Can you disbelieve something out of existence? No? Then if Hell is a real place, disbelieving that it is a real place doesn't shove it under any cosmic rug - at least not effectively, and not for long.
There are doctrines in the religion that follows the teachings of Jesus and his interpretation of the set of writings called the Old Testament (OT for short and Jewish Bible for the technical people). Doctrines are authoritative beliefs or systems of beliefs. Thus, the doctrines of which I speak are considered authoritative by those who follow in agreement and do the things that Jesus' words demand they do. They arise from the followers' understanding and application of the OT and the New Testament (Jesus' teachings directly to followers and indirectly through followers).
One of those doctrines relates to the character of God. The belief asserts that God is omnipresent. That mean that God is everywhere present, or everywhere all at once. Negatively, this could be stated as: there is no place where God is not. Why is this believed? Without expounding more at the moment, I will invoke the doctrine (authoritative belief) that the Bible, being the infallible, inerrant Word of God, must be our guide. As God can only be known by what He reveals about Himself, His words about Himself are doubly authoritative. And, this is what His Word says about Him in regard to His "present-ness:"
Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 23:24 ESV)And
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
(Psalm 139:7-12 ESV)
As one can see from these words, the first passage coming as from God Himself through a prophet and the second passage as from one of His servants speaking about Him in thankfulness, God is everywhere at all times. Men cannot hide from Him. In the beginning He was everywhere when nothing was anywhere. And, what He created (heavens and earth) He filled. One cannot escape God. Ever.
In fact, all creation exists because God upholds it. He holds it all together. The visible and invisible things are His, and they wouldn't exist or be sustained if He didn't hold them together.
It might be said of a great athlete after a challenging victory that he "willed his team to win." The idea behind the statement is that the player did everything in his power to triumph. In a similar way (though such greater magnitude as to make dissimilarity the rule), without God's willing, there would be nothing, and it would be good - because that would be God's will. But, that's not God's will. God's will is that there be something, and that something is God's revelation of Himself. In that revelation is the triumph of God over evil. In that triumph, evil finds the abode God created for it: Hell. Is evil in the will of God? Yes, in so far that it is always His will to crush it.
What is Hell a demonstration of? God's will. How? God is just. That means that God is morally perfect. In decision-making, God chooses best. He does not treat anyone unfairly either by giving them more than they deserve or by cheating them out of what they deserve. And what do men deserve? Lots of things. What don't men deserve, universally? God's favor.
In the beginning, nothing evil had its way. The only one who understood what evil was was God. What is evil? It's whatever opposes God's will. Some have called evil the absence of God, but that's false. God is never absent, and yet evil exists in practice. Evil practiced exists in God's presence at times, and by His presence I mean that Jesus walked the earth among evil people. I mean that God sees all of it happening and has seen it all happen from the beginning. I say times because evil in not practice by everyone everywhere all the time, and not forever. In the beginning evil didn't have a say. In the end, it won't again.
Then what is Hell all about? It's about justice.
What did God offer His undeserving creation in the beginning? Everything good.
What did God deny His undeserving creation in the beginning? Everything harmful.
What was man's response in the beginning to God's protection and grace? A cliff-dive onto a jagged rock.
What's justice in this case? What's fair for the man or woman or child or wrinkly-man who says to God's undeserved offer of everything good - and offer of infinite proportions because God offers Himself as the little boy's friend, as His Comforter in all ways for all time, as His Lord and Counselor for everything, as His Savior Who suffered God-sized anger and fury for the boy's own rejection of that "everything good?" Logically, if God is fair, then it would have to be a "punishment meets the crime" situation. It would have to be of the same scope and of the same magnitude. It would take into account the facts that God was merciful in giving what that boy didn't deserve and whatever the boy knew or didn't know. And, the boy's account of even that wouldn't be the testimony accepted. God, because He knows everything, would provide the reliable testimony of what the boy knew or didn't know. And, God's decision would be right.
Here's the rub: God has already told us that justice is going to mean Hell for everyone who chooses against Him. How do we know that that's the fair decision? First, God decided. Second, He was merciful enough to tell us in advance.
This world isn't the best possible world. We know that because there still exists an active will at-large that opposes God's will. But, this world is the best possible world on the way to the best of all possible worlds. What's going to happen at the end, with that next world?
Evil won't be active. Evil will be a failure, a loser.
We forget that infinity is a lot longer than 100 years. Philosophers complain about God's goodness because bad things happen. It seems that they should wonder more about why bad things started to happen only after man was created, but that's another post. Nonetheless, God is good. And, He took it upon Himself to create a world where He could reveal Who He is in relation to things and ways that He is not.
God is not needy. Before He created, God needed nothing. Thus, the creation wasn't an experiment for Him to try and meet His needs.
Let's think of some characteristics of God that cannot be demonstrated - though still existent - without creation. I can think of two: mercy and wrath. God is not merciful toward Himself. He needs nothing He doesn't possess already. God is not wrathful toward Himself. His self-judgment entails praise. But, would God still have anger and wrath for all things that oppose His will (evil) even in the Trinity before creation? Yes, because God doesn't change. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
So, again, why Hell? To show His character. That He opposes with justice all things that oppose Him, and that He triumphs over those things and those people, forever. Such total victory is only fair.
What about God's presence and Hell? Is He gone from that place (putting aside the fact that if and since it's a creation, then it cannot exist without God sustaining it)?
It's where God's justice abounds - as does everyplace. But, in Hell, God's mercy and grace are absent. Why? It's surely fair, because mercy and grace are, by definition undeserved. Perhaps, the best answer is that the boy, the girl, the man, the wife, the grandmother rejected God's grace and mercy. They said that they didn't want it. Now how is God supposed to take that? He answers in accordance with all truth.
‘depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:23 ESV)
You can be sure that Jesus says that in a way that no one wants to hear it said of them. That it entails the loss of favor. That it precedes the subject of the declaration being in a far graver situation than he was before.
Perhaps it's uncommon knowledge that God is every man's worst enemy. That probably sounds crazy, but it's true. Outside of the free gift of salvation (that's what it is called when the enemy-status you have is changed to friend-status and even offspring-status in God's book of genealogical record-keeping), every man is God's enemy, because every man chooses against God's will (evil). Every man does that. We were all born with a propensity to do that. Our people have been doing that from the beginning.
Only one man didn't do that. His name is Jesus of Nazareth. He is God's Son. He came from Heaven. He made Himself be born of a virgin Jewish girl. He lived perfectly. He's the only man to not be God's enemy, because He lived as a Son of God should live. Perfectly. He never opposed His Father's will.
Then He chose to die, though He deserved to live. He suffered a brutal, horrible death. But, the physical torture he endured isn't what I'm talking about. He agreed with His Father that He would take the punishment that all men forever, before him and after him, deserved for breaking God's Law - for rejecting His grace since the beginning. Jesus agreed to suffer on their behalf and satisfy God's wrath against their opposing will (which rejected God's good gifts). You see, God had to punish men for that, otherwise, how could He be just? He knew the didn't choose right. He couldn't turn a blind eye. This is why it is accepted that Satan, the accuser, could accuse before Jesus came. It wasn't revealed that God was just and Justifier, because people did evil and it didn't appear that God punished them justly. After Jesus suffered for all men on that Roman cross, however, it was apparent that Jesus was God's display of justice in showing grace to all men. What men couldn't do to reconcile themselves to God, Jesus did. Thus, in a nutshell, that's how we can see that man is God's enemy unless he believes in Jesus - believing that Jesus did what the Scriptures testify to Him as doing, repenting (turning away from) of former opposing-will activities, and replacing such activities with obedience to His commandments.
So, what's worse? Knowing that your worst enemy (God) is leaving you alone forever? Or, that your worst enemy (God) is coming after you? Justice demands the second to be true, as the first would be merciful and therefore unjust (having none to deserve that justice - whereas Jesus earns the mercy of salvation for those who trust and believe in Him so they may be counted just). Whew!
Hell: a place where God continually shows His triumph against the opposing forces with a strong hand that never grows weary, where God is ever-present with unlimited and indefensible justice, justice that's ever fresh and sweet for His people and ever lamented and bemoaned by His foes, where God's face in Christ shines so bright in fury that it explodes with intensity against the ungrateful, like a scorching east wind that never dies. As it it written:
And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 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.”
(Revelation 14:9; Revelation 14:10-11 ESV)
For those who say that Hell is where God's presence isn't, they don't understand justice.
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