Edward Donnelly on Who Hell is For

The devil will be in hell, “cast into the lake of fire and brimstone” (Rev 20:10). Accompanying him will be “his angels” (Mat 25:41), at present “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day” (Jude 1:6). These demons, already aware of their ultimate destiny when Jesus was on earth, cowered before the Savior’s power: “What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us?...And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep[18]” (Mar 1:24; Luk 8:31).

Hell is also for the notoriously wicked. “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” (Rev 21:8). What a repellent rogues’ gallery! These are George Bernard Shaw’s “interesting people.”

But it is not only the blatantly evil who will find themselves in hell. The Apostle Paul identifies for us those on whom God will take vengeance “in flaming fire.” Who are they? What monsters of depravity can they be? The Hitlers? The Stalins? Yes. But also all “them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2Th 1:8). Outwardly upright, decent people, many of them. Good citizens, caring parents, reliable employees, friendly neighbors—but they never trusted Christ as Savior. They refused to “obey the gospel.”

Are you in that position? You may think of yourself as a reasonably good person. You may [think] that you are not guilty of any great crime, that you have never done anything of which you are really ashamed. But the Gospel says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” and you have not obeyed that command. Even if you were never to commit another sin, God will take vengeance in flaming fire upon you if you do not obey His Gospel. Only those will escape hell who have trusted in Christ. “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (Joh 3:36). But “he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (Joh 5:24).