Is God Everywhere and Absent from Hell?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Amy, a daily podcast listener from Omaha, Nebraska,

00:00:08.280 | my hometown, writes in to ask this,

00:00:10.760 | I understand hell to be the absence of God,

00:00:13.820 | but of course he is omnipresent.

00:00:15.880 | If God is everywhere, is he also in hell?

00:00:18.680 | What do you say, Pastor John?

00:00:20.140 | - There are at least two important responses

00:00:24.020 | to Amy's question.

00:00:26.960 | One is to say, yes,

00:00:29.880 | hell is that, hell is the absence of God,

00:00:33.400 | and we need to answer in what sense

00:00:36.400 | is he absent or present.

00:00:39.080 | But the other response is to say that hell is,

00:00:42.360 | as it's described in the Bible,

00:00:44.680 | is terribly more than the absence of God.

00:00:48.820 | So let me deal with each of those just a little bit.

00:00:54.140 | Yes, hell is the absence of God.

00:00:57.040 | Here's 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9.

00:00:59.820 | The Lord will be revealed from heaven

00:01:03.480 | with his mighty angels in flaming fire,

00:01:05.840 | inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God

00:01:10.460 | and on those who do not obey the gospel.

00:01:13.360 | They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction

00:01:17.800 | away from the presence of the Lord

00:01:21.880 | and from the glory of his might.

00:01:24.440 | So yes, yes, yes, hell is away

00:01:28.620 | from the presence of the Lord

00:01:30.520 | and from the glory of his might.

00:01:32.920 | So the promise of Psalm 1611 will not come true in hell.

00:01:37.880 | In your presence, there's fullness of joy.

00:01:40.640 | At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

00:01:42.920 | No, because his presence like that won't be there.

00:01:47.000 | Or the prayer of Jesus in John 17

00:01:50.680 | is not going to be answered in hell

00:01:54.000 | when Jesus prayed, "I desire that they also

00:01:57.080 | "whom you have given me may be with me,

00:02:00.560 | "where I am, to see my glory that you have given me

00:02:05.340 | "before the foundation of the world,

00:02:07.300 | "and that the love with which you have loved me

00:02:09.760 | "may be in them and I am them."

00:02:11.640 | That's not gonna happen in hell.

00:02:14.920 | In hell, the all-satisfying beauty of God

00:02:19.360 | for which our hearts were made will not be seen.

00:02:24.360 | The love that flows from it will not be known.

00:02:29.320 | And the pleasures forevermore and the fullness of joy

00:02:32.320 | won't be experienced.

00:02:35.020 | All that will be absent.

00:02:37.380 | So the meaning of away from the presence of the Lord

00:02:42.780 | does not mean that God is absent in every sense,

00:02:46.520 | but in those senses.

00:02:48.180 | God will be terribly present in another sense.

00:02:53.180 | All reality continues to say,

00:02:57.420 | "In him we live and move and have our being,

00:02:59.920 | "and it is still in hell that no one can hide

00:03:04.480 | "from the Lord or escape

00:03:07.920 | "the terrible countenance of his anger."

00:03:12.040 | So God's power is present in hell

00:03:14.960 | as the one who sustains our being

00:03:18.340 | and the one who enforces justice

00:03:20.900 | and the one who maintains suffering.

00:03:23.620 | He is present in all the ways men do not want him

00:03:27.580 | to be present and none of the ways

00:03:30.200 | that believers enjoy his presence.

00:03:34.160 | Which brings us to this second thing just briefly.

00:03:39.140 | Hell is more than the absence of God.

00:03:44.260 | And I feel the need to say that.

00:03:46.180 | I don't know whether Amy meant to imply that.

00:03:51.180 | I hope not.

00:03:53.000 | But some people do.

00:03:55.080 | Some people do want to say we're annihilated.

00:03:59.720 | And of course, there's no presence of God

00:04:01.160 | 'cause we don't exist and nobody exists after,

00:04:05.340 | or that it's just some kind of deprivation

00:04:08.300 | and nothing positive by way of suffering.

00:04:12.760 | That just won't work.

00:04:14.220 | Matthew 10, 28, Jesus said,

00:04:16.620 | "Fear him who can destroy soul and body in hell."

00:04:20.700 | So the body's gonna be tormented

00:04:22.940 | and the soul is going to be tormented.

00:04:24.980 | Matthew 25, 46, "These will go away

00:04:28.680 | "into eternal punishment."

00:04:31.920 | Punishment.

00:04:32.880 | But the righteous into eternal life.

00:04:35.800 | Revelation 14, "If anyone worships the beast,

00:04:39.740 | "its image, and receives a mark on his forehead,

00:04:43.220 | "he will drink the wine of God's wrath

00:04:46.380 | "poured full strength into the cup of his anger.

00:04:50.340 | "And he will be tormented with fire and sulfur

00:04:53.500 | "in the presence of the holy angels

00:04:55.460 | "and in the presence of the Lamb.

00:04:58.140 | "And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever

00:05:01.800 | "and there is no rest day or night."

00:05:06.520 | So it is a present torment

00:05:11.220 | with fire and restlessness.

00:05:14.220 | Or Mark 9, 43, "It is better for you to enter life crippled

00:05:17.540 | "than with two hands to go to hell,

00:05:18.940 | "to the unquenchable fire."

00:05:22.160 | Or Mark 9, 47, "It's better for you to enter

00:05:24.380 | "the kingdom of God with one eye

00:05:26.060 | "than with two to be thrown into hell

00:05:27.640 | "where their worm does not die

00:05:29.980 | "and the fire is not quenched."

00:05:33.400 | So, Amy, hell is a horrible and fearful thing

00:05:38.400 | which teaches us that our sin is a horrible

00:05:43.400 | and fearful thing and God's holiness

00:05:46.120 | is a horrible and fearful thing to be opposed by.

00:05:51.120 | And the cross of Christ who endured hell

00:05:56.040 | for all his people for all time

00:05:59.120 | is the most precious event in the history of the world.

00:06:04.120 | - Yes, it sure is.

00:06:05.760 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:06:06.760 | So election is real and hell is real

00:06:09.640 | and that led to one of our podcast listeners

00:06:11.640 | named James to write in and ask,

00:06:13.840 | "How does it glorify God to predestine people to hell?"

00:06:17.480 | It's a sober question and it's a question we address

00:06:19.800 | in episode number 52 of this podcast series.

00:06:22.880 | Well, we are all familiar with failures,

00:06:25.160 | big failures and little failures.

00:06:26.960 | And Monday we will look at how the Bible helps us

00:06:28.940 | to think of those failures.

00:06:30.960 | Until then, please visit us online at desiringgod.org

00:06:33.960 | to find thousands of books, articles, sermons

00:06:35.600 | and other resources all free of charge from John Piper

00:06:38.360 | and all intended to help explain

00:06:39.680 | why God is most glorified in us

00:06:41.540 | when we are most satisfied in him.

00:06:43.920 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:06:44.960 | Have a wonderful weekend.

00:06:46.240 | (upbeat music)

00:06:48.820 | (upbeat music)

00:06:51.400 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Is God Everywhere and Absent from Hell?

Chapters