"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 14:10-11)
The Bible teaches us that hell is a place of pain, a place of unbroken torment. Have you ever endured a burn from a naked flame (it’s almost the worst pain imaginable). Hell, John says, is a place of fire; a place of fire. “Oh, but that’s just a metaphor, right? Fire and sulfur - those are mere images. There are no literal flames in hell, are there?” Well if they are images and metaphors, the reality to which they point transcends and exceeds them in a way for which we do not have the vocabulary. If the best we can do to describe the pain of hell is to talk about fire, what must the reality be? What a horror hell will be!
But there is another kind of pain and suffering there. To be sure it’s physical, but it’s more, isn’t it? Emotional, psychological, spiritual! You see that little phrase; you have “no rest, day or night.” There’s no peace in hell! There’s no respite! There’s no hiatus, no relenting in the wrath of God!
You know when we endure bodily pain of any kind here, psychological trauma, emotional anguish, and then you can’t sleep, everything is so much worse, every pain amplified, every trial doubled. The slightest failure seems like a catastrophe; the brightest day looks dull when you can’t rest. You’ve experienced that, right? You just can’t sleep! Everything is so much worse! You see, what John is telling us about hell, if you do not know Jesus Christ what exhaustion! What fatigue! will plague your body and your soul and your mind. You will toss and turn and writhe in unrelenting restlessness, day and night!
(David Strain)
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