Hell Defined
"Hell is other people," is a line from Sartre’s famous one-act play No Exit, in which the three characters have been judged, are in hell, and have been sentenced to spend eternity in a room with one another. The French reads “L’enfer, c’est les autres," which simply says, “Hell is [the] others.”
Sartre offered the following explanation of the phrase:
. . . "hell is other people” has always been misunderstood. It has been thought that what I meant by that was that our relations with other people are always poisoned, that they are invariably hellish relations. But what I really mean is something totally different. I mean that if relations with someone else are twisted, vitiated, then that other person can only be hell. Why? Because. . . when we think about ourselves, when we try to know ourselves, . . . we use the knowledge of us which other people already have. We judge ourselves with the means other people have and have given us for judging ourselves.
[Jean-Paul Charles Sartre (1905–1980) was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, and political activist. He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature but declined the honor because he did not want to take sides in the cultural struggle between the East and the West.]
Indeed, we do serve as a mirror to one another, but not a very good mirror. That's because we respond to one another with what can only be a flawed and incomplete understanding of each person's true meaning and value. What's worse is that where there are blanks, we fill them in by superimposing our own inadequacies, doubts and fears. Indeed, "Hell is other people!"
Don't remain trapped in a life where people are your only reflection. There IS an "Exit." If you want to know your true value, all you have to do is turn to God. For while Hell is other people, Heaven is God! Only God knows you perfectly; and even with that perfect knowledge, He loves you with an unconditional and everlasting love.
And don't be "Hell" to other people. Rather than impart your imperfect love, learn what it means to reflect the perfect love you have received in the face of Christ!
"For God, who said, "Let there be light in the darkness," has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6, NLT).
"Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely" (1 Corinthians 13:12, NLT).
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness . . ." (Gen. 1:26).
Life Without Love Is Hell
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.”
Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) was arguably the most influential Christian writer of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. His major contributions in literary criticism, children's literature, fantasy literature, and popular theology brought him international renown and acclaim.
Lewis concludes, “But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”
"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God" (1 John 4:7, cf John 13:34).
Hedging on Hell
The following are some of the cults listed by John Ankerberg and John Weldon in FACTS ON LIFE AFTER DEATH. Listed also is each group’s divisive opinion about both heaven and hell along with its founder’s quotations.
- Christian Science, founded by spiritist Mary Baker Eddy, teaches that “there is no death.” They believe that “heaven and hell are states of thought, not places. People experience their own heaven or hell right here on earth.”
- Edgar Cayce, a spiritist and New Age prophet, said that “the destiny of the soul, as of all creation, is to become One with the Creator” and that no soul is ever lost.
- New Age cult leader Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church believes that “God will not desert any person eternally. By some means … they will be restored.”
- Mormonism, founded by occultist Joseph Smith, argues, “The false doctrine that the punishment to be visited upon erring souls is endless … is but a dogma of unauthorized and erring sectarians, at once unscriptural, unreasonable, and revolting.”
- Jehovah’s Witnesses, found by Charles Taze Russell maintains that the wicked are forever annihilated because “the teaching about a fiery hell can rightly be designated as a ‘teaching of demons.’”
- The Church of the New Jerusalem (Swedenborgianism) founded by spiritist Emanuel Swedenborgh, emphasized that God “does not condemn anyone to hell.”
- Eckankar, a New Age religion founded by Paul Twitchell and Darwin Gross, insists that “there is not death” … and that there is no eternal hell.
- Lucis Trust and the Arcane School/Full Moon Meditation Groups, established by New Age spiritist Alice Bailey, argue that “the fear of death is based upon … old erroneous teaching as to heaven and hell.”
- The Love Family (Children of God), founded by spiritist David Berg, views hell as a temporal purgatory: “The lake of fire is where the wicked go to get purged from their sins … to let them eventually come …. out.
- Rosicrucianism, an occult philosophy, declares that ‘the eternal damnation’ of those who are not ‘saved’ does not mean destruction nor endless torture,” and that “the Christian religion did not originally contain any dogmas about Hell.”
- Unitarian Universalism confessed the follow: “It seems safe to say that no Unitarian Universalist believes in a resurrection of the body, a literal heaven or hell, or any kind of eternal punishment.”
- The Theosophical Society, founded by medium Helena P. Blavatsky, declares, “We positively refuse to accept the … belief in eternal reward or eternal punishment.” Hence, “Death … is not …. a cause for fear.”
- The spirits everywhere proclaim their allegiance to cultic teachings, declare Ankerberg and Weldon. “Ramtha,” the spirit speaking through medium J.S. Knight, claims “God has never judged you or anyone” and no, there is not hell and there is no devil.” “Lilly” and other spirits channeled through medium Ruth Montgomery argue that there is no such thing as death” and that “God punishes no man.”
While many argue against and explain away the existence of hell, the biblicist cannot ignore the voice of Scripture:
- And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt—Daniel 12:2.
- But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire—Matthew 5:22.
- And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell—Matthew 10:28.
- And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell—Mark 9:44.
- There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us'—Luke 16:19-26.
- They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might—2 Thessalonians 1:9.
- And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire —Revelation 20:9-15.