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Daily Devotional | Living in Light | light shining in the woods Daily Devotional | Living in Light | light shining in the woods

Question and Answer | Forever in Hell

Will some people (souls) live forever in hell?

Sadly, when an unsaved person dies, that person’s soul and spirit goes immediately to Hades (Luke 16:23; Matt. 11:23). Please note, dear reader, that I take no pleasure in writing about this. Hades is a place of torment, a kind of jail where the unsaved dead are kept until the resurrection and the judgment (John 5:27–29).

At the Great White Throne judgment (Rev. 20:11–15), the Lord Jesus will summon the dead, the lost from every period of human history, the small and great, the rich and poor, the powerful and weak. This judicial summons will raise them back to life with bodies suited for eternal punishment (John 5:28–29). As resurrected embodied persons, they will give accounts of themselves before the judgment throne. With the eternal horror of their names being absent from the Book of Life, they will receive their eternal sentence and they will be cast literally and bodily into the lake of fire (Hell) forever.

Readers, this is not a joke or merely a bit of trivia in a “question and answer column.” This is a matter of eternal life and eternal death. If you are reading this column and have not received Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, I plead with you to repent, turn from your sins and trust Christ before it is too late. If you have not received Jesus as your Savior and would like to talk with someone, please call 1-888-NEED HIM.

BY Dr. Winfred O. Neely

Dr. Winfred Neely is Vice President and Dean of Moody Theological Seminary and Graduate School. An ordained minister, Winfred has served churches across the city of Chicago, the near west suburbs, and Senegal, West Africa. He is the author of How to Overcome Worry (Moody Publishers) and a contributor to the Moody Bible Commentary and Moody Handbook of Preaching. Winfred and his wife Stephne have been married for forty years and have four adult children and nine grandchildren.

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