“Heaven is Heaven because God is there. And Hell is Hell because God’s not there.”
Such is one of the cliches modern evangelicalism uses to emphasize the need to have a “Personal Relationship with Jesus”. Looking at it on the surface it does sound like a plausible thought. Especially when coupled with dramatic statements that woo people to see and feel their “need for Jesus” because without the personal relationship they “won’t be able to live a full life”.
But if we are to be faithful disciples of the Lord Christ Jesus as the Bereans are, we should by all means, or even instinctively in matters such as this ask the question: “Is it true?”, rather, “Is it Biblical? Does the Bible teach such a thing?”
Friends, even as touchy as the cliche is it simply is not true.
Heaven is Heaven because God is there.
Hell is Hell because God is there.
It is common to say that hell is the absence of God. Such statements are motivated in large part by the dread of even contemplating what hell is like. We try often to soften that blow and find a euphimism to skirt around it.
We need to realize that those who are in hell desire nothing more than the absence of God. They didn’t want to be in God’s presence during their earthly lives, and they certainly don’t want Him near when they’re in hell. The worst thing about hell is the presence of God there.
When we use the imagery of the Old Testament in an attempt to understand the forsakenness of the lost, we are not speaking of the idea of the departure of God or the absence of God in the sense that He ceases to be omnipresent. Rather, it’s a way of describing the withdrawal of God in terms of His redemptive blessing. It is the absence of the light of His countenance. It is the presence of the frown of His countenance. It is the absence of the blessedness of His unveiled glory that is a delight to the souls of those who love Him, but it is the presence of the darkness of judgment. Hell reflects the presence of God in His mode of judgment, in His exercise of wrath, and that’s what everyone would like to escape.
I think that’s why we get confused. There is withdrawal in terms of the blessing of the radical nearness of God. His benefits can be removed far from us, and that’s what this language is calling attention to.
- R. C. Sproul, The Truth of the Cross (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2007), pp. 157-158.
Seen at DesiringGod.org
Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand? (Rev 6:15-17)
