Dr Paul Allen

Is God present in Hell? Hell yes. It is one thing to talk about God's choosing not to be present somewhere. If He ever chose not to be present in any particular place, then He wouldn't be inherently, infinitely, and eternally omnipresent. The problem with hell is not that God isn't there . People often think that hell is the absence of God . Everybody who is in hell would do everything that they could to get rid of Him. They would pay any price if it was possible. The problem is that He is there, and He's there in His judgment.

The English word “hell,” as employed in the KJV, translates four words in the original biblical languages: Heb. še˒ôl, and Gk. hádēs, géenna (Gehenna) and tartaróō (a reference to Tartarus). The RSV transliterates as Sheol and Hades; these names generally signify the abode of all the dead, whether blessed or damned. On the other hand, the RSV associates both géenna and tartaróō with hell, signifying, as used in the New Testament, a special place of punishment for the wicked. The progressive biblical use of these terms provides a history of the development of the doctrine of hell as the eternal destiny of the damned. Although seeds of the later doctrine of hell exist in the Old Testament, particularly in the prophets, the doctrine did not approach its developed form until intertestamental and New Testament times. I. Sheol The KJV translates Heb. še˒ôl thirty-one times as “hell,” thirty-one times as “the grave,” and three times as “the pit.” Both the literal meaning of the wo...