Hell

Scriptural discussion of Hell What does the Bible reveal about Hell? A wonderful, thorough survey of all Scripture says about this place of the dead, dispelling myth and revealing the love and goodness of God towards men.
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What the Bible really says about HELL

The Bodies of the Dead

Paul said that "not all flesh is the same flesh," and "there is both a natural and a spiritual body" (1Cor. 15:39, 44). According to Jesus' parable of the rich man in Hell (Lk. 16:20-31), the dead have eyes (v. 23); the dead have tongues that can sense thirst (v. 24); the dead have fingers (v. 24); the dead have bosoms (v. 23); the dead can speak and hear (vv. 24-26); the dead can feel pain (v. 24); and the dead can remember and have feelings of fear and of compassion for their loved ones still on earth (vv. 27-28). All these things are revealed in that one parable from the Lord. But there is much more revealed by other men of God. Paul said that the dead have knees as well as tongues (Phip. 2:10-11), and Paul and John both suggested that the dead have feet and legs (Rom. 14:10; Rev. 20:12).

When God brought the prophet Samuel up out of Hell to rebuke King Saul (1Sam. 28:7-20), Samuel was in a recognizable form. When the wicked woman being used by God to bring up Samuel screamed, King Saul asked her to describe what she saw. She answered first that she saw "gods" ascending out of the earth. These "gods" were probably angels returning from Hell after carrying souls either into Paradise or Torment. Then the terrified woman added, "An old man is coming up, and he is covered with a mantle." And from her description, Saul "perceived that it was Samuel."

As for the dead still having bodies of some sort, though not of earthly flesh, Isaiah gave us some insight when he prophesied of how things will be after the Final Judgment. Through Isaiah, the Father spoke to the Son and said, "For as the new Heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, says the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcases of the men who have transgressed against me. For their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched. And they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh" (Isa. 66:22-24).

By the time this prophecy comes to pass, the saved (those who will view sinners in the Lake of Fire) will have been given bodies like Jesus' glorified body (Phip. 3:20-21; 1Cor. 15:52; 1Jn. 3:2). They will never again feel any pain or sorrow, nor will they ever die (Rev. 21:4). These glorified bodies are real bodies; they are bodies made of a kind of "flesh" that is not earthly. Beyond that, however, in order for the glorified saints to be able to view souls in the Lake of Fire, as Isaiah clearly said they would, the souls suffering in the Lake must have been in bodies of their own. What those bodies will be made of is unknown, but they have to be observable; otherwise, the saved would not be able to go out and look on them "from one Sabbath to another." Even if it is beyond us to be able to describe the precise quality of the bodies of the damned, we must at least say that the damned have bodies that could be viewed.