# The theological realities of heaven and hell

## Given facts about heaven

There is [a derived ideal contained in the Millennium](https://theologos.site/millennium/), and by association the eternity it leads into.

## Given facts about hell

The attributes of hell, according to the Bible, are relatively straightforward:

- A place of eternal punishment ([Matthew 25:46](https://biblehub.com/matthew/25-46.htm))
- Its occupants will experience everlasting destruction ([2 Thessalonians 1:9](https://biblehub.com/2_thessalonians/1-9.htm))
- It is a blazing furnace, with weeping and gnashing of teeth ([Matthew 13:50](https://biblehub.com/matthew/13-50.htm))
- The fire of hell never goes out ([Mark 9:43](https://biblehub.com/mark/9-43.htm))
- It is a fiery lake of burning sulfur ([Revelation 21:8](https://biblehub.com/revelation/21-8.htm))

There is quite a bit of theology contained within [Luke 16:19-31](https://biblehub.com/luke/16.htm) that addresses a certain type of afterlife picture:

1. All people went to a shared place with a divide in it (i.e., "Sheol" or "Hades").
2. When Jesus came, He unlocked the gates of Hades, then took the believers from before that time to be with Him.
3. Everyone else is waiting to be thrown into the lake of fire.

There are some unique attributes of all the beings in hell:

- They've fully rejected [God's offer for salvation](https://theologos.site/gospel/)
- They will be filled with sexual immorality and perversion ([Jude 7](https://biblehub.com/jude/1-7.htm))
- The product of this is that they will be [complete and total narcissists](https://theologos.site/narcissism/)

## The traditional imagination of hell

In some ways, we have been maligned by pop culture, most notably Dante's [Inferno](https://www.owleyes.org/text/dantes-inferno) and Milton's [Paradise Lost](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45718/paradise-lost-book-1-1674-version), but many other sources.

This has portrayed a picture of a few consistent themes:

- The devil and his followers are tormenting sinners forever.
- Visual media implies there are special rooms for particular sins.
- Everything is bright and on fire, or at least colored red.

There is also an implication of a demonic hierarchy, with the devil endlessly desiring to either get out of hell or expand it, depending on the creative liberties taken.

But, it's my opinion that some of these things are a bit maligned from the truth, and certainly not capturing the fullness of the imagination.

## The evil we know

We can look at the world around us and see God's law in force ([1 Timothy 1:8-10](https://biblehub.com/1_timothy/1.htm)).

1. God uses the laws of this world to exercise His will.
2. Whenever anyone starts overstepping too far, God can use another force to destroy it.
3. Even evil people can be used by God, as demonstrated many times in the Old Testament.

In this world, we see all sorts of evil, including new types being invented all the time ([Romans 1:30](https://biblehub.com/romans/1-30.htm)). Every new [technology](https://stucky.tech/notes/technology.md) and a never-ending supply of [naive and young](https://stucky.tech/notes/maturity.md) people guarantees new opportunities to manipulate, harm, destroy, and subdue.

God's grace, however, prevents these people from reaching the apex of their power.

## The evil expanded

Imagine God removing His grace that we have grown accustomed to in this life.

Comparatively, we don't have much risk from the world around us.

- Animals don't have the higher reasoning capacity, and we can always outsmart them.
- While there are dangerous plants, a little bit of knowledge allows us to avoid the worst of them.
- Most biomes aren't inviting, but they're usually manageable with the correct preparedness.
- Even natural disasters can be overcome if we survive them.

In essence, the primary physical threat in this world is other humans with the intent to harm us.

Now, to avoid misrepresenting the truth, there *is* indication of nature destroying humanity in the afterlife with worms and fire ([Mark 9:48](https://biblehub.com/mark/9-48.htm)).

My point is that evil actions done by others bring far more pain than the unfeeling forces of nature acting on someone.

And, without God intervening, there is no possible way to stop evil from prevailing. Anyone with [a security background](safety-security.md) knows full well that it takes *far* more work to build up a thing than to destroy it.

Thus, there is a highly likely form of destruction through the actions of *other* participants in hell.

If you've ever spent time [incarcerated](hardship-incarceration.md), that entire culture is an unusually high concentration of evil thoughts and actions. Even when there is peace, that peace could turn bad at any time if someone has something to gain by it.

And, in light of the largest prison of all time, there is an interesting admonition at the end of Jesus' parable of the unjust manager ([Luke 16:1-9](https://biblehub.com/luke/16.htm), emphasis added):

- The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the sons of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the sons of light. I tell you, **use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves, so that** when it is gone, **they will welcome you into eternal dwellings**.

## God's direction

We can't deny that God will still have some level of control over the "outer darkness" of "the Pit".

- Our minds work off the concept of scarcity. We set our [purposes](purpose.md) based on what we imagine we'll lose first.
- Our minds are also programmed to work with comparisons. The shift from a light ache and moderate throbbing can often cause us to respond more severely than an extreme pain added to another extreme pain.
- In our disorientation from pain and hardship, we tend to think less rationally, especially if we're prone to [anger](mind-feelings-anger.md).
- We tend to [imagine](https://stucky.tech/notes/imagination.md) the future as a constant thing, especially if we don't have the humility to accept that it could change at any moment. Any deviation from what we expect may lead to more anger.

Therefore, God will use all of these mechanisms to tremendous effect, and not simply provide the endless and consistent pain that could be tuned out with enough of it.

## Examples of Hell

In light of this, there are more viable ideas of what hell could look like than most people are probably willing to go.

Imagine everyone confined to a place with tremendous scarcity. There is never enough food, never enough light, never enough of anything.

In that scarcity, people endlessly hunt for things, and are willing to destroy each other to get it.

- There might be one patch of ground that is less severely painful than the rest.
- There could be a small amount of moisture compared to everything else being parched.
- There may be only one source of light, dimly illuminating barely anything around it.

The fire wouldn't provide light, but only pain. Everything would be darkness, but in a way that nobody could get used to it.

From the darkness, there may come other things. Scorpions and bears, archers and spearmen. It would be impossible to tell what was real and what was hallucinated. It would only be pain upon pain.

In all of this, there will be endless violence, but nobody would die. People would wage wars over the smallest fragment of what someone imagines would bring joy, all to be stripped away by someone else or destroyed in the course of the violence over it.

People would be kind, but only to manipulate. The image of goodness would be as sufficient to the morally starved as the real thing, and there would be endless deceptions.

One's [identity](identity.md) would be lost in all the survival and pain. It would be nothing but positioning for advantageous gain against others. Nobody would "be", and would only "do".

There would be sexual immorality, and that would be even further sources of violence. People and angels would descend into every form of fetish imaginable, with the destruction coming from both the elements around them and others they betrayed in the process.

This wouldn't be a dominance hierarchy of demons overseeing tormented human souls: this would be all forms of souls great and small in an endless churning power struggle, each one fighting to climb the ranks while they were simultaneously being destroyed by others. Demons and humans alike would be incessantly vying for power, with nobody winning for more than a few moments.

Some people would allege to be leaders, and would use whatever excuse they had to persist in their evil. That allegation wouldn't matter, though: nobody would [trust](trust.md) anyone else.

Any attempt to build a [technology](technology.md) would be destroyed almost instantly, and the only lasting technology would be military in implementation. However, since nobody died, it would only serve as a deterrent.

Over time, across eternity, the betrayals would pile up. Every friendship would be simply another alliance against a mutually hated enemy, and every enemy would shift to becoming a friend when another mutually hated enemy came into power.

Also over time, everyone would become more clever. There would be levels of deception that would be impossible to make sense of, including:

- Self-mutilation with the intent to shame someone else.
- Person A attacking Person B for the purpose of being attacked back in order to convince Person C to ally.

There would be an endless arms race among factions, with all factions being supplanted by the next one, and nobody ever rising above the crowd.

Everyone would be a combination of anxious, confused, furious, bitter, and vengeful.

There would be joy, for a fleeting moment, when someone was able to exercise some level of evil against someone else. It would be short-lived, and would make the darkness and defeat even colder and harsher.

## Hypothetical redemption

In all of this, everyone *could*, in theory, repent and come to Christ and confess their sins, even afterward.

However, in the same way that they didn't listen to Moses and the Prophets ([Luke 16:31](https://biblehub.com/luke/16-31.htm)), or [to the believers on this earth when they had the chance](evangelism.md), they wouldn't listen to an angel or God Himself coming down to them.

Instead, if they had the opportunity, they'd conspire with the devil to overthrow God's goodness, similar to the battle in [Revelation 20:7-15](https://biblehub.com/revelation/20.htm).

All of this, more than anything else, is why [not heeding the Gospel message](https://theologos.site/gospel/) is a type of self-induced foolishness.

This is all speculation, however, and is based on the presumption that we are capable of deluding ourselves when God shows our sin.

It's also *not* the reason God wants us to repent. He cares about our relationship with Him, and hell is simply the logical consequences of removing that relationship.