.

"As we were praying," said one of the pastors, "suddenly we saw the eyes started to move and life started coming in. I said to my friend, Pastor Luke, 'You know, they say that he was three days in the mortuary. Let us massage him.' So he was there, massaging the right hand. And I was massaging the left hand. We were squeezing it, making sure that life returned. We found out that as we were praying the heart started to become hot. He was breathing, and we started massaging the hands. As we massaged the hands suddenly it seemed that life came into the hands, and we put his hands on his chest. I massaged the neck and life came into it. I was able to turn it."

The pastors around him continued to massage his body because after three days in the mortuary, rigor mortis had set in. As they were doing this, suddenly Daniel jumped to his feet to the amazement of everyone who looked on! The pastors were unsure what to do next.

"I said let's take him upstairs, and we followed the stairway upstairs. At the end of the step he said, 'water, water.' He was asking for water. I shouted, 'Bring water, bring water, lets get him water!' People thronged and suddenly we saw people coming from the outside. It seemed that the news went out and people came in. People came in and they saw the dead man sitting down.

Daniel like Lazarus of old had been raised from the dead!

The story of his resurrection spread like wildfire. Everywhere he went people knew that God had performed a miracle. In the days and weeks that followed, Daniel began to share about something that happened to him as his body lay lifeless in the mortuary. He spoke about a journey with an angel who allowed him to visit both heaven and hell.

"He told me we are going to visit paradise," Daniel said. "So we visited a place. When we approached the place I saws multitudes of people that looked exactly like the one with me, that angel that was with me. The angel with me wore white apparel. The body was pure white. The apparel was pure white, but the apparel did not look removable from the body. When I saw this crowd they looked exactly like the one with me. In my heart I said, ' look at where the angels gather.'"

"After that he then said, 'Let us go and visit the mansion that Jesus promised.' He (the angel) now took me to a wonderful place. In fact, what I saw there, I do not have any words to describe it. It was so glorious. It was a very wonderful mansion. You could look at the building and it would look like glass or look like gold or whatever. Even the flowers there looked like gold.

"Then the angel said, 'Now let us visit hell.' In the twinkle of an eye, we found ourselves in the place. Immediately the gate opened. I started hearing lamentation. So I looked inside and I saw people like us here. They were putting on some clothes.

They had the same flesh; some are black and some are white. They just looked like us.
They were shouting - there was a lot of pain, a lot of torment. It was to the extent that immediately when the gate was opened, it was if they were seeing me.

They were asking me for help, shouting. And I remember one. He was shouting. 'I am a pastor, I only stole church money and I am ready to refund it immediately.' He just said he was ready to refund it and that I should help. There was a force that was tormenting them. I never saw any fire there and I never saw any flames in hell, but the torment there looks as if the people are inside fire.

It was then that the angel declared something to Daniel that caused his heart to melt with fear. He told Daniel that he deserved to be in hell too!

"So while I was shouting and asking the angel for help, that I have another chance to go back, he mentioned this: that the request of the rich man in hell had been granted to this generation. I did not understand it.


It was later, when I woke up and read the Bible, that I realized what the request was. The rich man (in Luke 16) was requesting, that a dead man should be sent back to the world. So he just said that the request of the rich man had been granted to this generation for the last warning. He said to me that he is giving me an opportunity to go back for the last warning to this generation," Daniel said.

Today, that is precisely what Daniel is doing -- warning everyone who will listen of the judgment to come -- and the promise of everlasting life to those who trust in the name of Jesus.

[BUTCHA]

Bronzesnake

did you see this story reported on the 700 club yourself?
where did you get this copy from.

   

[Allinall]

Satan wont reign in hell nor will he be able to infict any punishment on anyone.  He will be a little busy getting his own.

just my 2 cents

Your 2 cents holds a wealth of biblical truth, my friend.    Well said.  

[Allinall]

Is hell a physical place, or is it a euphemism for separation from God (thus having none of His holy love).  Thoughts?

Yes.  Hell is a physical place.  Jesus spoke many times of this place.  It is referenced often in the Old Testament, though it is, as aw stated, considered a level of Sheol, known as Gehenna.  There are many other references concerning this that I'd be happy to list if'n ya want.  

But it is important to note here, that your "euphemism" for separation from God, is death.  That is, afterall, what death is.  Physically, soul and spirit are separated from the body.  Spiritually, soul and spirit are separated from God.  We're all born spiritually dead, and in need of being "born again."  If a person dies physically while being spiritually dead...they are separated eternally from God in Hell.  

But, some day, Hell, death, Satan, Antichrist, Beast, and everyone who isn't saved will be cast into the Lake of Fire.  People won't spend eternity in Hell.  They'll spend eternity with Hell, in the judgment of the Lake of Fire.

[Bronzesnake]

Bronzesnake

did you see this story reported on the 700 club yourself?
where did you get this copy from.

   

Yes, I did see this program on The 700 Club.
I normally don't watch that show, I'm a big fan of John Hagee and Jack Van Impe myself, but one day I was surfing channels and I came upon this story. I was impressed by the statements that the hosts were making about how thoroughly this story had been investigated and The 700 Club was staking their reputation on the reality and truth of the story, so I watched with amazement.

After the program ended I immediately went to the 700 club web site and printed off a few copies for friends.

Here's the link...
cbn.org/living/amazingstories/raised_from_dead.asp

[jenn]

Is hell a physical place, or is it a euphemism for separation from God (thus having none of His holy love).  Thoughts?      

Yes, darby hell is a actual place of torment. Its where the wicked go not there physical person but there soul. See when we die and leave this world we each have a destination stop to either heaven or hell.

matt 25:46

and these will go away into eternal punishment, but righteous into eternal life.

matt18:8....It is better for you to enter eternal life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire.

matt22:13..."Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of the teeth.

rev14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night , who worship the beast and his image , and whoever recieves the mark of his name.

[Heidi]

To me hell would be trying to prove there is no God then on my deathbed finding out I can't prove it which would leave me in the same pace I started from many years earlier, and all I'd have to look forward to is death. Now that would be hell. A wasted life that leads to death forever. Hell is simply torment. I'm sure each person perceives torment differently. I perceive it as descending into a dark abyss from which I can never climb out. I think the depiction of the torment of Judas in "The Passion" illustrated that torment beautifully.

[Sower]

Is hell a physical place, or is it a euphemism for separation from God (thus having none of His holy love).  Thoughts?      

Why would anyone even ask such a question?

Hell -- eternal Hell -- is the Lake of Fire, created for the devil and his angels, but also reserved for those who are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life (Rev. 19:20; 20:10-15; 21:8,27).  

I trust each one reading this knows WITHOUT THE SHADOW OF A DOUBT, that his or her name is indeed written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

It is very simple to have your name written in that Book: "BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED" (Acts 16:31).

To believe means to OBEY THE GOSPEL (Rom. 10:8-21). The Gospel declares that Jesus of Nazareth is BOTH Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36).  That He died for your sins, that He was also buried, and that He rose again the third day for your justification (1 Cor. 15:1-4; Rom. 4:25).  You must believe this with all your heart (Rom. 10:9-11).

That "belief" should produce repentance in your heart -- a recognition that you are a sinner who is hopelessly lost and therefore needs to be saved (Acts 16:30), and a recognition that God demands true repentance -- turning from your sins and idols and turning to the living God (Luke 24:46,47; Acts 2:38;3:19).

Obedience to the Gospel also means receiving Christ as your Lord and Saviour, calling upon the name of the Lord (Jn 1:12,13; Rom. 10:12,13).  

Finally obedience to the Gospel means being immediately baptized as a believer after you are saved (Acts 10:47,48). Baptism does not save, and it cannot wash away your sins,  but is a testimony before God and man that your ARE SAVED. When you are baptized by immersion, you are FULLY IDENTIFYING YOURSELF with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for your personal salvation:

"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.  And he that believeth not shall be d**ned" (Mark. 16:16).

[Please note carefully also that only the King James Bible treats this verse as the very Word of God.  All modern versions cast doubt upon the genuiness of these words WITHOUT JUSTIFICATION. See "The Last Twelve Verses of Mark" by Dean John William Burgon for proof. So beware of modern bible versions.]

[Sower]

Hell is simply torment. I'm sure each person perceives torment differently

Heidi:

The Bible is objective truth, not subjective perception.

Therefore Hell is NOT "simply torment", but eternal separation from a loving, holy and righteous God and the Lord Jesus Christ in indescribable anguish of body and soul.

The unrighteous or unsaved dead are first resurrected, then judged at the Great White Throne Judgment, then cast into the Lake of Fire, where there are degrees of punishment (Rev. 20:10-15).  So hell is not purely subjective, as you suggest, but is objectively the Lake of Fire, located in "outer darkness", a place of eternal fire and torment where there is eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth, where their worm died not and the fire is not quenched, a place of such indescribably anguish of body and soul that none should go there but that ALL should come to repentance.  

That is exactly why God says that "HE IS NOT WILLING THAT ANY SHOULD PERISH [ SUFFER ETERNAL DAMNATION] BUT THAT ALL SHOULD COME TO REPENTANCE"  (2 Pet. 3:9).

[JudgeNot]

"HE IS NOT WILLING THAT ANY SHOULD PERISH [ SUFFER ETERNAL DAMNATION] BUT THAT ALL SHOULD COME TO REPENTANCE"  (2 Pet. 3:9).

Now that is powerful scripture!

Thanks for the post, Sower.

Thank you Lord Jesus. Amen!

[Heidi]

Hell is simply torment from not knowing God.

[jenn]

Hell is simply torment from not knowing God.

Heidi , now that's not what the bible says about hell. Jesus describes it as a actual place of torment and if Jesus says its a real place then its a real place case closed