Firstly, the torments
themselves will be universal. It will not be a singular or dual torment but
all torments will be combined. Hell is the place of torment.
Luke 16:28 ~
“…for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into
this place of torment.’
It is the epicenter and focus of
all punishment, sorrow, pain, wrath, vengeance, etc. If a you go through so
much pain and discomfort with a single disease, what would a complication of multiple
diseases be? If a whipping is painful what of additional tortures, what would
all be simultaneous?
If these torments fall
on you, you will be inflicted with
complete torment. It will not be localized torment or on one or
two body parts, but all over: body, mind…everywhere. The whole person has
sinned against God, the whole person is guilty so the whole of you will be
tormented. All the parts of your the body have been instruments of
unrighteousness, and therefore all the members will be punished. As man is
defiled from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, so will he be
plagued. Sores will encompass not just your body like Job but also your soul
and this would last for eternity.
The very senses which you have
indulged in and gratified will be filled with pain and torment. They very sins
that you pursued during their life will torment you for eternity. The eyes that
lusted after objects of beauty and sexual desire will bear witness only to horrors
and demons, deformities and damned wretches. Your ears that took pleasure in
music will hear only the screams of the condemned, the grinding and snapping of
broken teeth or shatter wills or the moan of eternal pain. The nose that could
smell the perfumes and fresh autumn air will only gag on burning flesh, foul
rotting putrescence, sulfur and death.
The reality of Hell will come
with bludgeoning force day by day, minute by minute, second by second in a
never-ending nefarious parade of discomfort and fear. The Gospel of Jesus
Christ will be a forever remembered memory that you who are now in Hell will
never again get the chance to collect on and you will be reminded of this fact
through pain and torment forever. Your conscience will be utterly violated over
and over like a parasite or maggot turning over and over in your brain.
As stated before the torments
will be without pause. You will be tormented day and night and there will
be no rest. There will most likely be no sleep either.
Revelation 14:11
~ “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they
have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image,
and whoever receives the mark of its name.”
The duration of the torments will
be forever. Even if the torment was universal and even if one knew that they
were to have an end, that would be at least some comfort. But here is the true
torment of it. The pain and misery will be the same today as it was yesterday,
and will me tomorrow and forever. It will be intense if not increasing. Even
after you have been in hell a billion years it will be Hell just as much at day
one as in the year one billion.
So who will be the inflictors of your
torment? First will be Satan obviously. There will also be your conscience and
God Himself who will torment you. The Devil will be the tormentor. You will be
tormented with demons and by demons. You’ll be delivered to the nefarious prison
guards…
Matthew 18:34-35
~ “And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So
also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your
brother from your heart.”
If the Devil and his hoards can only
do things to us now by permission, what will happen when the Devil and his
minions are commissioned to do their dirty work to the sinner in the hereafter?
They will be held back by no such restraints. Sick malice, perversion and
twistedness will be unleashed on the sinners who forfeited their right by
choice to the Gospel of Christ. Who will be able to tolerate the Devil's rage once
it has been turned loos by God’s permission? I suggest that none can stand
without turning to madness or some form of dementia that will further compound
and exacerbate the hell of Hell.
Your conscience will be the
second tormentor. You will forever be reflecting on the fact that you once had
a chance a choice to avoid your current fate in affliction. Your conscience will
constantly accuse you eternally. The more the Devil and other torments afflict
you externally the more your conscience will do similar affliction internally.
You’re going to be barbecued both on the outside and the inside. As a point of
contrast to the exterior pain, the internal might actually be worse than
outside torment. With no rest and nowhere to run from the outside torment it
will be an endless circular torment. Turn inward to avoid the external torment
and face the internal torment. Flee the internal to face the external. Over and
over and over…
The maggot (worm) that never dies
is within a man. The real word here is σκώληξ or maggot. The Hell being referred to here is Gehenna. Gehenna is literally the
transliteration of the Hebrew phrase ge hinnom or "Valley of
Hinnom". This valley, just south of Jerusalem, is where the apostate Jews
offered human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (Jeremiah
7:31; 32:35). King Josiah ended this abominable this practice and converted the
site into a city dump where rubbish burned constantly (2 Kings 23:10). The fire
never went out. The garbage that was not consumed by the fire in the center near the fire or that fell outside the edges were decomposed by parasites and maggots
and it gave the image that the maggots never died as there was always a
continuing cycle of garbage being dumped there, hence the worm that never died.
External fire and internal worms are Old Testament pictures of destruction
(Isaiah 66:24). Therefore Gehenna or Hell became a picture of the place
of eternal torment and punishment. Sadly, Hell will not just be a dump on the
outskirts of Jerusalem that people will just go to visit, these conditions will
be perpetual.
It would be a dreadful thing to be eaten up of worms, to be continually vexed with the gnawing of worms, but this worm will gnaw the spirit.
It would be a dreadful thing to be eaten up of worms, to be continually vexed with the gnawing of worms, but this worm will gnaw the spirit.
Mark 9:47-48 ~ “And
if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the
kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their
worm does not die and the fire is not quenched…”
If a guilty conscience is a
horrible thing here in this life, how much more will it plague you when all the
guilt and anxiety is unleashed on you for eternity? It will whip you over and
over. You knew that the wages of sin was death and that the judgment of God is in
perfect justice yet you continued in your disgusting repulsive sins. Like a dog
you continued to return to your vomit. There will be no mitigation from the
mental voice…damned…lost… damned …lost… damned …lost… damned …lost… damned … damned
… damned….
(***insert sinister laughing of demons here****).
Then there will be the torment
from God. God was long-suffering and His forbearance was great…but no longer.
Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year God stored
up His wrath in an ever-increasing pile of judgment against you. It will be in
Hell that this wrath is poured out for eternity. Like a fists of judgment
coming down upon your head like a gavel of justice. Hands that could’ve been of
tender love are now forever stony fists of pain. God was patient and withheld
judgment but in Hell, His mercy and grace will disappear for the unrepentant
and will be replaced with the judgment that wickedness has earned.
God will rain flaming cinders and
upon wicked sinners in a vicious cyclone of wrath.
Psalm 11:4-7 ~ “The Lord is
in his holy temple; the Lord's throne is in heaven; his eyes
see, his eyelids test the children of man. The Lord tests the
righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. Let
him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the
portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous; he loves
righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.
There will be degrees of torment.
Though it will be intolerable for all, some torments will be more tolerable than
for others…
Matthew 11:24 ~ “But
I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for
the land of Sodom than for you.”
Those who have lived long in sin
will suffer greater. The longer men have lived in sin the greater their
torments will be in hell.
Isaiah 65:20 ~ “No
more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who
does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years
old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.
Just as the righteous person
stores up treasures in Heaven, the unrighteous will store up torment and wrath
in Hell. Those that have sinned to a greater degree will pay to a greater
degree. Those that have had more means will be held accountable to a greater
degree. The more expense God has needed to pour into someone over time to only
be rejected will be reflected in their eternal punishment. The more convictions
men have had for their wrongs and still ignore them, the greater their damnation
will be. The more people know how to be righteous but do not practice it
The worse it will be for them.
And so it will go…forever.
If your skin is crawling perhaps it is a physical manifestation of warning of what is to come if you do not seek Christ and repent. Perhaps it is a little taste of what it will be like when the maggot turns within you without dying? Disgusting you say? Of course it is...that is Hell!
Of course you should be afraid…very
afraid. A proper fear of God is never a bad thing. I have no reason to lie to you nor would I. Even if I had something to
gain from telling you all this I could not bring myself to deceive you. I
cannot lie and tell you things will be fine if you don’t repent. It would just
show you that I hate you. Only someone who hated another person would allow
them to condemn themselves without at least warning them of their impending
doom if they continue unabated on their hell-bound course. It really takes hating someone to allow them to go to Hell without at
least telling them of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is one place the world totally gets it backwards. I am told I am a hater if I tell people of their sin and tell them they need to change and repent of it. The truth is if they do not repent and I say nothing to them about their wickedness...what kind of friend am I being to them? If you truly love people like
you have been commanded in the Bible, you would never allow this to happen would
you? Do you now understand why it is so important to evangelize people to help
them? I sure hope so. I do and it is why I have written this and preach the
Gospel of Jesus Christ whenever I can.
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