...hell

There are many mythologies and folklores in the world that describe hell. Some picture it as a place of eternal burning located somewhere inside the earth, a place where sinful people go immediately after death and are continually tortured. The Bible does not support this view. 

According to the Scriptures, not one person is being punished in hell at this moment. “The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment” 2 Peter 2:9. Jesus explains when sinners will be cast into hellfire. “Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth” Matthew 13:40–42.

 

The fires of hell that destroy the wicked do not originate from inside the earth, but from heaven itself Revelation 20:9. God is a consuming fire to all that is sinful Hebrews 12:29. The wicked will be totally consumed by the fires of hell Malachi 4:1, 3. 

The evil angels spoken of in 2 Peter were cast down to hell and delivered into chains of darkness. When we read how Satan and his evil angels were removed from heaven, the Bible says they were “cast to the earth” Revelation 12:9. It also says, “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you” v. 12. 

There currently is no place where dead people have been cast to be burned up. All are asleep in their graves awaiting the resurrection of life or the resurrection of condemnation John 5:29. Not until the final judgment will the wicked be cast into a lake of fire Revelation 20:14. 

"For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;" 2 Peter 2:4