My current understanding is that there are four prevailing theories of what hell is:

• Eternal conscious torment: the damned are punished for their sins for eternity.
• Annihilationism: the damned are annihilated and cease to exist.
• Universalism: hell is either temporary or does not exist at all. All souls are eventually saved.
• Absence from God: hell is a place that God, in his mercy, set apart for those that reject Him.

The best explanation that I've heard for what Hell is, comes from a sermon by John Burke, the author of Imagine Heaven.

In this sermon, Pastor Burke teaches that God created spirit beings known as angels before he created before our universe. Angels were created to love him and serve him. For a being to truly love, it must be free to choose to love, it cannot be compelled to do so, therefore the angels were created with free will. Angels were also being asked to serve which also requires free will, as service without choice is slavery which a perfectly just God would not do. The most powerful and beautiful angel was Lucifer (light-bearer) who became prideful and thought he could rise above God. For the sin of pride and rebellion, God cast Lucifer from Heaven. One third of the angels left Heaven with him. Lucifer and his angels wanted to live (and rule) apart from God, but since God is everywhere, there was no place for them. So, God, in his love and mercy, created a place without God, for them to live and rule in. We call this place Hell.

Burke claims that choices made in eternity by their nature are eternal choices since there is no time there. That is, one couldn't make a choice and then some time later make a different choice. This point is a little tangential and I'm not sure that I agree with it since I seem to be almost completely unable to imagine an existence separate from time and therefore cause and effect. I mention it here because it has some relevance in the following paragraphs when discussing why God created a universe of time and space for humans.

Burke goes on to explain that God created humans and our universe in order to teach the remaining two-thirds of angels in heaven not to rebel. In our universe he created a place which contained some fraction of heaven and hell. That is, a place to experience a water-downed version of what existence was like with and without the presence of God. This allowed humans to sample both existences (knowledge of good and evil) and freely choose between them. Since we live within time, we could make a choice, live with it for a time and then change our mind if we wanted and live with that for a time. We are able to do that as many times as we want as long as we live within time.

Burke cites three chapters as his source (“something close to the story that I just told you”):

• Ezekial 28
• Isaiah 14
• Revelation 12

I must admit that I don't read all of what he says in those three scriptures, but I have always tended to be more of a literalist and have always had trouble reading “deeper meanings” or allegory in what I read. I do like his explanation though.

If you can get behind John Burke's interpretation, God did not create a place of eternal punishment, he simply carved off a section of existence that is apart from Him. He did this at the request of the being that choose to live there apart from Him.

By that definition of Hell, God is not present there and therefore is not responsible for how it is run. So, who does run Hell? Likely, it is run by Satan and his demons, who encourage all sinful human behavior including slavery, rape, murder, torture, etc. If not run by demons, then perhaps it is run by humans who have chosen to live apart from God. At least some percentage of people that choose to live apart from God do so in order to engage in the sinful behavior mentioned above. In either case, it should come as no surprise that Hell will likely be a very terrible place indeed. Think of all of the evil in our current world, and God is still present here. Unmitigated evil must be truly imaginable.

C.S. Lewis said that Hell was a self-imposed isolation from God. This seems to agree at least in part with Burke's description above. In essence, Lewis's view of hell is not a place of fiery torment, but rather a state of being characterized by separation from God and self-imposed isolation. It is a consequence of free will and the choices individuals make in their lives.

This view has basis in scripture (2 Thessalonians 9-10 NASB): These people will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified among His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed—because our testimony to you was believed.

I like to believe in this explanation of the nature of Hell rather than a place that God created in order to punish people simply for not wanting to live with him. This seems more in line with a loving God, but God is also just, so I am able to believe that God would require punishment as justice for committed sins. Would it be just for an unrepentant Hitler, Stalin or Pol Pot to get away without being called to account for their crimes? My understanding of justice would say no. So, I can also believe that a loving and just God could create a place of punishment. There is evidence for this version of Hell in scripture too. Jesus describes Hell as a “furnace of fire” (Matthew 13:41-42): The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Revelation references a “lake of fire” (Revelation 13:20) And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire, which burns with brimstone.

Would a being be sent to this place of punishment for eternity? What even is eternity outside of time? Would there be different levels of punishment for different sins? Will there be a possibility of redemption in Hell? I have no answers for any of these questions. Not having those answers is one of the reasons that I choose Jesus's gift of grace now. Frank Turek says something along the lines of, “Ultimately, we either get justice or grace, which do you want?” Grace please. Is this fire insurance? Yes, I suppose it is, but it is only one of the reasons that I choose Jesus. A more important reason is because God is good and following Him makes me a more fulfilled, happier and better person.

Whether Hell is terrible simply because God is not there, or if it is a place that God specifically designed for punishment, the only people that go there are those who choose to.

C.S. Lewis said in The Great Divorce: “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.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.”