Feeling God's Presence in Hell

Hell. Some people say a lot about it without saying much. Some people think they live there now. Some people say it's a place. Others say it doesn't exist. One famous man said it was a small location on the floor in a vast paradise. Another slightly less-famous man said it was a place where God doesn't exist.

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.

Select Quotations from "The Chronicles of Narnia"

The Chronicles of Narnia

Lewis, Clive S. The Chronicles of Narnia. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.

The Magician’s Nephew

Page 30

“Well don’t keep on gassing about it,” said Digory. “Come along, I want to see what’s in one of the other pools.” And Polly gave him a pretty sharp answer and he said something even nastier in reply. The quarrel lasted for several minutes but it would be dull to write it all down. Let us skip on to the moment…

Page 41-42

“But the people?” gasped Digory.

“What people, boy?” asked the Queen.

“All the ordinary people,” said Polly, “who’d never done you any harm. And the women, and the children, and the animals.”

“Don’t you understand?” said the Queen (still speaking to Digory). “I was the Queen. They were all my people. What else where they there for but to do my will?”

“It was rather hard luck on them, all the same,” said he.

“I had forgotten that you are only a common boy. How should you understand reasons of State? You must learn, child, that what would be wrong for you or for any of the common people is not wrong in a great Queen such as I. The weight of the world is on our shoulders. We must be freed from all rules. Our is a high and lonely destiny.”

Page 62

“Glory be!” said the Cabby. “I’d ha’ been a better man all my life if I’d known there were things like this.”

Page 75

“And the longer and more beautifully the Lion sang, the harder Uncle Andrew tried to make himself believe that he could hear nothing but roaring. Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. Uncle Andrew did. He soon did hear nothing but roaring in Aslan’s song. Soon he couldn’t have heard anything else even if he had wanted to.”

Page 93

“I know what errand you have come on,” continued the Witch. “For it was I who was close beside you in the woods last night and heard all your counsels. You have plucked fruit in the garden yonder. You have it in your pocket now. And you are going to carry it back, untasted, to the Lion; for him to eat, for him to use. You simpleton! Do you know what that fruit is? I will tell you. It is the apple of youth, the apple of life. I know, for I have tasted it; and I feel already such changes in myself that I know I shall never grow old or die. Eat it, Boy, eat it; and you and I will both live for ever and be king and queen of this whole world – or of your world, if we decide to go back there.”

“No thanks,” said Digory, “I don’t know that I care much about living on and on after everyone I know is dead. I’d rather live an ordinary time and die and go to Heaven.”

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Page 131

[Professor Kirke/Digory]“There are only three possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn’t tell lies and it is obvious that she is not mad. For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth.”

….

[Peter] Well, sir, if things are real, they’re there all the time.”

“Are they?” said the Professor; and Peter did not know quite what to say.

“But there was no time,” said Susan. “Lucy had had no time to have gone anywhere, even if there was such a place. She came running after us the very moment we were out of the room. It was less than a minute, and she pretended to have been away for hours.”

“That is the very thing that makes her story so likely to be true,” said the Professor.

Page 146

“Aslan?” said Mr. Beaver. “Why, don’t you know? He’s the King. He’s the Lord of the whole wood, but not often here, you understand. Never in my time or my father’s time. But the word has reached us that he has come back. He is in Narnia at this moment. He’ll settle the White Queen all right. It is he, not you, who will save Mr. Tumnus.”

….

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

Page 151

[Referring to Edmund at the Beavers’s house] And he had heard the conversation, and hadn’t enjoyed it much either, because he kept on thinking that the others were taking no notice of him and trying to give him the cold shoulder. They weren’t but he imagined it. And then he had listened until Mr. Beaver told them about Aslan and until he had heard the whole arrangement for meeting Aslan at the Stone Table. It was then that he began very quietly to edge himself under the curtain which hung over the door. For the mention of Aslan gave him a mysterious and horrible feeling just as it gave the others a mysterious and lovely feeling.

Page 160

[Father Christmas to Lucy] “And the dagger is to defend yourself at great need. For you also are not to be in the battle.”

“Why sir?” said Lucy. “I think – I don’t know – but I think I could be brave enough.”

“That is not the point,” he said. “But battles are ugly when women fight.”

Page 162

[Edmund with the Witch] Meanwhile the dwarf whipped up the reindeer, and the Witch and Edmund drove out under the archway and on and away into the darkness and the cold. This was a terrible journey for Edmund, who had no coat. Before they had been going quarter of an hour all the front of him was covered with snow – he soon stopped trying to shake it off because, as quickly as he did that, a new lot gathered, and he was so tired. Soon he was wet to the skin. And oh, how miserable he was! It didn’t look now as if the Witch intended to make him a King.

Page 185

[Lucy and Susan playing with Aslan after he’s risen from the dead] It was such a romp as no one has ever had except in Narnia; and whether it was more like playing with a thunderstorm or playing with a kitten Lucy could never make up her mind.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Page 522

“In our world,” said Eustace, “a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.”

“Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is but only what it is made of.”

The Silver Chair

Page 583-584

“That’s the spirit, Scrubb. That’s the way to talk. Put a good face on it. But we all need to be very careful about our tempers, seeing all the hard times we shall have to go through together. Won’t do to quarrel, you know. At any rate, don’t begin it too soon. I know these expeditions usually end that way: knifing one another, I shouldn’t wonder, before all’s done.”

….

He and Scrubb both had swords – Scrubb had brought he one which had been left out for him in his room at Cair Paravel – but Jill had to be content with her knife. There would have been a quarrel about this, but as soon as they started sparring the wiggle rubbed his hands and said, “Ah, there you are. I thought as much. That’s what usually happens on adventures.” This made them both shut up.”

Page 620

This was like cold water down the back to Scrubb and Jill; for it seemed to them very likely that the words had nothing to do with their quest at all, and that they had been taken in by a mere accident.

“Don’t you mind him,” said Puddleglum. “There are no accidents. Our guide is Aslan; and he was there when the giant King caused the letters to be cut, and he knew already all things that would come of them; including this.”

The Last Battle

Page 685

“Please,” said the Lamb, “I can’t understand. What have we to do with the Calormenes? We belong to Aslan. They belong to Tash. They have a god called Tash. They say he has four arms and the head of a vulture. They kill Men on his altar. I don’t believe there’s any such person as Tash. But if there was, how could Aslan be friends with him?”

….

“Baby!” he [Shift the ape] hissed. “Silly little bleater! Go home to your mother and drink milk. What do you understand of such things? But you others, listen. Tash is only another name for Aslan. All that old idea of us being right and the Calormenes wrong is silly. We know better now. The Calormenes use different words but we all mean the same thing. Tash and Aslan are only two different names for you know Who. That’s why there can never be any quarrel between them. Get that into your heads, you stupid brutes. Tash is Aslan: Aslan is Tash.”

Page 713

“I see now,” said Puzzle, “that I really have been a very bad donkey. I ought never to have listened to Shift. I never thought things like this would begin to happen.”

“If you’d spent less time saying you weren’t clever and more time trying to be as clever as you could—“ began Eustace but Jill interrupted him.

“Oh, leave poor old Puzzle alone,” she said. “it was all a mistake; wasn’t it, Puzzle dear?” And she kissed him on the nose.

Page 717

“And the other sight, five leagues nearer than Cair Paravel, was Roonwit the Centaur lying dead with a Calormene arrow in his side. I was with him in his last hour and he gave me this message to your Majest: to remember that all worlds draw to an end and that noble death is a treasure which no one is too poor to buy.”

Page 720

“I was going to say I wished we’d never come. But I don’t, I don’t, I don’t. Even if we are killed. I’d rather be killed fighting for Narnia than grow old and stupid at home and perhaps go about in a Bath chair and then die the end just the same.”

Page 721

“Kiss me, Jewel,” he said. “For certainly this is our last night on earth. And if ever I offended against you in any matter great or small, forgive me now.”

“Dear King,” said the Unicorn, “I could almost wish you had, so that I might forgive it. Farewell. We have known great joys together. If Aslan gave me my choice I would choose no other life than the life I have had and no other death than the one we go to.”