“Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.”
— Mark 9:48
When Jesus spoke of hell, He didn’t soften the edges. He didn’t cloak it in metaphor to make us comfortable. He painted a sobering picture of unending separation from God—a place of spiritual ruin where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
Yet most people today don’t take their understanding of hell from Jesus, or even from the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. They get it from Dante’s Inferno. They imagine a grotesque underworld ruled by devils with pitchforks, filled with caverns of fire and bizarre punishments. No wonder the idea offends modern sensibilities.
But is hell truly a cosmic injustice? Or could it be something else entirely—a necessary expression of God’s love, justice, and respect for human freedom? Let’s look carefully at why hell, far from being divine cruelty, is both reasonable and unavoidable.
Misconceptions About Hell: Dante vs. Scripture
Most people’s mental picture of hell owes more to medieval poetry than biblical truth. Scripture does not describe hell as Satan’s throne room. In fact, Revelation depicts hell as his prison: “The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown” (Revelation 20:10).
The Old Testament often describes the end of the wicked using wilderness imagery: wastelands filled with scavengers, deserts where life withers away (Isaiah 34:10–15). Jesus builds on this language with His warnings about Gehenna, a word referring to the Valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem. This valley, infamous for fires and refuse, became a fitting metaphor for corruption and decay.
In Mark 9:48, Jesus says hell is where “their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” This echoes Isaiah 66:24, where corpses lie unburied as food for maggots—a haunting picture of spiritual ruin. Jesus isn’t talking about sadistic torture; He’s describing a soul forever cut off from its source of life.
Why Would God Allow Hell?
Here lies the question at the heart of most objections: If God is loving, why would He allow anyone to suffer eternally?
The answer comes down to two truths: God’s love respects human freedom, and God has done everything to prevent separation from Him.
God Does Not Force Love
Love is only real if it’s freely chosen. Forced affection isn’t love; it’s coercion. C.S. Lewis wrote:
“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’”¹
If someone spends their life rejecting God, demanding autonomy at all costs, heaven would not be heaven for them. God does not drag unwilling souls into His presence.
God Took the Ultimate Step
Hell is not God’s desire for anyone. Peter tells us, “The Lord…is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
This is why God Himself entered creation as Jesus Christ, took on human suffering, and bore the weight of sin on the cross. He opened the door to reconciliation at infinite cost.
Hell isn’t a punishment for individual mistakes; it’s the natural trajectory of a soul turned inward and away from God. Rejecting God’s rescue leaves only one destination: eternal separation.
A Harder Look: Could Hell Be a Moral Contradiction?
Some argue that a loving God could never allow hell because creating beings who could suffer eternally is itself an immoral act. After all, isn’t God all-knowing? Doesn’t He foresee the eternal suffering of some souls?
David Bentley Hart raises a piercing question:
“To venture the life of your child for some other end is already to have killed your child, even if she lives.”²
If God knowingly created people destined for hell, is He not responsible?
The answer lies in understanding the nature of divine love. God does not will eternal suffering; He wills love. In creating beings with free will, He accepted the risk that some might reject Him. But He didn’t stop there. In Christ, He entered history to bear the consequences Himself.
This isn’t a God who “chose” hell for anyone. It’s a God who went to the cross to rescue us from it.
The Devolution of the Soul
Jesus’ words in Mark 9 suggest hell is not static but degenerative. The imagery of worms and unquenchable fire points to ongoing corruption. Isaiah describes desolate lands overrun with wild creatures—a vivid picture of disorder and regression (Isaiah 34).
It’s possible that hell involves the soul’s devolution. Just as unchecked sin in this life distorts humanity—greed hollowing out compassion, bitterness consuming joy—so in eternity, separation from God could shrink the soul into something less than human.
Facing the Common Objections
“It’s unfair to punish eternally for finite sins.”
Sin is not simply a legal mistake; it’s a rupture in our relationship with an infinite God. As N.T. Wright explains:
“Sin is not like a minor infraction—it ruptures our very relationship with an infinite God, so its consequences must reflect that depth.”³
Romans 3:23 reminds us: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
“A loving God wouldn’t send anyone to hell.”
Love without justice is mere sentimentality. J.P. Moreland warns:
“Without just consequences, love becomes nothing more than sentimental mush.”⁴
God’s love does not erase moral reality. As 2 Timothy 2:13 says, “God is love… yet he cannot deny himself.”
“Why can’t God just forgive everyone?”
Forgiveness requires reception. Wayne Grudem notes:
“Justification is offered; regeneration must be received. Forgiveness cannot be effective unless the recipient actually accepts it.”⁵
2 Corinthians 6:2 calls out: “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
“It’s unfair for God to create people knowing they might end up in hell.”
Here again, Hart reminds us of the apparent tension:
“To bring someone into being while knowing their eternal ruin is possible risks making creation itself an act of moral failure.”²
But Scripture assures us of God’s heart: “It is not the will of my Father that one of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18:14). God created us for communion, and He bore the ultimate cost to make it possible.
Love Greater Than Hell
Hell is sobering, but it is not the centerpiece of Christianity. The cross is.
God did not leave us to drift toward ruin. He entered the human story, endured the agony of the cross, and cried out, “It is finished.” He bore hell so that we might share heaven.
As Jesus declared, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Challenge
If you reject the God of Scripture, you can dismiss hell as myth. But if Christ rose from the dead—and the evidence demands an answer—then His words about eternity carry infinite weight.
Hell is not about God’s cruelty. It’s about His refusal to force Himself on you.
God respects your choice. The question is: will you choose Him?
¹ C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (New York: HarperOne, 1946), 72.
² David Bentley Hart, That All Shall Be Saved (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019), 41.
³ N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope (New York: HarperOne, 2008), 118.
⁴ J.P. Moreland, Scaling the Secular City (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1987), 202.
⁵ Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 716.
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