ell is real, and the reality of this place is disturbing and can cause feelings of dread and fear, even in Christians. As a Christian; the knowledge of the reality of hell and the understanding of God’s desire to save people from this destination compels me to share my faith.

I was converted to the Christian faith when I was 19, and before this I was incredibly angry that my Bible-believing friends held to the view that hell was real. I was also raging about the fact that they believed I would be in hell for eternity if I did not say sorry for my sins, believe in Jesus and change my life in order to obey the teachings of Christ.

As far as I was concerned, I was simply not that bad. I mean, only really, really bad people belonged in hell right? Well, that is what I thought. In my mind, hell was reserved for people like Hitler, Idi Amin, or Pol Pot the Cambodian Dictator. I was not a murderer, or an abusive person….. So surely, I thought, I did not belong in hell!

People often doubt God’s love when they consider that He has created a place of eternal punishment and separation from Himself. Why would God do this, if He is so loving and merciful?

One of the reasons for this, is that God is Holy. God is so perfect, and so Holy that only those who are totally perfect and totally Holy can be in His presence….. Here we see the problem - there is no human on the earth who is totally perfect and totally Holy. If we all look within ourselves, we can see that we, like all other human beings are imperfect, capable of mistakes and immoral to some degree.

The Bible tells us that all human beings have fallen short of God’s standard for morality and holiness. The Bible even says that all our good deeds are like filthy rags before Him. God’s word states that no-one is truly good or righteous and that all people have turned away from God, and have strayed from His ways.

only need to turn on the news channel to see that people have turned away from God en masse. Tragic and grotesque atrocities are committed every single day by people across the globe. But what about us? Are we really that bad?

I want you to imagine for a moment that you are in a cinema venue. In the seats all around you are people you love deeply and respect. Suddenly on the cinema screen, the story of your life is shown in detail from childhood to adulthood through to the present time. Every thought in your head is broadcast; every motive of your heart is revealed, and everything that you did in secret and hoped no one would find out is broadcast on the big screen for all to see. How might you feel? Ashamed? Embarrassed?

I think we all would….. That’s because we all have a conscience and our conscience tells us that there are things in our lives that have not been right. These are things that we would describe as sins- things that are opposed to God’s moral code.

So, we are all sinners in God’s sight. This is a level playing field. God tells us that no-one on the earth is worthy to be in heaven based on their own merit. So we need a Saviour… Someone who can save us from our future eternal destination - hell.

A Saviour is someone who can save us from the punishment we deserve. God always intended for there to be a way to save people who are sinners from their sin and their just punishment of death and hell. So why do we need a Saviour? And where did sin come from in the first place?

The Bible tells us that though we are physical, and made from the dust of the earth to which we return; we are also spiritual. God breathed life into Adam the first human being He created. This life was spiritual life : the capacity to know God, and to live forever.

In the garden of Eden, God made Adam and Eve to live in a state unsevered relationship with Him. It is said in the Bible that Adam walked with God in the cool of the day. Adam and Eve were created to be perfect, as God was perfect and without sin. But this perfection and relationship was broken when Adam and Eve listened to Satan in the form of a serpent, and disobeyed God by eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

They rebelled against God and disobeyed His command. He had told them that they could eat from any tree in the garden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He had given them free will, and free choice to obey Him or disobey Him. They chose the latter and at this point sin came into the world, and so did death. This meant that Adam and Eve were no longer eternal beings, but would face physical death eventually. But this is not all, they also experienced spiritual death because their relationship with God was destroyed and He threw them out of the Garden where they had known perfect relationship with Him.

As human beings we are created to know God; to worship Him, and to live forever. This is wired into the way we have been made.

We will either live forever in heaven after we die, or our spirits will live in a state of eternal torment and separation from the God who made everything good that we have ever known in life. Rejecting God is also a rejection of all His good gifts like love, friendship, pleasure, family, beauty, creativity etc. Hell will have none of these things.

Many people say they are not afraid of hell, or that they would be happy to be there because their friends might be there. However, people usually have a distorted perception of hell. The Bible tells us that hell is a place where there will be weeping and knashing of teeth, and that it is a place where the fires never go out. It is a place of perpetual torment, and not somewhere anyone in their right minds would desire to be. We are created to live eternally with God, but if we do not accept His free offer of grace and relationship with Him, we will be in hell forever.

God is loving, but He is also just and Holy. Therefore, hell exists. But the Good News of the Gospel is that He made a way for the people He created to avoid hell and to live with Him forever in a state of spiritual bliss where there is no more sin, no more suffering and no more death!!!