There will be no believers in hell

I recently wrote about the spiritual prison that we are all born into, of the darkness of our souls…the darkness that are spirits are held captive to…unless the Lord saves it. I likened that saving to the prisoner held captive within a prison, the doors and gates locked, until the guard comes along and unlocks the door and gate, swings is wide, and releases the prisoner.

I read something some time back about how there will be no unbelievers in hell. I can understand the meaning behind that…if, a soul is in hell, they will, by process of elimination, understand that there is a God, know that Christ is real, simply because the hell they thought didn’t exist will sooner or later become their reality.

Jonathan Edwards in his sermon titled ‘Sinners in the hands of an angry God’ spoke of hell as a pit waiting to swallow up the sinner. As I read that sermon, each time I read it, I imagine a person walking a tightrope, the horror of hell yawing deep and wide beneath them. If they lean too far one way or the other they will fall into the pit of hell. If someone comes along and pushes them…they fall into hell. The sinner is but one misstep away from the horror of hell.

Now imagine that sinner walked the tightrope spanning the yawning chasm of hell in total darkness. There is not the slightest pinprick of light for them to see by and yet they don’t realize it. They cannot sense hell beneath them and they imagine they can see exactly where they are going.

The darkness is their unbelief…and their sins…and yet they don’t realize that hell is there, that it is very real, because they cannot see their sins and they cannot see hell. They go along, walking, sometimes running, over that tightrope believing they are safe when they are only one tiny wobble away from falling into hell.

And once there…according to what I read somewhere…they will no longer live in disbelief but will know that Christ is real.

Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. James 2:19

Yes, even Satan and demons admit that Christ is real. I’ve heard people say many times that ‘even the devil quotes Scripture.’ But does that make the devil a ‘believer’?

I well remember when I understood that there was a huge difference in the Truth of Scripture, the Truth in Scripture, and the Bible as I had always been taught. It almost should have been two very different things for all the likeness that existed between the two. So much of what I had been taught was lies and half-truths compared to the Truth in Scripture. And yet… I think of the things I was taught…if one didn’t know better they might actually believe that those lies and half-truths were designed to push us right off the tightrope and into hell.

It almost seems that those things taught in so many ‘churches’ are actually cover-ups to hide the fact that they are leading people to a false christ that will in time lead them to hell.

No, there will be no unbelievers in hell but in saying that it implies that there will be believers in hell and that isn’t the case. At least they will not be the full-fledged, true believers, that are the elect of God. They may believe because hell will show them the error of their ways but they will not believe because they believed in their hearts. They will believe only because they can no longer cling to their hard hearted disbelief in light of their circumstances.

Thinking back to what I wrote in Spiritual prisoners, which is way more than I can cover here, I think of the prisoners held fast by their sins. They are in fact dead in those sins…

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, Ephesians 2:1 NIV

They are held captive by their sins, in a prison they did not choose. In America there are over two million people in prisons. Many of them are there for crimes that pose little or not threat to others. They are not there for violence but because Americas laws state that something they did is illegal and so they become criminals that must…often…spend years in prison. Some of them are there because of an accident, or worse because of nothing at all, as 5% of prisoners are known to be innocent.

There is no innocence in the spiritual prison. Our Lord knows our ‘crimes’ without us ever needing to be accused, caught, tried or convicted. He knows our hearts, and in fact knows that we are sinful from birth and that we are evil in our heart from birth. Innocence does not exist before our Holy God.

Scripture even tells us that there are none that don’t believe in God because His very creation points to the creator. But there are many that do not acknowledge the Lord and they deny any existence of Christ.

If there are no true unbelievers on earth…there will be no true unbelievers in hell. On earth they may suppress the Truth in their hearts and in their wickedness but Scripture says that they know God is real. These so-called unbelievers when they get to hell will not magically become believers. They cannot become believers because believers…those that believe unto salvation…those that are given the ability to believe unto salvation…will not be in hell.

Christ will save the believers because they are the ones that belong to Him…they are the elect. He will draw (John 6:44) them to Him and He will not allow them to be lost.

Hell will not magically turn evil, dead souls into believing Christians.

Those in hell may live in torment, they may feel the wrath of God…and in fact will live in torment feeling the wrath of God, but they will not turn into believers just because circumstances show them that God is read.

I would have to…in my human mind…wonder if they won’t hate the Lord more in hell than they did on earth. Since they have no love of the Lord already…how much more might they despise Him when they experience unending torture at His hand?

Yes, they will know He exists then…but that won’t make them believers.

Their evil hearts will not be changed just because they feel the torment of His wrath.  For anyone to become a believer…the Lord must give him the gift of faith unto salvation. And if the Lord were going to give someone that gift, it would be given before a person…a soul…experienced hell, not afterward.

Scripture says that those that have saving faith possess a treasure. It says they have been given mercy.

That treasure…and the mercy of the Lord…will not be given to those in hell. They will not become believers just because they can no longer continue in disbelief. They may understand. They may realize that they were wrong. But they will not become believers…not in the sense of being a believer unto Christ, a believer that has been given the gift of mercy through salvation.

Believers are those that have lived in spiritual prison but have been freed by the guard….Christ…and given a lifetime pardon through faith unto salvation. They have been saved from death and given life because the Lord chose to save them.

Hell is reserved for those that will spend their entire lives and eternity in spiritual prison. They will not be given life but will stay dead in spirit. Their wickedness will rule them throughout their earthly lives…even if they are the best kind of ‘good person’…and they will live in hell once their earthly lives are over.

Hell will not make them believers. Only Christ makes believers and He does that long before hell is experienced.

A believer loves Christ because love for Him has been placed into their hearts and souls. They seek Him, desire Him. Those in Hell will not seek for Christ. They will live under the wrath of God, knowing that God…that Christ…is real, not because they love Him, not because they desire Him, but because they will feel His anger and will suffer the consequences of His wrath. They won’t be able to help the knowledge that He is real but they will not become believers just because His wrath shows them proof of His existance.

There will be no believers in hell.