Hell

Question: Is hell a place or a state of the soul?

Hell, meaning the final abode of satan and the unrepentant, is plainly declared in the Bible to be a place prepared for the devil and his angels. For a more thorough discussion of this topic and supporting Scripture passages, please refer to the following sections in this book: "The Devil," and "Eternal Punishment," and "Heaven."

Question: Please explain Psalm 139:8: "If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there." I cannot imagine God's presence in hell.

The word translated "hell" in this passage does not mean hell in the sense of the abode of the lost. It means the place where all are dead were before our Lord's ascension. (It is rendered as "Sheol" in the New American Standard Bible and the Revised Version. This is not a translation. It is the actual Hebrew word used.) Both the righteous and unrighteous dead went to Sheol - the righteous to that portion of Sheol known as paradise, and the unrighteous to the place of suffering. Since God is everywhere, He must in some sense be present even in hell, but He certainly does not manifest His presence there as He does in heaven, or even as He  does on earth.

~R. A. Torrey~