I recall my father telling me about a discussion he had with a Jewish rabbi in Israel on the subject of hell. At the time, my father was a new convert to evangelical Christianity and was startled by a question the rabbi posed to him.
The rabbi did not believe in an eternal hell and was perplexed that my father could assent to such a concept. So he asked my father, “If you knew that your son would spend eternity in hell, but you had a choice to bring him into existence, would you still bring your son into this world?” My father’s natural inclination was to say “no.” The rabbi replied, “Then the God you believe in isn’t as loving as you are.”
Reasoning like this is what motivates many people to adopt various views, such as the claim that the God of the Bible is not real, or that hell is not eternal, or even that hell is the annihilation of the soul. Another popular view that is adopted to avoid the above conundrum is the claim that hell will be empty. It is this particular view I’d like to examine, saving the question of why God would allow someone to go to hell for another time.
Will hell ever be empty? Surprisingly, yes!
Before you write me off as a modernist, allow me to explain. Modern people tend to use the word hell to refer to the place where the damned will suffer for all time. But that’s not quite right. In fact, as the Catechism spells out, hell (Hades in Greek, Sheol in Hebrew), although it is where the souls judged unrighteous dwell now, is not where they will spend eternity. After all, the righteous dead used to dwell in Hades, too, before Jesus freed them (CCC 633). So hell, precisely understood, is just the place of the dead, both righteous and unrighteous, although only the unrighteous happen to dwell there now.
Where, ultimately, will the unrighteous end up? That would be Gehenna, or the “lake (or pool) of fire” (CCC 1034)—not the same as Hades, though both places, Hades and Gehenna, are described nowadays with the perhaps imprecise term hell. Scripture sums it up for us: in the end, hell (or Hades, depending on your translation) will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14).
So will hell ever be empty? Yes, in the sense that no one will dwell in hell, because hell will have been cast into the lake of fire. And now the better question is, will the lake of fire ever be empty?
Scripture has our answer. Revelation 20:10 says,
And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Revelation 20:15 says that those whose names are not written in the book of life will also spend eternity in the lake of fire. There are some who push back on the “for ever and ever” language used in Revelation 20 by arguing that the words used in the New Testament could refer to a definite period of time and not an eternal state. However, the discussion of the eternal fate of Satan and those who join his rebellion is in the context of a discussion on the righteous who will certainly spend eternity with God, not just a finite period of time. So the most natural way to interpret the duration of the damned is by comparing it to the duration of the blessed.
However, if that is not enough, Jesus himself answers the question. The first-century Jews, much like us today, wanted to know if there would be people who would spend eternity separated from God. So some of them asked Jesus whether this would be the case. Luke 13:23-24 says,
And some one said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”
Notice that Jesus says some will “not be able” to enter salvation. Jesus further describes their fate as one of weeping, and Revelation 21:4 describes heaven as a place of no more tears. Clearly, Jesus is describing an eternal fate in the other place.
Jesus also says in Matthew 7:13-14:
Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Some might say that this refers to only the people in the day of Jesus. Even if this were true, it would still mean some people from that time would be separated from God, which would mean the lake of fire will not be empty.
There are many other Biblical texts that could be examined, but let’s also briefly look at another source. In addition to Scripture, the Magisterium has weighed in on the question. Around the time of the Fourth Lateran Council, there were some who denied the eternality of the damned. In order to correct this, the ecumenical council required all who wish to be in good standing with the Church to adhere to its confession of faith, which said:
He will come at the end of time to judge the living and the dead, to render to every person according to his works, both to the reprobate and to the elect. All of them will rise with their own bodies, which they now wear, so as to receive according to their deserts, whether these be good or bad; for the latter perpetual punishment with the devil, for the former eternal glory with Christ.
It requires some serious verbal gymnastics to make perpetual (perpetuam in Latin) mean something finite. In light of Jesus saying some will not be saved, and the Magisterium saying the punishment of the damned will be perpetual, the logical conclusion is that some people will actually experience perpetual punishment with the devil. This means the lake of fire will not be empty.
What does this mean for us? For one, it means we should be vigilant as to the care of our souls. It also means we should do everything we can to bring the good news of Jesus to those around us, in order to prevent them from ever being among those who populate the lake of fire.
Note from the editor: This article has been updated to clarify some terms.