Is hell real and eternal?

Yes to both — and I say that not with any sense of satisfaction but with the seriousness the subject demands. Hell is one of the most contested doctrines in contemporary Christianity, but the biblical testimony is clear and consistent, and it came primarily from the lips of Jesus.

Jesus spoke about hell more than anyone else in the New Testament. He used the term Gehenna — the Valley of Hinnom, a place of perpetual burning outside Jerusalem — as His primary image for the final destiny of the unrepentant. Matthew 10:28: "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 25:46: "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." The same word — aiōnios, eternal — describes both destinations in the same sentence.

Revelation 20:10-15 describes the final judgment: death and Hades giving up the dead, all people standing before the great white throne, and those not found in the book of life being thrown into the lake of fire — "the second death."

The three main alternative views:

Universalism — ultimately all people will be saved. This requires the word "eternal" to mean something other than endless duration when applied to punishment, while meaning endless duration when applied to life. The same word in the same verse.

Annihilationism (conditional immortality) — the unsaved are not tormented forever but are ultimately destroyed — cease to exist. This has some exegetical support and is held by some evangelical scholars. The phrase "eternal punishment" in Matthew 25:46 is the main difficulty for this view — punishment that is eternal in its effects, or punishment that goes on eternally?

Eternal conscious torment — the historic position, supported by the straightforward reading of Jesus' teaching and Revelation

1. Hell is real, it is ongoing, and it is the eternal consequence of refusing the grace of God.

The existence of hell is the most powerful argument for the urgency of the gospel. If it is true, nothing matters more than making sure people hear and respond to the good news of Christ.