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There are, of course, fashions in theological discussion and some years ago it centred on the nature of hell. What was particularly being debated was the length of time a person might spend there. The so called doctrine of conditional immortality proclaims immediate annihilation of all consciousness at the point of point of death for those not considered worthy of heaven. This could sound almost like good news to those that want to grab everything and anything they want in this life without reference to the feelings, welfare or security of anybody else. Live now and don't pay later. However what really stirred up the discussion was the more severe suggestion of annihilationism which contemplates a definite period of suffering in hell, but not eternally, and that the agonies to be endured there would be limited and finite. The fact that the highly respected leading evangelical Anglican John Stott seemed to cautiously embrace this was probably what caused the issue to become so prominent. There are of course philosophical difficulties in all of this, for if hell will have an end what does end even mean when we exist outside of time in eternity? No-one will be looking at watches and calendars that will give them the opportunity to discuss when hell will end any more than the redeemed will be telling one another that this joy of heaven will never come to an end as there will surely be no concept of an end in eternity. There will be an appreciation of a sequence of events but no concept of time passing.
But over the years I've not been able to avoid questions about what hell will be like. We are aware of biblical descriptions that include fire (perhaps this above all) and worms and darkness and demons. Any reluctance to jettison all of this will probably mean that we are nervous that it will also mean that hell itself is no longer considered to be really on the agenda. To go that way seems to suggest that there is no final settling of accounts that represents anything like justice when we consider the terrible atrocities committed in this life. To settle behind a phrase something like, 'well there must be a hell for people like Hitler' really just kicks it into the realm of the unreal for who's to say where the line is to be drawn between Hitler and the multitudes of others whose crimes may be less numerous but who have caused extreme suffering for others, even if only one other. So we can settle for a fuzzy kind of view that might seem to suggest that 'nice' people are probably ok and the love of God surely means that in the end almost everyone will be alright and those that do experience hell after death will at some point be totally annihilated.
I'm very impacted by the prayer of Jesus in John 17:3 when he says, 'Now this is eternal life; that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ , whom you have sent'. We can see here why it's possible to talk of eternal life beginning now - because at some level we can know the Father and the Son right now, but this will continue with potentially increasing joy, literally, forever. So I cannot escape the view that it means by contrast those who do not want to know God now will be in that situation forever; they will never know him. Is the fire of hell together with other descriptions metaphorical? Well, fire creates thirst and when Jesus went to the Cross, he thirsted. And when Jesus died at Calvary there was darkness over the land. Christ suffered in our place at Calvary and took fire, thirst and darkness for us. Above all of course Jesus had a conscious sense of being abandoned by God - 'My God, my God why have you forsaken me?' Mark 15:34. I don't think in this life we will ever be able to plumb the depth of meaning and mystery of that cry of dereliction. But in taking upon himself a forsakeness that Believers will never experience it leaves a hell where there will be those who never know God and will forever have a thirst that can never be satisfied because of a conscious sense of abandonment. There will be darkness in the sense that God's glory is never seen.
For those of us who have the privilege to preach and to teach and for all of us when we are questioned about the reality and nature of hell there must be a telling of the wonder of knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ. To never know God; that will be hell.